Velocity Dance Center has long worked to provide much needed dance training and rehearsal space for the arts community in the Puget Sound area.  Much because of its presence in the area, the Seattle dance community has grown and developed alongside the once fledgling organization.  Now the full-time dance center runs dance classes at all levels, artist development programs, and performance and rehearsal space rentals for dancers and choreographers.

As self-proclaimed “Dance Dorks,” Team Diva loves what Velocity has been doing for the wider dance community.  That is why we want to spotlight this wonderful organization.  Whether it be as simple as attending a performance or even just promoting a performance, the Divas try to support Velocity’s work as much as possible.  If you are also a dance dork and would like to support Velocity, find out how on their website!

Micro-financing may be one of the hottest new trends in the industry of giving back and the Divas are all for it.  Kiva is a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco that utilizes a network of micro-finance institutions in order to alleviate poverty across the globe.  What exactly is micro-finance, you might ask?  In short, it allows low-income individuals living areas that lack traditional banking services to take out small loans in order to create entrepreneurial opportunities for themselves.  When you donate to Kiva, they take 100% of your money and give it to a micro-financing organization, who in turn administers the loans to people in need.

Diva Kaz has been supporting Kiva for almost two years.  Just recently, Kaz hit the mark of making 25 loans to Kiva, all of which have been repaid without a hitch.   Although you can choose to donate to anyone, Kaz focuses on supporting women entrepreneurs around the world, empowering them to become leaders both within their families as well as in the wider community.  In addition, although many lenders will make one $25 loan at a time, lenders are able to make several loans to many different projects or to lend at any level above $25 for any project that they may be particularly drawn to.

All in all, micro-finance is based on the idea that low-income individuals are capable of lifting themselves out of poverty if given access to the proper financial services.  The Divas believe in this concept with the desire that all people have the opportunity to flourish.  If you want to support Kiva, you can make your own donations after the jump —>

In a world that is quickly shrinking, international cooperation is key.  Good thing we here in Seattle have the Foundation for International Understanding Through Students, better known as FIUTS.  FIUTS has been connecting international students with local communities since 1948 through programs that build international awareness, strong leadership, and cross-cultural friendships.

Team Diva is so into FIUTS that they have been hosting international students and sponsoring events since 2008. Diva Kim has even joined the Board of Trustees and now serves as the chair of the Marketing and Fundraising Committee.  The Divas and their pals have hosted over 20 international students from around the world as they start their US adventure as grad and undergrad students at UW.  For a few weeks each year, we introduce our students to their favorite local haunts, restaurants, theaters and yes, when appropriate, local cocktail bars. Plus, we get a chance to discover more about our students’  home countries and their traditions. It’s such a treat to host the students and engage in such cross-cultural dialogues. We at  Team Diva feel so strongly about FIUTS and the great work they do that we asked them to participate in our Community Partnerships Program with Coldwell Banker Bain Associates.

Through FIUTS’ programs, boundaries are broken, cultural barriers are overcome, and real, lasting international friendships are created.  If you are interested at all in making a global difference even while staying in the local area, be sure to support FIUTS.  You can find out the many ways by which to support them here, or you can act like a Diva and volunteer to host students next year.

Bradner Gardens in the Mt. Baker Neighborhood

Head south on 31st Ave from Jefferson Ave and you will run into the heart of  Mt. Baker, a neighborhood dotted with elegant vintage homes, kid-friendly parks, pretty tree-lined streets and lovely downtown Seattle views. Mt. Baker, named for the snow-topped peak that is visible when looking north over the lake. Mt Baker was and still is, one of the most culturally, economically and geographically diverse neighborhoods in Seattle. Tucked between Franklin High School and Lake Washington, there are wooded parks, urban streets and a rolling hill with killer views that contribute to this hood’s uniqueness. Stroll down Hunter Blvd with your pooch and take in the beauty of the many historical turn-of-the-century homes or stop by Repast to mingle with neighbors over coffee and fresh scones.

Mt. Baker is also home to Bradner Gardens, an organic community garden dedicated to cultivating and teaching green gardening practices to Seattlites. Thanks to the folks at  Seattle Tilth and Urban Food  you will find demonstration gardens, utilizing green planting practices, renewable resources, and more . Watch birds take shelter in the native plant habitat. See more than 50 varieties of ornamental street trees recommended for small spaces and under utility lines. One of our favorite things to do is to get inspiration for our own urban gardens from this unique resource in the city.

Shop Local and Diva Deals: Dog Mania — When you’re a Diva, your pups need to look as fabulous as you. After being bathed and groomed, pups get to run around and play in the kennel-free daycare.

Hood Blog: Mount Baker Community Club

Earlier this week the Occupy Seattle protesters took over Broadway on Capitol Hill (few blocks from Team Diva’s office) to protest the CEO of Chase Bank visit to Seattle. The Occupy Seattle protesters are demonstrating their unhappiness with the monstrous banking corporation and their lack of reinvestment in our local economy. Even here in Seattle, the 99% is making their voices heard, tired of unethical corporate practices, economic volatility, and even the continued loss of jobs.  The Diva Team is doing its best for the local economy, but things are getting stark around here and we are not just talking only about the weather.

