South King County

What is required of a seller when an on-site septic system is involved?

In King County, the seller of any single or multi-family residential property served by an on-site septic system is now required to have a monitoring and performance inspection prior to transfer of title.  King County will require the inspection and report to be completed by a King County licensed On-Site System Maintainer (OSM).  A copy of the inspection report must be submitted to the Health Department and the buyer prior to transfer of title.  The new requirement is set forth in King County Board of Health Code Section 13.60.030.

Please note that King County will not enforce this requirement for transactions that are pending on or before January 19, 2009. 

To obtain more information, including a copy of the inspection form and a list of licensed OSMs , call King County's Operation & Maintenance Program Manager, Michelle Britt at (206) 205-8962 or visit http://www.kingcounty.gov/healthservices/health/ehs/wastewater.aspx.

How Social Media was successful in Election '08 and how it can work for you

This has been an historic election on many fronts. And no matter which campaign you were pulling for the use of social media as a fund raising and organizational tool to gain support was unprecedented. A recent posting on livemint.com by Ayeshea Perera states that,

Obama has successfully used social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. His website featured supportive user generated content from blogs, and sites such as youtube while also giving people space to express their support and leave comments on issues that were most relevant to them.

According to readwriteweb.com, there is some significant data to back this up. The winning campaign was largely successful in this strategy due to the demographics which tend to make up a large portion of todays democratic voters. How does this apply to you? Today's market has made it a great time for first time home buyers to jump in and take advantage of having more buying power, lower rates, and higher inventory. Many of these first time buyers fall into that very demographic that taps into the social media which was so successful in spreading the President-elect's message. A recent article on msn.com highlights why Seattle is especially attractive to first time home buyers while other parts of the country may not be. The following is an excerpt from this article:

Dawn and Michael Kessay purchased their first home in Seattle recently and enjoyed the best of both worlds -- a good selection and relatively risk-free pricing. Their agent, Sheryl McLaren, believes that despite the grim national news, this is still a good market for first-time buyers with strong credit.

Lesson to be learned . . . there is a large database of potential clients available through social media so take advantage!

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaselabs/