Seattle's Urban Villages

Why are Buyers NOW Interested in my Pending Listing?

Late last week I got another phone call from a Buyer's Agent asking me, the Seller's Agent, if my Pending listing is solid, or if there is a chance that the transaction could fall apart?

*Sigh*

So I have to wonder where were these interested buyers all the months my seller clients' home was on the market? I mean I know that the Seattle Real Estate Market is picking up for spring, but still, I have gotten 3 of these calls in the past two weeks. In all three cases the buyers had been on the fence about making the decision to make an offer...then they lost the opportunity when someone did and beat them to it.

It is hard to make the decision to make an offer on a house, but think how you will feel if someone makes an accepted offer on what could have been YOUR home?

Seattle Survival Guide: Helpful Information for Moving to Seattle

If you are moving to Seattle, or recently arrived, then here is a tip for YOU!   

A few months before I moved to Seattle from Southern California in 1994, I found a very helpful book called "Seattle Survival Guide II".  Since I did not know anyone who lived in Seattle I found this to be a great resource (pre-Internet!) to help me get to know Seattle before making my Big Move.

   

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A few weeks ago I was browsing a bookstore and found a book called "Seattle Survival Guide. 4th edition".  My curiosity made me pick up the book to check it out because it reminded me of my old book with all the highlights, and notes on the margins.  I decided to buy it and see if it was the updated version of my old helpful book.  As it turns out, it is the newest edition of a series of books on Seattle, now with web addresses as well as street addresses.  Great resource if you are relocating to Seattle, the Eastside or the other surrounding areas.

It was fun to see the changes between the my older version and the newest edition which is subtitled "The Essential Handbook for Seattle and Eastside Living".  The older version did not have any web addresses since the Internet had not really arrived yet.  The new book includes many more areas like Bellevue , South Seattle areas and cities, as well as the Islands; Mercer , Bainbridge , and Vashon.

One of the topics is employment in Seattle, and both editions list the top 10 companies.  There have been some major changes there too.  Microsoft did not make the top 5 in the older edition.  Amazon had only just come into existence and was just a little start up no one had heard of.

If you are thinking of moving to Seattle, or your job is causing you to relocate to Seattle, this might be a good resource for you...it was for me!

Seattle Home Buyers Autumn........ Are You Ready to Harvest?

This Autumn is the best season for Seattle Home Buyers since 2001.  There are several reasons for this.

The Mortgage Meltdown caused many loan programs to disappear, and lending standards became tighter (good things in the long run) so that some buyers who were planning on buying a Seattle home this fall are now finding themselves having to put it off until later (spring?).  These buyers may have to look for different loan programs because theirs became unavailable, or may find themselves having to improve their credit scores since the standards have tightened, or may have to save for a higher down payment or for closing costs.

Some buyers may have been influenced by the national media and its' reporting of home prices declining in many areas of the US, and are waiting (hoping) that home prices will decline here in Seattle.  Fall usually has a higher ratio of inventory (homes for sale on the market) to buyers when compared to spring, resulting in slightly lower prices and this year we have about 1/3 higher inventory than usual which is causing some extra downward pressure on home prices. These buyers may be deciding to wait until spring to see if the prices on Seattle real estate will continue to go down as it becomes a balenced market.

Now we have two groups of buyers waiting until spring to buy.  This means that home buyers who are looking to buy now have less competition than in the past, and have an increase of inventory to chose from.  Next spring this will change.  Spring typically has a higher ratio of buyers to inventory which causes upward pressure on prices for Seattle homes.  This coming spring may have the additional buyers (as outlined above) who have decided to wait until spring to buy a home, added together with the typical number of buyers in the spring causing additional upward pressure on home prices.   

Even with the tightened mortgage standards, I believe this spring will have a lot of buyers looking to buy homes because of our strong Seattle economy, and continued growth with more people moving to Washington and the Seattle area.  While I believe that while we won't have the kind of sellers market the past few springs have seen, it will still favor sellers (in the close in Urban areas) and the buyers who decided to wait out the buyers market this Autumn will have lost their advantage.   

So here's a tip for some Seattle Home Buyers: this Autumn could be a very favorable time to "Harvest" the opportunity to buy a Seattle Home!

UPDATE: Dec. 7 2007 Seattle Times article "Home Prices Slip..." on recent trends in Seattle area home prices.

