Downtown Seattle Undressed

Virtual Tour As Seen On Craigslist, Zillow, Google Base, Trulia, Etc.

Listing #29137345 $385,000.00

About Belltown In Downtown Seattle From Wikipedia

Belltown is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, United States, located on the city’s downtown waterfront, on land that was artificially flattened as part of a regrading project. Formerly a low-rent, semi-industrial arts district, in recent decades it has transformed into a neighborhood of trendy restaurants, boutiques, nightclubs, and residential towers as well as warehouses and art galleries. Although many new businesses have eclipsed older ones, some venerated establishments still draw crowds of loyal patrons. Some of the classic, old Seattle nightspots in Belltown are: The Rendezvous, Mama’s Mexican Kitchen,^[1] The Lava Lounge, Ohana, The Crocodile Cafe, and Shorty’s. Belltown also has an extraordinary array of restaurants (over 100 in the zip code alone). Every kind of cuisine can be found here, and ranges from fine cuisine to hot dogs. Most restaurants offer an excellent happy hour for early evening patrons. On Weekend evenings, the nightlife is very vibrant.

Belltown as seen from West Seattle

The area is named after William Nathaniel Bell, on whose land claim the neighborhood was built. The neighborhood is bounded on the north by Denny Way, beyond which lies Seattle Center, Uptown, and Queen Anne Hill, on the southwest by Elliott Bay, on the southeast by Virginia Street, beyond which lies the Pike Place Market and the rest of Downtown, and on the northeast by 5th Avenue, beyond which lies the Denny Triangle. All of its northwest- and southeast-bound streets are major thoroughfares (Alaskan Way and Elliott, Western, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Avenues); major northeast- and southwest-bound thoroughfares are Broad, Wall, and Battery Streets. The Battery Street Tunnel runs under Battery Street from Western Avenue to Denny Way and connects the Alaskan Way Viaduct to Aurora Avenue N.

North on Western Ave at Vine Street is the Belltown P-Patch and the Cottage Park. These single family homes built in 1916 are the last of 11 on the 1/4 block. The Cottages mark the 1850’s shoreline and are the last remaining wood framed residences in downtown Seattle. The Belltown P-Patch provides gardening opportunities through the City of Seattle P-Patch program.

The Olympic Sculpture Park, an eight and a half-acre public sculpture garden adjacent to Myrtle Edwards Park, is located on the northern edge of the Belltown waterfront. The park features contemporary pieces, various ecosystems with plants indigenous to the Pacific Northwest, and a restored beach and seawall. The park’s construction was funded entirely with private donations and is operated by the Seattle Art Museum. Unlike other such parks in the United States, the Olympic Sculpture Park is unwalled, and admission is free.

In 2007, CNNMoney named Belltown the best place to retire in the Seattle metro area, calling it a “a walkable neighborhood with everything you need.”^[2]

Belltown is also home to The Art Institute of Seattle, Antioch University, Mars Hill Graduate School and RealNetworks Headquarters.

Take A Tour, A Video & A Slide Show Of the Belltown Loft For Sale

Below is a link to the Belltown Loft Video we have placed on YouTube. Below it is a link to the Flickr Slide Show.

Click The Photos:

Click The photo below for the slide show:

New Bell Street Listing:

Listing #29137345

Stunning Belltown 3 story loft condo with personal rooftop deck.Interior courtyard, elevator,views,new windows,& common roof garden grace this downtown living at its best.Walk to Pikes,Sculpture garden,aquarium and more.Condo is fabulous for a person who loves downtown.All appliances a perfect fit 2 master closets and a secure outdoor space.Huge ceiling height and custom blinds make the spacious unit energy efficient.Great location,great neighbors,great building.Come fall in love.

Contact Ann Elwood 206-940-4044 or Larry Cragun 206-618-3724. Call for appointment.

Open House

Tuesday: September 29th 12PM to 2PM. Belltown Lofts. Be there, there are 5 units being held open.

Yahoo leases big office in Bellevue

Well now this has to be good for Seattle’s housing market-

Yahoo Inc. has leased a large chunk of office space in downtown
Bellevue — giving itself enough room for 500 to 600 employees a
short drive from rival Microsoft Corp.’s headquarters.

