Your Homegrown Real Estate Team Serving Home Buyers & Sellers In Snohomish County, North King County And Eastside Areas Of Our Great Puget Sound Region.
🌷🏡 Welcome to March!! As spring blooms around us, so does the real estate market! 🌱🏠 With the promise of warmer days ahead, it’s the perfect time to explore new listings and envision your dream home. 🌞💭 Keep an eye out for my market updates and expert tips to help you navigate the buying or selling process with ease. Plus, don’t miss out on exciting local events popping up across the county and beyond – because life’s too short to miss out on community fun! 🎉🌳 Let’s make March a month of new beginnings and exciting possibilities in the world of real estate! 🌟 🏘️✨
Hey there, lovely Washingtonians! 🌲❄️ As Cupid sprinkles love, let’s talk real estate magic in February! 🏡💖 The market is as enchanting as ever, with cozy homes waiting to embrace you. 🏠✨ Pro-tip: In this chilly weather, warm up your home’s curb appeal with seasonal touches! 🚗❤️ Exciting local events are blooming like spring flowers – stay tuned for sweet surprises! 🌷💝🌟 Let’s make your home dreams a reality! 🏠✨
Worse by ..06 (rates tend to go up when yield goes up)
5% 30 YR UMBS
97.5
97.781
Better by .281 (rates go down when the bond price goes up)
*From MND’s Rate Index
Deals will hinge on negotiations this fall. Here’s how buyers’ agents win
‘There was no negotiation over the last couple of years,’ Max Stokes of Compass says. But that’s beginning to change — gradually. With a few tips, buyers can prevail at the negotiating table
It’s been a long couple of years for homebuyers and their agents.
The pandemic-fueled tornado of low inventory, tons of buyers flocking to the market amidst record-low interest rates and would-be sellers holding onto their homes for fear of being left out in the cold with no place to go, made for a brutal homebuying experience in many places.
“Last year, it was pretty much come in every house guns blazing, do whatever you could do to acquire that house,” Max Stokes of Compass in Northern New Jersey told Inman. “There was no negotiation over the last couple of years.”
But the tides are turning.
Volatile — and comparatively high — interest rates coupled with an uncertain economy are starting to shift the market’s balance. Sellers don’t have the hold on the market that they once did. And it’s time for buyers to start taking advantage of the shift.
As a balanced market comes into view on the horizon, here’s how buyers’ agents are changing their negotiation tactics to help their clients achieve some wins that were once impossible in the frenzied market of the last two or so years.
Ask the developer to cover closing costs on new properties
On new development properties in Manhattan, where Leslie Singer of Brown Harris Stevens works, the taxes folded into closing costs can be a lot to swallow. In the past few years, sponsors (another term for developers) have typically put the onus of mansion and transfer taxes on the buyer of the property.
On New York City properties priced below $500,000, transfer taxes are 1 percent and on pricier properties, that tax increases to 1.425 percent. Mansion taxes kick in on properties priced at $1 million or higher and range from 1 percent to 3.9 percent, depending on the exact price.
But in this market, Singer said developers are a lot more willing to negotiate.
“In these types of markets, sponsors may be more flexible on the backend, such as assisting with closing costs,” she told Inman.
Leverage different listings against each other
With inventory staying on the market a bit longer these days, buyers have the time to comfortably compare different active listings — and potentially leverage them against each other if a seller is really being a stickler when it comes to negotiating, Stokes said.
With properties that he has represented recently, Stokes said homebuyers have pointed out to him other similar properties in the same market, and why they might be a better offer than his own listing, lighting a bit of a fire under the seller.
“[They’re] pointing out the differences in the comparables that are on the market and trying to leverage three [listings] against each other,” Stokes said.
Marry the house, date the rate
With elevated mortgage rates, a lot of buyers are hesitant to get out into the market now. But Gretchen Rosenberg of Kentwood Real Estate in Denver said that she and her agents are encouraging homebuyers to get off the fence and commit to a home if they love it. Mortgage rates will be in flux for a while, so buyers should get the house they want now and keep refinancing for a better rate in mind for the future. In other words, “marry the house and date the rate,” Rosenberg said.
