360Digest

Although public housing in Seattle has always been maintained to be livable, elsewhere in the country public housing has been allowed to deteriorate to the extent that people can no longer live in many thousands of units. In the early 1990s, a national commission found that about 100,000 public housing units in the U.S. were “severely distressed” and proposed a national action plan to address this problem by the year 2000.

In 1992, Congress authorized a new program called Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere, or HOPE VI, to carry out the commission’s recommendations.

In August 1999, the Office of Housing and Urban Development awarded Seattle Housing Authority with a $35 million HOPE VI grant to redevelop Rainier Vista, a 481-unit World War II-era garden community in Southeast Seattle.

The Seattle Housing Authority created a unique partnership with local builders to build not only low-income and rental housing, but market value housing for members of the middle-class.

Most of the builders who have bought and developed the lots are huge experienced general contractor/builder titans with years of experience.

One group that entered the fray is not a big builder, and that is the “George P. Riley Group”.

The original “George P. Riley” came to the NW territories during the Gold Rush. In 1869, Riley along with 14 other folks, 11 African American men, two African American women, and one white man–formed a group and the members pooled funds to purchase real estate. Mr. Riley searched for suitable land and ended up purchasing 20-acres in the present-day Beacon Hill neighborhood for $2000.00. This was the beginning of Seattle’s black neighborhood. He also did the same thing in Tacoma, and that was the beginnings of that cities black neighborhood.

Fast-forward to today.

A group of African-American men, lead by local architect the late Mel Streeter, got together and decided to do the same thing, pool their money to buy real estate in the same Beacon Hill neighborhood.

The group is made up of several African-American architects, including Donald King, a lawyer, an insurance broker (David Tyner), a couple of real estate brokers, the owner of Ezell’s restaurant, an athlete (Lenny Wilkins), and several other prominent African-American gentlemen.

One of the investors is well-known African-American historian Quintard Taylor and he wrote about George P. Riley on his website Black Past.

They thought it would be interesting, a good story, an honor to Riley’s accomplishment, a good example, all those things and more, if they could pull this off, a modern-day group of black men working together to build something worthwhile in the community in Rainier Vista.

And it is a good story, a story that Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter Aubrey Cohen expanded upon in his article “Housing group continues mission of pioneering black developer” published last week in the Seattle P.I..

Aubrey is the Seattle PI’s real estate reporter and has written hundreds of articles on the local real estate scene and even has a blog on the Seattle PI’s site, Seattle Real Estate News.

Fusion Partners have created a general Rainier Vista website, but I’ve been assisting the George P. Riley group on sales and marketing so have made them a website specifically for the George P. Riley Group townhomes. I’m so honored to have had this chance to meet and work with these gentleman, to learn first-hand about their story, and I’m looking forward to assisting them in getting these townhomes sold in 2008.

A lot of people have inquired about our holiday card this year, wondering how we did it. No Photoshop, these are claymation characters created by artist Mike Leavitt. He owns Intuition Kitchen, a small art studio in South Seattle.

My husband took photos of each of us for reference and sent to Mike. To see how close to reality he got with his characters, you can view the reference Flickr photos.

If you have a favorite client who deserves their very own action figure, he can make fully-articulated characters or also smaller “wedding cake topper” size. My friend Bradford Bohonus did a cool virtual reality 360 tour of Mike’s studio.

For a view of some of our past holiday cards, you can view JoDavid’s Flickr set online.

(Add holiday music soundtrack HERE.)

The Yule Log

Return of the Yule Log

Virtual Fireplace

From Marlow, JoDavid, Max, Jack and Sam

Zillow just launched Smart Search, a new version of its search system, along with enhanced Neighborhood Pages that make it easier for consumers to zero-in on homes become smarter about the characteristics of surrounding areas… blah blah blah, yackity-yak…..

But the real news is this cute virtual holiday missive.

Every day’s like Xmas in my in-box, as leads and homes for sale that are not necessarily listed in my local MLS, but are listed on Zillow, come to me via ETerraFind.

An email is sent out each day with new listings of homes for sale within my chosen ZIP code. If you’re watching the market out of curiosity, for yourself or for a client, this will augment that search with any new home entered on Zillow, by either an agent or a homeowner.

I recently asked them how they came up with this and learned that they developed a property notification application for one of their clients to allow them to target any ZIP Code in the country, looking for new listings of properties that may not show up in the MLS. In particular, in the current buyers market, their client was looking for properties that were being offered at a price substantially below calculated estimates for potential acquisition. As part of their contract with this client, they’re allowed to market this service on a “pay per ZIP” basis. They plan to charge $5 per zip code.

