Dear Shoreline, WA home seller (or our other North Seattle and South Snohomish Neighbors),
I wouldn’t be surprised if I’ve taken home buyers on MORE TOURS without having them buy anything this year than ever before. It’s not because they don’t WANT to buy a house – in fact, many have made offers on more than one home. But they’re having trouble getting them accepted by sellers. Many sellers in our North End neck of the woods are getting 20+ offers on their homes.
Well, this all seems well-and-good from the seller’s perspective, but there are a few “gotcha’s” that you need to be aware of so you don’t get “stung” when it comes to getting your house sold and your money deposited safely in your bank account.
Here’s What You Need To Keep In Mind And Why I Say Shoreline Home Sellers Beware!
What to do?
You’ve got 17 offers on your home and you have no idea which one to choose. Seller Beware, it’s a crazy-competitive sellers market. And I’ve done a series of videos this month that will educate you and give you all the ins-and-outs of what you need to know and think about when selling. Listen, I understand that selling your home can be one of the most stressful and aggravating things you’ll ever do. Most people look forward to Buying a new home much more than they do Selling their old place. But it doesn’t have to be so difficult if you’re well-represented and working with someone who truly has the experience to make sure that everything works out.
Hi my name is Emily Cressey broker and owner of HomePro Associates at HomeSmart real estate here in Seattle. I’ve been involved in real estate for the past 18 years, so there isn’t much that I haven’t seen or experienced.
In these video trainings, we’ll be talking about things like:
- Contingencies
- Making sure you get ALL the money you’re expecting,
- Closing on time,
- Which offer should you choose – and why, and
- How to make sure the buyers haven’t written offers on any other properties.
You get my point. There is a LOT to think about.
So watch out this month in your newsfeed for videos that will educate you and help you make sure you have a safe, lucrative and fun experience while selling your house.
You can also go to my YouTube channel right now to watch them all at once, just click THIS LINK.
Thanks for watching and we look forward to educating you and working with you, be sure to reach out to us for anything big or small as we’re always here to help, because when you do what you love, people love what you do.
How is the North Seattle / Shoreline / Lynnwood Housing Market Performing Right Now?
The real estate market is booming, there hasn’t been a better time in the history of real estate to sell your home. Right now there is extremely limited inventory. There aren’t enough houses on the market for the amount of buyers that we have that want homes. Hi my name is Emily Cressey, real estate broker and owner of HomePro Associates at HomeSmart Real Estate here in Seattle. I’ve been involved in real estate for the past 18 years first as an investor myself, and then as a broker.
You cool cats know I love my data, so let me wave a few cool statistics in front of you and then talk about what they mean. Right now, here in Shoreline, WA – 98155, 98133, and 98177 – there is less than half a month’s inventory on the market – only 12 homes currently listed. This is a sign of the market hugely in favor of sellers.
In Lynnwood, 98037, it’s much the same. Across Southwest Snohomish county, we have an average of .5 months of inventory – that means if we stopped getting new homes, we’d sell out of what’s on the market in half a month. You can see prices are going up.
I’ve NEVER in my 18 years in real estate seen inventory this low… That is insane. What that means is that we are in a sellers market, homes are staying on the market less than a week. With that being said, sellers have ALL the control. They have the privilege of choosing the cream of the crop – the buyer offering the absolute best terms and conditions.
Sellers can be very selective when choosing which offer to accept. And remember Sellers, don’t be afraid to ask your buyers (via counter offer)for anything that you want that will make the transition, terms, and experience meet all of your expectations, you’re in the position to do so now.
What To Ask For When Negotiating On Your Home For Sale:
Timeframes: Choose the best timeframe for close of escrow that works for you – tell them when you want to move and when you want to close and they will work around your schedule.
Also, shorten up contingency-removal dates for inspections, loans, disclosures and appraisal, or – BETTER YET! – take an offer that has NO contingencies at all.
You could even sell the home “As-Is,” which means that if the buyer asked for any repairs or found something wrong with the home in his inspection, you wouldn’t be obligated to fix it.
Also, there are things that are typically customary for what a buyer would be responsible for and what a seller would be responsible for. For example in King County, the seller pays for the excise taxes, but in this market you could counter-offer and ask for the buyer to pay for it.
There are quite a few more things to consider and negotiate we could your behalf, but I don’t want to keep you for too long here, so if you’d like more information and are thinking about selling, give us a call at HomeProAssociates. We’d be happy to help because when you do what you love, people love what you do. Make it a great home selling and buying day. And be sure to check out our YouTube channel HomePro Associates for more tips when selling.
And don’t forget if you’re thinking of selling your home here in Shoreline, Washington – 98155, 98133, and 98177, we are specialists.
So What Does The Market Actually Look Like For Home Sellers at This Point In Time?
Real Estate is going bananas, so what’s happening locally here in the Puget Sound Area?
Hi my name is Emily Cressey owner of HomeProAssociates.com with HomeSmart Real Estate here in Seattle, WA. and in addition to being a real estate broker, I’ve been a real estate investor and coach since 2003 involved in both residential and commercial real estate projects.
