Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Welcome to Let’s Build with Armada, the podcast where Washington homeowners learn how to remodel with clarity, strategy, and confidence—on a schedule that follows real projects, not a rigid calendar.
I’m Charlie Carter from Armada Design & Build. After years of working across the greater Seattle area, I’ve learned that successful remodeling isn’t about luck. It’s about planning, transparent conversations, and understanding how every decision—from windows to insurance to material selections—affects long-term value.
In each episode, I sit down with experts to answer the questions homeowners genuinely care about:
- Why your PNW windows cry every winter
- Financing options that actually make sense in 2026
- How to not get burned by a cheap insurance quote
- What adds value in Seattle… and what just burns cash
- How to plan a DADU without turning your backyard into a 2-year construction zone
Whether you’re preparing for a kitchen or bathroom remodel, planning a full-home upgrade, or exploring a backyard DADU for equity or rental income, this podcast gives you the clarity you need to move forward confidently.
Listen here, watch more real projects on our YouTube channel, and visit us when you’re ready to build with confidence.
And don’t forget to follow the show—so you never miss an episode that could save you time, money, and stress.
Visit the Armada Design Center in Bellevue when you’re ready to start planning your own home transformation!
📍 15600 NE 8th St. Suite O2, Bellevue, WA 98008
📞 425-587-8286
🌐 https://armadabuild.com/?utm_source=transistor
They're looking at homes in the million-doll range to $5 million range and they don't know what they can afford. So, what are we looking at? I don't know. Your biggest return on values are going to be kitchens and bathrooms. The trend now is just one, the open concept, but secondly, as bright as possible. That's because you don't live in a house from the outside. What's going to happen in the market? What's going to take place next year? And I'll be honest, no one knows. No one knows. Don't anticipate getting a dollar for-doll return. And that's not just Armada. That's just market trend right now everywhere. I can look at everything and provide you with enough information that will help educate you to make the best decision.
Okay. Hello. Welcome everyone. I'm Charlie with Let's Build with Armada podcast. We have a guest today, Ryan Elsos. Now, I've known Ryan for a few years and we actually work together. Ryan works with Armada Design and Build as one of our senior project consultants, meaning that he will come out, talk to you, meet with you about your kitchen or your addition or your remodel project, whatever that might be, and take you through that process. But wait, there's more. Don't buy yet. Ryan is also a licensed real estate agent. And we have another business here, Armada Homes. And Ryan is a real estate agent within Armada Homes, um, real estate business, I guess, right? We don't really do a ton with it. We just have it. We're not buying and selling tons of houses kind of thing. We're just have that ability to help clients, correct, find something if they want to or potentially sell if that's the case and then move into something else or whatever. Right. So we we do a little bit of that. So we're here today to talk to Ryan in his real estate agent capacity and understand what he's seeing from a real estate standpoint and what's happening out there. Get his point of view and perspective on things. So we appreciate you coming. Thank you very much. All right. Well, let's get into it. So Charlie here today, Armada Design and Build, Belleview, Washington. Lovely showroom. Come see us. talk about your project, remodeling, additions, renovation, new construction, right? Hit the like, subscribe button, turn on notifications, check out the links in the description box below. We're going to have things posted for you. Come check out other episodes. We're glad you're here. Hang out. You're probably going to learn something. I bet I will. All right, Mr. Ride. Yes, sir. Couple of things that I really want to cover that I think people worry about and that I hear them talking about and I'm sure you do too when you're out there in your project consultant capacity is that return on investment. What I'm spending on my house and when am I going to get that back, right? Is sort of that component and then the whole dad thing, right? All right. I want to talk about DADUs or ADUs and and the benefits and the downside and the all of that kind of like I want to kind of go there. Right. So, um what would you say just to start off is the biggest misnomer out there with regard to return on investment? I bought a house. I paid this much for it and I'm doing a project and the project is, you know, $200 or $300,000 and it just seems like a huge amount of money. Am I ever going to get that back? Like let's kind of start there. Tell me about return on investment on the house you know that you're living in kind of thing. No DADU stuff for now. The first step when you are looking at acquiring a home, okay, is getting preapproved. Mhm. Doesn't make much sense to be out looking at something when you don't truly know what you can afford. So I actually have a financing background with Washington Mutual way back in the day. Anyways, different life. And we'll just do surface level here just to touch point real quick is if you get preapproved, they're going to look at two things. They're going to look at an LTV, which is loan to value, right? And they're going to look at DTI, which is debt to income ratio. We won't go into the weeds on what both of those are, but those are the two