Washington Land

Desktop Backgrounds

2008-11-28T16:06:00.000-08:00

Looking for FREE desktop backgrounds?

Here are the best of my Desktop Backgrounds for the year. I use images from the land I am selling as my desktop background on a rotating basis. Here are some of my favorites for the past year and I thought I would share them here with you.

Custom Cedar Home

Douglas Fir Trees

Mashel River in Eatonville, Washington

Yelm Prairie

Rocky Peak in Ashford, Washington

Forested Hills in Ashford, Washington

Nisqually River Valley in Ashford, Washington

Clear Lake in Yelm, Washington

Vacant Land Sales in Thurston County, Washington for January 2008

2008-02-29T12:36:00.000-08:00

Olympia:

Western Showcase Homebuilders LLC sold .68 acres to Bayside Building and Development LLC of Olympia for $135,000.

Ronald and Talia Hastie sold 28.91 acres to Jeffrey and Cheri Sanderson of Lacey for $240,000.

Tumwater:

Marshall and Geraldine Ellison sold .64 acres to Harold and Susan Broek of Tumwater for $85,000.

Rainier:

Ronald and Lorie O’Leary sold 5 acres to Todd and Sonya Andreas of Yelm for $139,050.

Yelm:

John and Margret Meek sold 40.06 acres to Efrain Flores of Reston, VA for $382,500 and also Mr. Flores deeded it over to Akasha Developers Unlimited LLC.

(Which is strange to me that somebody would name a company with the word unlimited and then follow it up with limited liability company. So which is it, unlimited or limited ?)

Tenino:

Robert and Cindy Cook sold .22 acres to Carl and Kelsey Vogel of Olympia for $69,900.

Bucoda:

R & B Holdings LLC sold 4.76 acres to Graydon and Marlys Smith of Centralia for $150,000.

Information based on county records but not guaranteed.

The Olympian Covers Fee Increase Hearing

2008-02-29T11:03:00.000-08:00

(Olympia, Washington) - The Olympian put out an article covering last night's fee increase hearing and their characterization of the meeting was accurate. They also quoted me saying a bit of what I said against the massive fee increase. So the next time you try to develop your land remember who went to bat for you down at the county to help keep your land development fees low.

http://www.theolympian.com/southsound/story/374367.html

Thurston County plans huge permit fee increase

2008-02-28T10:58:00.000-08:00

(Olympia, Washington) Thurston County is having a public hearing tonight on the topic of permit fees for land development. The regulations are so burdensome and complex that the county needs to raise fees by a huge amount. Not only do they cost a lot of money but the county employees give out incorrect information about half the time. So they are to complex for them to administer as well. So these are a burden on the county and they are a burden on the people who just need a place to live.

Attend the Public hearing!

The public hearing is at 6 p.m. tonight in Room 280, Building 1, of the courthouse, 2000 Lakeridge Drive S.W., Olympia.

Fee increases are either doubling, tripling or quadrupling depending on which fee you look at, check out the full document here

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Update: I attended the hearing and spoke out against these outrageous fee increases. I was not surprised that every other person that attended also spoke out against them as well. What do you bet that the county commissioners will do it anyway?

Farmer builds castle with no permit and hides behind hay for years

2008-01-27T13:52:00.000-08:00

A British farmer built an entire literal castle behind a screen of hay bales and lived there concealed for four years to evade planning regulations. Apparently in England, if you get away with building without a permit for four years they can't make you tear it down--weird. See the full story in at Dailymail.co.uk, and it includes plenty of pictures of the guy's house. The article is pretty entertaining, includes commentary from the bureaucrats stating that he "built the house without planning permission, not sought retrospective planning permission." So the arrogant jerk not only didn't bother to get the permit but failed to pay for the retroactive permit after he was caught. Keep in mind that the planners do the same over here as well, retroactive permits show it isn't about safety or a legitimate purpose but instead just a revenue generator.

I guess the moral of the story is that he should have left the hay wall up, as apparently nobody had a complaint about a 40 foot tall rotting wall of hay covered with aging blue tarps flapping in the wind--that's OK, but that Tudor style castle is an unacceptable eyesore that has to go because you didn't pay for that retroactive permit.

JZ Knight trying to stop new homes in Yelm, Washington

2008-01-22T11:30:00.000-08:00

JZ Knight of Ramtha's School of Enlightenment is filing an appeal on permits granted to her neighbors, several builders trying to develop their land. This is just more NIMBYism and intolerance of one's neighbors. One might think that an "enlightened" person would love thy neighbor, but I obviously don't know what I'm talking about because I don't make hundreds of thousands giving seminars on enlightenment. Full story is in the The Olympian.

Also, the hearings are tonight at the Yelm city hall at 7:30 so if you're interested in this, you might want to show up.

Vacant Land Sales in Thurston County, Washington for December 2007

2008-01-17T09:20:00.000-08:00

Olympia:

Nancy Robinson sold 1.8 acres to Jamie and Amy Lambert of Olympia, WA for $45,000.

Gordon and Alice Wallace sold 2.5 acres to Curtis Wambach of Lacey, WA for $60,000.

Peter and Cynthia Skowlund sold 1.62 acres to Angeline Larson of Olympia, WA for $175,000.

Lacey:

Dan Drewry sold .39 acres to Ronald and Josefina Pilon of Olympia, WA for $119,950.

Jeffrey Hardie sold .42 acres to Floyd and Michaela Pinkett of Lacey, WA for $100,000.

Yelm:

Evan Crawford sold .19 acres to Mike and Kelly Kempinski of Yelm, WA for $27,000.

