Dear Fellow Velocity Supporters,

Kim and I have been proud audience members and supporters for Velocity since their inception way back in the day. For us personally we see Velocity as an incubator for talent that is hitting their stride or needs to be catapulted to a higher stage. We have watched Amy O’Neal at Ten Tiny Dancers wow us with her athleticism and musicality, been introduced to Mark Haim thru Velocity’s artist in residence program and seen zoe|juniper’s influence on the next generation of artists as part of Strictly Seattle. Like many of you, we were with Velocity at the beginning before dance in Seattle blossomed into the force it is today. We were with Velocity during their big move and during their most recent Executive Director transition. And more importantly we are here now and will be with Velocity for the long term.

Our interest in Velocity was reignited by our friend Josh Windsor who also serves on the Board of Directors. His passion for the organization is our passion. Together we are working to spread this passion we have about Velocity to others. This is why we are so excited to have you join us this Thursday, December 6th for Velocity is Burning.  We know that Velocity is an integral part of Capitol Hill and the larger dance community. At the same time we know, on a personal level, that by having a little Holiday fun and supporting Velocity this season we are helping young artists like Raja Kelly.

On Thursday night we are sponsoring a fun and sassy cabaret that brings together different artists from Burlesque, Dance, Drag, and New Media worlds. Come. Bring a friend. Dress up. Drink champagne. Have fun! Do it!

Meet the Host(est) - The Robbie Turner (local actor and a regular at Julia’s Le Faux)

Meet our Divas - Miss Kitty Burlesque and the current reigning Miss Gay Seattle DonnaTella Howe>

Meet the Divas of Dance - Alice Gosti, Jacob Rosen, Maya Soto, Annie McGhee + Rachel Grant, and Alicia Mullikin >

Save your spot and now and BUY A TICKET. ($15 in advance and $20) at the Door. Heck – buy tickets for your Friends and Family as Holiday Gifts!

Bring - Extra $1.00/$5.00 bills to to tip the performers and buyer door prises.

Dress - Like a Diva who is going out. Tis a Cabaret!

Much love and happy holidays,

Chavi and Kim

Team Diva Real Estate

Coldwell Banker Bain

Our fabulous Diva Dweller Michael (also know on Capitol Hill as the current reigning Miss Gay Seattle DonnaTella Howe) made the jump from renter to homeowner/lover this summer after his rent was jacked up by $100. Joe Fryer with King 5 News asked us gals if we knew anyone who transitioned from renter homeowner due to the rising rents in Seattle. We instantly thought about Michael. The best part of the interview is the bright red bathtub and the Drag closet that King 5 News showcased in the footage. You can also see Miss DonnaTella chat about the same tub from her cute summer interview with us gals.

Michael’s experience is very typical of many of our new Diva Dwellers. The rents skyrocket and they find themselves seriously considering home ownership as a very viable and cost effective option. Earlier this fall we featured Michael and a few other of our clients who recently made this transition »

———————–

Below is the transcript from the interview:

by JOE FRYER / KING 5 News

Bio | Email | Follow: @joefryer

Posted on November 27, 2012 at 10:56 PM

Updated today at 5:47 AM

Thanksgiving is one of our favorite holidays. Every year we host a get together for 30 or so of our FIUTS students, friends and family, or as diva Mia pal likes to say, framily (your friend family). The holiday is our time to enjoy some fabulous food and each other’s company. This year we decided to reflect on everything in our Diva world that we love and are truly thankful for:

