Tag Archives: kirkland-real-estate

Moving to Seattle from the East Coast

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Everyone who is buying a home comes to the marketplace with some preconceptions as to how things will proceed. If someone is selling a house in the area and buying a different house in the same area, there are not as many surprises that cause a lot of confusion. If someone is moving here from California, the process of buying a home is not different and the home styles are often so completely different that the expectation of what they will find is not carved in stone.

When someone is moving here from the East Coast, especially the Northeast, there are a few differences best known before you head out to buy a house.

1) THE HOUSES ARE DIFFERENT

facade

The main difference in the home style is what is called “Craftsman” style. If you are building a house, they often will ask “Traditional or Craftsman?” when asking for the main styling of all of the millwork in the house. While “Traditional” will resemble an East Coast Colonial style a little bit…”traditional” does not mean “colonial”. The floor plan may or may not be different, but the facade will definitely be different.

The four homes in the photo are basically new homes by the same builder with the two on the left being on the East Coast and the two on the right being in The Seattle Area.

Some of the main differences:

1) Wood or wood facsimile products vs Brick A lot of people moving here from other States and other Countries like the more solid look of brick. But know that one of the reasons this area avoided brick for the most part is due to earthquake activity. Wood has some flexibility. Brick and mortar joints do not. There are plenty of old brick tudors still standing that have been through earthquakes. But I have seen many where there are patches over time from the brick cracking in a step pattern. I had some pictures in my phone of a house over in Montlake with this issue recently. If you do buy a brick house, examine it carefully, not just for cracks but for sections where the mortar is wider and often in a step pattern. Do use a structural engineer in addition to or as the home inspector as well. The new homes the brick is just a “facade” and not part of the construction. Still, brick doesn’t move well, even to a small degree.

That said, many of the homes today are built with a wood-like cement product as the siding. More expensive and custom homes still use wood. But most tract homes use the wood-facsimile product that may not have more movement than brick. You just don’t have to deal with the mortar issues.

2) Shutters Most of the time you will feel like the shutters are missing. Often, especially when buying older homes of the exact same style you can find on the East Coast, people will remark that they need to add shutters. Colonial homes had shutters going back centuries of the type shown on the homes in the photos on the left. Once in awhile you will find a form of shutters here that are more of a tudor style shutter. Same with the uneven pitched roof on the bottom photo on the right. There is a tudor influence. But no shutters has been more common for a very long time and because the homes were built that way it may not be easy to add them.

3) Closing and Closing Day

ALMOST NEVER DO YOU MOVE ON THE DAY OF CLOSING ON THE WEST COAST. NOR DO YOU TAKE OFF ANY TIME FROM WORK ON CLOSING DAY.

This has always been the most significant difference in the process, and one that often confuses people who are buying homes.

DO NOT MAKE ANY ARRANGEMENTS FOR MOVERS OR ANY OTHER SERVICES FOR CLOSING DAY!

This is vastly different from the East Coast where closings happen all day and several times in a day, usually every hour or so.

Whether or not you are moving here from the East Coast, it does seem a bit odd for the seller to be signing over his house to a buyer before it is paid for. It also seems a bit odd to sign all of your closing paperwork as the buyer and even bring your funds to closing, and not get the keys to the house. Even more odd that the day of closing is not the day you can tell your movers to bring your belongings to your new house.

The difference is that on the West Coast (and several other States) “closing” means the County has actually recorded the Deed to the property in the buyers name. On the East Coast that is not the case and the Deed is often recorded “in due course” and sometimes a month or so after closing. HUGE difference. On the East Coast they do a table funding and the buyer and seller are often in the same room with the agents and the closing agent. They buyer brings their money, the lender sent the money early in the day, the seller gets a check and hands over the keys to the buyer. All that within one hour. So if the signing is at 10 you can usually have the movers start moving things in around noon. If your closing is at 1 you can usually have the movers ready to move things in by 3 ish.

NOT so on the West Coast. On the West Coast the seller sometimes signs the new Deed over to the buyer a couple of weeks before closing. The buyer most often signs a few days before closing. Closing Day is too late to do much of anything. If it all wasn’t done before Closing Day, or at least most of it, less likely it will close by end of day. Closing is a phone call saying “we have recording numbers”. That means the new Deed has been recorded in the buyer’s name and that usually happens between 4 and 5 p.m. (not always; but often)

BUT! KEYS ARE NOT DUE UNTIL BY 9 P.M.

Once in awhile the seller is not completely moved out by the time that phone call comes in. Technically they have until 9 p.m. to be vacated and hand over the keys. I have only seen it go all the way to 9 p.m. a couple of times in a dozen years. But neither is it practical to want the keys to the house as soon as you get the phone call that it is closed.