Thomas Zweiger sold .24 acres to David Christoper and Anne Slizynski of Yelm, WA for $87,500.

Barbara Hutchinson sold 9.7 acres to Viewmont Place LLC of Seattle, WA for $1,943,000.

Tenino:

Calvin Braun sold 28.92 acres to Gordon and Beverlee Boe of Olympia, WA for $500,000.

Information based on county records but not guaranteed.

Olympic MLS dissolves

2007-10-12T09:27:00.000-07:00

(Olympia, Washington) The Olympic MLS serving Thurston County, one of the few remaining small MLS in Western Washingtin, has dissolved. The listings have been displayed in common with the NWMLS for many years but technically there were different organizations. The broker members, agents and affiliate members of Olympic Multiple Listing Service have transferred their membership to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service effective October 1, 2007.

Pierce County Critical Areas Now Online

2007-10-09T11:51:00.000-07:00

(Pierce County, Washington) Parcels in unincorporated Pierce County now have their critical areas environmental information online. This is great allowing the public easier access to this information as in the past few years it has been difficult to get this information from the county. Since there is no legitimate reason to be so zipperlip about it, having it online is not only convienent for the public to look up information but also helps save the county employees the time it takes answering these type of questions.

The environmental conditions on this report include: Aquifer Recharge Area, Development Moratorium, Marine Shoreline Salmon Habitat, Potential for Erosion Hazard, Potential for Fish and Wildlife (WDFW Priority Habitat and Species, Pierce County Salmon Distribution, Pierce County Hydro), Potential for Flood, Potential for Floodway, Potential for Landslide, Potential for Mine Hazard, Potential for Seismic Hazard, Potential for Wetlands (County Wetland, National Wetland, Hydric Soils, Hydrology, County Flood Zone, FEMA Flood Zone), Resource Lands and Shoreline. Of course, the county's information does not replace a review by a competent professional but is a good starting point when shopping around.

You can click through from the PublicGIS information on the county's website to access the critical areas report.

Land sales in Thurston County, Washington for September 2007

2007-10-08T15:40:00.000-07:00

Land sales in Thurston County, Washington for September 2007

Olympia:

Robert J Atwell sold 5.07 acres to Byung Whang for $97,500

Schmitt Family Trust sold .16 acres to Joseph Becker and Naomi Gross for $90,000

Gregory and Joan Wright sold .63 acres to Theodore Demetrio Jr and Cinta Wander for $139,900

Western Showcase Homebuilders sold 3.48 acres to Lanza Premier Homes LLC for $125,000

Rainier:

Rabie sold 5.45 acres to Bruce and Jan Huntley for $159,900

Weyerhaeuser Real Estate Development Company (NYSE:WY) sold 31 acres to Jenifer Preston and Julie Wicksteed for $359,000

Tenino:

Patricia K Maschke sold 37 acres to Richmond Jpj Ents Inc for $275,000

Yelm:

Lynn & Kathleen Sommers sold .29 acres to Dennis and Brygida McDermott for $34,000

Daniel M & Anita F Mahoney sold 5 acres to Travis Smith for $190,000

Information based on county records but not guaranteed.

Thurston County Rural Rezone goes into effect

2007-08-27T13:00:00.000-07:00

(Olympia, Washington) The Thurston County Rural Rezone goes into effect today at 5:00. There was a moratorium on subdividing land in Thurston County, Washington. The moratorium on residential subdivision is ending at the same time for the remaining properties under moratorium located outside of urban growth areas. The county ended up rezoning some parcels but most of the county was left alone. This land rezone was the result of a lawsuit that the county lost over it's growth management plan.

Click on the picture below for a larger size image of the zoning map for the land in Thurston County, Washington.

New Property Disclosure Law Takes Effect Today

2007-07-22T15:33:00.000-07:00

On July 22, 2007 a set of 440 new laws comes into force. Seems like we didn't have enough bureaucratic regulations already. If I were in Olympia, I would cut 440 existing laws each year instead of adding new ones. What's wrong with the set of laws we inherited from our forefathers? So much BS comes out of our politicians mouths that it is no wonder that the BS really piles up at the Capital. We will just have to shovel through it to find out which pieces are going to fall in our apple pie. Eww. Well, enough of my extreme right wing political views and onto something real estate related.

The legislature has decided that the Walla Walla Sweet Onion is now the state vegetable. With it's mellow onion flavor and sweet summer taste it's the next best thing to... Oh wait, that wasn't what this blog post was going to be about. I was going to write about the new property disclosure law. Which is going to help the average consumer about as much as the new state vegetable will.

There has been a property disclosure law regarding homes for some time, however starting today, for the first time it is going to be required for unimproved property. That means when you sell residential homes or land that it is possible to build a residential home on you must comply with this new regulation. Prior to this there was a optional land disclosure form used by the NWMLS (Northwest Multiple Listing Service) and the WAR (Washington Association of Realtors). The new disclosure form is very similar with a few additions regarding utilities, water, fill material, environmental conditions, etc. Check out the text of the law for the specifics. In fact the legislatures version looks so much like the old optional WAR vacant land disclosure form that it is pretty obvious that the WAR's lawyers wrote this legislation and our elected officials rubber stamped it. Hopefully most of the politicians at least read the legislation before passing it, but that is probably asking a little much.

Although this law is completely unnecessary from a consumer protection standpoint because there always was a law against fraud under common law; it is another hoop a property owner has to jump through to sell their property. Most of the questions are of a technical engineering nature and if I were selling my property right now quite honestly most of my answers would be "don't know." So I don't know how the average person would know any of these answers and I don't see how giving somebody five pages of "don't know" does anything.

