Relocating to the Seattle Area? A historical look at our area

As a relocation specialist I have so much fun working with clients who are moving to the area. I like to think of myself as an ambassador introducing our beautiful and magnificent city to newcomers and dispelling a lot of the myths.

Over the years, I've learned how to explain the Greater King County area to help in-bound transferees learn quickly what areas will give them the lifestyle and amenities they are looking for. And because each area was developed in relationship to the historical activities of the day, we can slice this exploratory search by the era of each home.

Before the turn of the century:

Beautiful 1891 Victorian home

Most of the development is in Seattle. Other homes are built in the valleys around small towns and cities with long winding roads that connect the towns. The roads were used to transport timber and coal and very much like a river winding themselves down to Elliott Bay and the Port of Seattle, the roads which later became State Highways such as Highway 169 and 167.

Very few homes built prior to the turn of the century remain. As of today, there are only 8 homes (out of 9309) built prior to 1900 currently on the market in King County. They range from small shacks to huge mansions, yet typically the image conjured up when thinking of this time frame is the impressive Victorian.

Early 1900 to 1920:

A Stunning Bungalow built in 1909.

The turn of the century saw an increase in building and the bungalow was introduced to the area. The front porch was standard and the garage was adapted from previous carriage houses and typically was put in the back yard out of view of the home. Backyards at this time were used for hanging laundry and gardening, entertaining was reserved for the front porch. Other features of this timeframe included beautiful handcrafted trim work and scroll work. Spindle staircases, high coffered ceilings, molding and heirloom quality craftsmanship. Most of the development is clustered close to the city centers as Urban sprawl hasn't been invented yet.

1920 to 1929 ~ The Roaring 20's:

Sophisticated 1928 Art Deco Co-Op Condominium in the Ravenna Neighborhood

With the advancement of technology such as the automobile, moving pictures and radio the mood was Modernity and it brought with it mass Production, urbanization and art deco. The craftsman homes with all the trimmings continued but this era also brought us the sky scrapper. When we think of the Art Deco Sky Scrapper; New York and Chicago usually come to mind, however the 1914 opening of the Panama Canal was a boom to West Coast cities and Seattle was no exception.

1930's to 1945's ~ The Great Depression:

A functional and practical 1932 Renton area home

Gone are the days of excess, the homes of this vintage offer a return to the basics of housing. Homes are simpler and smaller. The cellar is still popular as an indoor place to store food and take care of the laundry on Seattle's notoriously rainy days, but as a tool of function and not form, the basements of this generation are in most cases not livable square footage despite the number of remodels that claim otherwise. The culture of this day still clung to quality of craftsmanship and while the trim work is not as abundant as a generation prior, wood wrapped windows and coffered ceilings are still commonplace.

1945 to 1960 ~ The Baby Boomers

A 1950 mid-century home in Des Moines

After the war and the baby boom, America needed a lot of housing and fast. Still feeling the singe of the Depression, Americans wanted to buy homes they could afford but more significantly pay-off and own outright. Most Americans owned a car and with the advancement of the public freeway system, Seattle grew fast along the new Interstate - 5 Corridor. The freeway opened up lots of buildable land North of the City and over previously impassable waterways as well as South of the Industrial Ports. New families and home buyers shot past the South Seattle area to the once small outlying communities of Des Moines, Burien and Normandy Park. Bellevue and Mercer Island grew up as well with the floating bridge across Lake Washington.

Homes were built fast and mimicked the production lines of the automobile industry. The term "spec house" was invented and builders developed streets at a time. The details that would drive the prices up were omitted and the homes were smaller, everything was a factor of affordability.

