The cost to participate in this fundraiser is $40, which covers event registration (including beer), and an Ales for Alzheimer’s t-shirt.  Continue reading…

Ed. note: I don’t usually post press releases verbatim. However, this particular disease has affected my life considerably for several years. Both of my Dad’s parents, who were effectively my parents, have suffered from Alzheimer’s. My grandpa, now a vibrant, if befuddled 95, lives in a managed care home in Ballard, and my Dad is now the CEO of the Western & Central Washington State Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association.  I look forward to being an active volunteer with this wonderful organization. I must say, they make it pretty easy by including pub crawls among their events. Please consider joining us, or at least sponsoring a crawler.

I’ve started my own team of committed pub crawlers on Facebook. Join us!

eXp Realty would like to welcome its newest real estate investment expert, Bob Kelly, to our team in Bellevue, WA.  Bob is a newly licensed agent, since June. He lives with his wife and three sons in Bellevue, WA.

Real estate investment background:

Bob and his wife have purchased six rentals houses between Bothell and Olympia. They own a vacation rental beach house out at Pacific Beach. They self-manage all of those properties. That experience has taught Bob about advertising, blogging, and building websites. He began last year to turn over the rental portfolio on lease options and owner financing for greater cash flow, and recently learned about the business of flipping mobile homes in senior parks. His first project is currently for sale on the MLS (#152530).

Bob Kelly joined eXp Realty for the technology platform, training in Social Media Marketing, the company leads, and the reasonable fees. He is excited to be the first agent on the Eastside (Bellevue, WA),  and looks forward to the opportunity to build the company’s business over there.

Unique Real Estate Services:

Investors: Bob likes working with investors. He’s a member of the REIA in Bellevue , a real estate education and networking club. He will fearlessly make low bids for investors.

Vacation rentals: Based on his personal experience, Bob can help buyers with the acquisition, furnishing and set up, remote management, and advertising of a vacation rental property. He also offers a vacation rental marketing service, where he will photograph the property, create a new website, and post daily ads to Craigslist.

Bellevue Real Estate Services: Bob Kelly has  lived on the Eastside since age 3, so he expects to fill out the company’s websites with articles about Eastside communities and make Bellevue his area of expertise.

Education:

1. Data Processing at Bellevue Community College – 1983 to 1985
2. Lots of real estate investor seminars and programs: Robert Shemin (wholesaling), Dean Graziosi (wholesaling), Todd Toback (lease options), Jerry Lucker (mobile homes), Jeff Adams (REOs), and Rich Dad.

Former career: Computer Programming (25 years). His favorite part was the six trips to Italy to work with Olivetti in the late 80s and early 90s.

So, if you are a real estate investor looking in the Seattle, Bellevue or Greater Puget Sound area, Bob is your guy. He’s been there, and he’s done it, so you can bet he will get you a good deal.

Bob Kelly is a real estate broker with eXp Realty in the Bellevue, Washington area, near Seattle. He specializes in residential investment property. He can be reached  at (360) 480-9154 or bob.kelly@bellevuepowersearch.com

Rob LeRoy is a Seattle real estate agent and social media marketing coach with eXp Realty.

Revenue Share = Retirement Security

As eXp Realty stands poised to expand into its 14th State in as many months, the buzz around the company has reached a fever pitch.  eXp Realty has become known among forward-thinking real estate professionals for offering an unparalleled agent benefits package, including low fees, splits and caps, several comprehensive education programs, cutting edge technology, dynamic websites, phenomenal lead generation, and hands-on social media marketing coaching… Sure, eXp Realty has all of that, but the “secret ingredient” that makes eXp Realty really stand out is its industry-leading revenue share program.

Wouldn’t You Like to Retire Someday?

True, residual income programs that encourage company growth are nothing new. There are several other residual income programs out there, but none of them offer the kind of benefits offered by eXp Realty. None. Not even close. You know why? Because eXp Realty deliberately set out to beat the competition. And beat them, they have!

Let me explain. Of the few firms out there that offer residual income opportunities, most have programs that are flawed, convoluted and confusing or, at best, insignificant.  For instance, a certain nationally known brokerage, with whom many of us at eXp formerly spent time, has what has been known as the industry-leading profit-share program. The rub lies right there in the name; profit share. eXp Realty has revenue share.  Profit share derives from a complicated equation based on agent recruits, company growth and individual office profitability. It is an equation that is barely understood, even by those who sing its praises to potential recruits…and it doesn’t pay much, especially when the office you work in isn’t making money.

