I am hoping that the “journalists” at Forbes actually did some research and fact checking (a lost art) before making this pronoucement. So is Seattle worst in days on the market, worst is job growth, worst in household income to sales price, worst in sales volume to supply, and so on and so on?

Instead, the “writer” probably looked at one stat – percentage decline in sales volume or price from a year ago. Seattle was still relatively strong in July 2007, unlike many other markets that tanked well before that. So just because we are the last to come off of our peak that makes our market the hardest to sell in? Please tell me Forbes actually has more to go on than that logic leap.

So, I had a Redfin agent visit my home yesterday with some clients. When they left, he told me “Good luck!”. I was left wondering, is that an indicator of the market or the state of my home?

FWIW, this is the first time I’ve seen a Refin agent come by out of maybe two dozen visits.

[...] Wallingford « Seattle: One Hard Place to Sell a Home [...]

“So even while Seattle prices haven’t dipped here as much as elsewhere, folks still aren’t able to move their homes in a timely manner.”

These two facts are directly related. Once sellers start reducing their prices to more reasonable levels, houses will start selling.

2007 is history. It’s time to move on.

We are totally finding this to be true- we relocated to Oregon in May for DHs job and have lowered our house from 765,000 to 619,999 last week and have not sold. When we put it on I had 4 agents through and got from 725,000- 785,000 with 2 saying around 750,000. we got offers at 735,000 and 679,000 but when puh came to shove people couldn’t sell their home to buy ours and in the second case couldn’t get financing!!!

From today’s P-I

Home sales up, prices down in Western Washington

Home sales in Western Washington are up for the first time in more than a year and a half, prices are down and the inventory of homes on the market is tighter.

KIRKLAND, Wash. —
Home sales in Western Washington are up for the first time in more than a year and a half, prices are down and the inventory of homes on the market is tighter.

Those results for September were reported Monday by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, a real estate consortium based in Kirkland. It covers all 16 counties west of the Cascades and three to the east – Kittitas, Grant and Okanogan.

Home sales in those counties rose nearly 4.1 percent in September and about a percentage point more, nearly 4.2 percent, in King County. The last monthly increase in home sales was 4.8 percent in February 2007.

The region’s median sale price for single-family homes and condominiums fell last month by 8.3 percent to $295,000.

Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company

******
I think anyone can come up with anecdotes and individual horror stories, but is Seattle really the hardest place to sell a house? Despite the national economy and the credit crunch, sales still managed a slight increase.

There is still a lot of economic mess to sort out.

Per EastsideRE’s comment, I couldn’t sum it up any better: “There is still a lot of economic mess to sort out.”

I saw the PI article just after I posted this. Between the anecdotal evidence, seemingly contradicotry stats and general state of hysteria surround the economy these days, it’s pretty much impossible to capture the industry’s current state–let alone try to predict when things will imporve.

It all makes my head hurt. Fiddle-Dee-Dee, I’ll think about it tomorrow…

We had two potential buyers who were really close to proposing. They didn’t go on because of the economic bad news, not because the property is priced too high.

“Seattle” in the press includes places like Graham, Gold Bar, Auburn, Lynnwood, etc, etc. Does anyone realize the difference between those towns and the City of Seattle? Most low income people can not afford Seattle because of it’s great neighborhoods, great economy, job growth and high desirability. I know that I wouldn’t ever live in Gold Bar, Seattle is just to great of place.
All of my properties are fairly priced and tend to sell in multiple offer situations OVER LIST PRICE! And no, I do not list them “low” or below market value, I simply educate my sellers on where their price should be and move forward.

Bob Teiton~

So if i live in Graham, Gold Bar, Auburn, Lynwood or Sultan I am low income? Who died and made you boss? By your comments i can tell that higher education was not on your list after recieving your GED. Sorry you are having a tough time selling in this market. Stop trying to sell homes and go get a job that better suits you. Maybe something in Gold Bar.

EastsideRE ~ great comments!!

Sultan~

Remove thy head!!! Bob you are DEAD ON!!! Keep selling and make the media eat it.

The joke is REDFIN

Sultan.

I am not “boss”. I am just a hard working agent who talks straight and takes great care of my clients. Oh, and btw, I’m number 1 agent in my office of 120, so my job is GREAT!

I totally agree with Bob, he sounds super smart. He can surely be my boss, I WILL NEVER WORK WITH A REDFIN AGENT AGAIN. The absolute worst experience of my life. Keep selling Bob!

