Greetings. I haven’t been posting on this blog because I’ve got “gremlins” in it. Someone has added one of those nasty things that cause multiple users to be signed up, and I’m not sure how to get rid of it yet. I hate to have notices for this blog try to get sent to all of those users.
Yippee! The snow is melting in my yard. I was snowed in for a few days but able to get out on Thanksgiving Day. I’m happy I was able to get out my driveway, and manage the icy roads in my community. As usual it is my own driveway and the side streets near my home that cause me the most trouble on snow days. Once I get out to the main roads, there is no problem.
Yesterday I managed the drive from Shelton up to Tacoma with only minor slow downs, and the drive back in the evening was not too bad. Since winter has not officially started yet we here in Western Washington are beginning to wonder what nature has in store for us this year. Usually we have a rather temperate climate — not too hot in the summer and not too cold in the winter. The last several winters have been pretty mild. We are wondering if we are due for a cold and snowy winter.
I have a client who is eager to get out and see some houses in our area, and in Thurston county next to us, and we’ve been waiting for the snow to get out of our way. Looks like this coming week will work for us.
As for the real estate market, it is pretty darn slow this month and as far as we can tell is going to be slow all throughout the winter. I’ve got some sellers who are still waiting to put their homes on the market, and I see no reason to urge them to list their homes until after Christmas, if not even later. I don’t know about other agents, but I like to see my listings sell, and I really dislike disappointing my clients if their properties don’t sell within a reasonable time.
It is rather challenging to price properties correctly these days as the comps are not often adequate. There are too many short sales and bank owned properties on the market depressing the market. With the way the banks are holding back a shadow inventory of even more foreclosures, we expect to be dealing with bank owned properties for years. If only this forclosure business could be ended for keeps.
Now, I don’t pretend to be an economist, but I can’t help but wonder. What if instead of using billions upon billions of dollars to attempt to encourage the banks to help people stay in their homes we simply invested about 300 million dollars (a lot less money) to our individual citizens who had mortgages under a million to pay off their mortgages. (We only have a population of about 300 million in our nation, so this is very, very doable.) That would keep them in their homes, stop the foreclosures and stabilize things for a while. Of course the bankers would all scream bloody murder because they would lose some money in the deal (money being much more important than people). They want that billions upon billions of dollars from us taxpayers, and they also want the interest from their loans, and the even greater profits they make from kicking people out of their homes. Sigh, it’s really too bad that the Mr Potters of the world won the battle of the banks, and we never learned the lesson of that often repeated Christmas movie, It’s a Wonderful Life.
Tags: foreclosures, it's a wonderful life, snow
Last year we had a lot of fun marketing what we called a mini-farm. It was a “Homestead” style mini-farm in that the owners were doing everything on a small 5 acre parcel: gardens, chickens, pigs, cows, ducks, and other odds and ends of homesteading. These owners knew what they were doing, and didn’t mind doing the work to keep everything running well. We had several prospective buyers look it over, and sold it quickly. The previous owners moved back East and are now starting over at the Homesteading game, but on 20 acres. We get reports now and again of how things are going for them.
Now we have what I would describe as a mini-ranch that we have just put on the market. This nearly 8 acres has been set up for cattle. It has much of what anyone raising a few head of cattle would want to have for a successful little ranch. There are two barns. One has stalls, and was used mainly to store hay. Nearby is a covered manger for feeding cattle. The other barn has a loafing shed, parking for vehicles, and lots of storage. This is where the previous owners out the mother cows and their calves. There are holding pens, loading ramps and squeeze chutes for vaccinations, too.
When it comes to the house you can easily see where the previous owners priorities are. The house was built in 1940 and has been kept in good condition, and insulated, but the owners were not house proud. In other words, they didn’t care to update anything, but preferred to simply keep things in good order. The house is a 1 and 1/2 story home with a full basement. There is one bedroom downstairs, and two up. The basement is unfinished, and was used for laundry. There is a pantry, or as they named it, a fruit room off the basement, and also a small workshop. They did add a dishwasher to the kitchen, and put in a new furnace, and put on a new roof when needed. In other words, any changes they made had to make sense to them. The siding on the house is metal, and quite pretty.
This mini-ranch is priced at $$345,000. It is located in the Kamliche community, and this means it is close to Olympia WA.
Soon we will have a mini-ranch of another sort for sale. It is one that has been set up for horses instead of cattle. It has a small barn that is set up as stalls for horses, and a large barn for hay and such. There are riding trails right next to the property, which is wonderful because the pasture is probably best for only two horses. We’re not sure of the asking price on this one yet. It has a very nice manufactured home, with three bedrooms and two baths.