The eXp Realty revenue share program pays you residual income from your recruits regardless of office or company profitability. They make money – you make money.

The eXp Realty Revenue Share Program Explained

eXp Realty Revenue Share Calculator

It works like this: If you recruit an agent, you receive 3.5% of their gross commission. Period. Better yet, you keep receiving that amount on each of their transactions until they’ve paid their annual company cap of $16k. If you recruit at least 5 agents yourself, you then receive 4% from the commissions of any agents your recruits have recruited. If you recruit at least 10 agents, you not only receive the 4% from second-level recruits, but also another 2.5% from third level recruits! And it keeps going for seven levels! Basically, for every 5 personal recruits, you qualify for one deeper level of residual, passive income. Take a minute to play around with the eXp Realty Revenue Share Calculator on the left. (Note: you’ll receive a small share for lower level recruits regardless of your first level, though it is only a fraction of the amount in this model)

Here’s an example:

Let’s say you join eXp Realty right now, while we’re still in our ground-floor growth phase. You recruit 10 agents, each of which then recruits only one agent, and each of those agents recruits only one agent. That’s a total of only 30 agents, after yourself.  (Note: As of September of 2010, there were over 1 Million members of the NAR, so 30 shouldn’t be that hard)  Let’s say each of those agents sells 6 median priced homes at 3% commission (NAR estimates 2010 median home price of $166k)… Seems pretty conservative, even these days, doesn’t it? How much do you make?

$29, 880 in passive, residual income. You don’t even have to get out of bed to make it. (Actually, you must be current with your company fees, but still…)

Now, let’s say you get really excited (like me) and recruit 10 agents who are equally excited. Then they go and recruit 10 agents each who are really excited, and those each recruit 10 more. That’s 1,110 agents. Quite a few, I know. But remember, there are millions of them out there… Let’s say they all perform at the same conservative level as those in the previous example. How much do you think that is?

$876,978

That’s right…almost 1 million Dollars! In passive income. That all comes from convincing 10 halfway decent agents to come work for the fastest growing, most innovative real estate company in the Country, then helping them to do the same, and so on. That’s it.  Now just imagine what would happen if you recruited a team of top producers in a market with average home prices in the $200-300k range…or higher!

Oh and, by the way, my job is to help you achieve your recruiting goals, as well as those of the agents you recruit… As an eXp Realty Recruiter and Social Media Marketing Coach I am 100% committed to working with you directly to make these numbers a reality. At least until my early retirement….

If you’re ready to learn more about eXp Realty, give me a call at 206.883.6668, or e-mail me at rob.leroy@exprealty.com

Rob LeRoy is a Seattle real estate agent and social media marketing coach with eXp Realty.

What is a short sale?

It can be awfully tempting to get excited about “amazing,” “smokin’” or “crazy” deals. There are certainly enough people out there blabbering on and on about them, especially in the real estate world. In particular, the hype surrounding short-sales and foreclosed, bank-owned homes has reached a fever pitch over the past 18 months. It seems almost impossible these days to walk 10 feet or listen to the radio (for those of you who still do that) for 10 minutes without seeing or hearing somebody expounding on the fabulous virtues of investing in “troubled assets”.

What is a Short Sale?

A short sale is, essentially, an agreement between a bank and a distressed homeowner to sell their home for less than the amount of the loan, in lieu of a foreclosure. This is becoming more common as market prices are falling below the current mortgages held by these struggling owners.  The bank, rather than dealing with the expense and hassle of actually throwing somebody out on the street, decides to be “nice” and let them off the hook for a reduced amount, assuming a buyer can be found who is willing to pay a price deemed acceptable by the bank. Hypothetically, this is a good deal for all parties:

• The Seller can get out from under the financial burden of a sinking ship and, hopefully, begin the road to economic recovery. The credit stain of a short-sale is far less severe than that of a foreclosure. I’ve heard of people qualifying for new home loans in as little as two years after a short sale, rather than the 7-10 years following a foreclosure.
• The Buyer can get themselves a new home with a discount of anywhere from 10%-50% off of what the Seller originally paid.
• The Bank can dispense with a troubled asset and put some much needed capital back into its coffers.