The Seller gives the keys to their agent. Their agent gives the keys to the buyer’s agent. The buyer gets the keys from their agent. Most always the Agent for the Buyer can’t get the keys until after it closes. There are a dozen different ways we arrange this depending on the agents and parties, but do know that having cleaners or movers standing outside the door at 5:30 p.m. can end very badly.

Things are changing a bit because of the new rules that lenders must follow as of October 3rd. We are seeing more table funded loans and more buyers signing the morning of closing. We can’t move to a system where all buyers sign the morning of closing. It just wouldn’t work for the Title Companies.

As a buyer you don’t get much notice as to when you will be signing. More and more people are paying an extra cost for a mobile signer so they can sign after business hours or very early in the morning before work.

Just know that Closing Day on the West Coast is very, very different and once your loan documents get to escrow, there will be a signing appointment scheduled with very little advance notice. It’s a bit chaotic, but, it’s just how it is done here.

If you have moved here from the East Coast and have some other observations as to the differences, do note them in the comments along with where you moved here from.

Beginning the Home Buying Process-Workshop Post

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I’m trying out a “Workshop Post” style, where we DO what I do, together in realtime.

I have My MLS up as I write this article and we “work” through the scenario together, online.  The client will be hypothetical, but fairly consistent with an average actual scenario.

Young couple want a home for $500,000 in 98033 that is at least 2,500 sf, no more than 5 years old, with a lake view, if possible.  These parameters feel “off” to me, so before we talk about looking at homes, I go with the client, to the computer and test the parameters.  “Let’s put these in the mls and see if any have sold in the last 6 months using these parameters.”

Entering 98033, max price of $500,000, minimum year built 2002, with a Lake View.  Zero Found.  Before we take out the Lake View, let’s try shifting to 98034.  Nope, still Zero Found.  Before we take out the Lake View criteria, let’s try built since 1990 and 2,000 sf or better.  Still nothing.  OK, let’s take out the age of house restriction and see if that buys a Lake View.  Nope, still none.  Husband says, “Can I get a Lake View if I up the price to $600,000?”  We find a couple in both 98033 and 98034.

Wife starts getting teary eyed, doesn’t like the style of those houses and is not willing to trade down to houses like that just to get a view.  Husband and wife talk and agree that getting a veiw isn’t worth trading down in age and size and style.

Start over.  Back to original parameters of not more than $500,000 in 98033, 2,500 sf, built since 2002, but with no Lake View.  Nope, still none.  We shift to 98034 and we find one, but wife doesn’t like the style of home.

Buyers are getting discouraged.  I take over at this point and help them out.

 

I say are you looking for something like this?  It has 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths.  It was built in 1995, has 2,350 sf on a 10,000 plus sf lot and sold for $540,000.

Now we have two big smiles.  YES!!  They say, but we really wanted Kirkland.  I ask why.  They say because they wanted Lake Washington School District.  I say this IS Lake Washington School District, but it’s in Zip Code 98011 in the Finn Hill section of Bothell, possibly in the section Kirkland is talking about annexing.  Have to check on that.  They say they don’t care, as long as it is Lake Washington School District.  I say, but if it is in the “likely to be annexed” portion, the value may improve if the address becomes “City of Kirkland”, which would make it an even better investment. 

Now I give them “the bad news” that it likely has LP siding.  They ask how I know that?  We talk a bit about why it likely has this type of siding, and what that means, and not to limit to just this type and location I move on to other likely good scenarios and show them these houses:

all of which are in Kirkland, and come up with 10 to 12 other good options just outside of their original parameters.  In Kirkland, but a little older, newer, but  little smaller, older but remodeled, etc…

Now we are all happy and on the same page before we begin to look for property.

Agents often ask my why I don’t just tell them all of this in the first place, as I obviously don’t need to “go through the motions” to know what I already knew at the end.  I do it because it doesn’t take very long and I can’t really tell someone to knock out the view consideration or switch their other parameters.  I need to go through the motions because some will change to condo with a view or townhome, and some will stick with single family. 

By using what HAS SOLD in the last six months, instead of what is for sale today, we can see the likelihood of whether or not the option WILL exist into the future. Very Important.

Not everyone moves in the same direction, once the original parameters need to take a shift this way or that a bit.  So playing through the process is the only way I know how to have the client move the parameters, and not the agent alone.  Once they determined Lake View was the one parameter that was going to be moved, and once they knew the reason they imposed those parameters, such as School District, I was able to speed through to a “better place” and ease their pain.

This experimental post is what I think people mean when they say they want “more transparency” about how real estate really functions.  If you like it, I’ll do some more using other areas such as Green Lake, Redmond, etc…  I can’t do places outside of my service area, so don’t ask me to do Columbus, Ohio :), but I can take specific requests for a post like this one.

