Emmanuel Fonte | Music | Art | Leadership
If music be the food of love, play on. Emmanuel Fonte website is about music, art, real estate, architecture, design and decor. Occasionally, I talk about my other passion, hockey.
1. The Invisible Book Shelf 
2. Industrial Corner Pipe Shelf 
3. Cutshelves 
4. Malagana: Equilibrium Bookcase 
5. Handmade Stacked Teacup Shelve 
6. Has been Read / Will be Read 
7. Booktree 
8. Bookworm Shelf 
9. Check 
10. K Workstation 
11. Bookseat 
12. Kulma Bookshelf 
13. Letterkast 
14. CTline 
15. Tatic 
16. Read Your Bookcase 
There are mobile apps for every industry, including the housing sector. Here are several examples for tech-savvy households who are looking for additional tools at various stages of the homeownership journey.
For market snapshots & home search, the John L Scott Mobile App 2.0 is stellar. I’d be happy to help you with how to get the most out of it.
For the Pre-move: Photo Measures Lite by Big Blue Pixel, developed for iOS, takes your recorded measurements of the property’s spaces and pastes the data onto your pictures. A similar app for the Android is My Measures and Dimensions Lite by Mobile Software.
In the moving stage: Take the guesswork out of navigating the sea of boxes in your new home with Moving Van by Glimmer Design Limited. The application, available for iOS, allows the user to take a picture of the contents of each box, assign the box to a specific room of the house, and then look up each item after the move.
Once you’ve become the permanent resident owner of the house — Use Home Maintenance by POJO Software to schedule regular home maintenance tasks. Get reminders and track the date and costs of purchases and repairs.
Getting ready to transform a room — Use Mark On Call, developed by Apple for iOS, to plan and design a space from start to finish. Take pictures of individual pieces like furniture and accessories and then place them in a virtual design to preview the possibilities.
Need inspiration — Try HGTV Shelf, an application that places photos, tips, and DIY projects for the home and garden at your fingertips.
We have often talked about the difference between COST and PRICE. As a seller, you will be most concerned about ‘short term price’ – where home values are headed over the next six months. As a buyer, you must be concerned not about price but instead about the ‘long term cost’ of the home. Let us explain.
Yesterday, we reported that the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) is projecting that mortgage interest rates will inch up over the next twelve months. On Monday, we explained that many experts are calling for home prices to also increase over the next year.
Here is a simple demonstration of what impact certain changes would have on the mortgage payment of a home selling for approximately $200,000 today:
Who wouldn’t love to have a walk-in closet? But of course some houses just aren’t outfitted with them.
Now for $5,000 you can have a walk-in closet without it even being a closet. Check out this amazingly designed free-standing wardrobe from Hosun Ching.
Now look at it open. This wardrobe has more space than most closets I’ve seen.
Shelves, drawers and beautiful wood design makes this the closet of envy.
Interested? I thought so. You can order yours at TheFancy.com.
Images courtesy of mocoloco.com
Puget Sound continues to be a dynamic place for residents and businesses. According to the October edition of the Seattle Market Review, a publication that highlights changes in commerce, jobs, real estate, and lifestyle amenities, Washington is poised to receive a windfall in real estate taxes, has already experienced a bump up in total personal income, and will see more apartment units coming down the pipe.
Amazon is expected to purchase its South Lake Union headquarters before the end of the year for a price of $1.16 billion, generating about $20.6 million in real estate excise taxes, reports the Puget Sound Business Journal. The tax windfall would add $5.8 million to the city of Seattle’s coffers and $14.8 million to the state’s, according to city and state officials.
Total personal income in Washington state rose a seasonally adjusted rate of 1.03 percent in the second quarter, according to data released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), reports the Seattle Times. Washington ranked 21st in 50 states for second-quarter income growth. BEA’s revised figures indicate that Washington personal income increased by 2.4 percent in 2010 and 5.76 percent in 2011.
On the housing front, renters paid more in September 2012 than they did one year ago. Two research firms’ numbers indicate that rents in King and Snohomish counties are still on the rise. Dupre + Scott Apartment Advisors surveyed about 90 percent of complexes with 20 or more units, calculating the average rent at $1,103, up 3.7 percent from March and about 5 percent from last September. Apartment Insights polled 99 percent of buildings with 50 or more units, calculating an average third-quarter rate of $1,142, up 1.5 percent from the second quarter and 6 percent from one year prior.
Apartment inventory will soon increase in 2013. More than 10,000 units are under construction and another 20,000 are in the planning phase for King and Snohomish counties. Will the additional inventory make rental rates more competitive or perhaps cause landlords to offer concessions? The answer is yes, but the tide may not turn until mid-2013, since 73 percent of landlords surveyed plan to increase their rates over the next 6 months. For more highlights, see the Seattle Market Review.
