Rich Jacobson ~ ActiveRain Community Builder

Yours truly has been given the pleasure of meeting with the brokers, agents, and support staff of Windermere Peninsula Properties this coming Tuesday, December 2nd, at 9am.

With two offices located in North Mason County WA (Belfair and Allyn), Managing Broker Richard Bell has assembled a team of top-notch professionals who have established themselves as the predominant area leaders in real estate and superior client representation. Several of their agents have become valued contributing members of our community here on ActiveRain, including Dinah Lee Griffey, Valerie Spaulding, and Michelle Roethle.

Just as a reminder to all ActiveRain members in Kitsap, Jefferson, Pierce, and Mason Counties, a few of us get together every Thursday morning at 8am at The Global Bean in Silverdale WA, just to hang out and share our collective knowledge/strategies with using social media/networking in our business. We'd love to see you there!

It's 7am on a Friday morning, and I'm sitting here at one of my favorite Kitsap County WA haunts, the Global Bean, enjoying a delicious Cup 'O' Joe, waiting for my good friend and blogging counterpart, Mark Flanders, to arrive.

On an adjoining table, the following headline on today's issue of the Kitsap Sun catches my eye:

"With House Values, What Went Up Has Come Down"

According to the article submitted by Rachel Pritchett, if you purchased a home here in Kitsap County WA in 2006/2007, when prices had peaked, then there's a one-in-three chance you own more on your mortgage than your home is actually worth today.

And the expert source for such a sobering dose of reality?

Why, our Friends at Zillow.com, of course!

Zillow also claims that home values in Kitsap County WA have fallen 12 percent since the Spring of 2007, and are now back down at 2005 levels. The Seattle-based company calculates its home values based on median price, tax assessments, physical characteristics of the house, and comparable sales.

As a locally licensed real estate professional here in Kitsap County WA, my experience with Zillow's 'Zestimates (their name for estimated home valuations) have varied. Sometimes their estimates are high, other times they're low. I usually find them to simply be a 'starting point' in the conversation with Buyers and Sellers, and set the stage for my own detailed comparative market analysis (CMA).

My point here is not to necessarily argue the reliability or accuracy of Zillow's figures, but rather to draw attention to their obvious ability/success at establishing themselves as a perceived leading industry authority, even for very specific local markets like Kitsap County WA.

Regardless of what you may think about Zillow or their Zestimates, you have to admit they've done an impressive job of creating a viable Internet presence, and cultivating their position as a leading voice in the real estate industry.

Okay, so we were never actually in any kind of perilous predicament, or in danger of losing our lives, ....but we did catch a lot of crabs!!!

It was the last day of the crabbing season, Labor Day Weekend, on the scenic Hood Canal in the Western Puget Sound of Washington State. The capable crew of Bob Stewart, Jonathan Washburn, my oldest son, Ben, and Yours Truly, set sail for a three-hour tour.... uh, wait a minute...that's a different tale!

We spent a good part of the afternoon motoring around the Hood Canal to where our crab pots were submerged, about 120 feet down. We pulled up 4 pots, and limited out with 20 legal sized male Dungeness crabs.

Then it was off to Pleasant Harbor to grab some munchies and soak up some rays.....

Jonathan provides the 'Play-by-Play' as Ben skillfully demonstrates the art of cleaning a crab!




Last Spring, it was The Great White Clam Hunters....this past Summer, it was King of the Crabs....What, pray tell, is next for our adventurous crew?

One of the more difficult challenges in moving to a new area is finding a good, reputable auto repair shop. There are few things worse in life than having your car breakdown in a strange city and not know where to take it.

If you have recently moved to the Kitsap Peninsula in picturesque Washington State, then you are most fortunate. One of the best auto repair shops is right in your own backyard!

