… Last Tuesday another housing market obstacle appeared in the form of Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Home Price Index for March. Prices for 20 major metro areas dropped 0.8% for the month and were down 3.6% from a year ago. These numbers had some folks claiming the double dip in housing prices had arrived.

But Case-Shiller’s longer term data reveals that in their 20 measured metros, home prices are still UP 38.2% since January 2000. This shows that in real estate, you have to look at the long term picture, just like you do with your 401K. You can see a chart of the info here:

Seattle Real Estate Tyler Freed

by Amy Hoak
Sunday, January 2, 2011

If your New Year’s resolution involves selling a home in 2011, you’ve got some work to do: There’s lots of inventory out there and in a buyer’s market like this one, getting an offer on a home can be challenging.

Still, for the committed seller willing to do some prep work and come to terms with the current value of his or her home, locking in a buyer isn’t impossible.

By listing in early January, you might be able to catch some of those early birds who start browsing in the winter so that they can find a new home before school starts in the fall, said Louis Cammarosano, general manager of HomeGain.com, a real-estate website. In fact, many buyers tend to start their searches online right after Christmas, and continue throughout January and February, he said.

“If you hit the ground running and you’re a fresh listing that has done everything right, you’ve got the best shot,” said Cammarosano.

Consider the following tips to give your home the best chance to get noticed — and sold — in 2011.

Price It Right from the Start
Many sellers suffer from attachment bias, said Tara-Nicholle Nelson, consumer educator for real-estate website Trulia.com. They believe that their home is worth more than they’d pay for it in another context. While it’s always a bad idea to overprice a home, it’s especially dangerous in times like this because there is so much competing inventory in many local markets.

Nelson’s advice: Give yourself a reality check by looking inside comparable homes during open houses. That can help you get a clearer idea of your home’s value.

Read the rest of the article

Seattle Real Estate Tyler Freed

Last Thursday at the Pierce County Auction I ran into a group called DataSnap. That had a lot of valuable information to share and I told one of their members, Zach Flowers, that I’d love for him to highlight how they assist investors purchasing at the auction. Here is a little bit about what his company does. Thanks Zach for the information!

DataSnap Background

DataSnap is a company that is set up to provide information on foreclosures from county to county, and also to introduce resources to make the financing of these properties possible. We do a great deal of research in an effort to sift through hundreds of foreclosing properties, so that we’re able to put only the best opportunities before our investor base. The amount of opportunities varies from week to week, mostly dependant upon what the banks decide will be the “minimum bid” on any particular property.

Within our group, we have a great deal of experience in dealing with almost any real estate related issue that could come up. Our services are guided toward those who wish to purchase, renovate, and sell, however we also present unbelievable opportunities for holding rentals, and also for individuals to purchase homes to live in. As a general rule of thumb, we do not assist investors in purchasing properties at auction unless they are at or below 75% of their estimated market value. This can vary if the investor is purchasing with the intention of holding as a rental or to live in because the deal may still make sense.

In evaluating what we consider to be a deal, we take a good look at what’s happening within a 1/4 mile radius around the property. We try and be very specific in determining values, and are very conservative in doing so. We have drivers who drive the properties throughout the week prior to their auction date, and we use their information to estimate fixup values so that we can have the best possible idea of what it will cost to do any particular deal. Overall our goal is to present viable investment opportunities to our investor base using our experience and expertise in the field of real estate.

To learn more about what we do and to meet us in person, we hold an Introduction to the Auction Workshop at our office located at 5825 Tacoma Mall Blvd in Tacoma, WA 98408. The workshops start at 6pm and are usually finished by about 7:30pm (depending on questions).

Seattle Real Estate Tyler Freed

City Council approves taller buildings for Vulcan’s planned complex
The Seattle City Council voted Monday to allow taller buildings on a block in South Lake Union to accommodate Vulcan Real Estate’s plans to build a research complex for UW Medicine there.

By Seattle Times business staff

The Seattle City Council voted Monday to allow taller buildings on a block in South Lake Union to accommodate Vulcan Real Estate’s plans to build a research complex for UW Medicine there.

Vulcan has proposed three buildings of seven and eight stories on the block, between Dexter Avenue North, Eighth Avenue North, and Republican and Mercer streets. Building heights had been limited to five or six stories.

Vulcan spokeswoman Lori Mason Curran said in an e-mail that, under the old height limit, the UW’s space needs would have precluded Vulcan from including open space in its design for the block. It is across the street from nearly 400,000 square feet of lab and research space Vulcan already has built or renovated for UW Medicine over the past six years.

The university is expected to decide by March 15 whether to proceed with the expansion, Mason Curran said.

Seattle Real Estate Tyler Freed

It seems to be Real Estate Monday, as a series of intriguing articles have broken recently. First and foremost, the Seattle Times has a fascinating two parter , that you must not miss: A series of interviews with former WaMu executives and employees, as well as a survey of internal company documents, reveals that management plotted a “reckless course that doomed the bank.” I always find it instructive to note the people who try to shift blame elsewhere, when it disagrees with their

Seattle Real Estate Tyler Freed

United Tech 3Q profit falls 17 percent – Norwalk Hour HARTFORD — United Technologies Corp. continued to feel the impact of the downturn in aerospace and real estate markets as almost all its businesses posted declines in the third quarter. The Hartford-based company said Tuesday that markets are Real estate changed hands, Scrushy says – Montgomery Advertiser Scrushy described the transfer during sworn testimony as he was quizzed by attorneys for HealthSouth shareholders seeking to collect

Seattle Real Estate Tyler Freed

Bulk REO Investing In Today’s Market – lakefrontlandandlots.com 10/07/2009 Bulk REO Investing is proving to be one of the most lucrative fields of investment during 2009 and beyond. Bulk REO Investors profit by purchasing groups (commonly called portfolios) of properties from lenders who have repossessed the properties and have urgent need to release pressure from their balance sheets. Real Estate Investing In Today’s Market – financeandmoneyarticles.info 10/07/2009 Bulk REO

Seattle Real Estate Tyler Freed