Recent Posts by Kevin Lisota

Modestly-priced home to buy or sell? Redfin agents don’t want to help you

by Kevin Lisota on June 7, 2013 in Seattle Real Estate

Looking to buy a $460,000 home in Kirkland or Redmond? Or perhaps you have a $440,000 home to sell in Sammamish? If you are considering Redfin as your agent, apparently your price point is not profitable enough for them to help you buy or sell a home. While you may happily use their website, they ... Read More

Bidding war tip: Dealing with buyers who get cold feet

by Kevin Lisota on May 25, 2013 in Selling a Home

Selling a home in today’s market is pretty comfortable. If the house is nicely prepared for sale and priced fairly, bidding wars are very common. In fact, you may get multiple offers in the first week that it’s on the market, driving the price significantly higher. As a seller, it is hard not to be ... Read More

Waiving contingencies in your offer for a home

by Kevin Lisota on May 21, 2013 in Buying a Home

Market conditions are such that you are very likely to face competition when bidding for a house in the Seattle area. Depending on the house, you could face 10-20 other fiercely competitive offers. Only one person is going to get the house, and winning in that scenario is going to require extraordinary bid terms to ... Read More

What is the Fair Market Value of a home?

by Kevin Lisota on May 13, 2013 in Buying a Home

Many buyers want to know how to figure out the Fair Market Value (FMV) of a home. Is it the value assigned by the tax assessor? Nope. Is it determined by an appraiser? No again. Maybe you can look it up in on website like Zillow? That’s not it either. The Fair Market Value of ... Read More

Why your contingent offer to purchase a home isn’t going to be accepted

by Kevin Lisota on May 5, 2013 in Buying a Home

If you don’t qualify to have two mortgages, you are going to be faced with the problem of having to sell your current home before you can purchase your next home. The solution seems simple, which is to make an offer to purchase a home where the closing is contingent on the sale of your ... Read More

Off-market pocket listings are not in your best interest as a seller

by Kevin Lisota on May 1, 2013 in Selling a Home

As the real estate market has heated up, it has become markedly easier to sell a home. While that is good news for home sellers, it brings with it a set of realtors who try to sell homes off-market as a pocket listing, lining their own pockets and often leaving money on the table for ... Read More

Seattle Neighborhoods by the Numbers

by Kevin Lisota on April 30, 2013 in Seattle Real Estate

Are you a data geek looking to live in Seattle or move to another neighborhood or suburb? Seattle Met Magazine teamed up with Zillow in their latest issue to publish their 2013 Seattle Neighborhoods by the Numbers. findwell was asked to contribute to this year’s guide which starts off with a look at 10 different ... Read More

Legal duplex versus Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) – What is the difference?

by Kevin Lisota on April 29, 2013 in Real Estate Investing

When shopping for duplexes (a home with two dwelling units) in the Seattle area, you will come across a few different variations. There are legal duplexes and Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU). There are important distinctions between the two that you need to understand before making a purchase. Legal Duplex For a single home with two ... Read More

Where to get Seattle rental & apartment statistics

by Kevin Lisota on April 4, 2013 in Real Estate Investing

Are you an investor in any apartment buildings in Seattle? Or maybe you are aspiring to purchase a multi-family investment property? If so, having accurate and current statistics on rental rates and trends is critical to your success and investment decisions. Dupre & Scott Apartment Advisors is a local research firm who tracks rental trends in Seattle ... Read More

findwell launches tournament-style bidding format for home buyers

by Kevin Lisota on April 1, 2013 in findwell

Seattle – April 1, 2013 – Seattle real estate broker findwell announced a new tournament-style bidding format for home buyers today called Bidding Madness. Homes listed for sale with a findwell agent will now benefit from this new style of bidding by allowing buyers to compete in an open, bracket-based competition for homes, pitting two ... Read More

Author | Kevin Lisota