Maple Valley Rental Market Update

If you have considered adding a rental property to your investment portfolio in 2008 (and might I say it’s an excellent time to do so) you may be curious as to what the rental market is looking like in our area.

Year to date 23 properties have been listed & rented through NWMLS in Maple Valley. The average rental price is $1625 with the lowest rent at $950 and the highest at $2990. This average rental rate is up approximately 6% over rental averages for 2006.

Interest in rental properties is increasing as buyers find it more difficult to qualify for “low down” financing programs and find themselves needing to rent while saving for that downpayment.

Although my husband and I haven’t ventured into the world of Landlords just yet, it’s definitely on the agenda for this year. There are just too many excellent opportunities out there right now!

Enjoy the Ride!

Colleen Fischesser

Maple Valley Bank Owned Homes

Sometimes Bank-owned properties (or those which have gone through foreclosure and are now owned and available for sale by the Bank/Lender/Asset Management Co) are a “good deal” and sometimes they aren’t. Here are a few tips if you’re looking at Bank-owned properties:

• If you’re looking to purchase a bank-owned property, enlist the help of a professional in your area who knows your  market and can help you navigate the Bank-owned process. These companies will often have their own forms and “quirky” requirements. Make sure you understand all the implications before signing on the dotted line
• Do your due-diligence, talk with the neighbors, find out about all “the skeletons“, if any,  before you buy. Sometimes the bank will have conducted an inspection of the property but there are things even an inspector cannot find….for instance flooding in the back yard, past leaks or plumbing problems now undetectable. Hire your own inspector! Even if he/she finds nothing, it will be money well spend on future peace of mind.

Currently (as of 12.26.07) there are 4 Bank Owned Properties for sale in the Maple Valley Market, this is a higher number than we’ve seen in the past, but certainly better than many other areas of the Country and hopefully a trend we will not see increasing.

 

Colleen Fischesser 

www.MapleValleyRealEstate.com       www.ColleenFish.com

 

Colleen Fischesser has been marketing and selling Homes in the Maple Valley area since 1990. She is the Broker/Owner of RE/MAX Select RE.

SouthEast King County Market Comparison-Year to Date Prices

The chart below represents information for Single Family properties listed with a NWMLS Member and closed from January 1, 2007 through December 23, 2007. Average Market Times vary between 48 days and 88 days on market with Hobart having the shortest market time and Ravensdale having the longest.

 

If I can answer any questions about the South King County Market, please post them! 

Colleen Fischesser, Broker/Owner

www.ColleenFish.com       www.MapleValleyRealEstate.com

Colleen Fischesser has been selling and marketing Real Estate in South King & North Pierce Counties since 1990. She is the Broker/Owner of RE/MAX Select in Maple Valley, WA.

He Who’s Willing to Walk Away Usually Wins…Negotiating Your Best Deal in ‘08

Buyers today are barraged daily with news of increased inventory, foreclosure sales and stories of co-workers making “killer deals” on real estate purchases. But for a Buyer today, what really constitutes a “Good Deal“?

Consider this Scenario:

Buyers fall in love with a house and want to make an offer. It’s December and a slow market, so they make a fairly aggressive low offer…not insulting-low, but teetering close to that line.  The seller, who has an experienced Realtor counseling him to take the emotion out of the picture, makes a counteroffer but doesn’t come off price much. Buyers are shocked. What the Heck?

It’s a buyer’s market right? What is the Seller thinking?

Actually, the Sellers are thinking they don’t have to move…when the house sells, it sells. They are tidy folks so the house is always clean and picked up and showings are few and far between so it’s really not very inconvenient for them to leave the house on the market. In other words, Seller’s motivation is low.

The countering continues for a bit but ultimately Sellers reach a price past which they refuse to budge. Buyers are upset because they really want the house but the want a “good deal” too. In the long run, the Buyer’s desire for the property outweighs their desire for “a deal” and they accept Sellers price. But afterwards they have a bad taste in their mouths. Why wasn’t their agent able to get them a better deal?

Why? Because they weren’t willing to walk away from the house and the Seller was willing to walk away from the table.

When negotiating anything, a new car, a job proposal, or a new home purchase, there has to be one primary objective. Whether it’s getting that one-of-a-kind Waterfront home, or keeping payments to a certain amount… when all else is taken out of the equation, you must ask yourself; “Does this offer meet my primary objective?” If not, walk away. But if it does, take it and be ok with the deal you’ve made. It was what you set out to accomplish in the first place.

When representing my clients, I can only negotiate to the extent they are “willing to walk away”. Hopefully my experience and market knowledge has helped them get clarity and stay focused on their primary objective and they will understand the best deal is the one accomplishing that objective.

Sometimes my job is to deliver the message that Buyers can’t always ”have their cake and eat it too”….even in this market.

Enjoy the Ride! 

