Explaining What The Federal Reserve Did In Plain English (April 30 2009 Edition) The Federal Open Market Committee voted to leave the Fed Funds Rate unchanged today within its target range of 0.000-0.250 percent. The Fed also reiterated its plan to support the mortgage market to the tune of $1.5 trillion. In its press release, the FOMC noted that the economy may still be contracting, but that it's not happening with the same speed as in prior months. Household spending is stabilizing and financial markets are "easing". Since the FOMC was a year late to realize our economy was in a recession, I am hoping they are actually late in noting the "easing" and that they are in fact accurate. Nevertheless, threats to the recovery are everywhere with the following items on the Fed's short list: T... 05/01/2009

I happened on to yelp.com again. This time it showed up different and I started running a few experiments with great results. I thought I’d share them. If you haven’t used Yelp.com, it’s a mix of social media, the yellow pages, and the local neighborhood review. (For the people, by the people…) Why is this important to you? It’s another way to be present online, reinforce your brand, acknowledge and contribute to businesses in your neighborhood. Sign up for a free account, complete your profile and write reviews on restaurants, coffee shops, your dentist, the hardware store, etc. In these times, a good word about a local business you frequent can be of great value to them and to you. For example: I Googled ‘hardware, Renton WA’…       I got several hits on the first page. The 4th result... 04/27/2009

So you want to enhance your web presence? This is an updated version from the original post on April 26, 2009... So much has changed since then!  It equates to populating the search engine index with 'YOU' and helping the search engine understand that the 'YOU' scattered across the public pages of the web is THE one and only YOU! If the index understands 'YOU' and your conversations are relevant then you create gravity and the laws of attraction are in play. Marketing like music uses repetition, it creates rhythm. People may not remember exactly what you said, but they will remember how they felt when you said it. If they like or can relate to your tone, your beat, your patterns, they're a lot more likely to listen and follow. Are you speaking to them or at them? Are you playing their s... 04/26/2009

Latest Great Info from Forbes: Now is the BEST time to Buy A House, and Nine Other Things. The Gary McNinch Team is seeing a lot of first time home buyers come in to the market. We are negotiating great deals on nice Renton and Kent homes. Give us a call, or sign up on our website for a great map search. Great info for Renton Home Buyers, First Time Home Buyers. The deals you're seeing on everything from Houses to Cars to TV's wont last forever, but now is the time. 04/23/2009

Don't Lump Your Renton Real Estate Research With The 128,203,000 Other Homes In America National real estate data helps economists identify trends in the housing market. It shapes policy and influences markets. For active home buyers and home sellers, though, national real estate data is irrevelant. This is because national data says nothing for the factors determining home prices in any given zip code. See, national real estate news is mash-up of data. It's 128,203,000 homes from all 50 states. Each of these states has its own economy and there are different factors that drive home values in each Most Americans understand this. But, if we dig deeper, we see that within those states, there are more than 19,000 incorporated cities -- plus thousands of unincorporated ones. And like the 50... 04/22/2009

Retired Boeing 727, A 2 Bedroom Suite, Pretty NEAT. Are you thinking it's time to buy a two bedroom home with great connections to the Renton Boeing plant.  There are lots of those here in Renton and Kent where the Boeing mechanics, electricians, sealers, engineers, designers, pilots etc have called home and raised their families. But the latest place to reside is a 1965 Boeing 727 which has been retired. It is very unique hotel nestled deep in the Costa Verde National Park in Costa Rica. The Fuselage room is a two-bedroom suite that has been built inside a retired Boeing 727. The team salvaged the aircraft from San Jose airport, where it had been left in state of disrepair after years of service for South Africa Air and a Colombian airline called Avianca Airlines.It was then transport... 04/21/2009

Home Safety : An Easier, Better, Cheaper Fire Extinguisher Sure, you've got a fire extinguisher at your home in Renton, but if you ever had a fire, would you know what to do with it? Like any tool, reading the directions can only get you so far. If you've never "pulled the pin" and discharged a fire extinguisher before, fighting an actual fire can be a frightening intiation. Having spent years running up and down the highways with the Washington State Patrol, I got pretty good at using a fire extinguisher. And you usually can't get a car fire out with one extinguisher, just to put an old wife's tale to rest. For non-firefighters, there's an alternative. It's an aerosol spray from the First Alert company called the Tundra Fire Extinguishing Spray and it's billed as an intuitive fire safe... 04/20/2009

