As most of you know, the condo has been sitting empty since mid-December. Prior to that we have had renters since the fall of 2007. While we chose to end this last lease (due to some not so great smells the tenants' pet rats were creating) we had no idea that we would be sitting with an empty condo for the next 4.5 months. I guess we shouldn't have been surprised, the market simply sucks right now and is saturated with condos and townhomes being listed at ridiculously low prices.
However, the story isn't too gloomy as we did take advantage of the time we had with the condo being empty. With the help of our handyman, Joe Johnson, we were able to whip the condo back into fantastic shape. Every wall in the unit has a fresh coat of paint, the carpets have been cleaned, the mini-blinds replaced and some seriously needed drywall repairs were made. It looks great. In fact, it looks so great that we finally got it rented out after advertising for weeks on Craig's List, Rentals.com, NW Classifieds, and both Costco and Microsoft internal bulletin boards!
The new owners are a young couple about to get married and living together for the first time. They really liked the place upon first seeing it and signed a year lease the very next day! They probably think I'm crazy as I was pretty much willing to meet them anytime, anywhere and stand on my head in order to get the lease signed ASAP. The deal has been done, the keys handed off and the rent check cashed!
While attempting to rent the condo I ended up creating a blog for advertisement purposes, check it out: www.marthaslandingcondo.blogspot.com
