Bellingham Wine Event ~ Grape & Gourmet November 2nd

Grape and Gourmet is one of my favorite annual events in Bellingham. Grape and Gourmet is a wine and food tasting that is put on by the Bellingham Bay Rotary Club. While I am not a member of the Bellingham Bay Rotary Club, I have several friends that are and it is really a great group of people and this is a wonderful event.

Grape and Gourmet is a classy tasting that features the best wines from the top Northwest wineries and amazing food samples from the best local restaurant. There is never a shortage of great food or wine at this event. If you are a local or visiting Bellingham, you have to check out this event.

Grape & Gourmet Bellingham 2008 ~ November 2nd

Location: 714 Lakeway Dr. Bellingham, WA 98229

5:00pm (early entry) & 6:45pm to 8:30pm

Early entry tickets $125
Regular tickets      $75

Bellingham Bay Rotary Club
*According to the Bellingham Bay Rotary Club website, there are still about 100 tickets left and there should be some tickets available at the door.

Lake Padden is the Best Jogging Trail in Bellingham

If you are new to Bellingham and looking for a place to jog, you need to check out Lake Padden. Lake Padden is a beautiful publicly owned park that features a jogging trail around the lake.

The Lake Padden jogging trail is exactly 2.59 miles long. This a perfect distance for beginners. Many of the more advanced runners tend to take a few laps around the trail. Another ideal aspect of the Lake Padden trail is that half of the trail has gentle hills, while the other half is flat. The jogging trail is also fairly wide and provides plenty of room for runners, on leash dogs and bicycles.

In addition to the jogging trails, Lake Padden features hiking trails, off leash dog area, tennis courts, horse trails, basketball court, picnic tables, barbecue grills, fishing dock, restrooms, softball fields, playground, and of course access to the lake. Make sure to stop by Lake Padden the next time you visit Bellingham.

Lake Padden Website - Park Hours 6:00am to 10:00pm

Fairhaven Green Living and Home Expo November 1st

This Saturday at the Bellingham Cruise Terminal the Building Industry Association of Whatcom County is holding the Green Living and Home Expo. Built green is nonprofit, environmentally friendly, residential building program.

The Green Living and Home Expo is open to the public from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm on November. The expo provides an opportunity for the public to meet with local building professionals to learn more about reducing carbon footprints, energy consumption and the health benefits to green living.
If you plan to be in the Bellingham or Fairhaven this weekend, be sure to stop by the Bellingham Cruise Terminal and check it out.

Learn more at the Event Website

Are decided what colleges you will apply to for the coming school year?

If you are not currently considering Western Washington University, you probably should be. Listen to what they students had to say about Western Washington University.

I think that these students really sum up what the City of Bellingham has to offer college students. If you are graduating from High School next year and considering colleges, I would definitely recommend that you take a strong look at Western Washington University.

Ryan Martin

Do Tribes Exist within the Real Estate Industry?

The concept of a Tribe in business is a term made famous by marketing guru Seth Godin. Seth believes that alliances and relationships are created in business for the mutual benefit of all parties. I pondered the concept of a tribe and how it relates to the real estate industry and realized that this theory holds very true.

The relationships made between agents of different offices are vital to the success of all real estate agents. It is important for agents to both network with and trust other agents that they work with. Any client working with an agent that is disconnected from the tribe will immediately have to overcome an issue of trust with other agents of the tribe. This distrust will be passed through the agent to the client. Therefore, if an agent is not trusted by other agents, their clients are not trusted by other agents.

Another benefit to working with an agent that is associated with the tribe is the power of networking. If your agent already has an established relationship with the other agents, they will be more likely to hear of properties that might be coming on the market soon. It will also be easier for the agents in the tribe to negotiate among each other on the client’s behalf. By understanding how certain agents handle their negotiations, other tribe members that already know them will have a better understanding of to deal will objectionable points of contention.

In addition to tribes among real estate agents, there are also groups of real estate affiliates that work together as tribes. Real estate affiliates include lenders, escrow companies and home inspectors. While it is illegal for these affiliates to accept monetary gain for business (referral fees), there is a huge advantage for real estate agents to work with affiliates within their tribe. The power of networking and trust are the major benefits to working within a tribe of affiliates.

When choosing your real estate agent, find out if they are a member of a tribe.

Over the last several years it has become increasingly difficult to find single family homes in Bellingham that produce positive cash flow. However, with the downturn in the real estate market there are now some opportunities to purchase these investments. Over the last year local real estate prices have fallen while rental rates have increased. The equilibrium of positive cash flow has finally balanced out on entry level properties.

There are currently 8 homes for sale in Bellingham that “make sense”. For a home to make sense, I look for homes that would produce positive cash flow with a 20% down payment. In Bellingham, rental rates are typically based on the number of bedrooms. If you place a home for rent in Bellingham today, you should expect to receive $400 (on average) per bedroom. Therefore a 3 bedroom home would rent for $1,200. At a purchase price of $220,000, you would need $44,000 (20%) down payment and would pay $1,112.44 a month in principle and interest at 6.5% interest on a 30 year note. When you add in tax and insurance, you are going to be very close to $1,200 in monthly expenses.

Based on these numbers, it seems clear that a 3 bedroom home priced at $220,000 is the point of even cash flow. Therefore you need to target 3 bedroom homes in Bellingham that are priced under $220,000 to create positive cash flow. I have found 8 homes in Bellingham that currently fit the criteria. Because I do not represent the sellers of these properties I cannot advertise, which homes I am talking about. If you would like to learn more e-mail me at Ryan (at) SolutionsTeam.net, or call my cell number at 360-319-0040.