1960's to the 1979's - Urban Sprawl:

A remodeled 1966 tri-level in Renton

A generation removed from the Depression, yet with the stories cemented firmly in their heads the home buyer's of the 60's and 70's sought larger homes with more bedrooms. After growing up in large families in small homes, they were ready for more bedrooms. The freeway system in the Seattle area had expanded and now with a commuter option (I-405, the belt route) that connected the cities of Renton & Kent on the South end and Kirkland & Bothell on the Northeast end. Development grew rapidly in these outlying areas in this decade. I sometimes refer to these homes as the Brady Bunch houses. The garage moved to the front of the house and the entertainment moved to the back. Yards were large enough to play in the backyard. The homes re-introduced the formal living and dining rooms as well as the master bathroom. Typical in this area was the Multi-level home. Split or Mid Entrees were a favorite among builders because they were only nominally more expensive to build than a one-story and offered twice the square footage. Tri-levels also made an appearance.

1980 to 2003 - A return to spending and the love of the automobile:

Two-story Kent area 1989 home with three-car garage
The early 80's brought us high interest rates, but we recovered soon enough. Home buyers of the 80's wanted a lot of garage and because parcel were big, builders could build an impressive home with tall foyers, elegant rooms and those wide garages on big lots. The backyards were getting smaller. A traditional style with brick and cedar shake roofs was invoked and professional landscaping made a comeback after more than a half century. And with the improvements in the automobile industry, we moved further away to areas like Auburn and Federal Way to the South, Issaquah and Redmond to the East, and Mill Creek and Duvall to the North. Redmond in particular was about to undergo growth from a little know company at the time called Microsoft that would later drive prices up in the immediate area and tax the limited East side commuter routes.

2003 to 2008 - The Real Estate Boom

Luxury 2006 estate in Newcastle

While technically over in August of 2006 (when Bear Stearns announced it was going under) many home sites had just broken ground and because the builders had already purchased the land at the peak prices, they had no choice but to attempt to finish what they had started and hope to beat the odds of the turning market and survive the downturn.

With easy and cheap money, and what seemed like an unreachable cap on housing appreciation, builders developed luxury "spec" houses in large quantities. Extravagance uncommon for the last 100 years returned. Butler pantries, box beamed ceilings, multiple staircases, and rich stone and wood finishes.

Alan Greenspan was telling us the markets were healthy, speculators in Real Estate were making thousands and thousands of dollars in risky flip deals and HGTV rolled out one show after the next showcasing the money to be had in real estate. The term McMansion was rolled out and homes built under 3500 square feet were difficult to sell.

2008 - Back to the basics, affordability and more importantly sustainability:

Brand new 2009 Renton area homes

Buying a home over renting a home has always made financial sense. Our grandparents knew this better than anyone after going through the Great Depression. After the Real Estate Boom and Bust a tax benefit for first time buyers emerged and just in time for builders to turn those overpriced lemon lots into a saleable commodity.

With a huge concern for not only the economic viability of a home purchase and also a heightened awareness of their carbon footprint, today's homebuyers are returning back to the basics. Nice homes in nice areas, that leaves room in the budget to save for a rainy day.

I could write numerous books on all that is covered above. Please enjoy this look at our area and our housing market. It's meant to be light-hearted and fun. If you'd like a serious evaluation of your particular real estate situation, give me a call or shoot me an e-mail. I'd be delighted to be of service.

It Pays to Stage

Should you stage your home? Or let the buyer use their imagination?

If your home is vacant and it's cold outside, you're really going to need to warm it up to give it that homey feeling. Or if you are living in your home while you market it and your furniture is old, worn or dated, it will make the entire house feel old, warn and dated.

Builders spend thousands and thousands of dollars on staging every year. Why on earth would a professional seller like a home builder invest so much money into this process? Because they know it causes buyers to spend more on your home.

Let's look at that a little deeper. Let's say you place your home on the market and you are in a neighborhood that has a number of other homes available for sale. If your buyer is creative and than can envision their stuff in your home, they can also envision their stuff in a bank owned repo house that's for sale on the cheap or that dreadful short sale listing that is falling apart due to lack of care.

