New Homes in Kirkland - Summer Grove

     Summer Grove homes are built by Cam West, one of the largest mass production builders in the northwest. These are 3 – 5 bedroom homes from the upper $400,000s located in the northern end of Kirkland.  Across the street from the Safeway plaza, these new homes feature a high walk score of 77 with various shops and restaurants within walking distance. Juanita Village, downtown Kirkland, San Edward State Park, Juanita Beach Park, and I-405 are just minutes away from these new Kirkland homes.

Feng Shui – part 2, Kitchen Feng Shui

     For some people, the kitchen is such an important factor that it affects the decision in choosing a new home. In fact, two of the features I like the most about my own home is in the kitchen. It has a beautiful slab granite countertop and the kitchen is bright and elegant.
 
    An important guideline that is prevalent in the Feng Shui circles is that water is the destructive element to fire. Therefore, it is bad Feng Shui to place the kitchen sink next to or directly across from the stove. While I do not agree with placing the kitchen sink directly across from the stove has anything to do with one’s luck, I do think that kitchen sink should be kept at some distance away from the stove. The reason behind this is quite simple. You do not want water poured over your stove while you are cooking and you need some space between the stove and the sink for washed vegetables and meat that’s ready for cooking.
 

Many buyers... not so many sellers

House sales surged in King County in October, while the number of houses on the market dropped to its lowest level since at least 1999, according to statistics released by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. Buyers closed on 1,981 single-family homes last month, 33 percent more than in October 2011 and — perhaps more surprisingly —10 percent more than in September of this year. Please click on the following link to learn more…..

http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2019611317_homesalesxml.html

Common Misconception about Title Insurance Policy

Figure 1. comparison chart from First
 American Title Insurance Company

    Title is a bundle of rights in real property. Since it is the seller who conveys title to a piece of real property, it is usually the seller who is responsible for purchasing title insurance for the buyer. Buyers can choose from one of three title insurance policies and specify it in the purchase and sale agreement: the Standard Policy, the Homeowner’s Policy, and the Extended Policy. Due to the misleading names of these insurance policies, home buyers may lose their right to the best policy if the buyers’ realtor does not have basic understanding of these policies or is careless.

     To show readers how the three policies differ from one another, I got a comparison chart from First American Title Insurance Company and it is displayed in Figure1. It can be seen from Figure 1 that the Homeowner’s Policy (Eagle Protection Policy) covers most items and it is the policy most home buyers would want to have.

Current Trend in Real Estate Market

      It has been said in various news media that the US economy and the housing market are undergoing mild recovery. To show both home buyers and sellers the specific market figures in King county, I pull some statistics data from the northwest multiple listing services (NWMLS) and did some analysis.

    Figure 1 shows the numbers of active residential listings and closed sales in King County from January 2011 to September 2012. During this period, the month with the highest number of active listings (available homes on market) is July 2011 with 8,186 active listings. After that, the number of active listings has gone down to about five thousand every month and maintained at approximately that level. The number of closed sales, however, was going in the direction of mild decreasing until January 2012. Although the number of closed sales started to increase after it hit the bottom early this year, it maintained at approximately two thousand every month.

Determining the Square Footage of a Home

     Buyers and sellers are often confused about which area is included for calculating a home’s square footage. Does the measurement of square footage include the covered porch? What about basement and garage? When reporting the square footage of a home, only the space of finished living area in the dwelling should be included. A space is considered a living area if it meets all of the following criteria.

• Is intended for human occupancy.
• Is heated by a conventional, permanent heating system. (Any space that is heated by a portable heater does not count.)
• Finished, with walls, floors and ceilings of materials generally accepted for interior construction.  
• Directly accessible from other finished area. (Any part of a house that requires the use of a ladder to get to it does not count.)
  

Feng Shui – Part 1 Introduction

            With thousands of years of continuously recorded history, the Chinese civilization has produced a lot of practical techniques and philosophy, such as acupuncture and Feng Shui, which we still enjoy to this date. Feng Shui is the ancient Chinese art and science of placement. The principles of Feng Shui have a history dated more than three thousand years ago. Like all principles of modern science, the principles of Feng Shui evolved out of people’s observations of the nature and the environment around them. Unlike the principles of modern science, which are developed by a continuous process of corrections, the concepts of Feng Shui have not yet gone through any paradigm shift. Inevitably, some of the Feng Shui concepts would seem like superstition nowadays. Nevertheless, there are other Feng Shui concepts that appear to be well justified from a scientific point of view and still applicable to our daily lives.

Title Insurance and Available Policies for Home Buyers

     From the point of view of a home buyer, title insurance insures against financial loss from defects in title to real property.  (There is also title insurance that protects lender's financial interest.) Title insurance differs in several respects from other types of insurance. While most insurance policies guarantee against a specific type of loss (such as injury) at a future date, title insurance generally insures against losses caused by title problems that happened in the past (such as forgery, fraud, duress in the chain of title).

Using Google Maps as House hunting Tools

     When trying to pick a house that is worthy of a tour, many home buyers take into account the school district and the appearance of the home. Few people use the Google Maps to check out neighborhoods before a home tour. With the advance of technology, these interactive online maps can be highly efficient house hunting tools for busy or long distance buyers.