Updated price and photos

We’ve recently lowered the price to $385,000, and taken some new photos.  We didn’t use all the shots in our official listing, so I thought I’d post the extras here.

 The front door…

The kitchen.

A view of the kitchen and hallway, from the living room.  Note how great the slate floors look!

Another view of the living room.

Here’s a nice view of the back of the building, showing the secure garage door.

Oh, and one more thing:  as a part of the scheduled upkeep of the building the deck was just re-finished.  It looks great!

Be a real estate mogul!

A recent post about mortgage rates on the Rain City guide blog got me thinking about the investment potential of this unit.  So, let’s do a little back-of-the-envelope work here and see what the numbers could look like.

Let’s assume that you’ll take out a 250,000 mortgage, and put the rest down as a down payment.  At 5.9%, 30 years, that’s a payment of just under $1,500/month.  A quick look at Craigslist shows that you could probably rent this place out for at least $1,500/month, and probably even higher than that.  (Of course, you’d could also have the tenant pay the homeowner’s association dues, which would push the price up.)

I’ve heard, through the grapevine, that Seattle is currently facing a shortage of rental units.  Looking very quickly, I found one newspaper article along these same lines — and I’m willing to bet that more research would turn up similar stats showing that vacancies are low and rents are rising in town.

Anyway, in the short term, you’re looking at a wash.  It is in the long term where this deal works.  Even if the local real estate market slumps for a bit, values will rise in the long term.  And, rents will continue to go up…all the while you’re paying just $1,500/month.  So, you not only build equity, but you could also be profiting each month.

(Of course, you should do your own math prior to following this little plan.)

Open House this Sunday, 10/28

The weather report indicates that this Sunday will be a great day to check out open houses!  We’ll be open from 1-4pm on Sunday.  So, come on down to Pioneer Square, grab a cup of coffee at one of the many coffee shops, and swing on by the Florentine to see the unit.

(And, if this Sunday is like previous Sundays, there will likely be at least one other unit here open, so you can do an little compare ‘n contrast routine…I think you’ll find that 222 is easily the best deal!)

Buy this condo and lose weight!

Okay, that might be a bit of a stretch.  But, I think that living in a downtown environment like this can help you stay fit.  We’ve found ourselves walking much more here than we ever did in our previous location (a Seattle suburb that will remain nameless).  Trips that would have taken a car in other locations turn into easy walks when you live in a walkable neighborhood.

If you’re looking for something a bit more vigorous, there is a health club right across the street from the Florentine building: Seattle Fitness.

Of course, with all the cookies I’m making for these open houses, I might gain back the weight I lost while living here!

Print a flyer

Need to print out a flyer? Perhaps you’d like to pass it along to a friend or co-worker? Get it here, in handy PDF format: Flyer.

(As an aside, I just got back from printing out a few of these flyers at a Kinkos. It took about five minutes to walk to the one at 4th and Jackson. Just pointing out how easy it is to get to services like this…)

Welcome Sweet Digs Readers!

Thanks to RedFin for featuring this little blog on their site. Make sure to check out all the posts, and feel free to leave a comment if you have a specific question!

Oh, and don’t forget to come by this Saturday for the open house, 1-3pm.

Open House: Saturday, 1-3pm

Come on by this Saturday (the 20th) from 1-3pm for an open house. As I usually do when we have an open house, I’ll make some cookies. If you don’t come, I’ll be forced to eat the leftovers!

Calling all Seahawks fans! Open House this Sunday

If you’re planning on being in the area this Sunday for the Hawks game, stop on by for an open house.  We’ll be here from 2-5pm, so you’ll have plenty of time to tour the condo and still be in your seats for the 5pm kickoff!

Oh, and don’t forget, if you bought this place, you wouldn’t be paying for parking when you went to the game! 

Same great place, $10,000 less!

We’ve just lowered the price on the condo from $410,000 to $399,500!  What a deal!

Open House

We’re holding an open house this Sunday, Oct. 7th, from 1-4pm.  So, if you’d like to see the place, come on by!

(Of course, you can always call up your agent and set up a time to view the place another time, if this Sunday doesn’t work for you.)

Everyone will think you’re cool

One of the great things about living in Pioneer Square is telling people you live in Pioneer Square. Without fail, people think this is really, well, cool. Now, I’m not saying that buying this condo will *make* you cool — you’re on your own there — but it sure could help. I remember when we first bought this place we would get comments from all our friends about what a neat spot this was. And, even people who lived in great houses (think: 7 figures) seemed jealous of the location! And, really, they were right. This is a great spot, and we’ve really enjoyed our time here.

Go Green

If you’re looking to help the environment a bit (and really, who isn’t these days?), buying this condo would be a good place to start!

First of all, the location means you can drive less. You should be able to either walk or take the bus to pretty much anywhere you need to go. When we moved in, we both regularly drove to work. But, we were quickly able to cut down to driving just one car. I was able to ride the bus, and my wife was able to walk to work.

This location is:

• A short walk to the downtown bus tunnel (soon to feature light rail, too!)
• Really close to the waterfront streetcar (currently in bus format, but it still makes for an easy way to get up and down the waterfront).
• About 15-20 minute walk from the downtown business and retail district.

(Oh, and if you do drive, the access to I-90, I-5, and 99 is insanely easy. Hard to get much better, really.)

Finally, the whole place got a fresh coat of paint using low-VOC and no-VOC paint. No off-gassing here! So, get your green on and make an offer!

What’s this site all about?

Those blurbs you see when searching for homes on the internet are limited to 500 characters and that just isn’t enough space to tell you why you should buy this place. So, we thought we’d use this little blog to go into a bit more depth about the great features. We’ll include lots of detail about what we know about the neighborhood, extra photos, and links to useful Pioneer Square stuff. If you have any questions, just leave a comment!