“We are out there talking rates and just reminding buyers again, hopefully this is a longtime purchase. It’s not a year, it’s not like you’re a renter, you’re going to be in it for a while, and so someday down the road — we don’t know when, we can’t promise when rates will come back down — you’re likely going to be able to refinance. You also might be able to buy down the rate now, depending on your position.”
Get more recent data to back up the best offer
In the past, Rosenberg said she might gather comps from the last six months of sales to inform her buyer’s offer on a property. But with the market changing rapidly over the last few months, in large part as a result of volatile mortgage rates, Rosenberg said data from six months ago is already out of date. To help buyers craft the best offer that’s most likely to succeed, her agents are digging into data from a neighborhood’s most recent sales.
“They’re diving more into the data,” she explained. “They’re saying, well, what have the last couple of sales been? Not the last six months of sales, which is what we would normally do to comp a house, but the last couple of sales in this neighborhood, and how many price reductions have there been in this neighborhood? What are the days on market now? What’s the percent original list versus final sale price in the last 30 days?”
Don’t waive your rights
Stokes is working with homebuyers now who also transacted a home earlier in the pandemic, and he said he had to make it clear to them that waiving things like a home inspection or appraisal were concessions they wouldn’t even consider this time around — even if he didn’t necessarily encourage it the first time.
“You don’t need to do that anymore,” Stokes said. “The market’s normalizing, if not turning, so keep your rights in the contract … there’s no reason to do it just to do it.”
“People were voluntarily waiving [inspections] and just doing escalation clauses,” Dawn Maddux of Engel & Völkers Western Frontier in Missoula said. “In the 11 years I’ve been in real estate, I’ve not ever seen that before … Now, we’re kind of getting back to writing normal offers, maybe at or a little below asking price based on what the market will bear and based on what comps show, where before, it was just a frenzy.”
Press pause
Along the same lines, Maddux elaborated that homebuyers shouldn’t feel rushed to make decisions before they’ve done all their due diligence on a property, and buyers’ agents should actively encourage this to avoid regret later.
“They have time to do their research there — there’s not a frenzied competition,” Maddux said. “It’s honestly better for the seller because, what we’re seeing happen, is there’s a lot of lawsuits pending where buyers jumped into properties, they end up with buyer’s remorse, they [find] out something [about] the house that the seller didn’t disclose, probably because they didn’t know about it, and they didn’t get an inspection so they wouldn’t have had a way to know.”
In this market, when a deal isn’t as sweet as a homebuyer or the buyer’s agent feels it could be, under the right circumstances, there’s no shame in even stepping away from the negotiations for a week or two altogether.
That opportunity arose recently for Stokes and one of his buyers, who was interested in a fixer-upper that he thought was overpriced given how much money would need to go into renovating the property.
“I said, ‘Well, there’s not going to be many buyers out there that are going to be willing to take this on their shoulders right now,” and [the sellers] disagreed,” Stokes told Inman. “And I just told my buyer, ‘Just trust me — you’re one of the only buyers out here that would do this right now. Take a deep breath, sit back, and let’s just watch this for a minute.’”
The seller reached back out a week later, wondering if they were still interested, and Stokes said they were considering some other options. Another week after that, the seller reached back out again and said they would drop the price to match the buyer’s offer
It’s that time again for your monthly newsletter! Notice QR codes seem to be back? While I like QR codes and think they are handy I sure hope we all can “experience” some of the beautiful places the Pacific Northwest has to explore in person and soon!
I wanted to reach out to you today as I have been receiving many texts, calls and emails on how this outbreak maybe affecting the busy real estate season. This is a difficult time for all of us and the months ahead will bring uncertainty and challenges, of that, there is no doubt. This morning the owners of our five RE/MAX Elite offices had an online meeting with all of us to share the recent changes that the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS) is advising based on social distancing, lowering the group threshold to 50 and best practices to protect our clients, ourselves and the public. We shared thoughts and ideas to keep working and helping our clients with their real estate needs but also to take action to keep everyone safe.
