Real Estate October 3, 2011

News from the Club October 3, 2011

REALLY??!!  October??!!  Yikes!!  To me this all means the end of summer and start of the real Fall/Winter Holiday season.  Although one of my most favorite times of the year, the slow and moderate Spring/Summer we had makes the transition a little less than historically exciting.  Not the summer has been lazy by any means but now it is time to pick up the pace with ourselves and our families and gear up to get involved with all the exciting events and year-end.  We have already noticed the change in scenery; the maple leaves falling, the chill in the night air and the gorgeous, cool sunrises over the Cascades.  The fall colors of lemon, mustard, pumpkin, burnt sienna, hunter, oak and mahogany are all my favorites!  Of course, first we have Halloween this month with decorating, baking, making costumes and the culmination of the “Big Night”!!  The children’s treasure trove usually last until they can restock at Christmas!  The smells of those outdoors fires, fall stews, hot ovens, pumpkin pie spice, apple cider, cobblers and wood burning fireplaces bring childhood memories as well as more recent.  Then after Halloween, gratefully, Thanksgiving has not become as commercial as the previous and post holidays to it, so it brings a family togetherness and a time to relax, enjoy, prepare and actually plan the big doings of December.  I love Thanksgiving for that very reason; it has stayed less retail and I can enjoy cozy weekends watching movies, playing board games and just spending time with my family!  No sooner do you get that Turkey out of the oven it seems as if overnight, “tis the season,” so to speak with the countdown to Christmas!!  With kids it’s kind of hard not to get caught up in it all; more decorating, baking, parties, shopping, friends and family!!  Christmas Day and the week following is the last breather prior to another New Year!  Hopefully it will be a good year to come!  As for the Real Estate market in Stanwood and Camano Island as well as the rest of the country, this all means the start of our fourth and final quarter for the year.  For our own sakes and the down economy, we need to continue and increase our Pending sales and finish out the sales year strong.  We need to set up and prepare those coming listings for the start of the New Year as well!  We have been on an upward trend in the third quarter and if we can continue strong, we should have a year-end result better than that of 2010!   Continued low-interest rates and low home prices give hope to the finish of a great year!

Uncategorized September 12, 2011

News from The Club – 9/12

Labor Day has come and gone.  Now we remember 911!  It never struck me before but did they plan the attack the same week as one of the biggest “American” Holidays?  Was it supposed to be the week prior?  It is a somber and inspirational day!  Somber for the obvious reasons, yet inspirational that our people, our government however, clumsily or haphazardly pulled through strong and sound from the greatest homeland attack in our nation’s history from another country!  Remembering 911 is different for everyone.  My daughter asked me “What it meant to me to be an American” and I couldn’t answer!  I was dumbfounded.  I never thought of it.  Always took it for granted.  Even with having the privilege and experience of traveling to many different countries and seeing the differences.  Every time I returned home realizing how fortunate I was with just the everyday enjoyments, I still could not put in words, what it actually meant!  In some ways 10 years seems like such a long time and others like yesterday.  What if cars were luxury and we had to walk or ride a bicycle every where? What if we could not travel on paved roads to get the items we needed or go to school and work?  What if we could not choose the person we were to marry and have a life with?  What if there were no major medical facilities or any way to pay for them?  Think about the smallest every day event and think if you couldn’t do it?  What if we could not buy and sell our own homes?  I believe there are over 15,000 Realtors in the State of Washington alone.  We complain about the market and the economy that has been depressed for the last few years.  What would we do if there were no option at all?  Real Estate activities and Pending sales have and continue to stay up even now at 50 for Camano Island!!  The actual number is down from two weeks ago at 57 but we have also had 15 closed sales which is more than one a day!!  Most agents in our Windermere offices have at least two or three current active buyers yet to have purchased as well!   We are all grateful and thankful to have what we have and enjoy the little things, even if they don’t appear to be as good as they were before.  I think we would all like to say “Thank You” to all our past, current and future clients for choosing Windermere for your Real Estate needs.  Thank you also to all the other Brokers from other Firms for your continued professionalism and perseverance.    As a small part of our Thanks, don’t forget Club Friday this week on 9/16  from 12-2 pm with Wells Fargo with the traditional and always FREE BBQ Lunch!!  Hope to see you soon.