Buying Seattle Real Estate, Seattle WA Homes

In keeping with my last post about Real Estate search sites I’d like to deal with some of the realities of searching online. Number one is that to see inside of a house you need some one to let you in. With For Sale by Owners, or discount brokerages you may well be dealing directly with the home owner. In most cases you have to get through the gauntlet of Real Estate agents.

I have a Real Estate license, but didn’t get the key card to open key boxes. Like you, I prefer not getting contacted repeatedly by a Real Estate agent just because I went to look at a house.

The two things I recommend is making a Sunday tour of Open Houses in the area you are interested in, but also there are Broker’s Opens during the week, in the middle of the day. Sunday Opens are easier.

If any one asks, tell them you are working with an agent. You can tell them you will be writing your offer with redfin or WaLaw, or you can mention my name, or any agent’s name. From that point on you should have some insulation.

If you do want to see houses, and a lot of people do, you can contract with an agent for home tours. I think redfin offers the service, but pretty much any discount, desk fee agent can also open doors for you. The going rate, if I recall correctly is $250 for a set amount of time.

We will probably run some Buyer Agency Classes this year that will include a bus tour of houses, but there are only so many hours in a day.

There are a lot of what we would call Discount Brokerages that are offering online services. Some of those services, like from redfin, are online searches for residential property. The functions have really become incredible.

A national site that offers searches and Real Estate information is Zillow. You can type in an address, or zip code and every listing for sale, or sold comes up on the map. Zillow is also the home of Zestimates that wants to be a national resource for home values. I’ll do another post, another time about that.

John L Scott is our own, local brick, and mortar Real Estate company that I still consider the best search site for residential Real Estate. Lennox Scott must have devoted millions of dollars to search functions. I can only guess because I have no confirmation about that. All I know is the the John L Scott search function started out faster than my computer could keep up with when it first came out.

Seattle Washington happens to be the home of Redfin, Zillow, and Findwell. These are all nationally recognized brand names yet they are based here. We are kind of the epicenter of technology for Real Estate services. When Microsoft comes out with a new function Real Estate companies are the first to want it.

The Multiple Listing Service publishes statistics each month about how many properties sold. Then they have commentary by the Brokerage company executives about rising, or falling inventory levels, and how that effects sales prices.

One point that I always want to make is that every property is for sale at a price mutually acceptable between a buyer, and seller.

The inventory levels are those that are “listed” with the Multiple Listing Service. These are people who have signed a contract to sell with a member of the Multiple. That is what determines the inventory that is referred to. People have this idea that if they just wait long enough, the perfect home will come onto the Multiple, they will be watching for it, and they will get what they want out of the Real Estate transaction.

Well, we have had times of no inventory. When that happens people get the idea that scarcity will drive up the price of property. In many past market places that was true. Today, a lull in activity of purchases will only lower the asking price.

What no one mentions in all of what has happened is that the activity, the number of transactions, creates an illusion of higher demand. That demand is being created by lower prices, and lower interest rates. Once there is a lull it means prices are no longer attractive to buyers who can afford to wait.

When you sign a Purchase, and Sale Agreement you are given choices of a Title Insurance, and Escrow Companies. These are probably something you never thought about or considered.

I should have broken this into two posts because there is a lot going on with Title Insurance.

Having a clear title is essential to getting financing. Clear title means that the chain of title is complete, and without clouds. A cloud can be a claim of adverse possession, like a fence encroachment. It can be a divorce where one party refused to sign documents. There can be liens, encumbrances, and a lot of other terms you never want to hear at a closing, or from your title representative.

Choosing the right company is worth the research, and I’ll do a post about that. Some times it has to do with the Title Insurance representative. A good representative can, or will spot problems, and can know how to quite them. Some know that some things are no problem at all. It helps a lot if your Title Insurance representative has experience.

Escrow is where all the documents come together so you can sign them, get them to where they need to go, and get the documents you need recorded. This is where experience is essential. It’s worth asking how many closings the agent has done, and how many they have on the desk at any one time. Escrow agents can get backed up. You can’t rush escrow, but at the same time it has to be done quickly. Many documents are time sensitive, and closing dates are set in stone.

It’s just worth thinking about ahead of time, but most Real Estate agents have the people they work with, and know. This is many times a good thing. It does help to ask the questions, but Title, and Escrow are something you may need guidance about.