Updated on how much cash we're seeing.... had a client lose out on a bid for a nearly $1,000,000 home to an all cash buyer this past weekend. Wow! Those people with cash who've been sitting on the sidelines in the Seattle and Bellevue market place seem to believe we're starting to pull out of continued price reductions. These kinds of deals are popping up in the most popular areas of our region including north Seattle neighborhoods, Bellevue, Kirkland, Sammamish, Issaquah, and Redmond.

I've noticed more buyers with all cash offers coming out of the woodwork (so to speak) in the past 3 weeks than ever before. With prices in our area having improved for buyers throughout the past 5 years, it's not surprising to see new buyer activity, but this level of cash coming into play is unprecedented for my past 9 year career in the industry. I'm seeing it from my own buyers (investors of $50-200k properties) and as the listing agent of well-priced properties (in the $400k ranges).

Anyone else seeing this same kind of activity?

With home values having declined upwards of an average 35% in King County between 2007 and 2012, many people are wondering how they can have their tax burden reviewed and potentially reduced. In King County you can go to their website at this link to learn about how to make an application for an assessed value appeal.

I've had several clients in the past few years who are looking closely at this process because of the prices they're paying for distressed homes, which typically are at much lower prices than traditional home sale values. When you've got a first-time buyer who is watching every penny, being able to get the property taxes reduced can help them get a stronger budget after closing time.  The challenge of property taxes that are way out of whack of selling prices too is that it makes it harder for a low down payment buyer to qualify for their loan.

Our area has been getting hammered by a winter storm this past week with a series of snow, then rain, then snow, then ice, then snow, and now warming temps but with lots of snow still on the ground. This makes for many dangerous situations both on the road and off - reason being the abundance of our massive trees and ice weighing them down.  Many large roadways and highways are currently off limits due to downed trees.  You can check at this link to the WSDOT to find out which roads are closed and what has been re-opened.

Big trees are also a danger to homes since some of these trees are falling over entirely, or large branches are falling off them.

So, at a recent holiday party a client of mine threw I learned that during his major remodel the concrete framed building did actually allow some noise and vibration through the walls - that's because they were installed a new hung ceiling which required about 500+ screws into the concrete. Yeah, apparently the vibes went out toward 4 floors each direction.

One thing I noticed at the housewarming though was that in adding the dropped ceiling, they hadn't added a full audio system throughout the home.  That got me wondering about all these new high tech systems going into houses because my boyfriend just installed one in our house and the sub-woofer will, on occasion, startle the heck out of my two Jack Russell Terriers.  I couldn't imagine having this in a condo project without ticking off a neighbor.

Just as I was considering some of these issues, this article via Inman showed up in my inbox and it had a wonderful list of things that a condominium owner can do to mitigate the sound problem when installing these kinds of systems.  It might be some expense, but better this than a fine from your HOA when you bother the neighbors.

No Fluff Savvy Home Buyer Seminar January 28, 2012

01/28/2012
10:00 am - 12:00 pm

Forza Coffee - Tacoma

Please RSVP to Classes@TeamReba.com by 01/26/2011 with your name, phone number and email for confirmation.

If you’ve been wondering what the state of the real estate market is like in the Pierce and King County areas, now is your chance to get a No Fluff reality check. We’ll have Team Reba real estate brokers and a local mortgage lender (Jerry Rutherford of Legacy Group) on hand to help you learn how to navigate today’s new realities of buying real estate. On the agenda will be 3 major topics:

1) Credit repair, how credit is scored, what to look for in your credit report,

2) Lending products and options for buyers/refinances in today’s marketplace, including loans that allow for modifications to a property (FHA 203k loans) for those “less than perfect” purchases, and

3) An explanation of the real estate purchase process as well as an overview of today’s marketplace and the types of transactions most commonly seen. Including, short sales, bank owned and “traditional” real estate sales.

We hope you can join us and we look forward to seeing you there! If you can’t make it, or this class might be better suited for someone you know (friends, family, or colleagues), again, please feel free to forward the invite – all are welcome. Coffee/Tea/Snacks available for purchase at Forza Coffee. Class is held in the conference room at the back of the shop.

Café Forza located at 2209 N Pearl St, Tacoma 98407