Parks in Bellevue Washington

The City of Bellevue, Washington has almost 100 parks and recreational facilities.

Bellevue, with its fantastic placement near Seattle, Lake Washington and Puget Sound, is already the perfect place for a family or an outdoor aficionados to live. Add in the park system and the employment opportunities and Bellevue is ideal.

This is only a small sampling of the parks and recreational opportunities that the city has to offer.

Bellevue Blueberry Farms – Originally established in the 1940’s, the Mercer Slough and Larsen Lake Blueberry Farms are owned by the Bellevue Parks and Community Services Department. In season, from July to September, families can go to the park and pick and pick fresh blueberries. Other fresh produce is also available. This park area was set aside to celebrate and preserve Bellevue’s agricultural heritage.

Killarney Glen Park – Not only does this park have the coolest name of any park in the United States, but it is 10.32 acres of awesome recreation. There are 2 tennis courts, trails and play and picnic areas. There are restrooms and the park is handicapped accessible.

Lake Hills Greenbelt – The park is 150 acres of wildlife habitat that includes, wetlands, streams and lakes. There is forest and trails with community gardens and blueberry farms. There is another seasonal produce stand in this park as well. The parks department offers Master Gardener classes at Lake Hills as well.

Newcastle Beach Park – The largest beach park in Bellevue, Newcastle Beach has a 300-foot dock, a children’s play area and picnic facility. There are lifeguards on duty during the season. If you’re ready to get a tan in Washington’s summer, this is the place to go. This is the Redondo Beach of Bellevue.

Sunrise Neighborhood Park – This is one of a dozen or more parks that are scattered around the city in the neighborhoods, each designed to be a safe play area for children. Sunrise Park has a picnic area and trails. It is parks like this that make Bellevue a wonderful and vibrant place to live.

Coal Creek Natural Area – Coal Creek is more than simply a recreation area, it is actually a former coal plant. This is a nature preserve and an amazingly beautiful area set aside just for nature and you. Not only can you see the beauty of the second growth forest, but with a little looking around, you will see the fantastic natural preservation effects of the trees and natural spaces.

Silverleaf Park – Silverleaf Park is another tiny gem of a park in the middle of the city. There are picnic tables, a tennis court, trail and four unmarked spaces. It is small parks like this that make Bellevue on the best cities in America to live. Take a ride around the city and you will see where, over the years, forward thinking leaders have made sure that small places, like Silverleaf Park, would be available to make life wonderful.

When the lists of best cities in the country to live are made, the number of the parks and the amount of open space counts very high. And on those lists is, very often, Bellevue, Washington, because it has more open space than most cities its size.

When choosing a place to live, most people factor in things like real estate taxes, the price of the house and distance to work. Having great and plentiful open spaces to have fun, stay healthy and relax should be among the intangibles that you look at before you sign on the dotted line.

Parks in Redmond Washington

Redmond is lucky to have 30 beautiful parks that offer over 1300 acres and 26 miles of trails. Of these parks, twenty-three are developed with another seven that undeveloped set aside land for the public’s use.

The Redmond Parks and Rec Department offers an Online Recreation Guide for every season. It is a great place to see what's going on.

There are activities for everyone from the youngest to oldest member of your family.

There are rental facilities for every type of event: picnic shelters, meeting rooms, auditoriums, gyms, log cabins, sports fields, as well as a teen center. You can also rent soccer, softball, cricket, lacrosse and baseball fields.
The Farrel-McWhirter Farm Park has a children's animal farm, a horse arena and covered picnic shelters. The farm offers 2 awesome party packages for parties from one to twenty children. Both packages offer a farm party of your choice, a party room, and a party kit, which includes milking a cow, party games and photo props. There is farm staff who will assist with set up and take down of the tables and chairs in the party room.

Bridle Trails State Park is 482 acres with 28 miles of equestrian/pedestrian trails. There is an open space are that is a horse show ground, that includes three arenas with bleachers and judges’ stands.

The Cascade View Neighborhood Park is great for kids. It has a children's play area, a tot lot, baseball and softball practice field, basketball half courts and picnic tables for the whole family. They are also planning on building a tennis court and two pickleball courts. (If you’ve never heard of pickleball, you have to try it. It is a lot of fun!)