There are other mini-farms and mini-ranches in Mason County for those of you who are looking for not just a home, but a lifestyle.
Tags: acres, cattle, horses, Mason County, mini-farm, mini-ranch
Veteran Housing Assistance In Washington
Brandon Fischer
For military members and veterans looking to buy a home in Washington, there’s likely no better option than a VA loan. For more than 65 years, VA loans helped make homeowners of more than 18 million men and women who served our country.
The requirements for VA loans are not severely limiting. Those who may qualify are active-duty personnel, honorably discharged veterans or those discharged for a service-related injury. Usually military personnel qualify if they served 90 days or 181 of active duty during wartime or peace time, respectively. Spouses of fallen service members may qualify, as might Reserves or National Guard members who served for six years.
Advantages to VA loans are significant. The most cited benefit is the no-money-down possibility for qualified borrowers. For $0 down, borrowers can finance a home in Mason County worth up to $417,000. On top of that, borrowers may get sellers to pay up to 6 percent of closing costs. Other notable upsides to VA loans are:
-No penalty for prepayments
-Negotiable interest rates
-No private mortgage insurance
-Financing the VA funding fee
Basic Housing Allowance payments (BAH) further dwarf financial pressures, particularly when used in conjunction with a VA loan. The government determines BAH payments by calculating median housing costs in every market. However, excess money from having cheaper costs than payments earn is yours to keep.
BAH payments are designed to cover housing costs for service members on duty, but without government-issued housing. Depending on dependency status, location and pay grade, the payments differ.
Also, BAH acts as a verifiable type of income, thus making your debt-to-income ratio more favorable. When issuing VA loans, lenders look closely at this ratio. Basically, purchasing a home in Mason County won’t be as financially burdensome when using a VA loan and BAH.
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Thank you Brandon for this helpful and informative article!
Tags: BAH, buy a home, military members and veterans, National Guard, Reserves, VA loans, Veterans
Just have to get the word out on this one. We have 5 acres listed out in the Matlock area in Mason County WA. It was first listed at $99,000. Here is the ad:
REDUCED! Owner says “sell!” Country Living. 5 acres. Level and easily accessed with a gravel lane. Imagine a country home on this property. Do some farmer fence fixing and turn out the herd. The field is worth walking on because the grasses smell sweet when crushed under foot. Elk territory. Matlock country. Best land available in Mason County for homestead. Opportunity to become self sufficient. Hurry. Price reduced to amazing buy. Assessed at $70,000!
If you want to drive to see it: Take the Shelton-Matlock Rd, go Left on Matlock-Brady, Right on Deckerville, Left on Doggone Lane. Back 5 acres. Drive down gravel lane to see it up close. Matlock is a rural area and a great place for those who want to live that self-sufficient lifestyle.
You can look up the details at NWMLS# 26176163. The property has been on the market for 1192 days and that’s why the seller is getting frustrated and just wants to get this property sold.
Contact John Borgert at 360-490-6654 if you want more information, or want to make your offer. This is an amazing deal.
Tags: 5 acres, country home, Mason County, Matlock, vacant land
Home affordability is at an all-time low due not only to the drop in home prices but also to the continuing low interest rates. Nevertheless buyers are still not flocking to our office to buy property. Sales are better than at this time last year, but still far below what they were back in 2006. There does seem to be a stabilizing in the housing market. We are not seeing much building when it comes to new housing, and there are new homes still sitting on the market that were built back in 2007 and 2008. Builders are now very cautious and hesitant. When the tax credits ceased we saw a decline in sales, but at least not back to the levels of 2008.
Of course bank owned homes keep trickling out into the market and as best we can tell will keep doing so for the next couple of years. Short sales are also more common as people are forced to attempt to sell their homes for less than what they owe. It is no fun working with people on these short sales as the banks don’t make the process easy.
Sellers are still reluctant to sell their properties for the current market values, of course. Right now I am watching a property for a couple who made an offer that was refused. We were told by the listing broker that if the place hasn’t sold in a few months the sellers may want to get back to us. I will be surprised if someone else offers more for the property than my clients offered, so we are waiting and watching.
When helping clients to price their homes it is difficult to run comparables in the same way that we used to do. Here in Mason county we are not able to pull up enough sold properties from the last 6 months to do a good CMA. What I like to do is not only look for what has sold, but look more closely at what is for sale now in the same area. In other words, look at the competition. This approach is proving to be much better when pricing for a quick sale. I am also very serious with people when talking to them about preparing their property for sale. People need to understand that when they put their property on the market it ceases to be their home and becomes instead a product. They need to stage that property for sale, and get rid of the clutter of personal items.