1. Diva Dwellers and Divotees: They recommend us on Yelp, come to our events, tell their friends about us, promote us to their moms, and are the reason we LOVE real estate. Cause they are freakin’ awesome!
2. Garden Court Peeps: The DivaHQ is housed in the “garden level” of Coldwell Banker Bain Capitol Hill’s office. There a few other brokers who have private offices on our level. They make our life awesome. We help each other out in times of need, pick each other up when we are feeling down and, most importantly, celebrate each other’s successes. This environment is what keeps us going, knowing that our form of competition involves all of us working together to do our best and be our best every day!
3. Interweb Real Estate Pals + our Power gals from Real Estate Nerd Nuggets: These are our industry power peeps. They believe in elevating the client experience, the power of creative and effective marketing, and the importance of constantly striving to elevate the real estate industry that we work in. Just to mention a few: Linda Aaron, Heather Ostrom, Anne Jones, Kelly Mitchell, Debra Trappen, Chris Smith, Katie Lance, Sean Carpenter, The Geeky Girls, and many many more fabulous folks.
4. View of Capitol Hill: Seriously – our office location is awesome. We look out from our Macs to see a sea of fabulousness float by. In the summer time it is a parade of Trans sistahs mixed with lost tourists. We often get to see Miss Gay Seattle as she hustles to her Diva Dwelling for lunch. There is the killer view of the freaking Space Needle, the topless biker chic, Santas dragging gold reindeer and so much more. Oh how we love Capitol Hill!
5. Family: Our family is awesome. Our nieces, nephews and our cousin’s kids make having fun and playing games magical. Our non-biological family, or Framily, gives us an immense amount of support to go out there and kick booty!
6. Rosie the Real Estate Pooch: On Sunday, Rosie the Real Estate action dog, spent nine hours in the back of the Prius as we traveled all over Seattle. But she was a trooper. She makes the office fun, calms are clients, and is generally our funny little office companion.
7. FIUTS – International Students: Divas love our kids. Our international kids are awesome. In fact we are getting ready to host about 1o of them for our annual Thanksgiving Feast of Goodness.
8. K-Pop and Kikis: The Divas get their giggle on watching K-Pop (Korean pop music) and Scissor Sister’s Let’s Have a Kiki videos. They make it much easier to deal with those tough transactions and give us party inspirations.
9. Team Members: Seriously – we do not know where we would be without our Chris and Ricardo in the DivaHQ watching our backs and pushing us forward.
10. Each Other:  We Divas (Kim and Chavi) are getting ready to celebrate our 15th year being together as a couple. Yes – we are a real live couple outside of Divaland. And because of this we are also thankful for the passing of Referendum 74 which legalizes gay marriage in WA State. Two very very good reasons to be thankful this season!

The Divas have serious house trauma when it comes to their living room. But let’t go back a couple of years ago and talk about the five different couches we have owned since buying Chez Diva. The divas searched three years for the “perfect” untouched mid-century home in Seward Park. We were the place’s second homeowners, but thankfully the fabulous mid-century detailing had been untouched by a mad 1980′s renovation – including horrific granite and cherry colored cabinets. Well we found the perfectly untouched green shagged carpeted mid-century rambler in south Seward Park. And boy – was it untouched. Now Chez Diva has a new roof, kitchen, bathrooms, boiler system, floors, etc. You name it! But what it does not have is one fabulous living room.

Problem Statement: Chez Diva’s living room is long, dark and oddly designed for modern living. It was built back in the time that your “formal” living room was meant for show and not real living. But we Divas want a “formal” living space that is for living and for show. Sexy, sassy and veristile for you know – a 30 person sit-down Passover Seder. The reason we have called in official help is that as of now we have been through four different couches, a host of lighting arrangements, and even more random design elements. The whole time we have just never felt “right” or that we were able to express what we want in a home. This summer Kim convinced moi to purchase one massive sectional couch for an extreme amount of money. Thankfully – the fabric was out of print and we had to cancel the order. Well – sometimes you need a professional and that is where the experts, Kwanchai – Jonathan Mathews Design Group, comes into play. The Divas need Jonathan and Christina to bring out the our personalities in our living space, create an environment for perfect entertaining, and more importantly get us a freaking couch by Thanksgiving.

