Cowlitz News and Real Estate

The Cowlitz County fair and rodeo 2008 is here, come and join the fun from Wednesday July 30^th to Saturday August 2^nd. Four days of pure fun and excitement awaiting kids, adults and everyone else in between willing to come and join the fun. The fair will begin with the kid's day parade on Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. and will be open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. with the usual variety of stands, games and rides for kids, teenagers and all daring parents. Then there is the variety of special schedule events like the Thunder Mountain Pro Rodeo, Demolition Derby, Cruise to the Fair-Open Car Show, Road Warrior paintball, Rodeo Queen Coronation and many, many more. To see all schedule events, the dates and times, visit the Cowlitz County website here. 

Venancio Gonzalez a GRI, E-PRO Realtor®, Windermere Real Estate Allen & Associates, 360 751 4001, Servicing the Cowlitz County real rstate market.

Will Upgrading Your Cowlitz County Home Will Help To Sell It Faster?

Researches have showed that making targeted improvements according to the age of your home will help to sale faster and for more money. A good starting point is to have a pre-sale home inspection that will show the defects of your home and have a contractor or handy man fix them, document the work and have it ready for potential buyers. The cost of inspection varies depending on the inspector and size of home, here in Cowlitz County a full home inspection will cost from $270 to $350.

Homes built before the 1960 usually have many great appeals but have only 60 or 90-amp electrical service which is not adequate to work with most modern appliances. It is a good idea to upgrade to a minimum of 100 amp and make sure the wiring meets code. Many of these homes often are hiding hardwood floors (most likely in a great conditions) under that old wore down carpet.

If your home was build during the 1960 more than likely will have those old dated Single-pane windows that should be upgraded, just by doing that you should see about 25% savings on your heating/cooling bills. Other easy and inexpensive thing to do is to replace dated cabinet hardware with stainless or nickel knobs, pulls and hinges and if cabinets are still in good condition; clean, sand, stain or paint them.

Homes built during the 1970's era are well known for those pink or green bathtubs, showers, kitchen appliances and those lose wild colors that with out a doubt give these homes a feeling of old age. Modern color appliances and fresh coat of paint will do wonders for these homes.

Popular trends during the 1980's were wall paper and laminate counter tops which are consider old fashion today. To give your home some charm, replace wall paper, switch plates, and repaint flaking paint. Hard surfaces counter tops is what you will find in today's new homes if you are going to replace them, visit new construction open houses to see what the new trend is.

One would expect that homes built during the 1990's would require fewer upgrades than homes from the 1980's or older. But the truth is that most of these homes often require more upgrades than older homes for the following reason; 10 to 15 years is the life expectancy of home appliances like stove/oven, washer/dryer, refrigerator, dishwasher and big-ticket items like furnace, air-condition, water heater and is likely that one or more of these items will have to be replace.

Always clean or replace carpet if necessary, nothing welcomes you more to a home than a clean carpet. And whatever the age of the home a home warranty always a great idea it will give a peace of mind and can be inexpensive way to make your home more appealing to home buyers. Visit the following links more sellers tips and sellers real estate information.

Contact Cowlitz County real estate agent, Venancio Gonzalez a GRI, E-PRO Realtor®, with Windermere Real Estate Allen & Associates, 360 751 4001 for more upgrading tips, list your home or to purchase a home in Longview, Kelso, Woodland, Kalama, Castle Rock, Toutle, Silver Lake and Cathlamet.

Looking for lodging in the Castle Rock / Silver Lake area?

One of my favorites is the Blue Heron Inn at Silver Lake Washington. Come and experience a true feeling of the Pacific Northwest, treat your self to a friendly service, a full country breakfast, relax in front of a fire place or your own private balcony with wonderful panoramic view of the Historic Mount St. Helens, Silver Lake and surrounding forested valleys.

This beautiful one of a kind place sits at the edge of Silver Lake and offers 7 beautiful rooms to choose from a Jacuzzi Suit, a king size, two queen size, two double and a ADA accessible room all with private balconies and magnificent views, two common T.V. sitting areas with fire place and Wi-Fi Hot Spot. It also offers hosting for weddings receptions, birthdays, baby showers and business meetings. For more information and reservations visit their website here.

Directions: From I-5 take Exit 49 East on Hwy 504 five miles, directly across from the Mt. Helens National Monument

For more information about the local area visit our Silver Lake / Toutle web page Here.

Do you know the reasons?

Believe it or not at this time and age where there is a ton of all kind of available information all over the net, books, and news papers just to mention some sources, here in Cowlitz County for one reason or another, we still have some sellers that trust the first agent they run in to instead of interviewing more than one to compare services and unfortunately some of them are being mislead about how much their homes are worth.

