I recently had the good fortune to write an offer for some young clients. The standard offer form we use in our MLS is five pages long with the front page being mostly blanks to fill in terms and then 4 pages of boilerplate. In addition to that there are various addenda which usually bring the offer to 15 pages or so.

The first time I write an offer with any client I like to go through the offer pretty slowly. The way the laws read here, and in most states, I think, are that I can tell the client what each clause says, but I should not interpret how it effects them and their rights in the contract. If they have any questions about that, they should see an attorney. I'm pretty careful about the process and do like to go over every clause on each of the 15 pages.

The couple I was working with are smart people with good jobs and one would think they would have an interest in knowing what they are signing, but more an more I am seeing changes. And I think the cause of this new attitude is the Internet. That's right. The Internet.

How many times per week do you or any of us who use the Internet daily, looking for new programs to help us be more productive, or wishing to engage in some social activity, or even just to log on for the first time to the public library in our town have to read and then accept the terms of use for the particluar site we've landed on? And how many times do we really read those terms of use? I would answer, from my own experience, not many.

So, as I was reading the boilerplate items to these clients they would often interrupt me toward the end of the first sentence of the paragraph and say "Got it." And I had to wonder if they were speed reading the clause and already knew what it meant to them or did they just not care? It is boring, but important stuff. Things like how we count days, and what delivery of a notice means. These things don't make and difference to us right now. Right now we want this house.

I suspect that there are agents out there who don't takle the time to go through the details. It would be easy just to tell the buyers to sign here and initial there and that is how you get this house. There are terms the buyers could actually change in the boilerplate and if the seller goes along with it, it's quite alright.

It seems to be a case for the buyers of: they dont know what they don't know. Is it up to the agent to make them know these details or to let them sign and then later, when there are questions, just say, "Well, you signed it."

I'm happy to take as much time as you would like when writing an offer. It is important to know the details of the documents that you are signing.

The Seattle Times shared this article by Dave Streitfeld of the New Your Times with us this morning entitled Your home a path to wealth? Experts say no. Stan Humphries of Zillow is quoted as saying, "There is no iron law that real estate must appreciate."

Streitfeld supports the opinion with a vague, "Instead, Humphries and other economists say, housing values merely will keep up with inflation. A home will return the money an owner puts in each month but will not multiply the investment." And Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research says that after adjusting for inflation, values will never catch up.

Never? Never seems like a mighty long time. I remember hearing about a war to end all wars. I have to wonder what the purpose of such an article is. I have to wonder why an executive at Zillow would make the statements he made in the article. Is the entire history of home ownership completely reversed because of a three year aberration caused almost entirely by greed on EVERYONEs part.

I will concede that there are people who make a living from buying and selling houses, but they are not the people that drive the market.

Home ownership is a great way to build a nest egg. You won't be able to retire next week or next year because you bought a home today, but you will find rewards if you do continue to pay it off over thirty years, with a payment that never changes.

And if you decide to rent instead, then what happens? Well, the rents will go up every year or so. After all the landlord has to cover the taxes and other expenses. What happens is, you've created a nest egg for the property owner.

Taking a day off and getting your mind completely out of your business for a day is a wonderful thing. You may think you are indespensible, but you are not. Once a week, usually midweek I head for the hills, the beautiful Cascade Mountains. Our hike today was cloudy, misty, tending to rain. It was 10.5 miles long with 2600 feet of elevetion gain. We worked and we sweat and we got wet and were cold. But we kept passing these beautiful foxglove bowed over by the rain and found beauty enough.

Fear of the unknown can be a pretty incredible force. In the real estate business we often feel threatened when new laws (outside forces) change and therefore change the way we have to do business. And other times a new business model (inside forces) comes along and it seems like the entire structure we've learned to operate in might be changed.

My focus in this post is Redfin. I've recently sold a Redfin listing and it is my first personal interaction with the company. I remember hearing from other agents just a few short years ago about how Redfin's software engineers tried to put together the first offers that came out of the company. I didn't think of it at the time, but I can only imagine what the first offer by any agent looks like. Probably not a thing of beauty.

Redfin's founder did an amazing job of shaking up the travel agency industry with Expedia. They have certainly seen some deep and far reaching changes. Do I think that the same expanse of change will come to the real estate industry? No, not really. There have been many discount companies come and go over the years. And there have been many non discount/rebate companies fail during that same period. The success of a company is not based solely on the fees it charges.

I was out showing homes yesterday and my client pulled a paper out a folder and asked, "Do you have access to all of the homes that Redfin does?" "Well, sure," I answered. "They, and all other companies get their information from the multiple. We all have the same information." He went on to tell me what a great site Redfin has and I have to agree. It is a user friendly site and it offers a ton of information.