Here in Shoreline we only have .4 months of inventory, this is quite low. That means if no more homes came on the market, it would take less than a month to sell all the homes. I’ve never seen numbers that low in all the 20 years in the industry, and that’s been twenty years. The average days on market across King County is 7 days! Some brokers wait a whole week so all the buyers can see it and they can collect multiple offers. Other brokers have their sellers choose an offer the first or second day the home comes on the market.
I do advise to leave your home active for at least a week so that you have the opportunity to get the highest-quality offer. If you take an offer too soon, you may lose out on other offers that are coming your way.
Homes in Shoreline are selling at 2% over asking price… if the average home is worth $645,000; that extra boost represents an additional $12,900 dollars. If you have a house, and not a condo, that number would be even higher.
Now, let’s look at Bothell……. Bothell is very similar at .6 months of inventory on the market. The average days on market – how long it takes for a home to go under contract with a buyer – is 6 days with homes also selling at 2% above list price, on average. Both of these north Seattle suburbs are doing a little better than the city of Seattle itself – where homes are more expensive and selling 1% over list price in an average of 8 days.
So – Yes – the market here is smoking hot and and I am Emily – your smoking hot Community Market leader…. (wait? What? Not for the last 20 years… 🙁 Sheesh!) I guess we’ll stick to playing “hot or not” with the real estate market… So give us a call here at HomePro Associates and remember, we are here to serve!
How Does Shoreline’s Limited Inventory Affect Buyers And Sellers?
With such limited inventory on the market right now, expect an influx of buyers wanting to see your home, we’ve had hundreds of people wanting to get in to see homes for sale, lines outside with people hoping to sneak in without an appointment, and homes that end up getting 30 offers from buyers who would love to buy and are offering more than the listing price.
Even though it’s a good problem to have, this can be stressful and overwhelming to a seller. I’m Emily Cressey with HomePro Associates.com at HomeSmart Real Estate here in Seattle. After nearly two decades as a real estate investor, I’ve worked with property sellers in all sorts of conditions.
You may be wondering how I handle all the agents, buyer showing appointments, and coordinating with everyone who wants to make their offer as strong as possible.
So here are a few tips that may make the experience easier on you.
Since your home will likely only will only be on the market for a short time, my advice is to leave for the entire day or weekend and come back at night once the frenzy is over. When I take buyers to see popular homes for sale – the calendar is completely full with appointments over the weekend – you will not have any time to cook, clean or relax in your house, so it’s best if you can just find something else to do for that short time.
If that doesn’t work for you, then you can allow multiple buyers with their agents to be in the home at the same time, so more people will be able to visit during the reduced showing hours. Now this isn’t customary, but if you don’t want to be inconvenienced and you want to make sure that all the buyers have the opportunity to see the home, this could be an option. We are now allowed to have up to 10 people at a time in Open Houses, for example.
The cool thing about this strategy is that it creates a sense of competition amongst buyers when they see each other at the property. It will remind them the home is in high demand and they may be willing to pay even more!
There are quite a few options to consider, but I don’t want to make this video too long since we all have the attention span of a goldfish, these days.
The good news is that as a seller in today’s market – you’re holding all the cards. You’re in control and you should expect to sell your home for top top dollar and with the most favorable terms.
If you’d like more information and are thinking about selling, give us a call at HomeProAssociates.com. We’d be happy to help because when you do what you love, people love what you do. Make it a great home selling and buying day.
And be sure to check out our YouTube channel HomePro Associates, for more tips on selling your home. And don’t forget, if you’re thinking of selling your home here in Shoreline, WA 98155, 98133, and 98177 – we are specialists.
What Is UP With Shoreline’s Competitive Seller’s Market?
Home Sellers Beware: It’s a crazy-competitive seller’s market right now. You may be thinking of selling your house in the next year or so, and there are a few things you definitely need to think about.
I know it can be nerve wracking with all these offers being thrown at you. I totally understand it can be stressful. But don’t worry – I’ve got you covered.
Hi! My name is Emily Cressey with HomeProAssociates.com at HomeSmart Real Estate here in Seattle and I’ve been involved in millions of dollars of real estate transactions over the last few years – as a buyer, seller, landlord, commercial real estate syndicator, and of course, a broker as well.
There are a few things I’ve learned over that time, and I’ve got the gray hairs to prove it! I live here in the Lake Forest Park/Shoreline Area – 98155 – and I love to do business in North Seattle, Everett and the East side.
Obviously when you’re selling your home, you want the best price and terms possible! When you’re dealing with multiple offers, one of the things that the agent representing the buyer may do is to remove the contingencies we might usually see in the typical real estate contract.
That’s a great start, but there’s more to look for. In my experience, I’ve found in market like we have now, buyers are frequently offering to pay much more than the home is listed for. I’m talking about a house listed for $590K, that sells for $730K – That’s what we’re seeing at the moment.
This sounds GREAT as the seller – but here’s the catch: The bank won’t lend them that much extra money to pay more than they think the property is worth.
So – how can you make sure you get all the money they’ve promised to pay you? You need to make sure the buyers remove their appraisal contingency.
