Then along came the State of Washington and State Health rules (Chapter 246-272A WAC) requiring the local health jurisdiction to ensure that all owners of onsite sewage systems have their system inspected and evaluated on a regular basis, and prescribe an inspection at the time of property transfer as one of the
options to attain these inspections.

I totally agree that something had to be done with the septic inspection process. The days of permit, install and done are over. There must be some checks and procedures to protect all.

In Washington each county takes on the responsibility of tracking a process.

In Kitsap County where I work the process is fairly easy. The Northwest Multiple Listing Service has procedures spelled out in document form that take the guess work out of what we need to do in order to comply with the state law.

We have a general septic addendum that outlines what type of OSS (on-site sewage system) the property is serviced by, that the seller represents that, to the best of their knowledge, the OSS is in working order and doesn’t violate any regulations or have any material defects.

This document supersedes any provisions in the purchase and sale agreement except for the provisions of a county specific septic addendum.

Here is where local area Brokers seem to have a learning curve. In Kitsap County the Kitsap County Board of Health Ordinance 2008-01 Section 13.D sets out in more detail the process that must be completed prior to the close of a home sale transaction.

It is a pretty straight forward form and details what the seller must do.

1. Specify type of system
2. Deliver Evaluation Report (from the Health Officer of Kitsap County Health District)
3. Deliver to Buyer maintenance records, if available.

If the seller has no evaluation report listed in item 2 they must complete an application, inspection and evaluation with the Health Department. The process is very simple and spelled out in simple terms on the addendum and on the Kitsap County Health Department site.

Why this process is so difficult for Brokers to understand I just don’t get. I have had to “argue” with Brokers what the process is over the last few transactions. This is a process that really should be done at the time the home is listed for sale. Why we don’t just do this all up front is in my mind a disservice to our sellers. I know the reason is probably one of funds. Yes, it costs to process this form with the county. Yes, it costs money to pump the tank. That is why this process is so hard for some Brokers to understand. They don’t know how to get their sellers to spend money prior to close.

I just want other Broker’s to understand the law and conform to it. I am tired of having to educate other Brokers about the process when I write a purchase and sale agreement. It is our responsibility to understand these documents and council our sellers.

Kitsap County has some great information available on their web site. I have had to on more than one occasion send these links to other Brokers in the area to make my point.

INSPECTION AND EVALUATION OF ONSITE SEWAGE SYSTEMS FOR PROPERTY CONVEYANCE
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Onsite Sewage Program

Mike Rowe learns how to clean a septic tank.

During the month of June there were 88

If you want to learn more about how we transfer property in Washington State a really great site to visit is the Escrow Association of Washington site. There you can find definitions and explanations of the home buying process for Bremerton Washington.

Let’s look at those 88 Bremerton homes -

Average List Price

• $217,283 [May- $199,895 -April- $197,429 - March -$202,739 - February -$220,258 - January -$203,640 December -$224,396]
• $128

Average Sold Price

• $209,182 [May-$195,044 - April -$192,860 - March -$198,231 - February -$213,465 - January -$201,166 - December -$218,171]
• $123

The average sq ft of these 88 Bremerton homes was 1701 sq ft. These homes spent an average of 108 days on the market (DOM).

The list to sale ratio for these homes was 96.27 percent. What that meas is that buyers offered 96.24% of what the seller requested.

What do these numbers mean? Is it a good time to buy? Is it a good time to sell. It all depends on your individual situation. I would rather buy in a buyers market and I would rather sell in a buyers market if I have to buy another home with the proceeds. I am a fan of the NORMAL market – everyone can feel more comfortable and real estate transactions are not as stressful.

If you would like to find out the value of your home please feel free to contact me via phone or email. I would be more than happy to supply you with a FREE Market Analysis.

If you would like to purchase a home in the Kitsap County Real Estate Area please give me a call or contact me via email. We can discuss your future plans and I can set you up on an email campaign to receive the hot new listings quicker than YOU can find them.

“Statistics not compiled or published by NWMLS.” Equal Opportunity Housing All information deemed reliable, but not guaranteed”

From the very beginning of my career deadlines have been very important to me. I have always made sure my clients know what “time is of the essense” meant and that it wasn’t just a “saying”.  I would educate them on what our “computation of time” pargargph in our purchase and sale agreement meant and wanted them to take it as serious as I did.

I see this as one of the most important function of a licensed real estate agent. There are deals that have been lost because agents didn’t abide by the contractual dates stated on acceptance.

What has always bothered me with this part of the home buying process is there are those involved that don’t take the contract dates seriously.

In 2003 I went to work for First American Title/Escrow in Yucca Valley, California.  Having come from a real estate agent background I knew a lot about the contract.  When I started to question why we were not trying to meet the deadline for closing per the contract I was told that date was “an estimate” – I thought to myself – “AN ESTIMATE!” That isn’t an escrow call or a lender call!  I soon found out that we would just advise an agent to process an addendum to extend the contract.