One of my great clients Leandra Hoyne and her husband Jeff have sold a house in Lake Tapps and bought a house in Enumclaw.  Then her mom and dad bought a home and a rental property in Enumclaw. I have seen their family go from no kids to 3 kids.  All healthy and full blast.  We've shared meals and stories about kids.  Plus Jeff is a Police Officer and Leandra was a police dispatcher so we have that craziness in common as well from my 26 years in the State Patrol. So this morning I'm on facebook and this is what I see from Leandra.   COFFEE OUT MY NOSE!!!!!!!     LMAO!!!!!!!   I raised 2 little boys and nothing surprises me.   Life is good.  If you are interested in buying or selling a home and want to know about the Satisfaction Guaranteed Service of the Gary McNinch Team, then you can ... 04/16/2009

A Few Reasons Why Now May Be The Least Expensive And Easiest Time To "Go FHA" when you buy a Renton townhome or Kennydale house. Shopping for low mortgage rates is a game of luck. Some days, mortgage rates are favorable. Other days, they're not. And while you can sometimes make an educated guess about where rates might be headed, you're not always going to guess right. Plus they change several times a day. That is why the Gary McNinch Team can refer you to a couple of tremendous loan officers for your home purchase. Even the experts get it wrong more often than they'd like. But some parts of the rate shopping process can be predicted and one of them is the future of mortgage guidelines. In general, the more often homeowners default on their respective mortgages, the harder it is for fu... 04/16/2009

This morning I really hit pay dirt. I was combing over SEO blogs as part of my research for an article I'm writing about driving traffic to real estate blogs and websites. We've been running a series of experiments with great results and I wanted to check in with the experts to discover what I might be doing right. I'm by no means an expert SEO aficionado or guru. I'm a subscriber to the good internet Karma school... "If it's well written and follows good composition principles," it should do just fine. Then I do my best to back that up with a little "common sense" key word usage, tags and such... Seriously, I jest. I know there's a lot to it and I'm an enthusiastic student. But I stress the term, student. Not that I ignore SEO by any means, it's just that I'm so Right Brain. I confess ... 04/15/2009

Hello all: Happy Wednesday to you! I just wanted to remind you that our next set of real estate classes at Renton Technical College will be underway this Saturday from 10 a.m.-12 noon. Cost is $10. Previously we taught "Should I Buy or Sell Now" and Rebecca Haas of Re/Max Metro. Realty did a great job. Thanks again Rebecca! This Saturday I'll be teaching the class "How to Get a Loan Today". Expect an in-depth look at the market today complete with credit scoring information, underwriting guidelines and time frames, and how to shop for your best loan. Rebecca and I both believe in education so expect to leave with the knowledge necessary to secure your next home loan when it's right for you. If you have further questions, contact either myself or Rebecca Haas at reba@teamreba.com. For cl... 04/15/2009

10 Strange Things For Which You Can Claim A Tax Deduction, Mortgage Interest on Your Renton Home is Just Normal It's Tax Day today and who among us doesn't love a legitimate tax deduction? The IRS expects to process 138 million tax returns this year and accompanying those returns will be a melange of tax deduction requests. Most will be run-of-the-mill including such staples as mortgage interest when you own a Renton home or Kennydale townhome, vehicle mileage, and child care deductions. Others, however, will be less ordinary. On its website, TurboTax pays homage to some of the most off-the-wall, offbeat tax deductions through the years permitted by the IRS. Among the "weirdest deductions allowed": A bodybuilder's body oil so his muscles would glisten in competition A private airplane ... 04/15/2009

 This amazing story and photo are courtesy of the Associated Press and was on the Seattle Post Intelligencer.         STOCKHOLM -- Parishioners at a church in Sweden celebrated Easter on Sunday by unveiling a 6-foot-tall (1.8-meter-tall) statue of Jesus that they had built out of 30,000 Lego blocks. It took the 40 volunteers about 18 months to put all the tiny plastic blocks together, and their creation shows a standing Jesus facing forward with his arms outstretched. The Protestant church was filled to capacity with about 400 worshippers on Sunday when the statue went on display behind the altar, and some of the children in the congregation couldn't help but touch the white art work. Church spokesman Per Wilder said the statue at the Onsta Gryta church in the central Swedish city of Va... 04/13/2009

