There are only two dairy farms left in Sequim, and those are the only two left in all of Clallam County.  Both are small family operations.  Dairy farms have been going away in Washington and throughout much of the Northwest as the profit of producing milk diminishes coupled with the extraordinary increases in the value of land for residential development.

Here is a graphic showing the decline of milk cows in Clallam County, Washington.

Click on graphic to enlarge.

From a high of over 7,300 milk cows in 1950, we are now at about 500.  The small dairy farms have been going away in western Washington rapidly over the last decade.

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Sequim real estate, including homes and land, is a great buy right now for retirees from California, Arizona, Texas, and even the Seattle area.

It really is amazing how many incredible water view lots we have at reasonable prices, and if you like boating or sailing, you’ll be impressed by the John Wayne Marina in Sequim.  Here’s a peek with a photo I recently took:

Sequim also has a good inventory of home lots for sale right now, including water view, mountain view, and views of the valley and fields of hay and cows.  If you’d like to know more about Sequim and why it’s such a great place to retire, check out my online Sequim Relocation Package.

If you’re thinking about Sequim real estate, homes or land, or a nice place to dock your boat, email me and ask me your questions.  I’ll do my best to answer them or email you links with the answers.

Of course, you can also use the old fashion way to contact me by calling me on a telephone, 360-775-5424.  The name is Chuck Marunde, Realtor and Retired Real Estate Attorney.

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“We want to buy a nice 3 bedroom, 2 bath home in a good area, and we heard we can get a really good deal right now buying a foreclosure.  Can you help us find one?”  I get this question a lot lately.

As a Realtor who was a real estate lawyer for 20 years and did many foreclosures and short sales, let’s clear the smoke and get to the truth about buying foreclosures.  There is far too much nonsense being published about buying foreclosures, mostly by get-rich-quick artists and seminar leaders who have found a niche to make a lot of money fairly easy.  There’s a lot of hype, and there are also a lot of foreclosures in some parts of the country, especially California, Nevada, Arizona, and Florida.  So what is the truth?  Can you buy a great foreclosure home in Sequim or Port Angeles, or anywhere for that matter?  If you are an investor, can you make tons of money buying foreclosures.  Let’s shine a light in the dark corners of the foreclosure world, expose the lies, and reveal the truth.

(more…)

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Sequim, Washington is a popular retirement community.  Of course, we have the so-called “rain shadow” and pilots talk about the hole in the sky over Sequim all the time. Our sunny weather is wonderful, although it doesn’t rain in the northwest nearly as much as people think.  I’ve rarely been in Seattle when it was actually raining.  A few times yes, but many more times no.

We’re away from the nightmare traffic of the I-5 and I-405 corridors of the Seattle and Tacoma metropolitan areas.  Since Sequim is on the northern Olympic Peninsula just over two hours drive from Sea-Tac International Airport, it is a rural or country setting.  Being on the Peninsula, we get less traffic, because we don’t get people passing through on their way from one place to another.

We have the beautiful Olympic Mountains and the Olympic National Park with old growth trees in a natural and protected environment.  We have the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the John Wayne Marina, and water views galore.

We have more recreational activities than almost anywhere in the country, biking, jogging, hiking, surfing, boating, sky diving, mountain climbing, fishing, golfing, incredible motorcycle roads around the Peninsula, restaurants you won’t forget, and the list goes on.

We have more volunteers in various community activities than I’ve ever seen anywhere I’ve lived.  I was invited as an attorney to talk to a group a while back, and I was introduced to a few people, including a retired rocket scientist (yes, they really exist), a retired CEO of a large California company, a retired Army General, and a wealthy inventor, all of whom were great conversationalist.  That was just one little luncheon.

There are so many activities, groups, and associations for retired people, I won’t take the space here to write about them, but you’ll find everything from gardening to building experimental planes.

Retirees are happy to find land here where they can build their dream homes.  Right now Sequim has a large inventory of lots for sale.  Of course, the market has slowed down everywhere, and because a number of developers started their projects here several years ago, buyers now have a great selection of lots available, and at reasonable prices.  There are water view lots, mountain view lots, high bluff water frontage, gated communities, private acreage surrounded by trees, open farmland for sale, ranch property for sale, and let’s face it–this is a buyer’s market.

I am seeing a very significant percentage of our buyers coming from California and Arizona, and many are professionals who know what they want.  I also have been enjoying working with people who are wealthy and/or famous who love the beauty and privacy they find here, and the anonymity they can have here.

Sequim is a great place to retire.  No doubt about it.  Use my websites and blogs to read more about Sequim and Port Angeles.   See SequimPortAngeles.com.