Sure, it wasn’t totally an escrow issue.  Escrow being the final destination in most transactions is rarely given the time to complete their tasks.  The issue would arise based on lender requirements (in a non-cash transaction).  If the lender couldn’t get their documents to escrow on time, escrow couldn’t preform within contract.  So many times the lender has a total different idea on what date they need to meet.  Many times lenders have told my buyers what their definition of closing is and usually it is not what the legal meaning of the word really is for the State of Washington. Of course that is a topic for a whole other blog post.

Lately, I have seen the parties to a transaction act so flipant when it comes to the contract closing date.  In my last 5 transactions with 3 different lenders it has been the lender that just couldn’t preform.  All of these lenders have pre-approved the buyer prior to a contract being written.  All of these lenders had met the buyers in person.

On a couple of occasions the lender has laid blame on the buyer.  The buyer didn’t get all their paperwork to them in time, the buyer did not sign this or sign that, the buyer didn’t send in bank statements, or their W2′s.  These kind of excuses just tick me off!  If you are a lender and you have not received these items in the first 5 days after meeting with my client – CALL ME – I will help you!  I have been known to get the documents from a buyer and drive them to a lender.  Don’t blame my buyers. Some of them are new to the process and really don’t understand unless we help them!

Now, don’t get me wrong there are lots of people in the business that do play by the rules.  I just don’t understand why everyone doesn’t.

I see the extension of most contracts as an excuse – excuse that someone didn’t do their job. The only time an extension should be acceptable is when something happens that is out of everyones control at the time a contract is written.  We may not know there are several title issues until we are several days in.

I just get irritated when I have to write an addendum to extend a closing date when I have done my job, my clients have done theirs, the other buyer/seller has done theirs as well as their agent.  I am tired of others not preforming knowing that if the seller wants to sell and the buyer wants to buy they will all sign an extension (or will they).  Why take the chance?

On Saturday, May 29th, from 7:00AM-10:30AM enjoy a Pancake Breakfast (where Mayor Lent will be cooking until 9:00AM) on the Bremerton Boardwalk prepared by the Bremerton Lions Club.

For more information, including festival schedule, please visit theKitsap Harbor Festival website.

The Bremerton Farmers Market is now open! Every Thursday, 4-7PM, at Evergreen Park you’re invited to come on down and connect with your local farmers and community members.

Check out the Bremerton Farmers Market website details on vendors, live music performances and more!

That’s the song that I sing when my husband heads out on a deployment. Yep, he is in the Navy but I have never had the pleasure of being involved with a Navy command.  We have spent all of our years together hanging out with the Marine Corps.

Deployment can be a very difficult time in a military family’s life so; we have to find the positives. Saving all the deployment pay is one!  The first tour to Iraq that my husband went on was my first deployment experience as a military spouse.  I knew a little about the extra pays and was eager to learn more. I did pay attention at the Deployment Brief. I took all the pamphlets and brochures I could carry.  I remember the LtCol standing at the front of the meeting room leaning on the overhead projector and emphasizing about our budgets.  He had projected up on the screen the extra pays that our spouses were going to receive.

• Hostile Fire Pay (HFP)/Imminent Danger Pay (IDP). $225.00 a month (HFP/IDP)
• Family Separation Allowance $250.00 (FSH OR FSA)
• Hardship Duty Pay-Location  $100.00(HDP-L). Indicated as Save Pay on the Leave and Earnings Statement (LES)
• Depending on the Command and the Branch of Service the service member usually gets to keep their BAS – Basic Allowance for Subsistence . $265.00

That is a TON of extra pay!! But the bottom line gets even better because all the pay while deployed out side the country in several tax free zones is just that TAX FREE!!!!!

Now that does add up. Depending on the length of deployment you could end up with a pretty nice chuck of change for the purchase of a house, condo or vacant land. Remember how important it is for Military members to own real estate!!

Upon return service members usually receive per diem pay too – that rounds around $3.50 per day and adds up too!!

So add this all together and you could be saving around $800,00 – $1000.00 per month.  Multiply that buy the normal deployment of 7 months – oh except for the Army and IA’s which is between 12-15 months and that is a huge amount to invest in your future.

Do you own your home? Are you afraid of having to sell in 3, 4 or 5 years?  If you are smart and do the right things then homeownership for a military member should not be scary!!!!

Never before has the military population owned a higher percentage of homes. The days of base living has changed drastically. With most installations switching over to PPV the climate has changed. The thought of waiting until retirement to purchase a home has become a scary thought with the way housing prices in most areas have skyrocketed.

So as a military member do you purchase a home?

It is a very complicated process which needs some investigation and education before making a decision. You should ask yourself some questions like these at the minimum.

