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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It is no secret that Staging helps sell homes. It not only helps when a potential buyer is actually touring your home, but also when they are “shopping” online to decide if they even want to bother visiting it physically. With modern technology and so many home computers, a lot of the legwork is taken out of the home shopping experience. People can pick and choose their new house without ever leaving the comfort of their pajamas. So how does your home look online?

On the Internet, buyers are able to type in the exact criteria they want in their new home. With the click of a button a handful of homes appear before their eyes. They are able to compare photos and virtual tours to decide which home is worth looking at with their Real Estate Professional. Staging a home prior to the photos and virtual tours will ensure a positive first impression, even before anyone pulls up to your door. Other homes may not even be considered, but your home will.

I have gathered a collection of photos of homes for sale as they are found online. Believe it or not, these photos are from seasoned Realtors (even a Broker). I hate to “call out” these photos but come on - Do you want these homes to have even a remote chance of selling? [This article is written by my associate, Cari Pilon.]

View the photos.

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If you’re shopping for Sequim real estate or Port Angeles real estate, beware of a potential misrepresentation when searching the MLS data, or even getting the assistance of a real estate agent who might be unaware of this trap for the unwary. What is the danger? When agents put a listing into an MLS, the system records the number of days the listing is on the market until it sells. This is called DOM, or days on market. If you see a property on the market for a long time, like 236 days or 344 days, you may logically make an offer than is lower than you would if the house showed a DOM of 7. Big difference from a buyer’s perspective. The danger is that some agents around this great US of A will take the listing out and re-input it, so that the DOM starts all over again. This misrepresents the days on market. Make sense? Be careful out there. It’s a dangerous world. May I say it? Hire a professional who knows what’s going on.

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I’m often asked by people, “What’s the average days on market for selling a house in Sequim?” What peaks my interest is what that person will do with that information. It is useful information, but if one assumes it will take that number of days to sell your home, one could assume wrongly. There are Sequim homes and land on the market that have recently sold quickly, and there are others that have been on the market for 200+ days. Assuming a property is listed at the right price (and many are not), when the right buyer comes along, it will be sold, and it does not matter to that buyer if your property has been on the market for one day or 232 days. We get buyers who arrive from California or elsewhere, we learn what they are looking for, and when we find it, if it priced right, it will be sold. I’m not saying it is easy, but the point is that “days on market” is just one indicator of what is happening in a market in general.

You can search properties in Sequim here.

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Sequim, Washington has water views, mountain views, valleys, recreation (biking, hiking, walking, boating, fishing, and all of this in beautiful scenary), and many great sights. The Olympic Game Farm has a variety of wild animals, including lions. If you live in California, check out my link to Sequim. Low crime, reasonably priced real estate, gorgeous scenary. It’s known as a retirement haven, too.

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Some talk about the poor state of the real estate market, but Washington state has been one of the strongest and most stable markets in the nation. An August 7, 2007 article in the Seattle Times newspaper reported, “Prices of King County houses and condominiums last month increased 9 percent compared to a year earlier — even while the number of available properties grew 51 percent.” The Sequim real estate market and the Port Angeles real estate market are not seeing any significant drop in housing prices either. We have a surprisingly strong market, even under slowing demand in the face of more housing construction.

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