Edge Skate Park at 83rd Street offers all the ramps and rails that an avid skater would want. Also, there is an active graffiti wall which is sponsored by the city. This is a great place for teens to hang out and stay active.
Hartman Park offers it all. Seven Baseball/softball fields, two soccer fields, tennis courts, basketball courts, a children's play area, picnic tables, trails as well as the Redmond Pool. Hartman has a space for every organized park activity or just sitting and relaxing quietly.

Idylwood Beach Park is located on Lake Sammamish as is the place to swim. There is a swimming beach, with a bath house and restrooms. This is also a great place to launch small car-top craft, like canoes and kayaks.
Juel Community Park offers a Frisbee golf course and offer community gardens for the public to come and grow their own food in Redmond’s urban seeting.

Luke McRedmond Landing offers a fishing experience for the physically challenged. There is lots of open space, a picnic shelter and picnic tables.

Marymoor Regional Park offers a climbing wall, a radio-controlled airplane field, an off-leash exercise are for dogs and dog-owners. There is a Velodrome for high-speed cycle races. Velodrome races are often exciting as Nascar races.

The Watershed Preserve has trails perfect for horseback riding, mountain bicycling and hiking. It also has an ADA interpretive trail. There are rangers on duty during the summer. This park is a stunning 800 acres of beauty and nature.

This is just a small sampling the amazing park system of the City of Redmond. There are very few places in the United States that have taken so much time and effort to make sure that open space and nature is preserved for the people to enjoy, almost all of it for free.

What is a Good Faith Estimate GFE?

Good faith estimateA good faith estimate is often referred to as a GFE. The GFE is provided by the mortgage lender or broker to the customer and is required by the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, also known as RESPA. It is an estimate of the loan fees or “closing costs” for the customer’s mortgage.

In order for the estimate to qualify as a GFE it must have an itemized list of fees which will be in one of six general categories:
• loan fees
• fees to be paid in advance
• reserves
• title charges
• government charges (local and state)
• (so-called) additional charges - these can include inspections, title insurance, taxes, etc. other fees that don’t fall into the categories above.

The lender must provide the borrower with the GFE within three days, if they are going to approve the loan.
It is important to remember that the GFE is an “estimate.” While the banks fees can’t change (after all, they should know how much they plan to charge), the fees of third party fees, like attorneys, pest inspectors and home inspectors, can vary by up to 10%.

If the lender denies your application, they do not have to provide you with a GFE but they do have to tell you why your application was denied within 30 days.

When you receive the GFE that does not mean that you must take the loan and it does not mean that the lender must make the loan. It is simply there to provide you with the basic information so you can easily compare offers with confidence.

Each item on the items on the GFE are given a code from a HUD (Department of Housing and Urban Development) list. This allows the lender and the borrower to be able to neatly categorize the charges, so that everyone knows what the charge is for.

Here are some sample codes:
801 – Loan Origination Fee
808 – Mortgage Broker Fee
902 – Mortgage Insurance Premium
1003 – School Tax months @ $ per month
1101 – Closing or Escrow Fee
1106 – Notary Fees
1201 – Recording Fees
1302 – Pest Inspection

After receiving a GFE from a lender, the borrower should go over each charge and make sure that everything makes sense.

Because the codes standardized the fees, they are easy to compare side-by-side between mortgage lenders. For example, if there is not closing fee (1101) from one lender, but another is charging $500, it might sway the decision on which company to choose.

This also allows borrowers to find hidden fees. One example would be for the same lender that isn’t charging a closing fee, but has a $1700 pest inspection. If the other lenders are only asking for $250 for the pest inspection, you have probably found your closing costs. Situations like this are rare, but it should be clear that there are a lot of unscrupulous mortgage lenders in the world. They have to follow the letter of law and supply you with a GFE, but will look for ways to hide fees in places you might not expect them.

The most important thing to take away from this little introduction is that: a) you should expect to receive a GFE, b) it is designed to make it easy for you to understand, and c) you can and should use the GFEs that you receive to compare loans to each and the fees to what is reasonable.

If you are not sure what the fees are and which are reasonable, you should retain an attorney and have her or him explain those fees to you in detail. Some of the fees will need to be paid at once at closing, the others might be something that you pay for 20 to 30 years. Go over the good faith estimate slowly and in great detail.

All information provided is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed and should be independently verified.