things that going to help qualify you for what can I afford. And the reason why I wanted to point that out just to start history, well, of course. Yes. I mean there there's a number of other things that are going to be a part of the parameters and the qualifications, but those two things are primarily going to help you determine what can I afford when I'm out looking at a home. And the reason why I wanted to start with that is because it's not infrequent that I meet someone or I'm connected with someone or someone's referred to me and they don't know what they can afford. They're looking at homes in the million-doll range to $5 million range and they don't know what they can afford. So what are we looking at? I don't know. Exactly. Yeah. Let's identify what we should be looking at. Now, if you want to go look at the $5 million home just for whatever, that's fine. But if we're serious about trying to find where you're going to buy something Exactly. So, anyways, that's that. Yes. If you're buying a new house, definitely get preapproved. But really, where I want to dive in right now is that you own the house. We're past that. We already own the house. And then you're thinking about doing some big project, a big addition or remodel, or renovation or something. There's going to be a lot of money, right? And then that concern about I'm overspending, I'm overinvesting, am I going to get this money back? Right. Certainly. So, what what's your feeling about that? Like, and I know I've got my own, but I kind of want to hear yours. Like, what do you where do you land on that? Well, it's an interesting landscape right now because I think everyone is fully aware that the cost of renovation is pretty significant. We live in an affluent area. in order to operate here, live here, run a business here, employ here, it's costly. And so the cost of doing any form of construction, renovation, building has grown exponentially over the course of the last 10ish years, and I'm sure we'll come back to that at some point in time. But to answer your question more specifically, ROI is incredibly important and most people are going to be concerned with it. Now, it'd be nice if we had a number of clients like, I don't care about like, hey, here it is right here. You know what? In fact, I'll just leave you the checkbook. You tell me where I'm going. Just point the finger. Give me some direction. Still haven't seen that guy yet. Exactly. Great. anyone. Uh, here's what I would say is, and this will sound somewhat cliche, your biggest return on values are going to be kitchens and bathrooms, right? Where you're not going to see as much ROI is when you start getting into components that I feel are more personal. For example, like a a media room or a theater room. Hey, nice to have and really cool. And I've sold a number of homes with a theater or media room that's a part of the home. Or maybe it's detached in a daddy or something like that. Really, really cool. But not everyone is looking for that. Here's what most people are looking for. It's nishi nishi. Whatever, right? Most people are going to operate on behalf of functionality. How many bedrooms do I need? Okay. Given the bedroom count, is there enough bathrooms in the home to now service whoever is staying in the home? Secondly, what do I think about the overall layout? Do I potentially work from home and do I need some privacy? Do I need a basement? Whatever it might be. So, with regard to ROI, I think most importantly is if you start off with that list of priorities as mentioned and not to sound redundant, kitchens, bathrooms is where you're going to get your greatest return. Then in my opinion, also the most expensive spaces to remodel too. Absolutely. Okay. Now I would be I would be lying if I said that right now there is a dollar for-doll return on your investment. There is not. And what I mean by that, and I want to I want to clarify, is if someone thinks they can acquire a home or take an existing home that was just purchased and renovate the kitchen and the bathrooms and put it back on the market and recoup and then some. Likely not going to happen. Now, there are variations of how you're remodeling the kitchen and the bathrooms. Is it investment driven? Is it personal taste? Is it on behalf of functionality? I'm staying here. There's a number of different ways that you can do that, but I would say rule of thumb right now is don't anticipate getting a dollar for-doll return. And that's not just Armada. That's just market trend right now everywhere. This is a common conversation that I have with people is, well, you know, I've been watching HGTV or Fix and Flip or Fix and Flop or what any of these and at some of those shows, just an FYI and aside are annoying because they actually don't give you a lot of good information. that not only do they not provide you enough what I would say credible information or good information, they're very misleading. For example, a show that's broadcast down in middle of Texas where they're remodeling kitchens according to how it's Hollywoodized for $30,000. That's not realistic. No. Now, can you generally remodel a kitchen down in middle of Texas for lesser than here? Yeah, you can. It's a matter and it's all relative to where it's at, labor rates, home values, etc. Right. Now, the interesting thing, right? So, let's talk about that. Like, so local or regional price fluctuations, right? That's really what we're talking about. And and this is interesting, right? And I see this all the time and and we had another podcast where we had uh Michael Gardner insurance agent in here and talking about the the rebuild cost value type of thing. So this kind of ties into that a little bit, right? is