It is finally here and I hope you are ready to go! This weekend is the BEST time to get out and see a lot of houses! If you are a Buyer or Seller and are looking for that perfect home or just trying to check out the competition, this is your weekend.

I will be holding steady at 1808 49^th St Ct NW Gig Harbor, WA 98335 on Saturday and Sunday April 28 and 29from 1:00-4:00pm. Just know that when you stop by my Open House you will have a great time!

So join me this weekend for National Open House Weekend!

Stacia Whatley Hawkins-Poe Inc. (253) 426-8785 staciawhatley@hawkinspoe.com http://www.staciasellshomes.com Listed by: Hawkins-Poe Inc.

Our recent listings 4 Bedroom Gig Harbor Home 1808 49th St Ct NW, Gig Harbor 98335 Gig Harbor One Level Home in Cromwell Gig Harbor Real Estate: Lovely Rambler and Move in Ready Gig Harbor Real Estate: 3616 10th St, Gig Harbor 98335 Gig Harbor Unique and Exceptional Lodge Style Waterfront, Equestrian Estate   Subscribe to our listing feed

OPEN HOUSE LIST

That’s a huge accomplishment for such an amazing city. This little town among the trees of the Puget Sound has had some pretty amazing accomplishments this year. We were voted number 5 Best Citiesto live in by Smithsonian Magazine and now this!

Gig Harbor has turned 124 years old today!

Happy Birthday to an amazing city. I am proud to be one of your wonderful residents!

I have been getting everyone prepared for the National Association of Realtors® National Open House Weekend which is this weekend April 28^th and 29^th of 2012! If you are a Seller you don’t want to miss this opportunity either! Wait… What’s that you say? Sellers?

Yes! If you have your home on the market then you should go to any Open House that is a home that is comparable to yours. Why? You ask. Even though your Realtor® is telling you all the facts about the comps that are out there and including pictures to you in these discussions, there is no better way to get to know your competition then to actually go to the homes. There are several reasons why this is. You can’t see EVERTYHING from photos online. You also, and most importantly in my opinion, you can’t SMELL a home or get a feel for the layout of the home. These are things that your Realtor® can’t show you from a print out or from photos.

If you are afraid of that dreaded Realtor® who is going to be at that Open House, then politely introduce yourself and let them know who you are working with. My clients are given a VIP PASS to take with them with my contact info on it. This way the Realtor® can contact me for any questions that need to be answered by my clients or to share new and upcoming information about the home. It’s a great way to know your competition for yourself. Be involved!

If you are thinking about putting your home on the market and you haven’t decided on a Realtor® yet, then this is a perfect opportunity to get out and meet different Realtors®. This is a great time to talk to them about what they offer and you can even schedule a time to meet with them one on one for a formal interview. I suggest this to everyone who is thinking about selling their home. I also encourage anyone who doesn’t have a Realtor® to interview at least three. Even if you have a referral from a friend or family member, you have to be comfortable working with that Realtor®. You can usually tell how well a Realtor® is by how they conduct themselves at an Open House. Are they engaging, did they greet you right away, were they knowledgeable about the home, etc. These are all things to look for when visiting an Open House as a perspective Seller.

So I am challenging all you Sellers out there!

Get out and come join me this weekend for the National Open House Weekend sponsored by the National Association of Realtors®

GIG HARBOR HOME SEARCH

Going to an Open House is beneficial whether you are a Buyer or a Seller! Why? You ask… If you are a Buyer it’s more obvious, you are probably there to look at a house that you may want to buy. Or you just want to come in to see what your neighbor’s house looks like before they move.

I WANT TO CHALLENGE THE BUYERS OUT THERE!

I want you to become that savvy Buyer when you come to an Open House. If you are a serious Buyer than you should be using this time to also interview the Real Estate Broker who is holding the Open House.

I know a lot of you are thinking that you fear the dreaded Real Estate Broker. She is going to try and sell us a house! How scary is that! Of course our goal is to sell you a home, but in reality, our goal is to HELP you make the best decision on your home purchase. We have tools that can make your home search much easier. I don’t think of myself as a sales person, I think of myself as a master facilitator. I am there to make sure that your entire deal from start to finish gets done on time and right!

YOUR EXPERIENCE SHOULDN’T BE LIKE WHEN YOU BOUGHT YOUR LAST CAR…

WHY WOULD I NEED A REAL ESTATE BROKER WHEN I HAVE THE INTERNET?

