insideABODE

What are the top five things you need to know about living in East Tacoma? Abode broker Melo Hogan lives there, and she answers like a neighbor, not a brochure.She starts with the people — the kind of neighbors who'll strike up a conversation with someone they just met. Then the small businesses around McKinley Hill: Dusty's Hideaway, the Filipino-Latin fusion spot El Lechon Loco, and a Mexican market pop-up off East 72nd where she went for elotes and came home with a puppy. Reason four is the one commuters care about: 38th Street gets you downtown, Portland Avenue gets you onto I-5 north, and the Amtrak and Sounder at the Tacoma Dome are about five minutes away, depending on where you live. Reason five is how her family spends its time — volunteering at Eloise's Cooking Pot food bank and the community center off Portland Avenue, something they've done since 2015.Then the story underneath it. Melo came to the US from the Philippines, landed in California, and found her way to East Tacoma — and after most of her adult life there, it's home. Dave and Melo get into why Tacoma still feels like a small town even as it grows, and the episode closes with a rapid-fire round: Practical Magic 2, empanadas from El Parche, a hot take about puppies, and the finger rule for perfect rice.For anyone moving to Tacoma or Pierce County, buyers comparing neighborhoods, and locals who already know.MEET THE GUESTMelo Hogan — Broker, Windermere Abode📸 Instagram → @melohogan.realtor🌐 melohogan.com📞 253-304-8058CHAPTERS0:00 Top 5 things to know about East Tacoma1:31 #1 The people1:54 #2 Small businesses on McKinley Hill3:04 #3 The Mexican market pop-up off East 72nd3:36 #4 Getting around: 38th St, I-5, Sounder & Amtrak4:34 #5 Volunteering and community5:15 From the Philippines to East Tacoma6:20 Tacoma's small-town feel7:53 Moving here? Who to call8:36 Rapid fire: movie, food, hot take10:07 Rice with every meal10:47 The finger rule for perfect rice13:06 How to reach Melo#InsideAbode #Tacoma #TacomaRealEstate #PierceCounty #WindermereAbode #PNW #RealEstatePodcast #EastTacoma #EastsideTacoma #McKinleyHill #MovingToTacoma #TacomaNeighborhoods📲 FOLLOW & CONNECT:📸 Follow us on Instagram → @windermereabode🌐 Visit us online → windermereabode.com😍 Go crush on a house → abodecrush.com🏠 Read more on fair housing → tacomafairhousing.com🎙️ Listen to the insideABODE Podcast on all podcast streaming platforms

In this episode of insideABODE, host Dave Jones revisits a conversation from the archive.🔁 A Throwback Thursday re-release. Originally recorded August 2019.Jessica Knicely talks candidly about being pregnant while running a real estate business — and the systems she and Ryan put in place to make the transition survivable.This one is less strategy and more honesty: what the trimesters actually did to her working life, which hacks were worth it, and where she decided to just let things go. Real estate doesn't pause for anyone, and agents rarely talk out loud about how they manage that.If you're in it now, you'll pick up something practical. If you're past it, it's a trip down memory lane. And if you manage agents, it's a useful window into what your people are navigating while still answering their phone on a Saturday.For working parents, agents building a business around a family, and anyone curious what the balancing act actually looks like.🏡 Looking to buy, sell, or just talk Pierce County real estate?Visit Windermere Abode at www.windermereabode.com — Tacoma's local brokerage with agents who actually know this market.#InsideAbode #Tacoma #TacomaRealEstate #PierceCounty #WindermereAbode #PNW #RealEstatePodcast #WorkingMom #RealEstateAgent #WorkLifeBalance #TacomaRealEstate #AgentLife📲 FOLLOW & CONNECT:📸 Follow us on Instagram → @windermereabode🌐 Visit us online → windermereabode.com😍 Go crush on a house → abodecrush.com🏠 Read more on fair housing → tacomafairhousing.com▶️ Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more Tacoma real estate🎙️ Listen to the insideABODE Podcast on all podcast streaming platforms

