Seattle Real Estate News | SERENE™
Your Personal Seattle Real Estate News
SERENE™ stands for Seattle Real Estate News. More to the point, it stands for PERSONAL Seattle Real Estate News. It serves you who live in and around Seattle. I write about Seattle area real estate from a personal perspective. Some of my topics are not about real estate but about subjects that tell you what makes me the person I am. Real estate is an immensely personal business - technology notwithstanding. You trust people you know. Most of the posts you see here I wrote for my month-end newsletter The View from the Street, others I wrote specifically for SERENE™.
Success in Real Estate
The Personal Seattle Real Estate News
June was a busy month, in real estate and everything else. One day I jogged five miles at Cannon Beach, the next day I tore a calf muscle playing tennis. Like some aging German soccer player, I left the scene with a badly bruised ego. However, unlike some German soccer players, I was brimming with enthusiasm.
I redecorated my office and now root for Switzerland. [Read more…]
Six years ago, I left a national real estate “brand” and joined RSVP Real Estate.
Here’s what I wrote at the time.
I made this change to improve the services for my clients. My lower operating costs will allow me to allocate financial resources with greater flexibility. After all, not one transaction is the same as another and no seller and no buyer are alike.
Better technology is the second reason for this change. Some real estate companies with long histories have found it difficult to reinvent themselves gradually. Urging brokers (formerly called agents) to blog and twitter doesn’t automatically close the gap between yesterday and today. [Read more…]
Woodinville Vinterra
The Personal Seattle Real Estate News
The Woodinville Vinterra used to be the fertile ground of the Vibrant Plant Nursery. My wife and I went for walks on the southern border of the nursery on the path created by the natural gas pipeline. The path is still there but the nursery is gone.
When the development was first announced about four years ago, expected pricing was “in the upper $700s”. Now, four years later, more than 100 of the 157 new homes have sold for $1 million and more.
I took some pictures during the early stages of the development. The nearly flat 33.35 acres were perfect for new houses in one of the best locations on Seattle’s Eastside. Right across the street on the western border of the Woodinville Vinterra is Kirkland’s Kingsgate territory and homes north of Juanita-Woodinville have Bothell addresses. [Read more…]
Seattle Home Prices
The Personal Seattle Real Estate News
How would you like to be a real estate broker in this market? If you represent buyers, the record low inventory and escalation clauses can make your life miserable. If you represent one of those rare sellers, you are fortunate indeed.
The rise in Seattle home prices doesn’t make pricing any easier. However, pricing is more critical than ever. When there are 10o homes for sale in a community it’s not that obvious that ten are overpriced. When there are only ten homes for sale, the one that is overpriced is easy to spot. Buyers are eager to buy but they are not stupid.
In a sellers’ market, the right listing price is the one that attracts buyers who are willing to pay more than the listing price. How do I know what the right listing price is? With few or no comparable homes for sale and few homes sold in the recent past, pricing is a delicate task. Obvious underpricing to incite bidding wars is a risky strategy. Buyers may take you by your word. [Read more…]
Why I’m not a Realtor®
The Personal Seattle Real Estate News
You can call me a Realtor®, but I should not call myself that. I’m not a Realtor®. Only members of the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) can call themselves Realtors®. Those who are not members are simply real estate agents or real estate brokers.
By the way, in Washington State, all real estate agents are real estate brokers. Real estate brokerages are officially called “firms.” Brokers in charge of franchises and their offices are called Managing Broker or Designated Broker. [Read more…]