Where did your last client come from? The Results... Thanks to everyone who chimed in with your ‘where did my last client come from’ statistics. Although this is certainly not the most scientific analysis, I thought this sampling from those of you in the Rain, and from all over the country, was very interesting. Roughly 140 of you gave me input based on my question to you from my blog post of 3/19/2009. Some of you gave me more than the last client, and some of you have had leads but no deals yet from the internet.   It was a challenge in a few cases to separate them out as: They know someone I know.  (referral) It was through my marketing.  (traditional marketing) They found me online.  (internet)   After reading all of your comments several times, I simply tallied everything up, count... 04/12/2009

  Photo taken with a Nikon D40X 18-55mm F-stop f/5.6 ISO 200 1/1600 sec exposure time by Sonny Kwan  Realtor® with            John L Scott Real Estate Seattle, WA, All information is believed to be accurate, but is not warranted in any way. Visit my website www.seattleidx.com © 2009  Photos By Sonny Kwan All Rights Reserved. No reproduction without the written consent of the owner 04/08/2009

The latest utility mailing from the City of Renton brings us news of Renton's Spring Recycle Day set for May 9, 2009. With drop off at the North parking lot of Renton Technical College from 9am to 3pm, this should be a busy day in town for anyone clearing out shrubs/trees from their yards, and for getting rid of some of the larger items in a household that traditional waste management doesn't pick up regularly. What a great way to be eco-friendly, clean out your house, and perhaps provide some much needed items to another household! You can find more details at www.rentonwa.gov Keep in mind that hazardous waste is not accepted and that you can find information on how to dispose of these types of items at www.govlink.org/hazwaste/house/disposal/ and for info on recycling computers and TV... 04/08/2009

How To Know If You're Eligible For A Making Home Affordable Refinance April 4, 2009, marked the official start of the Making Home Affordable refinance program. Expected to help 5 million homeowners, the Making Home Affordable program "looks the other way" with respect to falling home values, approving mortgage applications based on borrower payment history and benefit to the homeowner. Not every homeowner is eligible for a Making Home Affordable refinance, however. There are 3 basic criteria that must be met. First, your existing home loan must be backed by either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Thankfully, both companies provide online lookup services. Start with the Fannie Mae site because Fannie has a greater market share and because Freddie Mac's site requires your social security number... 04/08/2009

Many of you know that Team Reba will be hosting classes at Renton Technical College starting next week with topics ranging the entire real estate spectrum.  One area of clientele that we do specialize in is working with is active seniors, as noted by the Senior Real Estate Specialist designation that I carry.  In the past, we have held estate planning classes and included real estate and lending elements into it but I was given a notice by RTC's director of community education that they've got a great program coming up that I thought would be even more wonderful to support because it gets into areas that are outside of our expertise.  I'm going to post the content of his notice below: "Dear Community Education Lifestyle Instructor, As an adult you may already know about the topic of "ca... 04/03/2009

Another Positive Housing Signal : The Number Of Homes Under Contract Increase The number of homes under contract to sell is rising, another signal that the housing market may be regaining its footing. As reported by the National Association of Realtors, Realtor.com the Pending Home Sales Index gained 2 percent in February. The report measures MLS-listed homes in "pending" status -- sold but not yet closed. Pending Home Sales is not a perfect statistic, though, by any means. For one, the Pending Home Sales Index doesn't account for non-MLS listed homes including For Sale By Owner properties and mass foreclosure auctions. In certain markets nationwide, these two categories represent a large percentage of the overall transaction volume. In our market of Renton and Kent homes there are few ... 04/02/2009

Now That We've Put In Our Offer, Here's 8 Things That Can Sabotage Your Renton Mortgage Approval With mortgage rates are hovering near all-time lows, lots of Americans are taking advantage of refinance and first time Renton home buyer opportunities. The downside of today's unexpectedly-low rates, though, is that some mortgage lenders are ill-equipped for the rush of new business. As a result, the process of underwriting and approving new mortgage applications is taking some conforming lenders as long as 2 months to complete. This is double the time needed as recently as six months ago. Because there may be 60 days between the application date and the closing date, it's important for applicants to remember that mortgage approvals for your Renton home can be revoked at any time prior to f... 04/01/2009