I’m hearing that there is an increase in refinancing applicaitons and believe that this is where the action is when it comes to mortgage lenders. They are not doing as much business with purchase applications.
Tags: bank owned homes, home affordability, housing market, low interest rates
The Internet has been replacing newspapers for ad placement, but today we decided to put more of our ads back in the papers. You see, when everyone else is avoiding the papers, our ads will now stand out.
One of the paper advertising agents we like to use is the Shoppers Weekly here in our area. The other is a weekly newspaper, The Journal. Both of these papers are readily available to people in our local stores.
It is quiet again today in our office, and we sometimes wonder if we should have someone walk back and forth on the highway out front with a sign board pointing the way to the office, like all those mattress sale people and pizza place folk. Of course we know that only when the economy begins a serious turn around will buyers once again feel safe enough to purchase a home.
I am frustrated by the obstructionism of the Republicans in congress who have no motivation to improve the economy. They are not even shy about admitting that if the economy stays bad they can win elections. What I wonder is this: will they finally get serious about helping our country once the elections are over? Or will they just start looking to the next election cycle?
I don’t like the game playing that our elected officials on both sides of the aisle get caught up in as they constantly look to the next election. You would think they were playing football instead of governing with all their score keeping and lust for winning. And here we are caught in their game, like pawns on a chess board.
Tags: ads, economy, newspapers
The market report for June 2010 is now published on John’s website. Here in Western WA we are at least having a better year in home sales than we did last year. Each month for the last few months the sales have been better than the sales were for the same time last year. We are still far below the number of sales back in 2006.
The interesting thing about this market report is that it includes the % of bank owned homes are part of our sales. John has been doing these market reports for a ocuple of years now so you can look back and see our history. Those of you who are really into data will have fun with this.
In our office of Shelton Land & Homes, LLC we are certainly not as busy as we would like to be, and we continue to approach the business of real estate with an increased creativity. We do everything we can think of to market our listings, for example, using radio ads as well as the Internet. We also know of many people who would like to put their homes on the market, but are holding back because the buyers are not buying. From what we can observe the banks make getting loans such a trial these days that buyers get discouraged.
Our office has taken the training to be able to offer First Time Home Buyers classes for the Washington State Housing Finance Commission for Down Payment Assistance. This program is something we are happy that our state provides.
On another note, I keep asking this same question of people trying to get to an answer. My suspicion is that it is more profitable somehow for banks to foreclose on a home and then sell it for less than what the former owner owed on it, than it is to work with a home owner by lowering interest rates or forgiving part of the debt (to the same price the bank would be selling it for after foreclosure). Does a bank make a better profit by foreclosing on a home? Is there some kind of tax break? Because it does not make any common sense to foreclose on a home and sell it for less than the former owner owes on it, rather than work with the home owner and prevent the foreclosure. It takes a lot of work and hours to go through the foreclosure process.
Of course I hear over and over again that our country has given up on common sense, and we don’t have it any more. This situation sure seems to prove that belief.
Tags: bank owned homes, first time home buyers classes, foreclosure, market report june 2010
One of my young friends is off again to China. I have a niece who also ends up flying away to China now and again, though not as much any more. This still manages to amaze me. When I was young we didn’t travel as much as young people do today, or as much as everyone seems to travel today.
I recently boarded a plane to California, and noticed that planes have become more and more like buses, except maybe not as comfortable. We were crammed in, and everyone now carries their baggage so all the bins above our heads are jam packed. People are very creative in the way they manage to have only two pieces to carry on board. No one wants to pay to check a bag. If you want something to eat you will need to pay for it. We still got something to drink, and a tiny package of those ubiquitous pretzel mix things. I miss peanuts.
Anyway, I got to thinking about the past and how wonderful it was to take a plane anywhere. Your family and friends could come to the gate with you, and you could hang out together in restaurants until your flight. The plane was roomy, your bags were checked free, and the food on board was actually pretty good.
My young friend will fly business class, and I understand that this makes the trip more endurable. Flying to China is quite an ordeal, and not for the weak. It is a very long flight. I remember when she first started doing this kind of thing, and how much fun it was for her. Now she is married and has two children, and it’s getting to be more like work. However, she is fluent in the language over there, and good at what she does, so off she goes. Once she’s there she enjoys herself, but is also very eager to get home again.
Since we are so involved with China these days, I guess it is a good thing that many of our young people are flying back and forth to China, making friends and getting to know their way around. One of these days I’ll have to start asking some questions about real estate in China. The only thing I know is that they have been on a wild building spree in the last years, and changing everything. In our area building has slowed down to less than a crawl. There are still some contractors at work, but nothing like what was happening just a few short years ago.