That only leaves two options, either A) price your home on the cheap to compete with the cosmetic fixers or B) sell a better product. Painting, cleaning, and staging are the most cost effective way to improve the product you are selling.

When you are selling your home in a buyer's market, you are basically courting a buyer. The process can be compared to dating. If your dating, you might buy a new outfit, get your hair done and probably even dab on a little cologne. Why not treat your home the same way, give it some tender loving care in this area and not only will your home sell faster, you might even get more money.

Check out my great before and after videos here and see for yourself why professional home builders use professional staging.


As always, I'm here for you. I've got a number of great stagers and my own experience to ensure you get top dollar for your home in every market.

Is the Future of Real Estate Youtube?

I am with you. I didn't understand YouTube, or Facebook or Blogging for a long time. I thought of anything outside of email eerily similar to the days of online chat rooms. I also was fast becoming accustomed to technology that only seemed to complicate my day-to-day routines and therefore I started to resist new technologies and programs. You know like third party software applications that require you tab to each field to input an address, really is that the most arcaic system of keeping an address book you can think of.

I've recently come to embrace certain technologies as for the first time in my life, I truly believe we are moving to simplify rather than complicate the workplace and the way we communicate. And the added benefit is how little paper I need today versus just a year ago and I see even more areas where I can reduce paper use in more places. (Remember when computers first became common place and we originally thought we would replace paper, well later we realized we didn't reduce, we added.)

So I am experiencing with Online Comparative Market Analysis and Online Buyer Tours using video and YouTube as a medium to show my clients the real estate inventory in ways unheard of before. Just a few months ago, if I was preparing to meet a seller client at their home, I would print pages and pages of photographs. Today, I can burn it to a DVD. It's cheaper, better use of resources and the effectiveness is off the charts. For my buyer client's I can reduce the traveling time in the car by almost half if I preview in advance and rule out homes that obviously aren't going to work.

In either situation, the client's are happy because my service is off the charts. I'm happy because I'm more effective and because I'm using less resources (paper and gas) I'm more profitable. And the real bonus is I can really feel good about reducing my carbon footprint.

Ahhh, technology, at long last you are my friend...

Looking for Something Special, Agents have the Best Search Tools

With today's tools, buyers can search almost every home on the market for sale. But if your looking for something special, the consumer search sites can be limiting.

As a Realtor with access to the local MLS services, the search tools available are mindboggling. We can choose from over hundreds of fields and if that isn't enough we can even look for homes by searching for a string of text in the agent only or public marketing fields. A examples might include "sweat equity", "bank owned", "unique property" or "pre-foreclosure".

The information is only as good as it's entered into the computer and a good Realtor can negotiate a search within the mls and pull that one home out of the thousands to choose from.

It pays to do your homework online and look around to get a general idea of what's available, but when it's time to hit the pavement and get out there and find your special house, a Realtor with a great understanding of how homes are listed is your ticket to the perfect home.

The time is right for the luxury home buyer..

So the real estate news is starting to show signs of life. Headlines across the country are touting great news such as; the bottom is here, that foreclosures are stabilizing in key areas and signs that the end of the recession is near.

Alan Pope & Associates are reporting that here locally over 22% of the homes on the market are being absorbed by the market and Quadrant Homes is planning to step up construction for the first time since the real estate downturn.

So buyers in the market are finding, it's like picking through the last bin of the clearance bin, the really good deals in the lower price range (under $350,000 in South King County) and the new home options are fewer and further between.

So are there any deals left? Yes, the luxury home market is where the real deals are.

Now that we know that flipping properties should be left to those that can afford the risk and a home should be bought for what works for yourself and/or your family, it is my opinion that there has never been a better time to buy a luxury home. Why? Because in real estate it's all about percentages.