This is the question I get all the time! You are right! You can use the internet for your preliminary search, but if you want to get in that home you will need a Real Estate Broker. If you would like more information about that home, neighborhood, previous sales, value of home, etc. You will need a Real Estate Broker to help you figure out all those things.

WHY CAN’T I FIND THAT INFORMATION ON ZILLOW?

I may be thrown under the bus on this statement, but Zillow is a great tool for the Buyer in the preliminary stages when you are trying to get a feel for the housing market. But just know, to get the most up to date and accurate information you should consult your Real Estate Broker. Zillow does give home values on their website, but a lot of the time they are either out of date or inaccurate.

So I challenge all the Buyers out there! On your next Open House visit have these goals in mind:

1)    Be sure to meet and greet the Real Estate Broker who is hosting the Open House

2)    Ask tons of questions about the home. (this will help you get a feel for how well the Real Estate Broker knows the property) If she knows the home well, she probably puts the same effort into the rest of her career.

3)    Feel free to interview the Real Estate Broker. Especially if you are not currently working with a Real Estate Broker. Get in there and ask what they are going to do for you!

4)    Last but not least, be sure and not see us as big scary monsters, think of us as the concierge of your home buying experience!

This is the kick off for National Open House Weekend! For more information please feel free to give me a call! 253.426.8785

GIG HARBOR HOME SEARCH

I have been out in my yard doing a lot of work the last couple of weeks. Last fall we had to cut back a lot of our Rhododendrons and weren’t even sure they were going to bloom this year. It was a very nice surprise to find that they have begun to bloom! That is one of the things that I love about Gig Harbor and Washington for that matter. We have the wonderful natural resource of Rhododendrons. They are one of the most beautiful flowers I have seen and I am very excited that they have started to bloom in my yard!

GIG HARBOR HOME SEARCH

If you would like more information about Gig Harbor’s Real Estate Market, please don’t hesitate to call!

253.426.8785

Recently we had several large and small trees removed from our property and what I didn’t realize is what was going to be left behind. Companies that cut down trees don’t take out the stumps. I didn’t know this when we began this journey. And yes… It has been a journey. I thought this was something that was quick and painless.

The tree cutting down day was one of stress! If I had none how stressful this was to be I would have left for the week. Ours did take almost a week due to the sheer size of the trees we had cut down and the amount. But we made it through and now we’re in the cleanup mode.

One part of this journey that was simple was choosing to hirer Wilderness Stump Grinding Service. Owner/Operator Larry Fothergill has been great! He came out soon after the trees were cut down and he grinded up the stumps. We had some very large stumps, some measuring 4.5 feet in diameter! These were no joking matter. He plowed them down with no problem. Because the grinding leaves so much debris he said that once we cleaned it out if there was anything he missed that he would come back to take care of it.

He is back today and we have hired him to do some more tree stump removal on our property. Since he was here last we had cleaned out some spider maples that were being nothing but a pain in my butt. He is a great worker and gets the job done!

If you would like more information about him and his services please contact him today!

Wilderness Stump Grinding Service

Larry Fothergill

360-893-1964

Toll Free: 1-866-833-8847

GIG HARBOR HOME SEARCH

You are sitting at home and you are searching through hundreds of homes online in front of your computer. You are falling in love with several of them and you wish you could pick up the phone and call your Gig Harbor Realtor® Stacia Whatley. You are struggling with your thoughts about if now is the right time to buy. Have we hit bottom yet? What if I buy now and lose money right at the closing table?

I am here to tell you that Gig Harbor has hit bottom… Not only have prices sustained here for the last two quarters, but inventory is down. The amount of new listings that are taken has dramatically declined. This is setting us up for the perfect storm. That means that if this sustains we will see prices begin to rise by the end of the year. You couple that along with the rising interest rates and you may miss the boat!

I have been tracking these numbers for 3 years now and it is written on the wall…

NOW IS THE BEST TIME TO BUY A HOME!

GIG HARBOR HOME SEARCH

I have been really thinking about a trend that seems to be taking hold in today’s communication. I’m not sure that most people have thought about what this time means and where it will go. I find it fascinating that we have already started to take this time for granted. This is like a communication revolution and we sit here not even realizing the power behind this age. The future holds so much and at the same time I feel like we are held back.

