“Seattle most important annual jazz event” (Down Beat). The festival runs October 15^th to November 7^th 2010.

The Earshot Jazz Festival will hold more than 50 distinctive concert events in different venues all around the city. Some venues include,The Crocodile, Chapel Performance Space, EMP|SFM Level 3, Moore Theatre, The Triple Door, and the Kirkland Performance Center.

Renowned for it’s adventurous spirit, and praised as one of the best festivals in America by the Seattle Times, the Earshot Jazz Festival brings jazz greats from all over the world to collaborate with local area artists and audiences.

Some highlights of the festival include performances by Mavis Staples, Bill Frisell, Robert Glasper, and Rufus Reid. In addition to the performances, the festival will include education programs and panels, and a film series.

For more information, please see the Earshot Jazz Festival website as well as the 2010 Festival Schedule of Events. Tickets and ticket information is available online at the Earshot Jazz Festival ticket page.

How important is location?

Location is one of those varying factors that has a huge impact on your buying decision. Ask yourself the following questions.

1. How close do I want to be to work?

2. Do I want to be in the city or in the suburb?

3. How far away from busing and transit do I want to be?

4. How close to shopping centers and grocery stores do I want to be?

5. Do I prefer densely populated or rural areas?

By answering these questions you should have a better understanding of where you want to be.

Price vs Comfort?

When looking for a home you need to consider what it is you’re really looking for. Are you looking for a long term residence? Or are you looking more towards a place that will generate some equity and will be a stepping stone to a future purchase?

If you’re starting out and don’t have a large resources pool of funds, it may be wiser/safer to search for homes that will be easier to afford vs. larger and more difficult to sustain.

Also keep in mind, just because you might qualify for a more expensive home, that doesn’t mean you’ll want to strap yourself for cash for several years afterward. If you’re barely making enough to cover a mortgage payment, car payment, medical insurance, electricity, water, sewer, garbage, and food, you may want to consider what your life will be like financially if you go for something that you can afford but only barely.

Buying a smaller, more affordable home will help you keep your options open and will provide you with an equity stepping stone to purchase something more long term in the future.

Roommates?

Buying a new home as a first time home buyer can be daunting financially. Should it fit within your needs, a roommate can alleviate some of the financial burden. While many first time home buyers prefer to purchase the home for the privacy, some individuals or couples can get help financially with the sacrifice of some privacy.

Why Should I Own?

There are many benefits of owning a home. By buying a home, a portion of your mortgage payment will be going towards the principle of the home, increasing the equity. If for example you’re a first time home buyer, buying a smaller and more affordable home, and later selling it is often a means towards your goal/dream home. Also, instead of paying rent, you’re putting money towards an investment that will also appreciate over time. There are also other benefits like pride of ownership, and tax write-offs.

As with many decisions, what your needs are depends on the individual. As a first time home buyer you’ll need to think about what matters most to you and go from there. By knowing what your needs are it will not only help you get what you want, but it will also help in the search for your home.

Join the Seattle Parks Foundation on September 25^th in a celebration and dedication of Lake Union Park! The free public celebration is certain to draw families and neighbors from all around Seattle to come take part in the festivities. There will be a Family Fun Run, Sunrise Yoga on the Fitness Field, and many more activities throughout the day both on land and in the water.

Along with the general merriment, there will be other activities including:

• Musical performances

• Model boat races on the model boat pond

• Native American Canoe displays

• Amazing Seattle Food vendors including the Farmer’s Market

• Environmental education and history trail tours

• A parade of Seattle mascots along with children’s activities

• And much much more!

For more information, please visit the Seattle Parks Foundation website for all the details. See you there on the new 12 acres of awesome park space!

Purchasing a home with a partner or significant other can be a challenging process. The following will hopefully help minimize common difficulties and challenges associated with buying a home together.

Communication

Communication is one of, if not the most, important facets of purchasing a home with a partner. By having open lines of communication, and by ensuring that all needs, opinions, and other concerns are heard and listened to, a lot of issues can be avoided.

Define Your Parameters Carefully

How important is location? Multiple stories? Access to bus lines? Close to work? Size of home? Fenced yard? Multiple bathrooms? Price?

