November 17th, 2011
Camano Island View + Private + Acreage!
Call Camano Island Home at About 770 Halls Hill Rd
S-p-e-c-t-a-c-u-l-a-r views from this gorgeous, private, wooded, level acreage with a spacious rambler and an open floor plan.
Winding driveway leads you into your own wooded forest with Views of the snow capped Mountains, Port Susan, sun & moon rises and more.
This view is sure to be enjoyed from the entire wall of windows.
Shop area under home can be finished for extra living area + a nice outbuilding for studio/office w/heat & power.
Adjoining 15 acres available to make your large estate. Located on the north end of the Island close to I-5, shopping and schools.
For a lot of great info on this home including more specific info such as price and more, please visit my real estate listing here.
Ready to see if this would be a g-r-e-a-t fit for your next home? Call me – Jan Mather, Camano Island Expert – (360) 507-4133
October 31st, 2011
News from the Club – October 31, 2011 Camano Island Real Estate
Fall is here! (and today is Halloween (Happy Halloween!!) With all the classic signs like the end of the baseball season and an amazing World Series, All Hallows Eve (Halloween) and Daylight Savings Time on November 5th! Due to the weather change all of those inside projects seem to be coming out as well. Cooking, baking, cleaning, sewing and crafts! The chill in the air reminds us that winter is close and me of one of my father’s favorite traditional dishes; Chicken and Dumplings which I made for the very first time in years! It warms your body through and through from the inside out! Then on with dessert and the Gooey Pumpkin Cake which I am making one of my families traditions! Mmmm, mmmm!! It is a wonderful thing to have and remember family traditions. It is exciting and a pleasure to start my own family traditions. Personally, I have been doing quite of bit of organizing home for winter and the holidays, decorating, cleaning and sewing. I used to sew and be around sewing everyday! Another first; it was so fun making a terrific gift for my husband and our Wedding Anniversary and a Princess Costume for my youngest daughter for Halloween! I have never seen anyone so happy! I have also been helping quite a few clients organize and ready their homes that want to list now. Historically not the best selling or listing period but with everything else out of the ordinary this year, seems like a great time! With lots of new inventory coming on the market, also comes a lots of new buyers. We could be gearing up for a busy fall and winter selling time and start to the New Year 2012. As we are starting the final and fourth quarter of the year we are all hoping to end on a big, bright note. Pending and Sold sales are up on Camano but even more so in Snohomish County and Stanwood! We will push our way through the falling maple leaves, rain, wind and weather to keep all of our listings looking as good as we can and try to find all of our buyers what they are looking for. The interest rates continue to fall, as do prices so it a very good time to purchase!!
October 27th, 2011
Camano Island Chili Chowder Cook Off – Almost There!
We’re another week closer and in my excitement to get the post out last week, I omitted a few facts. I was also asked by a few people to fill in my own history with this truly fun event!
First, here’s the omitted fact: It’s 10 clams… or I mean… bucks, to get in. $10. For some serious yummy-ness and anything-but-serious fun!
Camano Island Chili Chowder Cook Off 4-1-1
Who: you, me, cooks, musicians, artists, & hungry Camano Island community members/guests/visitors
What: Camano Island Chili Chowder Cook Off — $10 entry — plus beer and wine
When: November 12th, 2011 from 3:00pm to 7:00pm
Where: Camano Island Senior & Community Center, 606 Arrowhead Rd. Camano Island
Why: To build our Camano Island community, listen to great music, get inspired by art, win prizes and eat some darn good Camano Island-inspired chili and chowder!
Say Hi To Me, "Janna White" at the Camano Island Chili Chowder Cook Off!
Jan Mather + Camano Island Chili Chowder Cook Off — History
I really love this event and I’ve been more involved in the past, including making the announcements and organizing the whole crazy raffle production. Heck, I even donated the raffle spinner to the Chamber of Commerce to use in events such as this.
This year I’m stepping back just a little bit, I’m going to spend some more time eating chili & chowder! I am going to turn over the microphone and enjoy the festivities.
But I will still be helping out, I’ll be following in the role of celebrity Vanna White — being seen and not heard (no easy task for me 
I’ll be having fun holding the raffle prizes up! So make sure you look for me, I’ll be up there — just call me “Janna White” from now on!
More Camano Island Chili Chowder Cook Off Fun & Info
October 27th, 2011
Moving your home from FOR SALE to SOLD on Camano Island
Every six months, we look back at the details of the homes sold on Camano Island. We use this data to determine some very interesting facts. Here are our findings from April 1 through September 30, 2011:
There are two markets – those properties that sell without a price drop and those with price changes. It is about a 30/70 percent split. Listings without price drops were on the market for a median of 37 days and sold for 97% of original list price. Those with price drops were on the market for 180 days and sold for 74% of original list price. While the original list price is important it is also acknowledged that pricing a home in today’s market is extremely difficult.
The other information we found is, the longer a house is on the market, the lower the selling price in relation to the original asking price.
*1 Sold means residential properties with a sold status date between April 1 and September 30, 2011 located on Camano Island. There were 131 total properties matching the above criteria. 34 had no price changes, 95 had price reductions and 2 had price increases.
*2 Total days on market is the NWMLS cumulative days on market.
*3 Original list price is the original list price of the earliest listing price during the cumulative days on market period.
*4 The median number of price changes was 3 and the median price drop before the sale was 7.0%.
For information on these or other Camano Island or Stanwood real estate statistics, please contact me at marlaheagle@windermere.com or 360-387-HOME.
October 23rd, 2011
News from the Club – October 25, 2011
New Technology is great but it seems to be advancing so fast that the average person can’t keep up!! What good is all this “good” stuff if we don’t have the training, time or energy to learn what it’s all about?! We don’t really! Relax! We just need to do our best to keep up with what our own particular needs and environment request! Some of us need to know more than others and some of don’t need to know any at all. That is, we don’t all have to know the latest and the greatest but just those things that can keep “our” everyday business, life and families up-to-date and current with the technological world. The more I learn the more I see how it can benefit almost anyone in any profession. It does seem a little overwhelming with everything from: I-phone, X Box, Wii, W 7, QR codes, GPS, Blackberry, Droid, Web, Blog, Bluetooth, MP3 and things I can’t even imagine or comprehend! Windermere just updated all the personal agent websites last week! A majority of us don’t like change and the websites are a little more difficult than they were presented to be but we are figuring them out! Of course, at first we like to whine and complain a little but in the long run, these new sites are going to be great! Next Windermere will change their main Home Page and search Website to be more user friendly and combine some of the most popular attributes from other sites that clients are demanding. The best of all worlds! Before the end of the year our franchise Windermere/CIR for Camano Island and Stanwood will hopefully be reorganized with a type of “cloud” web sharing for our agents which will be another change! A lot of changes coming before the end of the year to get up and running for a great start to 2012! It seems like a lot of things all at once but we just have to take them as they come, do what we can, learn as much as we can in the time we have, move on and keep going. In addition to last week’s blog of staying positive, it is much easier to embrace the new ideas, technology and changes coming our way. Real Estate has and is changing as well. We can now be at home or any hot spot on our computers and look at every entire property For Sale in any State or City, we can use our I-phones, Blackberry’s or Droids and the QR codes to go to any listed property and shop for exactly what we want. We can drive around and use our GPS on our phones or handhelds and know where all the listings are located, then use the QR codes again to get either agent information and/or home information. We can get our I-Pads or Notebooks to go “On Line” as well and get all the information we are looking for from almost anywhere. Another reason why we as agents need to keep up with as much technology as possible to keep up with our technologically driven clients and the world! 