so that that you know XYZ or Acme company probably isn't selling a sink or a faucet or a window or flooring less expensively in Texas or Alabama or you know places that things are historically cheaper than here. Um they're not selling that product for less. What's less is the labor, right? The window costs the same there or here. The sink costs the same there or here. But it's the people installing it and putting it in that our cost here in the Seattle area are two and a half, three, four times what they're paying there for the guy doing the installation, the labor, the plumber, the electrician, whatever, right? I mean, that's really generally speaking. Yes. Now, there are exceptions where maybe the window manufacturer is out of central Texas and so you can land it cheaper than it's not 40%. It's very nominal. So, it's the vast majority of that is the cost of labor. You got a plumber making $50 an hour in Seattle and somewhere else they might be making 15, you know, kind of thing. So, that's that's a big part of it. The stuff isn't really any different in cost. It's the the assembly, if you will, right, is part of the problem, which is why we have that insurance discrepancy. Michael in here talking about that is like, you know, the insurance company's basing it on average and we're so a skew here in our labor cost. So return on investment. So you're talking about the renovation, the kitchen and the bathroom. What about when you do an addition when you make your house bigger, right? Let's talk about cuz like you know like oh you everyone can look on Zillow or Redfin or something and then they have an estimate as to what your house or any house is worth. They have a lot of data. They can tell you it's this many square feet and it's this many bedrooms and bathrooms and all that kind of stuff, when it was built, blah blah blah. Some accurate, some not. But one of the things that you can derive from that pretty easily is based on how big it is, based on what they think it's worth, this is how much it's worth per square foot or what it's selling for or being listed for per square foot. So if I and around here, we got some big numbers, right? And they're rangy. Like I've seen them four, $500, $600 a square foot in certain neighborhoods and in certain neighborhoods it's $1,500 a square foot. Right now, if I do an addition, can I just take that number, whatever that number is before the addition is done. $800 a square foot is my current number. And if I'm going to add 500 square ft, can I just multiply that by 800? Not necessarily. For the following reasons, right? One being how are we utilizing that additional square footage? Okay, fair. What it what does it consist of? Is it a gallery, an art studio? Is it an exercise yoga studio room? Or is it additional living space? Is it a bonus room? Or more importantly, is it space where you could accommodate a guest or someone that's living in whether it be in-laws or something like that? No answer. Just yep. 800. It's got to qualify it. Correct. How what kind of new space is it? Absolutely. All right. So, some you would get maybe 800, right? Or you would get that current value and that would be what would be the highest return? Like what categories would be the K like what would that be that would get you that near that full boat kind of return? What would those, if we were looking at the pyramid at the top would be something where you could either, as I mentioned, house a guest or family or rent that space out. So, you would have it fully plumbed. It would be fully wired. You could shut a door and Okay. So, you're trying to get into the ADU DADU discussion ahead of time, right? That's not on the schedule yet, sir. All right. Okay. So, that would be big. So, then not that. Okay. outside of that then kitchen spay fan what like where would that because as it gets more particular I think where you're going right if you do the super high-end media room that cost a half a million dollars like some the next buyer might not see that value in that but he he might too they might oh yeah absolutely that's a deal but they I don't really care about that to your point I did have one scenario where you had that roughly half million theater media recording studio And they can be that much. Oh, and they absolutely like like you could spend $100,000 on the the projector thing. Like that or more. Yeah, for sure. And the seats, you know, all those seats that we're doing in those things, but the sound system. Yep. Crazy. They can be they can be very expensive space. a client that has I think they're referred to as Alex speakers and they are two tower speakers and they each weigh like 400 lb a piece and just the two speakers I'm not talking about surround sound projector TV lighting any of that just the two speakers $125,000 for two speakers anyways um that's some good sound or it ought to be and I did $125k I did hear it he positioned the chair in the room in a particular space to where I could get everything from where I was sitting, right? And it is pretty surreal. Wow. I mean, it it is it's impressive. Well, there you go. All right. Uh, circling back real quick. So, here's where there is a bridge, right, between Okay. Well, if I have a,000 square ft, can I add that to what is considered a average square foot cost? the bridge or the similarity to the building side would be most people will ask me or you for that matter what is it going to cost to build a thousand square feet right what is that addition going to cost I know the answer to that question well it depends what is which is the answer it depends it depends again what is the space is it a bonus room okay 250 bucks a square foot just throwing out a random number if