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HOMEWARD BOUND

More Than Just Real Estate News

APRIL 2022

VOLUME

ISSUE

7 Outdoor Home Improvement Ideas

It’s that time of year – when you start thinking about improving your home’s exterior. But where do you start? The lawn? The walls? The garage? The backyard? All of them? Don’t get overly ambitious. If you can finish just one or two projects in the coming months, you can consider yourself quite successful.

Look through these seven ideas and find one or two that you could tackle this year. The best thing about these projects is that you will recover your investment when you sell, and will get to enjoy them while you are still living at your home.

1. Outdoor Firepit

Outdoor firepits are eye-catching. Everyone notices them immediately, especially when they’re beautifully done. There are a ton of styles you can choose from.

You can install the firepit on your existing yard or patio, or for a bit more of an investment, you can also install a new stone patio around the firepit to match the same look.

2. Install a Patio

A new patio turns a weed-ridden, grass-infested backyard into a sparkling, stylish place to relax and entertain. Concrete pavers are one good way to go, and there are many other choices too.

With a patio, you will have a good place to put your grill. You can also cover it and be comfortable outside even in bad weather.

3. Stone Walkway

A stone pathway adds a great visual touch and definition to any yard, especially if it’s in the front yard, where it is more visible. This is probably going to be less costly than a patio, but the impression it makes on a buyer may be even greater.

4. Outdoor Lighting

If you have a pathway or are installing a stone walkway, adding ground level lights alongside it produces a delightful visual ambience. You can also do pole lighting that resembles lanterns, and many other looks.

You can use low voltage options and motion lights to save energy.

5. Lawn Care

If you’re thinking of selling within the next couple years, now would be the time to implement an actual lawn care plan. Realtor organizations recommend six applications per year of fertilizer and weed control if you want the best possible look for your lawn. It takes a little time, but the

investment is low compared to the payoff from the visual improvement. Remember to be mindful of the type of fertilizer that you use, so that any runoff doesn’t create pollution downstream.

When you walk through neighborhoods, the lawns that are well-cared for stand out like a green thumb.

6. Plant a Tree

This is one of the simplest outdoor improvements you can make, and yet its effect can be transformative. One good-sized tree, placed well in your yard, will change the entire look and feel. It might only need to be 6-12 feet tall. It doesn’t have to be a towering pine tree. Fruit trees add beauty and the satisfaction of eating fruit from your own garden.

7. Sprinklers and Drip Lines

Buried sprinklers are a strong selling point. They provide convenience and safety without sacrificing beauty. They’re easy to use, and no one will trip over them. Plus, you’ll use less water than with a hose or a manual sprinkler.

Drip lines aren’t as eye-catching as automatic sprinklers, but they are just as helpful. For anyone with a garden, drip lines are a major time-saver. Even on vacation, your plants get watered. Remember to drain the lines at the end of the season to prevent damage from freezing.

Much More than Day Care

For most kids whose parents work during the day and who can afford it, high quality day care is enough to provide for their basic developmental needs. But for kids who have experienced trauma at very young ages, day care is not enough.

When you drive by one of Childhaven’s locations, it’s

easy to mistake it for a day care center. It has a playground with brightly colored play structures and toys. They feed the kids healthy meals and snacks. They teach the ABCs and basic social skills.

But that’s about all Childhaven has in common with ordinary day care. Unlike day care, Childhaven’s classrooms use leading-edge research into how young kids’ brains react to abuse and neglect, and their therapy programs work to reverse and overcome that damage. Research has also proven that Childhaven’s approach works, both for kids and for their parents and caregivers who receive help to improve how they nurture and care for their children.

The goal is to break the cycle of abuse. Heal the kids. Empower and encourage the parents. Research-based therapeutic care makes it possible for the kids at Childhaven to grow up and become stable, productive adults, and eventually, loving parents themselves.

All our communities benefit when current and future families are stable and loving. Breakthroughs happen when we work together to improve the lives and children and families.

Our donations to date for Childhaven!

Your business and referrals help
the kids at Childhaven

A portion of every sale from
Weisbarth & Associates is
given to Childhaven and in the
past 5 years we have donated
over $250,000 to them.

DORON WEISBARTH

Designated Broker/ Owner

206.779.9808
Doron@weisbarth.com
Weisbarth.com

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Through all of COVID-19 the Childhaven staff continues to care for every child, delivering counseling, developmental therapy, wrap-around
supports, home learning, meals, family meetings, and much more. Every referral you send our way helps the kids at Childhaven, because we donate a substantial portion of our income from every home sale to this amazing organization. If you know anyone considering buying or selling, you have three options:
1. Send an email with your referral’s name, phone and email to refer@weisbarth.com
2. Call me direct or pass on my number - 206.779.9808
3. Go to our website at Weisbarth.com/refer

Correct Listing Prices Bring Relief to Buyers (Finally!) and Plenty of Profits to Sellers

An unusual divergence between Sales Price and List Price emerged in 2021, and has persisted, and even worsened, since.

The graph shows the average monthly ratio of the Sale Price to List Price, for King County, and the cities of Seattle and Bellevue. For example, if a home is listed at $1M, and sells at $1.1M, that means the Sale Price was 110% of the List Price. As you can see in the graph, there is an annual cycle to this data. In the first quarter of each year the Sales Price tends to be much larger than the List Price. This is because of two main reasons. The first is that at the beginning of the year we always have an extra-large number of buyers, most of them new to the market, and we have an extra-low number of sellers.

The second reason is that listing brokers, who are relying on data from the end of the previous year, tend to list the homes far lower than what the market values those home. These two conditions combined, result in large numbers of bids per home (sometimes over 50 bids!), with eyepopping offers that home prices well above their List Price and make for jaw-dropping headlines that make buyers shiver with fear.

As we move into the second and third quarters of the year (spring and summer), we see a large increase in the number of homes that are listed. And what’s equally important is that, as the listing brokers now have more updated sales information, they list the home at prices that are much closer to what the market price should be.

And while these new conditions result in far fewer bids per home and with smaller increases above the List Price, the overall home prices continue to appreciate quite well.

As you can see in the graph, the average monthly ratio of the Sale Price to List Price levels off and even drops. BUT… this does NOT mean that prices are dropping! It only means that the Sale Price is much closer to the List Price. This is an important distinction to understand.

So, while buyers find these new conditions far more manageable, sellers still reap quite a pretty profit from their homes. Which means that both buyers and sellers emerge from the deal with a smile and a sigh of relief.

Now, what’s interesting about the past couple of years is that we see a strong demand emerge in King County’s suburbs, particularly in Bellevue. As Covid emerged in early 2020, schools shut their doors sending kids home, and employers sent their employees to work from home. As a result, many people started seeking larger homes that are a bit further out, where they can set up a home office, and have some yard space to stretch and run around. The suburbs clearly benefited from this trend, as we can easily see in the data. Although Seattle still did quite well.

The competition in Bellevue reached a frantic level earlier this year, and home prices shot up like never before.

In the meantime, as we move into the home spring sale 2022, buyers should finally find the relief that they seek, while sellers will still walk away with a big check in their pocket.

Please Send Your Referrals to Us!

Do you know someone who is considering selling their home or condo? Here’s how to send us referrals:

1) Email me at referral@weisbarth.com with your friend’s contact info

2) Call me directly, or pass my number on to them – 206-779-9808

3) Go to our website at Weisbarth.com/referrals