• Do I have upfront money to buy a home?
• Can I get financing?
• Is my tour of duty going to be longer than 2 years before the next PCS?
• Will I have the opportunity to do another tour here or will I have an opportunity to come back?
• If I had to be a long distant landlord would I have the time or recourses?
• Could I afford a property manager?
• What if I had to pay the mortgage for 2-3 months while the home is waiting for new renters?

BUYING VS. RENTING

	ADVANTAGE	THINGS TO CONSIDER
BUY	Build Equity	Responsibility of Maintenance
	Income Tax Incentives	Property Tax Payments
	Stability and Security	Loss of Equity
	Ability to “do what you want”	Less Mobile
RENT	No responsibility for Maintenance	No Equity
	Easier to Move	No Tax Benefits
		Vanilla Walls

So after you have considered all the possibilities, searched the internet for information and asked around your shop. Are you ready to buy?

Being a military spouse and real estate professional it was still a decision that I wavered back and forth. After sitting down and writing out all the pros and cons my husband and I decided to purchase. My husband is in the Untied States Navy and at the time we decided to purchase we were looking at the second tour to Iraq, at living in southern California and at a PCS 30 days after his re-deployment. We didn’t know where we were going, how long we would be there or how the finance industry would view our dreams.

My husband left for Iraq and I knew that I wanted our next PCS to be a “door to door”. I started to look at houses in the Bremerton, Washington area over the internet. Having my license but not practicing in the state of Washington I had to find a real estate agent too. I was lucky because I had several contacts from my days of selling homes in Washington. On a trip up to Washington I viewed a property and made an offer with my POA.

My husband just so happen to call while I was in the process. I told him what I was doing and promised to email pictures when I arrived back home. I can tell you that it was not a totally smooth process, but I can also tell you that I am writing this article in the home office of the house that we purchased so, all in all a happy ending. Well, almost. My husband didn’t receive orders to the Bremerton area. He received orders to ALASKA!!!

We are now building equity in a home we will retire to in several years. I live here and he lives there and we are Continental frequent flyers. What’s that phrase “Semper Gumby”? Yes we are! I am back to the profession I love, he loves Alaska and we have the house we plan to retire in or so we think at the moment.

Do you own your home? Are you afraid of having to sell in 3, 4 or 5 years? If you are smart and do the right things then homeownership for a military member should not be scary!!!!

Bremerton Real Estate

One of the reasons I relocated to Bremerton WA was because of the history and early century architecture. I love older homes. Maybe it is because of one home I remember as a child that was in Puyallup. A true craftsman with a huge front porch and built in buffets, along with a really unique floor plan that included a kitchen breakfast nook and closets so large we made them into playhouses.

Anyway, the home we purchased here was built in 1941, it isn’t a craftsman but a Cape Cod Bungalow. It has a steep roof with side gables, a small roof overhang and is 1 1/2 stories on a daylight basement. I have wide clapboard type T&G siding on the front and raked shingles on the other 3 sides. The appearance is symmetrical with the door in the center. A Cape Cod Bungalow is different than a Cape Cod Craftsman because of no dormers. I have all oak flooring on the main level which is about 1/2 inch think and gorgeous! I also just found several bundles of unused oak flooring in the attic. Enough to install it in the 3/4 bath in the basement!

The home had been occupied by the same person since 1946 and to my amazement hadn’t had any remodeling done! Sometimes over the years older homes have had so many owners and so many DIY projects that they are just ruined! Mine was just left original until the owner had to be removed and some relatives decided to “flip it”.

I was living in California and my husband was in Iraq when we bought the home. I had only been to the property once for about 15 minutes. I saw what I saw. Of course I had an inspection done and of course there are times that an inspector just can’t possibly find it all. That is our story – he didn’t find it all. But I have.

I have found that the fireplace was ruined by a wood stove insert. I just ordered a new insert to be installed along with a new liner and chimney chase.

I have found that some of the sill plate and rim joist had dry rot because of water damage probably by a gutter issue. We had a contractor out last week to fix those problems without having to jack the house up!

I have found that there was really no insulation in the attic. Back in the day they would put insulation in the floor joists and use the attic as additional whatever space. Our attic was converted to two large rooms and a sitting area. I turned one into a huge walk-in closet and one into the master bedroom. Those areas were insulated around them but the area above the main living area didn’t have any insulation.

This past week I layed the insulation on one side and will video it when I am totally complete. Installing insulation in an attic is really easy. I have done it all myself – the entrance to the area is only 15″ wide so it had to be me – haha!

Here is my video – have fun watching, my husband thinks I am crazy.

If you want to purchase a Craftsman or a Cape Cod in Bremerton you want to make sure you are working with an agent that knows about the product. I have fireplace inpectors, contractors and yardbirds (lumber yard associates) that are a part of my team. There is more than a home inpsection that needs to take place when purchasing these homes.