it is that living space or living quarters that's plumbed and wired and you could shut someone could live there, then you might be back in that $4,500, $600 a square foot again. So, that's where there's the similarity between building and then the cost or the return on what it is you're building is it truly depends on how you're defining and characterizing what that new space is. Okay? So, additions, you can't just take the number that Zillow says or Red Fin says that right now, currently you're average at X number of dollars per square foot. think about an addition of x many square feet and then automatically assume that that translates. No. Okay. And to double down on that, I will provide you another example. If we have two homes, okay, that are very similar in square footage. Let's just for round numbers call it 3,000 square ft. Okay. And they look similar and they're in the same neighborhood perhaps, maybe even on the same street. Correct? If the first home at 3,000 ft² is a 3bedroom home, there's a value associated with that. If the second home is a five bedroomedroom, there is a different value associated with that. So again, that's what brings us back to how do we determine the value and the return on what it is. It all depends on how that space is configured. Okay. So then really what you would need to do to get a better comparison maybe about that future value like you know to project return on investment future assessed value future assessed value would be to say okay like you're saying so I got I got a house that's in the neighborhood and it's the three-bedroom scenario and it's worth this and there you do the math and okay here's the value and then if you're going to do a project to it instead of just taking that value and kind of projecting it ahead really what you should do is you should then go look at comparable homes in the neighborhood that are now more closely aligned with what the what the house will be after the project's done. Correct. Right. So then now go look at if you're going to make it a fivebedroom. Right. If you're taking the threebedroom and you're making it a five, go look at the other five bedrooms. Absolutely. That's going to give you a better indicator of what it's going to be worth after. Not just saying, "Oh, take the value that it has as a threebedroom and multiply it by the additional square footage." Yep. There's a better way to do that. Yes. We characterize that as running comps. So on on my end, on the broker's end, what you do is, as you just laid out, you would search in a relatively close area proximity. Uh you would search out homes that are similar to what it is that you are looking to do. And then we can start determine values. Correct. Turning it in. And that's what we'll refer to as the future assessed value. Let's look at what else is out there that exists and determine what that value is and then we can compare that to where we're at right now, right? And then you might be comparing, oh, I found a spec, right? It's five bedrooms. It's this that. So the kind of the specs match. So you've matched it up. But perhaps this one or the few that you found that are kind of in that category, they might all be 20 years old. Sure. Right. They haven't had any work done to them. They're all 20 years old and now you're talking about sort of the same spec, same size, but it's going to be brand new. Yeah. Right. So then you would like say, "Okay, so here's my average." Yep. For this group at X number of dollars a square foot and then this one's going to start there and go up correct some amount because it's it's at least that because it's 20 years. That's the baseline. And then the question becomes and the and the art maybe right is in your world is to like try to guess what's the plus right like this is the baseline over here because it's that for sure and then how much more how much above that is then now this one going to sit. Yep. Right. And that's and that's where you get into the voodoo hocus pocus because something's essentially worth what someone's willing to pay for it. Right. I mean, if the numbers say, "Oh, this house is worth a million dollars," and you put it, you list it for 1.5 and somebody walks in and pays it, it's worth5. It's worth 1.5 that day, right? You know, kind of thing. So, all right. what you're referring to is sort of the X factor. And I will say this, if you are in fact adding 1,000 square ft and you're comparing it to that comparable that we've located that's down the street and they already have that additional,000 square ft. Here's where you can start to differentiate or categorize is does the 1000 ft edition have 8ft ceilings like the comp down the street? Are you going to go 9 or 10 ft? So, it's automatically plus value or minus value. If all the comps are 9 ft, if all the comps are 9 ft and you're only eight. So, then you're like, I'm down a little bit from that. And that still then leads to, right, just restating the obvious, I think, for everybody that that location, location, location is still the first, second, and third rule of real estate, right? I mean, there's nothing changed about that. Absolutely not. So, that's still there. And then so what are some of those other factors after location that are that have impact on value? Is it size? Is it craftsmanship? Is it style? Is it design? Is it efficiency? Is it features? Like what are the sort of the next two or three big things? Could be all or a combination of everything you just said. But I will start with maybe some of the more obvious. Is it waterfront? Well, that's location. Well, I'm step away from location. After location, what are then the factors? See, I consider waterfront more of a feature versus a location