Let's look at a luxury home development, The Reserve at Newcastle. This neighborhood saw its first home built in 2004. If we look at the sales in the Reserve for the first 6 months of 2007, which was arguable, the peak of the market, we see a median home price of $1,862,995 versus a medium home price of $1,252,500 in the first 6 months of 2009, that's a savings of 33% or $610,495.

One of the homes that I am selling in the Reserve was purchased in 2005 for over $1,415,000 and upgrades well over $200,000 for a total purchase price in excess of $1,615,000. Today it's on the market at $1,350,000, over a quarter million dollars in savings.

And an even stronger argument for today's luxury home buyer is that the inventory today will be unique in what to expect from home builders in the very near and distant future. It is doubtful a builder will expose themselves to the luxury market without a non-refundable cash deposit before construction even begins.

The features that made the homes built between 2003 and 2008 will become a moment in history unlikely to be recreated on a grand scale and certainly luxury neighborhoods will be isolated to this moment in time. From beautifully landscaped yards, to high end millwork and scrollwork, to superb architecture and design, these features will be replaced with dense housing and energy conscience elements.

So if you are looking for a luxury home, this is still your time. The selection is vast, the prices are unbelievable, and the mortgage rates can be very attractive.

If you would like to know more about any luxury home or neigborhood, just give me a call at 425-432-9430 or visit my website.

Thanks,

Jana

Questions to ask a potential REALTOR® for First Time Buyers…

Whether it’s the tax credit, the low prices, the low interest rate, the amount of available homes to sort through or simply because it’s your time in life to buy your first home, there is one thing there seems to offer a lot of confusion for First Time Buyers and that is how do I find the right agent for me?
The most common error first time buyers make is that they do not interview their agent whereas it would be rare for agents not be interviewed by a seller client. Start by setting an appointment with your potential agent with the express purpose of interviewing before you ask them to show you any homes.
When interviewing an agent, these are the absolute minimum attributes you want to look for:
• Are they are REALTOR? There is a difference between licensed real estate agents and members of the Board of REALTORs. REALTORS belong to a self governing community with an emphasis on both ethics and continuing education. Most agents are REALTORS, avoid those that are not. See www.Realtor.org for more information
• Is the REALTOR professional in both in appearance and written and verbal communication?
• Is the REALTOR business minded? Do they have regular working hours, what is their policy for returning telephone calls and emails, not just your calls but those of other agents too? Are they running a successful business? Do they take time off regularly? I’ve had some clients in the past who felt it was necessary for their agent to work 24-7; I personally don’t believe it would be an enjoyable experience to work with someone who didn’t take a day off.
• Is the REALTOR versatile and adaptable? You wouldn’t want a hairstylist that cut everyone’s hair the same way or a doctor that prescribed the same medicine to every patient. I truly believe that the most important skill a REALTOR can have is that of being versatile and adaptable. Ask questions that require the Realtor to give you details of how they handled a challenging situation, look for an answer that shows the Realtor is mindful of other people’s perspective.
• Does the Realtor have a variety of experience? You might be a First Time Buyer but the Realtor you choose may represent you buying a home from an investor, builder, savvy home seller, or another amount of infinite possibilities. You want a Realtor that can help you negotiate with the seller whoever they might be.
• Does the Realtor love what they do and why? Avoid agents that are part-time, semi-retired, semi-housewife or househusband. Choose agents that love the business for what it is. A people oriented business that requires dedication and commitment, a love for helping others and a zest for what real estate means to you as a first time buyer.
• Choose an agent based on skill, not on personal traits. Don’t pick an agent because they go to your same church or because of their political beliefs or any other equal employment protected status. If you have a well qualified agent in your church and you’ve interviewed them and feel comfortable they are qualified to represent you, by all means, hire them.
So with all the above being said, here is just a partial list of questions you may want to ask.
1. How long have you been selling real estate and why did you choose this occupation?
2. What is the most rewarding and challenging aspects of your job?
3. What did you do when you had to work with someone that you didn’t get along with?
4. How many homes have you sold? What percentage did you work with the buyer or the seller?
5. What are the best traits you bring to the home buying experience?
6. Do you have regular hours and what is your policy on returning telephone calls and emails?
7. What would another real estate agent in your office say about you?
8. What experience did you have before selling real estate and how has that helped you in your career?
9. How long do you intend to be in real estate?
10. Are you a member of the Board of Realtors?
11. Can you give me an example of a challenging real estate transaction and how you handled it?
12. Tell me about a situation where the buyer or seller may not have had a satisfactory experience with you.
13. Tell me about a situation where the buyer or seller was very happy with you?
14. Why should I choose you to be my REALTOR?
As a final note, have fun in the process. Competent and experienced Realtors win and lose all the time when trying to win the trust of new clients. We understand that you cannot win every single transaction and that every opportunity helps you learn and grow both personally and professionally. Let your candidates know why you choose them or why you didn’t.
The above process isn’t a guarantee that you’ll love the home buying experience, but it will get you on a good path to do so. Remember, I’m here for you when I can be.
Jana

