This Weekend in Moses Lake, Wa and Area 8/13   Friday at dusk:   Movie in the park  Location: McCosh Park  Tonights movie: Monsters and Aliens 8/13-14    Friday/Saturday:    American Fiesta Amistad    Location: Othello  www.othellochamber.com/events.html 8/14    Saturday   7:30 - 1:   Farmer's Market  Location: McCosh Park   www.moseslakefarmersmarket.com 8/17-21   Tuesday - Saturday  Grant County Fair and Rodeo                               www.grantcountyfair.com         www.moseslakeroundup.com 8/18    Wednesday  1-7:   Farmers Market   Location: 3rd and Ash       www.moseslakefarmersmarket.com   I don't know about you but I am going to the RODEO!!! Yeeeehaaaa!!  The Fair looks great also! It's going to be a fun upcoming week in Moses Lake, Wa! I am also going to the Farmer's Market ... 08/13/2010

Moses Lake, Wa 1st Time Home Buyers Information, part 1 The first thing you need to know about buying your first home is this: It is an emotional adventure you will never forget. My goal is to help make it a positive experience with a good outcome by first listening to your needs, explaining the process, and answering your questions. Here are some FYI's for 1st time buyers I work with: 1. Do NOT be afraid to ask questions!!!!  I WANT you to ask questions because I want you to feel comfortable with the process, and if you do not understand the process you will not feel comfortable. So I welcome all questions. 2. Do not be afraid to ask the same question more than once. I'm serious:) 3. How ever many times you call, it will not be too many. I am here for you. This is my job and I love it!... 08/12/2010

                                  Cut and raked alfalfa in the Moses Lake, Wa area 08/10/2010

    Problems are not always in the easy to find areas of a home. Eastern WA Home Inspections looks in the hard to get to areas for potential problems and concerns. Pictured is an attic that has not seen mankind in years, possibly since the building was constructed. Notice the area to the rear, it opened up to another area that is not pictured. It is important to go where no man has gone before, at least not in a long while.     Our Inspector traversed this attic in its entirety looking for issues that could effect the home and its owners in the future. At times this can be a challenging task, summer heat, low clearances, or a number of things can make the job difficult. At Eastern WA Home Inspections we use our common sense about how far we go into an area like this, safety is always on... 08/04/2010

We live in a great country, it spans from sea to sea, something many of us take for granted but it is really special. All you have to do is look at a map and see all the countries that do not even have a port let alone ports on two different oceans. The vast lands and natural resources we have in our borders has allowed us to prosper over the years. Couple that with the individualism, drive, and freedom we Americans possess and you get an economic power house. Our economy is in a down turn and it may be a while before it gets going again. This down turn has effected most of us in some form or another. For myself it has forced a sideways step to keep moving forward. As with many I have driven forward with a new company. I think this is likely a very common thing here in America as many s... 07/07/2010

Home inspections can take two to four hours depending on the home size and age; even when it is a team effort like the inspector team at Eastern WA Home Inspections, LLC. One thing that allows the inspection to keep moving along is to have the crawl space and attic assesses free from stored items for the inspector.     These accesses can be located in a number of places, including garages, halls, closets, or even out doors. Newer homes often have these accesses in the master bedroom closet or in a closet off the laundry room, depending on the homes layout.   Closet crawlspace assesses are often found covered with stored items, as is shown in the photo. Our Home Inspectors have found shelves full of breakables located on top of the access, luckily the owner was there and we were able to ... 06/22/2010

I have been gardening all my life, when I was around ten I can remember the fun  I had watching things grow. Then as a teenager I had better things to do and hated the weeding my parents wanted me to do. Later I was farming and raising my own family so our garden was economical, I can not say fun, but it was easy. I had all the equipment so it was just a Minni farm spot. I would pull the equipment through it just as I did the other fields. The garden was always loaded with good stuff for our table. We ate very well, tomato omelets were my favorite breakfast at the time. One year I tried my luck at a truck garden, two acres of produce. This was a great experiance for my family, we spent hours together working the feild, and marketing the vegitables. This was a lot of work and it was fun ... 06/21/2010

Sprinkler systems not properly installed can cause issues. This system on a three-year-old house had an obvious problem, the controllers flooded every time the sprinklers were turned on. This may have been a leak or a poorly located head just out of view of this photo, or both.   There was a crawl space vent behind the cover to the left and the water was draining under the house. Luckily the system only ran for a short period of time, three days a week and damage had not yet developed under the house. Our dry Moses Lake, Washington climate may have been a factor in slowing damage development but the next owner may not be so lucky. The system had more problems; the power to the controller had been installed “less than professionally”. It had been double tapped into an existing breaker, a... 05/03/2010

Recently I had the opportunity to attend Washington State University Extension service's Wood destroying Organisms training in Puyallup WA. This facility is tremendous, they have built a house just for this training. The house was constructed out of many types of building materials and improper building practices just to allow the WDO's to thrive. It features many different types of WDO's and conducive conditions. Moisture and Carpenter ants, beetles, and termites all can be found there. We were able to see these pests in their habitat and see the tell tale signs that they have been or are present. At the top of the walls you can see moisture injectors into the walls, keeping WDO's happy is good for the training. Display cases lined the walls so we could see more evidence of WDO's and w... 04/16/2010

We have all been hearing a lot about this Loan Program lately.  It seems every offer I get nowadays requests a USDA loan and I thought it would be great if we all had a little more information about these types of loans, especially since they are allowable loans in Grant County and Moses Lake. The USDA is a guaranteed loan program that can offer buyers 100% loans much like the 80/20 loans of the past.  This is a government backed loan program that has no private mortgage insurance requirement and has more flexible qualifying guidelines that allow more people to affordably purchase their homes.  There are also no maximum loan amounts on these loans like the FHA guidelines have. One of the first requirements that these loans have is that the property must be purchased in a eligible proper... 02/23/2010