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There’s a lot of frustration in Sequim and Port Angeles for many sellers who have had their homes either listed with an agent, or for-sale-by-owner or FSBO.  So, what’s going on?

Listed Properties.  This week a gentleman told me that he was very frustrated with the agent that previously had his property listed for sale.  Why?   His agent had guaranteed a sale within 90 days.  Whoops.  Not a good idea.  His agent also had no marketing plan, did not answer the client’s questions adequately, and has not had any showings or activity on the house.  So far as this gentleman knows, his agent has not done anything to market the house.   That is exactly what he told me. A second gentleman called to inform me that his listing expired and he wanted to list his home with me.  He went on to tell me that his agent had only one showing in almost 5 months, has not talked to him or kept him informed during the listing period, and as far as he knows, there has been no marketing plan or other efforts by the agent to sell the home.   That’s just this week.  I am hearing these kinds of stories a lot lately.

FSBO Properties.  I listed a home this week that was a FSBO for a period of months, but the house was not getting the exposure it needed.  Running an ad in the local paper, putting up a For Sale by Owner sign, and putting up a Craigslist ad are simply not enough to effectively connect with qualified buyers.  Someone could get lucky, but who wants to rely on luck to sell a home in this market?  Many FSBO’s are frustrated because they are not getting prospective buyers coming to look at their homes, but they are not wanting to list with agents either.

Selling real estate, putting together a really good marketing plan, understanding sales and scripts, implementing a great Internet strategy, knowing how to use technology, having an outstanding CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system, being able to draft solid legal documents without ambiguities, negotiating with professionalism, and practicing good transaction coordination through to the closing, . . . these are not simple tasks that should be left to inexperienced or unprofessional people who just happen to have a real estate license.  This is why sellers are frustrated, and some are angry.  I can’t say I blame them.

So, how do you select your Realtor?  Did you know that about 85% hire the first Realtor they talk to?  Wow.  What happened to due diligence?  I strongly urge you to hire a Realtor who is knowledgeable, experienced, professional, and trustworthy.  There are many out there, although those simple parameters do narrow the list a bit, don’t you think?

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What is a short sale in a foreclosure? Here’s a short video on the subject.

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Building a Sequim custom home or a Port Angeles Custom Home?  Here’s a local attorney (ret.) and real estate broker’s diplomatic counsel on hiring a local builder.

There are builders who love their work, and who pour out their hearts to build a beautiful product.  They take pride in their workmanship, and they are honest and men of integrity.

(more…)

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Homeowners in Sequim and Port Angeles, and for that matter throughout the country, are not satisfied with paying typical 6% real estate commissions.  Hence the rise of discount brokerage services, flat fee consulting services, and for-sale-by-owner websites. 

There are some very good reasons.  The whole business of buying and selling real estate has been changing.  Traditional advertising has been loosing its appeal to consumers.  Remember cold calling?  That used to be popular.  The public grew to hate cold calling so much, we have stringent laws controlling that distasteful practice, and we have "do not call" lists.  Remember the cigarette ads on billboards in the ’60’s and ’70’s?  Billion dollar judgments have been entered against cigarette companies, the advertising has been regulated by law, and billboards have become passe.

(more…)

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When a Sequim or Port Angeles homeowner wants to sell, they have one home to sell.  When a buyer from California or Arizona is shopping for their next home in Sequim or Port Angeles, they have one and only one home that will become theirs.  This is much more than just a play on words, and the implications for both parties is significant.

Each home is unique, unless it is a crackerbox in a Vegas subdivision, and we don’t have those here.  Each buyer is unique.  The seller is unique.  The match of a buyer, seller, and a home is unique.  Do buyers care how many houses are on the market, or what the state of the economy is, or how many DOM (days on market) a house has been listed?  No, except indirectly if it helps them get a better deal.  But even when we talk about a better deal, for each buyer, there is one house they expect to fall in love with and that is the only house they will buy.

(more…)

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The Sequim Real Estate Blog and Port Angeles Real Estate Blog take a new step today with a major upgrade to our blogging platform, and for one purpose:  so you can find us easier and navigate quickly to precisely what you are looking for.

Chuck Marunde, J.D. is please to announce as Broker/Owner of Sequim and Port Angeles Real estate, LLC, that the company continues to be on the cutting edge of providing the best Internet services to clients and the public.

No one has the massive Internet presence that we have built.  We reach more people, potential buyers, in California, Arizona, Texas, Oregon, Montana, the Seattle area, and all the way to Florida and Massachusetts than any other broker in all of Clallam County.  Period.  This is why buyers find us, and it is also why sellers want to work with us to list their properties for sale. Today’s market is all about connecting with buyers.  That’s what we do.

