These house, priced up to $150K, are for those of you whose boss has SLASHED your income… but you’re just DYING to buy your own house… and you’d consider selling to the BLOOD bank to raise your down payment and closing costs… and your BONES ache at the thought of another year in a rental house… (are you catching my subtle Halloween references here? Sorry.)

Right now in the Bellingham real estate market, according to the NW Multiple Listing Service, the cheapest non-short-sale house (because the short sale prices are often irrelevant, in that you may NOT be able to actually buy the house for that low of a price), is priced at $135,900. It’s in Glenhaven, about 25 minutes from downtown. Check it out HERE.

If that’s too far to drive, you could always pick up THIS BEAUTY in the highly desirable Sunnyland neighborhood, priced just under $140K. But when you make the call to your lender for a pre-approval letter, make sure s/he’s qualified to do rehab loans, ’cause this one’s going to need it. (The seller might finance it for you too, with a big enough down payment.)

Now HERE’S ONE  just off the I-5 with a GIANT useable shop or studio and tenants already there, out the door and into your portfolio for a cool $150,000. It’s rough, and again it may take some creative financing, but hey — if the intent is there on both sides of the transaction, anything can be accomplished!

These homes may not be the mansion you’re dreaming of… but they’re not total NIGHTMARES either! They serve the purpose of getting first time home buyers on the “real estate escalator” and starting to gain some equity.

Have a Happy, Safe Halloween, all!!!

A Comparative Market Analysis – or CMA

Every agent performs a CMA differently. If there is a “best” way, it’s whatever most accurately determines the price it will sell at. If a crystal ball worked, believe me that’s what I’d use.

But like most of real estate sales, it’s a process. Here’s an overview of how I  TYPICALLY do a CMA: 

I begin the process by visiting your house and making a lot of notes about its material make-up and condition. I “experience” it emotionally, as close as I can match what other agents and buyers will be doing and feeling. I might take some photographs. I might ask you some questions. I might stick my head in the crawl space. It’s not a standarized formula. Instead, I let the house lead me.

With that information logged, I head back to the office and continue my market research by looking at three broad categories:

• Homes of a similar size and character, with similar features;
• Homes in the general neighborhood or area of the your home;
• Homes in the general price range of where I believe your home will fall, and/or where you have told me you hope to see your home fall.

This objective data is checked against graphs of market performance, market history, and trends, all of which I will ultimately share with you and explain during a 2nd visit together.

The data I collect is also — and really most importantly — plugged into my built-in real estate “algorithm.” This is the “can’t be faked” compilation of my own ongoing experience and involvement in the market as a Realtor. Sometimes the data says $250K on paper, but you and I both know it’s in the low $300s for one reason or another. I once heard someone describe it as “A little bit of logic and a little bit of magic.” That’s about as good a way of articulating it as I’ve heard.

Granted, then, a CMA is not an exact science. But with a careful analysis of your home and the market it will be positioned in, we can, with reasonable accuracy, establish its price so you can begin to plan for your future. Ultimately, however, a home’s price can be determined only by the buyer who is willing to buy it.

The statue was designed and built by Dr. Eugene Fairbanks, a local, retired family physician and talented scultpor. It was dedicated on May 31st, Memorial Day, in 1999.

The bronze statue, depicting a mariner casting a line, is between 8 and 9 feet tall, and rests on a 19-ton block of red granite quarried in South Dakota. On the sides of the granite are carved the names of Bellingham fisherman who have lost their lives at sea.

The statue is a memorial to those men and, as was stated by Pastor Donel McClellan during the invocation, “will celebrate those whom we remember but even more will acknowledge every safe return home as a gift of gratitude and will give thanks for a home port and for a fair haven.”

There is a website with transcripts of the dedication ceremony, photographs of construction and placement, and a story of what inspired the monument to begin with. You can access the site HERE.

I personally have always been moved and somewhat in awe of the statue and its glorious setting on the edge of Bellingham Bay. I’ve been out on the Bay on flat calm days and in 80+ MPH winds with 12′ waves. I hold the utmost respect for the men and women who choose to make their livelihood on the water, locally and the world over. And I hope in a very small way to honor them and remember the ones who are lost by acknowledging this glorious statue.

Enjoy the photos.

[View with PicLens]

Ever traveled to a foreign country

Think back to that first 24 hours, when your eyes are wide, you’re taking it all in, figuring out what’s safe, what speed things are moving at, what the heck people are saying.

You eventually find the “flow” and the experiences and memories are un-matchable. But in the beginning, that first day or first week or however long it took you, you were getting calibrated to your new environment. Humans are infinitely adaptable animals, but that adaptation, that “calibration”, is not immediate. It’s a process.

Buying a home is a process. For some, it gets more comfortable the more times they’ve been through it, because it’s less mysterious than that first or second time. But it never stops being a process.