Back to my recent sale. The transaction took a few turns at the beginning that were unfamiliar to me and I learned and moved through it. Everything is going like clockwork now and I have no reason to suspect the deal is doomed. I ran into my broker at the office last night and he's seen my sold strip on the Redfin sign, which of course pleased him. We talked a little about the company and how they have slowly been changing their business model by rebating less to buyers, by offering more service to buyers and sellers. Why are they doing that? Well, our thought was that buyers and sellers interested in doing it all by themselves are a limited segment of the market and to survive, any company needs to increase their market share. When times are tough, like right now, a company needs to reach out more to everyone that needs help, and less to those who don't need any.

Redfin, like all companies, has only 3 ways to go. They will survive (and I might add that they will adapt to the way the industry works, not change it significantly), or they will sell to another company (who wouldn't want the website in their chest of tools?) or they will quietly fade away.

Although this seems a little late in coming, I welcome Redfin to the business and wish them all the best.

It seems like the Seattle Times headline writer was trying to make two puns involving the July statistics for home sales in King County and the City of Seattle. Our temps today are only in the 50's. So little is melting, including sales numbers if you look at them with the proper perspective.

On August 6, 2010 the Seattle Times reported that King County Home Sales Melt in July, but Prices Rise. The article goes on the compare this month with last month and this year with last year. I think it would be more prudent to look at who is buying and at what is being sold.

On April 30th, 2010, the first time buyer credit of $8,000 expired. It's only natural that there would have been a rush of homes sold so that first time buyers could qualify for that credit. These homes closed during May and June. And what homes do first time buyers usually buy? Well, entry level homes, the lowest priced homes on the market. So, it follows that the median price of homes sold would be lower.

Who's buying now? The normal cross-section of people in the market. That's why prices are higher. For people that are in a position to move because of life changes, they can put their well prepared home on the market and get an offer, and they can search current inventory and buy the home they are looking for. No incentives. Just normal business.

In the years to come I think it will be noted that 2010 was an uneventful year in the history of Seattle and King County real estate. There was not a feeding frenzy, but homes sold and life went on. How refreshing.

If you've already addressed the issues you may have with your exterior and also done one walk through of your home noting the small problems you may have with your doors, windows, electrical outlets and switches, and plumbing fixtures, it's time to dig a little deeper and look into the systems or the mechanics of your home.

In most homes you will find the mechanical room in the basement, garage, or other convenient but out of the way place. Some times these things are in the attic or crawl space, and sometimes, like with electric baseboard heat, you may not find anything. But we'll cover that.

When you go to the mechanical room or area of your house where the furnace is, take a look around. Is there going to be enough room there, or in your garage to store 50 boxes of "stuff" that you're not going to need while your home is on the market, or are you going to have to rent a storage locker, or contract for a POD or other storage container that will be moved off site during the listing? I'll bet you have 15 to 20 boxes already packed by now and they are starting to get in the way. Think about it. What are you going to do with them?

Assuming you have a forced air furnace or boiler, fired either by gas, oil or electricity, look for a sticker on the furnace for the "service record." If it hasn't been serviced within the last 12 months, write it down. Oil furnaces should be serviced every year to change the filter and the nozzle. Gas furnaces should be serviced every couple of years to make sure they are clean and burning efficiently. I don't know much about servicing electric furnaces. Use your own judgment. No inspector will miss the service record on the furnace or boiler, so you might as well get it taken care of now.

If you have electric baseboard heat or in-wall heaters, go to each room and turn the heat way up to make sure each unit is working. Make sure they are not discolored from excessive heat and make sure they aren't blocked by beds, curtains, other furniture, a pile of kids' toys, or any of those boxes you've been filling. As long as they are working, you are good to go. There are some types of heaters that have been recalled because of fire hazard. If in doubt, Google the brand name with the word "recall."

Check the water heater. Is it strapped to the wall to prevent it from coming loose in an earthquake? Is it more than 10 years old? It is slightly wet underneath the water heater, but no apparent leaks around the pipe fittings? When in doubt, write it down.

While you are checking the water heater piping, move along and check the other plumbing pipes in the area. By now you should be able to spot anything that just doesn't look right. Is all of your piping the same type or do you have mixed galvanized, copper and/or plastic? Write it down.

Look around for the electrical service panel. If it's a fuse box, write it down. If it's breakers, and you haven't had any problems, you are probably just fine. There are a few brands of panels from the 60's and 70's that have had some problems.