It's quite a different thing to ask a homeowner who lives in the house if the basement ever floods than it is to ask technical engineering questions to an absentee owner of vacant land. Even if a landowner did engineering studies or look into these issues when he bought the property, that is no guarantee that the results are still current. I have a better idea for you buyers out there, ignore everything the seller and his agent(s) say and do your own due diligence with your own engineer.

Asking the seller of property stupid questions such as "do you have legal authority to sell this property?" violates what lawyers call the best evidence rule. At trial you cannot introduce something into evidence when better evidence of that same thing is available. So instead of asking the seller if they have clear title, do a title search or get title insurance and let the insurance companies lawyers determine if the seller has clear title--much better evidence! Why even ask the seller? Nobody would say no--by putting their property up for sale they are implying that they do. What is the point of asking the seller what he thinks about the soils when you can get your engineer out there to tell you about the soils--again much better evidence! I value my time so I don't like to waste it, I want to go to the horse's mouth and get the best evidence. I don't want some ignorant opinion, I want the best evidence.

But one thing the land disclosure law does is make the real estate sale more complex which results in more confusion to the common land owner. However I'm sure that you can find a handy real estate agent to set everything straight for you. You will be required to make the disclosure and I'm sure you can't find a copy of this new form at your local stationary store. Maybe you can print out the law as written and use that to disclose or it just might be easier to get a copy from a handy real estate agent. So the new law doesn't help the seller any, doesn't do much for the buyer but does seem to benefit real estate agents and attorneys. Are you starting to feel less warm and fuzzy about WAR's lobbying activity?

In other news, it is now a crime to cut in the ferry line and you can be fined $101. This replaces the old traditional punishment of getting the s#!t kicked out of you by the guy you cut in front of.

Land sales in Thurston County, Washington for March 2007

2007-05-22T10:09:00.000-07:00

Vacant Land sales for Thurston County, Washington for March 2007.

Lacey (98503)

Pumin Boos sold .99 acres of commercial land for $520,000 to Genesis Financial Group Inc.

Olympia (98502, 98512)

Roberto and Bertha Huizar sold .24 acres for $52,000 to Timothy Timmer of Tumwater, WA.

Raymond Dobroski Living Trust sold .39 acres for $110,281 to Cynthia Williams of Olympia, WA.

Richard Lichtenberg sold .97 acres for $200,000 to Windstar Development LLC of Olympia, WA.

David Harroun sold 4.92 acres for $170,000 to Washington Department of Natural Rescources.

Richard and Linda Hancock sold 4.82 acres for $230,000 to James and Jennifer Demay of Olympia, WA.

Town & Country Markets Inc. sold 4.54 acres for $343,000 to Flamingo Links LLC.

Town & Country Markets Inc. sold 20 acres for $367,000 to Max J Kuney Co.

Duer P & Nancie J Smedley Trust sold 40 acres for $392,280 to Wanapum Lake LLC.

Town & Cntry Markets Inc Retirement Trust sold 15 acres for $550,000 to Flamingo Links LLC.

Edward and Kari Richardson sold 1.1 acres for $135,000 to J & W Homes LLC.

Rainier (98576)

Linda Berry sold .51 acres for $19,500 to Edward Littlewort of San Juan Capistrano, CA.

William and Nancy Roberts sold 10 acres for $245,000 to Todd Stancil and Erika Haakenson of Rainier, WA.

Rochester (98579)

Danial Miller sold .73 acres for $99,500 to Steve and Alisia Ketchum of Olympia, WA.

Frederic and Susanne Hawes sold .72 acres for $118,000 to Connie Kang of Lacey, WA.

Daniel and Dawn Fletcher sold 3.06 acres for $128,281 to Glen and Jennifer Johnson of Tenino, WA.

Leopold Schock sold 2.23 acres for $140,000 to Kyle Connelly of Olympia, WA.

Pete Zimmerman sold 10 acres for $170,000 to Aspen and Kaylene Breuer of Rochester, WA.

Pete and Bonnie Zimmerman sold 9.77 acres for $174,950 to Robert and Kimberly Beauchamp of Rochester, WA.

Tenino (98589)

David Nelson sold 1.03 acres for $125,000 to Robert and Kimberly Maurer of Olympia, WA.

C & S Construction Nw Inc. sold .14 acres for $114,000 to Rossi Capital LLC of Olympia, WA.

Yelm (98597)

Stepher Roffler sold .19 acres for $53,005 to Bobbie Hurd of DuPont, WA.

James and Angela Weller sold .31 acres for $63,050 to Capstone Land Dev Inc.

Paul Brannan sold 1.77 acres for $110,000 to Shannon Hanson of Bonney Lake, WA.

HR Maxwell LLC sold 5.01 acres for $159,000 to Evelyn Strobel and James Leflar of Little Rock, AR.

Noriko Naoi sold 4.36 acres for $179,900 to Sandra Parent of Fair Oaks, CA.

Nancy S Dow Living Trust sold 11.9 acres for $190,500 to Andrew and Caroline Hanser of Federal Way, WA.

Zenture Pacific Homes Inc sold 5 acres for $265,500 to Julio and Elvia Meza of Yelm, WA.

Information based on county records but not guaranteed.

Land sales in Thurston County, Washington for February 2007

2007-05-08T20:01:00.000-07:00

Land Sales in Thurston County for February 2007.