Chuck can be reached by email at chuckmarunde.com or at his cell phone, (360) 775-5424.  We love what we do, and so do our clients.

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Sequim lots sold for the first 5 months of 2007 compared to 2008 will tell us something about out-of-state buyers and the comparative pace of new home construction. Here’s what the first five months of 2007 looked like for lots sold in the Sequim area.

And here’s what the first 5 months of 2008 look like in Sequim lot sales.

When you compare DOM, the number of days the lots were on the market until they sold, and the average listing and selling prices, there isn’t much of a difference this year, except in the number of total lots sold, 49 this year verses 68 the first 5 months of last year. Interesting.

Courtesy Sequim & Port Angeles Real Estate, LLC

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The Sequim real estate market, as well as Port Angeles’, is uniquely localized, but that is true of much of the country. National markets, trends, and regional economic variables impact, but do not determine local prices and sales. There is one market that impacts Sequim and Port Angeles home sales more than most, and that is the California market.

If California homeowners are not able to sell their homes, a significant percentage of buyers of homes and land in Sequim and Port Angeles go away. But there are signs of improvement.

“Despite all the dire headlines about the drop in real estate prices, 56 percent of the 292 metropolitan areas surveyed nationwide showed net price appreciation for the past year. . . . Kerry Killinger, CEO of Washington Mutual, said his company is seeing ‘a slight improvement over the last month or so’ in California — the single largest and hardest hit segment of the U.S. housing market. ‘There’s (been) some pickup in demand,’ Killinger said. ‘(We’re) watching this very closely (because) this may be indicating a troughing of conditions.’ That means that maybe — just maybe — the protracted real estate plunge in California is showing hints of finally flattening out.” [RealtyTimes online]

In the first four months of this year, 168 homes sold in Sequim and Port Angeles. That’s an average of 42 homes sold per month. Sales are down from the banner year of 2005, but buyers are clearly still buying, and that is good news for home sellers. In comparison, the first four months of 2007 had total sales of 200, or 50 homes sold per month. This is by no means a housing crash, certainly not in a small real estate market such as Sequim and Port Angeles.

[Source of data: Olympic Listing Service, homes sold are site built only]
Courtesy Sequim & Port Angeles Real Estate, LLC

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Port Angeles and Sequim Real Estate Broker Chuck Marunde is known by many in the area as a real estate attorney (ret.) and now as a Broker/Owner of Sequim & Port Angeles Real Estate, LLC. What most people don’t know is that he has been operating below the radar for many years as an accomplished author.

Chuck has a very large Internet presence through many websites and blogs that he created and hosts, starting with his first website in 1995, which won national awards for being “content-rich.” Chuck has published 100’s of articles on the Internet. His articles are nationally syndicated and have been published online with Reuters, the Chicago Tribune, and the Wall Street Journal. Chuck sits on the panel of real estate experts for the Seattle PI Blog, for eZineArticles.com, and is affiliated with a number of other online organizations.

He also is a freelancer for Ultimate Grappling Magazine, Pacific Northwest Home Owner Magazine, and he is the editor of the online version of Topix news for the cities of Sequim and Port Angeles, Washington.

Chuck first started writing in Alaska in the early 1980’s, and when he isn’t showing houses or solving complex real estate issues, he is writing. “I love to write, and real estate is what I know best, so I write about real estate.”

Chuck practiced real estate law for 20 years, and because of his love for real estate, he says, “I couldn’t stay away from the transactions end of real estate. I love helping people buy and sell. I’ve handled almost every angle of real estate, from buying and selling to investing, foreclosures, short sales, real estate partnerships and joint ventures, to business development and marketing and sales.

Some of Chuck’s work can be found at:

http://PortAngelesRealEstateNews.com
http://SequimPortAngeles.com
http://FreeRealEstateLaw.com
http://activerain.com/blogs/chuckmarunde
http://activerain.com/chuckmarunde
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/realestate/
http://ezinearticles.com/?expert_bio=Chuck_Marunde
http://www.sequimportangelesrealestate.com/

Author, technology guru, Internet expert, lawyer, Realtor, marketing expert and salesman Chuck Marunde is no longer operating under the radar. The Internet is a powerful tool, even for the purpose of bringing Chuck into the radar zone, where he can be found by buyers and sellers. “I love helping people solve their real estate problems, and right now the biggest challenge people have is selling their homes or land in a slow market. In my opinion, now is a good time to buy, and it’s a good time to sell if you handle the pricing and negotiating with wisdom.”

