Posts — Page 594

Was exiting northbound 405 at NE 70th in Kirkland, right around noon, and saw two unmarked SUVs had boxed this car in. Saw 2 officers, both in tan colored bulletproof vests and coordinating face coverings. By the time I realized what was happening, and circled back around on the freeway, they were gone. The car was left behind on the side of the road. Posting for visibility, hoping that someone knows who the car belongs to. I am so sorry. I reported this via text and sent the photos to the WAISN.

Hello! Getting married on Vashon Island in September 2027 and am looking for DJ and/or band recommendations. I’d love to hear from people who found someone who could work with a more indie taste while keeping the dance floor fun!

I did something over the past year to protect myself from this housing crash. I mentioned it in another thread, someone asked me to explain , so here are the details. First: this was a risky move, circumstances lined up unusually well for me, and this is absolutely not investment advice. I bought a home in 2008, and as the housing recession dragged on, I watched a couple of neighbors do something sketchy: they bought a second house at the depressed market price and then walked away from their original house. The end result was that they wound up in roughly the same quality of home, but at a much lower purchase price and interest rate. I ended up doing something similar over the last year - minus the walking away from a mortgage. I fell ass backwards into this, but financially it worked out far better than I expected. Here's what happened: Half of our kids moved out in 2025, and the other one is moving out within a year. We simply didn't need as much house anymore. So in 2025 we purchased another house that was about 2/3 the size of our existing one. After renovations, we had roughly half as much invested in it as the estimated value of our old house, which Zillow had around $2M. We knew housing is in a recession , and I figured we might lose $50K-$100K somewhere in the process. But downsizing made sense for us regardless. "Forever home" and all that. Then things got interesting. About six weeks into renovating the smaller house, a neighbor approached us about buying our existing home. They were in exactly the opposite situation: their family needed more space, while ours needed less. Ironically, swapping houses probably would have solved both problems. There were three nearby comps, at $1.6M, $2.1M and $2.3M. My agent thought our house should be listed around $2M. I'm probably more nervous about market risk than the average person. I've read an embarrassing number of books about financial crashes; my favorites is When Genius Failed, about Long-Term Capital Management . So rather than trying to squeeze every last dollar out of the house, I deliberately priced it about $100K below my agent's recommendation. I listed it at $1.9M and got a quick sale. I knew for a fact that the neighbors were prepared to pay $2.1M-$2.3M; they told me so. I think they'd literally driven by my home, noticed that I was moving stuff out, and put 2+2 together. (I didn't have it listed; I wasn't moved out yet.) My priority at that point wasn't maximizing the sale price. It was certainty. I wanted the transaction done before the market had an opportunity to move against me. The timing was chaotic enough that I ended up rearranging my entire life around getting the sale completed. I wanted OUT of that house SO BAD, I wound up getting fired from my job because I took seven days off. (Working in tech absolutely sucks these days.) Once that was done, I started looking for another house. I gave ChatGPT the following criteria: Find every house for sale in ZIP codes [12345] and [12346] over 3,000 square feet with a cost per square foot of $300 or less. Prioritize by lot size and cost per square foot. It came back with roughly twenty houses. Most weren't "great". They tended to be older, needed work, or were in neighborhoods I didn't like as much. But two really stood out. I eventually made offers on five houses, and somehow my favorite of the bunch was accepted. When the dust settled, I had bought another house only about three miles from the one I sold. Compared with my old house: It's 90% as large The lot is roughly the same size It's four years newer The purchase price was 56% of what I sold my previous house for That obviously raises the question: why would two comparable houses, only a few miles apart, sell for such different prices? I think a lot of it comes down to timing and pricing history. I personally know the people who previously owned the nearby house that's now listed around $1.6M. They bought it for roughly $900K in 2019 and sold it in 2023 for about $2.3M. The next owners bought near the top of the market, then tried to resell it two years later for around $2.6M. That didn't work. They've subsequently had to chase the market downward. I've experienced this from the seller's side myself. During the Great Recession, I initially listed my house too high. By the time I accepted what the market was actually telling me, the listing had gone stale and it took FOUR YEARS to finally get rid of it. No joke, it got to the point where I thought I might be stuck with it for-ev-er. I could NOT unload that stupid house. That experience affected how I approached this sale. My theory is that there is a limited pool of serious buyers for any particular house. If your asking price is unrealistic when those buyers first encounter the listing, most move on permanently. Cutting the price later doesn't bring them back; they've already written you off. It's like getting a job offer, refusing to accept it based on the low salary, then trying to come back six months later. They've written you off. That's one reason I chose $1.9M rather than trying $2.1M, $2.2M or $2.3M first. I'd rather sell quickly at a price I can live with than spend a year slowly discovering what the market thinks the house is worth. This is especially true for the last four years, because there are a LOT of sellers who DGAF that the people they're selling to, their monthly mortgage would be 50-100% higher than what the sellers are spending AND the down payment is higher. The contrast with the other house is pretty dramatic. It sold for $2.3M near the top of the market and is now being offered around $1.6M, with no obvious buyer. It's fallen out of escrow twice in the last year. It's been listed and re-listed numerous times. Here's the math on my gambit: The house I sold: Purchase price: $1.1M Sale price: $1.9M Mortgage balance when sold: $800K Interest rate: 2.5% Monthly principal and interest: $2,963 The house I just bought: Mortgage: $800K Down payment: 25% Interest rate: 6.125% Monthly principal and interest: $4,557 Obviously, giving up a 2.5% mortgage for a 6.125% mortgage sounds painful, and I completely understand why someone wouldn't want to do it. But there's another side to the equation: equity. Selling the previous house released roughly $1M of equity. That changes the comparison considerably. For example: The difference between the two mortgage payments is about $1,600/month. A million in equity makes up the difference in payments for 52 years. I could have taken a million, put it in Treasuries , and have the yield on the Treasuries pay my mortgage, forever , then leave the million to my kids. In other words, my house payment gets made no matter what, and my kids don't have to deal with selling my house when I'm dead. Or I could have bough the home with cash. I had a bunch of people die during Covid and I don't like that option, because I don't want my kids stuck with dealing with a house they don't want. Who know where they'll live in ten or twenty years. So although I gave up a 2.5% loan, I also converted a very large amount of home equity into liquid assets while ending up in a house that's almost as large. That's the part of this exercise that surprised me. I don't know the personal circumstances of the people who sold me the new house. The original owner of the $1.6M house from this story works for Microsoft, the owner of the home I just purchased are from India. I've read stories of people losing jobs and walking away from their homes. The sellers I bought from, they turned a profit, but their extremely low price was an outlier. One of the reasons I embarked on this scheme, was because one of the houses I nearly bought LAST year, wound up selling for $250K less than list. I hadn't bothered making an offer because they had it priced way too high; turns out their listed price was a mirage. What I do know is that the pricing history of this neighborhood is fascinating. I had ChatGPT go through the neighborhood's sales history house by house. Both my old and new homes are in fairly cookie-cutter developments, which I actually like for this purpose because comparable sales are much easier to evaluate. The sellers of my house appear to have bought one of the last few non-model homes in the development. Earlier in the development, when the project was new and there was more excitement around it, the builder was able to charge substantially higher prices and large lot premiums. Toward the end of construction, market conditions had softened and the final few houses appear to have sold much more aggressively. There are nearly identical houses in the same development that sold for $100K-$300K more only about a year earlier. (My house was built in 2023, the development began in 2022.) One house had a lot premium of $400K. So I don't think I discovered some magical way to beat the housing market. I think I happened to be in an unusually favorable position: I had a lot of equity in my existing house. I didn't need as much house anymore. I was willing to price aggressively to get a quick sale. I wasn't emotionally attached to keeping my 2.5% mortgage. I searched very aggressively for houses that were cheap relative to nearby comps. And I happened to find a motivated seller. The result is that I now live three miles from where I lived before, in a house that's roughly 90% as large and slightly newer, while having converted close to $1M of housing equity into liquid assets. I'm sure there were ways this could have gone badly, and I wouldn't assume the same opportunity exists everywhere. But after living through 2007-2011, I decided I'd rather leave some money on the table and reduce my exposure than hold out indefinitely for the theoretical maximum price. This time, at least, it worked.