Colleen “Fish”

www.ColleenFish.com      www.MapleValleyRealEstate.com

Colleen Fischesser has been helping homebuyers since 1990. She has the experience and market knowledge to help you “make your best” deal. Colleen may be reached at: 425-432-5400 or vial email: ColleenF@remax.net

The Negotiation Dance….Lady, You’re Ruining Our Rhythm!

Another Agent in my office and I were both negotiating sales this week. The two experiences are different as night and day.

I am currently working with a very Professional agent negotiating an offer on one of my listings. It’s really amazing what’s been going on…..When he calls me, I either answer the phone or return his call. When I call him, he either answers the phone or returns my call. Pretty cool don’t you think? I can understand why this is so hard for some agents in this industry to aspire to this level of professionalism.

My Associate’s experience with another (experienced!) agent has been much different. My Associate represents the Buyers. The Seller’s agent does not return phone calls for days. When the sellers do make a counter, it’s verbally and the Seller’s agent tells my Associate she’s too busy to put it on paper and will My Associate please get it written up, have her buyers sign and then send it over. Long story short, after weeks of back and forth and long periods of no communication in between, the Buyers walked. It was just too difficult and they fell out of love with the house. Thanks to the Seller’s Agent who obviously doesn’t understand the Negotiation Dance.

This is an extreme example of an Agent getting in the way of a transaction, but it happens all the time, and I’m seeing it more and more. I wonder if it’s because many agents have had to get part-time jobs to support their real estate “habit”.

 You see, there’s a rhythm to the negotiation process. Once a Buyer decides to write an offer, he/she is emotionally invested (the exception being the investor). They have made their decision and they want their offer to work out…. Same for a Seller, who makes a counter offer to a Buyer. Perhaps their counter was not exactly what they would have liked to have gotten for their property, but if the Buyer takes it and they can be done, so be it. They are hoping it will work out.  But when the agents drag their feet, don’t return phone calls (sometimes for days) guess what? The emotion cools, the interest wanes and sometimes tempers flare.  

In all fairness, it’s not always an agent who is to blame. Parties to the transaction can sometimes stop the music as well. A seller, wanting to wait and see if a better offer comes in rather than responding to what’s on the table now…. Or a buyer, deciding to wait and let the seller’s counter offer sit for a few days past the expiration date just “to show them”. Both of these scenarios can and often will result in failed negotiations.

Of course it is always up to the client what he/she/they want to do in the negotiation process. But with the representation of a good, experienced Realtor, they will understand the benefits, risks and potential consequences of those decisions before they make them, and if the negotiations fail, it’s their choice, not because their Agent was lazy.

As for the unprofessional agent who just doesn’t get it….here’s some advice from a “Good, Experienced Realtor”…..learn the steps or get off the dance floor!

Enjoy the Ride!

Colleen “Fish” Fischesser

www.ColleenFish.com         www.MapleValleyRealEstate.com

What Defines a “Reasonable” Offer?

I received another “Builder Incentive” email in my inbox this morning. “There will be a drawing this weekend for a hotel stay and no reasonable offer will be refused”. It made me pause and ask, “What makes one offer ‘reasonable’ and another not?”

In the early 90’s I wrote a very ridiculous offer on a Builder owned property, which of course was rejected. I was a “newbie”….I’m sure my clients had bought and sold more homes than I had, and I allowed that to intimidate me. We wrote the offer low and asked for the moon…., furniture, new deck planters and benches to be built, fence, paint….oh, and we were about 10% low on purchase price when the market was indicating homes were selling within 1-2% of List price!!! The laundry list of requests took up a whole 8 1/2 x 11 blank addendum. Of course we were shot down, the builder didn’t even counter.

I remembered that offer when I received the email this morning and I know that somewhere an agent is writing a ridiculous offer that a builder will think is unreasonable. So what’s the difference? How low is too low? How much is too much to ask for?

Keep in mind, that finished inventory is not a good thing for a builder. The longer he/she sits on a finished home, the more the interest payments begin to eat into the profits. How long has the house been on the market? When was it finished? Can you get a dollar amount for your area and figure out what the cost to build was and what he/she might have into it? I’ve found it’s helpful to work from the ground up, literally. Determining how much the land was purchased for, what the hard costs of construction most likely are, and what selling costs will be. Factor in a small “face saving” profit and that’s the number I suggest to my clients. Especially if the builder is sitting on lots of finished inventory.

By approaching the process with a “everyone wins” attitude, you’re more likely to end up with a successfully negotiated contract and happy clients!

Colleen “Fish” Fischesser

www.MapleValleyRealEstate.com          www.ColleenFish.com

Colleen Fischesser is the designated Broker of RE/MAX Select. She has been selling Real Estate in South King County since 1990 and specializes in the marketing of properties in the greater Maple Valley area.

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