They’re soliciting any input as to the whether this is a useful service that provides value, and how to best present this to potential customers, so for a short time, they’re offering this service for free!

Just send your target zipcode to: special@eTerraFind.com

I’ve been receiving their emails now for several weeks, and it’s a useful and easy way to keep up with new listings of homes for sale by owner, not necessarily listed on the MLS.

Every contractor’s wet dream…..

Did anyone else notice the sexy theme on Sellsius this last week? What’s with those guys? Geez, get a room!

Here’s one they missed…..

Hometown Hottie/Real Estate “Executive” Monica White

More photos of Monica (probably not work-safe).

Another real estate Monica

The most beautiful people in Las Vegas

iNest teams up with Northwest Airlines and new home builders to offer airline miles for home purchases.

Buy a newly constructed homes and earn 5,000 miles per $10,000 of base price PLUS 15,000 Bonus Miles. Earn up to 100,000 miles on the purchase of a $200,000 home, plus a 15,000 mile bonus.

They say:

iNest’s unique relationship with leading homebuilders, and our patented program, allows us to streamline the real estate sales process and pass the savings along to you in the form of WorldPerks miles. Your rebate is a portion of the sales commission earned by iNest Realty when you purchase your new home as an iNest registered user.

If you go to their website and enter your state, they’ll send you a list of new homebuilders in your area. In our area, the prices of homes are so high, you can actually get enough miles to earn 8 to 12 airline tickets. Is this enough incentive for someone to buy a new home? Probably not. But if they were going to buy a new home anyway, it might be worth looking in to, though I think the cost (about 5 cents a mile) is hidden somewhere in the acquisition costs.

Athol’s getting a tattoo……

This just in from Steve Jagger of Ubertor and Reachd: Rodney Bartlett catches up with Vanessa Fox, former product team lead for EZ Ads at Zillow and SEO Goddess, and answers the question, “What would you do if you were a real estate agent?”

Since the broker-owned Kirkland, WA-based Pacific Northwest’s NWMLS has discontinued their feed to Realtor.com, many individual agents are frustrated that their listings aren’t featured on Realtor.com.

So, an out-of-state and REALTOR-owned MLS has stepped in to assist. At a cost of just $5 each, an agent can post all of their listings to Realtor.com using via RMLSlite, a sub-MLS of the Regional Multiple Listing Service in Portland, OR.

RMLSlite listings are not included on the main RMLS site, as full RMLS subscription would be required for that, but they will appear on Realtor.com and this is a great way for Realtors who’ve lost their feed to get their individual listings on Realtor.com in a convenient way and at a reasonable price.

This just in via email from Mr. McKinney, self-described “Maverick Daredevil Real Estate Artist”, about his hero Evel Knievel, who died yesterday at the age of 69.

Evel Knievel died today. I am hard pressed to explain the uncontrollable outpouring of emotion I experienced when I learned the news, and watched a tribute to his life on ESPN tonight.

Evel Knievel will always be one of my heroes. Until today, he was the only living “super hero” I ever knew. The only one who actually leapt off the comic book pages and came to life for me when I was a young boy. As I grew a bit older, I realized what an impact Evel had on the formative years of my life. We know how impressionable we are just before we turn teenager. For the years leading up to that milestone for me, I vividly recall being transfixed less than two feet from the screen of a small 15-inch black and white TV watching ABC’s Wide World of Sports portray the larger-than-life daredevil attempt so many of his death defying motorcycle jumps. My world came to a halt when these events were shown on TV. Yes, I was infatuated with the stunts, but I wanted to understand how Evel thought. What caused for him to be able to take such enormous risks when the rest of the world were just spectators.

Oh, how I wanted to be him.

We lived on 16 acres in rural Indiana. After watching his jump over many double-decker buses in Wembley Stadium in London in the mid-70′s, I recall sprinting outside to discard the measly 10 stacked bricks out from underneath my own ramp, and inserting a 3-foot tall metal trash can turned upside down under the ramp. This would give me greater distance, yet more fear. I grabbed my Schwinn bike with banana seat, my pee-wee football helmet and raced to the top of a steep hill in our back yard.

As I sat trembling on my bike on the top of that hill I imagined I was Evel at the top of his ramp inside a stadium with thousands of cheering fans.