I have some digital art pieces I’d like printed on high-quality matte (maybe even rag/watercolor) paper. I only want a handful of prints to start with, so it might not be appropriate for a large print shop. Probably goes without saying, but not looking for laser prints like Kinko’s. TIA!

Hi neighbors! Two of our recurring clients had schedule changes, so our small family cleaning team has some unexpected availability this Wednesday afternoon and we work in West Seattle almost every day. You do not need to book a full-house cleaning. We would be happy to help with one project, such as: Deep cleaning the kitchen and bathrooms Organizing a child’s bedroom Decluttering and organizing a pantry Cleaning and organizing a garage or shed Tackling another space that has become overwhelming We’re offering 10% off this Wednesday’s service. Karina’s Cleaning is a local, family-owned company with 17 years of experience. We’re licensed, bonded, and insured, and we genuinely love helping families feel more comfortable in their homes. You’re welcome to message me here or contact us directly: [206-507-4363](tel:206-507-4363) [ [email protected] ](mailto: [email protected] ) https://karinascleaningseattle.com Reviews: https://maps.app.goo.gl/mSR813RJgEisUx4F9?g_st=ic

We need someone who has extensive experience in painting miniatures or figures. For example, attached is mockup of a 3d sign that we are producing. We need someone to paint the sign to match the image as closely as possible. The texturing, weathering, etc. We'll provide the sign in parts to make it easier and glue together later. Pay is per piece, to be negotiated. This can be after a trial of one or two pieces so you can determine how long it will take and what it will cost. Sample pieces will be paid for, not looking for anything free. We'll have several more projects like this one and will produce somewhere around 10 to 50 pieces of each product, perhaps more. While this isn't a full time gig by any means we need to have them completed in a timely manner so that will need to be discussed. Hopefully a few days, maybe a week to complete 25 pieces or something like that. Feel free to post questions or chat if you want to learn more or apply. It would be ideal if you had an online portfolio or could send some pictures of your work. We have samples of the sign in hand if you want to give a trial a shot. We are located in Olympia so we would be happy to mail the signs or meet up in person somewhere convenient.

