Perrin Cornell, Broker, ABR

When I first got into this business many "older" agents told me you could pretty much take late Fall and December off as not much happened. Well I guess you could but why...with all the other agents taking time off it leaves more opportunities for those that stay and keep hitting the ball! So I find that it is one of my favorite times to help buyers and sellers come together. Whether listing a house for sale in Wenatchee or presenting an offer on a Chelan County or Douglas County home it is a great time of year to buy and sell homes and other properties in and around Wenatchee. Recently I wrote a post to my web site blog about this topic (Buying and Selling Homes in the Fall)

I enjoy the work and the people. With the Holidays around the corner motivation on both sides seems to increase... it can truly be the Best of Times!

As you learn in real estate, markets are largely local! One region, state or city my be in the dumps and another may be rocking along. Buying or selling home is happening all over the country including Wenatchee and East Wenatchee Washington.

The Wenatchee real estate market is really no different. We are close to Seattle and so, to a certain extent, what happens in the Seattle metro area eventually transfers to Wenatchee and Chelan or Douglas County real estate. But the inverse is also true. But even so we still have our unique housing market... different from everyone else. Many of the same national real estate trends and politics eventually get down to the local level.

Recently I was interviewed by the local paper The Wenatchee Daily World regarding real estate and how the local housing market was responding. We sometimes hear so much negative press we assume everything is negative. But that is not true. No we are not in a runaway market...no way but the market, given what is going on is not that bad. In fact in many ways it is ok... a little shaky perhaps but far from dead and or dying. So in my interview I address some of these questions... here is a link to the article and if you need more information you may try my web site www.wenatcheehomeswithperrin.com or drop me a line here!

Have a great 4th and take a minute to remember what we are really celebrating!

Eastern Washington University has put together a web page entitled Chelan Douglas Trends. It is a very good attempt to provide information about the area surrounding Wenatchee Washington. The site includes a lot of data covering everything from Housing to economics, people, culture, housing, public safety, environment, and several other areas of interest as well.

People interested in living in Wenatchee or the surrounding area or buying a home in Wenatchee or East Wenatchee may find the data both informative and very useful. If you are interested click this link to the site and scan the information you are interested in. Then if you hop over to my web site under my blogs, you will find a list of sites and companies providing additional information about living in North Central Washington and Wenatchee and East Wenatchee in particular.

So if you are interested in buying or selling a home in Wenatchee or east Wenatchee or just curious how your area stacks up take a look!

I recently posted a new blog post http://www.wenatcheehomeswithperrin.com/blog. I discuss a little about the local Wenatchee Real Estate Market. Though trends are national and markets are local what i find going on with buying and selling houses in Wenatchee, Cashmere, East Wenatchee and other local areas is probably true around the nation today. Basically:

Inventory of houses is growing almost exponential

Sales are mostly in affordable zones. In Wenatchee about 60% of sales this year are between $150K and $250K

FHA is the loan of choice (though I have had some luck with a couple USDA programs too). Buyers want closing costs paid.

Sellers have to be the best they can be in their price range...not number two or number three... if you can't be then you need to either work on it, adjust the price so you do look good or take it off the market. Consider staging get some help with yard care, etc.

Negotiation is the rule of the day. I suggest ,if it were possible, to have a house that is guaranteed to be 100% accurate in price and then list it for $5K less... buyers will still try to work you down. It's the market...

With lots to choose from sellers need to be aware the old saying "your first offer may be your best offer" is probably true.

Buying or selling a house is never easy. There is stress worry about pricing and all the myriad of details. In today market it is even worse. In a market like ours with lots of inventory and where sellers outnumber short sale sellers about three or four to one... short sales hardly have a chance... and that is something banks should keep in mind... a short sale today with a $20K hit is a lot better than a foreclosure six months from now with the same hit, more costs of carry, lost opportunity cost, maintenance etc.

So if you are buying or selling go on step out and do it. But if you just "think" you might like to you may want to reconsider. Either way get a good agent and listen to them!

Perrin Cornelll , Broker, ABR

Century 21 Exclusively

Wenatchee, WA

www.wenatcheehomeswithperrin.com

perrin.cornell@gmail.com

A few years ago I had a group of friends at my house one evening for dinner. Following dinner, and with a good bottle of wine, we sat at the table and discussed the good old USA until the wee hours.

What made this a little unusual is one person was from Germany, he and his family had escaped the East ahead of the Russian army then were DP's in the West until coming to the US in 1955. He was a naturalized citizen. One was a scientist from Switzerland in the US on a work visa and working for the USDA. One was an independent businessman who was from Lebanon and held both Lebanese and French citizenship was her legally and owned three businesses between Wenatchee and Seattle. All spoke English as well as their native language. They all also had at least one other language in common and one spoke four languages. All had journeyed home at least once in the previous 24 months (and would again many times but kept coming back)

There was a lot of discussion, much of it critical about the actions of the our government and Americans in general... mostly how we can be real boorish and assume everyone else should agree with us because we are right. However as the evening wore on there was a lot of very interesting discussion that surprised me.

Somehting everyone agreed on was we may have flaws as a nation (most do) but we had been on the right side of the issues mostly and the world in general was a better place because we were around.

Another point of agreement was that they were appreciative of how easy it is to move around, coast to coast, and state to state (this was just prior to the EU).

Another thing they all really applauded was how easy it is (comparatively) to own and sell property. How they all could buy a house or sell a house or commercial property. Develop land and dream with relatively minimal government intrusion (though there is certainly more today still it is possible).

But the final point that literally drew complements from every one was that we are free to fail... yes fail. becasue of that people do a better job and therefore succeed. I thought this last was a interesting perspective...I had expected "to do anything" or "to succeed' but nope fail... of course no one intends to fail. It is a consequence of bad ideas or management or timing. unfortunately, today consequences are becoming a thing of the past...

Finally there was discussion about our founding documents and what they have meant to the world.

But to "fail" who would have thought...?

Happy 4th!

Perrin Corell, Broker

Century 21 Exclusively

www.wenatcheehomeswithperrin.com