Thanks everyone who came to the first ever Banff Film Festival in Leavenworth last night.  Rebecca Darling and the folks at the Leavenworth Winter Sports Club did a great job setting up the event and promoting it. We had a full house at the Enzian (250 people?) and the event sold out. According to the folks from the Banff Film Fest this is very rare for the first visit of the event to a new town. It doesn't surprise me at all that it would do well in our little mountain town. Looking forward to next year, maybe at a bigger venue! 11/24/2010

The weather is getting snowy and we all are taking a few days off for Thanksgiving.  This is the week that many Leavenworth families start thinking about the annual search for a Christmas tree.  For some that means searching the local parking lots for trees sold by local Boy Scout troops and high school marching bands, for others it means venturing to a local Christmas tree farm likeShelton's in Cashmere, For our family, it means visiting the local national forest for a Christmas tree. Come visit our blog to learn where to get a permit for a Christmas tree in Leavenworth   11/21/2010

Icicle Creek Homes is a proud sponsor of the Leavenworth Banff Mountain Film Festival. This is the first visit to Leavenworth and we are really proud to be the title sponsor.   When Is The Banff Film Fest Coming to Leavenworth?   Enzian Inn in Leavenworth Tuesday, Nov. 23rd 5:30 p.m. Doors open for socializing, beverages and refreshments. 6:15 p.m. Raffle of special prizes with only $2 buy in. 6:30 p.m. Movies start.   There are a limited number of tickets so make sure to get them online soon. Adults are $13 and kids are $8.  (or  $15/10 at the door) Tickets will also be available at Der Sportsman and Leavenworth Mountain Sports.   Click Here for Tickets.     11/12/2010

The first snow of this winter hit downtown Leavenworth this afternoon. We were told to expect it at higher elevations, but we actually got snow right in town. We've posted some pictures of the snow and some winter driving and parking tips over at our blog. Please click here to continue reading about Leavenworth's first snow of the year. 11/09/2010

Leavenworth's Oktoberfest is over and fall is slowly turning into winter.  The snow dusted peaks are teasing all us snow sport fans, but there are still lots of great fall colors to be seen in and around town.  While November can be a little bit quieter in Leavenworth as we recover from Oktoberfest and gear up for Christmas lighting, there are still lots of events happening. Click Here to See the Full Leavenworth Calender for November 11/09/2010

Once again Leavenworth WA is on the national news. Conan has decided to have Arlene Wagner of the Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum as his first guest!   Arlene beat out other possible guests ranging from Justin Bieber to the Pope. According to Entertainment Weekly, the other two finalist in the running were Jack Nicholson and the Sultan of Brunei. Conan's first show debuts on TBS this Monday. 11/06/2010

Over at our Leavenworth Real Estate blog we tackled 3rd Quarter real estate numbers in two new posts. In the first post we tackled current Leavenworth home prices. In the second we followed up with info about the number of home sales in Leavenworth WA during the last quarter. We hope you find this info helpful. 11/06/2010

Leavenworth's Oktoberfest is over and fall is slowly turning into winter.  And even though the snow dusted peaks are teasing all us snow sport fans, there are still lots of great fall colors to be seen in and around town.  While November can be a little bit quieter in Leavenworth as we recover from Oktoberfest and gear up for Christmas lighting, there are still lots of events happening. Come visit our blog for Leavenworth's November events calender. 11/06/2010

Foreclosures and short sales have been the number one topic of real estate in the past 6 months. We haven't been immune in Leavenworth, but we certainly have seen much less distressed sales here than in other parts of the country. Many of you are already subscribing to our Leavenworth Foreclosure and Short Sale List so you received an email about this news already. (It's not to late to sign up if you haven't already.) Leavenworth has two real estate auctions coming up in November. Click here to read about these Leavenworth auctions. 10/25/2010

Over the past 6 years I have been interviewed a number of times about Leavenworth real estate and our local market. Obviously the most exciting was the New York Times, but it's great to be in the local papers too. Yesterday I spoke with the Wenatchee Business Journal who are considering exploring why Leavenworth's market has improved so much this year while the market in Wenatchee and East Wenatchee is sluggish. To that end, they would love to interview folks who have bought  a house in Leavenworth in 2010. I suppose they would be interested in folks who didn't buy a house either - especially down valley. If you would be willing to be interviewed let me know and I'll pass along the name of the reporter. 08/12/2010