The Design Team: The Divas have hired  Kwanchai – Jonathan Mathews Design Group. The Divas meet a lot of designers in our life. But we were really impressed by Jonathan’s intuitive sense of how to entertain at 2012′s Velocity Dance Center’s annual bash. Our pal Tracy really wanted a chocolate desert and Jonathan skillfully traded up desserts to get our girl what she wanted. It told us Divas that Jonathan thinks about his guests/clients the way the Divas think about what we do in our own lives.

Design Inspiration: We are fresh back from a trip from New York and saw a fabulously designed long couch with custom fabric at the Maritime Hotel. Yum. It captured the essence of Divas at home. Lots of spots for guests to feel comfortable. A little edge and surprise in the design. And simply fabulous design!

Hotel Lobby of the Maritime Hotel

Chez Diva’s Pinterest Board: We wanted to create a design board that captured what our home already has and at the same time capture the essence of what we wanted to see in our new space. Let’s just say we did a lot of pinning and pining for juicy home furnishings, vintage chairs, collectible glass and lots of Mad Men inspired lifestyles. See the whole Pinterest Board after the jump»

Chez Diva’s Pinterest Inspiration Board

Next Steps to a Fabulously Designed Living Space: Christina and Jonathan joined us on Friday afternoon for a little vino and fromage as we showed them around Chez Diva. They had a nice long chat and we discussed every room in detail. We talked about how we have entertained and lived in the home. They  measured every room and every piece of furniture. But more importantly we purposely opened the space for them to do whatever they felt the space needed. I know that Christina and Jonathan are not going to talk us out of our mid-century funky style. I can trust they see our overall sense of design and will improve upon it.

Jonathan and Christina Taking Stock of Chez Diva

Follow along as we document the process and let you know how it feels to hire a professional for your home!

Quick you can see Diva Kim next to Jim Forman on King 5 and her and 2,000 of us celebrated in the streets on Capitol Hill last night. The gals watched the results at Diva Dweller Michael’s co-op on the hill. And as soon as we heard that Gay Marriage was passing and that the Presidential results we hit the streets with our Capitol Hill peeps. Kim and I really want to thank all of you who supported passing R74-Gay Marriage last night. You just made the difference in our personal lives and the lives of many of our clients. Words cannot express our feelings today!

Diva Dwellers Sean, Hiromi, and Emi

Sean, Hiromi and their freaking adorable daughter Emi were introduced to us through my former co-worker (and Diva Dweller) Megan and her husband Cody. The Divas instantly fell in love with Sean and Hiromi’s little girl Emi. She is so freaking cute. During our search we watched her go from a baby who could not talk or walk to a proper rambunctious toddler who soon learned the word “House.”

Our search was not an easy one. First we had a disastrous short sale turned bankruptcy. And several houses that ended up being in a super high crime areas. But in the end we found a super cute house in West Seattle that is rock solid. Little Emi is waiting for her brother to arrive and has one freaking fabulous yard to call her own.

Here is Sean, Hiromi and Emi’s Diva Dweller Story:

How did you meet the Divas? The Divas were recommended by our friends Cody and Megan who worked with the Divas to find a great house in the Central District. We were on the fence about whether we could buy a house, and they told us how easy and fun the Divas made the process – no harm in at least checking them out!

What type of home did you purchase? A two story Cape Cod (I’m told) in West Seattle… it’s a cute, older (late ’40′s) home in a great neighborhood with a nice yard and lots of potential.

Next Generation of Diva Dwellers

The Divas have known for a long time now that this generation of Diva Dwellers are different than previous generations. They are super savers, smarter than most, and more importantly know what they are getting themselves into as a Diva Dweller. The Divas did a blog post about a year ago based on our friend’s experience trying to find a real estate agent in New York City. It was interesting today to stumble across an article about how Gen X and Y buyers approach buying homes that seemed to mirror our own street experience.

The fact that I still find interesting is that there is a whole generation of real estate agents that do not realize that there is a huge cultural shift happening in how Gen X and Y are approaching the home buying experience. Many of these agents are not huge fans when their clients come to them with a ton of data. The Seattle Divas see the home buying process as a collaboration and we really want to ensure our clients are more knowledgeable than others in the process. We want the best deal, we want a house that we know will appreciate or weather a downturn, and more importantly we want our Diva Dwellers to love their house as much as we enjoy being with our clients.

