Condos and Homes to be auctioned in Dec 08 - trend?

I think a trend is starting in Real Estate here in Seattle and some good real estate deals will be made for those ready to make an offer.

This past weekend I saw 3 ads for coming auctions. One is in a condo building on Capitol Hill in which I happen to own a rental. I personally think it's a great building, well constructed (Harbor Properties) and the condo conversion was very well done. Minimum bids starting @ 40% less than current asking prices.

There are also 90+ homes to be auctioned, some east and some west of the mountains. Those east could be great vacation/2nd homes. Those on this side are close in enough for commuters. Everett (Silver Lake), Lake Stevens and Issaquah are the areas where properties are located. New homes...great prices.

The auction company is out of California, where auctions are more commonplace than in our area. In a previous posting I detailed an auction I attended several weeks ago. There were some great deals but not all of them were great. The auctioneers work to get the crowd excited to get the prices up. Good strategy - take your client, determine a maximum price you will pay for your desired properties and then don't bid once the auctioneer starts the bids. By jumping in quickly it only increases the price quicker and could surpass your determined amount quicker.

I think we will see a few more auctions but luckily Seattle doesn't have the amount of inventory that other markets are currently carrying.

FHA Financing - Great option for First-Time Home Buyers

There is money to borrow to be able to purchase your first home or condo. The pendulem has swung back to a more traditional method of lending; a borrower has to have good credit, a steady income that can be verified and overall be a good credit risk. For several years not too long ago all you had to do was be breathing in order to get a loan.

The program was little used over the last 8 years or so because of the many possible loan programs (500+) that were on the market. Now that there is a more reasonable amount of programs (30-40) on the market FHA has made a strong comeback.

The FHA program takes a little up-front work but once you are approved the rest is pretty easy. It requires only 3% down (that will change to 3.5% on 1/1/2009) making it easier to buy a property will less money out of your pocket.

Please feel free to contact me for more details.

Seattle to Recover Quickly - Forbes.com article

A great article was published in Forbes.com on 10-29-2008. It states that on a scale of 1 to 9 Seattle scores the highest at 6.15 in the country. That doesn't mean that everything is rosy but that we are well positioned to weather the storm better than many other markets.

Due to a diverse business base and control on new construction Seattle isn't totally gloom and doom.

http://www.forbes.com/2008/10/29/foreclosure-recession-cities-forbeslife-cx_dp_1029realestate.html