Chuck raised his family in Sequim, including his oldest son, Jesse Marunde, who was Internationally famous as a professional strongman. Jesse came in second at the World’s Strongest Man Contest in Chengdu, China a few years ago. Chuck’s middle son, Bristol Marunde, continues the Marunde tradition in athletics by competing as a professional mixed martial arts fighter. Reflecting on Bristol’s career choice, Chuck said, “Fighting in the cage is just another form of negotiating, although it is much more assertive than the kind of negotiating I do in real estate.”

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Sequim real estate is still a keen attraction for out-of-state buyers. Sequim is definitely in a rain shadow, and it is a “best kept secret.” I raised my own family in Sequim. No doubt about it; Sequim is a quiet and peaceful haven in the Northwest.

Many are planning to retire in Sequim. That makes sense. Who wants to live where you have to fight traffic jams, as the good folks do in southern California? And then there’s the crime rate and the cost of housing.

Is there a place on earth where the heavens open up and the sun shines through, where crime is rare, the people are friendly, and where real estate is still reasonably priced? Yes, that would be Sequim.

So, for all of you who have an interest in looking at real estate in Sequim, I’ll make it easy and give you this link to search over 1,500 local MLS listings.

Search Sequim MLS Listings

For more detailed information about the Sequim area, schools, weather, and insider information for buyers, view SequimPortAngeles.com. To keep up automatically with the local real estate market, subscribe to the weekly Sequim Real Estate Newsletter in the subscribe button in the right column.

Courtesy Sequim & Port Angeles Real Estate, LLC and Chuck Marunde, J.D.

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If you’re from California or the Seattle area, or for that matter anywhere outside of Sequim, the most efficient way to search for real estate (homes or land) is to do what you are doing right now–using the Internet. The great challenge is finding sites that actually will give you what you are looking for. I promise to do that here and with my other websites, which have links from this blog. My services cost you nothing on the Internet, and here’s what you will find:

Sequim lots for sale
Sequim homes for sale
Sequim water view lots for sale
Sequim water view homes for sale
Sequim farm land
Sequim horse ranches
Sequim mountain view property
Sequim real estate market news
Money Saving tips from a real estate attorney (ret.)
And many Sequim real estate articles written by author Chuck Marunde, J.D.

Browse this blog, and SequimPortAngeles.com, and you’ll not find another site where you can get more useful information, and you can email me for even more specific information. As a retired real estate attorney and practicing Realtor, it would be my pleasure to email you answers to your questions or more relevant information on your property searches. Here are a few resources for buyers:

Keys For Buyers Only:

1. Key Links for Buyers Only: Buyers Only
2. Get automatic emails of the latest listings with your specs: Latest Listings
3. How does a Buyer’s Agent work: Buyer’s Agent Only
4. How to save $10,000: Save $10,000
5. Subscribe to the #1 weekly email newsletter for buyers of real estate in Sequim & Port Angeles at the Sequim & Port Angeles Real Estate Blog: Go to Blog (and subscribe there)

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Are you in the process of looking for and buying real estate in Port Angeles or Sequim? Here’s an insider tip to buying real estate here. This tip alone could save you $10,000 to as much as $70,000, depending upon the total price. Few buyers know how common this trap is, so let’s get to it. Quite often a listing on the market will be overpriced. That’s not front page news, right? If you’ve been around looking, you’ve seen a property listed for a lot more than it’s reasonable FMV (fair market value).

Here’s the trap for the unwary purchaser by way of example.

A house is listed for $269,000. A thorough search of all the sold listings that are truly similar in the local MLS demonstrates that the comps (comparables) that actually sold (as opposed to currently listed) fetched a price of about $230,000, but all of those comps had substantial improvements that the subject house did not have. That means, the house you’re looking at is worth less than $230,000. Depending on how you value the improvements to the comps, that could mean your subject house is around $212,000 to $220,000. With that in mind, you make an offer of $212,000, substantially below the listed price of $269,000, but you’re no fool. It’s worth less than $230,000, and you know from your detailed comparisons that it is probably around $212,000. So your offer of $212,000 is actually a full FMV price.

Your offer comes back with a counteroffer at $261,000. You’re astonished. You don’t know what the seller is on, but it’s not milk or cool aide. Maybe the seller is not getting good advice from his or her agent, but you don’t even bother to make a counter to the counter. They are so far above FMV, there’s no sense wasting time when there are far better values available in this market. Far better.