Information from county records, based on sources deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

Olympia (98502, 98503, 98506, 98512, 98513, 98516)

Martin Estate sold .84 acres for $115,000 to David and Amy Merrilees of Olympia, WA.

Nancy Robinson sold .45 acres for $25,281 to Brian Ayres of Woodbridge, VA.

Gordon and Dianne Anderson sold .25 acres for $89,000 to Mary Daley of Olympia, WA.

Dana Bessett sold .29 acres for $4500 to Thomas Helms III of Pittsburgh, PA.

Darlene Currier sold 1.3 acres for $99,500 to Aaron and Megan Robel of Auburn, WA.

Jacob Romero sold 2.2 acres for $130,000 to Charles and Elizabeth Allaire of Chehalis, WA.

K & S Development LLC sold 1.5 acres for $160,281 to George and Joni Baker of Olympia, WA.

Ernest Freeman sold .9 acres for $125,000 to Robert and Mary Dayton of Olympia, WA.

Lacey (98516)

Hawks Prairie Associates sold 13.01 acres for $2,750,000 to Marvin Road LLC.

Tenino (98531)

Harv Breen Construction Inc sold 40.02 acres for $258,000 to Thomas Bond of Lacey, WA.

Rainier (98576)

Noli Dacanay Trust sold 1.1 acres for $105,146 to Bobby and Courtney Walker of Roy, WA.

Rochester (98579)

Don and Barbara Thomas sold 10.4 acres for $99,500 to Brenda Sullens of Rochester, WA.

Yelm (98597)

Weyerhaeuser Real Estate Development Company (NYSE:WY) sold 40 acres for $540,500 to Dae Rhee and Mal Soon of Puyallup, WA.

Cherry Meadows LLC sold a mess of tiny city lots in Yelm for $100,000 a lot.

Pope Resources plans on new residential land in Skamania County

2007-05-08T19:03:00.000-07:00

The Columbian broke a story about Pope Resources (NASDAQ:POPEZ), a timber company based in Poulsbo, Washington plans of new residential land in Skamania County, Washington State.

While still in the planning states the company has submitted paperwork to the county for a recreational development offering up to 800 units of housing.

Skamania County could use the new deveopment as there seems to be a shortage of land for sale in that area compared with all the people who would like to live there. There is overflow demand from the Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington urban areas. The company's proposal is to convert 3680 acres of land from forestland to residential/recreational use.

Most of the county is public forestland and the planned development is close to existing developed land with cabins on it.

Vacant Land Sales in Thurston County for January 2007

2007-02-06T08:33:00.000-08:00

Land Sales in Thurston County for January 2007.

Information from county records, based on sources deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

Olympia (98502, 98503, 98506, 98512, 98513, 98516)

Mary Doyle sold 15.27 acres for $1,200,000 to CDW LLC of Puyallup, WA.

Yelm (98597)

Desert Creek LLC sold 2.88 acres for $950,000 to Killion Crossing LLC of Everett, WA.

Weyerhaeuser Real Estate Development Company (NYSE:WY) sold 40 acres for $466,450 to Jason and Cheri Coursey of Henderson, NV.

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Washington Thurston sold

Find Septic As-Builts in Pierce County Online

2007-02-05T13:34:00.000-08:00

You can find Septic As-Builts in Pierce County, Washington online. This will pull up a scanned image of the septic design. They allow you to search by address or parcel number. Always use the parcel number to search because addresses for vacant land is often unreliable. Save that website if you are looking for land in Pierce county.

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Washington Pierce Septic

Vacant Land sales in Lewis County, Washington for December 2006.

2007-01-29T11:43:00.000-08:00

Vacant Land sales in Lewis County, Washington for December 2006.

Pe Ell (98572)

James and Marnel Groebner sold 29.77 acres for $130,000 to Sharon Hallman of Olympia, WA.

The Town of Pe Ell sold 1 acre to for $30,000 to Kelly and Deborah Brown of Newcastle, WA.

Morton (98356)

Curt Christopherson sold 6 acres for $47,500 to Bryan and Kathleen Turner of Tacoma, WA.

Packwood (98361)

James and Deborha Swartzlander sold .26 acres for $46,00 to Duncan and Carol Sturrock of Gig Harbor, WA.

Centralia (98351, 87532)

Roberta Butterworth sold 8.81 acres to for $81,500 to Lester Reisch of Tenino, WA.

Peter and Jane Perez sold 5.35 acres for $75,000 to Keith Asido of Orting, WA.

Onalaska (98570)
Francis and Lynette Deabreu sold 1.58 acres for $40,000 to Timothy and Katie Edmonds of Centralia, WA.

Toledo (98591)

Francis Singleton sold 10 acres to Wayne Perkins who sold the property for $69,000 to Scott and Christine Dickinson of Shelton, WA

Heddo LLC sold 19.65 acres for $42,500 to Rodney and Shelly Mcaleny of Toledo, WA.

Wendy Rader sold 20.09 acres for $140,000 to Gaile and Gavin Gifford of Toledo, WA.

Vader (98593)

Jeffery and Alison Keith sold .21 acres for $25,000 to Robert and Jacqueline Wilber of Ontario, CA.

Westlands Holding Co. sold 2.5 acres for $61,500 to Terisa Rivera of Vader, WA.

Winlock (98596)

Laurence and Guadalupe Potter sold 5 acres for $40,000 to Tiffini Alexander of Toledo, WA.

Jorgensen Timber sold 7.54 acres for $102,500 to Juan and Charolette Garcia of Winlock, WA.