Depending on how many electrical problems you noted throughout the house and what you've seen now, you might want to call an electrician. Ask for a bid to replace the old fuse panel, if that's what you have, and also to fix the few minor things you have noted. Also ask the electrician if you have any knob and tube wiring in the house. Knob and tube was the original wiring in most pre 1950 homes. Some insurances will balk and providing insurance for the new owner. You'll have some good information, and even if you don't repair these things, you'll know what it might cost if the buyer asks for it to be done.

Okay, you called the electrician and you might as well call the plumber and the heating and air conditioning guy, too. Get bids.

Remember that you will have to fill out a disclosure form concerning what you know to be wrong with your property, and by now you know a lot more than you did before. There is a difference between something being a hazard, something being old (but still functioning) and something being broken. These are concepts for you to deal with. I recommend fixing the things that you can afford to fix and disclosing the things that you would like to be told about, if you were buying the house. This is not advice from an attorney. I'm not an attorney. The disclosure document is an extremely important one in the transfer of property.

You may think this will be a lot of work, but once you get started you will probably be surprised at how little work your home actually needs. In the next article we'll tackle the cosmetics of your home, the easy, no brainer stuff that almost everyone takes a stab at before they put their home on the market.

Preparation of the interior of your home is every bit as important as preparing the exterior. As buyers approach your house they will be forming an opinion about how well or how poorly you have maintained things during your time of ownership. If you have taken care of the things I recommended in Prepare the Exterior of Your Home for Sale, you will have the buyer in a good frame of mind.

We took care of the outside by addressing one area of the property at a time and doing everything needed in that area at once. Inside we'll write things down by category and attempt to clean up these details one type at a time.

You're going to be surprised by my first suggestion. You'll laugh. You'll say I'm crazy. And then, one month from now, you'll thank me for the suggestion. I want you to go to a moving company, a storage facility, the post office, or a parcel delivery store and buy 50 boxes that are all the same size. Get the small boxes, about 1.5 cubic feet. Get a couple of rolls of strapping tape while you are at it and a good marking pen. If you've been in an average size home for more than 5 years, 50 boxes won't be enough but it will go a long way to making your home market ready.

Okay, grab your clipboard, 6 boxes and one roll of strapping tape. Head to the bedrooms. Put some boxes in each bedroom. We just want to have them handy for when you start to pack things up. In each bedroom I want you to check the entry door and the closet doors. When you pull the door shut does the lockset click into the strike plate without undo force? Does the door bind at the top or along the side. Is the knob loose, does it bind, or is it just right. Next check the closet door. Write down DOORS as your first heading and give this bedroom a name. On the second line write down the bedroom name and the deficiencies you've seen in the doors. Next proceed to another bedroom, and then the bathroom, and then any closet doors. Do all of the doors on that floor of the house. Then move on to another level. Don't worry about the boxes.

Once you have noted repairs on all of the doors in the house, from top to bottom, put a clean sheet of paper in the clipboard and label it WINDOWS. Go back through the house in the same order you did the doors and write down deficiencies. You're looking for windows that don't operate as they should. You're looking for insulated glass that has lost its seal and is now "fogged." You're looking at the shades, blinds, drapes and other window coverings to see if they are in good shape or falling apart.

You're probably feeling like you have already been at this for an hour and haven't really done anything yet. Granted. Take a little break and in one of the bedrooms, assemble the boxes that are there and fill them up. You aren't going to be reading any of the books on the bookshelf anytime soon. Are their any seasonal clothes in the closet or dresser than you won't be needing for the next three months? Box them. All of those cute stuffed animals you've had since high school. In a box. If it's going good, go get some more boxes and fill them up. Eventually the whole house will be decluttered. You're doing this so the the buyer will see that there is plenty of room in this house to put all of their treasures.

Clipboard time again. You might even want to go to a hardware store and pick up an electric polarity tester. A small device that plugs into any wall outlet and it will tell you if it is wired properly or not. Clean sheet of paper. Write ELECTRICAL. Proceed through the house again in the same order as before. Check all of the light switches and outlets in each room. Take a look at the overhead fixtures. Are they full of dead bugs? Have they never been cleaned? Don't forget the kitchen, the pantry, the basement. Do the electrical check everywhere. In the basement there are often junction boxes without cover plates. Not covered? Not safe.

One more tour of the house with the clipboard and the clean paper with PLUMBING in the upper right hand corner. You don't have to do all of the rooms this time. Just where the plumbing is. Look for dripping faucets, leaks, anything that doesn't work right.

In part two of this series I'll talk about how to use these lists effectively and what other things will need to be done. Put the four lists in a safe place, and if you have any time left today, pack up a few more boxes.