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Seattle Real Estate | Gerhard Ade

What sets me apart, will set you apart.

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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!

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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Signing Before Closing

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Signing Before Closing
Seattle Real Estate | Gerhard Ade

Remember: Signing before Closing.

signing before closing


Often, buyers and sellers think that signing and closing are one and the same. They are not. Signing is a prerequisite for closing. Signing and closing are handled by the escrow company.

What’s Escrow?

You may have seen wording like “the transaction is in escrow.” It means that buyer and seller have entered into a mutual agreement and the contract is now with the escrow company. Escrow is a neutral, disinterested party that directs and coordinates all activities from contract to closing. So if it’s signing before closing, what happens between the signing and the closing?

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Real Estate Bubble?

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Real Estate Bubble
Seattle Real Estate | Gerhard Ade

Real estate bubble? The dot-com kind.

Is a real estate bubble about to burst? I was still new to Seattle when the dot-com bubble went bust.  The crash lasted from early 2000 into 2004. Internet euphoria had infected investors who put big bets on anything that ended in .com.  They lost billions on overvalued companies. Hundreds of dot-coms disappeared while a few survived and flourished.  The most notable survivor: Amazon.

real estate bubble

Technology Candy

It appears that the same scenario is playing itself out again. Only this time it’s happening in the real estate sector. This real estate bubble is the investment kind. The candy that’s irresistible to investors is called technology. “We are a technology company. We are not a real estate company anymore,” Keller Williams co-founder Gary Keller declared recently.

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Celebrating 100 Months

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Blog
Seattle Real Estate | Gerhard Ade

Celebrating 100 Months

100 months ago puts us into the year 2011. That’s the year Seattle voters approved the Highway 99 tunnel, Oprah Winfrey aired her last show, and the unemployment rate was 9 percent.

I published my first View from the Street newsletter on Thursday, March 31, 2011. Since then, I’ve written about rats, listing lingo, and legal matters. I covered topics outside real estate, such as travel, type, and life events.

Gerhard Ade Blog

100 months of The View From the Street: 12 reader favorites

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Oh Rats, I didn’t know this!

Seattle rats and vermin of any kind are a common problem in the Seattle area where water features prominently in the geography and trees make perfect “jumping-off points” for many kinds of rodents.

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Fingerspitzengefühl

Presenting any listing client with that many offers takes Fingerspitzengefühl, especially when the seller is 90 years old. The offers had only one thing in common. All buyers were prepared to pay more than list price.

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