Gene Dexter, Seattle Realtor

It looked so appealing on MLS, didn't it. The price is $90,000 below list/sale from two years ago, in a decent and workable area; your buyers are not only qualified but ready to go with their loan package, and the home? On market for 135 days. What could possibly be wrong?

Everything.

From special As-Is bank addendums and prerequisites such as dictating what type of lender and loan the seller will accept, to winterized and locked down homes buyers are expected to restore during the inspection process, greatly extended escrow days and lots of last minute grenades going off before closing and recording, the migraine headaches we never had before are festering back left of forehead.

It is true, especially now in Seattle, the Short Sale real estate industry has emerged as a huge segment of your Realtor's efforts in representing your purchase. And yes, it is indeed exciting to see SO many wonderful opportunities, but my advice is to proceed with caution and stay close to your agent, keep the phone by your bedside and increase your minutes package with the calling plan.

There are many, many pitfalls about this new market of shorts and preforeclosures. During the Go-Go years of 2003 - 2007 it was not unusual to waive disclosures and increase price to win the home. Today, banks want as many waivers as they can get and it's all about negotiation and justification of price.

Don't end up with someone else's nightmare. Be careful. Communicate. Stay centered. Be unemotional. Maybe, just maybe, that Short Sale could be yours.

The seeming lack of excitement coming from the eastside regarding Google's move to Kirkland / Houghton is hiding a very large fact: this is a major, major thing to be occuring in the local real estate market! The low key style that is the Northwest hides an obvious elephant sitting in the corner of the room.

Values in the condo and casual luxury market have been stagnating for a year now and will most certainly rebound from this influx of hundreds of new Google associates. I don't think buyers at Boulevard have anything to worry about, considering how difficult it was to sell the last few units in late 2007. They took a very temporary hit from the downturn. In the long run, all residents will be considered geniuses for investing in new construction in downtown, east and west of market street, etc.

If there were an official Buy rating among Realtors, Kirkland certainly would be on top of my hot sheet for the next year.

Time to concentrate on Kirkland!

You can look at it several different ways. Finding a home along the Blue Line light rail system between Tacoma and (eventually) Ballard will make it your personal energy policy for the future. Or, you just might end up being a landlord over the next decade. Regardless, if you follow the Blue Line route you won't go wrong for a home purchase.

It's a simple enough strategy. Growth in Seattle is not only inevitable, it's predicted to be three times larger by 2030. Public transit is going to be the biggest Hot button of the century. Why not make your real estate portfolio a small part of the plan as well?

Especially interesting to me is Rainier Vista. Already at a premium, there is more equity return coming. It's just the beginning. And the Blue Line station? Across the street.

Other very good opportunities exist near McMicken Heights in Tukwila/SouthCenter.

See you onboard!

http://www.GeneDexterHomes.com

2008 is starting with a whimper in Seattle. All agents/brokers are having to keep ears to the walls and it's the only way to hear anything right now. And yet, Seattle is one of the strongest markets in the U.S. . Our employment and quality of life picture is bright. What is really going on? Are we the last important market to begin feeling the pain? Or is the Seattle market creating it's own downturn, as factors here are so different from the rest of the country? Is this human nature at work and not the fundamentals?

Based on my regional tour of homes for the past two weeks, sellers and buyers have become enemies.

I've noted this in previous posts, but today it's becoming more obvious to a wider range of real estate professionals; sellers feel entitled to their profits. Buyers do not care one bit and are waiting for their moment to make those offers. Neither is correct. Unless crystal balls have suddenly become envogue.

From Seattle to Snoqualmie, sellers are on average 30k above sold comparables prior to August, 2007. They are dictating to a market that isn't writing anything down. As for buyers, they have suddenly become experts and are wringing their hands, waiting for a giant correction that won't be coming in quite the way they think.

One thing I know as absolute truth is that buyers and their representation simply do not know how to work around a list price. We are simply not seeing negotiation skill at work. For sellers, they do not understand that list price to many is THE PRICE. You won't find this happening anywhere else. But Seattle? Nobody is having this conversation.

I enjoy being a listing agent, but I have my sphere of highly qualified buyers too. Just this past weekend, I watched my clients view four very good homes in Redmond/Sammamish and come down to an interesting but misguided conclusion. "It's worth 40k less to us, but we will wait until the listing price changes, thank you". Wha??

Nevermind that my buyers also need to sell their homes in order to upgrade. Don't even think for a second whether or not they are considering how this pays forward when they list their own homes, "oh no, Karma has nothing to do with MY home". Meantime, we go through the motions, create the CMA's and make the presentation, only to see the buyer, who also needs to sell, raise their own listing price 30k - 40k above where it needs to be at.

The circle is complete and the market is creating it's own problem. It's like smog in the L.A. basin, just hovering until something from nature comes along and blows it somewhere else.

To paraphrase and tweak Gordon Gekko in Wall Street; Greed, for lack of a better word, is NOT good.

Win-Win is.

Most markets are trying to survive. In Seattle? We fight over 150k -200k gross profit for a three bedroom "war box" and how much of that pie from ownership during 2003- 2007 the seller can keep.

WOW!