The Seattle Condo Blog | Seattle Condos and Lofts

Top 5 Holiday Safety Checklist to keep your home safe through the holidays.

Building envelope studies are a fact of life for condo owners, buyers and homeowner associations in the Seattle area.

New requirements for home inspectors in Washington State effective July 1, 2010.

It’s time in the buying process to get the condo inspected, but who should you get to do it and can your dad or a friend do it for you.

Everyone knows it’s not safe to smoke in your or fall asleep with candles still burning. But what many people don’t think about is if their home is safe and how to properly react if a safety hazard does arise.

Many people feel there isn’t a need to inspect new construction because the home has been “Code” inspected by the city. And, to a certain degree this inspection could be accurate but here’s my take as a home inspector and as a potential buyer.

A couple of interesting bills are easily moving through the House and Senate concerning condominium reserve studies and reserve accounts. A reserve account is supplemental to an association’s annual operating budget and is used to fund major maintenance, repair and replacement of common elements. The purpose of the reserve account is to offset the financial [...]

Farren West is the owner of Key Inspection Services and is a contributor to the Seattle Condo Blog. Farren can be contacted at KeyInspectionServices.com. One can think of a building envelope as being similar to envelopes used to mail packages through the postal service. A standard package mailing envelope is used to protect the interior [...]

Farren West is the owner of Key Inspection Services. This is the second article of Farren’s series for SCL. Farren can be contacted at FarrenWest (at) KeyInspectionServices.com. Once you and your real estate professional have found the right condo to meet your needs, the best location/price/aesthetics/etc you will now begin the process to understanding the [...]

(Please welcome contributing writer, Farren West, owner of Key Inspection Services. Farren will be writing a series of condo inspection related articles, which many buyers will find invaluable.) Generally there are two types of condo/townhouse inspections. The first and most popular is the “Interior Only” inspection. This will cover everything from the sheetrock in, or [...]