All of this can and does happen, though it is not nearly as simple as you would like to think. In fact, most of the time it is a ridiculous quagmire of pointless red tape, mixed signals, and limitless frustration. Here are a few fun facts that I thought should be shared.

1. Short sales are anything but short… The average short sale purchase takes anywhere from 60-120 days from the date of “mutual acceptance”. The Seller has to agree to the initial offer (mutual acceptance), but it is the Bank who really calls the shots, and they can be…difficult* to get answers from. They will commonly take weeks or months to even acknowledge the Buyer’s existence, much less respond to an offer. If they don’t like an offer, they’ll probably just ignore it. If they do like it, it may still take weeks to negotiate inspections, closing details, etc.
* Nearly impossible

2. There is no guarantee… It is entirely common for Buyers to wait for weeks and weeks with no response whatsoever, only to find out that the Bank either A) never saw their offer, or B) got a better one and took it. This puts buyers in the unfortunate and stressful position of simply hoping that their offer gets accepted…especially those buyers who are buying a place to live, rather than as an investment. I commonly find myself having to explain this reality to prospective clients…“If you need a place to actually live and have any kind of set timeline in place, you should really just forget about a short sale. There are other factors to consider besides the price…”

3. Banks aren’t as motivated as you think… Between tax write-offs for losses, Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) covering those losses, and Government cash being delivered in vault-sized payments, the Banks aren’t in any particular hurry to change their behavior or do any favors. Sure, to the outsider it would make sense for the Banks to cut whatever deals they could with struggling homeowners. It seems like common sense…stop the bleeding, put some money back into circulation, slow the accelerating depreciation of home values, etc. Good for everybody, right? Unfortunately, many of the banks are being rewarded for their greed and failure, rather than common sense and good business practices.

4. You don’t really know what you’re getting… Though this one tends to apply more to foreclosed, Real Estate Owned (aka “REO” or “Bank Owned”) properties, it is pretty common with short sales. Unsurprisingly, people who are about to be kicked out of their homes tend to be a little disgruntled. They are not always inclined to leave the place looking clean and nice, the way it looked in the pictures the listing agent took 6 months earlier when they still thought they could cover their losses. (That one might be a little inside, but if you’ve ever looked at a short sale listing online, then in-person, you’ll know what I mean.) Generally speaking, the condition of the house will depend largely on whether or not it is still occupied. If the Sellers are still living there, it will probably be in pretty good condition, or, at the very least, in whatever condition they are accustomed to keeping it. If the home has already been vacated, watch out! It is quite common for the vacating Sellers to take whatever isn’t nailed down…and sometimes the nails themselves. If you’ve ever seen the History Channel show “Life After People” you’ll know that it doesn’t take long for a structure to deteriorate in the absence of maintenance. Plumbing and wiring problems, leaks, mold and pest issues are all very common. With an ordinary listing, the sellers will continue to maintain the property, even after vacating. Sellers of short sales usually have much bigger problems…

5. The sellers are real people… This is one that is very significant to me, personally, but is one of those things that buyers would prefer not to think about, like how many people have died in that cute 100-year old craftsman they’re so excited about. Oh, how ironic. I opened up a section on sympathy and sensitivity with a joke about dead people… Welcome to the complicated world of Rob LeRoy. But I digress… When considering the purchase of a short sale, it is important to be mindful of the fact that your “great deal” is someone else’s lost dream. Sellers of distressed properties are usually normal, kind and productive people who have fallen on hard times via job-loss, divorce, or illness…sometimes all three. Remember that these are commonly desperate people who just want to move on with their lives with what little remaining dignity they can salvage. Please don’t take advantage of that. If it’s a short sale, sure, you might be able to haggle down the price a little. At that point it is the bank’s money, after all. Often, though, a homeowner will try to sell before they are totally underwater. In these cases, they have little-to-no room to negotiate much of anything. I would urge prospective buyers to be as sympathetic as possible. Sure, I know…it’s just business. I guess…but that’s just not the way I want to live my life or treat the people in it. I guess that’s why I’m not a Republican.

Rob LeRoy is a Seattle real estate agent and social media marketing coach with eXp Realty.

