A Creative Two-Prong Approach To Getting a Property Sold

7705 11th Ave SW
7705 11th Ave SW (NWMLS 349459) just reduced the listing price $3k and offered a $2k bonus to the selling agent
It’s not always about a lower price, although it is nice. Sometimes it is about getting a real estate broker to even notice a property to get them to sell it. You can achieve this with a two-prong approach – a price reduction the benefits the buyer, and a commission bonus in addition to regular commission to the agent to ensure the property at least gets shown.

Agents have biases…and sometimes think they know everything. But if you sweeten the deal a bit, sometimes an agent can get out of their own way and show a property that is perfectly ideal for their buyer client if the agent would just stop thinking they always know best or know with 100% certainty if a property is going to work for their client or not.

Now, if the buyer says “NO TOWNHOMES” then fine, maybe don’t show them a townhome (although I always said no to condos and townhomes and then somehow bought a condominiumized townhome 5 years ago – which is why I have the attitude I do about this whole issue). But I actually had someone show one of my other listings yesterday that for the same price was a ground floor view condo with attached garage and the agent’s feedback was “They’re looking for a townhome…” You can bet that I sent her info and this video, stat!

So how does a two prong approach work? A price change is obvious – and the buyer saves money. But the additional strategy was to be sure to offer “Full Commission” (a % that many companies have an internal policy to sign listing agreements at), THEN offer even more if the agent could bring an acceptable offer by a certain date. This particular property? Currently the Selling Office Commission is $6,508.50. The typical agent is only getting a portion of that, depending on the company and what they negotiated when they joined the office. If it were I selling this home I would be getting a check close to $5,000 after the company’s portion plus some incidental expenses and insurance was deducted. The bonus? The property owner here has agreed to pay an additional $2,000 straight to the buyer’s agent at closing, and that’s not anything to shake a stick at. Suddenly my almost $5k went to almost $7k, and that’s going to pay my bills for a couple months.

If you have a tired listing, think about blending your approach and splitting the seller’s sacrifice between the buyer and the buyer’s agent. It’s a win-win-win, for the buyer, the seller, AND the agent. Who might not have ever looked at or shown the property if that $2,000 carrot wasn’t dangled out there in the first place.

I had no idea – paint made from plastic bottles

Something that came across my Facebook feed this weekend was a report from Earth911 about a paint made from PET bottles. I had no idea this existed, so of course I had to share it.

In 2011 Sherwin-Williams received an EPA green chemistry award for its paint formulation that contains recycled plastic bottles PET plastic bottles, in addition to acrylics and soybean oil. The paint combines the performance of alkyd, or oil-based, paints, with acrylic paint’s low levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which can cause respiratory irritation and damage to kidneys, lungs and nervous systems.

Look for ProClassic Waterbased Acrylic Alkyd, ProMar 200 Waterbased Acrylic Alkyd and ProIndustrial Waterborne Enamel.

Read the full story

Built Green barrier free view condo open in West Seattle this Sunday, 1-4 PM

This Sunday 1-4 PM I am hosting an open house in West Seattle, while my broker hosts an open in Snoqualmie Pass.
Please pass the word about this FAB property and good price. Click on the CONDO tab for details on this and other Mountain To Sound Realty properties.

Enjoy our YouTube video tours of these properties!


NWMLS #380491 2840 SW Raymond Street, #102 | Seattle, WA 98126
Offered at $219,950 | City and Mountain Views
High Point is a Built Green Certified Community and this is a 3-Star Built Green Certified Home. Experience this secluded ground floor location in this award-winning neighborhood with pocket parks on every block, community gardens, and other environmental features. Great views of downtown and the Cascade Mountains. Nine foot ceilings, granite slab breakfast bar, stainless steel appliances, raised panel doors, crown molding and designer colors upgrade. Luxury living in a secure building. Move right in and don’t lift a finger! Turnkey!


For sale – four 2 bedroom condominium units above Summit Market. Located off Exit 52 of I-90. Faces Summit West. Vacation All Year Round Up At Snoqualmie Pass! Large rooms throughout and views of Snoqualmie West and Alpental. Two bedroom condo featuring a sauna in the 2 premium units, and all units feature jetted tub, heated tile floors, all new appliances, and come furnished. View, view, view. Sofa that unfolds into a bed, large TV, sleigh beds, armoire, table and chairs. Close proximity to stores, coffee shops, gas station and of course – the ski area just across the street

Have you heard about the Drive-In Condo in West Seattle? | Built Green Certified (VIDEO)

My normal marketing process would have had this video out a lot sooner; however, this is the Built Green condominium that received an offer on its first day on market…so naturally the marketing process kind of stopped (except for all of the online marketing).

So this video features my community of High Point, then marketing the view ground floor condominium that sold on day one. Unfortunately the first buyer flaked and it went back on market last Saturday!

NWMLS #380491 2840 SW Raymond Street, #102 | Seattle, WA 98126

2 Bedrooms | 2 Bathrooms | 996 square foot home | Ground Floor | Barrier Free | City and Mountain Views | Attached one car garage | Covered patio

High Point is a Built Green Certified Community and this is a 3-Star Built Green Certified Home.