What the seller (or the seller’s agent) must hope for is that you are not tuned into the market, and that you will think that your next counter should be somewhere just below $261,000. Big mistake. It is over listed, over priced, and you should NOT get caught up in this trap for the unwary by paying way too much for it, all the while negotiating back and forth and ultimately thinking you negotiated a good price. No. Walk away. Let that seller and his/her agent learn their lesson. Let someone else from California pay $20,000 or $30,000 over FMV for that house. Someone may pay too much, but not you. YOU WILL NOT PAY ABOVE FMV FOR YOUR NEXT HOME, because you’re nobody’s fool.

P.S. I see this all the time, so if you are buying, may I suggest you get a very experienced, honest, and good negotiator on your side? After all, it’s your money and your next home.

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[Click on Image to Enlarge.]

While the real estate market takes a long needed pause to breath deep, the reality is that we have not yet seen significant reductions in the number of homes sold in Sequim and Port Angeles, at least not of recession significance. Sequim actually sold one more house in this time period in 2007 than it did in 2006, and Port Angeles sales dropped by only 12 homes. Pricing is more significant.

As this chart illustrates, in 2006 (for the six month period from March 1 through August 31), the median price of homes sold in Sequim was $285,000, and in Port Angeles it was $271,500, and in 2007 $280,00 and $255,500, respectively. The drop in average prices in Sequim is larger than the reduction in Port Angeles. The Sequim average sales price of a home in 2007 is down to $283,347 from $294,407 in 2006 (an $11,000 drop). During the same time period, Port Angeles homes sold dropped by only about $8,000.

I took the liberty of refining (weighting) the statistics to arrive at more meaningful numbers. For example, the majority of sales are within the price range of $200,000 to $400,000. There were a total of 185 sales in this range in Sequim in 2006 and 146 in Port Angeles. The total houses sold in the same time period (in that price range) in Sequim for 2007 is 186, and for Port Angeles 134. I excluded sales below $200,000 because that represents lower priced housing, some of which is not comparable to the typical 3 bedroom, 2 bath home that represents the majority of buyers’ preferences. I also excluded sales above $400,000 because that is a much smaller number of sales, especially those above $700,000 (only 12 in Sequim).

By excluding these lower and higher priced homes, 81% of the remainder of homes sold in Sequim are within $200,000 to $400,000. A similar result is obtained for Port Angeles sales.

Beyond the statistics, clearly buyers are still buying. Timing is everything in real estate, and even when the market takes a breath of fresh air before continuing its course, there are people at their 20, 25, or 30 year retirement calendar, and they are moving to Sequim or Port Angeles to purchase their retirement home. They are not concerned about the statistics, only purchasing their dream home. As Martha Stewart would say, “That is a good thing.”

From a sales perspective, one message a person could take home from all these numbers is that a seller would be well advised to be represented by a professional agent with strong negotiating skills, not to mention access to hundreds of potential buyers (the two MLS’s, out-of-state broker referrals, and other buyer sources not available to unlicensed individuals or FSBO’s). This is not intended as a sales pitch, but it does seem very logical in light of the importance of getting the highest possible price for a home in a time when prices are dropping, and getting the best price would be a partial function of connecting with the largest number of prospective buyers. Something to think about.

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Sequim Real Estate, Port Angeles Real Estate

Will buyers in Sequim and Port Angeles be forced to pay this real estate transfer tax? Just when you thought you were taxed enough, there’s a new tax on real estate coming our way. It started in California, as many trends do. It’s a private (not government) tax on the sale of real estate, and buyers are being forced to pay it when they purchase a home in a new development.

What Is This Private Transfer Tax?

Developers and builders often have opposition to their projects from environmental groups, land trusts, or other non-profit organizations. An alliance between develpers and these opposition groups has created a whole new paradigm, and developers are agreeing to pay off these organizations with a private transfer tax on the sale of each lot in exchange for their support for the real estate project. This saves the developer years of fighting, and clubs like the Sierra Club and the Audobon Society have found a new source of revenue.

The amazing thing is the way this new tax is imposed on innocent buyers. The developer includes a covenant incorporated into the deed, which requires future buyers to pay a percentage of the selling price to the designated land trust or charity. As of now, it appears the deeds have this requirement for a time certain, 20 years. Is this amazing? Creative, isn’t it! Because this seems to extort money from developers and ultimately from buyers while compromising what may be true environmental concerns, some would call this an unholy alliance. What say you?

This tax is apparently spreading to other states, and it is just a matter of time before it rears its ugly taxable head in Washington state.

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Did you know you can connect or transfer your utilities online? Here’s a link you can use to do that right here in River City, well in Sequim or in Port Angeles. Your welcome. My pleasure entirely.

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