Yep, we finally are starting to get serious about putting our business on Facebook. For a while, I had just been mixing business with pleasure, but I really prefer having my business page separate from my personal account. We're trying to give our Facebook fans a little bit of "inside information" whenever we can. Often that means a heads up on new listings in the Leavenworth area a little bit before we enter it in the MLS. Any ideas of other "extras" we can give our Facebook fans? If you want to see what we're doing, we'd love to have more folks join us. http://facebook.com/iciclecreekrealestate PS... You need to hit the "like" button to join us as a fan. 07/23/2010

Kai- what? Wikipedia defines  kaizen as a " philosophy or practices that focus upon continuous improvement of processes in manufacturing, engineering, supporting business processes, and management".  Kaizen is "the culture of continual aligned small improvements and standardization yields large results in the form of compound productivity improvement." I like to think that Allyson and I have embraced real estate kaizen - a culture of experimentation leading to continuous improvement. You might not see all the experiments we try - some of them fail. We are always looking for ways to work harder and smarter for our clients. Click here to read the full story about Leavenworth real estate agents working harder to sell homes. 07/21/2010

The Spring numbers for Leavenworth home sales are in.   Want to read the full article? Click here to read all about Leavenworth Home Prices in 2010. 07/10/2010

In a recent post of mine about the Leavenworth real estate market, David asks: What do you think of Leavenworth condos under 275K? It seems to me there are an awful lot of those for sale now. Some of the Ski Blick are under 275, there are 3 Alpine condos, etc. What a great question: Here's my reply. (click on the link for the full answer) Yes, there are lots of choices for condos under $275,000 in Leavenworth   07/01/2010

With a record number of homes for sale in Leavenworth, we generally are telling folks it's probably not the best time to list your house.  The corollary of that, of course, is that it is a great time to buy a home. But even our small market in Leavenworth is made of a number of different neighborhoods and while we may have an oversupply of condos at Kahler Glen, properties for sale on Lake Wenatchee are pretty rare. With that in mind, we created a chart to help consumers sort this out: Click Here to See the Chart: Is Leavenworth a Buyer's Market? 06/25/2010

Yesterday someone searched Google for "Leavenworth Buyers Agent". They visited our Leavenworth real estate site, but only stayed for 10 seconds. What a disappointment, I would have loved to help. We don't have any Exclusive Buyer's Agents (EBAs) in Leavenworth, and I don't think that's a bad thing. I think agents serve their clients best when they work for both buying and selling clients. No experience helps a listing agent more than showing homes to buyers.  Finding out the likes, dislikes, fears and worries of active buyers is the best way to learn how to help your sellers. Likewise, representing sellers in negotiations helps you write better offers for your buyer clients since you have seen offers from both sides of the table. Are you an EBA? What's your take? Consumers - have you us... 06/23/2010

Every month over on our Leavenworth real estate website we post the homes that have sold in the area. Too many consumers get their info about prices from inflated listing prices and don't get to "see behind the curtain." Click here to see: Leavenworth Sold Homes May 2010 Cashmere Sold Homes 2010 06/09/2010

We have heard increased reports of burglaries of vacation homes in Lake Wenatchee . These are happening to vacant homes in the area and the burglars are using the internet to research which homes are vacant. For a list of simple things you can do to protect your home visit our blog and read the entire post.  http://iciclecreekrealestate.com/2010/05/12/rash-of-lake-wenatchee-and-plain-break-ins/   05/13/2010

One of our reader's favorite monthly posts is the list of SOLD homes we post over at our Leavenworth real estate blog. It shouldn't be hard info to find, it is a matter of public record after all. So we make it easy and even take pictures of the houses for you. Click the links below: April 2010: Sold Leavenworth Homes April 2010: Sold Cashmere Homes 05/11/2010

Here's a post I hate writing about. Leavenworth has too many on homes on the market ..... again. (Or is it still?) More and more homes are coming on the market every day and very few are selling. As of today we have 26 months of supply! This is great news if you are a buyer, you will have more choices in Leavenworth and Lake Wenatchee than ever before. If you are a seller... it's not good news. Click here to read the entire article. 05/11/2010