Information based on reliable sources but not guaranteed.

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Washington Sold Lewis DouglasFir.net

Land Sales in Thurston County, Washington for December 2006.

2007-01-25T12:47:00.000-08:00

Land Sales in Thurston County for December 2006.

Information from county records, based on sources deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

Olympia (98502, 98503, 98506, 98512, 98513, 98516)

David Frederick sold .26 acres to Patrick Woods of Olympia, WA for $47,000.

William Looney sold .07 acres to Shon and Tamar Hathcock of Tumwater, WA for $49,500.

Matthias Kronawetter sold 4.89 acres to Don and Vida Farler of Olympia, WA for $136,944.

Tom Zuchlewski sold .25 acres to Moonrise Homes I LLC of Olympia, WA for $114,900.

Wade and Lorelei Randall sold .17 acres to Percival and Sylvia Lagdan of Lakewood, WA for $165,000.

Kim Walter sold 1.15 acres to Greg Guinotte of Vancouver, WA for $138,000.

Security State Mortgage sold 5.91 acres to Sear and Malin Ky of Olympia, WA for $45,000.

Anthony and Susan Mack sold .17 acres to B & B Alliance LLC for $85,000.

Dieffenbach Construction Inc. sold 5 acres to Michael Darnell of Olympia, WA for $182,500.

Hale Trust sold 2 acres to Matthew and Alicia Neeley of Olympia, WA for $172,500.

Rainier (98576)

Donald Hartman sold 1.99 acres to Mike Mitch and Homer Sheets for $15,780.

Yelm (98597)

Edward and Sally Budack sold .22 acres to Melicia Lara of Yelm, WA for $54,000.

Robert and Mary Stone sold 5 acres to Erik Barney of Steilacoom, WA for $160,000.

Elaine Mccandlis sold 5.13 acres to David and Kathleen Burr of Graham, WA for $165,000.

Zenture Pacific Homes Inc. sold 10 acres to Walter Olsen of Kent, WA for $375,000.

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Washington Thurston sold

Keeping Advertising Out of Blog Posts

2006-12-23T11:39:00.000-08:00

I've been torn between adding my listings of Washington land in blog posts. I was thinking it was an easy way to publish listings in a feed. On the other hand I wanted to keep this blog as just my thoughts with no advertising. So I made another blog strictly for publishing my Washington land listings. I will be putting all my Washington land listings on there over the next few weeks. Then each new listing will be published there as listed. That way a person can subscribe to my new listing feeds in their blog reader.

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Free Desktop Backgrounds

2006-12-05T09:10:00.000-08:00

Looking for FREE desktop backgrounds?

Here are the best of my Desktop Backgrounds for the year. I use images from the land I am selling as my desktop background on a rotating basis. Here are some of my favorites for the year and I thought I would share them here with you.

Mt. Rainier from Roy, Washington

Nisqually River in Ashford, Washington

Silver Lake in Toutle, Washington

Mt. Rainier view from Eatonville, Washington

Nisqually River Canyon View

Deer looking out of the bushes

Nisqually River at Elbe

Mt. Osborne with a dusting of snow.

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Washington Desktop Background

DouglasFir.net

Ashford's destruction greatly exaggerated.

2006-11-11T13:53:00.000-08:00

After reading articles in the Eatonville Dispatch and the Seattle Times about the flooding. I was worried about the land up there that I have listed and am selling. I went up there today to show some land and I wondered if I would even be able to get there. As usual the newspapers sensationalized the issue. The river looked pretty much as usual except you could tell it had had a little higher flow previously as you can see green tree branches on the sandbars.

The Seattle Times reported that Highway 706 was undergoing repairs but I saw no recent repairs on the Highway. Perhaps they were referring to the section of the road after it entered into the park (although most people call the road Paradise Road at this point and not Highway 706). Seeing how Highway 706's actual name is State Route 706 and when it enters the park it is no longer Washington's road but a Federal one so it has a different name (If you don't believe me, check a map). The park was indeed closed but I had no problem driving to the end of Highway 706 to the entrance of Mt. Rainier National Park, where a ranger turned me back. Although it wouldn't be as sensational to say that the driveway to Mount Rainier is closed. With all the actual flooding that happened over Washington due to this storm, one wonders why they had to stretch the truth here. They could have gone out to the Carbon River entrance and seen some real problems.

I wanted to get a nice picture of the washout on Forest Road 52 but it was already filled in. There is a picture of it in the Eatonville Dispatch article I linked to up above.

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Washington Flooding Ashford Rainier

Search for Land for Sale in Washington State

2006-10-31T11:11:00.000-08:00

There is a new website launched today http://www.searchwashingtonland.com which is a free site that allows you to search for land for sale in Washington State. You can also search SOLD listings to find out what your property is worth. This is a free service with no registration required and no personal information to give out.

This website uses google maps and satellite photos to help you find where the land for sale is. You can also sign up on this website to have new listings emailed to you, at no charge or obligation.

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Title Companies Caught in Illegal Actions

2006-10-19T09:24:00.000-07:00

The State of Washington Office of Insurance Commissioner has released a report 3 days ago reporting that title companies routinely engage in illegal incentives to steer business their way. Looks like the Pierce county branches are the worst offenders. You can read the whole report here.

One of the worst offenses is paying for advertising for real estate agents, which is a common unethical practice among agents. I am glad they are finally cracking down on this. One of the most ironic offenses was paying for the Realtor® association’s lunches (what ever happened to their staunch ethics code?).