With my heart racing and mouth dry, I pedaled and sped as fast as I could toward that over 45-degree take off ramp. With a friend watching, I hit the ramp, and launched what seemed to be 10′ in the air. I remember looking down, as I was sailing so unbelievably high in the air, at my friend’s face staring up at me in total amazement. He seemed so far below me. I landed with such force that I cracked all the welds from my bike frame (probably cracked a couple of other things too), and ruined my bike, but I made the jump. Just like Evel. It is a memory that I will never forget. Getting over the fear, following through with a challenge and pretending to be one of my heroes for one chilly Indiana Sunday afternoon.

I am proud and even fortunate to say Evel Kneivel’s life influenced how I choose to live mine. I am now aware that he taught me a behavioral pattern when I was unaware I was learning one.

It just occurred to me, look at the moniker below my name on my homepage “The Maverick Daredevil Real Estate Artist.” I will never forget how I felt when I was referred to by the Wall Street Journal as a real estate “Daredevil.” Not worthy of the comparison, but blushed with the honor nonetheless. For further proof of the influence, see a news archive photo of me launching over a replica of my 1st $50,000 fixer-upper at the launch party for my 2nd best seller, Frank McKinney’s Maverick Approach to Real Estate Success

Evel Knievel was a performer, daredevil and professional risk taker. He made millions (over 300 million). One of my favorite life’s mantras, actually it is the 25th Chapter in my first book Make it Big! 49 Secrets for Building a Life of Extreme Success “Gently Yet Often Exercise Your Risk Threshold like a Muscle. Eventually It Will Become Stronger and Able to Withstand Greater Pressure.”

Just like Evel starting out with a small ramp, two cars and a few rattlesnakes to jump over, we should all learn from those who embrace fear, then slowly expand their tolerance for risk (higher ramps and more busses) and succeed in life because they chose to do so.

Thank you Evel Knievel for helping me understand that. If you read all the way to the end, thank you for allowing me to share on an unanticipated emotional evening.

Before his death, Evel Knievel sued Kanye West and his record company for the use of Knievel’s trademarked image in a popular West music video. He took issue with a 2006 music video for the song “Touch the Sky,” in which the rapper takes on the persona of “Evel Kanyevel” and tries to jump a rocket-powered motorcycle over a canyon.

In addition to hawking Legend Power Scooters, Knievel made somewhat of a marketing comeback in the 1990s, representing Maxim Casino, Little Caesar’s and Harley-Davidson.

Evel Knievel (real name Robert Craig Knievel) used to own a motorcycle dealership in Washington State. After much success as a daredevil performer, he ended up losing several homes and oweing the federal government more than $5M in backtaxes.

Kelly Knievel, Evel’s oldest son, owns a construction firm in Las Vegas. (In 1995, Kelly’s telemarketing company was sued by Missouri for targeting senior citizens with high-pressure calls. He agreed to stop the calls, and the company paid $150,000 in restitution.)

Evel Knievel’s Conversion to Christianity

On April 1, 2007, Knievel announced to a worldwide audience that he “believed in Jesus Christ” for the first time. He professed his personal faith in Christ to more than 4,000 people who gathered inside the Crystal Cathedral for Palm Sunday services in Orange County, California, and to millions via an Hour of Power telecast of the service to over 100 countries.[3]

Knievel told how he had refused for 68 years to accept Jesus Christ as his Savior because he didn’t want to surrender his lifestyle of “the gold and the gambling and the booze and the women.” He explained his conversion experience by saying, “All of a sudden, I just believed in Jesus Christ. I did, I believed in him!”[4] Knievel said he knew people were praying for him, including his daughter’s church, his ex-wife’s church, and the hundreds of people who wrote letters urging him to believe.

Knievel recounted how he “rose up in bed and, I was by myself, and I said, ‘Devil, Devil, you bastard you, get away from me. I cast you out of my life….’ I just got on my knees and prayed that God would put his arms around me and never, ever, ever let me go.”[5] At his request, he was baptized before the congregation and TV cameras by Dr. Robert H. Schuller, Founding Pastor of the Crystal Cathedral. Christianity Today reported that “…Knievel’s testimony triggered mass baptisms at the Crystal Cathedral.”

While I do not have a picture of Evel being baptized, I do have a cool photo of me and a couple of my boys taken at the Crystal Cathedral just a few days after Knievels miraculous conversion. I just had to see the enormous edifice that Pastor Dr. Robert H. Schuller built with all the millions of dollars his television ministry had brought in to his church.

The Faulty Gospel of Robert Schuller

Another Possible Gospel of Robert Schuller’s