FAQ

General Real Estate Information

Searching for Listings

Contact Information

Trivia & Other Stuff

What is agency, and why should I care? - The law of real estate agency specifies who is working for whom in a transaction. If you're not clear on how you're being represented, or if you're not being represented, it could end up costing you a lot of time, money and heartache! For more details, check out our Real Estate Agency Explanation page. [top]

Who pays real estate commission? - There can be as many different commission arrangements as there are people. There is no "standard commission". (Incidentally, if anyone tries to tell you there is a standard commission they are in violation of Anti-Trust law. Yikes!)

For listed properties, in most cases, the seller pays the commission. How does that work? Say the seller signs a listing agreement with an agent for a particular amount...for example, 6%. Then that agent, now the listing agent, enters the property in the Multiple Listing Service. When the listing gets put in the MLS, it has an offer of compensation for the agent that brings a buyer (the buyer's agent - sometimes called the selling agent), for example 3%.

So, the 6% commission in the example above isn't on top of the price you see advertised, it's already rolled into the price. So when a seller lists their house with an agent, the commission price is built in.[top]

Seattle Real Estate Glossary Hear a real estate term you don't recognize? Check our glossary.

Are all the homes on the search listed by Rion Real Estate? Nope. There are thousands of real estate properties listed at any given time. When you're searching for listings on our website you're searching the data the MLS service allows us to access, much like a Realtor would.

We represent some of the sellers, but by far most of the listings in the MLS are listed by other agents. We can, however, help you with any of them. In fact, most of the time it is in your best interest to talk to someone besides the listing agent. Why is that? The listing agent is working on behalf of the seller, not you. Another agent (like us) can represent you as a Buyer's Agent which means that your interests are represented in a real estate transaction.

Buyer's Agency is a really cool and it's free. Ask us about it! You can also learn more about real estate agency in Washington. [top]

Why aren't there more photos? We hate it when there aren't any photos! There are a few reasons why this may happen.

If you are, for example, in another state and looking to relocate to the Seattle area, we can go take photos for you if you decide to work with us. If you run into that situation, please give us a call at 425-677-5000 or send us an email. We'll get something worked out! [top]

Why don't I have to register? When we built our website, we thought carefully about how we liked to be treated as consumers. When we were researching online, we didn't like when a site asked us to submit personal information when were just wanted to browse. As consumers we didn't like it when an ad in the newspaper left out important information so we had to call. We decided that if we didn't like it, you probably don't like it either. Safe assumption?

We designed our site to be user friendly and provide as much information as possible. We hope you like it and we hope you'll reward our good sense by having us represent you in your real estate transaction, kind of a "pay it forward" type of mentality. :>)

Please also check out the Washington real estate agency page so you know who is representing whom. It's really important and could end up costing you a lot of money![top]

Why should I register? You get cool stuff. If you register you can set up automatic updates of new listings within 20 minutes of them hitting the market (or less often), save your favorite listings in one place, request more information, send copies of listings you like to other people, and some other stuff. It's pretty cool AND we promise we won't email or call you everyday with a sales pitch. [top]

How do I log-in to my account again? The direct log-in page is here. [top]

Why aren't many listings coming up? The most common reason for no or very few search results is entering search criteria that is very restrictive. The more requirements you add, the fewer listings will result. If you're having difficulty, try removing some of the information you entered in the search page and click search again. If you're still not having any luck, please let us know what you're searching for and we'd be happy to run a custom search for you. [top]

How do I search by criteria that isn't listed as an option on the search page? Sometimes you just want to search by something that is not part of the standard search. We can help! Please just send us an email with your search criteria and we'll run a custom search for you. [top]

How fresh is this listing data? It's so fresh its still hot! :>) Our information is obtained from a data feed from NWMLS (Northwest Multiple Listing Service) every 20 minutes - so that's almost real time. Just to be clear, we're not the MLS, nor are we claiming to be the MLS. We are allowed to use this information according to their data display policies since we are members. [top]

What is Rion Real Estate's phone number? You can reach us at 425.677.5000. [top]

What is Rion Real Estate's fax number? Our direct fax is 425.820.1982. [top]

What is the mailing address for Rion Real Estate?
Rion Real Estate
c/o Market Street Realty
12006 98th Ave NE, Suite 202
Kirkland, WA 98034 [top]

Can I text Rion Real Estate? Sure! 425.677.5000 is the number to use. [top]

Are Alex and Kathryn married? Yes indeed we are married, work together, and haven't choked each other yet! Ha, we're just kidding around, of course! We met in a real estate office, found we worked well together, and the rest is history! Read more about Alex & Kathryn. [top]

Why should I work with Rion Real Estate? The short answer: we're easy to work with and we know what we're doing. Read what some of our clients had to say about us.

What happens when you take a former construction superintendent with mad negotiating skills and partner him with a real estate veteran who is a jill-of-all-trades from marketing to contract management? It equals a Pain Free Real Estate Transaction. We have the know how and the experience to make your transaction as smooth as possible from start to finish. And we're fun. And really nice. And (ahem) modest. Really! [top]

When can I look at houses? Well, when do you want to look at houses? We're used to working when other people are not. Our schedule is very flexible and we can accommodate weekdays, evening, weekends...whenever works best for you! [top]

Partners - From time to time people as us, "Do you know anyone that [insert service here] in [insert place here]?" Of course we know people!