Thanks for visiting Green Box Homes! It's been in the works for months, and now I hope you will join me at our new site and in building my new business Blend Real Estate. Blend is my new brokerage firm, started in my mind in 2012 and launched May 2013. We will continue to offer our clients that same great service they've come to know over 7 years with Green Box Homes. With Blend, we'll be focusing a lot of our efforts on sellers. We are a listing brokerage at heart and will be able to expand our services to all sellers of all needs. This blog will continue to exist and the company name Green Box Homes will exist online for quite some time to come. But we are now conducting business...

Do you have a short sale property listed, one in escrow that hasn't closed or are you thinking of considering a short sale? A huge negative component for sellers of a short sale property was the idea behind "phantom income," as it's called in the industry -- that mystery money that is "written off" by the bank when they take the loss on your short sale. That is money the banks considered phantom income and they were issuing 1099s to sellers, showing the income (phantom as it may have been) as earned by the seller. Someone's GOT to pay, you see. And it was sellers in their income tax bills. Ouch! Can you imagine having no money to make your house payment, struggling through a...

As an E*Trade customer forever, I see the IPOs out there but never before today have I been asked if I wish to place an order for shares prior to the first public offering of them. Also known as the Initial Public Offering, also known as the IPO. That happened today with Facebook when I logged into my E*Trade account. Not being of Warren Buffet status, I am confident my order will NOT be filled, but I placed one anyway. When I had to pick a price for my future shares somewhere in the projected sell range of $28 - $35 a share, I went with $35 -- will it help? I will let you know next week when they start trading on May 14. E*Trade recommends highly that we not "flip" the shares but they...

New from San Diego, California: San Diego Association of REALTORS selects Kimberly Dotseth as its 2011 Broker of the Year. On Saturday, January 12, 2012, I was named the 2011 Broker of the Year by the San Diego Association of REALTORS, a tremendous honor considering our chapter of the National Association of REALTORS has over 11,000 members in San Diego County. We are also the largest branch of NAR in the state of California. If interested, the press release is here: And if I can help you when selling or buying your home, you know that I am right here for you ~ let's get to work on your behalf! ~Kimberly

This email arrived today from a client who recently closed escrow, completely unsolicited and unedited. I will protect the writer's identity so I took it out.  As you can imagine, it made my day. This career has made me endlessly happy and all the other things I did prior to selling residential real estate and owning a real estate brokerage lead me here.  I dreamed of moments like this.  Thanks to the writer of course, and all those who get us to the points in our lives where we are blessed with this kind of communication: Hi Kim, I feel so bad that it has taken me so long to sit down and write you a note, but I wanted to be sure I had the time to genuinely express how grateful we...

Recently, Parade Magazine had an article on how to help veterans in easy ways that are not expensive. I decided to try all the links before I shared them with you and these are the ones that are my favorites: Homes For Our Troops constructs homes for severely injured vets who served after 9/11. Make a cash or equipment donation. The Disabled American Veterans provides free transportation to men and women unable to travel to the VA for medical purposes. You can volunteer to drive a DAV van for those in need. I have a particular soft spot for Guardian Angels for Soldiers' Pet, where you can foster care for a soldier's pet while they serve our country or while they are receiving...

Today I am recommending a fun and very relaxing, gorgeously designed blog called Hooked on Houses. I saw it for the first time on Twitter thanks to Edina Realty mentioning an archive blog post about the Mary Tyler Moore house. This Tweet caught my eye because I was in the Mary Tyler Moore house a couple of years ago when it was vacant and for sale. It was completely amazing, trust me, and I felt the house was affordable for what it was and the fine neighborhood it is in. Mary's apartment was in the building, but of course was not in the building. TV magic! The house is now a stately manor and that blog post about the show and the original facade is here.  If you are interested in...

Today I bring to the market a property I know well: I have lived near it for fifteen years. 7965 Playmor Terrace is now for sale after 35 years. My neighbor has decided to sell her dream house and I thank her for hiring me to make it happen. This is a rare Mandeville floor plan with four bedrooms, two bathrooms, two stories and a large patio. With 1,450 square feet and everything new from ceiling to floor as of 2006, this is a great property. (She told me to tell you: we even got all new doors!). One bedroom and one bathroom are on the main floor. The remodel took many, many months and it shows. The property has a new kitchen layout. It's open and white with all new appliances. Three...