SEattle Real Estate NEws - SERENE™

Some say this is a great time to buy.

Not so fast, I say. It’s an OK time to buy if you do not have to sell first. It’s a good time to buy if you don’t have to sell first and have good credit. It’s a great time to buy if you don’t have to sell, have good credit and have saved up for this very purpose.

If you are young, have a well-paying job and would find another job in greater Seattle with relative ease, this is your day to go house hunting - eh, make that condo hunting.

Know what you want; then make a list.

Condo hunting - that’s just what I did with a young man who fits the above profile. Beginning about a month ago, we started to look around, first online, then in the real world. Shawn had a pretty good idea of what he wanted. He made a list for me:

1. Must Have (maximum 25-minute no-transfer bus ride to work),
2. Would Like (lots of light, neighborhood feel),
3. Don’t Need (amenities like pool, gym) and
4. Cannot Have (previous owner with pet - allergic).

Do yourself and your real estate agent a favor and make your own list. In the end, we found a condo that met 3 of the 4 criteria. The seller has a dog but there are no carpets; just hardwood floors and a central vacuum system. We made an offer and, after some back and forth, we arrived at a mutual agreement on price and conditions.

Imagine a day in your life.

What I tell all my buying clients is to imagine how they spent their time. What do you do after work? Cuddle up with a book or go bar hopping? Do you like to have friends over for meals or rather go to a restaurant? What do you do on weekends? In Shawn’s case one such lifestyle consideration was where his friends lived. Some live on the eastside some south of downtown Seattle. The chosen condo put him right in the middle.

Eastside or Seattle?

We started on the eastside at the southern edge of Bothell with lots of condos within walking distance to the Brickyard Park & Ride. Shawn took the bus from work in Seattle to meet me there - the commuting test. We saw about half-a-dozen condos that late afternoon and early evening. In the following week I picked up Shawn with my car after work and we looked at condos in several Seattle neighborhoods - Fremont, Maple Leaf, Sandpoint, Lake City to name a few.

If you are wondering about the number of condos currently on the market, here’s the count from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS).

1-bedroom condos between $150,000 and $200,000

• Seattle (city limits): 67
• Kenmore, Bothell, Mountlake Terrace, Mill Creek: 33
• Kirkland, Bellevue, Redmond: 24

2-bedroom condos between $200,000 and $250,000

• Seattle (city limits): 64
• Kenmore, Bothell, Mountlake Terrace, Mill Creek: 48
• Kirkland, Bellevue, Redmond: 42

Online real estate is like reading a menu; you can’t “taste the place.”

What Shawn learned from looking at over a dozen condos was that you can’t tell by the pictures what a place is really like. What I learned again is that pricing real estate is at least as much art as it is science. Too much depends on the owner’s motivation to sell. Residential real estate is not entirely rational. The web is full of information but the smell of a place is something else altogether.

What’s your take?

What’s holding you back from owning your own place? What’s your idea of the ideal condo? What’s your preferred neighborhood and why? Have rising gas prices changed your mind as to where you would like to live? Your thoughts and comments are welcome.

This is a great time to buy homes in and around Seattle, especially if you do not have to sell. Two of my first-time buyers are taking advantage of the local buyers’ market. One young couple will close in two weeks on their first home in Monroe, the other just started looking with their eyes set on homes in the Issaquah Highlands.

Ready and Qualified to Buy their First Home

Both couples share a trait that is becoming rare these days: save before you buy and then buy less than what you could afford. Needless to say, it is a treat to negotiate a deal for buyers like that.

What and Where?

Having determined the basic minimum specifications - 3 bed, 2 bath, 1,500 sq ft, 2 stories, small yard - and what was comfortably affordable and with pre-approval in hand, we started the search online. To help in choosing the right Seattle eastside neighborhood I suggested that they imagine a work day and a weekend - getting up in the morning, commuting to work, taking a toddler to day care, taking a walk, doing errands, going out to dinner, having friends over, etc.

Old or New, the Prices are Down

Before setting off for the Highlands we looked at a home south of downtown Issaquah. Built in the early 80s, vacant and on the market for months, the best property feature was the size of the lot with a sizable, mature back yard. We decided that any offer would be at least $35,000 below the asking price; money needed to upgrade the kitchen, bathrooms and remove the popcorn ceilings.

To save gas we left one car in downtown Issaquah and drove across 1-90 at exit 18 and up Highland Drive. Over the course of two hours we saw the eight homes on our list and two more we came across by chance. Seven of the eight homes were priced between $480,000 and just below $500,000; only one was listed close to $525,000. Looking at the homes’ listing histories, it was clear that $500,000 had become the “high water mark” - five of the eight homes had once been listed over $500,000 before being reduced below that mark. The most extreme was a home that was reduced over the course of 140 days by 11.1%, from $540,000 to $480,000. The Zillow.com chart above illustrates the one-year price trend for Issaquah and the 98029 zip code which includes the Issaquah Highlands.

Keeping Count and Picking the Winner

Looking at several homes in short succession can become confusing. My method to keep them apart and memorable is to give each home a name, usually a distinctive feature. In our case, we named the three favorites “Stairs in the Back,” “Buy Three, get Four,” and “Secret Garden.”

In my opinion, Secret Garden is the clear winner. At $254.40 per square foot the least expensive, by location it is in the quietest neighborhood, yet closest to the Park & Ride. Built in 1999, it is the oldest of the three. But how else can you get such a beautiful garden with roses and clematis and enjoy your barbecue hidden from view by mature vegetation?

Looking for Alternatives

I searched the Northwest Multiple Listing Service website for homes in Redmond, Bellevue, Kirkland and Sammamish with matching criteria: built between 1999 and 2008, 3 or 4 bedrooms, up to 3 bathrooms, between 1,900 and 2,000 sq ft, 2-stories, minimum of 4,500 sq ft lot, and 2-car, attached garage. The result: zero.

Expanding the age of the homes back to 1995 made no difference. Eliminating the lot size specification entirely and reducing the required square footage to a minimum of 1,500 sq ft resulted in nine properties, three on the Redmond Ridge and six in Sammamish. The least expensive is a $424,950 Sammamish home with 1,550 square feet. However, languishing 138 days on the market and located deep in the heart of the Sammamish plateau it is a tough commute and perhaps not such a good deal.