If you are the parent of a college kid,  you might want to take a minute to think about real estate investing.  You’re already spending a ton of money sending the kid to school, “investing” in his or her future, so why not hedge your bets on an investment that might actually pay you back someday?  Think about it- you’ve got at least four years of living expenses to pay for on top of the tuition. You can either throw it away paying for a tiny, overpriced dorm or some dumpy, overpriced rental, OR you can take that money and put it toward something that has a future. Like real estate.  Let me explain…

I went to Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA, so I will use that area as an example, though the numbers would likely look quite similar in just about any college town. Rates per person at Western’s dorms run roughly $500 (3 kids in a room) to $800+ (single occupancy) per month, NOT including food expenses.  Rental rates anywhere near campus run about $400-600 a month per room, depending on the number of rooms.  Studios and 1-bedrooms are commonly $700-900/month, whereas you might find a decent  3-bedroom for $1400.   Let’s be conservative and say it’s about $600/month on average, per room. Over 4 years (48 months) that’s almost $30,000(!) that you will NEVER get back.  As Everett Dirksen famously said,“ A billion here, a billion there…pretty soon you’re talking about real money!”

Consider this:  Right now, you can buy a 1-bedroom, 600 square foot condo, built in 2006, less than a half-mile from Western Washington University, for $120k.  With 20% down at 6% interest, the monthly payment, which includes taxes, insurance, and HOA dues (W/S/G) comes to about $825, leaving only electricity and cable for expenses.  Sounds like kind of a lot, doesn’t it? Let’s take a closer look.

• Similar units in this building are currently renting for between $725 and $800.

• You can write off some (maybe  all) of your interest payments , giving you roughly 25% back at tax time, depending on your bracket, making the effective monthly expense closer to $600. Make sure to talk to your accountant about this and other creative write-offs you might find…

• As an owner, your monthly expenses remain fixed over time.  According to a colleague who studies rent growth in the area, rents near Western have increased at an average of about 6% per year, over the past 5 years.  Assuming that trend were to continue, the monthly rent on that same unit would go up  to almost $900-$1000 by the 4th year of your student’s education. Over 4 years, that would cost you between $38000-$42000 in rent! Gone, flushed….never to be seen again…

• Don’t forget about appreciation! Even in these tough times, most analysts are expecting the market to have corrected itself in the next couple of years, meaning there is a good chance the value of your investment will begin to increase during the 4-5 years that your student will live there. That’s right, you might even MAKE money on this thing! Worst case, you can always hang onto it to make sure the kid doesn’t try to move back in with you after college…

This is just one example, of course.  There  are several other condo opportunities I can point you toward.  There are also houses and duplexes, etc… The numbers can look even better if you buy something with more rooms. Then, you can collect $500-$700/month of OTHER PEOPLE’S money! That ‘s the best kind of money, after all…

If you’d like to look more seriously at this type of investment, keep in mind that there are all kinds of different programs available, requiring anywhere from 3.5% to 20% down.  You can buy as an investment property, as a second home for yourself, or possibly as a first home for the kid. Each of these options has it’s own credit and income requirements, as well as unique tax implications.  Again, I would suggest consulting your accountant, as well as a mortgage professional, to make sure you understand clearly these particular details. You can talk to me if you want to know where to find these properties.

Thanks for reading! Please leave comments or suggestions below, e-mail me at rob.leroy@exprealty.com, or call me at 206.883.6668 …and yes, you CAN hire me as your real estate agent!

Rob LeRoy is a Seattle real estate agent and social media marketing coach with eXp Realty.

1. The water! Less than a mile away is the peaceful and gorgeous Beach Drive. Just far enough from the bustle of Alki, yet close enough for a great run /walk with numerous scenic viewpoints and parks along the way. There is even a lovely Italian restaurant, La Rustica, for those nights you’d like to take a leisurely stroll to a memorable dinner.

2. The Alaska Junction offers a plethora of restaurants and pubs. A huge variety of foods are represented here. Mexican, Sushi, Steaks, Thai, pub fare and more! Not to mention our thriving nightlife. Monthly art walks feature local artists, there is live theatre at Artswest, as well as a handful of Karaoke and live music venues.

Alaska Junction Restaurants

3. The choices for your morning caffeine fix are nearly endless. If you’re on the run, Angelina’s has a drive thru. If you need some time online, Hotwire has free wi-fi to pair with your latte. Or, if you just want a cozy, lovely place to be,  C & P Coffee has unbeatable ambiance!