So today the Commissioner announced some changes that are in the pipeline for FHA mortgages.  Since I would say today in our area 3 out of every 5 mortgages are FHA this will impact a lot of us in this area.The FHA has decided to raise up front mortgage insurance costs from the borrower from 1.75% to 2.25%.  They are also requesting permission to increase the maximum MIP that they can charge.  Does it suprise you that an insurance company wants to increase rates?  Doesn't suprise me a bit!For new borrowers to qualify for a loan if they have a 580 credit score they must now put 3.5% down on the transaction.  For someone with a lower score they will have to come up 10% down on the home.The bigger change is that sellers can now only contribute 3 % on an FHA sale which is down 3% from what ... 01/20/2010

Moses Lake boasts a fantastic opportunity for artists around the basin as well as families interested in being involved in the community.  Aptly referred to as MAC the museum is home to the Adam East collection of Native American artifacts from the Columbia Basin Region.  They also frequently change out the subsequent art on the walls with ever evolving Columbia Basin Artists and traveling exhibitions.  The best part is that the museum is always FREEAs well as offering you those opportunities of learning the history of the Columbia Basin they also offer weekly classes for you or your family on ever revolving topics that may interest you.  Just two weeks ago I was able to take my kids to a Family Free Saturday where they made igloos out of marshmallows!  Coming up on January 23 they are... 01/13/2010

Moses Lake Real Estate Agent Heather Adkinson With a lesser amount of listings on the market at this time then last year there is a much better chance that your house will be shown. Pendings have stayed about the same but the solds were dramatically increased over last year at this time. Look for a lot of new listings in the next couple weeks as sellers gear up for a new season and a new more positive outlook on the market 01/04/2010

I don't know about what you did for Christmas but I spent mine with clients.  It's not because I was trying to show you up or anything. It's not because I wanted to be able to say "hey I work harder then you."  Nope none of those are the reasons.  It was just plain because I wanted to!We closed on this cute little house of my single mother client on the 18th of this month.  Her children were then going to spend winter break with their Father.  I was going to be without my children as well, so instead of mourning that fact we had a "girls day."  Wine flowed freely and friendships were made that day.  I would have to say that it was probably the best Christmas I had.  No Drama, no cooking, no gifts!  I loved it! 12/28/2009

New Years Eve Party 2010Larson Rec CenterOnly $10.00 for the whole eveningGrades 6-12 Time 9p.m.-1a.m.Sign up at Parks & Rec or the Larson Rec CenterParent Waiver Required509-764-6316Registration Deadline Dec 28th 12/21/2009

Houselogic.com  If you are looking for ways to help your neighborhood become just all around more friendly I found a great place to go that will give you fantastic ideas on doing just such a thing. Houselogic.com is a great new website driven towards consumers with a wealth of information on anything you could think of.  In the Community Concerns section it will give you ideas to help you motivate the community feeling in the neighborhood.  Do you want a playground in your neighborhood?  Well it gives you ideas for that too! Check it out and find all those things that you wanted to do but didn't know how to start.  And while you're there click through the site to find all the other information that they have that will be of great help to you.  It's a fantastic website that I think is go... 12/21/2009

The Prosperity Center (a non-profit) can help make your dream of owning your own home a reality! This homebuyer education and counseling service can help you reach your goals of homeownership! Also get a FREE CREDIT REPORT and Consultation along with learning how to get an $8,000 Tax Credit from the government! Hosted by The Prosperity Center, Saturday, December 12, 2009 from 9:00AM to 2:00PM. Location: Central Basis Worksource, 309 E 5th Ave., Moses Lake, WA. Call Carolyn @ 509.766.4152 for more information.   Deb & Ray GravelleTEAM UP - Moving in the Right DirectionRE/MAX Home Team Realty(509) 771-9099 or (509) 771-0027Debra@MoveInMosesLake.comFree updated listings: www.ServingMosesLake.com 12/07/2009

I was very surprised to see the statistics that the number of first-time home buyers rose to 47 percent of all home sales from 41 percent of transactions in last year's study, and was the highest on record dating back to 1981.  Moving from the previous high of 44% set in 1991.With these first time home buyers they also ended up buying houses in the median price range of 156,000 down 10,000 from the year previous.  Most of those first timers financed their home with FHA financing which seems to be the norm nowadays.  With conventional financing requiring more down, the FHA option that only requires 3.5% down is an attractive option to buyers who haven't padded the nest egg to pay for the down paymentThe first time home buyers that actually came up with the down payment used a variety of ... 12/07/2009

December Free Family Saturday December 5, 2009Moses Lake Description:Visit MAC anytime between the hours of 12 noon and 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, December 5 and create your own holiday ornament. Location:Moses Lake Museum & Art Center228 West Third Ave.Moses Lake, WA 98837Admission:FREEOther Information:A free family art activity open to all ages on a first come, first serve basis. Contact Information:Contact: Ann GoldenWeb site: www.mlrec.com/museum.htmlEmail: agolden@ci.moses-lake.wa.usPhone: 509-766-9395 12/04/2009

It looks like the last month has slowed down for us in pendings.  We had more pendings last year in the month of November then we do this year.  So is the First Time Homebuyer Credit working for us? It definately has impacted the solds as you see there were more sold in the month of November this year then last year at this time. With 367 active listings at this time there is tons to choose from!  December always ends up being a pretty slow month for activity with everyone gearing up for the New Year.  It is always a great time to start getting your house ready to sell if you are going to list in the New Year.  Don't forget to get the advice of a professional Realtor on what you can do to make your house more sellible we are more then happy to help! 12/01/2009