The Divas are very lucky to count the Gen X and Gen Y generation (or as we like to call them Savvy Urbanites) as a mainstay of our client demographic. About 45% of our Diva Dwellers this last year just turned 30 or were younger. Majority of these folks saved close to 20% for their down payments, bought under their “loan approval”, and knew more about the market than the average consumer. In many respects they make up exactly the findings of the recent survey by Better Homes and Gardens® Real Estate.

Below is an excerpt from Yahoo News article about the survey and their findings.

Next Generation of Homebuyers Are Knowledgeable, Responsible and Savvy According to New Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Survey

Working a Second Job and Moving In With Mom and Dad Are Unexpected Ways Generations X and Y Are Willing to Save for a Home

PARSIPPANY, NJ–(Marketwire – Oct 22, 2012) - Better Homes and Gardens® Real Estate today released the results of a national survey of 18-35 year old Americans that reveal that the impact of the housing crisis has given rise to two of the most knowledgeable generations to become homebuyers, Generations X and Y, which account for an estimated 103 million Americans. More than three-quarters (77 percent) of the Gen X and Y Americans surveyed believe that they have become increasingly knowledgeable about homeownership due to increased media coverage that has magnified real estate topics throughout the past six years. The survey’s findings show that these two younger generations of potential homebuyers are not deterred from home buying and believe owning a home is a key indicator of success (75 percent). Furthermore, they are willing to do their research and save in ways that may surprise those who believe the values of Gen X and Y have strayed from those of their parents, including taking a second job and moving in with mom and dad.

“Every generation faces defining economic events that alter their collective perspective,” said Sherry Chris, president and CEO of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate LLC. “‘The Greatest Generation’ was shaped by the Great Depression and Baby Boomers were impacted by the oil crises throughout the 1970s. Gen X and Gen Y experienced their ‘coming of age’ moment during the largest housing market downturn in American history. As such, these generations believe that the details, risks and rewards of home buying are integral to their planning. Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate recognizes this shared generational experience and its effects on young homebuyers. We realize how important it is for real estate professionals to understand generational differences and be able to adapt their business to best serve these two generations that will drive the economy for the next 30 years.”

Key findings from the Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate survey include:

• Not the “Me” Generation. The majority of Gen X and Gen Y survey respondents (71 percent) understand that homeownership is not something they deserve; rather it is something they must earn. Nearly all those surveyed are willing to adjust their lifestyle to save for a home by eating out less (62 percent), working a second job (40 percent) or even moving back home with their parents (23 percent).
• In the Know. Sixty-nine (69) percent believe that the recent housing downturn has made them more knowledgeable about homeownership than their parents were at their age. Gen X and Y members appear to be doing their homework before making one of the biggest investments of their lives. For those surveyed, interest rates (58 percent), home prices in a desired neighborhood (59 percent), and the ability to secure a loan (51 percent) are the top areas to research before buying.
• Homeownership is the New Bling. Gen X and Y are not blinded by flashy signs of success; 75 percent believe owning a nice home is a fundamental indicator of success over taking extravagant vacations (12 percent), owning an expensive car (9 percent), or owning designer clothing (5 percent).
• First Things First. Gen X and Y want to make sure they are ready to own. Sixty-nine percent believe someone is ready when they can afford to buy while also maintaining their lifestyle. For 61 percent of respondents, the “readiness indicator” is when they’ve landed a secure job.

Diva Kim + That Overused Prius

We Divas know we have had a super busy year this year. My old Blue CRV is down right ready to give out and the Prius has not seen a proper wash in months fromus gals trekking all over Seattle. But it is so worth it to see our Diva Dweller’s in their homes. This morning Kim and I took some time out to see how the team is doing and how we are tracking towards our goals. The results are fascinating and at the same time makes us feel super grateful to our Divotees and Diva Dwellers for their support!

