Featured Home: Immaculate Lacey Rambler

Lacey, Washington

Home features 2 suites plus den with French doors. Big, bright and open floor plan in lovely neighborhood. Large great room with stone fireplace, high ceilings, dining area and lovely kitchen w/lots of counter space & ample nook plus desk area for computer.

Guest suite with access to full bath, spacious master suite with walk-in closet and beautiful private bath.

Lovely, well groomed yard with wonderful landscaping and nice sized patio. Garage with storage, all appliances stay. MLS # 60366.

For more information or to see home, contact:

Kim Rucker, 360-481-1863
Roberta Rudnick, 360-791-0688

Prudential Olympia, REALTORS®

2630 Martin Way
Olympia, WA 98506

Should Homebuyers Use a Real Estate Professional?

With just the stroke of a few keys, you can find myriad resources on the Internet to help you in your search for a new home. Besides property listings, you can find out about specific communities, schools and mortgage options. Prudential Real Estate has made three great resources – Environmental Profile, Property Profile and Value Range Estimate – available on prudential.com/realestate that provide detailed real estate information just by keying in a U.S. property address.

With this wealth of information at your disposal, do you really need a real estate professional to represent you? Absolutely.

Think of it this way, when you go to an unfamiliar place, sure you could do a self-guided tour. However, your tour is much more rewarding and enriching when you have someone who is familiar with the location to guide you along because he or she has inside knowledge on the history, culture and stories that you may not have otherwise received.

The same can be said about sales professionals. Their role is more than someone to drive you around from property to property. They can be a great resource, especially to homebuyers relocating from other communities. He or she knows the local area including home values, taxes, utility costs, and school data, and may even be knowledgeable about resources pertaining to your special interests or needs. For instance, should you require help relocating an aging parent with you, your real estate professional may be able to direct you to local services or organizations for the elderly.

A sales professional can familiarize you with the processes involved in buying a home, alert you to potential risks, help you determine how much house you can afford, explain alternative financing strategies, as well as provide tremendous moral support.

Another benefit is having a strong advocate during the negotiating process. Sales professionals can help you objectively evaluate an offer then work to negotiate a favorable contract. During the process, he or she will review the contract and obligations before you sign, explain how contingencies and release clauses work, and so on.

And something easy to overlook is our familiarity with the complexity and risks inherent in the process. In the years I have been practicing I have been continually amazed at how quickly a seemingly simple transaction can grow legally complex and risky. When complex questions arise, a sales professional can help you quickly locate an attorney or other licensed professionals whose services you may require, such as home inspectors, engineers, surveyors and lenders.

As your single point of contact, a sales professional can manage the entire transaction including coordinating inspections, keeping in touch with the other real estate professionals, managing the documentation for the loan process, monitoring deadlines associated with contingencies, providing applicable paperwork, estimating closing costs, and helping prepare for a smooth and uneventful closing.

If you’re about to begin the process of buying or selling a home, consider involving a real estate professional. When the stakes are high, it’s comforting to have a specialist by your side.

Prudential Olympia, REALTORS is an independently owned and operated member of Prudential Real Estate Affiliates, Inc., a Prudential Financial company. Equal Housing Opportunity.

Choosing the Right Home and the Right Community

If you are buying a home, one of the first things your real estate professional will do before taking you on home tours is interview you to determine the type of house you want, such as a 2,000-square-foot four-bedroom, split level with a formal dining room and two-car garage. But just as important is the type of community you want to live in. Knowing what your requirements are will help narrow your home search and save time.

To expedite the house-hunting process, start by making a list of the dream home factors that are most important to you and your family’s lifestyle. Consider style, location, proximity to work and schools, yard size, children in the community and, of course, price.

Price and location generally are the key factors you’ll use to identify the communities that best suit you. If you are moving within the same city, you may want to start your community search by getting in your car and exploring. There are also resources on the Internet that let you compare communities.

You’ll want to ask yourself critical questions, such as: Do you dream of something quaint and charming that can only be found in an older area? Or, do you prefer everything new? Are you willing to sacrifice size and space for architectural detailing? What about drive and commute time to the office and schools? Will you forgo the number of bedrooms and a big yard for proximity to a lake or other recreational areas?