Credit Crunch, What Credit Crunch?

I bought my first home in 1992. When I bought my home I was warned of two things, #1) don't buy it unless you are going to live it in for five years and #2) be prepared for the mortgage company to look at every hair on your body with a microscope.
Now I can't believe how long ago that has been and today I find myself reminding myself of that experience when working with both buyers and sellers. Buyers get it #1; real estate is a long term investment. The difficulty I find is that so many of my clients are making very subliminal decisions based on unconscious assumptions that the mortgage or refinance process is going to be easy based on recent experience.
At GMAC, I learned the three golden things that are looked at when a loan officer considers a loan approval. #1) the borrowers desire to pay, this is illustrated via a credit report and an established history of good credit practices like making your payments on time and not overextending yourself by maxing your lines of credit out. #2) the borrower’s ability to pay, what is the debt to income ration, can the borrower afford what they are about to borrow? And finally #3) the condition of the collateral, is it worth securing the loan? Can the bank sell it at a profit if the borrower defaults and the collateral is reposed or foreclosed?
If you are thinking about taking a loan out for a home purchase or refinancing, these are the things you need to know in the way it relates to the credit crunch of today’s mortgage market.
#1) a good credit score (also known as a FICO score) is essential. If you have questions about your credit score or would like to know how you can improve your credit score, check out this helpful site: http://www.myfico.com/CreditEducation/CreditScores.aspx it’s a good idea to know what your score is before talking to mortgage brokers. That way you can tell them your score and save the hassle of running your credit report until you’ve decided that you want to work with that mortgage broker.
#2) your ability to pay. It’s easy to determine your debt to income ratio, first add up all your monthly recurring debt like car payments and minimum credit card balances. Next add the amount of your desired new house payment. Separately add up all your household income (to include your spouse if you are married). Divide your total monthly debt by your gross monthly income to determine your ratios. See the example:

Total amount of new house payment: $1750

Total amount of monthly recurring debt: $400

Total amount of monthly debt: $2,150

Borrower's gross monthly income (including spouse, if married): $5,350

Divide total monthly debt by gross monthly income: $2,150/$5,350

Debt to income ratio: 40.18%

It’s also a good idea to know what your ratios are before talking to mortgage brokers. And as you share with your mortgage broker what your ratios are, they can start giving you sound advice based on your individual situation.
#3) The collateral. In real estate, banks use appraisers to determine value. And today, it’s likely in King County that you’re appraisal is going to be much lower than you would like or expect. Also be prepared that the loan underwriter may ask for repairs be done on the home prior to giving final loan approval and if they question the value, it’s not uncommon anymore in real estate to see a second appraisal ordered.
So where to start? First learn your credit score, determine your debt to income ratios and then call your mortgage broker to advise you on your particular situation. As always, if you need a good recommendation for the Renton area, please let me know.
Jana