Munterhitch ~ sounds like you should be the one removing things. REDFIN is great not only for the housing market but also for the economy. It puts money back into the owner and buyers pocket. Making 3% for selling a 700,000 house nets an agent $21,000. That is CRAZY!!!!! No wonder there are angry agents out there. You are obviously one of them!!

Bob~ that’s great! Is it tough being #1. This forum isn’t for you. Why dont you and munterhitch go drink it up like “Joe Six Pack”… Youboth can stop posting your comments here.

Why so angry Sultan. I’m sorry that mortgages are no longer being made to sub-prime borrowers, unfortunately they just tend to default on their loan obligations. Have you looked into moving to Oklahoma or Arkansas? You can get a double wide for about 15k on an acre of land.
Cheers, got appointments backing up!

Sultan~ Are you a REDFIN employee who monitors this site? ahhhhhh How’s life where government hands you everything? Need a loan? Can’t afford one? Go ask Sultan where he/she got theirs. Wait, can property ever be overvalued in Sultan. Agents work for their commission. If they don’t buy/sell they don’t make money. As an agent you can work your butt off for weeks and have something fall through. No one’s fault, maybe someone gets cold feet. To say that an agent isn’t worth the commission is ludicrous. Maybe contact Bob the next time you are trying to buy/sell a home and see what a real agent does (Bob I assume you rock!!) for the “CRAZY” commission.

To all of you… DO NOT BUY INTO THE MEDIA HYPE or move to Sultan

Not that it matters but I am retired and I am only 41. I made half my money starting a software company and then the rest in the stock market. If REDFIN asked me to monitor their blog from the likes of you and Munterhitch I WOULD!! I would like to invest in the company. As someone who makes money on investing I think I could make a ton off a REDFIN investment.

I am not angry, however I do believe that your comments illustrate your intellect. I highly doubt your claim of #1 agent in an office of 120 agents. Are you even in this state? Bring a SOUND argument to the table or, as you say “Cheers” go deal with your appointments. Another comment that shows you are not an agent.

I on the other hand need to go pickup my children from school. No I don’t have to make up fictitious appointments to make myself appear to be working. I worked very hard for 15 years and now I can enjoy life. Have fun playing with your “internet friends” posting back and forth

OH, and if you do want to try and sell one of my properties let me know. They are all Eastside and are valued about 1.5 million. Might be a touch out of your townhouse league Bob

Sultan~
I’m sure Redfin could waste your investment money as well as they have others. I too have had the bad fortune (as Delta has) to deal with redfin and will NEVER accept another offer from them again. They actually do nothing for their clients and leave everything up to the “working agent”, the ones like me that actually work for their commissions. Since they do not make money and will soon burn through their latest round of financing, please, invest whatever money you have left in the stock market, no doubt they need it.

Hmmm.

A quick Google search nets no realtor named Bob (or Robert) Teiton. The only hit was for a comment on another blog, right under another poster called ‘munterhitch’.

Tom~ and your point is? Did you Google “Sultan” You find 1-blog with bob and I blogging, so what? I bet you anything it was a “Seattle” blog. FYI bloggers tend to roam in the same areas. We both have the right to blog and our comments are not out of line. Sultan was engaging too.

On another note, Do you think Munterhitch is my real name? Well, do you really think Bob Teiton is his/her real name? As far as being an agent, I would venture to guess bob is our his/her wife is.

So the question is: What are your thoughts about this article? Do you feel Forbes did their homework? Do you think it’s hard to sell in Seattle? Any thoughts on what EastsideRE said?

No response will tell me you would rather not engage. I would then assume this blog is done and move on to the next blog. Either way I am trying to learn, contribute and have fun while doing it.

“munterhitch” –

“Bob” was doing a bit of bragging. Since he was posting under a fake name, I have a hard time deciding what else is fake.

If you scroll up, you’ll see that I’ve already commmented on the article.

- Tom

Wow,

You guys all sound really stressed. Why is there all this back and forth between realtors and redfin? I have used both and I have experienced good and bad with both.

As a consumer of these services I can only say that I like having options. Monopolies make people lazy and many, but not all, 6% realtors have had it pretty cushy for a long time. I have also had realtors that were worth their weight in gold. With Redfin, I had a not so with it rep one time and the other time I had a rockstar. I think the market place has room for both.

That said, I think someone needs to take a cattleprod to these banks so they start lending again. Mortgage rates should be about 5 to 5.25% right now, not 6%. I am not saying make more risky loans, but price the good loans better and we might start to see more inventory move.

Peace out.