because you can find waterfront anywhere, but how is it featured? Is it Lake Marcel or is it Lake Washington? And I realize that is location as well, but anyways. Okay. Uh, so where I was going, I would say waterfront view. If you start looking at features or components of the home, uh we just touched on one of them, eight foot ceiling, 10 foot ceiling, right? Flat lid, vated. Um craftsmanship. Yeah, that's a big one. Not everyone can walk into a home and do their first assessment and determine level of craftsmanship. Naturally, you and I would be able to do something like that. Is that important? Absolutely. For the following reasons. One of which being is and I won't name names or builders but there is what we refer to in the industry there's builder grade which is going to be bare minimums just to meet code one thing that would come to mind would be insulation right and that could be in the form of wall roof floor insulation or sorry attic insulation or that could be in the form of window and door insulation. Now why is that important? Well, for a couple reasons. One of which is how efficient do you want your home to be? Two, do you want to hear absolutely everything that your neighbors are doing in the garage that are 10 ft away? Well, if you don't, then perhaps we are a bit more concerned and interested in just every form of insulation, craftsmanship, um, layout, design, like flow, the way the space works. 100%. So, one thing that we oftent times discuss on the real estate side is what are market trends? Mhm. Well, the market trend, which is vastly different than what it used to be back in the 50s and 60s when our parents were living in homes, buying homes, whatever, raising families. Those homes were very compartmentalized. You had your kitchen, then you had your eating nook, then you had a dining room, then you had a living room, then you had a front room, then you had a den, then you had a family room. The market trend now is more open concept, right? We're Yeah, we're taking all that out and tear it out. I don't want a formal dining room. Nope. All that kind of thing. So flow design use important than to value. All right. So what would you say kills value the fastest or has the biggest impact? Is it material? Is it layout flow? Sort of use of space or neglect maintenance like just run down like like where where is what's the what's the value killers out there? the things to which then I would the next thing I want to talk about is like hey if someone wants to increase the value of their home you know 10 or 15% what would be like a quick fix like do this or you know think about that yep so kind of those two things so all three of those things you mentioned right do have an impact but I would say at the forefront layout functionality can potentially alarm someone and or help someone move forward With regard to what I was mentioning based on just how homes were built 30, 40, 50 years ago, everyone now wants that open concept. They want it, especially in the Northwest, they want it flooded with sunlight. They do want the 9 or 10 foot ceilings. They want the family room or den off of the kitchen and it's all right there versus very compartmentalized. So, what why why do you think going back, why did they design houses that way in the 50s? Like what was like were they just did they not know or did they really live that way? I mean like who well what was going on with that? Here would be my question to you. How often do you sit down with your family every one of you at 5:30 because the dinner bell was rung right and you're sitting down to have that four course meal. That doesn't happen anymore. Boy, I I know we're weird and the kids even talk about it, but you know there when they were younger, we did that not at 5:30, but we ate dinner as a family at the table eight day eight days, six, seven days a week. Like that was a huge thing for us, but that I know we were anomalous. I know we were anomalous in that way. And the and the kids' friends would come over and they're like, "Oh, you guys do this all the time?" Like, "Yeah, every day." Now we got no kids. We're in front of the TV. We're watching the TV. We look at each other like with your TV tray. No, we just put it in our lap. But like we like since the kids are gone and it's me and my wife and we've been but for 30 years dinner, you know, got to be there fan. Now it's TV. We're like we're so bad, you know? Well, here's why things have changed so significantly with regard to what I just mentioned is back in the day, right, generally the husband only worked. Well, now it's not unusual that both parents work. We're putting the kids to work. Exactly. And then you've got activities and kids and then they have access to so many other resources that it's not uncommon for families to come together very infrequently. And so that need for the dining room has moved away from like you did traditionally. We're going to sit here as a family six you said eight days a week. six days a week it has moved to that might happen maybe one day a week or maybe not at all and it's only Thanksgiving and Christmas and whatever it might be so as with anything things have just changed so much over the course of life right I haven't wonder I mean I get all that and I do the same thing with you you know going to these houses and we see how this old floor plan this old layout you know this is a dusty design dusty you know kind of concept of where it was everything's open and we're tearing these out. And I think you're on point in terms of the bad layout and flow probably would have a more detrimental negative effect on value than cheap materials or poor maintenance because it's the most expensive to change, right? Yep. I mean, I can upgrade my flooring and I can get a new this and I can get a new that less than I can go in and tear out these loadbearing walls and we got to move the staircase and that and that, you know, all this stuff that we do all the time. But that so that makes sense that that layout is going to have a more negative effect in flow than the other two. Okay, I'm I'm another way to I guess evaluate that would be you have an evaluation based on cosmetics and then you have another evaluation or assessment based on functionality, layout, structure, loads and as you just pointed out, yeah, that ladder is going to be significantly more in the form of an investment than than the first two, which frankly, I mean, homeowners can do themselves to some extent if you're a little bit handy. Yeah, you got some handy
