Ballard Basement Apartment for $750

Available September 1. Super-cute, cozy one bedroom basement unit with separate entrance, garage, off-street parking, private bath and kitchen. Extremely walkable location in the heart of trendy Ballard neighborhood in north Seattle.

Vintage house with lots of Old World Charm and tons of curb appeal. Quiet residential neighborhood.

Below market rent in exchange for property management duties and yard maintenance. Property management duties include collecting rent, showing vacant units to prospective tenants, doing move-in/move-out walk-throughs, advising owner of needed repairs or tenant problems, advising tenants of energy conservation efforts, cleaning of common areas (2 hours per month), coordination with contractors as needed.

Yard maintenance includes pruning, weeding and trimming. Tenants may have garden space, as long as it is maintained. Should have some gardening experience.

Current tenants in house-share upstairs include an immigration attorney, a museum facilities coordinator, insurance agent, retail manager, HVAC technician, and cook. Tenants rent by the room upstairs, but have access to basement laundry facilities, yard and common areas.

Owner provides all utilities (up to $500), wireless internet, and common area furnishings.

$900 Basement Apartment for Rent in Seattle

AVAILABLE September 1, 2013! Basement apartment in elegantly restored house-share with old world charm and details -- walking distance to Lake Washington, stores and restaurants in a quiet residential neighborhood just 2.5 miles from downtown Seattle.

Dramatic lighting and divided living spaces, funky but nice! This unit has good light, its own separate entrance from the house, a small kitchen, washer and dryer (shared with upper floor), with wall-to-wall carpeting in a large living area and the larger of two separate bedroom spaces.

The smaller bedroom has hardwood flooring, but not a true legal bedroom. It would work fine for overnight guests, office, study/media or workout room.

Cozy, functional kitchen with refrigerator, electric stove/oven, exhaust fan and microwave. Ceiling heights may not work for someone over 6' tall.

Roughly 1250sf of space - Quite a bit of space for someone who wants more than the typical cramped one-bedroom in this price range!

Semi-private partially-fenced backyard with deck and awesome view of Mt Rainier, Cascades, Lake Washington and Bellevue skyline. Not a noisy apartment complex--this space also comes with one off-street parking space in a shared driveway.

Free utilities include wireless internet, basic cable TV, electric, garbage, sewer, and lawn maintenance. Easy access to I-90, highways, and bus lines.

All monthly tenants must submit an application, with screening on background, income and rental history.

Wendy's Housing Trends Newsletter

Check out the most current issue of my Housing Trends eNewsletter. This eNewsletter is specially designed for readers like you, with national and local housing information that you may find useful whether you’re in the market for a home, thinking about selling your home, or just interested in homeowner issues in general. 

Please click on this link to view the Housing Trends JULY - 2013 Newsletterhttp://wendywonder.housingtrendsenewsletter.com 

The Housing Trends eNewsletter contains the latest information from the National Association of REALTORS®, the U.S. Census Bureau, Realtor.org reports and other sources. 

Housing Trends eNewsletter is filled with local and national real estate sales and price activity provided by MLSs and the National Association of Realtors, U.S. Census Bureau key market indicators, consumer videos, blogs, real estate glossary, mortgage rates and calculators, consumer articles, and REALTOR.com local community reports. 

If you are interested in determining the value of your home, click the “Home Evaluator” link for a free evaluation report: 

http://wendywonder.housingtrendsenewsletter.com/dispContent.cfm?loadid=2&loadtype=0 

Sound decisions can only be made with accurate and reliable information, and I am happy to be a trusted resource for you. Thank you for the opportunity to provide you with this monthly eNewsletter, and I look forward to answering any questions you may have and to the opportunity to be your REALTOR® in the future.

Happy Home Investing!

What is a Land Trust?

I received a comment on a recent blog about using a Land Trust to purchase and to transfer property. A land trust can be a convenient and inexpensive way in which a buyer may take title to a property.

