Selling your home – by owner, or FSBO isn’t for everyone – especially in the market we find ourselves in right now.  Check out this video.  Save valuable time.  Focus on what you know, and leave the home selling to the pro’s!

A work-mate of mine is working on approaching life with a positive attitude. Personally, I respect the effort; reading his list below, you’ll see he’s really stretching to find positive things to say. On his drive from Peters Creek, about 1/2 hour north of Anchorage, he wrote the following 35 reasons to be thankful for the rain and I want to share them

The wet ground is pushing up mushrooms!

with you.

35 things I’m grateful for on a rainy day – by Rob King

1. We have a great roof that doesn’t leak a drop
2. I don’t have to water the lawn
3. The air smells clean
4. Its not snowing
5. I look out my office window at lush green
6. Rain encourages me to go to the gym
7. We have reliable cars and don’t have to walk in the rain
8. My car has a front windshield (saw one yesterday that didn’t)
9. Good Windshield wiper blades
10. It discourages me from taking the day off – promotes responsible behavior
11. Our home lot drains well
12. Our trees are growing well
13. Fire danger low
14. No smoke in the air (last year we had forest fires)
15. I don’t have nearly as much wet grass to mow as my neighbor
16. A free fresh water rinse for the four wheelers and boats
17. Fall rainbow fishing
18. Bilge pumps
19. Weather complainers are easily identified
20. The sound of rain on the deck is soothing
21. It’s too muddy to work in the yard
22. Fishing spots are less crowded
23. Good summer tires
24.  Bugs are kept at bay
25. Indoor plumbing
26. Hiking in the rain is kinda cool
27. Less people on the trails
28. We own good rain gear
29. I love my Muck boots
30. Four wheeling in the mud is fun
31. Not suffering from the effects of global warming
32. Indoor sports
33. Don’t have to take the kids to football practice
34. Bad hair is acceptable
35. A warm dry, bed and someone to share it with

Rob King

Thanks Rob.  You rock.  Thank you for setting a practical example of seeing the positive side of a rainy gray day.

I saw this “make your own” video program.  It looked easy, cheap and fun.  It was all of those things!  This is a skit between two young people on good reasons to buy your own home!

An early morning view of Big Lake from the front

The location is always the first thing I consider, because other things can be changed if they are up to your personal taste.  This townhouse would be considered a second home, one because it’s on a recreational lake and the design of the home lends itself to a recreational use.  It is located on Big Lake, about 10 miles west of Wasilla.  The highway is paved right to the front door – nothing rustic here!  Check the lake view from the massive front windows!

The “specs” on the townhouse is 3,600 square feet, not including the garage.  The top floor is a wonderful Master suite including a vaulted ceiling,

Elegant Gourmet Kitchen

The livingroom with small view of the large windows

fireplace, and a walk out to a private deck, which would be perfect for your hot tub or completely private sun deck.

The main floor floor has massive “floor to ceiling” windows facing south and west for the best sun exposure.  You can see down the lake and to the east to Mt McKinley on the horizon!  The kitchen is amazing with custom made cherry cabinets with many custom features that you would expect in a high in gourmet kitchen.  The counter tops are slab granite. 

Nice Master Suite

The lower level is perfect for a recreational home!  There is a overhead door (like a garage door) which opens to the outside patio!  You can pull your lawn furniture and water toys out the door and be ready for fun!

There is a full kitchen on the lower level, in addition to the nice gourmet kitchen I mentioned previously on the main level.  On the rear side of the lower floor is  very nice theater room completely built out with theater seating, screen in place and ready for use!

If you want a second home to get away from it all, this townhome would meet all your criteria!

Kristi and I figured it would be a great surprise if we actually took a motor-

The start of the adventure! Yea, I looked scared!

home trip.  We decided to take a tour of National Parks in Utah.  I had done those destinations alone in previous summers on a motorcycle I keep at a friends in Montana.  Kristi got on the Internet and located a 2001 35 foot class A motor-home for rent in Salt Lake.  I was tasked with planning the route and scheduling the motor-home parks.  It’s important to note, we’ve never done a trip like this and I had previously never even driven this sort of motor-home, much less run the generators and handle the water and septic issues.

We flew to Salt Lake last week with our son Cody and one of his friends.  We also brought along our older son, Ryan who is finishing up his college in Portland Oregon, but was out for summer break.