Knowing the obstacles that are out there many of us are asking “What can I do right now?” When walking into the Starbucks across the street earlier today, Diva Chavi spotted a inconspicuous-looking pamphlet entitled “Visibly Indivisible: This Country Needs Jobs.”  In this pamphlet, Starbucks Foundation, in partnership with the Opportunity Finance Network (OFN), outlined their plan for creating and sustaining jobs in the U.S. The program is simply called “Create Jobs for USA”.   To make things short and sweet, everyone is encouraged to donate at least $5 to the organization, all of which is used to provide micro-lending to small businesses and young upstarts throughout the country.  As Team Diva is a small business and community development supporter in general, we love that this simple idea translates into the following equation: one donation x the whole community = real jobs!

With the focus put on providing funding for small businesses, the Starbucks plan utilizes the OFN for its wide access to Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), more commonly known as community banks.  We love community banks.  Unlike the big banks, which focus on the bottom line, community banks more often are in tune with the local people and the local economy.

Locally, the real estate industry needs to start asking the question of what exactly are we doing to help with the economic issues that are troubling the nation, and the city of Seattle, as a whole.  Are we referring our clients to those same big banks that are not, in turn, supporting our local economy and local job development?  More importantly are we helping out corporations that are not challenging themselves to find solutions to funding well-qualified real estate home buyers. Big banks are not doing enough to support local economies, even denying funding to those people that can easily qualify for it, whether that person be a small business entrepreneur or a first-time homeowner.  For this reason, we love the Starbucks plan – “Create Jobs for USA.”

In our experience, it is the smaller community banks that have made the dream of owning a home come true for our Diva Dwellers. Recently we closed a small studio on Capitol Hill. The square footage of the studio was below the approved mark by the big banks and thereby un-lendable. Anyone working or living on Capitol Hill knows that studios are a major part of the unique make-up of a dense urban core. A local community bank saw the opportunity and saved the day for our Diva Dwellers.

Another example is that we currently have a Diva Dweller who is finishing up his Medical Residency at the UW. Technically ,he does not qualify for a first time home buyer loan because his student debt ratio is too high per his current income. He currently is still in school and not paying on his loans until he finishes up his residency. His income obviously will increase overtime making him the perfect buyer in this market. What did the big banks say? “Sorry!” What did a local community bank say – “We can do it.” Sterling Savings Bank is now looking into a program specifically for medical residency professionals. That’s community banking!

Given our experiences and commitment to expanding our local economy, we urge all of our Diva Dwellers and Divotees to help out in any manner that they can.  Here’s how:

Step #1: Donate to the Starbuck and Opportunity Finance Network’s program Create Jobs for USA

Step #2: Switch your bank accounts from the big banks to small community banks or credit unions. November 5th is Bank Transfer Day. Do it!

Step #3: If you can hire someone, do it…be a Diva: Hire an entourage!

Its time that we move on and do what’s right for our local community. Hope you join us!

Seattle Homes Are Selling

For the past couple of months, we real estate brokers have been asking each other, “Is this right? Can this be?” Well, the data confirms that what we’ve been seeing is real. Home sales are up! That’s right, you read that correctly. The number of home sales increased this fall, and shows no sign of slowing down. Compared to September 2010, the number of sales of single family residences increased by 48% in September 2011 and didn’t slow down in October. Year-to-date, sales have increased by 20% compared to 2010.

One challenge buyers are facing is that market inventory has decreased by 25% compared to inventory in October 2010. Personally, I have Diva Dwellers who cannot find a home in the central core Seattle neighborhoods that meets their needs. Sellers can easily sit and wait until the classic Seattle Spring home selling season. At the same time the number of distressed homes (short sale and foreclosures) have declined in Seattle further decreasing inventory. Right now in the central 390 area of the MLS (Capitol Hill, Central Area, Montlake, Madison Valley, & Madison Park) distressed homes only make up 8% of the market. That’s down from 9% in September.

The recent Seattle Times article reporting the drop in King County median home prices totally misses these critical local Seattle data points. One point they mentioned but should have discussed more thoroughly was that the buyer pool is largely made up of first time home buyers and investment buyers. These groups tend to purchase lower priced homes, driving down the median value of homes sold. Also, even though sales are up this fall, it is the “off” season for real estate, when the home buyers who typically buy the larger, more expensive homes aren’t as active in the market. Look for Diva Kim’s upcoming blog with commentary on Seattle’s home sale stats.

Real Estate is always local. Give Team Diva a call directly if you have specific questions regarding your neighborhood. We do our best to make the information clear and relevant for you!

King County Single Family Sales Report

King County Condominium Sales Report

Area Foreclosure/Shortsale Report

Diva Dwellers Ellen and Gibson

Team Diva Real Estate met Ellen and Gibson through our wonderful friends/bookkeeper/Diva Dweller Alex and Jon. Alex and Gibson worked together at Archie McPhees way back before Alex moved on to Diva Community Partner 826-Seattle. Our Team is blessed to have so many creative and bright clients. Ellen and Gibson are the perfect example of Diva Dwellers – they have an amazing food/booze palate, unique home decorating sense, and most importantly they love creating things (beer, baked goods & children’s books).