At the time the virus started to rear its ugly head there was a housing shortage. Meaning there were not enough homes for all the buyers that were currently looking. In the last month I have listed 3 homes with each one receiving multiple offers. The last home was two weeks ago, received double digit offers and a listing price that soared the final purchase to over $66,000 from listing price. That fact has not changed. We still are at low levels of inventory and in the last week I have seen homes come on the market and then sell in 3-5 days. I have three closing this week and while I know they are thankful, they are through the process, others are now very concerned what it may mean to them.
With that said in the last few days these are the most pressing questions I have been receiving regarding real estate. I hope I can shed a bit of light for you on what I know to be true currently.
What are interest rates, should I refinance?
Am I going to close on time?
Are open houses still going to be happening?
Should I wait to list or buy?
Sorry, this is long I will highlight the above question and try to answer the best I can with the information that is continually coming in.
Should I refinance now? I love how so many past clients and friends reach out to me with this question! While I am not a lender, I do try to read all the information coming in and what my preferred lenders are saying. When I am speaking to them I ask what they are seeing and what effects they are feeling. One of my preferred lenders, Duane Martin, at Caliber Home Loans indicated last week that they are inundated by those requesting refinancing. He mentioned that there may be a cap on refi’s right now and they may run out into 60 days to get completed. With so many wanting to refinance this is going to put a large strain on the lenders, title/escrow, appraisers and lending institutions. Home sales and purchase must be the priority.
So, to help answer questions, home mortgage interest rates did dip to a historically low rate and some were able to take advantage of this. They have since come back up to normal rates. This may change. They could go down again, rise or go higher. What you may be hearing more of right now are the interest rates for consumer debt being lowered. Another one of my lender colleagues, Jeff Tisdale from VIP Mortgage out of Tempe, AZ area states “The Fed Funds rate does NOT directly reflect in mortgage rates. The Fed rate impacts shorter term rates like credit cards, HELOCs, car loans, etc. Mortgage rates generally parallel the 10-year treasury bond. HOWEVER, there was a liquidity and volume issue due to the massive amounts of refinance volume, so rates spiked last week. We won’t know how this will affect mortgage rates until tomorrow and the coming days, weeks, etc. The industry can only take on so much at one time. Nobody truly knows what will happen, but I would expect continued volatility in the near future.
What is true is we are in uncharted territory and nobody knows what the short- or long-term effects of this will be.” Jeff goes on to say for anyone interested in refinancing or purchasing to get their application in with ALL supporting documents. The mortgage industry is beyond capacity right now and the complete files will get worked on first. The clients that need to be chased down for paperwork will suffer and wait.
Am I going to close on time? Our team has several clients that are scheduled to close the end of the month. Will we close on time? That is our goal. I am telling all of my clients that we are working behind the scenes to keep up with, and make sure, we work together quickly with Escrow/title your lender, insurance, mortgagor and all the other moving parts involved with a real estate transaction This is our goal! If we make sure all is in order beforehand and you are quick and diligent about getting any last-minute documentation requested into them we should. If, however, the county shuts down and there is no one to complete the transfer and recording process this very likely will delay homes closings.
There is that wish again for a crystal ball!
Are open houses still going to be happening? Well that changed very quickly. As of this morning they were advising to not have open houses but you could do one with limiting people through a few at a time, taking safety precautions and letting your seller decide based on if the home was vacant or occupied. After speaking with a seller this morning and coming up with a plan for them and their needs it has since changed. The NWMLS stated this afternoon they are disabling the Open House and Broker feature until the end of the month. What does this mean? Essentially no open houses. The consumer real estate sites are fed from the NWMLS. All the information on open houses regarding days, times, information and updates feed to sites like Zillow, Realtor.com, Redfin etc. If you go looking on Saturday morning for the open houses for the weekend you are not going to find any. I suppose there may be a rebel out there who puts up an open house sign in hopes that you are wandering aimlessly around and see their sign and say “Wow let’s go” but I doubt it.