This is an investment but it also is our home.

But, last week I did receive a “Multiple Offers Notification” from a local agent who had listed a bank owned property. Here is what the instructions are:

Crap, is what I thought! This property which had been on the market for months now was the “Homecoming Queen” in her price range. I so hate multiple offers, I so hate a bid war, hate the thought of an escalation clause and all the broken dreams that go along with these situation.

I was thankful that the seller had made the stipulation that there was to be no offer submitted with an escalation clause. One frustration gone. So I called my buyer and gave the information. We talked about the property and my buyer decided after looking at all the facts to actually withdraw their offer. My buyer just didn’t want to play the game. There was another house in our line up. The following was the choices we had to choose from:

You can see where I have checked the box – The buyer has rescinded his offer to purchase. Yep, that is what we did.

The next day I thought nothing of this transaction. Maybe, it was because it was my birthday and I was taking the day off – well, off as much as a real estate agent selling homes can. I spent the day in Seattle with my sweetie. On my return to my home office I had a voice-mail from the Listing agent of this property. He wanted my to call him ASAP.

I thought how strange and I did. We played phone tag and finally we caught up to each other and he proceeded to tell me that my buyer’s offer was the best – yep you read that right, the BEST. Funny! I reminded the agent that my buyers had rescinded their offer but that I would call them and give them the information. I did and my buyers decided to proceed on a different home.

All fine with me, after all it is their purchase. The agent apologized to me because I am sure he thought I had lost a transaction. Not the case. In reality it was his seller that lost a transaction – the BEST transaction. I just kept thinking about this. Sometimes wanting to get more can cost you more. It would have been better for this seller to just take the best the first go, because if he did he would have received more for the property than what he will now receive.

So after reading the latest release from the NWMLS I thought I would do some absorption rate statistics.  Sometimes I get really frustrated with stats because they are well – crap in crap out type of information.  Without correct data what do they mean?  For as many years as I have been a member of the NWMLS and that spans back to 1994 the statistics are an estimate at best.

If you know the flap over Zillow “zestimates” well I don’t think we should be too critical when our own association has a tough time policing itself when it comes to being accurate.  So I put these figures out there for you with the understanding that accuracies are “subject to”.

Now for the disclosure that I am required to by my NWMLS rules and regulations.  The statement is true for this article. I have compiled these statistics on my own, no copy and paste of the NWMLS’s data.

“Statistics not compiled or published by NWMLS.” Equal Opportunity Housing All information deemed reliable, but not guaranteed”

This data is for all of Kitsap County, for all residential properties (condominiums excluded), mobile homes on land and townhomes/townhouses included.  Of course this is all subject to the listing agents input.

I do know that these figures are not perfect – I know of several homes that sold in March, April and May that are still showing “pending” or “pending inspection” as I have pointed out all depends on the listing agents input or lack there of.

Technically any home that is available for sell would be any home that is listed yet not closed.  Here in the NWMLS area we have several “pending” possibilities.

• Pending BU Requested (79)
• Pending Feasibility (5)
• Pending Inspection (171)
• Pending (339)

I have calculated these pending homes as not available – as in not actively available.  I don’t show pending listings of any kind unless there is a short-sale property that my buyers are really, really and I mean really interested in.  With so much inventory why set a buyer up for heartache?  This past April I had buyers that went into a back-up type situation on a pending feasibility property and all that did was delay their home buying process.  Finally, we chose another home that will close soon.

Kitsap Coutny Active homes for sale as of today – 1816

Last month in Kitsap County there were 187 homes that sold.  These homes closed and property ownership transferred through the Kitsap County Courthouse as recorded and complete.  That would mean that the absorption rate  is 9.71 months of inventory.  Please see the definition I use below on absorption rates.

The Definition of Absorption Rates:

Number of weeks it takes to sell the current inventory at the present rate of sales. Using absorption rates can help you define markets. My definition breaks down like this…

Normal Market – Between 5 and 6 months of inventory.

Seller’s Market – Between 1 and 4 months of inventory.

Buyer’s Market – 7 months and higher.

Now remember that absorption rates just track trends and isn’t an exact science!

What do these numbers mean?  Is it a good time to buy? Is it a good time to sell. It all depends on your individual situation.  I would rather buy in a buyers market and I would rather sell in a buyers market if I have to buy another home with the proceeds.  I am a fan of the NORMAL market – everyone can feel more comfortable and real estate transactions are not as stressful.

If you would like to find out the value of your home please feel free to contact me via phone or email. I would be more than happy to supply you with a FREE Market Analysis.

If you would like to purchase a home in the Kitsap County Real Estate Area please give me a call or contact me via email. We can discuss your future plans and I can set you up on an email campaign to receive the hot new listings quicker than YOU can find them.