Add to the process the fact that the market — any market — is always changing. Markets are dynamic. This one that we’re in now is perhaps the most dynamic in the last 75 years. Lending policies change daily, tax incentives come and go, rise and fall, foreclosures affect non-distressed properties next door… it’s all in flux, all the time.

So when you begin the process of shopping for a home and are serious about actually buying in the relatively near future, an important part of the process is getting calibrated to the market you’re shopping in.  

How? By seeing a number of homes, how they’re priced, how long they’ve been listed, what’s selling and what isn’t. And as good a tool as the internet is with photos and video and satellite imagery and mapping, it’s no substitute for getting TO and INSIDE a number of homes.

You’ll “feel” the homes’ character, the size, the setting, the sounds and smells, the light. You can usually feel the pride or lack thereof of the various owners. And you match that sensory input — sent by the things that add up to create the “condition” — against the price, and you combine those to determine “value.”

Then you go on to another home, and you run the ”value” test again. And after half a dozen or a dozen homes, depending on the homes and on you, you reach a point of being calibrated, and knowing what level of “value” will ultimately inspire you to buy. Again, it’s a process, it requires seeing a certain volume of homes, and it results in your assuredness as a ready-buyer.

I’ve had first-time and repeat buyers enter the market and buy the first house they see. But we still went and looked at a handful of others to ensure they were calibrated, and then they went back fully assured that they indeed want to buy house #1.

I’ve also seen buyers repeatedly insist for months — even YEARS — that EVERY house on the market is wildly overpriced, even as those houses sell to other buyers again and again. Some people cannot be calibrated. They remind me of the travelers who never do find that state of ”flow” during a trip. It’s a constant fight against the new culture, language, food… everything. And you wonder why they ever left home in the first place.

The process will calibrate you if you just let it, and it is truly a beautiful thing.

On the first page of an offer, one of the terms you’ll decide on as a buyer is the amount of earnest money you’ll deposit.

Earnest money is a deposit to show a seller that you  intend “in earnest” to buy the property — to close the sale. In my experience the earnest money is always in the form of a check, but it could be anything. It could be a piece of jewelry or any “widget of acceptable (to the seller) value.”

The check is written out to the escrow company handling the transaction. They cash it and deposit it in a trust account. It’s still your money — the buyer’s money — and if the transaction goes all the way to closing, the full amount of the earnest money is credited to your down payment and closing costs.

How much is it? In my experience, it’s usually between 0.5% and 1% of the purchase price. It’s one of many ”terms” in the offer that the seller can accept as-is or counter. I’ve seen earnest money checks for 10% of purchase price, mean to “Wow!” a seller into accepting an offer. That particular earnest money was also made non-refundable UPON ACCEPTANCE of the offer! (Yes, that buyer got the house.)

The seller sees the earnest money as a “score” of how seriously you, the buyer, are going to take the transaction, the deadlines, and the requirements you must meet. Most sellers figure that a buyer could very likely walk away from $500 (a low score), but wouldn’t very likely walk away from $10,000 (a great score!)

As long as you, the buyer, meets your deadlines such as:
1) applying for financing and home owner’s insurance within 5 days of mutual acceptance;
2) having the home inspection done and your response in by the inspection deadline that you’ve set;
3) completing your feasibility study (typically on land) by the deadline you’ve set, etc;
…then you keep your earnest money safe from forfeiture to the seller if you do need to rescind the offer. If you get sloppy, miss your deadline, and expect your earnest money back in full… well, you might have a rude awakening.

This is just a basic overview of earnest money. Like most terms in a real estate transaction, it is highly variable. It can change in the midst of a transaction. It can be split between parties and even their agents in certain situations. Some people talk about doing away with it altogether, but personally I like it. It gets you, the buyer, vested in the property and the process. It gets you committed, and all sorts of good things happen when one is committed.

Whatcom County can be broken into different areas,

How many homes are selling and how fast is what we’re looking at when we talk about “Abosorption Rates” — which are measured in months. Simply stated, if we have 100 houses for sale and 10 are selling per month, we’ve got an Absorption Rate of 10 months — that is, it would take 10 months for the rest of the inventory to be “absorbed” if no other homes came on the market.

As a general rule, markets with a greater-than 6-month absorption rate are considered “Buyer’s Markets” and a less-than 6-month inventory is a “Seller’s Market.”

Based on this chart, we have ALL Buyer’s Markets in these greater Whatcom County areas. Within each given area there will be “Seller’s Markets” on a micro-market level. For example, in Bellingham, the core neighborhoods like Columbia, Lettered Streets and Sunnyland are all, statistically, Seller’s Markets. The Lettered Streets currently has an Absorption Rate of 4 months, so it’s a Seller’s Market.