The insurance commissioner thinks that these thousands, tens of thousands and in some cases hundreds of thousands of dollars in incentives really belongs to the consumer. I disagree, they are charging what the market will bear—this money actually belongs to the stockholders. If I was a stockholder I would be pretty upset over these companies actions.

Well, what companies broke the law; let’s take a look shall we? If you want to see them all, read the report. I am just mentioning the publicly traded ones as I think the stockholders need to know.

Chicago Title Insurance Company had multiple violations and the commissioner ranked them “somewhere in the middle of the pack when its violation record is compared to other companies.” I believe that Chicago is a subsidary of Fidelity.

LandAmerica (NYSE: LFG) group of companies has some minor violations for overspending on wining and dining, and in one instance chartered a boat for $25,000 to entertain people who steered business their way. A $25,000 yacht cruise, that's pretty expensive, did it have cocaine and hookers on board? I'm sure they had champagne, at least. The insurance commissioner said “the violations and their frequency were not as extensive as some of the worst offenders.”

Fidelity Title (NYSE: FNT) has some pretty major violations; I think the insurance commissioner sums it up well, “While the company’s King and Snohomish operations tended to operate closer to the intent of the law, albeit still in violation, the Pierce County offenses were similar in breadth and scope to those of the worst offenders identified during the investigation.”

First American (NYSE: FAF) was “the worst offender in the investigation” (insurance commissioner’s words not mine), and “a prime example of how illegal inducements can help a company attain superior market share.” They spent $120,000 per month on these illegal activities!

Old Republic Title, Ltd. (ORI) had some minor wining and dining violations.

Ticor Title was “one of the major offenders” as well, wining and dining, ski trips, golf tournaments and cigars (hopefully not Cubans!). I think Ticor is a subsidary of another title company but I am not 100% sure so I will not name names.

Stewart Title, Pacific Northwest Title, Rainier Title were minor offenders and as far as I am aware are private corporations so I will not go into detail.

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Marketing Title Insurance Washington

Land that had a Repo'd Mobile Home

2006-10-17T10:25:00.000-07:00

Every once in awhile you run across land that has had a home on it in the past but it has been removed. Sometimes a house burns down but usually it is a mobile home that has been moved. Since these properties have all utilities already on site, they are usually popular.

Mobile homes are frequently foreclosed on and lenders use this as an excuse to tighten up lending on them. One of the reasons is that mobiles don’t usually appreciate in value, usually it is the land only. So if a person buys a stick built house and runs into problems making payments, if they have lived in the house for a few years the equity should protect them. But often with a mobile there is no equity, especially when the person bought the mobile new off the lot on a zero down loan.

But what is the story of the people who used to live there? This particular piece of land is in Roy, Washington. It used to have a mobile on it. Well they wanted to sell in 2000. They had it on the market at $124,900. It didn’t sell, so they switched brokers. It still didn’t sell. So they took it off the market and lived there a few more years.

2004 rolled around and they were having problems making payments. They put it up for sale at $129,000 with no takers. So they switched brokers. Then it was on the market for over a year and still didn’t sell, even though the agent wrote “seller motivated” in the marketing remarks. Then they got foreclosed on and the bank came and took their home away.

They purchased under a land contract and the seller ended up with the land back.

I’m guessing that the amount of money they were asking was the amount just to get them out of the place free and clear as it was a pretty consistent amount over the 5 years.

I’ve never met a person who has a mobile home that has said that they thought about resale value when they bought it. I bet it sure looked nice in the showroom. A person should always think about resale value because you never know what will happen to you in the future that could affect your ability to make the payment.

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Mobile Home Foreclosure

Septic Systems

2006-10-03T11:49:00.000-07:00

I had a sale fall through recently after the buyer did the soils analysis. The result of the test was that the property did qualify for a septic system. However it did not qualify for a simple gravity system but an engineered system. There are many people out there who run from an engineered system because they are afraid of the cost or feasibility of such a system. While it is true that engineered systems do cost a bit more, it is not an impossibility nor something that should break your project.

You should never expect to get a gravity system. The vast majority of properties simply do not qualify for this type of system. It is not realistic to expect to get one; you should anticipate and budget for an engineered system. If your property does qualify for a simple system, it’s a bonus.

A gravity system can be build when the soils are capable of absorbing all the effluent from the septic tank. Wastewater flows from the septic into the drainfield trench just by gravity alone at an irregular pace. You will need four feet of usable soil for this type of system. The estimated cost on this type of system is $7000.

All other types of septic systems require a pump to move the waste around and are called pressurized systems.

A pressure distribution (aka Pump) system is very similar to a gravity system except that it has a pump that slowly releases the effluent into the drainfield trench at a speed that the soils can handle. They require 2 ½ feet of usable soils. The estimated cost on this type of system is $10,000.

These previous two types of septic systems are what laymen refer to as standard systems and the following are engineered systems.

A pressure distribution system with pretreatment is the same system as described above except before the effluent gets pumped into the drainfield it gets treated. Building a wastewater treatment system on a septic adds quite a bit of cost. The estimated cost on this is $17,000. Having a wastewater treatment system in your septic also requires more maintenance than if you didn’t. There are many different pretreatment methods you can use, some public domain, some proprietary. So many people will use a mound system instead as an alternative. You only need 18 inches of usable soil for this type of system.

A mound system doesn’t have a drainfield trench; instead the effluent is pumped into a pile of sand and rock that filters the wastewater before releasing it into the soils. The mound system requires 18 inches of usable soils. The mound system estimated cost is $17,000. It is usually used instead of a pressure with pretreatment because it requires less maintenance. Some people prefer the pressure distribution with pretreatment for aesthetic reasons as they don’t want to look at a mound.