Experience this secluded ground floor location in this award-winning neighborhood with pocket parks on every block, community gardens, and other environmental features. Great views of downtown and the Cascade Mountains.

Nine foot ceilings, granite slab breakfast bar, stainless steel appliances, raised panel doors, crown molding and designer colors upgrade. Luxury living in a secure building. Move right in and don’t lift a finger! Turnkey!

Listed by Mountain To Sound Realty and marketed by Wendy Hughes-Jelen
Built Green Certified Professional, Realtor, and EcoBroker
In West Seattle since 1997 | Living Green and Wearing Pink!

Built Green High Point condo sells in one day at full price – why working with a Built Green Certified agent and EcoBroker matters

Well, I agreed to take a listing in my community in High Point in West Seattle. One of my neighbors noticed the fliers I have been posting for years on the bulletin board here and called me because he with his family was suddenly relocating for a job. I usually help people move INTO High Point, not leave it. I was looking forward to having a green home to show and educate people on Built Green and what it means. But we received a full price offer the first day!! It is a ground floor barrier free view condominium facing downtown Seattle and the Cascade Mountains. Highly desirable! And I proved it.

The seller had contacted the real estate agent who represented them when they bought the place and said she had recommended listing it for $185k. Of course it would sell for $185 because it is worth so much more. It would be a steal. As a Built Green Certified Professional Real Estate Agent I fully understand, and am able to convey to the buying public, what a Built Green Environmentally Certified home means, and its true value.

If you own an Environmentally Certified home or condo, or want to buy one, you NEED to work with a professional such as myself to fully understand what it is you are buying. Period. I will have been certified five years as of this fall. My name is Wendy Hughes-Jelen and I am a green real estate expert.

My “0-70 in 4 seconds” Jaguar Alive Driving Experience (VIDEO)

OK so this is SO not an environmentally friendly vehicle. The 2013 Jaguar XK has up to 550 horsepower – and at the Alive Driving experience they want you to floor the gas and hear the engine roar.

This is the track and in-cockpit camera footage of my pedal-to-the-metal Jaguar Alive drive from Sunday. You can hear the instructor and I talking also but it’s not very audible. I think he asked me if I was impressed, but it is hard to be impressed after having done the same thing in an all electric Tesla Roadster (2011). We’re car people (my husband and I). It’s not like I’ve never floored the gas before. I wish they had video of the auto cross track drive, now that was some impressive driving. Hubby beat me by only 2 seconds.

If you care about the environment, do NOT buy one of these cars. But if you’re into horsepower or impressing people around you, do. It seems to be a solid car. It has massage built into the seats for goodness sake! It’s not a cheap vehicle by any stretch of the imagination, starting at $84,500.

But it was fun to go race one around in a safe environment.

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The long – or short – of real estate marketing. What’s your favorite? (ORIGINAL VIDEO)

Video is not something new for me. I added video it to my marketing efforts in 2010. I used to do narrated walk-through tours and they were sort of long. I think a professional video can really showcase a property and bring buyers in the door.

So this style of video IS new for me. Still shots set to music. It definitely comes across as more professional, but it is not the same as a narrated tour. Sometimes people want a lot of detail. Sometimes they don’t. I aim to reach the most people in any audience, so I can promote a property with either type of video.

In a May 22 post I shared a long video version for NWMLS #349459, a townhome in West Seattle I am currently marketing. The original video was 4:22. It gives it all away. Now with this new video version at 1:07 it only gives a peek, and little information, at the same property. The thought is that this type of video might bring more buyers to see the property in person, rather than allowing them to rule the property out before ever having the chance to see it and perhaps be impressed with it in real life.

With feedback from several sources, I hand-crafted a shorter listing video with more mellow music. Altho I still love the other version with Moby! Do you have a favorite? Do you want details up front? Do you have the patience for a long video like the May 22 video? Or do you like the intrigue offered by this new, shorter video length (and very different music)?
I would love to hear your feedback.
And please watch my new video!

House of the Immediate Future

Finally, something post-worthy! I’ve been grinding away on real estate (conventional at the moment, not green unfortunately), but I am still doing a lot of reading and this popped into my email today from Jetson Green.

Prefab Wet-Cores Used in Next-Gen Home

Off-site fabricated modules with plumbing, electrical, and mechanical systems — referred to as “wet-cores” — were installed recently in The Home of the Immediate Future in Seattle. These will help keep the home affordable and high performance.

It really caught my attention since it is close to home (I live in Seattle). After The Next 50 exhibit at the Seattle Center, the home will be relocated to a Rainier Vista development by Dwell Development that includes three other homes. I did a little poking around, and Built Green featured this Dwell community at Columbia Station (next to Light Link rail) in January. This micro-community will grow to 15 units of affordable housing and are cited as “great example(s) of 5-Star green building and design at an accessible price point.”

See the Case Study here.

Thanks for reading and have a great day!