Picnic-style dinner in Bryce Canyon

We didn’t let much grass grow under our feet.  As soon as we arrive, we picked up the motor-home and after a fast orientation, set the GPS for southto Bryce Canyon!  We arrived at late in the day and found the camp ground where I had made reservations.  We learned that evening that much of motor-home life comes naturally.  With a couple of tries we had leveled the motor-home on our camping pad, hooked up the electric, water and sewer and let the livingroom slide out, expanding the living area by twice the size.

The next morning we hopped a shuttle and headed to Bryce Canyon.  We had read the National Park guide which recommended a rim hike.  After loading up on bottled water, we decided that would be a good use of time, and run some pent up energy out of our three boys.  The rim walk was spectacular!  We hadn’t been to Bryce before, but looking back over our trip, we determined Bryce was one of our most enjoyable stops!

The next day we headed to the north rim of the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona.  Our camp ground was more basic than the park we left the day before, but adequate.  There is a shortage of camping spots on the North Rim, and our spot was 40 miles from the Grand Canyon.  We were able to build an outside wood fire, not often the case we were to learn, and we were able to roast hot-dogs, marshmallows and make home-made smores from gram crackers, Hershey bars and marshmallows!  Our fire got so large from burning the huge pine-cones we collected, one of Smokey the bears representatives paid us a personal visit to ask us to “tone it down some“, which we did.

The third day we headed north to Page Arizona, home to Lake Powell, the huge, and beautiful man-made lake made when the Colorado River was dammed up to collect water for irrigation and for hydroelectric uses.  We took  a nice long hike and even got in an early morning run before the sun got too hot.  It was 100 degrees by noon!

Off Road Jeep Trip!

The fourth day we drive up to the town of Moab Utah.  Moab is world famous for it’s mountain bike trails and off road jeep trails.  After locating our camp ground, we ditched the motor-home and rented a 2010 Rubicon jeep!  We were enjoying our camping trip, but it sure felt nice to run errands, like restocking food and water, from the jeep and not driving the “big bus”! 

After our morning run the next morning we headed to Arches National Park, home to dozens of natural red-rock arches and amazing natural rock formations in the Utah desert.  We parked and took a 7 miles hike, appropriately named “Primitive Trail”.  We all learned something about taking such a long hike in 100 degree desert sun.  Seven miles proved a lot longer than we originally thought and after running out of water, we started hallucinating about what was for dinner and regretting any water we’d wasted in previous days!  The scenery was fantastic and we’ll remember our hike and experiences for the rest of our lives! 

A hike in the desert - Arches National Park

The next day was the 4th of July.  We loaded up the boys in the jeep and headed for a remote area where you can “off-road” with the jeep.  We found some very rugged trails we could really put our rented jeep through it’s paces.  We had spots we had do drop below 4 wheel drive and into 4 wheel Low and gear way down to get through the rough terrain.  The boys were energized and loved the bouncing around in the desert.  My wife, Kristi, constantly was telling me to slow down and be cautious.  I let her drive and all the caution flew out the window.  We all got a bouncing from her much greater than I as able to do with her in the back seat!  :)

That evening, thanks to the city of Moab, we enjoyed a nice fireworks display to end our 4th of July celabration correctly.

The following day we made our way back north to Salt Lake,where we flew home the following morning.  The Wolf family had a great 2010 summer break that we will remember fondly for years to come!

Signing digitally can be very convenent in many situations!

The program turned out to be easy to use and such an obvious advantage that I’m amazed we didn’t have a program like it before now!

The program is incorporated into our FlexMLS document program.  When we type up a real estate document, such as a Listing Agreement or an Agreement to Purchase, we can click on the DocuSign tab and by following a series of screens, and email the form to one or more parties. 

When the customer gets the form via email, they can open the form and again by following easy screens, they can sign the form digitally on the screen and simply email the form back. The customer can create their own digital signature online without needing a scanner or any unusual equipment.

In the “old days“, we would fax the forms to be signed if the buyers couldn’t drive to our office.  One problem was by the time the form was signed and faxed around a couple times, the print would distort and become very difficult-or impossible- to read. 

In some transactions, contracts are negotiated at length, so buyers and sellers would have to run back and forth between their homes and the real estate office again and again; Sometimes there was the problem of  locating a fax machine….

Another nice thing about DocuSign is if their are more than one signer on the documents, they don’t have to be at the same location to sign digitally.  In other words, one party can sign online on one side of town, and the other party might be on a business trip or working on the North Slope, yet they can sign the same exact form – No more signing duplicate documents in counter-part!

After a month of using DocuSign, I’m amazed at how few problems my customers and I have had using this very convenient program!  Real estate buyers and sellers love the convenience, not to mention it’s green (your not killing trees) and maybe the best things is the program is just plan tech-y and cool!

