Recent content on Mike King
Blogs & newsletters I keep up with # Apple # Daring Fireball — Go to Apple news. Six Colors — Jason Snell and Dan Moren reviews. AI # Hacker News Simon Willison’s Weblog — A daily-ish stream of AI experiments and links. Latent Space Import AI The Batch Business & Technology # Stratechery Not Boring The Generalist Benedict Evans Ribbonfarm Capital Markets, Credit & Distress # TreppTalk /…
A fragrant and comforting Thai-style yellow curry with tender chicken and vegetables in a creamy coconut sauce. Ingredients # 2 tablespoons coconut oil or vegetable oil 2-3 tablespoons yellow curry paste 1 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces 1 medium onion, sliced 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated 2 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into…
Recipe by J. Kenji López-Alt Ingredients # For the Sauce: # 3 whole jalapeño chiles, roughly chopped (see notes) 1 tablespoon (15 ml) ají amarillo pepper paste (see notes) 1 cup fresh cilantro leaves (1 ounce; 28 g) 2 medium cloves garlic 1/2 cup (120 ml) mayonnaise 1/4 cup (60 ml) sour cream 2 teaspoons (10 ml) fresh juice from 1 lime 1 teaspoon (5 ml) distilled white vinegar 2 tablespoons (30…
Recipe by J. Kenji López-Alt Ingredients # 3 ounces (85 g) finely grated Gruyère or Comté cheese 2 ounces (60 g) finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese 2 cups (480 ml) heavy cream 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, roughly chopped 2 medium cloves garlic, minced Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 3 to 3 1/2 pounds (1.4 to 1.6 kg) russet potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/8 inch thick on a…
Last year I wrote about using Home Assistant at home. This is the commercial version of that setup. I manage a mixed-use building in Alaska from Seattle—about 1,700 miles away—and Home Assistant has become the always-on system that flags issues before they become after-hours emergencies. Dashboard # Here’s the dashboard pinned on my laptop and phone: UniFi Protect runs the PoE cameras. Home…
It’s hard to believe that I’ve been running Home Assistant in one form or another for close to a decade. What started as a weekend experiment with a Raspberry Pi hiding behind our media cabinet has grown into the quiet operating system for our house. These days it keeps an eye on mail deliveries, reminds me to close the garage, and even makes sure the car doors get locked if I forget.
Ingredients # Yield: 4 servings 1 pint brussels sprouts (about a pound) 4 to 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, to coat bottom of pan 5 cloves garlic, peeled Salt and pepper to taste 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar Directions # Heat oven to 400 degrees. Trim bottom of brussels sprouts, and slice each in half top to bottom. Heat oil in cast-iron pan over medium-high heat until it shimmers; put…
CoStar and Ten-X recently put on a nationwide contest called Battle of the Bids amongst brokers, appraisers, and other commercial real estate professionals. Over 15,000 people participated in the 8 round competition to guess the final bid on properties being sold on the Ten-X auction site. Contestants selected up to ten properties in each round and bet what each property would sell for at auction.…
A collection of my favorite cocktail recipes. These are spirit-forward drinks with great flavor profiles that I’ve refined over the years. Margarita # 1 oz lime juice 2 oz tequila 0.75 oz orange liqueur Agave nectar to taste Mexican Firing Squad # 1 oz tequila 0.5 oz fresh lime juice 0.25 oz grenadine 2 dashes Angostura bitters Splash of soda Penicillin # 2 oz blended scotch 0.75 oz fresh…
One of our favorite places to visit is Tofino on Vancouver Island. We’ve made the trip many times and we’ve never been disappointed. It is a journey to get there from Seattle but it is well worth it. We always stop at Tacofino while we are there. Their fish tacos are amazing. After our last trip I tried to recreate them. Ingredients # 2 cod filets 1-2 limes 1 garlic clove 2 tbsp olive…
I’m a commercial real estate broker in Seattle and work at Kidder Mathews . You can find all the latest projects I am working on at swansonking.com . Professional Bio # Mike King is a Senior Vice President and Partner at Kidder Mathews in Seattle. His practice focuses on investment acquisitions and dispositions, prioritizing client relationships that extend beyond a single closing.…
Specialize. Don’t be all things to all people. There are riches in niches. One investor’s disposition is another’s dream acquisition. Don’t get entrenched in the past. You need young blood to buy at today’s price. When you deal with good people, you can work on a handshake. When you deal with bad people, a 10,000 page contract won’t protect you. Every deal dies…
