Author: Jay

As a Seattle area property management company, we have heard many threats from landlords who are "up in arms" about the new cap on move-in fees. This article talks about this landlord group and the lawsuit against the city to overturn the ordinance....

As a premiere Seattle property management company, we make it our duty to keep our clients informed about the issues that are important to landlords in Seattle and throughout the King and Snohomish counties. With this in mind, today’s topic focuses...

The Seattle Times reports the first lawsuit to Seattle's new landlord / tenant ordinance. We have heard rumors of several more to follow from other individuals and organizations. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out:

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/u-district-upzone-handful-of-landowners-have-most-to-gain/ As a property manager of several parcels in the U District, it will be interesting to see how quickly redevelopment occurs.

Maintaining your rental property effectively will help you preserve its condition and increase your ROI. It will also keep your tenants happy, because they want to live in a home that is well-maintained and safe. Instead of reacting to every...

If you’re an investor buying a home specifically for this purpose, getting your house ready to rent is pretty easy. However, if you have been living in the property and you’re now turning it into a rental property, preparing your home for a tenant...

Rental advertising has evolved from placing nickel ads in the classified section of local newspapers to major marketing campaigns on a variety of platforms, including websites and social media. This is a critical part of finding a good tenant and...

To earn top rent in the Seattle market, you need to provide a property that’s desirable and modern. While there’s no need to completely remodel your property, you should make a few key improvements that will make a huge difference in attracting and...

Seattle property management companies and landlords need to follow a series of specific steps when performing a residential eviction in Washington. Brian Read, an experienced landlord and tenant attorney who has worked with RPA for several years,...

THE SEATTLE TIMES BENJAMIN WOODARD ‘Sweet deal’: Ad for $2,000-a-month gingerbread house in Central District is the satire we all need right now For rent: a “HUGE micro house” with an “efficient floor plan” of about 1 square foot. But be warned, you...

An important update that will soon affect landlords, property managers and owners of rental property located inside the Seattle city limits. Recently, the Seattle city council voted for and adopted some new ordinances that will affect landlords,...

Interesting article in the Seattle Times profiling a really small micro apt in the U District. So small in fact that the bathroom cannot be enclosed. While we rent many micros in the Seattle area, we have yet to see one this...

All mid-size to large apartment and commercial buildings in the city of Seattle are required to report energy consumption. If you do not report this information annually, you will be subject to a fine. One of the positive things that this does is...

RPA has several buildings that we manage within the newly proposed density overlay as discussed in today's Seattle Times article. If passed, it will be interesting to see how quickly properties become assembled, proposed, permitted and constructed....

Staying up to date on developments that affect property management in Seattle is one of the things we do best, so today we are talking about an important legal change that local landlords need to be aware of. Effective June 9, 2016, the state of...

Over the last few years, all of us who are in the Seattle property management business have seen the proliferation of short term stay rentals increase through websites such as Airbnb. A recent study suggested that the number of active Airbnb rentals...

September of 2007 is widely recognized as the market peak for the Seattle area real estate market in both residential and commercial properties. The peak was followed by a four year slide (it felt more like 10 years!). Most of the stalled...

A lot of our clients have previously lived in the homes they are renting out, and when you go from being an occupant to a landlord, there are several changes that occur. Insurance is one of those changes. We are joined today by Andrew Cowen with...

Another Seattle Times article discussing California, Bay area housing and the flight of those in the tech industry. We are placing many Seattle tenants with very similar stories:

Recently, we had a fire in one of our buildings which was caused by a vehicle that caught on fire in the garage. The fire spread from the garage to the rest of the unit. Fortunately, no one was hurt and the tenant held an inexpensive renter’s...

At Real Property Associates, we have been providing property management services to Seattle, Everett, Bellevue and all the cities and neighborhoods in between for 25 years. We’re taking a look back at how our industry once looked and all the ways...

For February - Depleted inventory is contributing to "overwhelming" traffic at open houses, shifts in strategies for both buyers and sellers, and escalating prices, according to officials with the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

Redfin (www.redfin.com), the next-generation real estate brokerage, today announced its annual list of neighborhoods across the country it predicts will be the hottest this year, topped by Ukrainian Village in Chicago. To rank the neighborhoods that...

The average price of existing single-family homes in the Seattle area jumped 1.2 percent in November from the previous month, outpacing the 0.9 percent increase in a 20-city index, according to Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index data released...

South Lake Union’s transformation — largely fueled by the growth of its highest-profile employer, Amazon — has had a ripple effect that’s reshaped the surrounding city, for better or worse. It’s all happened so quickly. You don’t have to be a...

Changing the owner-occupancy requirement for backyard cottages could create a loophole for developers to tear down houses and essentially build multifamily housing structures in single-family zones. Share story FOR decades, Seattle has pursued many...

https://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2025341798_rentsq4xml.html By Sanjay Bhatt Seattle Times business reporter The region’s runaway rent growth could ease somewhat in 2015, as developers open thousands of new apartments, according to a...

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/rising-rents-rising-towers-push-out-tenants-of-modest-means/

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/wall-street-buyers-snap-up-thousands-of-local-homes-for-rentals/ By Sanjay Bhatt Seattle Times business reporter Last April, amid the region’s tightest housing supply in a decade, a Wall Street-backed company...

http://www.seattletimes.com/business/seattle-area-apartment-rents-may-stabilize-even-dip-in-2014/ After steep increases in 2013, rents should stay level or even decline this year as the market softens, a new report suggests.

http://www.seattletimes.com/business/census-surprise-seattle-the-most-affordable-big-city-for-renters/ By Gene Balk Seattle Times news librarian How bad is the plight of the Seattle renter? As reported in The Seattle Times, spiking rents have forced...

City planning efforts for the University District envision more density around a future light-rail station and buildings up to 34 stories high.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303643304579107691208150088.html By DAWN WOTAPKA Landlords passed along hefty rent increases to tenants this summer, an indication that rising home-buying costs are helping heat up demand for apartments.

http://www.seattletimes.com/business/local-apartment-rents-continue-climbing Rent hikes in King County show no signs of letting up, despite a huge wave of new apartments. Landlords expect to increase rents by an average 3 percent between September...

http://www.seattletimes.com/business/news/scammers-right-at-home-in-sizzling-rental-market/ The Craigslist ads and the emails from the alleged landlords are often full of grammatical errors, but the rental price is too good to pass up. "Only $1,200...

Jay Young, owner of Seattle area Real Property Associates for 21 years, was recently interviewed about rental real estate and property management by Bloomberg News.

In a move sure to change the Seattle property management scene, the Seattle City Council unanimously approved mandatory inspections for all rental homes in Seattle on October 1, 2012.