The Creel Deal ®

When many homeowners decide that the time has come to sell their home, they may ask themselves: "Why do we need a real estate agent? An agent will charge us thousands of dollars and that commission comes right off the top!"Any real estate agent can give you an impressive list of reasons why it ma...

Recently my Broker boldly stated to me that I was the Stephen King of bloggers! It's true, I've written a few post regarding scam artist that are preying on innocent people via Craigslist, and through mortgage fraud. Scams and rip-offs are a peeve of mine, and I enjoy putting them out there on Fr...

Don't just invest in a home, invest in your child's future. While property in Bellevue doesn't come cheaply, you may get an even greater return for your investment dollar than you realize. Newport Hills (Home to Newport High School) was ranked the #1 Suburban Neighborhood (out of the 98 reviewed)...

 Having lived in the beautiful city of Newcastle's Olympus neighborhood for several years now, I really have come to understand the pain felt in being denied our own zip code. For years the city has battled with the postal service to issue a new zip code to Newcastle, so that that sharing zip cod...

I recently heard a comedian railing on real estate agents and mortgage officers regarding their use of headshots on just about everything they hand out. It is true, we are a vain bunch. We slap that pretty mug of ours on business cards, signs, notepads, refrigerator magnets, calendars, sports sch...

Now certainly if you're a contestant on the Price is Right game show those are the words you want to hear! Recently though, I've been getting a lot of e-flyers from agents all over Washington State offering me a free Mercedes (two year lease paid in full) if I can procure an offer on their listin...

Earlier this year I had the great pleasure of traveling to China with my wife and visiting her parents. It's always fascinating to go to countries so much older than ours and so rich with history; you always learn something new. Years ago while in Rome I recall noticing the rock walls were held t...

In the wake of the mortgage industry crises, we are all learning of the rampant fraud that pervaded the industry and played a key role in its collapse. Many mortgagees have fallen victim to unscrupulous lender practices and dishonest mortgage officers. I have yet to encounter a worse case of repe...

Feedback, feedback, feedback! In today's slower market it seems like every time I spend a day showing homes I'm expected (by every listing agent who's home I showed) to spend my evening filling out questionnaires.  I also get called by just about every one of them to grill me for input and to let...

Seems everything's "FREE" these days. Unfortunately, free just doesn't seem to mean free anymore. Each time I turn on my radio I'm inundated with commercials touting free this, and free that; but none of its actually free. I got a call last week saying I had just won a free ink cartridge refill a...