* Read the full article at:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/335150_yahoo12.html

Lease Options (As it relates to the Seattle market)

Part I – Risk

According to www.websters.com, Risk is “the hazard or chance of loss.” Of course everyone wants to create sound investments that yield high returns while mitigating exposure and losses. To be perfectly blunt, EVERY investment has some sort of risk involved with it. If there were no risk or chance of loss, it would not be called “investing.”
Still, there are methods of investing that can create safe, steady, and greater than average returns when done properly.
It’s no secret that real estate tends to appreciate over time, no matter where you are. It would be extremely difficult, for example, to locate a property anywhere in the country that is worth less now than it was….say 50 years ago. Not to say this possibility doesn’t exist somewhere, but it would be an extremely rare case. The logical explanation for the appreciation that occurs in real estate is simple- They’re not building any more land these days, and the world population continues to rise. Property is a commodity, and everyone MUST have a roof over her head. Shelter is one of the basic human needs. According to data collected from the US Census Bureau, the number of people in the US is projected to increase from its current level of 285 million people to a level of 315 million by 2010. It may not seem like it, but 30 million is an awful lot of people to add to the books in the next 2 ½ years! This is just a case in point. Considering the big picture, if you own property, history shows that it will be worth considerably more tomorrow than it is today. It’s that simple. Furthermore, it is a well known statistic that here in the Puget Sound Metro area, property tends to double in value every 10 years. And typically, the highest rates of appreciation are experienced during the second half of every decade. This can be tracked over about an 80 year period. Without a doubt, this makes Seattle an extremely attractive venue in which to invest. When you think about it, the risk isn’t bad! It’s actually quite minimal. Our cycle is predictable and our returns are high. Of course, the flip side to our fantastic Seattle market is that traditional investing with the “cashflow” model does not work very well  Rather, our market springs forth an “appreciation” model, therefore requiring more out of the box thinking and a competitive edge.
So, “How do Lease Options relate to all of this?” you ask? Oh, don’t you worry your curls. We will discuss this later in our series.
Until then, just bare in mind that all investments present an inherent level of risk. It is up to you to invest wisely in a market that appreciates year after year, while minimizing exposure and risk to your hard-earned nest egg. If you want to play the game “risk free”, then I suggest you stick to Monopoly or Quiz Night at your local pub. 
Until next time,

Ciao

Investing in Seattle Real Estate – Buy and Hold Vs. Lease Option

Let’s talk a moment about an hollistic approach to investing.

Not only do Sunny and I work in real estate, but we’re avid investors as well. We like to say that we are our own best clients. It’s true. The opportunities are endless, and working within this industry allows us first dibs on the best deals, often before such deals are formally listed on the open market. All this talk about the sky falling has gotten many people paralyzed with fear. To some, it’s a sign that they should wait it out, that they should do nothing…..to us, it means we simply need to shift our focus to where the opportunity is. I’m terrible at paraphrasing, but as the old saying goes, the best time to invest is when there is blood in the streets. Well, it hasn’t come to that in Seattle, at least not yet. With that said, if you work in Real Estate and are not buying at least 1-2 homes per year, especially now, then you may want to ask yourself why you’re here?

For those of you out there, agents or otherwise, who do invest in real estate and prefer it because it tends to yield much greater percentages than the average 5% certificate of deposit, etc., this is a discussion you most definitely will want to participate in.

Because of time restraints and the depth and intricacies of the subject of “Lease Optioning” property versus the traditional “Buy and Hold” method of investing, this will be a five-part series.

During this series, we will discuss the following-

• Risk and your Investments- Real Estate, Stocks, etc.
• How to develop and stick to an investment strategy (i.e., defining what you want to accomplish)
• The difference between “Buy and Hold” & “Lease Option” philosophies
• The beauty of lease Options (Three profit centers)
• How you can successfully locate, purchase and lease option your property

This is going to be fun. Stay tuned……

It’s almost time to pay property taxes! (King, Snohomish, Pierce, Kitsap)

It’s semiannual property-tax time again. If you pay your own taxes, you have until midnight October 30 to get your payment postmarked and avoid delinquency charges.

If you’ve misplaced your tax statement, call your county treasury office to learn what you owe. It’s important to pay on time because extensions are not given.

King County, call 206-296-3850. For an automated line call 206-296-0923.

Pierce County, call 253-798-6111. For an automated line call 253-798-3333.

Snohomish County, call 425-388-3366.

Kitsap County, call 360-337-7135.

Additionally, property-tax statements and information may be available online. The above phone numbers include information on how to access those counties’ sites.

*Info courtesy of the Seattle Times- www.seattletimes.nwsource.com