Whittier Alaska small boat harbor on Prince William Sound

Whittier Alaska is a very scenic small town and harbor located about an hour from Anchorage, and a gateway to Prince William Sound. 

Just the drive is somewhat of a unique experience.  There is 2.5 mile tunnel you have to go through to get to Whittier.  The tunnel is an engineering feat being the longest tunnel in North America.  It is a single lane.  Each direction is open every 1/2 hour, so you can plan your arrival to the mouth of the tunnel.

Whittier is located in Passage Canal in scenic Prince William Sound. 

Alaska Shrimp caught in shrimp pots an hour away from dinner!

My brother in law, Rick Stonke, keeps a boat in the Whittier small boat harbor.  This past weekend he took the family along to pull his shrimp pots.  Check out the bonanza of monster shrimp we shared for dinner! 

I love Alaska all the time, but especially  the summer time!

Memorial Day!

My good friend and veteran, Kirk Alkire, emailed out a timely reminder of the holiday.  Kirk served in Iraq in the US Army as a First Sergeant.  Kirk lost five soldiers in 2007 when  they were ambushed at Karbala, Iraq.  One soldier was killed instantly while four others were taken prisoner and later executed. 

When Kirk’s tour was over, he and three friends traveled to each of the four executed soldiers home towns to meet with their families.   Kirk needed to pay his final respects to the soldiers and their families.

We all know that Memorial Day is a day of remembrance for those who have died in nation’s service. 

As a civilian, having never served myself, it is especially easy to forget the reason for the season.  That’s why I wanted to send out this quick story hoping you, with me, won’t forget those who served, as well as their families.  For every soldier lost there is a mom, dad, sister and brother who also pays a price.

In his email, Kirk asks us to pause at 3pm Monday, Memorial Day,  for one minute of silence in honor of the fallen.  This is called the National Moment of Remembrance where millions of Americans take a minute together, wherever they are, to pay their respect.

A rest after a good gym workout

I started going to the gym years ago.  I was going through a particular stressful period in my life and a friend suggested I start working out as a way to relieve some tension. You know, it worked, and became a life-long habit! 

I have many friends and acquaintances that I see frequently at the gym.  Early on I found a work out partner.  This individual seemed to come every day.  We started talking and become partners and friends.  I supposed you could say the gym is at least two things to me, a health club and a social club!

At one point, my wife and I purchased Powerhouse Gym.  We owned it for 7 years before selling it.  I personally still work out there.

A trainer can keep you punctual and insure you meet your work out goals

In years past I did change gyms some for various reasons.  I was a member of Alaska’s largest work out chain “The Alaska Club”.  The Alaska Club has 13 locations in town.  Different locations offer different types of workout’s such as pools, racket ball, tennis or your basic free weight work out.

Some of the other gyms in Anchorage include World Gym, Planet Fitness, Pete’s City Gym and Polaris Gym.  If you visit these gyms, you’ll find each facility has a little different personality.  This depends some on the ownership and some on the clientele. Once you find a “gym-home”, you take some ownership and it feels like home once you get to know the people and equipment.

If you aren’t a gym member.  I would recommend you become one and work it into your schedule, both for your health and for the freinds you will make!

The barbeque in front of the Briarcliff model homes

on Saturday May 22nd. 

On Friday, the day before the barbecue, we delivered flyer’s to each door in the neighborhood to make sure the entire neighborhood was invited. 

Northrim Bank gave away a 50″ inch flat-screen TV in a drawing that each family could enter. 

The Dan  Wolf Team fired up the barbecue grill and provided “all you can eat” hot dogs for everyone. 

Elise McCullough with HSA “Home Security of America” provided drinks.  Northim Bank is offering a home warranty with every sale in Briarcliff!  This means if a purchaser has a problem with an aspect of their home in the first year of ownership, they can call the “1-800″ number provided in the warranty and get help on their home repair.”

The Anchorage weather cooperated, too!  The sun was out and it was pretty, albeit chilly.  Most of us came to the barbecue thinking we would work on our suntans, but ended up grabbing a jacket as the afternoon breezes cooled the day down!

The Grill is ready!

We have sold nine of the Briarcliff townhouses in the past 45 days.  Each townhouse is has three bedrooms, 2 full baths, a double garage.  There are two floor-plans to choose from.  The kitchens are very open and functional with vaulted ceilings and lots of cabinets and counter space.

It was a lot of fun to get to meet the neighbors and share some barbecue!