Jim's Blog

Earlier today, I wrote a 'Blog piece about ... well, related to the title you see above.  I wrote about how unfair it was.  I wrote about what Sellers could do to protect themselves.  I thought it was quite a good 'Blog article, if I do say so myself.Turns out that - a lot of Real Estate Agents (...

When a Real Estate agent takes a property listing, there are always two things involved: 1) a small mountain of paperwork, and 2) Sales Commission, to be divided between the Listing Agent, and the Buyer's Agent.Now the logic behind dividing the total Sales Commission between the Listing and Buyer...

Welcome!  This is a series of articles that I've cooked up to describe the basic terms that appear in Real Estate transactions.  Recently, I had new 'first time' buyers that I took out on a tour to show properties... and I realized that most of the common terms that we take for granted are... wel...

Me and my partner Kellie have been married for... well, neaerly a year now.  We're both Real Estate agents.  As partners, I believe we offer our clients services that only a 'married team" can provide.  Well, sorry, all of that is 'off topic.'Kellie's oldest son just turned 17.  Frankly?  He's a ...

Whoa... I just got a call from my Mom.  Yep: she's still around.  And we got to talking about things...Brought to mind the ol' Dinner Bell.  In our home, this was a very old bronze bell, with a wooden handle and the traditional "clapper" thingy inside - so it would ring loud and long when you ran...

Well, it seems to be all the rage here in Washington state, and a hot topic among Realtors.  This, the practice of canceling a current property listing (usually late at night), and then re-listing that property a few hours later.  Same house, same seller, same price.Why would a Realtor do such a ...

Well, here we are after Labor Day.  In many parts of the country, this signals the End of Summer, and time to do misc tasks around the house to prepare things for Fall/Winter.My wonderful Wife and Partner, Kellie, bought me a cool BBQ grill as a 'Father's Day' present, year before last.  Nice.  S...

Some months ago, my Wife and Partner in Real Estate bugged me with a 'honey-do' list for maintenance around the house.  Sheesh.  Any long-term-married-husband-person knows the impending dread of such list... projects that should have been done long ago, but somehow got put on the 'back burner' du...

As a licensed Real Estate Agent here in Washington State, and as a Realtor, well... you can imagine that there are a lot of rules and regulations about marketing properties.  A lot of legal requirements, such as the exact words that are used to describe a property.What you may not imagine... are ...

Well, earlier this week, I took some time off from Real Estate, and spent that time doing maintenance work on Kellie's and my sailboat: the SV 'Gibson Girl' that we have here in beautiful, La Conner, Washington.The 'Gibson Girl' is a grand old sailboat: a 1972-vintage Cal 2-29.  29-feet overall, ...