Also – make sure they really UNDERSTAND what it means to remove that contingency and have the means to do so.
How Low Appraisals Can BITE The Buyer and Seller!
When the buyer removes the Appraisal contingency – he’s offering to pay the difference between the appraised value of the home – that’s what the bank’s appraiser says its worth – and the full purchase price they have offered. So if the home only appraises for $650K, and they’ve offered to pay $730K, they need to come up with an extra $80,000 CASH to close the deal, in addition to the down payment they were already planning on, and the money they’ll be getting from their bank loan. You can ask the buyer to show PROOF OF FUNDS to prove they have the assets to be able to make this happen.
So just be careful when selling and make sure you get what you’ve been promised.
So, Will the Seattle, WA Housing Market Crash?
We keep getting asked if we feel that the housing market will crash. I understand it’s a valid question especially after what we saw happen in 2008. So let’s look at what the experts are saying.
Hi my name is Emily Cressey real estate broker and owner of HomeProAssociates.com at HomeSmart Real Estate here in Seattle. I graduated cum laude with a BA in Economics started investing in Real Estate right after college. I love data and numbers, so let’s see what they tell us in this case.
First – How did the Real Estate market do in 2020?
Well, according to the National Association of Realtors the American housing market was up 5.6% over 2019 – which has been the greatest increase since before the great recession. Here is a graph of what the experts are forecasting for 2021, (2021 Home Price Forecaster.) Different organizations predict different things – Looking at these different sources, we see on average they are predicting a 5% increase in values for the year.
Looking at the data from a different perspective the real estate analytics company CoreLogic said that home prices increased 9.2% in 2020. Why? Because low Interest rates drive prices up since they make it more affordable for buyers to purchase a home.
The experts also are projecting interest rates to remain low in 2021 – forecasting rates to be somewhere between 2.92% and 3.17%. Obviously, this will be favorable for the housing market and keep buyer demand strong.
However, as we are seeing now, it may be difficult for buyers to find homes because across the country we have extremely low inventory levels – around 1.9 months of inventory nationwide, but here in the Seattle area, it’s only around half a month’s inventory.
Why are we in this low-supply inventory crunch? Because many people are NOT putting their homes on the market.
Here’s Why.
The Top 3 Reasons Why Homeowners Did Not Put Their Home On the Market:
- For 31%: financial uncertainty,
- For 24%: because of the Virus, and
- 34% just said, “Life is too uncertain right now.”
So hopefully as the world opens back up and people feel more at ease, these concerns will be relieved and we will see more inventory coming on the market.
The good news is that you’ve got all the control and should expect to sell your home for top top dollar and with the most favorable terms.
If you’d like more information and are thinking about selling, give us a call at HomePro Associates.com – We’d be happy to help because when you do what you love, people love what you do. Make it a great home selling and buying day. And be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel HomeProAssociates for more tips when selling. And don’t forget if you’re thinking of selling your home here in Shoreline, Washington – 98155, 98177, and 98133 – we are specialists.
Is A Direct Sale An Easier, Faster & Better Way?
Now, if you’re in a tricky situation – like you’re selling a home that’s not in great shape – or you need to sell quickly, due to death, divorce, illness or a family member moving into assisted living, I do want you to know about our “Direct Buy” Program.
Are you possibly thinking of selling your home but you don’t want to hassle with all the things you’ll need to do?
Or maybe you aren’t comfortable having a bunch of people trample through your house with everything we have going on in the world. I understand.
Sometimes I feel like I’ve become a bit of a hermit, too. It can be scary thinking of selling right now. While we do have plenty of precautions to keep you as safe as possible when selling, let’s go over a few other reasons you may not want to have to “Hassle With” the traditional way of selling your home.
Why A Traditional Home Sale May Not Be Ideal For You
#1 Maybe you don’t want to spend the time and money getting your home fixed, cleaned painted, and “picture-perfect.”
#2. You don’t want buyers and their agents coming in and out of your home.
#3. You don’t want to hassle with any repair requests the buyer may have
#4. You’re worried that you may not be able to find a replacement property in time.
#5. No one can guarantee closing on time and that makes you nervous,
#6. You’re worried your home doesn’t show well and you don’t want to have to think about extensive repairs or staging the home.
#7. You’re in a hurry and just want to get this done quickly.
#8. The thought of an Open House makes your skin crawl.
Well, if you’ve got any of these concerns, I totally understand, and there are options. We have a program that will help make it easy for you. We can sell your home without having to have a ton of buyers come through it, there are no repairs or staging, closing is assured, flexible with timing and so much more. Not everyone qualifies for this type of program and it’s not for everyone, but if you’re someone who want to learn more about a hassle free home sale here in Shoreline, Washington, 98155, 98133, 98177 give us a call. Here at HomeProAssociates.com, we are your community market leaders. As always, make it a great home selling and buying day. And remember, when you do what you love, people love what you do.
If You Are Thinking Of Selling A Home, Here’s What To Do Next:
Please go ahead and write your name and a quick note to us in the form here and we’ll get you some information on next steps.