kills value. So, we talked about ROI, return on investment. We kind of got that a little bit. Cheap materials, layout, and neglected stuff kind of what makes. So, what would you do? What would you recommend? What would you tell someone that if they're really trying to in increase value? What's the biggest kick right now that you would recommend? You know, obviously if you say, "Oh, remodel your kitchen." you know, okay, well, that's a, you know, six figure project potentially. So, I get that, but what could I what could someone do for less than that that would have like a wow? Uh, if we wanted to truly dumb it down, I would say create the brightest space available. And that could be done as simple as illumination, task lighting, different can lights. That could be as simple as paint. I was going to say that could be as simple as painting out dark old cherry oak or cherry or oak cabinets and painting them white just to modernize because as we circle back to that whole idea about market trends the trend now is just one the open concept but secondly as bright as possible bright light open airy yep that kind of thing. I agree. Um, so some like paint, spruce it, light, you know, refresh the floors maybe, you know, like what people see. What about curb appeal? What about front elevation? You know, like a little tuneup there. Does that do much? Well, I mean I mean cuz I've seen some pretty drastic before and afters. You're like, that looks like Whoa. Absolutely. Absolutely. Now to some extent I think curb appeal is a little bit overvalued for the following reason which is you might show up to the dealership and you see that car in the front line and you're really really attracted to the car but then you jump in the car and you take it for a spin and by the time you get back to the lot you're like this don't feel right. Okay. So, I I do know that there is some initial value based on curb appeal, but the true value is going to be once you actually get into the driver's seat and you're operating the car. That's a great analogy. That's because you don't live in a house from the outside. Absolutely. Right. It's got to work right because and that's sort of one of my things from a when I'm working with clients, you know, talking about projects is that is that I come from a a does it work right? Functionality flow layout standpoint first. Yep. That's my whole aspect of it. And you don't want me styling it anyways, you know, like picking out colors and things like that. That's where the design team and all that comes. I'm more about the the flow of the space in in terms of that functionality. Yep. So now, to your point regarding curb appeal, I have had instances or scenarios where we are out looking at homes. we've made showing appointments and we'll pull up to a home and via curb appeal, the first response from my buyers is and I go, "Well, just hold on here. Let's get through the front door." And by the time we're locking the door up and now walking back out, they forgot what it looked like on the outside of the home. And then we start addressing the facade and I go, "It needs a little landscape. We can paint it. The windows are double aluminum." Real estate agents are famous for like, "Oh, you can just pop a bathroom in there. You could just quick do that." And it's like make like that's a little like that's an easy thing, which is very true. But here's the value. I hear that all the time. Not the real estate agent saying do that. And that does happen. And not to put a feather in my hat, but here's where I feel like I provide some true value. like here's the value ad is sure I can recommend doing any of those things but I know what it costs and I know what you can and cannot do and what's going to require permit and what and where you can avoid getting a permit. So I think the the real value ad being is I have the two hats. I wear the two hats. I've got the build design side and I've got the real estate side. It's a unique situation and set of knowledge that this guy has in terms of that real estate aspect, that agent, the the valuation, the competitive market aspect, the funding and lending aspect, and then coupled that with understanding the additions, remodels, renovation, whole part of it. It's a it's a pretty unique thing. So, we're lucky to have him. and you give us a call if you want to talk to this man about you know finding something if you live in the area here that you know he could definitely help you like in the market in Seattle like what's going on right so we got interest rates that that's not a Seattle thing that's a everybody's dealing with that thing and they've been kind of doing what they're doing and no one ever knows and can predict and so on and so forth so it's going to go lower it's going to stay the same it's you know so who knows that's crystal ball stuff but sort of what's and then you hear all this stuff about the government