Queen Anne real estate market has always been a hot one due to the highly desirable location and charming properties but it has never been hotter!  The combination of the attractive values and historically low mortgage rates is bringing a lot of buyers that were sidelined during the boom and really propelling the Queen Anne real estate market.  Why now?  Queen Anne has always been a highly sought – after neighborhood to the fact that it’s a well – established “suburban” close to Downtown and home to some of most beautifully preserved homes full of charm, character, and history that you won’t find in other neighborhoods.  Queen Anne is also home to some of the most prestigious streets and zip codes in Seattle.  My clients are I are noticing that pretty much any properties that are priced well are receiving multiple offers thus reinforcing the popularity of the Queen Anne real estate market.  My favorite part of Queen Anne is of course soaking in the beautiful Seattle skyline and the Puget Sound at the Kerry Park.

Queen Anne Real Estate Market

What is the “prime” Queen Anne real estate parameter?

-         10^th Ave W/Olympic Way W/W Olympic Pl to the west.

-        Taylor Ave N/5^th Ave N to the east.

-        Valley St. to the south.

-        W McGraw St. to the north.

I did a general search for that parameter and here are some interesting statistics:

-        Total of only 22 active listing of single family homes.

-        Of the 22 active listings, only 8 were priced at or under 800k (competitive price range).

-        Total of only 19 active condo listings priced at or under 500k.

There has never been a more opportunistic time to get into Queen Anne real estate market and own a piece of history and be part of the most prestigious community in Seattle.  Don’t get sidelined again and contact me for a complimentary consultant and get in the game TODAY!

Queen Anne Real Estate Market

ABOUT CHRISTY KIM

Seattle or Vancouver?

A Tale of Two Cities: Seattle or Vancouver, BC?

The affordability of houses is trending sharply differently in the nearby markets of Seattle, Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia.  Affordability is made up of three factors: the median home price of a city, median household income of the inhabitants, and the level of interest rates.  Interest rates at this time of writing are historically low in both cities.  Because house prices in Seattle are near flat or slightly rising, falling interest rates and job growth are causing affordability in Seattle to reach levels not seen since 2004, as documented by the SeattleBubble.com.

A very different scenario is taking place in Vancouver, where foreign buyers from mainland China, Taiwan, Korea, and elsewhere are snapping up houses and driving up prices.  Vancouver now ranks as the least affordable market in all of Canada.  These Asian buyers are searching for a better lifestyle: better schools, larger houses, more privacy, less polution, and a beautiful location.  Recent articles in the Seattle Times (“Vancouver attracting buyers from China“) and on CrossCut.com (“Vancouver’s real estate gold rush is totally out of control“) document the trend.

Seattle, I believe, will start to see a spillover effect from this real estate gold rush in Vancouver.  Seattle has similar attractive qualities to Vancouver with its proximity to mountains and waterways, good schools, and rich culture emanating from an ethnically diverse population.  I worked recently with a Chinese/Canadian buyer originally from Taiwan who decided that Vancouver had become far too expensive to buy back into.  He recognized prices in Seattle for high end waterfront properties as a bargain and preferred to buy at the bottom of a market cycle rather than the top.  He shared some property listings we visited together with some friends back in Hong Kong and they were astonished to see estate quality large houses on acreage selling for what they would pay for a condo back home.

See an example of what $2.5 million would buy in Seattle: Magnolia Puget Sound View Home with Beach.

Check out live listings of:

• King County Puget Sound Waterfront Homes
• Lake Washington and Sammamish Waterfront Homes
• King County Estate Homes on 3+ Acres

Rehab Project

3 Rules of Real Estate Investing

Three rules of investing from the wise old heads of the Washington REIA:

1. If you aren’t embarrassed to make your offer, you are offering too much.

2. If they take your first offer, you offered too much.

3. If you need a calculator to figure out a deal, it is no deal.

More of interest for investors at WashingtonPowerSearch.com.

Eastside Deal of the Week

Each week I’m picking out the Deal of the Week out of my Eastside Value Buyer’s List.  I’m looking for a house that is already discounted to fair market value at the list price and is in good repair.  I visit the house, take 60+ photos, and record a video of my impressions.  Read on about my property analysis and bidding strategy:

Eastside Deal of the Week

Eastside Deal of the Week

What is a Short Sale?