4. The Junction also boasts some excellent boutique shopping. Excellent values are to be found at Cherry Consignment and Funky Jane’s. Or if high end specialty clothes are your thing, Carmilia’s and Sweetie are sure to please. We even have specialty shoe stores, like Edie’s and Clementine, that feature the hippest new styles.

5. If antiques make your heart sing, take a walk through our spacious Antique Mall. The mall offers three floors of shopping delights, from antiques to chotchkeys. You should also check out Wild Rose’s Antiques just up the street. A relaxing Sunday could be spent just wandering through these treasure troves!

6. There are plenty of basic services available in the Junction:

• Automobile repair
• Dentists
• Post office
• Banks
• Hairdressers
• Spa services and more.

You can even pay your City of Seattle bills here. Our retailers include two major grocery stores (QFC and Safeway), plus GNC, True Value, Bartells Drugs, Petco and Next to Nature for your pets, the great Husky Deli and Bin 41 for wine just to name a few. And last, but certainly not least, our Sunday Farmers Market is not to be missed!

7. The Alaska Junction has several fitness options. We have Bikram Yoga , the family-minded YMCA, Fitness Together for one-on-one training, and the 24-hour gym, Snapfitness. My personal favorite is the colossal All Star Fitness just down the hill to the East, near the West Seattle Bridge.

Ercolini Park

8. West Seattle has some amazing parks. Lincoln Park is our most grand, set right on the Sound with a salt water public pool, miles of trails and numerous playing fields. There are also many smaller parks dotted throughout our neighborhoods that really strike me. In my neighborhood of Seaview, the newly built Ercolini Park is always alive with children playing. It is a popular gathering place for families in this area. And then, of course, there is Alki Beach, which provides a beautiful slice of Souther California, right here in our own back yard.

Queen Anne from Alki

9.  It is a quick commute to downtown Seattle for an urban adventure. It is great to live in such a quiet, convenient community, yet have all of the excitement and activity of the city available within easy reach. The West Seattle Bridge, Highway 99 and Interstate 5 keep West Seattle conveniently connected.  The Alaska Junction is also a major bus stop, making it simple and affordable to reach the rest of the city.  We also have a  foot ferry near Alki Beach that runs April-October for car free trips to downtown.

10. The people. Even with all of the breathtaking views, beautiful homes, and exceptional restaurants, it is the people that really make West Seattle great. Everywhere you go, there are friendly, outgoing people who are just truly happy to be a part of and share their community.  It is a common site to see our neighbors out for evenings strolls with their dogs and or kids throughout our neighborhoods.  I’ve been living here in West Seattle for several years, and I have many great friends here. There is a real sense of community here, and I absolutely love it!

Rob LeRoy is a Seattle real estate agent and social media marketing coach with eXp Realty.

Re-Posted from Dwellings Seattle News with permission from my friend and colleague Annette Grupido

Joining eXp Realty gets you access to our  Social Media Marketing program…for FREE!*

I am thrilled to announce the launch of my eXp Realty Premier Social Media Marketing Program.  If you’re an agent that understands the turning tide of modern marketing, but don’t quite know how to get started, this program is for you.  Similar to the wildly popular and truly excellent Rain Camp seminars, eXp offers all of the same tools and tricks. Plus, I’ll actually help you implement all of them!

Rain Camp  teaches the latest in social media marketing strategies…then leaves you on your own to put them in place. They charge between $100-300 for a one-day seminar, knowing full-well that only about 3-5% of the agents will ever do anything constructive with the knowledge. That’s how seminars work.

eXp Realty is different. We will give you the fish AND teach you how to fish. You will have ongoing, one-on-one personal coaching from Social Media experts.

We’ll help you brand yourself, both online and within your market area via:

• Blogging
• Top-ranked websites
• Newsletters
• Social media networking
• Print media

We’ll teach you how to write effective blog posts that will:

• Help you generate new business
• Reinforce your existing personal database
• Help you dominate your market-niche online

We’ll help you distribute those posts via:

• Search engine optimization on personal and company websites
• Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN and other online communities
• e-mail newsletter campaigns

And we’ll do it all FOR FREE!!!! Your 20% company split covers all of it!*

This EXACT service usually costs an agent between $500-1000 up-front and 10-20% of their gross commissions. You are, essentially, getting a full-time marketing department. Even if you knew how to do all of it, you would have to allocate at least 1-2 full days each week to maintain this type of program. Just think about how much time you’ll save, and how much MORE time you’ll have to be doing what you really want and need to do: Writing contracts and closing deals!