things that are happening particularly locally with you know elections in Seattle and people like oh no we're leaving you know it's like what are you thinking what's the what's the vibe out there right now as we sit here sneaking up on Thanksgiving of 2025 just from a time stand when I watch these shows sometimes people like I have no idea when this thing was recorded you know so like no referency so yep so what what do you see talk talk about that a little bit well it's a question that's surf surfaced often. Sure. What's going to happen in the market, what's going to take place next year, and I'll be honest, no one knows. No one knows. Everyone can speculate. Sure. As well as I can. And here's what I think is going to happen. Here's my pulse on the market. In general, I don't about Seattle now, correct? Our market east side. Okay. Greater East Side. This isn't everywhere. This is greater East Side, Seattle kind of thing. Okay. And I'm and I'm glad you pointed that out because the point I was going to make is that market you just referred to, the greater east side market, Seattle, Belleview, Kirkland, Sam, all of those. This market is perhaps one of the most insulated markets in the entire country. Yeah. For two reason. I would agree with that for two reasons. One of which is
on behalf of employment and what we have here that's available to employees all the high-tech stuff all of that driven Microsoft Facebook Google Boeing Starbucks I mean I don't know who else I'm missing but like you know SpaceX has a huge presence in town absolutely the income level abilities here outweigh a number of other areas in the country. What about these recent massive layoffs? Three, four, five, six, 7,000 people getting cuten from getting cut recently from some of these places. Yes. However, if you look at historically, if you look at some of these bigger companies and those layoffs, it's fairly structured. This isn't something new that just happened this year. This is something that happens pretty frequently. like blow out the baffles a little bit and then, you know, keep people and then they're going to bring people right back. We're trimming a little. I'm sure there's a gajillion job openings posted for these companies still today, right? I don't I'm a look I'm not a tech person so no one's going to want me to be there. There's a little Q4 cleaning going on right now. House cleaning. That's just and I've seen that where it's kind of like we're going to jump on board with this, you know, get rid of some people and then 6 months everybody's coming back, new contract, you know, kind of thing. Okay, so there's that. What else? So, here's the second. Mhm. Insulated, protected, which means stable. Absolutely. More more stable than most, right? Yeah. Okay. And we can't predict that something catastrophic is going to happen. More stable than potentially other areas in the country. Yep. Okay. Here's the other interesting component to that. All right. Go tell me. We'll refer to this as number two. All right. If you look at some of the bigger markets, your Los Angeles, your New Yorks, your San Francisco, I would say we are on par with what we can provide on behalf of resources with employment. However, we're still lagging behind in values significantly. So, in my opinion, it's cheaper to live here than it is in all of those places. Yep. And it feels extraordinarily expensive to live here. So you're saying that we're like in the top 10 but not in the top five. We or something like that. We are in the top 10. We're not in Yeah, I would agree with that. New York more, LA more, San Francisco more, Chicago maybe, I don't know, Miami, you know, Washington DC, Philly, you know, I don't know, some of that. And then Seattle starts to kind of get in there. Correct. because it feels expensive to live here. So, well, the reason why it feels expensive is because I know long I know how long you have resided here and I was born and raised here, right? And if you reflect back on pre200 values, in fact, I've got a little note here that 2000 or 2020 2000 pre 2000 I'm talking over the over the last decade century. Right. Right. Here's here's a metric for you. This is interesting. Uh oh. Uh oh. We got numbers. The median home price in 2000 in Belleview, which is where we are sitting right now, in Belle, was $390,000. Right. Now, median, let's like make sure like we understand median. That is the that is essentially that average. That's not the mean. No, it's the median. There's a difference. Look at 390,000. As we sit here today in 2025, the median/ average is between 1.4 and 1.5. So in 25 years the median home price has quadrupled quadrupled quadrupled. So was 325 390 390 okay almost 400 to keep it round and simple almost 400 in 2020 average sale price of a single family res not not average sales price okay a median home price now are you calculating sales into that to some extent the value yeah whatever the value we're referring to simply just values not necessarily okay so value 300 400,000 we're going round it up. We're going to give them a little grace. It's 390. We're going to round up to 400. And now you're saying essentially same house or whatever 25 years later, same area has gone to what was it? 1.2 between 14 and 15. 