Sometimes you have to counsel your Buyers NOT to make an offer on a house....

Recently some buyer clients, who I have been working with for the past two and a half years to help them find and buy their perfect next home, finally had the "perfect home"  come on the market late last week.   Last Sunday we met at the house, spent some time looking it over and found it was everything they were looking for.  We discussed the plan to meet with a lender and start the process to make an offer.   

Later last week after my clients got the lender's approval, we met at my office to work on our offer strategy for the house and write up a Purchase and Sales Agreement.  While talking with my clients and asking questions, I found out that while this house was everything they had been looking for in the past, it really didn't fit their needs now, nor their financial goals at this time.   

I asked more questions, and as we got deeper into the discussion, I pointed out that while we could pursue making an offer on this house, I did not think that it would ultimately be the best choice for them at this time.  We talked further and developed a new house hunting strategy and a new financial strategy that would put them in a better position (they own their home and a rental as well) when we find the new "perfect" home...a rambler this time!

So a TIP FOR BUYERS; be sure that your agent is willing to walk away from making an offer for you if it's not the best house for you, or does not really fit your financial goals.  Your agent should not be a SALESMAN, but your consultant or advisor to help you through the Seattle home buying process.  A SALESMAN is not looking after your best interest, but a good, ethical Seattle Real Estate Agent is.  Your agent should not be acting in their best interest.  Your Seattle Real Estate Agent should be acting in YOUR BEST INTERESTS when buying a home!

John L. Scott launches "Neighborhood Wizard" Search Tool for Home Buyers!

Last night around midnight, John L. Scott launched it's new online toy for Home Buyers to make searches easier with the Neighborhood Wizard search tool.  The Neighborhood Wizard allows searches to be customized by "drawing a boundary line" with the mouse around the area that the Home Buyer is interested in.  This allows a narrower search area than could be done before, and helps to make sure a Home Buyer does not miss a home that the Listing Agent may have entered under a different neighborhood name, or perhaps the Home Buyer is unaware of.

So just after midnight I was playing around with this cool new tool and did several searches to get a feel for how it works.  The last one I did was a complicated boundary outline around Alki which was fairly easy to do once you got the hang of "clicking" at each point before changing direction. 

Bravo to John L. Scott (Okay confession...JLS is my broker so I am a little biased, but this is a really cool tool for Home Buyers!) for continuing to be a major leader with Real Estate innovation!

Tip for "Drive-Around Unrepresented Buyers"

Tip for "Drive-Around Unrepresented Buyers"

Late last week another agent in my office got a call on a listing of hers from an Unrepresented Buyer, a buyer not working with a Seattle real estate agent.  My colleague asked me to meet with the buyer since she (rightly) prefers to represent her Seller 100% and not act as a Dual Agent, representing both the Seller and the Buyer and not providing either with their best representation.

I met with the Buyer and his wife at the house, they looked the house over, while I accompanied them answering their questions.  They also asked to see the house that was listed across the street, and since I had the listing information about that house, we went to view that one as well.   

Afterwards we talked in the driveway of the first house, mostly me answering their questions about real estate in general, the Seattle real estate market, and mortgages.  These Buyers are originally from another country, English is not their first language, and their prior experience in real estate in their original country was very different from how real estate is practiced here.

They were driving around the nearby Seattle neighborhoods, calling the phone numbers on the signs for the houses they liked, and asking the Seattle listing agent to show them the house.  Because they did not understand the real estate process here, with Buyer's Agents working for the buyers, representing their best interests,  and by working with them understanding their wants and needs to better advise the buyers, they were missing out on a very important resource available to them, one that they pay for in the price of the home.

This is a particularly important resource for buyers who are not knowledgeable about how the real estate process works.  These buyers did not realize that they were putting themselves at a what could be a serious disadvantage in their home search, and negotiation which could cost them thousands of dollars.

I encouraged them to choose a Seattle Real Estate Agent from those they had met, and have that Seattle Realtor work for them.  They may or may not choose me, but I asked them to please choose someone to help them.   

When you have not chosen an agent to work for you, you become an "Unrepresented Buyer" which unless you have done your homework, have experience, have the time, and knowledge can put you at a serious disadvantage and cost you thousands of dollars.

Please don't be an "Unrepresented Buyer" unless you can effectively represent yourself.