How might one use this data? One way would be for all the aspiring spec house builders to look hard at these numbers before buying lots in a given area. Do you really want to add MORE inventory to an area that already has a 32-month supply of houses? If so, you better know that area’s micro-markets very, VERY well… and zero in there.

Here’s the chart, as of the first week of October ’09. NOTE that the # of Solds for any given area is for the last 6 months.

These numbers were taken directly from the NW Multiple Listing Service. Deemed reliable but not guaranteed!

My friend Liz sent this quote, and I loved it from the first time I read it. I hope you do too!

“This is the beginning of a new day. You have been given this day to use as you will. What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it. When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever; in its place is something you have left behind. Let it be something good.”
–Mahatma Gandhi

Yesterday, October 2nd, was Ghandi’s birthday. He lived from that day in 1869 to January 30, 1948. In India, October 2nd is a National Holiday. Globally, it is recognized as the “International Day of Non-violence.”

Thanks, Liz. This is a great quote to start the week on!!!

Today’s experience is why I’m a Realtor.

 …Yes, today I got to deliver the news to my clients that they GOT THE HOUSE!!!

In Rio de Janeiro, earlier today, there were allegedly 50,000 people gathered to hear the news that their city — the first location in any country on the S. American continent — would indeed be hosting the 2016 Olympic Games. I swore I could feel the earth shake up here in Bellingham when those 50,000 Brazilians erupted in cheers at the news!

And yet their energy was second to the STOKE I felt from my clients when I delivered the news that they GOT THE HOUSE!!! It was a goose-bump moment through and through.

Yessir… today’s experience is why I’m a Realtor. It’s all about the moments of STOKE!

I’m a HUGE, HUGE fan of the Craftsman style

Bellingham doesn’t have any Greene and Greene structures that I’m aware of, (though you can often find some world-class replica furniture at Artwood in Fairhaven!) but it is home to the incredible Craftsman-style Roeder Home in the Broadway Park / Cornwall Park area.

Located on 7 lots at 2600 Sunset Drive, this massive, custom home was completed in 1908 by Victor Roeder. It was sold to Dr. Donald Keyes in 1945, and gifted from Keyes to Whatcom County Parks and Recreation c. 1969-71 as a “community cultural arts and social center.”

That means it is no longer a private residence, but was for nearly 40 years open to the public. As of January 2009, it was temporarily closed to general public access for budgetary reasons, but has since been re-opened on a limited scale with the help of a volunteer task force. (People are encouraged to volunteer!)

The home, listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, can can be rented for events, weddings, and the like. According to the 2009 rate sheet published on the County website, you can rent the entire main floor of the home from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., where you can seat 60 people and host up to 125 people for the reception, on a Friday, Saturday or Holiday, for $300.00.

Weddings aside, I could spend an entire day just “inspecting” and photographing the details of this awesome structure. My understanding after talking to the Parks and Rec office is that the Roeder home is not on a set schedule for open-to-the-public tours, but you can set up a visit with a couple phone calls and successful navigation of a multi-tier phone menu-of-options. Give me a ring and I’ll tell you what I know.

Until then, enjoy these shots I took under a stormy sky, on the last day of September, 2009.

[View with PicLens]

There are currently 3 sales pending in Sunnyland for a pending ratio of 18.75%. Keep in mind this is a highly variable figure in an area as small as an individual neighborhood, but is still a useful metric to follow. These 3 pendings range from 2 to 98 days on market, and range in list price from $150,000 to $264,900. We won’t know what they actually sold for until the sales close.

In the past 6 months, 2 listings have expired without selling, with an average time on market of 248 days. Notice that these expired listings were priced in the higher end, ranging from $440,000 upward. Let’s look at how this compares to what has actually sold in the last 6 months.

Sunnyland neighborhood has had 23 homes close in the last 6 months. Based on this statistic, if no other homes came on the market, it would take an estimate 3.4 months for the existing inventory to be “absorbed” by the market. Anything less than 6 months is considered, in general, a “seller’s market.”

These 23 homes that sold range in price from $200,000 to $516,400 with an average time on market of 94 days. The sold listings started with an average price of $326,385… an average list price at the time of accepted offer of $303,083… and an actual sale price of $294,013. This translates to a sale-price-to-final-list-price ratio of a strong 97.01% with the range extending from 93% to 103%. Calculated against the ORIGINAL list price, the ratio drops to an average of 90%. Out of the 23 sold houses, 11 listings dropped their price at least once before getting an offer.

These statistics were compiled from the NWMLS.

If you’re shopping or thinking of selling in Sunnyland or any other Whatcom County neighborhood, e-mail me at brandon@nwhomes.net for a copy of a complete Report showing the specific data of every listing and sale. To see where your house would fit in, call or e-mail and I’ll share my thoughts and expertise.