If you're in the market as a buyer, you might find this article from the Seattle PI today a bit of a wake up call. While there's no doubt the economic situation in our country is currently a tad bleak (tongue firmly implanted in cheek), it's not stopping buyers in Seattle from flocking to well-priced homes, and yes, even getting in bidding wars over them.
"How is this possible?" you ask. Let's look at what's happening on a few different levels. As the article mentions, distressed properties are skewing pricing data, as they tend to sell below market value (nationally, short sales & bank-owned properties undercut the market by about 20%, according to National Association of Realtors data. I suspect it's not that high here in Seattle, but it certainly affects us). This throws buyers off: they see that the median price of a sold home in West Seattle year-to-date is $303,000 (which it is believe it or not), and they get the idea in their heads that if they go out and see houses around this price, they're going to see a lot of nice possibilities. They tend to be disappointed.
Secondly, if you've looked at short sales and bank-owned homes, I don't need to tell you a lot of them are in sorry shape. Quite a different story from a seller who's gone to the trouble to "gussy up" their home before putting it on the market with landscaping, painting, staging, etc. Remember, a 303K home that needs 50K of work just to make it habitable, is really a 353K home.
A lot of buyers are also fed up with looking at short sales and bank-owned homes altogether. Especially with short sales, they can take six months (or more!) to close, and you really don't know if it is going to close until the day it does. Bank-owned homes come with their own set of challenges for buyers. So, when a seller who's not distressed (ie. underwater on the house, behind on mortgage payments, tax liens, etc.) puts up a for sale sign, and the buyer knows they could potentially be moving in 4-5 weeks later, price may not be the most important factor. There are a lot of buyers out there looking in the first-time buyer range. If you're one of them, keep in mind that you're all seeing the same inventory. So when something that looks better than the competition shows up, someone's going to jump on it, and probably hastily.
On a totally unrelated note. . . this front door is so odd, I felt the need to share it with you. Dale & I were out previewing some homes a couple weeks ago, and although I liked many aspects of this cute brick rambler in Seaview, I was perplexed by the front door, which was covered with low-pile carpeting, AND an accordion blind on top of that. Is it a symbol of something? Is it so the person inside won't hear solicitors knocking? Bad first impression Mr. Seller, which is too bad because the rest of the house has potential. -RS
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