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Gerhard Ade covers Real Estate around Seattle and more.

For the past five years, Gerhard Ade has published the "View from the Street" a monthly newsletter he writes for his clients and friends. Appearing at the end of each month, Gerhard covers not only real estate but other topics that are close to his mind and heart. To reach a broader audience, Gerhard posts each newsletter on ReSeattle.com. Don't miss what Gerhard has to say and subscribe to his "View from the Street" right here!

Wait, you can’t sell this home! It may not be yours.

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Seller Beware, you can’t sell this home. It may not be Yours
Seattle Real Estate | Gerhard Ade

So, you want to sell this home?

So, you want to sell this home? One of the keys to the exchange of real properties is how the deed is conveyed by the seller to the buyer. While the following examples deal with specific circumstances, understanding the broader principle of real property transfer will be beneficial to anyone.

Selling your Parents’ Home?

Taking care of an elderly parent often includes the sale of their home. Sometimes, that sale takes place after the parents have passed away. In both scenarios title and deed issues take center stage.

sell this home

If the parent or parents are still alive and hold title to the property, the home can only be sold by a child or other relative who has power of attorney to do so. In the case of a living parent, there are two powers of attorney that make this possible:

  1. Specific Power of Attorney (for the property in question)
  2. Durable Power of Attorney (but it must include language regarding sale of real property)

To be valid, both of these Powers of Attorney must be recorded with the respective county.

In both cases, the listing agreement will show the name of the living parent(s) name(s) as the owner(s) and the signature of the authorized individual followed by “A.I.F.” which means “Attorney In Fact.” All offers and addenda follow this model of identifying the seller as the person who holds title to the property and the signatures/initials of the person acting as the A.I.F.

To have legal standing, getting a legal description from the title company is essential for all listings and transactions. In these scenarios, it is doubly so.

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Christmas Traditions

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Christmas Traditions
Seattle Real Estate | Gerhard Ade

Traditions

How did your parents and grandparents celebrate this special time of the year? How do you celebrate Christmas, or Hanukkah, and the Holiday Season today?

Christmas traditions: first memories

My first Christmas memories date back to my grandparents’ apartment in Freiburg. The earliest Christmas picture predates these memories. It was taken in Bad Säckingen where I was born. I combined it with a picture of my son Nicholas taken in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. Both little boys are admiring the candles. Yes, real candles on a real tree! For the candles to be placed, the tree had to have its natural shape with the branches offset and not sheared or pruned. Until last year, we reused the oldfashioned tinsel, made in Germany. They still make tinsel, now lead-free, but it is not heavy enough to hang straight.

Oh Kinderlein kommet…

In my grandfather’s apartment, the room with the Christmas tree was off-limits for children until Christmas eve. After the traditional meal of carp and boiled potatoes, the evening began with the ringing of a tiny bell. Then the living room door opened with one of my aunts playing on the upright piano “Oh Kinderlein kommet” (Oh come all you children). My eyes went straight to the base of the Christmas tree because that’s where the gifts had been arranged. I tried to guess their content by their size and shape. The next thirty minutes seemed to be the longest minutes of my childhood. First, my grandfather read the Christmas story, then somebody played the flute and we sang “Oh Tannenbaum” and many more German Christmas carols.

A break with tradition

Two years ago we bought the largest Christmas tree ever. It was almost ten feet tall. We decorated in the family tradition, not much different from the trees of my childhood. Last year, we spent Christmas in Columbus with my wife’s family and we are doing the same this year. Before we left our Seattle home, we decided to buy our first artificial tree – strings of white lights included. These days, they don’t look so artificial anymore. Can you tell from the picture below?

Christmas greetings

First published by Gerhard as his December 2019 View from the Street Newsletter.
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Down Payment Assistance

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Down Payment Assistance
Seattle Real Estate | Gerhard Ade

Down payment getting you down?

How can your friend who makes about as much as you do own a home?  How come your friend’s monthly mortgage payment is less than your monthly rent?  You know that you could afford that home you saw online because you have a stable income. So what’s holding you back? There is a good chance that what stands in your way is limited funds for a down payment.

Down Payment Assistance can be the key to homeownership.

Many prospective home buyers just don’t have the required money set aside. This is not only true for first-time homebuyers. It is also true for those who are on the rebound from the 2007 housing debacle. Their credit has been restored and their income qualifies them for homeownership.

down payment assistance
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A house on fire

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House Fire
Seattle Real Estate | Gerhard Ade

A house fire, one year later

“There were no civilian or firefighter injuries reported during this incident.”

So ends the incident report prepared by the City of Bothell’s fire department. It all began with an alarm on Sunday, October 14, 2018, at 2:41 pm. Eight minutes later, Engine 42 arrived at the scene. The scene was 15805 119th Avenue Northeast in Bothell.

Smoke was visible from I-405.

“While in route, dispatch upgraded the response to a confirmed house fire due to receiving multiple calls. Based upon the information from dispatch, I upgraded the response to a confirmed working fire. While in route, smoke was visible from I-405.” notes one of the firefighters in the report.

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Real Estate Commission

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Real Estate Commission
Seattle Real Estate | Gerhard Ade

Real estate commission changes (and a class-action lawsuit)

If you are ever going to buy or sell a home again, you need to know this. The way real estate business is done will change twofold on October 1, 2019.

Real Estate Commission: The Status Quo

To grasp the significance of the two changes, we must understand the status quo. Please bear with me. Reading this now will save you time later.

When a real estate agent showed you homes have you asked yourself how much the agent is getting paid if you buy a home? Have you asked the agent? Was the answer, “my services are free since the seller pays all the real estate commissions?” Or was the answer, “I will be paid from the Selling Office Commission (SOC) as stated in the listing?” Did your agent explain that “the SOC amount is a percentage of the purchase price?”

How did your agent know this? The SOC is stated as privileged information with every listing that’s entered into the database of the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS). The SOC could be a percentage like 2.5% or a dollar amount.

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