By carefully identifying what is important to each partner so much confusion can be avoided. Be as clear as you can with each other in defining what matters most to you has a partnership or couple.

Be Patient

The process for finding a home can be tiring and at times arduous. An experienced agent can help alleviate the decision making process and find the right house for your needs. Communicate with your agent what both of your concerns are and be clear about what matters the most to both of you, and what things you are willing to compromise on.

It will take time and effort, but by communicating openly, defining your home parameters clearly, and being patient with the process, you can reduce the amount of stress and minimize difficulties in your search.

The Obama Administration’s Making Home Affordable Program (HAMP) is a critical piece of the effort to bring relief to distressed homeowners and stabilize the housing market. What the program is attempting to do is to work with loan servicers to reduce a homeowners monthly mortgage payment. Homeowners that are struggling to make their mortgage payments on time, either due to an adjustable interest rate increasing or less income, can apply for HAMP. The program will reduce a homeowner’s monthly mortgage payment to 31 percent of their verified gross (pre-tax) income to make their payments more affordable.

Are You Eligible For HAMP?

You may be eligible for HAMP if you answer YES to all these questions.

Are you the owner-occupant of a one to four-unit home?
Do you have an unpaid principal balance that is equal to or less than:

• 1 Unit: $729,750

• 2 Units: $934,200

• 3 Units: $1,129,250

• 4 Units: $1,403,400

Have a first lien mortgage that was originated on or before January 1, 2009?
Have a monthly mortgage payment (including taxes, insurance, and home owners association dues) greater than 31% of your monthly gross (pre-tax) income?Have a mortgage payment that is not affordable due to a financial hardship that can be documented?

If You Qualify

Homeowners who qualify for HAMP must complete a trial period of three to four months to demonstrate that they will be able to make their reduced payments on time before their mortgage becomes permanently modified.

To create an affordable payment, your mortgage servicer applies a series of modification steps in the following order:

1. Rate reduction to as low as two percent.

2. Term extension up to 40 years.

3. Principal forbearance (or deferral).

A portion of the principal can also be forgiven, although that is optional and is based on the discretion of the servicer.

If you think you qualify for HAMP, contact your servicer.

For more information and frequently asked questions, please see the Making Home Affordable government website.

Technology has evolved to the point where you can edit and modify photographs to such an extent as to adding objects or smoothing a feature of the image. Many people are familiar with what staging a home involves. It requires someone to come in and set up and analyze the space and add furniture and objects to resolve the vacant look that an empty room has. Now, with digital editing software, this can be done on a computer by adding furniture and object directly to the image without ever setting foot in the home. Below will discuss the pros and cons of virtually staging a home.

Pros

• In many cases digitally editing stock images taken of a vacant home is less costly than hiring someone to move furniture and other objects into the home and then taking the picture.

• There will be less potential for damage if people are moving large pieces of furniture around the home.

• Staged homes statistically sell for 17% more than vacant homes. Only 10% of home buyers can visualize the potential of a vacant home.

• Virtual staging is less of a hassle as you can simply send photo’s to the virtual staging designers without moving furniture yourself.

• Requires only a one time design fee and no monthly payment to rent staged furniture.

Cons

• Virtual staging that is poorly done is extremely obvious and can detriment the quality of the photo for home buyers.

• In a bright room it’s difficult to capture lighting and replicate it’s affect on imported image objects.

• Virtual staged rooms can be made to deceive which may not sit well with alert buyers if they notice a discrepancy in the size of how an object looks in the photo vs. physically.

• It’s difficult to produce the same effect that real furniture has on the room.

• Buyers that visit the home may wonder where the furniture is that was furniture is that was in the pictures. Real furniture helps buyers visualize when they are walking through the home.

It will really come down to preference between how much you’re willing to spend between the two staging methods, how competent the stagers for both virtual and actual settings are, and whether or not staging is right for you.

In general, staging will often provide a needed boost to help set your home and property above the competition. For some more information on staging in general, see our other blog post concerning staging.