Do you know what a short sale is?  You hear about it all the time in the news.  Your friend just scored a super deal on a short sale.  A stranger once suggested to you to never ever make an offer on a short sale.  I get asked about short sales a lot and as much as I despise providing generalized answers to some of the most pressing real estate questions, my answer often is “I can’t tell you concretely until we get into one.”  No, it is not a trick statement or sales strategy of a real estate broker; plain and simple, every short sale is different.  And even within the contract, there are obstacles, complications, disappointments, and pleasant surprises that come up in a short sale transaction.

According to Wikipedia, “A short sale is a sale of real estate in which the proceeds from selling the property will fall short of the balance of debts secured by liens against the property and the property owner cannot afford to repay the liens’ full amounts, whereby the lien holders agree to release their lien on the real estate and accept less than the amount owed on the debt.”  A homeowner for some reason is struggling and unable to continue their obligations will seek to do a short sale on their property.  This is a proactive option by the homeowner in which they are actively working with their lender to accomplish the sale of their home and is an alternative option to a foreclosure.

More on Short Sale

ABOUT CHRISTY KIM

Zillow reported that homes in Portland’s Hillside neighborhood were more frequently searched than homes in any other U.S. neighborhood tracked by Zillow during that month. Zillow has created a database of thousands of neighborhood boundaries for the largest U.S. cities.

Seattle area’s Laurelhurst, and Montlake were the two most sought after areas in the hottest neighborhoods in Seattle real estate.               

Eastside Value Buyer’s List

Today I launched a weekly series of MLS searches to discover the best prospects on the Eastside for investors and handy owner occupiers to buy houses at a discount.  This is an amalgamated list of bank owned homes that already appear to be fairly priced, estate sales, out of state owners, listings with data entry errors, houses sitting unsold for an excessively long time – a whole variety of searches I use to find situations with distressed owners.

Learn more here:

Eastside Value Buyer's List

If you’re at a time in your life where it makes sense to invest some time and effort into optimizing your credit score, here are five common credit myths we’d like to help you bust without further ado:

Myth #1:  Having lots of cash, a great income, or tons of equity, makes your FICO score less relevant.

Fact:  No matter how much cash you have, if you want a mortgage, you must meet the lender’s FICO score guidelines.  Of course, if you’re flush with cash, it should be relatively easy to make your monthly payments on time.  But if you have come into cash relatively recently or you’re coming off a rough financial patch, lenders don’t not look at your credit score on the theory that your other assets diminish your credit riskiness. Most lenders want nothing more than to avoid having to foreclose on a home, even if the homeowner has other assets.

And the best predictor of whether you’ll default on a loan in the future is how you’ve handled your credit in the past, so your credit score will drive whether you qualify for a home loan and what interest rate you’re charged, no matter how much you make.

Two exceptions: if you buy a home with all cash, or take a hard money loan, which usually requires a much larger-than-average down payment and interest rate, you might be able to bypass credit score scrutiny, but you’ll pay for it.

Myth #2:  Having no debt or no late payments means you have great credit.

Fact:  Financial responsibility and good credit are two different things. Your FICO score is meant to be a measure of your responsibility when it comes to managing debt, as proven by the fact that you have credit accounts, use them regularly and don’t abuse them.

Having no credit accounts or debts doesn’t give you good credit – it gives you no credit.  And on the other end of the credit usage spectrum, being maxed out on various credit accounts all the time, submitting lots of credit applications and other credit moves that indicate you may abuse your credit can actually depress your score.  Best practice is to have several credit accounts (student and car loans count!) that you actively and responsibly use on a monthly basis.

Tip: FICO gives a top score to accounts with balances that are 30 percent of the credit limit, so if you can keep your credit card or loan account balances at or around that mark, even better.
Myth #3:  Checking your own credit score in advance prevents surprises when you apply for a mortgage.

Fact:  Your mortgage originator (broker or banker) must pull their own version of your report from their own provider, and it might have a very different score, rating scale or even different line items than the free or paid report you pulled online.  This is why it’s imperative to start working with a mortgage professional as early as possible – a year in advance is not overkill – so you can detect any errors or issues and get their recommended fix in the works with plenty of lead time.

Myth #4:  If you’ve had a foreclosure or short sale, your credit report will be damaged for 7 years.

