Archive for March 2011
24914 Old Owen Rd, Monroe, WA 98272
24914 Old Owen Rd
Monroe, WA 98272
- Price: $225,000
- Bedrooms: 4
- Bathrooms: 2
- Square Feet: 1,801
- MLS: 198540
Charm has a new address! Nestled on its own cul-de-sac, this sweet 1-owner rambler offers all the benefits of country living, within 3 short miles of downtown Monroe. Enjoy quiet mornings on the master bedroom deck in the shade of evergreens, overlooking the adjacent greenbelt. Pre-inspected prior to listing, with the major projects done! A new roof, exterior repaint, redone crawl space and many other recent updates combined with your decor will breathe new life into this solid home.
Presented By: Dennis Pearce
Pickett Street (Keller Williams Realty)
www.pickettstreet.com
Primary Phone: 206-931-9945
Secondary Phone:
Email: dennis@pickettstreet.com.
Pocket Neighborhoods
Seattle based architect Ross Chapin has been trying to address issues of urban sprawl with a new urban living concept called Pocket Neighborhoods. It is a very interesting concept and we wanted to take a moment to feature it.
The concept is simple. In the urban environment we do not have much space for everyone to have their own acre with a mini-mansion on it. That usually means that most urban residents are confined to one large house on a small lot, or living in an apartment/condo setting.
Ross Chapin’s Pocket Neighborhoods “are clustered groups of neighboring houses or apartments gathered around some sort of shared open space — a garden courtyard, a pedestrian street, a series of joined backyards, or a reclaimed alley — all of which have a clear sense of territory and shared stewardship.”
It is a very interesting concept. We like it because it gives people a sense of their own space. Creating a sense of community where there might not have been before. I can’t remember ever living in an apartment complex or condo and feeling that sense of community.
There are some really great example layouts of Pocket Neighborhoods over at this site.
He also has a book that talks more about the concept of Pocket Neighborhoods and community space. The book can be found here.
Would you want to live in a Pocket Neighborhood? Leave a comment and let us know.
How not to install a Garage Door Opener
Many homeowners attempt to complete home repairs and installations themselves. They may have several hiccups along the way but usually things go off without a hitch. That is not always the case though. Sometimes they are better off leaving things to a professional. Mike Holmes would had a heart attack if he saw the video below.
Looks like a Everett Washington home owner decided to install a pair of garage door openers on their own. Their handiwork leaves much to be desired. I suppose you have to admire their determination to get the job done. I guess this is why we have pre-sale inspections after all.
If you have any humorous real estate photos/videos send us an e-mail and we will post them on the blog.
Value of Professional Real Estate Photography
Professional real estate images make the difference in selling a home. When done properly they give the viewer a chance to experience the atmosphere of a home before they ever step foot on the premises.
Over at the Redfin blog there is a great article with statistics to back that up.
Tim Ellis of Redfin took the time to sift through all of the current MLS listings. Using data stored in the images he was able to determine what type of camera was used to take the photographs. For his sample he assumed that the DLSR cameras were used by professionals. Tim feels that “…the price of a DSLR camera (anywhere from $500 to $1,000+) is generally out of the price range of your average hobbyist, let us assume that photos shot with DSLR cameras are shot by professionals.”
What he found was quite interesting:
What’s the deal with HDR Images?
We have been asked a few times by others what HDR Images are and how they are used. HDR stands for High-dynamic-range imaging. It produces photographs that look more like how the human eye would see the scene. Here is a side by side comparison of the same image as a regular image and a HDR image.
You can click the image to expand it and view a large size.
If you compare the two images you can see that on the regular image parts of the house, grass in the front yard, and bushes are dark and underexposed. In the HDR image those parts of the image are just a tad brighter and easier to see. The same also applies to the overexposed areas. In the regular image they tend to turn out blasted white with no detail. While in the HDR image those areas usually have more detail.
We produce all of our outside images using HDR techniques. We find that it helps produce a more natural looking photograph considering all of the various lighting conditions you are likely to run into outdoors. If it is needed inside the home we will also shoot HDR images. Usually the interior is lit well enough that we only need to use bounce flash and Photoshop editing in order to produce the interior images.
13932 54th AVE SE
13932 54th AVE SE
Everette, WA 98208
- Price: $299,000
- Bedrooms: 4
- Bathrooms: 2.5
- Square Feet: 1904
- MLS: 185497
Welcome home to Silver Firs. This one owner home has been well cared for. Slab granite and custom tile in the kitchen. The soothing earth tone colors throughout welcomes you. The exterior is freshly painted and a newer roof. This home backs to one of the most beautiful green belts in Silver Firs. You will love the very private back yard. Excellent location with easy access to I-5-405 and Hwy 9 Minutes to the Mill Creek Town Center too.
Presented By: Loralynn Wilbur
Silver Firs (Keller Williams Realty)
www.silverfirs.com
Primary Phone: 425-210-0099
Secondary Phone:
Email: loralynn@silverfirs.com
We Are On Yelp!
Good news! We got our yelp page up and running. Check it out over at http://www.yelp.com/biz/washington-home-tours-llc-redmond Feel free to ad a review if you have used our service.
One of the big bonuses we have noticed from adding our business to yelp is the boost it gives to our Google ranking. We were ranking on the 3rd page of Google for most of the search terms we tracked. After about three days of having our yelp listing up we noticed that on all of our regular search terms we jumped up to the first page. We now also show up on a wider range of search terms where we did not appear before.
If you have a small business and you are not currently up on Yelp we would highly recommend it. You can head over to https://biz.yelp.com/claiming to add your buisness to the list. They have a list of most established businesses that you search through and “claim” if you own them. If you don’t find yours listed you can add it to the system. It took them about a week after we submitted our business before it was in the database and ready for us to claim.
Once you claim your business you can edit various information about your business. Upload pictures, specials, announcements, and lots of other stuff. It also gives your clients/customers an opportunity to voice their opinion on your quality of service. We have been more then pleased with the benefits of signing up with yelp so far.
If you have any yelp tips leave us a comment.
Welcome
Welcome to the Washington Home Tours Blog!
This is the place where you can keep up with everything that is happening with us and in the industry. Anything we find interesting or useful we will try and pass along to you. If you come across any information you feel might be of use to others don’t hesitate to pass it along and we will share it here.
We take pride in our photography work and we look forward to sharing it with you. We will also strive to bring you useful information on the ever changing world of real estate photography.
Keep checking back here for new content regularly.
While we work on new blog content you can head over to http://www.mywahometours.com for all of the current listings in our database.