Whether you have children or not, buying a home in a community with good schools is important. It not only adds value to your property, but also is an attractive feature when and if you decide to sell. There are plenty of resources available to get information about schools within the communities you are considering. Various Internet sites offer school reports and profiles. They provide statistical data such as graduation rates, college-bound percentages, and standardized test scores. You can also learn about special programs the schools offer. In addition to these reports, many schools have their own Web sites you can peruse. And of course you can always talk to people in the area or take a tour of the school.

Additional factors you’ll want to consider during your community search are crime, recreational activities, proximity to shopping and restaurants, and other specific family needs.

Once you’ve narrowed your search to two or three communities that fit your price range and lifestyle, make comparisons of price and sales activity. Your real estate professional can help you determine which communities are most sales-worthy at present, and which are more likely to continue to be.

There are many factors involved in selecting the right community for you and your family. Discuss your options with your real estate professional. This will provide the information he or she needs to help you find property listings to tour. Remember, a targeted approach to house hunting is less time consuming, less expensive and more efficient.

Prudential Olympia, REALTORS is an independently owned and operated member of Prudential Real Estate Affiliates, Inc., a Prudential Financial company. Equal Housing Opportunity.

Deciphering Real Estate Jargon

As with all industries, real estate professionals have developed a lingo and acronyms to help them communicate with each other more easily. For the first-time homebuyer (and even some veterans), making sense of property listings can sometimes leave you feeling like you’re deciphering the DaVinci Code.
Let’s take a look at a sample real estate listing:

2,500 sf on a c-d-s, 2BR, 2.5BA, CA, spac grt rm w/ wbfp, grmet kit, det gar

Looks a lot like alphabet soup. However, using this type of abbreviated property description saves valuable advertising space. Some abbreviations you’ll probably encounters are:

• AC or A/C: air conditioning
• BA: bathroom
• BR: bedroom
• CA: central air
• C-D-S: cul de sac
• DET: detached
• DK: deck
• EIK: eat-in kitchen
• F/FIN BSMT: finished basement
• FDR: formal dining room
• FP, frplc: fireplace
• GAR: garage
• GRMT KIT: gourmet kitchen
• GRT RM: great room
• HDW, HWF, Hdwd: hardwood floors
• HOA: home owners association
• LR: living room
• KIT: kitchen
• OFC: office
• PVT: private
• SF: square feet
• SPAC: spacious
• VW, VU: view
• WBFP: wood-burning fireplace

In addition to the abbreviations in property listings, here are a few other common terms you should become familiar with.

FSBO—For Sale By Owner. This term refers to a property which the homeowner is trying to sell independent of a real estate professional.

MLS—Multiple Listing Service. MLSs are comprised of a group of real estate brokers who have agreed to share their property listings. This listing is then provided to the group through a database or directory. If you are buying your home, this is the service that your sales professional will use to search for potential homes for you to purchase. If you are selling your property, your real estate professional can list your home through the MLS. For-Sale-By-Owner (FSBO) properties are typically not listed through the MLS.

CMA—Comparative Marketing Analysis. This analysis is an informal assessment of a property’s market value. This is one of the tools your real estate professional can use to help you determine a reasonable listing price. Usually, the CMA compares your property with similar properties that have sold in your area within a certain time frame. Besides purchase price, some of the information typically listed is the number of bedrooms and baths, approximate square footage, size of major rooms, amenities such as fireplaces and pools, age of the home, and property taxes.

During the real estate process, you’ll more than likely come across more acronyms and lingo. Make sure you ask your real estate professional to explain any terms you are unfamiliar with so that you are not in for any surprises.

By the way, the listing above was a 2,500 square-feet home on a cul-de-sac, with two bedrooms and two and a half baths, central air, a spacious great room with a wood-burning fireplace, and a gourmet kitchen and detached garage.

Prudential Olympia, REALTORS is an independently owned and operated member of Prudential Real Estate Affiliates, Inc., a Prudential Financial company. Equal Housing Opportunity.