When I was in Seattle, I biked nearly everywhere but there were days I enjoyed the trolley system and buses - pretending I lived there (window seat please!) It was chilly but sunny most days, and I got to watch the leaves change colors as autumn settled in. There was something really special about experiencing the city that way. I went to ride the wooden boats for free on Lake Union at The Center for Wooden Boats, went to various museums downtown for Art Night, learned how to play real tennis at Amy Yee Tennis Center, and then took a few losses playing table tennis (ping pong) at Hing Hay Park against the more seasoned vets😭 I went to Jimi Hendrix Park and the Butterfly Garden and visited the Northwest African American Museum in the park. I relaxed outside the Amazon Spheres workspace and enjoyed free bananas from the Community Stand, which was so cool. I eventually went inside the Spheres and left a note as part of their art exhibit. I had delicious soul food in the Central District at Fats Chicken and Waffles, bought cassettes for the first time, and eventually bought a record + CD + cassette all-in-one player. I saw the Gum Wall of course, walked directly past the first Starbucks, and tried Ube for the first time from Hellenika Cultured Creamery. The Marionberry and Ube gelatos were on the house because they liked me for some reason. 🤗 It was a bit chilly the first couple of days, so I thrifted a lovely jacket from Ross. I also went to a diner specifically to try their Ube pancakes, only to find out they were only served on certain days. So I got a regular breakfast instead, sat in the window booth, people-watched, and felt like I was in a movie. I biked to and through the University of Washington, which is beautiful. I sat in the fancy library or study hall, skimmed the blurbs of some books and pamphlets, and eventually left. I really enjoyed those little moments where I wasn’t necessarily trying to accomplish anything. I was just there, taking everything in. I went to KEXP for a coffee-brewing class, got a tour of the KEXP studio, and left with some coffee and stickers as souvenirs. I also had a solo brunch at Tyger Tyger. It was empty and peaceful, and the owner was amazing. A lady came in who knew him, and somehow we all ended up chit-chatting together about life while having some purple alcoholic beverages. It was such a random, genuine interaction that I probably wouldn’t have experienced if I hadn’t been traveling alone. It was rainy when I made my way to Kerry Park to overlook the city, but I still went. On another day, I biked to Gas Works Park and realized just how hilly Seattle can be hahhaha. Thankfully, breakfast at Mas Cafe made up for it. There was a cute orange cat sleeping on the pebble pathway at Urban Earth Plant Nursery, which was such a quaint, beautiful location. The Indoor Sun Shoppe was beautiful as well. I also had to stop and see the Fremont Troll because I thought it was intriguing and funny. I biked through the graffiti tunnel in Sam Smith Park, and when I reached the other side, I sat underneath a maple tree while orange, yellow, and red leaves fell onto my head. I loved it. And then there was the Space Needle. I enjoyed the view from beneath it, left side, right side, inside, near and far but not the top..! I walked through the surrounding parks, and bought a few souvenirs. The days when it rained and I stayed home were just as meaningful, though. Those were the days when I became really introspective. I slowed down, thought about life, and found myself feeling genuinely appreciative of life and having the opportunity to experience all of these things in the first place. Looking back, I think that’s what I’ll remember most. Sitting under the front entrance’s canopy watching the rain pour, then going back inside for a hot shower and meditative bath, understanding that it’s not just about the places I went or the things I did, but how it felt to temporarily step outside of my normal life. I got to wander, get lost (literally, phone died some days while biking around), meet people born and raised in Seattle, try new things, lose at ping pong, eat good food, ride through autumn streets, sit underneath falling leaves, and just be present. When I was in Seattle, I wasn’t really trying to make some grand story out of the trip. I was just living, exploring, and appreciating life as it happened. And somehow, that became the story.

Request for help for my 4 sons and I. We have been victims of many years of DV that finally has ended in my husband being arrested for assaulting myself and my minor son whom came to rescue me. My husband tried to kill me by strangling me and punched my son in the face. This situation has been so traumatic and healing from it has been a long process especially because my husband was our primary bread winner and now he is just gone. Which is good but all the legal expenses, the cost of living these days plus 4 boys to feed is a very hard thing to be able to afford on the little difficult to make ends meet. I’d get a job but my doctor doesn’t recommend it as I have frequent flash backs following those are major panic attacks. I just need a little help making ends meet during this time. Thanks

Hello! As the title suggests, I am seeking Great or better cherry pie! Mostly, the filling is what makes or breaks a cherry pie but I just had a slice with good filling and blah (or worse) crust and now I need to seek one with better crust. Please give me suggestions, I am willing to drive a few hundred miles at this point (if necessary). I should probably learn to do it myself but I haven’t .

I made a post about Data Centers and the footprint they make a while ago. I feel like there was a lot of push back on what I was saying. However, I saw an article today with some studies that some may find interesting. It has to do with our neighbors to the south.