Time in the market is more important than timing the market Buy Bitcoin in 2013 Invest first, spend second The market can stay irrational longer than you can remain solvent. -John Maynard Keynes If you owe the bank $100 that’s your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that’s the bank’s problem. –JP Getty. October: This is one of the particularly dangerous months to invest in stocks. Other…
Ingredients # 3 tablespoons canola oil 1 medium onion (coarsely chopped) 1 tablespoon grated peeled fresh ginger 1 ½ teaspoons minced garlic 1 ½ tablespoons Madras curry powder 1 cup unsweetened coconut milk 1 cup chicken stock or canned low-sodium chicken broth 1 ½ pounds shelled and deveined medium shrimp Salt Cayenne pepper 2 tablespoons finely chopped mint ½ teaspoon finely grated lemon zest…
Wake up everyday and push the ball forward. Constantly ask the question, “What does great look like?” for people, product, processes, and everything else. “What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” –Henry David Thoreau
You love them and you’re here, the rest is details Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do. Having kids — the responsibility of rearing good, kind, ethical, responsible human beings — is the biggest job anyone can embark on. As with any risk, you have to take a leap of faith and ask lots of wonderful people for their help and guidance. We never know the love of a parent till we become…
“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” -Albert Einstein “Writing isn’t hard. Coal mining is hard. Writing is a nightmare.” -Philip Roth “We are what we repeatedly do, Excellence is therefore not an act but a habit." –Aristotle “Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It’s not a day when you lounge around…
Be kind Make decisions today that you’ll be proud of tomorrow. You can have anything you want in life, but you can’t have everything. The two most important decisions that you make in life are what you do for a living and who you marry. You get these two correct and you’ll have a nice life. When everything is important, nothing is important. A doctor, a lawyer, a CPA; have all 3…
If you don’t ask, you don’t get. People do business with people they like. Become a person others like. Time kills deals. Never be a bottleneck that gets in the way of a deal. Show up consistently and put in the reps. It’s better to be in a good business than be good at business. “Sometimes the best copy to sell a horse is horse for sale” — Jay Abraham
This is a King family favorite. Ingredients # 12 ounces dried spaghetti 3 tablespoons pressed or minced garlic 1 tablespoon olive oil ½ cup dry white wine 1 bottle (8 oz.) clam juice 2 cans (10 oz. each) baby clams, drained (reserve liquid) ½ cup chopped parsley ½ teaspoon hot chili flakes Salt Directions # In a 5- to 6-quart pan over high heat, bring about 4 quarts water to a boil. Add spaghetti…
I threw out the first pitch at the Mariners game today. It was Coug day at the Mariners and I was asked to represent WSU as a former alumni association president. I jumped at the opportunity.
In 2016 we purchased a mid-century modern home that was custom built in 1962 by a Boeing engineer. It was clear from the start that the house had “good bones” and just needed some updates. We lived in the house for a little over a year before we started the remodel process. We ended up moving out of our house for 9 months while we did a top-to-bottom remodel of every square foot of the…
In a midnight maneuver, the Washington state legislature passed an amended bill that approves a graduated excise tax on property sales. If signed by the governor as expected, the changes will be effective January 1, 2020. The Legislature changed the state REET rate for most sales of real property from a flat 1.28% of the selling price to a graduated rate structure, as follows:
Lately, there’s been a lot of press focusing on the demise of the retail industry. Many of the big-box retailers (especially soft goods retailers like Sears and JC Penny) are struggling to effectively adapt to the digital marketplace. Perhaps the online “take over” has been amplified by Amazon’s recent acquisition of Whole Foods Market. There’s no doubt that the retail industry is in transition…
We closed several transactions in June and wanted to provide a little bit of the backstory on each of these deals. Meadowdale Work Lofts # $7,330,000 | 6.70% CAP As part of our marketing we contacted owners of similar properties around the Northwest. We received multiple offers and secured the buyer within a week of going to market. The buyer owned a work loft property in Renton and was a natural…
Last week I completed my 250th ride of the year (the fiscal year, that is). This is the story of how I accomplished this goal since setting it a year ago. Let’s start with a bit of backstory. In July of 2014, we moved from downtown Seattle to Green Lake just before our daughter was born. While living downtown I had been religiously riding at Flywheel in South Lake Union. We lived a few blocks…