Here is it how it breaks down. Team Diva is number in our Capitol Hill Coldwell Banker Bain office for 2012. We have officially closed 33 transactions and helped a handful of renters find spots in and around the city. Kim was accepted into the Management Program in August. And to top it off Chavi was a featured speaker at San Francisco Inman Connect this last July. Whew – that is a lot for two gals and Rosie the Real Estate Dog. But we would not have been able to do it without our team Chris and Ricardo, and former Diva Kaz working with us earlier this year.

Give us the Diva Worthy Results

The Divas have officially helped 33 Diva Dwellers buy and sell their homes in Seattle as of September 30th. But to put that number into perspective let’s go through the reason this is such an awesome feat. The Average agent on the MLS only sells 2.5 homes. In our Coldwell Banker Bain – Capitol Hill office the average is closer to 12 homes (which is really good for an office). For the Divas to work with 33 buyers and sellers in nine months is AWESOME! The result being that we are officially number one in the office Year to Date for 2012. And we did it with just us gals working it out every day trying to do the best we can for our Diva Dwellers.

As you can see from our jazzed up Diva Dweller graph above is that 36% of our 2012 Diva Dwellers found us on Yelp! and another 27% were referred to us by another Diva Dwellers. Essentially, 63% of this year’s Diva Dwellers put their biggest financial investment in our hands as a result of the power of previous experiences people have had with Team Diva.All we can say is THANK YOU!

Thanks pals and we are super excited to see what the last quarter of the year will bring for Team Diva Real Estate!

 

Diva Dwellers + UBER Divotees Rassamee + Isaak

Isaak and Rassamee are in the original Diva Dweller fan club. In many respects when we are asked what our typical Diva Dweller looks like we think of our pals – super smart, financially savvy, strong support for marriage equality, love to socialize with our Dwellers, refer us so many awesome people turned Diva Dwellers, and so much more. Team Diva Real Estate is forever grateful to Isaak and Rassamee as they were the first kids to leave us a review on Yelp. Isaak and Rassamee sparked a Seattle Divas revolution without even knowing about it. This year alone close to 40% of our business as a result of the fabulous reviews we have on Yelp. And all of this was really started by Isaak and Rassamee who inspired us to be on Yelp. Which is now a critical component of our success.

Kim and I are even more lucky to include Isaak and Rassamee in our inner social circle of pals. One of my favorite memories of our pals is the Christmas of 2008 when we were all snowed in our homes and the kids made the trek to Chez Diva for Christmas fun. Or when Rassamee made Raja a pie that he barely touched but the rest of us devoured it like feasters at Thanksgiving. Or the time Isaak and Rassamee were one of the few people to join us at the Bear Broadway house holiday party where the all of guests wore Christmas sweaters (in a non-ironic way) and drank hot chocolate made out of sweetened condensed milk. We hovered in the corner and plotted our escape from the party. Now the kids now live in Oakland, CA but are still Diva Dwellers in our hearts!

Here is Isaak and Rassamee’s Diva Dweller Story

How did you meet the Divas? Kim was screened by Rassamee’s dad’s real estate agent down in Pierce County and connected us. We hit it off right away. Kim was savvy and smart and we love that! We met Chavi soon after and knew we had met an amazing power couple. Our friendship soon deepened to the point that when we were relocating to Oakland, CA, Rassamee became a Diva roommate for 4 months. Good times!

What type of home did you purchase? We have purchased two houses through the Divas. A 1919 Craftsman style bungalow in Columbia City and a greenbuilt modern townhouse from Greenleaf Construction in Judkins Park.

 What was your first “OMG” house moment? At the Dawson house it occurred in the process of getting down and dirty and pulling up the old carpet ourselves, tearing down vertical blinds, and removing ugly wallpaper and realizing there was a lot of shit to do to make our home what we wanted!