It seems that in the past that only real estate agents had the knowledge of where homes were for sale, and knew the process of buying or selling a home. However, now the internet has made possible a place where anyone can go and browse for homes all across the nation. Still, an agent is an essential part of the home searching and buying process as well as the selling process. Good agents have years of experience and will do their best to make sure your interests are being represented honestly and fairly. The following are traits that a good agent will conduct themselves by in their transactions.

Honesty. Honesty is is the centerpoint of a good agent. By being up front with their client, honesty ensures that there are no surprises later in the process for both the agent and the client. Trust follows from honesty.

Loyalty. When someone approaches an agent asking for help in buying or selling a home, they place their trust in that agent. And from that trust follows the loyalty of the agent. The agent pledges to represent the client and work hard to see that their needs are met fairly. Loyalty breeds trust, and in return, the loyalty of your client.

Integrity. The consistency in which an agent conducts themselves and demonstrates the methods, measures, values, and principles is an integral aspect of being a good agent. Having an intuitive sense of truth and honesty separates a professional real estate agent from the others.

Perseverance. It’s a buyers market now. It takes extra-ordinary effort to make sure that that home get’s sold or that perfect home is found. Simply listing a property won’t work anymore. A good agent will work hard to find that perfect home, and will persevere to get your home as much exposure as needed.

Patience. If that home just won’t sell or the perfect home just isn’t turning up in the searches, a patient agent will take time to evaluate what the problem could be and adjust their methods to reflect their research. They will take the time to communicate further with their clients to determine and define their client’s needs.

A good real estate agent shouldn’t necessarily be defined by how many deals they close but by how they conduct themselves in business. A true real estate agent isn’t only in the business of selling houses. They are in the business of providing clients an honest avenue to buy or sell a home, to be loyal to that client, persevere through the difficult times, and be patient when things don’t go according to plan. A true real estate agent is in the business of helpingpeople.

The 2010 spring Washington Job Vacancy Survey Report recorded the first increase in the number of job vacancies offered since fall 2006. The survey indicated that companies were attempting to fill an estimated 38,732 open positions during the April 2010 survey period. While theses job opening indicate that the economy is improving, it is still unclear whether Washington state and the nation are indeed entering a recovery period.

This is good news for job seekers in Washington. According to the survey for this spring, it shows a 21 percent increase in openings since last fall. Most of the jobs are made up by the private sector, however, some public health care and education jobs are included.

Health Care was the leading industry in job growth. Registered nurses were the job that was most in demand with over 2,300 openings.

Software engineers were the next in terms of most needed, with almost 2,000 job openings.

For more information, please see the full survey.

Congress recently passed a bill that will extend the closing deadline on the Homebuyer Tax Credit. The extension lengthens the closing date to September 30, 2010. This deadline is for home purchases that had a signed contract by April 30th of this year. There will be no gap between June 30th and the date the President signs the bill into law.

Additionally, Congress has extended the National Flood Insurance Program through September 30th as well. This bill is retroactive and will cover the lapse period from June 1, 2010, to the date the law is enacted.

The current housing trend is to live modestly and forgo unessential large spaces for homes. First time home-buyers are leaning more favorably towards smaller homes as they’re easier to maintain, and require less energy to run. In lieu of new banking guidelines and stringent credit scoring practices large loans can be more difficult to obtain. This a contributing factor to why people are purchasing smaller, more affordable homes.

Housing sizes typically drop during recessions, however, economists expect the current downsizing and small home buying trend to continue due to the current housing difficulties and change in familial status.

Downsizing and living modestly, as well as making the most use of the space available is more sustainable. It requires less maintenance, less energy, and consequently less money. This is obviously attractive to those who are looking to downsize or for those that are purchasing a home for the first time.

Due to this shift in housing trends, the builders market has changed significantly. Coupled with the demand for smaller houses and remodeling, builders can take advantage of a new niche.

Again, it’s not just about making a smaller house, but maximizing the usable space within and also building with quality, though less expensive material alternatives. For example, instead of an expensive granite kitchen, using a synthetic material look-alike. One can also purchase a smaller home and/or remodel areas of the home to create more space.

The recession has helped many people understand the value of a home floor plan that utilizes space efficiently, as well as valuing the sustainable lifestyle of living in a smaller home.