Update (2024): After several years on Medium, I’ve moved back to my own site built with Hugo for more control, flexibility, and a better writing experience. It has been a while since I’ve posted anything new. I’m going to blame most of that on becoming a parent, but I also attribute it to the blogging platform. I have used Wordpress for a number of years to host my blog (if you…
This morning Berkshire Hathaway posted Warren Buffet’s annual letter to shareholders. Last year I posted my highlights from the annual letter and thought I would do the same this year. The page numbers correspond to the PDF page number (not the page number in the letter). Some of the highlights may seem like an incomplete thought. I’d recommend reading the letter in its entirety to get the context…
Last year I posted my year end stats from Fitbit . Now that I have worn a Fitbit for over 2 years I have put together a quick year over year comparison. Overall 2013 was a more active year for me than 2012. I took 4,344,430 steps in 2013 vs. 3,895,859 in 2012. 2013 BY THE NUMBERS 11,902 — Average steps per day 32,415 — Most steps in a day 7,281 — Floors climbed 26.5 — Miles on March 17, 2013. I…
I took a look back at the articles and videos I shared over the past year and compiled a few of my favorites. This is by no means a comprehensive list. I am going to limit the list to my personal favorites and exclude any business and industry articles. I need to come up with a better way to mark my favorite articles, books, and videos as I read them throughout the year. For now I’ll go with a few…
The Urban Land Institute recently released their annual Emerging Trends in Real Estate report. Now in its 35th year, the report offers an excellent review of the past year and forecast of what is ahead for commercial real estate. Here are a few take aways from the report. In 2014, improving fundamentals and operational improvements will unseat cap rate compression and high leverage as the driver…
Today marks the last day of Google Reader. This is a product that I have used almost every day for the past 8 years. It has saved me countless hours of jumping from site to site and I am sure I have wasted many hours reading articles that I normally would overlook. What amazes me is the fact that Google could not find a way to monetize Reader. My Reader subscriptions represent a hand curated list…
Update September 2021 - This service is no longer active. The problem still remains. For the past few months I have been beta testing a new web service called SquareFeet.io . I am excited to see them launch today. I have already found the service indispensable and the best way to tell you about SquareFeet is to describe the problem. The Problem One of the frustrations with commercial real estate…
Berkshire Hathaway recently posted Warren Buffet’s annual letter to shareholders . I had a chance to read this year’s letter over the weekend and have included my highlights and comments on the letter below. — — Page 2 — - But subpar it was. For the ninth time in 48 years, Berkshire’s percentage increase in book value was less than the S&P’s percentage gain (a calculation that includes dividends…
Office Depot and Office Max have agreed to merge in a $1.17 billion all-stock deal. The agreement would combine the #2 and #3 office supply retailers. I ran an Info USA report on the 850+ Office Max locations and 1,100+ Office Depot locations in the United States and combined the two lists. I found 633 store locations that shared the same ZIP code as another location. Several of these are two of…
Today, I am excited to announce that I am joining Kidder Mathews in their Seattle office. This has been in the works for a few months and today is my first day. For the past year and a half I have run my own one-man commercial real estate brokerage. This gave me the flexibility to try new business ideas, but limited my exposure. I was initially approached by another firm, which got the ball…
Over the past year I have used a Fitbit to track my activity. If you aren’t familiar with Fitbit, it is a small device that tracks your steps, calories burned, stairs climbed, distance traveled, and sleep quality. The Fitbit contains an accelerometer and altimeter to capture the data and then syncs the stats with fitbit.com . I have been fairly consistent wearing it and only had a few days where I…
Daniels Real Estate, LLC announced they will begin construction on the long delayed Fifth & Columbia tower. The proposed building will be 660 feet tall, making it the fifth tallest building in Seattle and 55 feet taller than the Space Needle. This development will dramatically change the Seattle skyline. Today’s announcement reminded me of a video that Daniels Real Estate released before the start…
Take at look at these two maps that have recently been circulating. The first map from NASA shows a nighttime view of the United State. Brandon Martin-Anderson from the MIT Media Lab created the second map. Brandon’s map depicts every person counted by the 2010 US and 2011 Canadian censuses. The map has 341,817,095 dots — one for each person. Here are a few observations from the maps.