 What is your greatest home extravagance? Buying our 2nd home a beautiful green-built townhouse and then realizing we would have to leave it to move to California. Our choice, but oh, how we wish we could have taken it with us.

 What is in your junk drawer? Isaak is firmly against junk drawers and junk in general. So we really don’t have one. The closest we have is the drawer that has birthday candles, twist ties, paper plates, and plastic utensils.

 Would you rather:

• mow lawn / paint the fence – Rassamee would mow the lawn. Isaak would paint the fence.
• untangle computer cords / sort socks – Sort socks.
• test the smoke detectors / fix squeaky doors – Fix squeaky doors.
• plunge the toilet / clean out the refrigerator – Plunge the toilet.
• clean the gutters / take down holiday decorations – Isaak would clean the gutters. Rassamee would take down holiday decorations.

What is your favorite Hood hangout spot? Columbia City would have to be Geraldine’s Counter – the spot we miss the most. Judkins Park would be Cheeky Café on Jackson St. or That’s Amore in the Mount Baker neighborhood. In downtown Oakland, we like Modern Coffee, Buttercup Grill, and Bocanova. Seattleites are welcome to come visit!

What is your favorite local organization/non-profit? BikeWorks in Columbia City and Hidden Genius Project in Oakland

What do you love the most about your house? We love that even that our houses are being rented to great tenants after we made the move to California. But seriously, buying our houses helped get us to be in the financial position where we could make the move to the Bay Area – and we will always be grateful for that and the fact that they helped bring the Divas into our lives. Friends forever!

Thanks for being such awesome supporters of the Divas. God knows that our success is built on the strength of our friendship, sass, and by us just knowing two of the most wonderful people ever!

Capitol Hill Condo | The Garden Court

The Seattle Diva’s HQ is is based right here on Capitol Hill and we are very sensitive to any change that impacts our Condo Diva Dwellers. A lot of our clients love the urban and very walkable lifestyle that comes with living in a dense neighborhood. For many of them that means living in our many condo buildings that dot the hill.

The recent FHA Condo requirements that were just released finally allows our local condos to improve on their purchase ability. A huge number of first time home buyers purchase their homes with FHA financing. For some it is a result of having a lower credit score, having a huge amount of student loan debt, or for others it means that they have a lower down payment than the 5% minimum down payment for conventional financing. During the crash of 2008 the number one thing that hurt condos was their ability to get financing. Slowly buildings started to get their FHA Approval which helped a little. Finally we are starting to see some loosening of the draconian lending requirements for FHA Approved Condos that we Seattle Divas think is going to do be a huge help to our local neighborhood.

Here are the new FHA condo changes that are in effect now:

• Previously, no more than 15% of dues can be delinquent for more than 30 days.  That delinquency period has been extended to 60 days.
• The definition of “New Construction Condo” has been extended to include new fully-gutted converted condos for the first two years after the conversion has taken place.  This means that Conversion Condos can take advantage of the lower presale and Owner Occupancy requirements of 30% instead of 50%
• Single entity ownership can be up to 50% (from 10%) as long as at least 50% of the total units in the project have been conveyed or are under a contract for purchase to Owner Occupied principal residences. If the single entity owns a home in the condo, that unit is not counted in the percentage total for single entity ownership and neither are never occupied units or unsold units. The important item here is that for your fellow owners who want to rent their unit down the road this will be a great way of selling them on putting in a Rental Cap at 50%. It preserves their equity and still allows them to rent their unit in case they have to relocate for a job or just want to make a good investment.

Learn More About Fannie Mae Approved Condos or Get your Condo Approved ASAP »

Other Important Notes About Condos
Get Your Condo in Shape: The bottom line is that you have to think about improving your condo’s community. It is critical to enhancing the investment you have made into the your building!
Your Condo Building’s Resale Certificate: Look at what buyers are expecting when they receive that big hung of paperwork. They want to know your building is financially stable.

Thank you to Richard Hobson of Landover Mortgage for sharing this information with us gals at Team Diva Real Estate!