I got a call from a seller about meeting with him to possibly list his home, after few questions he revealed to me that his home was previously listed but had expired and wanted me to get it back on the market. I did my research and a market analysis on the home and came to find out that the home was previously way over priced. I was nervous about how to approach the seller with the bad news without offending him. I decided to just be honest show him the numbers and go from there. After doing my listing presentation he looked a me, smile, and said if my other agent had explain all this to me my house may have been sold by now. Phew! What a relief. I listed the home and had it sold with in seven weeks.

Came to find out that the real estate agent never presented a market analysis or any other information explaining the price, he just told the home owner, "I think your home should sell for this much" and the seller trusted the agent. A real estate agent should be professional enough and have the knowledge to do his or her job right. By not doing a market analysis and explain in detail why or how the home is price the way it is, they are doing a disservice to their clients, local market and the real estate profession. For what ever reason this agent never took the time to do his/her job and mislead the seller about how much the home was really worth.  

If you are one of those unfortunate Cowlitz County home owners that had your home previously listed and never were explained the pricing process and how your home compared to the recently sold and competing listing give me a call or e-mail me, I will give you my honest opinion and let you know what can be done to get it sold in this tough market. Request a market analysis here.

Contact Cowlitz County real estate agent, Venancio Gonzalez a GRI, E-PRO Realtor®, with Windermere Real Estate Allen & Associates, 360 751 4001, list your home or to purchase a home in Longview, Kelso, Woodland, Kalama, Castle Rock, Toutle, Silver Lake and Cathlamet.

A couple days ago, I received a request from a potential client about getting information on high end homes in the Cowlitz County area. While doing my research, I was some what amazed to see how many luxury homes are currently available for sale in the County price for well over a million dollars, I know many of you are going to think is not a lot but I'm talking about Cowlitz County here, not Portland or Seattle, where five years ago (when I started in the business of selling real estate) you rarely saw homes price over half a million. Currently there are 9 luxury homes for sale in Cowlitz County priced at over a million dollars, ranging from $1,189,000 to 1,600,000, amazing is in it?

It has been very interesting to say the least to watch how the real estate market has been changing over the last five years to what we are experiencing today. I though some of you may enjoy looking at these beautiful homes.

Click this link and enjoy!

Contact Cowlitz County real estate agent, Venancio Gonzalez a GRI, E-PRO Realtor®, with Windermere Real Estate Allen & Associates, 360 751 4001to list or purchase a home in any of the Cowlitz County communities.

Looking at the Cowlitz County real estate market numbers for last month (June) looks like the market activity is picking up to a normal pace after having the slowest month in May. There is about the same active listings from last month, about twice as much pending and more sold.

Here are the numbers for the month of June 2008, Cowlitz County real estate activity of active, pending and sold homes also includes average price and days on the market.

807 active listings, four more than May, with 130 average days on the market and average price of $288,088.

5 contingent listings, three less that in May, with 105 average days on the market and average price of $306.560.

89 pending listings, 43 more than May, with 102 average days on the market and average price of $216,161.

68 sold listing, 12 more than May, with 103 average days on the market and average price of $216,434.

The price range of $250,000 - $299,900 once again is the more competitive with 139 active listings, 2 contingent, 15 pending and 10 sold.

The more active price range once again is $200,000 - $249,999 with 20 pending and 15 sold listings.

As the stats show, home in the Cowlitz County real estate market are still selling not at a pace that we are use to but if they are price right they are selling.

Cowlitz County Real Estate - Venancio Gonzalez - 360 751 4001

Longview Washington forth of July annual celebration

The beginning of the annual go forth celebration at Lake Sacajawea starts today. Kid's carnival and concession stand will open today at 7:00 pm and will last till Friday around 10:00 pm. Visitors will enjoy live music, golf practice shooting range, variety of food (elephant ears are my favorite), wide variety of other items like T-shits, sunglasses, hand made jewelry, toys and there will also be pony rides and different games for kids.

Friday the 4^th will be full of enjoyable events starting with the go forth parade at 9:00 am. that will go from the corner of Broadway and 14^th Ave. and end up at Lake Sacajawea, then the opening of the timber carnival competition will also start at 9:00 am and the finals will be at 1:00 pm., and finally the fire work display will be starting at 10:00 pm.

So if you are up for some fun for the next three days and over the holiday weekend, the Longview forth of July festival will provide plenty of entertainment and activities for all ages. Come and join the fun.