August 30, 2007 by Joe Kennedy.

When I first read Seattle blogging Realtor Marlow Harris‘ guest blog post at Inman.com about the California man who has been sentenced to 180 days in jail for building a 180 ft long fence, I thought that must be one monstrosity of a fence - something that may rival the great wall.  When I clicked through to the article in the LA Times and saw the picture, I was truly amazed.

I realize that I don’t know the entire story and that the man has openly defied an order to either file for permits or tear down the fence, but from what I see in the photo, this is not much of a fence at all.  I don’t think there are too many areas where permits would be needed at all for this type of fence.  It’s actually more of a corral fence, doesn’t seem to block any views or cause any problems I see.  Am I missing something?  What do you think?

Posted in Building Permits | No Comments »

August 17, 2007 by Joe Kennedy.

In a recent post on the Skype Blog, they describe their current service issues. Nobody I know has been able to login for 2 or 3 days. Although I am not an everyday user, this has caused some of the computers that I use to slow down tremendously - until I disable skype and it quits trying to continuously login.

Not a huge problem for me, as I have not been using it - but a MAJOR problem for a number of people I know (including Volodymyr Kotlyarov who uses skype to talk to all his friends and relatives in Ukraine and eastern Europre).

Do you skype? Have you been affected by this?

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

August 16, 2007 by Joe Kennedy.

Yesterday I got the strangest fax …. It was a handwritten note (with very poor spelling) written to me (or at least someone with my name) by someone who signed their name as ‘-Alex’ and it says it was sent from Lightology National in Chicago at number 312-943-9587. I know a lot of people names Alex, but I don’t think any of them live in Chicago …

Any ideas what this could be? Should I be worried about my wife and daughter’s safety?

Posted in Personal, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

August 16, 2007 by Joe Kennedy.

This morning there are 33 single family homes in Bellevue listed for sale on the NWMLS for less than $500k.  There are 4 listed for $400k and less.  These are still not huge numbers, but they are increasing and its a trend I believe we will be seeing for awhile.  There still don’t appear to be too many great deals for buyers out there, but it is becoming more of a buyers market.  I believe that those who want or need to sell their homes have already waited too long to get top dollar.  Still the same, there are some buyers out there and with proper marketing, advertising and (most importantly) proper pricing, properties can still sell.  If you are waiting to decide to sell, I’d encourage you to list your home asap - or simply wait for changes in the market (realizing that this part of the cycle could take a number of years).

Posted in Listing, Bellevue, SFR, Uncategorized | No Comments »