Last summer Ellen and Gibson came to the Diva Team to talk about their dream of transitioning from their busy Seattle life and heading to Southern Oregon to open a little piece of heaven called  “Buttercloud Bakery.” As some of you may know, Southern Oregon is where this Diva, (Diva Chavi), grew up. I have a special fondness for those willing to add to the majestic beauty of this region. There is nothing better in this Country Diva’s book than a bakery that utilizes the local surrounding bounty to offers folks something special.

Greenwood Buttercloud Home

Listening to Ellen and Gibson’s plan, while being served hand made goat cheese on a loaf of homemade bread, we knew that we wanted to do everything possible to make it happen. Starting in January we gave a huge list to Ellen and Gibson. They worked like mad to repaint, fluff their already amazing garden and enhance a unique home in Greenwood. In  April, we listed their home (see the home after the jump») during a very cold and slow real estate season. Our killer photographer, John Wilbanks, captured the main shot of the home with sunlight coming through the trees right over the house. It was as if the Buttercloud was shining on the house. All of us were quite happy when we sold the home in 4 days for full price to a nice young family. Some would say luck but I would say that this is just some Buttercloud fate at work!

Diva Dweller Wall of Fame
Gibson & Ellen

Hood: Previous Hood: Greenwood. Current Hood: South Medford, Oregon

How did you meet the Divas? Through our good friends Alex and Jon.

What type of home did you sell? A cool two-story house with a unique floor plan that we fixed up quite a bit and were fortunate enough to get an offer on in less than a week  – thanks to the Divas!

What was your first “OMG” house moment? The second-story, south-facing deck with a view of Mt. Rainer at the Greenwood house.

What was your greatest home extravagance? Our beloved Viking range. It served us well for 11 years and two houses and we finally parted ways when we sold the Greenwood house.

What is your favorite Hood hangout spot? Being unapologetic beer geeks we have to cast our vote for Naked City Brewing in Greenwood. Great beer, great staff, cool place.

What is your favorite local organization/non-profit? 826 Seattle, the amazing tutoring center for kids that raises some of their money from retail sales at The Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co. store.

What did you love the most about your house? That deck. We spent countless hours just lounging on that deck soaking in as much sun as possible.

What is in your junk drawer? Honestly, we don’t really have a junk drawer. Perhaps we should start one just so we have an answer to any future “junk drawer” questions?

What are you looking forward to most in your new adventure? Working for ourselves, spending more time together and twice as much sun!

Buttercloud Bakery opened this past Tuesday, November 1st. Next week we are driving down to be part of their huge success and celebrate my Dad’s birthday. The nicest thing to see from the opening of Buttercloud Bakery, is seeing Gibson use his creativity for his own endeavors. And Ellen has always been a awesome baker but to see that talent shared with a wider community is amazing. Viva the Buttercloud in all of your lives!

Donate Like a Diva | 2011 Holiday Season

The leaves are changing color and there is briskness in the air, meaning that it is officially approaching that unforgettable time of the year: the Season of Giving.  Here in the Diva Office on Capitol Hill, besides giving to our friends and family during the holiday season, we also love to support our community by giving back.  Whether it be in micro-finance, international student exchange, or the arts, each of us have our own favorite community-focused nonprofits that we love to support.  That is why, this season, we are going to be spotlighting some of our favorite do-gooder organizations starting, Monday November 28th, right after the Thanksgiving weekend.

For 10 straight days, a new one of our favorite organizations will be unveiled on the Diva blog and Facebook. You will learn about the amazing work that these fabulous organizations do for our larger community and how we have supported them in the past year. Finally, you will find out how you to can give back to these fabulous organizations.

For the last two days of the “Donate Like a Diva,” we want to spotlight two organizations that our Diva Dwellers and Divotees support. So if you have a nonprofit to which you would like to draw attention, send in your suggestions via the Team Diva Facebook page.  From those suggestions the Divas will choose a lucky two organizations to spotlight on the last two blog posts.

Join us in giving back this holiday season. After all, it has even been proven that giving back improves your health; who doesn’t need an immune system bump as the colder months approach?

I’m so glad that Team Diva finally got a Yelp profile so that I could yelp and howl their praises.

My partner and I went looking for ideas around green homes and sustainable building practices and stumbled upon Chavi and Kim holding an open house on Beacon Hill. They were no-pressure and really – *really* know their stuff. When we explained to them what we wanted to find out about and why we were there, they were perfectly accommodating and welcoming in attitude and information.

They followed up with us with the names of reputable green builders that they have personally seen and stand behind and offered to show us any homes by builders we were interested in examining further.

I don’t know if we will end up building or buying, but either way – I will look to Chavi and Kim for either recommendations on builders… or if we do end up buying, they will be the ladies we work with!!

I would recommend them to anyone looking for a positive experience with buying or selling a home. They are fantastic.

Read all of our reviews on Yelp!»