While the investment is a consideration always, first you have to find the right kind of lifestyle and then factor in the investment side.

Holding my comments re Eastgate until I know if you have children going to school.

Thanks for your reply. I am looking at single family homes and townhouses in the 500,000. I was taking a tour of the Northgate area and noticed a great house today built in 2006 which was priced at 579,000. I came back and looked at other houses in that area and noticed that most of the houses in that area have been unsold for over 3 months. Not sure why that would be, but that sure seemed like a red flag.

After Northgate, I took a small tour of the Beacon Hill area and the prices there were closer to my price range. Beacon Hill would also be much closer to work for me, so I am giving that area some serious thought

What is your opinion on appreciation of property near the East Gate area? While the commute on 520 from the East side to downtown for work seems like a nightmare, I don’t mind taking 90 as much. So I just looked online for houses in the Factoria and East Gate area and noticed some great houses. I also heard that a new mall is coming up in that area, do you know anything about that?

It could be like a stock that goes up when word gets our of a pending new product. Often by the time the new product is released, the stock price has already accounted for it by speculators.

Are you talking single family or condo or townhome? What price range?

I like the area between Green Lake and Northgate, always have, but not too close to Aurora. Big lot small house that needs work is better than better house on small lot. Be wary of “half-lots”. Think of the dirt as the appreciating asset and the house as the depreciating asset.

Beacon Hill and Rainier Valley have been good investments. We had clients who did a couple of flip projects later 2004/ early 2005 on houses they paid $120,000 for and sold for about $300,000 in Beacon Hill on the Mt. Baker side.

I don’t like to rely on appreciation alone in most areas. Some component of improving the property before you sell it is the safest bet in most areas, even if it is just changing it from ugly to not ugly, overgrown vs. landscaped, all pink walls inside (just saw two like that) to updated paint colors.

Updating does not have to be expensive. It just has to look better when you sell it, than it did when you bought.it . Best values being in good shape as to structure, roof and systems, but ugly.

We found better values off Lake City than anywhere else in the last five months or so. Up around 125th.

Shoreline is hard to call. Some really cheap stuff there and I’m wondering if the school issue once resolved will let loose some stagnant appreciation there. My understanding is that they announced that they were going to close a school or two, but didn’t announce which schools. That put everyone in a “wait and see” position. I haven’t checked on that for a couple of months, but once the uncertainty of the school issue is resolved, that could cause a slight blip up for areas where the school not closing is confirmed. Or if the school that closes is the “worst” one, that area could go up if assigned to one of the better existing schools. Talking elementary school here.

Whether you use the schools or not is irrelevant. School issues affect land value.

What do you think of areas around greater Seattle in terms of investment?e.g. the development in the Northgate area or the light rail construction in Rainier Valley and Beacon Hill areas make these areas seem like prime locations for investment. For people like me who work near downtown Seattle, buying something close to Microsoft might be a nightmare for everyday commute. So I am looking for something closer to downtown which would also appreciate at a good rate.

Not sure if he used the term “speculator” because he had just read the comments to this post. Didn’t ask.

But I would confirm that those who buy pre-construction condos and then put them on market as soon as the project is built are indeed “speculators”. Though I would say that “speculator” is a type of “”investor” as in all speculators are investors, but all investors are not speculators.

In new construction, that clearly would be a “spec house”. Never heard that term regarding a remodeled home, but I agree. An investor keeps the properties he buys for a longer time, rents them out and later hopes for appreciation as well at time of sale. A “Speculator” speculates he can “flip” them quickly.

That said, I have often received calls from “investors” and never received a call from someone saying, “Hi, I’m a speculator and I’m looking for…”