A mound system with pretreatment is used when the soils are marginal, with as little as 12 inches of usable soils. The system is the same as the mound but with an added wastewater treatment system. Again, this adds cost and maintenance to your system. An alternative to this type of system is the Glendon system. The mound with pretreatment estimated cost is $25,000. But really you wouldn’t put this in when you can do a glendon for much cheaper.

A Glendon® Biofilter system is a proprietary system. Some soils engineers do not like to do them because they don’t make as much money doing the design as it has to be purchased from the company and if they do a public domain design the engineer gets the money for the design. This system is somewhat like a mound. You have a septic tank that runs a pump into the biofilter. The biofilter is a box of sand and gravel that the wastewater goes through before being released in the soils. The estimated cost on this is $14,000.

So the cost of an engineered system is $4,000 to $15,000 more than a simple pump system. If you use the alternative to the mound with pretreatment, it is only $4,000 to $7,000 more than a simple pump system. If you are trying to build a house on acreage, your total project is hundreds of thousands of dollars, your budget shouldn’t be so tight that a few thousand breaks it.

The cost associated with the engineered systems are: more design fees and more dirt work, as the soils that don’t drain have to be dug out and replaced with something that does.

There are even more types of systems than I have laid out here but these are the most common. You do have options on which type of system will work for you. If you don’t want a pretreatment system, you can do something else instead. I mention the soils depths here for general reference but always consult an actual soils engineer because the soils depth can change due to other factors on the property.

The estimated costs here were taken from a recent estimate I got from a septic engineer for a 3 bedroom septic and are not a guarantee of your actual cost. This will vary from area to area and if you want to know what it actually costs you will need to go get an actual bid from a contractor.

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DouglasFir.net

All's Well That Ends With a Well

2006-09-13T13:57:00.000-07:00

One frequent request I get in my emails is people looking for land with a spring, creek or pond on it, for water to drink. I am shocked by the ignorance many from the city have about how people in the country live—there are actually people out there who do not even know what a well is! This may come as a surprise to some who have lived in the city their whole lives but most people in rural areas do not drink out of creeks just like most do not use outhouses.

Generally you don’t want to be drinking surface water due to parasites such as beaver fever. If you don’t take my word for it, you should ask the planning department in the county you are looking in if they will give you a building permit using surface water as your water source--most won’t. Now if you are looking at using surface water for irrigation or livestock, this is a reasonable use but please don’t tell me you want to drink out of a creek or lake.

Most people in rural areas use drilled wells for water. Underground water is much more sanitary than surface water.

Many people are worried that they will not hit water. Although it is possible to drill a well and not hit water, it is usually a matter of not going deep enough. Many people expect a shallow well and then hire a contractor whose equipment has a shallow depth limit (as people with equipment that can go deeper are usually more expensive and much busier). Western Washington is a costal temperate rainforest climate from the sea level to 3000’ feet. Ask people who live in the area if they are worried about not having enough water, most people have the opposite problem with their property, there is too much water!

Some people even go to the trouble of having a well contractor or engineer prepare an estimate of the depth of the well, but this is no guarantee that they will hit water. The only way to really know is to actually drill the well. You can look at well logs in the surrounding area; in fact this is how they prepare the estimate. The data is available from the department of ecology online. You can look at wells in the neighborhood to see what depth the neighbors got water at. Again, no guarantees, as I have seen several wells at the same elevation hit water at differences of hundreds of feet that were all less than 1000 feet from each other. Using well logs and topography you can guess what the water is like under the ground but there may be unapparent underground geologic factors. Also, if the property you are looking at is at a different elevation than the nearby wells, they are not very comparable.

One of the risks with developing land is getting that source of water. You may have an estimate in hand, with plenty of comparable nearby wells at the same elevation and then go in and not hit water. I know of at least one case where somebody bought property on top of a mountain and didn’t hit water. You would think it would be obvious that if you are buying land that is solid rock there is not going to be much water there—the observation that water soaks into dirt and runs off rock didn’t occur to the guy until after he bought the property and tried to drill the well.

In every area, there seems to be some water witch doctor that claims to be able to divine water by witching with a stick. However, no one has scientifically been able to prove this works. Most of the time you find water in the place they select, but then again most of the time you find water in the spot you drill.

Really, drilling a well is one of my last concerns on most property. I have never had anyone who bought property from me fail to hit water, but I have heard of it happening. Usually the finding out if the soil has too much water in it that would prevent an on-site sewage would be my first concern.

This article is based on my experiences with land in Western Washington. There are areas of Eastern Washington and other states where I would worry much more about water, you know like deserts.

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Washington Well Parasites

Using YouTube to Market Property

2006-09-10T12:10:00.000-07:00

Dustin of the Rain City Guide had posted an article on his blog about a month ago, asking the question of using YouTube as a marketing tool. This got my interest in exploring this technology. So I made my own channel on YouTube and made a few videos.

I would be interested in any feedback anyone has on these. Do they look good? Do you like narration, silence or music? Should I be in the video? Does this make you more interested in the property? Is this a waste of time?

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Marketing Video YouTube web2.0

Property Fairness Signatures Filed

2006-07-06T14:57:00.000-07:00

The property fairness coalition today filed signatures to get I-933 on the ballot for this November. The signatures still have to be verified by the Secretary of State but the number entered was far in excess of what was required so we should see it land on the ballot. Hopefully this measure will get enacted into law to help protect Washington land owners. If you are not familiar with this initiative you can read a little more about it in my previous blog post.

