There are many great Tacoma / Pierce County area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE home sales price estimate so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call us at (253) 303-3876 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your Tacoma real estate questions.
Welcome back to our blog. Today we are here with our good friend Rob Jones from South Sound Home Inspections and we are excited to share with you a great Tacoma real estate tip.

We do a lot of business in north Tacoma, which has older homes, and some of these homes come with unique issues. We brought Rob in to talk about issues with electrical panels that we are seeing in homes that come up regularly in home inspections with homes built between 1950 and the early 1980's. There are 2 different types of panels we are having problems with, The Federal Pacific Electric Panel and the Zinsco panel, which could also could be identified as a Magnetrip or Sylvania panel.

One of the myths surrounding these panels is that they were recalled. While they were never actually recalled, they do pose a fire hazard. There are instances across the country of Federal Pacific Electric Panels causing fires because the breakers don't trip when they are intended to trip, and that creates an overload. With the Zinsco panels, breakers can become loose.

One way to identify a Federal Pacific Electric Panel is by identifying the letters "FPE" on the breaker. If it doesn't have that, look inside for the name "stab-lok" and also look to see if the breakers are orange-tipped. If you have one of these breakers, you need to replace them as they are a dangerous hazard to your home.

If you have any questions about these panels or anything about real estate in general, please give us a call. We want to make sure all of our buyers and sellers are well informed on topics that will be useful to them.

There are many great Tacoma / Pierce County area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE home sales price estimate so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call us at (253) 303-3876 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your Tacoma real estate questions.
Join us at the Freedom Fair!
Independence day is a special time once a year where we remember the founding of our great country. It is a time for family, friends, and fun. If you live in Tacoma, the 4th of July is also the date of one of the very best events of the year, The Freedom Fair!

Once a year the community comes together for a great celebration honoring our independence. There will be fantastic music, delicious food, an airshow, and of course, fireworks. We will be down there  thanking the community for making us one of the leading local, independent brokerages in the area. 

If you plan on coming down to the Freedom Fair, stop by and say hi to us too. We would love to catch up with you. 

If you aren't able to make it down this year,  please give us a call sometime soon so we can see what we can do to help you with any and all of your real estate needs.

There are many great Tacoma / Pierce County area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE home sales price estimate so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call us at (253) 303-3876 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your Tacoma real estate questions.
Is Now a Good Time to Sell in Tacoma/Pierce County? This is a question that a lot of sellers in Tacoma have been asking us lately, and we are here to give you a quick answer. Our seller clients have continued to ask us this because the answer to this question, at least for the past 2 years, has been no.
However, times have changed, and the real estate market in Pierce County has appreciated by 12% over the last year.  In short, now is a great time to sell, and Zillow has even pegged Tacoma as the 2nd hottest market in the nation for 2014!
Something that's very important for our sellers to know is that with the difficult real estate market we've had in the last couple of years, it has created a very low inventory in Pierce county and throughout western Washington. What that means for sellers is that this low inventory is making it more difficult for buyers to find homes.
A low inventory of homes and a high demand for buyers means great opportunities if you're looking to sell in Tacoma. You can sell quickly and for top dollar. Even if you're trying to move up into a bigger home, you can use your equity to purchase and then you can also enjoy the appreciation on the homes around here in Tacoma.
Now is a phenomenal time to sell your home. We have clients who only purchased a home a year ago, and are now selling again and experiencing great gains. If you've been waiting to sell until the time is right, then wait no longer! Interest is very low, and will only get higher as we head into 2015. The time to sell your home is right now.

If you're interested in selling your home or would like to sit down and talk to us about what your options are, please do not hesitate to contact us by phone or email. Consider us your #1 source for real estate in Pierce County.

There are many great Tacoma area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home,click here for a FREE home sales price estimate so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (253) 851-2897 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your Tacoma real estate questions.

About Our Tacoma Real Estate Video Blog

Hello and welcome to my inaugural Tacoma real estate video blog. I have dedicated time to educating my clients in order for them to make more informed decisions about real estate. To do this, I have started this blog, which will cover a range of topics on real estate but may also delve into other areas such as law & finance. I hope you will stay tuned because I will be sharing useful information that will aid you in all of your real estate endeavors.

But now to the point...

Where to Start Your Tacoma Home Search:

A lot of clients are eager to start searching for homes as the spring market begins to bloom here in Oregon and Washington. Because of this, I have been getting a lot of questions as to where my clients should begin their home search. I have one piece of advice to aid you in this process.

Get educated with us: Before you even begin looking, you need to know where to look and what to look for. I actually have a meeting with all of my clients before they begin searching and we call it the Tacoma Home Buyer Blueprint.

• This is an opportunity for us to sit down with you and outline your goals. It is much easier for us to find a home for you if we know beforehand what you're looking for.
• Do you need a big lawn? Do you want to live next to a school? How long do you plan on living there? These are some the questions we will ask you. A lot of buyers don't ever consider any of these things, and that can be a critical mistake in the home buying process.
• In order to find you the perfect property, we need to know what you want. This is why we sit down and discuss these things before we even begin to look for properties. It would be a disservice to our clients if we did not take this first step with them.

Before you even start looking at homes, we want to make sure that you know what you're looking for. There are thousands of considerations that you need to examine when looking for a home, and we will help narrow down your options for a quicker search. This is only the beginning of our comprehensive service when you choose us as your real estate professionals.

If you'd like to contact me to jump start your home buying process before the market begins to heat up this spring, then please call me at (253) 851-2897 or email me at [email protected]