Keep Your Foot on the Gas

After months of quiet background work, amending listing dates every 30 days and focusing mostly on marketing and homeschooling, the world has woken up again. Suddenly we are wonderfully busy, busy with buying and selling and marketing and everything. I’m excited and thrilled and most of all ready.

 

Once again, I have learned that there are times when words can matter and support the offer in unexpected ways. Yes, our offer ended up being the highest but the terms we for sure not equal to the ones of the investors that had submitted cash offers. I do not always encourage letters but there are times when they really work and in love, war, and real estate… well. You know, first time homebuyer, childhood friends in the same complex, and a job that really helps our communities and has an emotional worth unlike those jobs of coders and other tech workers. Think, nurse, firefighter, teacher, social worker.

 

Aside from listing 3 homes back to back and working with my lovely buyers to make their dreams come true, we are working on making our community and the entire world a better place. The time has come to say enough. It is time to start working toward racial equality, time to really look into how we think and act on both personal and community level.

 

I am not the one burning flags on the barricades of CHOP or CHAZ.  Neither am I marching or holding a sign by the road. I genuinely believe in the cause though and I truly admire their work. Instead I am working on educating myself, posting on social media and participating in conversations started by those that are ahead of me. Viola Davis posted these words on her Instagram and I have borrowed them already several times:

 

some are posting on social media

some are protesting in the streets

some are donating silently

some are educating themselves

some are having tough conversations with friends & family

 

a revolution has many lanes

- be kind to yourself and to others

 who are traveling the same direction

 

just keep your foot on the gas

 

- Viola Davis

 

It is June and tomorrow is Juneteenth, the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. It is also Pride month. We have yet to achieve bot racial and sexual equality. 

 

In real estate we talk about stuff like blockbusting, steering and redlining, the third is more a lender thing but all three are big no, nos. Big and bad enough to have the department of licensing watching over our shoulders making sure that we are not guilty of these actions, and these are the reasons why your broker should never tell you what would or wouldn't be a great place to live for you. Neither should a broker encourage you to sell because of certain kinds of people moving into you neighborhood. 

 

The Federal Fair Housing Act protect people from discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or familial status.

 

In Washington State, The Washington Law Against Discrimination prohibits discrimination based on race, creed, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, or familial status; sensory, physical or mental disability; the use of trained guide dog or service animal; or honorably discharged veteran or military status.