Should I wait to list or buy? Of course, we have a huge concern for our clients many of whom we have been working with for months!
For sellers to get them to the point of selling its not always easy! If you have not sold a home you may not realize the time, energy, cost and all the prep work that goes into doing so. I have 2 sellers right now that I have been working with since September and one since August! We were going to be listing in April/May. So now what? We have some buyers and sellers that are moving on to their next adventure in life. Some are moving across country for jobs or family. Some are downsizing and some are looking for a different home to fit their family’s needs. There is so much thought that goes into buying or selling a home and our job is to direct them while keeping them moving forward to their goal. This service we provide to our clients prior to ever being compensated. Our advice, suggestions, referrals for contractors, lenders, timelines and helping them coordinate for their new home takes great thought, planning, experience and counseling. We want our clients to know that we will continue to do all we can to direct and guide them. If they have a job they have to be at here in Washington, or another state, then we move forward and help them buy or list their home when planned. If they are moving because they have a new home being built, and do not want 2 mortgages, or need to move to take care of a family member we move forward as planned the best way we can. For each client it’s going to be a different scenario.
When you’re selling a home exposure is key. The more potential buyers see your home and feel themselves living in it the more likely you will get an offer. If we are limited on showings, open houses, Brokers opens, advertising then it will affect the entire experience and days on market will be longer. That is a determination that each needs to make based on their future goals. If, by chance, your kids are now home with you and that idea of decluttering and packing while they were at school has now turned into home-schooling then well, we may have to re-adjust your goal.
For our buyers you may be looking on line but you need to see the home and feel how you would flow in it and make sure it meets your needs. This is very difficult to do without physically viewing and we want you to know that Britt and I will be available for private showings at this time, and as the needs arise, if the home allows it.
It will be okay and together we can do it! We need to go with the flow but flow we must. I feel the worst thing we can do is just freeze and not move forward. Yes, we may be hitting the pause button for a bit but, we must move forward.
Please remember during this time of uncertainty, I want you to know that we are thinking of you and will do whatever we can to support our clients and their goals. Yes, this outbreak is very scary, but we can’t let it dismantle our economy. Small businesses will suffer and there will be effects down the road that will affect us all. We need to be caring and do all we can to support/shop local.
Please don’t live in fear. Be smart, stay safe, stay healthy and keep in touch.
I would be happy to go into this deeper with anyone that has questions.
Ready or not the holiday season is here and jam packed with so many exciting things to do! Enjoy all Snohomish county and our Puget Sound region has to offer. Our favorite family tradition is to head up to Leavenworth to see the lighting of the town it’s just magical and this year is the 53rd Annual 2019 Christmas lighting. If you have time check it out.
May you and yours have a blessed and joyous holiday.
Don’t get all wet. Prepare for the rainy season while it’s dry.
As Benjamin Franklin once said, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
We know. The last thing you are thinking about at the summer barbecue is preparing for the stormy season. But it really is worth taking a look around your house during fair weather, because finding out you have a problem during inclement conditions is at best inconvenient and at worst very costly.
Check your rain gutters.
Clear them out and make sure they are in good working order to prevent damage to the roof or house.
Look at your roof.
If you see loose or damaged shingles, get them repaired. Look for tears and buckling on flashing. Check the chimney and look for damaged bricks, cap or cracked joints. Don’t forget the flashing there too.
Check indoors for signs of roof leaks.
Look for discoloration and peeling paint on ceilings and walls. Check in the attic for damp rafters.
Check the trees.
Trim back branches and cut sections that could fall in a rainstorm.
Check doors and windows.
Make sure there are properly insulated with weather stripping.
Look for water collecting at the base of the house.
Redirect water with trenches or drains.
Keep sandbags on hand.
if your area is prone to flooding, keep them filled and at the ready.
Check for erosion.
This is important if you live near a hillside. Shore them up if necessary.
Most importantly enjoy the fall and all the beauty it holds.
Jen Murrweiss RE/MAX Elite 