The Real Estate Blog by Cari McGee

Tempers started to flair a week ago, when the Tri-City Herald published this article entitled Home Buying Getting Harder in the Tri-Cities.  Within hours my colleagues were calling me  - “Did you SEE that article?” and “What were they thinking?” or “How can they DO that?”. Great questions because the couple spotlighted in the article are the exception, rather than the rule.

…if that wasn’t hurdle enough, the Meads also went “through the wringer” trying to get a VA loan, even though they had steady jobs, savings and credit ratings in the mid to high 700s, said Jennifer Mead, 23, who works for a real estate agent.

“We actually had to delay closing twice” because lenders still were verifying their information, the Kennewick woman said.

A lender I work with was so angry about the story that his face was STILL red on Monday, two days after reading it.  He said it’s not that difficult, especially if the person/people applying for the loan have the qualifications listed above (regular income, good credit and some money in the bank).

SOME underwriters, after years of basically handing over the money with a smile, have turned 180 degrees away from that practice and now verify everything to the nth degree.  That CAN delay closing, so no one argues with that.  However, to focus on one couple who seem to have everything going for them and play up their difficulty in getting a loan is an erroneous angle to take.

I was previewing properties in Pasco the other day and I spotted the perfect spot for Tuesday’s Presidential election winner to build vacation quarters.

Because even if Obama wins, it would be a great ironic twist, don’t you think?

There are 11 lots available at the site, 1/2 acre each, so that means the Pres. can relax on over five quality Franklin County acres.  There’s no better place to reconnect with the people who made this country great than here in the Tri-Cities.

Plus, it’s just a couple miles from Rd. 68’s booming commercial development, and a few miles from the airport.  Everything the President could possibly need is just minutes away.  Boy, this looks better and better all the time.

Lots of local stuff this week -

This came out on Thursday -

TRI-CITIES, Wash. A real estate developer accused of bilking Tri-City residents out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in deals involving property foreclosures has been charged with theft.

Forty-seven-year-old Armen Lucius B. Weishaar of Richland pleaded not guilty Thursday in Benton County Superior Court and was jailed on $100,000 bail. Trial is set for Dec. 8.

He’s accused of keeping money he was given by investors to buy foreclosed properties.

The Tri-City Herald reports Weishaar was arrested Wednesday after police saw moving trucks outside his condo.

and then Friday, we learned more.  I’ve met this guy, and like anytime you’ve met someone who winds up in the paper, for good or ill, you’re interested to see how it turns out.

And also, a builder with whom my clients have had personal, negative experience with, made the local paper and hit the TV stations with headlines that would give any PR director a migraine.

And I linked to something similar earlier in the year, so I don’t know if they’re repeating the story because it’s a slow news day or what.  But, the Tri-Cities REMAINS a fantastic bargain.

And remember how I urged you to watch Mad Men a couple months ago?  No?  Well, go read this. Then, go read this about the show.  Seriously.  Best show on TV.  Really.

Bye for now!

Heather is an agent at our office who is 36 weeks pregnant.  She proudly announced to me and another agent how far along she was this morning.  I volunteered (as moms will do, which is how birth stories get relayed), “My son came at 36 and 1/2 weeks!  You could have her at any time!”

Later, during a presentation by our brokerage coach, Heather stood up to go to the bathroom.  Our coach asked, “You’re not going to have the baby are you?”  She shook her head and left the room.

When I was pregnant, I worked retail.  If someone was rude or mean, I was always tempted to grab my abdomen, grimace and mutter (like every good soap opera heroine), “I can’t lose this baby!”  No, I didn’t actually do that, ever.  I just remember wanting to.

Everyone was skittish around me during those last few weeks.  Like the coach today around Heather.  And it hit me - the stock market may be on a crazy roller-coaster ride, one or another candidate may be leading in the polls, CERN is about to split the universe apart, but people are still having babies, as they have for thousands of years.  And with babies, come stuff.  With stuff, comes the desire for a place to put it all.  And with THAT, comes the need for a bigger place to live.

When we brought our baby boy home in ‘97, hubby moved out of his office, and moved his office into the dining room.  The former office then became the baby’s room.  And within a year, all of our carefully orchestrated plans for space became hopelessly unwiedly.  So we bought our first house.

People ask me all the time if houses are selling.  Of COURSE they’re selling.  They have to, people keep having babies, don’t they?

On Wednesday of last week, I was able to do a walk-through of a new home with a buyer that I have come to really enjoy spending time with.  She’s a Christian, like me, and she’s older and has raised four wonderful children into adulthood.  I love the perspective she provides - a sort of “this, too, shall pass” attitude.  It’s so easy to get caught up in the drama of the day that we forget that there is “nothing new under the sun”.

For example, there have always been layoffs and people losing their jobs, as happened at Redfin and Zillow this week.

Some cities crumble when times get tough, and some shine (as per this Business Week article).

People offer tips on how to save money, like how to detail your car like a pro.

We look for humor in grim realities - how fun? to find these on the shelves of my local library.

Tragedy strikes and we try to help ech other out.

We dig into foods we probably shouldn’t spend too much time with, but they look soooo good!

And we laugh, because at the end of the day, that’s still one of the best things you can do.