ARDELL's Seattle Real Estate Blog

Does Redfin have a special price for Microsoft Employees? Last week I received a call from "My First Blogclient". He had been doing his own research on buying an investment property down in Federal Way and wanted to make an offer on a 4Plex. He wanted to make an offer and indicated that Redfin had a special deal for Microsoft employees. While I have not been able to verify this, I was told that the charge of 33% of the seller offered rate for a buyer agent is reduced to 25% of the seller offered rate for Microsoft employees only.

Before calling Redfin, "My First Blogclient" called me. I thought about it. He had really done all of his homework regarding the property and loan programs to purchase the property. There was no issue of "who showed the property" as no one gets to see a four-plex before making an offer because no owner wants their tenants disturbed by "looky loos". So this was truly "A Redfin Deal - write it up and see it at inspection"

Many know that I am generally a supporter of the Redfin Business Model and this is a good example of when "A Redfin Deal" makes a lot of sense. He is a repeat client, so I already know him very well. He already knows what he wants to buy and didn't drag some other agent around showing him property to get to that decision. He spent many hours of his own time researching property and loan programs. And honestly, he did a bang up job for himself. Better than many agents could have done.

So I matched his "Redfin Deal" and he is now in escrow. We got to spend some time together, which for me was more like a much needed break, and not work at all. He's a great guy whose company I enjoy.

Some people shake their heads when I support the Redfin Model, especially agents. Any business that causes the rest of the industry to stop and think, offer more options, and generally change the underpinnings of a stodgy and unfair industry model, is to be lauded. Not just because Redfin is a new option for consumers. But because those options increase exponentially as it causes others to stop and truly think about the Buyer Agent Fee as a fee the Buyer Pays, and not just a "Seller Offering" in the MLS.

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Mar. 16, 2007 - My Project Blogger Apprentice

As seen this week in Inman News, we are getting ready for the kickoff of "Project Blogger". The Competition is STIFF and the Coaches will be hard to beat!

Here's the meat of the Inman New story on the event:

ActiveRain will select 10-15 blogging coaches to each train a real estate blogging apprentice of their choice. Over the course of about four months, the blogging coaches will aim to develop the most successful real estate blogger.

Coaches and apprentices will be chronicling their Project Blogger experiences on their own blogs and the Project Blogger group on ActiveRain. A few coaches who have already signed up are Teresa Boardman, who blogs at the St. Paul Real Estate Blog; Ardell DellaLoggia, who blogs at the Searching Seattle Blog; and Jim Cronin, who blogs at the Real Estate Tomato blog. More about the coaches who have already committed to the project is at the "Meet the Coaches" post at ActiveRain.

Teams will be judged each week and scored according to criteria such as degree of innovation in approach, consistency, quality of postings, the apprentice's community involvement, traffic or reach of apprentice's blog, and more.

The competition officially opens on April 9 and ends July 15. Winners will be announced at Bloggers Connect. ActiveRain will donate $5,000 to the winning team's charity of choice.

Interested observers can track each team's progress and updates on the competition at the Project Blogger Forum on ActiveRain.

Inman News' Bloggers Connect is the first conference for real estate bloggers. The two-day event aims to help real estate bloggers gather insights into best practices and the biggest rewards of real estate blogging.

By now you should be wondering who that handsome dude us up there in the photo. YUP!! That is my apprentice, Kevin Tomlinson the King of Miami Beach and South Beach Luxury Townhomes. Stay tuned! This could get fun!

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Mar. 2, 2007 - Seattle Area Real Estate Market - 2007

Where is the Real Estate Market going in 2007?

As you will see from the information below, 75% of the market will still be a SELLER"S MARKET in 2007, based on how the year is opening up so far. We do not begin to see inventory tipping over into a balanced or buyer's market until we get over $800,000 in price, which only represents about 25% of the housing market, in the area I have chosen to examine.

I am using stats from Bellevue, Redmond and Kirkland on a combined basis to track the active markets. This Market Subset should represent the best of our Seattle Area Market, and everything else should be evaluated in relation to this market, as we move through 2007.

I eliminated the under $200,000 market, as this price range is fast disappearing with rising prices. There are only 7 properties of 919 on market ,priced at less than $200,000.

The below chart clearly defines that the market is moving at a very fast pace since 1/1/07 in the $200,000 to $400,000 price range, with 279 properties in escrow (purple) and 176 sold since the first of this year. Supply (green area) is no where near high enough to meet the demand for housing in this price range.

A SELLER'S MARKET in the $200,000 to $400,000 price range.

In the $400,000 to $600,000 price range we are still seeing a seller's market, though not quite as strong as in the under $400,000 market. Properties are still selling at a faster pace than supply, by a large margin.

A strong opening for 2007 in all markets priced less than $600,000 in Bellevue Redmond and Kirkland. This is representative of approximately 66% of the housing market in Bellevue, Redmond and Kirkland.

Still slightly tipped to the Seller's Side of the Fence in the $600,000 to $800,000 price range. But reaching a more balanced position.

I wouldn't be surprised to see some of the houses for sale (Green Section) dropping out of the $600,000 plus price range and into the $580,000 to $600,000 price range in the next 30 to 60 days. Especially those that are 2006 carry-forward inventory.

We don't approach a slight tip to the Buyer's Side of the fence, until we get past $800,000 in price. While Buyer's might see some advantage to the Supply being higher than the Demand here, this market segment only accounts for about 10% of the market in a year's time.

If you are buying or selling at $650,000 or less on the Eastside in 2007, market conditions continue to be strong. The dominant portion of this market is between $200,000 and $600,000...which is by and large "the safer zone" representing 63.6% of all home buyers and sellers in the Bellevue, Kirkland and Redmond markets and the area most likely to rise at 15% to 25% or greater in value by the end of this year.

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ARDELL DellaLoggia On Seattle Real Estate including Kirkland, Bellevue, Redmond, Green Lake and most areas around Lake Washington North of Downtown Seattle. Phone: 206-910-1000 - Mailto:Ardell@RainCityGuide.com