For more information on the eXp Realty Social Media Marketing Program, as well as other great reasons to join eXp Realty,  call me directly at 206.883.6668, or e-mail me at rob.leroy@exprealty.com

* Ask me how to qualify for the free program. Not available to all recruits.

Rob LeRoy is a Seattle real estate agent and social media marketing coach with eXp Realty.

1. The Industry’s Best Residual Recruiting/Revenue Share Program
2. Amazing Internet Presence/ Top-Ranked Websites
3. Multiple Revenue Streams and Business Planning/Accountability Workshops
4. Collaborative Blogging Platforms and SEO Will Put You at the Top of Google Searches
5. Lead Generation Programs Will Get You Started On Day #1
6. Low Split’s and Fee’s Make Business Affordable Again
7. Cutting Edge Real Estate Agent Tech Tools
8. Free Social Media Marketing Training and Coaching Program
9. Green, Paperless, Low Carbon Footprint
10. On-demand training 24/7 by Top Facilitators via eXp Virtual and eXp University
11. eXp Realty is at the Forefront of Sponsoring Local Social Events, RE Camps and
12. Low Annual Cap!!!

If that got your attention (and if it didn’t, you’re probably not a real estate agent) click here for a more detailed explanation of eXp Realty’s innovative programs. Or, if you’re ready to make the leap, go ahead and call me so we can get together and talk about your future!  My cell # is 206.883.6668, and I’m looking forward to hearing from you!

Rob LeRoy is a Seattle real estate agent and social media marketing coach with eXp Realty.

The big news in the Madison Park real estate market last month was the report by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (MLS) that the median price of Seattle homes sold in January was actually higher than in the same month a year earlier. For the city as a whole, this represented a 2.63% increase over the past year (houses and combos combined). It is the first time in almost two years that there has been a year-over-year increase in Seattle’s residential property values. The rest of King County did not fare as well, however, with home values continuing their downward trend.

But how did prices hold up in our neighborhood? Madison Park itself is a market that’s a bit too small for year-to-year median price comparisons to be meaningful (seven total home sales in January 2009 and only five this year). But for our general area of the City (MLS Area 390, which also includes Capitol Hill, Montlake, Madison Valley, Madrona, and Leschi), the news was pretty good. There was a modest 2.1% increase in value between January last year and this. This improvement, however, perhaps has more to do with a year over year change in the mix of sales (houses versus condos) than a real move up in home values.

Nevertheless, it’s a good start to 2010. Whether this welcome news means we’re on an upward trajectory will only become evident when we’ve got a few more months of sales data in hand. It’s just possible, however, that for our area of Seattle—like for the rest of the City—the downward slope of real estate values has been arrested. At minimum, the rate of decline seems to have abated.

Thanks to Bryan Tagas for providing this article. To read more, click here to see the full piece on his website.

For more information on Madison Park real estate, please contact Rob LeRoy at eXp Realty at 206.883.6668, or by e-mail at rob.leroy@exprealty.com

The Japanese Garden in the Arboretum is about to end its winter hiatus, reopening on Sunday, February 14, for its 50th Anniversary season. Rated by a garden journal as one of the ten favorite Japanese gardens in the country, Seattle’s Japanese Garden was inaugurated in July 1960, after only four months of construction. It’s now ready to celebrate a half century of giving pleasure to visitors seeking sanctuary and a connection to nature.

The concept of adding a Japanese Garden to the Arboretum goes back to 1937, but it took another twenty years for the idea to gain enough popular support to enable fundraising to begin for the project (a war against Japan had intervened). In 1959, with funds in hand and the design completed, Juki Iida and Nobumasa Kitamura were hired to build the garden, which originally was scheduled to take up to three years to complete. Using heavy construction equipment, a somewhat scaled-back design, and a capable crew of mostly Japanese-American gardeners, the builders transformed an Arboretum ravine into a colorful and tranquil garden, offset by boulders, water features and formal elements. And they did it all in record time. (That’s Juki Iida in the photo below, standing on the site during the construction). Click here to read more.

Thanks to Bryan Tagas at Madison Park Blogger for letting me re-post this great article!

Rob LeRoy is a Seattle real estate agent and social media marketing coach with eXp Realty.