What sparked this in me was hearing all the complaints about social media and other aspects of the internet. I feel like we think that everything should be handed to us and that we have the right to complain about it regardless of the situation. Take Facebook and Twitter, which of course are the top two. Both these services are FREE, but yet; if they dare change something they get a backlash that is out of this world. Of course everyone has a right to complain, but why are you wasting your energy on something that you could take or leave. No one has held a gun to your head that says you must be a part of this service.

The other part of this equation is if you are on social media why do you act totally different when on these services? Some people are true to nature, but for the most part it seems that people use this as a tool to recreate who they are, when in reality they are nothing like that at all. I am not saying that everyone is like this, but there are a lot! I have made a vow not to censor myself anymore, regardless if I use this in part with my business. If you don’t like me because of something I said on Facebook than I guess I don’t need you. The fun part is the voyeurs who are there, but not really. They may post a few things, but only want to see what’s going on with everyone else. This fascinates me more than ever! I’m not sure if it boils down to time or what, but fascinating none the less. That is why I say…

Somebody that I used to know…

We have more communication than ever, yet I still feel like I don’t know anyone! I have reached out to some to get back in touch in REAL life. Some have taken me up on that invitation and others have ignored me completely. To those who have I appreciated it 100%! I don’t have another agenda if that’s what you think, I truly would like to reconnect.

The part that I think everyone is missing is the fact that for the first time in history we have a way of communicating on a scale that we have never seen. This is ever growing and will change how we communicate forever. We will always still need that human interaction, but this is something out of this world. We have lost sight of how amazing this time is. In addition, we are able to save and document everything that happens no matter how mundane. Just think of what the people of the future will think… it’s like our hieroglyphics! It’s a way to document our lives with the writing on the WALL. I find this very exciting and I think that instead of complaining about this, embrace it and know that this is how the world will communicate from here on out. It’s not going away… ever!

Here is some information that is going to show that it’s not just the Real Estate Professionals who are saying that the Housing Market is improving. There are National and Local people and organizations that are also saying,

“Now is the time to Buy a Home!”

According to NAR (National Association of Realtors®) existing home sales report, 12,575 homes sell every single day in this country. About another 12,000 will sell today. And on average another 12,000 will sell tomorrow. If you were also wondering who was getting a mortgage, last month 8,300 people did! For all the nay-Sayers out there who think we haven’t hit bottom yet or that no one can get a mortgage the numbers from NAR speak for themselves.

Here you can see Pending Home Sales are starting to look a little like a wave. Now I know it ticked down a little bit compared to the previous month. If you look at February this year versus February last year you can see that we’re coming into a market much stronger. We’re coming into spring selling season much stronger than we have in the past. If you go all the way to the left of the chart, very obviously, that’s the Home Buyer Tax Credit. After that was over you see we lost a lot of momentum. Now you can see a slow wave in the right direction.

The stock market is doing much better my friends. I’m glad the stock market is doing better because that means that people have more money. If people have more money, then they feel more confident. If they feel more confident, then they’re ready to buy a home. Even if you look from January 2000 to April first this year we can see that Real Estate, even though we’re bouncing around the bottom now, still has outperformed any one of the three; the Dow, the S&P, or the NASDAQ, over the last eleven years.

It’s time to get off that fence!

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO DISCUSS WHY THIS IS THE PERFECT TIME TO BUY A HOME CONTACT ME TODAY!

STACIA WHATLEY

253.426.8785

GIG HARBOR HOME SEARCH

Today was one of the first days Gig Harbor has seen the sun this spring and we got more than just that wonderful surprise today. While I was with my Buyers today on their home inspection of their new home, we noticed that the fish were out in the pond.

Of course we knew this pond was there, but until today we had no idea what was to be expected. When we first looked at this home it was cold and rainy and we were told there were fish in there, but had no idea how big or small they were.

When we pulled up today and got out of the car I immediately noticed the fish were out! They were HUGE Koi. The biggest one we saw had to be 2 feet long! I have never seen Koi this big at a residential home. Not only were they huge, but there were so many of them. The home owner said about 30! This was definitely a welcoming surprise for me and my Buyers. I was glad to have shared this moment with them! There boys were very excited as well because they got to feed them. It was a welcomed treat!

I love my job and I love sharing these moments with my Buyers and Sellers. It’s not just about selling the home; it’s also about building a bond with my clients. I truly enjoy these moments!

Gig Harbor Home Search