Dirt Cheap Land at an Auction?

2006-06-15T09:54:00.000-07:00

Recently a large company had a land auction in Washington. The newspaper was advertising the fact that they were giving a way a free parcel of land every hour just for attending the auction. The only better thing than dirt cheap land is free land. However, there is a long history of criminals selling worthless land. It’s called fraud. So you must always be careful when buying land.

A number of people have heard of this auction and asked me about it. My standard line is that I would not buy a piece of land without doing my due diligence because I don’t like high stakes gambling. To do due diligence on land involves taking time and spending money. Now the auction doesn’t even give adequate time nor any protection for money spent. A legitimate seller will allow somebody to do a feasibility study to determine if the property is buildable. The major one is the soils analysis test; this involves bringing out a backhoe and a soils engineer. You would not want to spend money on land unless you were locked into buy it. Plus you would need permission from the seller to go dig your test holes.

The company itself warns buyers to check out the property themselves. However most properties don’t even have road access, so how can you get in there and do your tests? Furthermore you don’t have a locked in deal, you can spend money doing the tests and then get out bid.

Maybe I am too conservative, so I will go check out a few just to see what is available. I decided to go check out the three closest properties to me, just to see.

The first was a 7 acre property in Tumwater. It had no apparent road access to it. I did not want to trespass on the neighbor’s property, so I was unable to inspect the property personally. I did get some information from the county. A ditch runs through the property as well as a large associated wetland that fills most of the property. The remainder of the parcel is encumbered by wetland buffers.

The next property was inside a county park in the Boston Harbor area. There was no road access to it and I guess I could have walked through the park to get to it but I didn’t bother. There may have been a legal easement for access on this one. However, it was 100% wetland according to county records. I doubt that a septic system could be installed here but possibly there might have been a sewer around somewhere? Still there are other lots in this area of this size and none are built on, nor are any built on that are off the road. This one isn’t even up for auction, it is offered at the “deal” price of $9,100 at 13.9% interest for 6 years.

The third property was under 2 acres in the Eatonville area and had a seasonal creek running through the center of it. The entire property was low lying and grass consistent with what you’d find in a flood plain. There were homes in the neighborhood but not at this low of elevation. The only thing at this elevation was cow pasture and a vacant parcel used for a billboard.

All of these properties appeared that they probably would not support a septic system and it would be a huge risk to buy marginally buildable properties (if buildable at all) without doing the due diligence to discover if they are buildable. Properties with a lot of wetlands often do not qualify for septic systems. If the properties in the auction are this bad, I am sure I do not want to see the free ones.

All three properties were owned by a LLC. I checked with the state of Washington to see if it was a corporation in good standing and they had no record of it. Although the state of Washington requires foreign corporations to register with the state if they do business in the state--they probably don’t need to register as a business because they only sell a couple hundred parcels of land a couple of times a year.

Is this company selling worthless land? Maybe. Is this company selling potentially worthless land in a fast shuffle transaction so the buyer can’t do their due diligence? Defiantly. Is this company committing fraud? Possibly, but I am no lawyer. Also the company claims not to have seen any of their own land so it may just be a case of willful ignorance. What they are doing might be legal, but it sure doesn't seem ethical to me.

Google Real Estate

2006-04-06T20:46:00.001-07:00

Google has combined their Google Base feature with their Street mapping feature to try and make a classified ad Real Estate portal, that the bloggers have titled Google Real Estate . I would like to see them combine this with their Google Earth feature to map out land for sale.

Many pundits predict the doom of traditional advertising mediums and real estate brokers. I doubt it. Not a lot of people will look to Google to find land. However since it is free advertising, I didn't hesitate to put my listings of land for sale on there. I don't see this as a bad thing for me, I see it as a tool to make my job easier. If someone uses Google to find the land I am selling and they buy it, I get a check and Google gets nothing.

I suspect that most of my compeitors will shun Google's new platform. Most of my compeitors websites do not even have static html pages to index in search engines. They want to control access to the information by burying it in "branded" databases. Since their databases are not indexed by the search engines, their sites are difficult if not impossible to find. I wonder how well that it is working out for them, actually I don't really care, I just want to sell the properties I have listed.

I have noticed that most of the entries in the database are from paid lead generators. These are business who Real Estate Agents pay to generate buyer or seller leads. I wonder why agents and brokers can't just type the information into Google on their own.

Property Fairness

2006-03-28T08:46:00.000-08:00

Initiative 933 is gathering signatures now! This proposal is to protect property rights by requiring compensation by the government when they damage the use or value of your property through regulation.

If you sit down and do a sober reading of the state and federal constitution you would find that this already is law. However the regulators in the state capital think that they should be able to take private land and put it to a public use, such as a wildlife preserve, and not pay compensation to the owner. Furthermore by restricting the use and value without taking the land through emienet domain, not only are they not paying property owners, they are still making them pay property taxes on land that they can't use.

I have ran into many people who have bought land because they wanted a cabin on it, or they wanted to build a home later on to retire, or they wanted to have a few cows or they wanted to cut some timber. Years later they come back and find that the government has taken away their rights to use their land. Sure enough they were never paid for it and the owners are still paying property taxes on it.

This initiative is sponsored by the Washington Farm Bureau and you may find more information on the initiative at: http://www.propertyfairness.com/

As soon as the wording was approved by the judge, I donated some money and started to gather signatures. Other than that I have nothing to do with the initiative besides being a supporter.