Every real estate podcast gets you one side of the story. This one gets you both.Sorelle Okoli represented the buyer. Brianna Minor was the buyer. They sat down together and walked the whole thing back — start to close, hiccup by hiccup.Brianna came up from Southern California when her partner got stationed here, and all she knew about a VA loan was the one line everybody repeats: no down payment. That line is the reason she bought this year instead of waiting three or four more. Worth sitting with — for a lot of first-time buyers the down payment is the entire wall, and a VA loan is one of the few doors through it. If you have access to one, you should know how it actually behaves.So here's how it actually behaved. The first offer got a no the same day it went in. On the house they landed, the seller rejected every single inspection request out of the gate. Then the appraisal came in low and the price had to be renegotiated all over again. Sorelle breaks down what she asked for and where they found the middle. Brianna tells you what it felt like on the other end of the phone — the weekends where nothing moves, the days that feel forty-eight hours long, calling her dad and her grandpa for a second opinion after every update.They also kill a myth: the VA appraisal was not slow. It came back on time and it did not delay closing.And the part that mattered more than either of them expected — the lender was local. George Lane picked up, ran numbers on every property they were curious about, and his name on the pre-approval letter meant something to the listing agent on the other side. Sorelle explains why a local pre-approval can get an offer taken seriously when a call center can't.Closing got moved up. It landed the same day as Brianna's bingo night, and Sorelle showed up with champagne.For VA buyers, first-time buyers, military families landing in Pierce County, and any agent who wants to hear a client describe the process in her own words.Connect with Sorelle Okoli:📸 Instagram → @sorelleokoli✉️ [email protected] with Brianna Minor:📸 Instagram → @briannaminor🎉 Tacoma bingo nights → @hotgirlsplaybingo#InsideAbode #VALoan #VeteransHomeLoan #PierceCounty #Tacoma #WindermereAbode #FirstTimeHomeBuyer #MilitaryFamilies #JBLM #RealEstatePodcast #PNW #HomeBuying #Appraisal #HomeInspection #TacomaRealEstate📲 FOLLOW & CONNECT:📸 Follow us on Instagram → @windermereabode🌐 Visit us online → windermereabode.com😍 Go crush on a house → abodecrush.com🏠 Read more on fair housing → tacomafairhousing.com🎙️ Listen to the insideABODE Podcast on all podcast streaming platforms

Pierce County is a buyer's market on paper. Zoom in and it's a very different story depending on where you live.Dave pulls up the numbers and walks through them fast. Overall, a home in Pierce County has a 34% chance of selling right now, with 2,469 active listings against 843 pendings, a $559K median sold price, and 34 median days on market. That's close to balanced, but the gap between actives and pendings has been widening since April.Then the part that matters: the area rankings. North Tacoma sits at the top with the highest chance of selling in the county, 19 days on market and about two months of supply, still a seller's market. University Place is second. Parkland is a surprise third at 51%. Central Tacoma right behind it. Bonney Lake and Lake Tapps land mid-pack. South Tacoma comes in lower than you'd expect, and Anderson Island, Key Peninsula, Lakewood and DuPont round out the bottom.Here's why it matters now. August is usually peak inventory for the year, and rates just went up. That hits buying power hardest for the people who were already stretched, and plenty of Pierce County households can't make the math work at today's rates. Dave calls it what it is: a K-shaped market, where the top end keeps moving and the affordable price ranges get harder to reach. Inventory is likely to come down from here, but the buyer pool is shrinking with it. How the year ends is the open question.This one is for Pierce County sellers deciding whether to list this fall, buyers who are still active and want to know where they have leverage, and agents who want the county-wide picture before they price anything.Questions about your area? Email [email protected] or reach out to any Windermere Abode agent. They can get into what sold, why it sold, and what's moving on your street.Market data shown from courted.io / NWMLS as of mid-September 2026.#InsideAbode #Tacoma #TacomaRealEstate #PierceCounty #WindermereAbode #PNW #RealEstatePodcast #MarketUpdate #NorthTacoma #UniversityPlace #Parkland #BonneyLake #LakeTapps #GigHarbor #Lakewood #HousingMarket2026 #BuyersMarket #InterestRates📲 FOLLOW & CONNECT:📸 Follow us on Instagram → @windermereabode🌐 Visit us online → windermereabode.com😍 Go crush on a house → abodecrush.com🏠 Read more on fair housing → tacomafairhousing.com🎙️ Listen to the insideABODE Podcast on all podcast streaming platforms

In this episode of insideABODE, host Dave Jones revisits a conversation from the archive.🔁 A Throwback Thursday re-release. Originally recorded August 2019.Abode broker Jessica Knicely walks through how she got into short-term rentals and what it took to become an Airbnb Superhost.She covers the practical end — getting started, what the work actually looks like week to week, what she'd tell someone thinking about their first listing — using her own North Tacoma bungalow as the worked example. Dave pushes on the parts people skip: the operational load, the guest side, and where the returns really come from.Worth noting up front: this was recorded in August 2019, and short-term rental rules in Tacoma and across Pierce County have moved since. Treat the strategy and the operational lessons as durable, and check current local regulations before you act on any of it.For investors, agents fielding STR questions, and homeowners wondering whether that extra space could carry itself.🏡 Looking to buy, sell, or just talk Pierce County real estate?Visit Windermere Abode at www.windermereabode.com — Tacoma's local brokerage with agents who actually know this market.#InsideAbode #Tacoma #TacomaRealEstate #PierceCounty #WindermereAbode #PNW #RealEstatePodcast #Airbnb #ShortTermRental #RealEstateInvesting #NorthTacoma #Superhost📲 FOLLOW & CONNECT:📸 Follow us on Instagram → @windermereabode🌐 Visit us online → windermereabode.com😍 Go crush on a house → abodecrush.com🏠 Read more on fair housing → tacomafairhousing.com▶️ Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more Tacoma real estate🎙️ Listen to the insideABODE Podcast on all podcast streaming platforms