Fact: Derogatory credit items, like late mortgage payments, foreclosures and short sales, appear on your credit report for 7 years, but your credit score can be rehabilitated enough to buy a home or obtain other credit in less time, depending on your circumstances. Your post-short sale or foreclosure waiting period depends on a number of things, including what type of loan you’ll be seeking to buy your next home with, how much cash you’ll have to put down and whether there were any extenuating circumstances involved in losing your home in the first place; some loans allow for an immediate purchase, others require a waiting period of 2, 4 5 or even 7 years after the loss of a home.

Of course, your FICO score is also a key criteria in a post-home loss “buy,” but interestingly enough, the length of time it takes to get your FICO score back up depends on how high it was beforehand.  Earlier this year, the New York Times reported that it would take a consumer with a 680 FICO score three years after a foreclosure to bring their score back to that level, while it might take someone with a 780 FICO score (near-perfect) seven years for full score recovery.

And keep in mind that as your foreclosure or short sale ages, its impact on your score will decrease, too

Myth #5:  Short sales have much less impact on your credit score than foreclosures.

Fact: Hear ye, hear ye – short sales and foreclosures have the same impact on your credit score, according to the FICO folks themselves. (The only exceptions are for short sales or deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure where the property was not upside down, which are few and far between, if they’re not just a real estate urban legend!)

However, the number of missed payments you had before your home was lost to foreclosure or short sale might weigh on how gravely injured your FICO score is in the process. At the going rate at which banks are foreclosing on homes – clocking roughly 2 years of missed payments before a home is repossessed – your FICO score could take an even greater hit than if you were able to divest of it via a short sale in 1 year’s time.

In these times there are lots of folks experiencing credit issues and need a good source to help them restore their credit.  We have a reliable company that we use to assist in making that happen.  For information contact ^the Cobbin Group .com and leave your contact information and we will go over your credit with you.

The historic Pioneer Square district already is home to numerous tech companies, including a small — and very hush-hush — HTC development studio. But the neighborhood known for its picturesque red-brick buildings is undergoing a major transformation as companies such as game developer Zynga and data storage company Isilon Systems set up shop there. HTC confirmed it has a “small studio space for our innovation team that’s looking to expand,” in the area, but wouldn’t disclose details about the size or specific location of the new space.

The company is thought to be looking for about 50,000 square feet in Pioneer Square, said Sally Patterson, a commercial broker with CB Richard Ellis who works with technology and creative companies in the Seattle area.

Enough office space for about 250 – 300 employees. HTC officials on recent building tours in the neighborhood, as well as other companies drawn to the vibrant atmosphere, numerous transit options and tech-employee elbow-rubbing.

Competition for space is intense, fueled by Seattle’s booming demand for tech workers. The local tech job-growth rate is 5.1 percent, nearly four times the national average, according to a recent report by local real estate company. “Landlords have begun raising rental rates and reducing concessions on the heels of large high-tech lease transactions.”

The new digs could serve as a new base for the company, which currently employs about 218 people in its Bellevue-based U.S. headquarters, as well as approximately 35 people in its Pioneer Square innovation studio. HTC has a number of open positions — including some in its engineering, development and executive departments — listed on its job board, hinting that the company is looking to expand its work force by at least 20 percent.

So it looks like Pioneer Square will not only be the area for tourist looking for the underground city of Seattle but also a new home for up and coming tech company.

^the Cobbin Group & exprealty

Tacoma real estate market is hot!  It has recently been making the news as experts continue to pick Tacoma real estate market for price appreciation and best recovery.  Why Tacoma?  Well, why not Tacoma?  Tacoma is home to University of Washington – Tacoma Campus, Tacoma Link Light Rail, 700 plus acre Point Defiance Park, budding Art and music scene, Tacoma Dome that hosts some of the biggest concerts and events in the nation, the Port, and much more!

Once considered an unattractive and undesirable area, Tacoma is undergoing a lot of positive changes lately including redevelopment of its downtown and housing market.  Both real estate investors and home buyers are drawn to the attractive price point in Tacoma real estate and that has started a real revitalization of the housing market there.  Several articles estimated Tacoma real estate prices to appreciate as much as 25% by 2013.  What does that mean?  It means the timing is perfect for home buyers to get in the under-valued market while both the prices and interest rates are low.  For investors, it is a great time to flip properties or purchase rentals for long term hold.   There are diverse array of properties that are currently available in the Tacoma real estate market.  Whether you want to take opportunity in this market to find a great long term rental property or short term flip project, I can help you find the perfect home for any goal and price range!

Tacoma and Washington State Making the News!

 About Christy Kim