"Land trust" means any agreement where a use or trust is declared of any real property, for the use or benefit of any beneficiary, under which the title to real property, both legal and equitable, is held by a trustee.

"Beneficial interest" means any interest, regardless of how minimal, in a land trust, held by a trustee for the benefit of beneficiaries of such land trust. "Holders of the power of direction" have the authority to direct the trustee to convey, execute a mortgage, distribute proceeds of sale or financing, and execute documents related to the land trust. These "holders" may be person(s) with a beneficial interest in the trust.

Land trusts are considered by many to possess distinct advantages over other methods of ownership of real property.  

Land trusts are especially helpful when the privacy of the beneficiaries is to be protected, or kept as confidential as possible. The interests of beneficiaries may not be disclosed without a court order.

It is simple to transfer beneficial interest. And they are a good way to transfer title by adding or changing beneficiaries of the trust, without having to apply for new loans which are typically due on sale with the transfer of title. 

Personal judgments against the beneficiary do not become liens on the trust's real estate. Financing is facilitated, either by the trustee obtaining mortgage loans secured solely by the trust property, or by the beneficiary pledging his beneficial interest as personal property, and both trustee and beneficiary can be kept free from personal liability. 

In addition there are estate plan advantages to ownership of beneficial interests in real estate held in a land trust rather than the real estate itself. The beneficiary may distribute his interest by a gift, sale or by testamentary disposition without affecting trust title to the real estate or partition of the real estate. 

Not all lenders will lend to a business trust when purchasing a property, so good to ask your lender about this in advance of taking title to a property this way. Of course, you may always quit claim it to a land trust after you purchase.

I am not an attorney, and this should not be construed as legal advice. Always seek the assistance of a legal professional, if you are putting together a land trust agreement. Please contact me if you are interested in seeing a form used for Collateral Assignment of Beneficial Interest.

Happy investing!

Start Up Capital

New rules have just been published by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that are designed to allow entrepreneurs to advertise and do general solicitation for investors. These rules also apply to real estate investors who borrow funds from private lenders. 

In the past, these activities have been prohibited by the SEC. This prohibition makes it difficult to stand in front of an unscreened group of prospective investors, and announce “I am looking for funds.” In effect, the SEC considers that you are doing a general solicitation for a security.

The SEC defines a security as “any note … bond, debenture, evidence of indebtedness, certificate of interest or participation in any profit-sharing agreement,” and considers private lending for a real estate investment to be a security.

I attended a recent meeting on this topic, organized by Seattle Angel investor Josh Maher. The topic was addressed by local Seattle attorney Bill Carleton, a member of Angel Capital Association. He also has an excellent blog on investment capital at www.wac6.com where you can find more specific information on SEC rules and regulations.

The new rules proposed by the SEC impose additional filing requirements, submission of all advertising materials to the SEC, requirements to qualify investors, and penalties for missed deadlines or failure to comply. Mr. Carleton felt that this would add to the cost and burden of preparing exemptions and syndications for entrepreneurs like us.

There are certainly legal and practical ways for entrepreneurs to “stay under the radar” of the SEC, and Mr. Carleton suggested that either the existing 506, Regulation B or D exemptions would be preferable to what is currently proposed as Regulation C by the SEC.

There are other sources of start-up capital for entrepreneurs, new businesses and real estate investors, that you might want to explore. Here are a few that were mentioned at the meeting I attended:

http://www.thecrowdcafe.com/  crowdfunding research, resources and news

https://circleup.com/  matching consumer entrepreneurs with passionate investors

http://techcrunch.com/  matches investors with tech companies

https://angel.co/  AngelList, where startups meet talent

http://seattleangel.com/  the angel incubator in Seattle

Many real estate investors file an exemption with the State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI), and only use one private lender on an investment property. Others work only with equity rather than debt partners. Others stick to family and friends when borrowing funds, and only those that qualify as accredited investors. I am not an attorney, and this article should not be construed as legal advice.

If you are raising money for your real estate investments, it makes sense to discuss legal issues with your real estate attorney first.

Photo courtesy of freepictures.me