Your opinion appreciated

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[photopress:blog.jpg,thumb,alignright]I’d like your opinions on this one.  Still scratching my head over this scenario.  Five brokers got together after it closed and had FIVE DIFFERENT opinions!  That’s the day I realized that NONE of us seem to agree on “THE RULES” anymore and hence the day that I started supporting alternative business models.  When five real estate brokers can’t agree on the rules, then it’s a free for all and anyone can play it any way they want, is how I saw it at the end of this scenario.  What do you think?

Brand new agent is working with a buyer friend/client who lives in her building.  They see each other most every day, though they first met at an Open House in the same building where they both live.  Agent wrote an offer for this buyer on the property where they first met, but that buyer didn’t get it.  So they continued to look at property together for weeks, maybe months.

Since the agent was new, never sold a house, the broker and associate broker of the company often accompanied the new agent and buyer when viewing property and always when the buyer was interested in the property and ready to write an offer.  So the buyer was well served and well covered on all fronts and had even been to the home of the broker and the home of the agent.

One day the associate broker suggested to the buyer and the buyer’s agent, that the buyer sign a Buyer Broker Agreement so that the agent could solicit For Sale By Owner and unlisted sellers on behalf of the buyer.  This way the seller would know the agent was not representing them, but the buyer, when asking if they might be interested in moving and selling.  Since the buyer knew pretty much exactly where she wanted to live, the associate broker felt a little “door knocking” was in order and a Buyer Broker Agreement needed since the door knocking was in the building where both the agent and the buyer lived.  Both agreed and the buyer signed a buyer agency agreement.

One day the Broker received a call from an agent regarding a property that had been on market a very long time.  Three brand new townhomes that no one seemed to want to buy for many months in a hot market.  The agent wanted the broker to come and see that one with her and the buyer, but the broker had already seen it and felt the agent could “handle” showing it on her own, which she did.  While the agent was showing, the associate broker contacted the listing agent regarding the availability of the townhomes and to ask some other questions.  The listing agent replied saying “Please bring your clients!”

The buyer that same day decided to make an offer on a different property, and she got beat out by a cash buyer.  The day the buyer found out she was beaten by a cash buyer, she called the listing agent to see if the other new construction property was still available.  She could pretty much see the sign from her window and just picked up the phone and called from the sign before bothering the broker (agent having gone on vacation). 

OK – here’s where you have to start paying close attention.

Buyer calls listing agent to see if it is available.

Listing agent says “Yes, but you better HURRY and get your agent to write that offer.” (8 months on market and 3 of them for sale)

Buyer says, “I just wanted to know if it was available, I can’t afford it anyway”.

Listing Agents says, “What can you afford?”.

Buyer says “$90,000 less than the asking price.”

Listing Agent says “I can’t let it go for that, but I can do it at $60,000 less than asking price.”

Buyer almost falls on the floor and says…OK…

Listing Agent again says “hurry”.

Buyer starts to say, thinking to herself, “My agent went on vacation…” before she gets to “I’ll need to call the broker…”

Listing Agent jumps in and says…”No problem, I’ll write up, I’ll even come to your house and do it.”

Listing Agent gets to buyer’s house

Buyer starts backpeddling, “I really can’t afford more than $90,000 less than asking price…”

Listing Agent says, “I can’t let it go for less than $60,000 under asking BUT the seller can pay 2% of the sale price toward your closing costs,IF we only pay your agent 1% of the 3% commission.”

Buyer says, “Can you do that?” 

Agent’s says, “Sure, it’s called a ‘referral fee’ and I do it all the time.

Listing Agent writes into the contract…”Selling Office Commission of 3% to be divided as follows: 1% to Buyer’s Agent and 2% to Buyer to pay closing costs.”

Basically…listing agent “pulled a Redfin” our of her hat.

In doing so, the listing agent sold all three of the townhomes for the seller, as everyone was waiting for someone to buy one.  Once he had a contract on one, he was able to get all three in contract within 48 hours.

So Listing Agent did a GREAT job for his seller client, by getting all three that had been on market for 8 months SOLD in 48 hours by twisting the arm of someone else’s client.  Some say that was his job and a good thing.

Buyer was left totally unrepresented and didn’t realize that “a referral fee” did not give her representation AND she didn’t notice that the contract she signed with the Listing Agent to buy the house said “NO ONE is to REPRESENT the buyer and ONLY the seller is represented”.  It didn’t state it that clearly.  Two little blocks were checked where it said SELLER, leaving the buyer unrepresented.  But the buyer chose to live with that in the end, after it was explained to her by the associate broker of the buyer’s agent a week later, in exchange for 2% of the buyer agent fee.

Your thoughts? A lot of agents know who the Listing Agent is, because the agent does this a lot.  Please do not use the agent’s name in your comment.  I will have to delete it if you do.  Let’s keep this “generic”.