14 and5. Okay. So if it was 16, then that would be four times the money. Okay. So 350% increased safely or something like that. Okay. Now I don't know if you have the answer to this. Okay. which is a gigantic increase or at least it feels like that to me. I don't know maybe and that's why but so what the question what was it in 1975 25 years before 2000 like what would that number look like? What did it do in the prior 25 years? I don't actually have the answer to that. If we need Jamie look that up. We don't have a Jamie. We can't look that up right now. Let me call my assistant. Phone Let me phone a friend. Right. Uh, if I had to speculate in 1975, well, if you is it 100,000, would you divide it by four? Maybe we said 4. Would it be that much? Would it have quadrupled in that prior? Potentially. Yeah, potentially. However, if you look at the metric, right, 100, let's just say that is the case. 100 to 400, right, is $300,000. Yeah, but it's four times, right? Okay. 400 to 1.6 is $1.2 million. I got it. is still four times. Correct. But it's a matter of the rate of growth is a matter of the metric. I get it. But the rate of growth is the same. So I mean it's a huge number. No question about it. I wonder that'd be an interesting little study. Maybe we should do that for next time. um is what if we did a little graphy thing like that for say Seattle kind of deal over 40 50 years to see a trend and then like a nationwide thing to see how Seattle differs and at some point because probably for a long time Seattle really followed the national trend and then tech happened and Seattle got expensive and people were moving here and Seattle departed if you spike yeah we're we've departed far away like so we're at 1.4 4. What is the national average for that number, would you say? Is it back to what it was? I bet 400,000. Yeah. Again, speculating, I would say close to 400,000. Yeah, I think that's right. I would say that the national average is probably three something. I'd be surprised if it was over four. Yep. So, in the threes. So, we're four times, but at some point we were on trend with the national and then and then we deviated away in probably the 80s or 90s with the tech stuff. I would think I would say it probably started mid90s is truly when you started to see that spike on the graph driven by Microsoft
and thank you for coming. I really appreciate it. I hope you guys got something out of this. I love this conversation, houses, things, what people can do and how to help. Um, so give us a call. But like, okay, last thing, parting shot for today to leave people with of the stuff we've talked about and more importantly of the stuff we haven't talked about. What would you say someone watching this trying to get some information, thinking about doing a project, renovating, remodeling, you know, worried about value, how long are we in the house, when are we going to sell it, all that kind of stuff. What was the one little wrap-up thing that you would say is the key don't forget this or be aware of this or make sure you do this. What would that be? I would highly recommend or suggest that you are working with someone or a firm that has a beat on everything we have discussed today. More of the inhouse approach. Mhm. I know we've talked about this a number of different times, whether it be renovation or determining what you'd like to do is you could reach out to a number of different entities and then try to get everyone on the same page. You mean architect, real estate agent, designer, engineer, pulling all that together, quarterbacking that. Okay. Yes. I truly feel, and this is going to sound a bit biased, but it's it's genuine, is that I truly feel that the the true value you get out of the all-inclusive approach, a design, build/real estate, Yeah. Yeah. is everything is right there. It's convenient. It's seamless. The communication is not broken up. Right. I really really truly see the value in trying to create that sense of convenience and then bringing everything together so that it's all there as one, right? So, okay, I hear you that Ryan surprisingly advocates for design and build. Imagine that. And we agree. So, thank you for that. Thank you for coming. Um, one thing I would say though for sure is that if you are thinking about a project, particularly, you know, renovation, remodel, addition, that kind of thing where you're going to do something to your existing house, going to change potentially the value of that, make a big investment, and you're worried about what's my backend like, you know, I paid this for it. I've lived here this long. It's worth this now. And then you're saying to do the work I want to do is going to cost this much. And we got to get into that because where are you doing the comparison of what you paid for it to what it's worth today? Right. Uh that's all I'm having that conversation right now with a client. Right. Right. We're going to we're going to have to do this a whole episode. But so um what we did there is that if you are concerned, reach out to Ryan. We'll put his info stuff down below. You would be willing to do like a little quick something. talk to somebody about like, okay, if you did this to your house, this is what I would say that that would be worth reasonably worth the day the project is completed kind of thing. If you're super concerned, freaked out, panicky about that, give us a call. All right. I would say that as well as if you're contemplating, should we stay where we're at and invest? Should we sell and look elsewhere? Right? I can look at everything and provide you with enough information that will help educate you to make the best decision. And then if you're looking to buy a house and you want to tear it down and build a new thing or look for a lot or any of that kind of stuff, Ryan can help you with that, too. So, links, description, show notes, all that stuff. Thank you very much. I'm Charlie. This is Ryan. Thank you very much. Let's build with Armada in the books. Hope you liked it. got something from it. Thank you very much. Ryan will be back. We'll do this again. Um, so like, hit, share, subscribe, call us, check us on the website. See you next time.