Town & Country Auto Repair, located right off of Hwy. 3 on Chico Way, has truly been a Godsend for our family. When we moved to Silverdale WA, our kids were younger and we only had one car - the Soccer Mom Mini-Van. Now, as our kids have grown (teenagers, don't ya just love 'em!), we have added 4 other cars to the collection! Several of them are very basic, "Point-A to Point-B," high miles used cars (Two of which were thankfully donated by friends or family). Of course, the more cars you own, the greater your chances of needing repairs, especially for the older ones.

I highly recommend the expert mechanics at Town & Country Auto Repair without reservation, and for the following reasons:

These guys are like the "Boy Scouts of Auto Repair!"

They're Trustworthy - they always do what they say they're going to do and "when" they say they'll do it!

They're Helpful - each one of their technicians has been professionally trained and certified. Several of them are specialists for various systems or vehicle makes. They are able to troubleshoot even the most challenging problems quickly.

They're Friendly - you feel like you're one of the family. They actually make you feel like you're the most important customer they have!

They're Thrifty - here's an amazing concept: they'll only do the work that is needed or necessary! They'll give you options, but they never sacrifice on safety related issues. They don't gouge their customers, but provide excellent work at a very reasonable price!

Okay, so they're not Clean, but what would you expect from guys who crawl under cars all day!

So if your car or truck needs a doctor, check out the boys at:

Town & Country Auto Repair, 3420 Chico Way NW, Bremerton, WA 98312

(Corner of Chico Way & Erlands Point) (360) 692-2262

One of my favorites things I enjoy about living on the beautiful Kitsap Peninsula here in scenic Washington State, is taking my boat out on the Hood Canal, part of the extensive inland waterways of Puget Sound. The Hood Canal is a long, deep, narrow strip of water wedged in between the Kitsap Peninsula and the picturesque Olympic Peninsula. The Olympic Mountain range rises up rather dramatically from the edge of the water. The scenery is absolutely breathtaking.!

One of the many benefits of boating on the Hood Canal is going crabbing. The Dungeness crab is the prized catch in these waters. The season typically opens the first week of July and runs through Labor Day weekend. The Washington Department of Fish & Game is extremely active in monitoring sports fishing in our state, so you better be in compliance with all current rules and regulations! (WA Dept. of Fish & Wildlife)

We launch our boat out at Miami Beach in Seabeck. We learned through experience to be mindful of the tide schedule. If you go out too close to low tide, you will have a rough time getting your boat down the ramp. So we usually launch an hour or two before the peak of high tide. (WA Tide Schedules)

Once on the water, we head over towards Dabob Bay, just around the Toandoes Peninsula, and prepare to lower our crab pots. You can purchase crabbing gear from the Sportsman Warehouse in Silverdale. You can figure on spending a minimum of $80 per rig, including the crap pot (cage), buoy & flag, 100' of weighted line, bait box, and weights. Being bottom-dwellers, crabs will eat just about anything, but they seem to be partial to salmon guts. Several of our area supermarkets (Silverdale Red Apple Market and Central Market in Poulsbo) save the guts when they clean the fish, and sell them for crab bait.

We lower the crab pots (usually in about 60 to 80 feet of water) and head over to Pleasant Harbor, a quaint little port nestled on the Olympic side. They have a convenience store, pizza parlor, and deck overlooking the harbor. We'll grab some cold drinks, pork-out on pizza, and catch some rays as we wait a couple hours in hopeful expectation that our pots will fill up.

We head back and pull up our crab pots, carefully extracting the prized booty. We prefer to clean the crabs while we're out on the water. It makes for less clean-up later and allows you to put more edible crab into the pot when cooking. We also bring back salt water with us, to use for boiling the crab in. Some people prefer to use fresh water and add a crab boil spice pouch. I have found that boiling the crab in saltwater gives it a really great natural flavor. There is a difference of opinion on how long to boil the crab. I have found that 12 to 15 minutes is more than enough time. I'll drain the water, and put the crab into a big stainless bowl, covering it with ice to cool it quickly. Some people like to dip their crab in melted butter, but I prefer to eat it right out of the shell.

There are few things better in life than spending a few relaxing hours out on the Canal, bringing home some fresh crab, and porking out!