Readers of this blog know that up-and-coming condos in Bellevue will cost $400k for 700ft², but what about up in Snohomish County? Well, your $400,000 won’t go much further, netting you a mere extra 100ft², and hopeful residents of Everett’s fancy new waterfront condos aren’t batting an eye.
But last week, Olsen said the condominiums would begin at about $400,000 for the smallest floor plan of 800 square feet. Larger floor plans of about 2,000 square feet, which Olsen said would be the most sought after, will run between $600,000 and $800,000.For some on the waiting list, the cost of a waterfront home is virtually never too high.
“I intend to spend about $1 million,” Everett resident Ron Spelhaug said. “I’m ready; I’ll do it tomorrow.”
There’s a saying that comes to mind… something about more money than sense… More power to you, I guess.
(Krista J. Kapralos, Everett Herald, 02.19.2006)
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24 responses so far ↓
1
Van Housing Blogger
// Feb 20, 2006 at 9:06 pm
What would one of the $400K 700sf units rent for?
In Vancouver, the latest presale project had 600sf 1BR’s going for C$350K (and remember that we don’t get mortgage interest deduction). They would rent for around $1300 maybe when new.
2
Dukes
// Feb 20, 2006 at 9:11 pm
When you are a jackass bragging how you would happily and easily spend 1 million dollars as if it was nothing you are sure to be putting yourself in a bad investment situation.
People who have the means to spend a million dollars easily do NOT brag about it. And, I am quite sure they wouldn’t be buying a condon in Edmonds.
3
Dukes
// Feb 20, 2006 at 9:11 pm
sorry that is ‘condo’ in ‘Everett’
4
Dukes
// Feb 21, 2006 at 3:19 pm
Here is another exchange between me and a local realtor on an outrageously overpriced POS.
ME:
Re: Listing: 26024651
Hello, I am quite curious as to why this seller seems to think that 345K is a fair price for this tiny house. I looked up its history, I see some work has been done, but this house was bought for 140K in 2002, now the owner is trying for the utmost greed in selling for two hundred thousand more than what they purchased it for?
Real estate is slowing all across the country, there were approximately 150 price reductions in the last 24 hour period here in Seattle alone. I think you should start advising clients like this one that they must be realistic in setting their prices. Plus the area is not good at all. I am interested in buying but will not pay ridiculous prices for a little shack like this. Thank you
Realtor: apartmentscott@yahoo.com
Good luck buying in Seattle the prices are going up about 2% a month. I know because two of my own properties have doubled in value in the last two years.
The longer you wait the more you will pay.
My Response:
You are absolutely wrong Scott. As a matter of fact what you just said to me is ILLEGAL under the Washington State Board of Realtors guidelines. I was in financial services for years and have had my real estate license. You CANNOT guarantee price increases. And if what you say is true, why are we seeing so many reductions.
I am going to report your conduct to the Board, it is this type of scare tactic that has led so many fools/sheep into buying overpriced homes.
5
Anonymous
// Feb 21, 2006 at 5:19 pm
You can get a $400K 3/1 IO ARM and pay as little as $1500/month for one of these condos.
A minimum wage worker makes about $1360/month.
2 minimum wage workers in a household can easily swing this, albeit with a 70% debt service to income ratio.
People are already doing this, heck I know someone with a mortgage payment 90% of her income - parents help out now and then.
6
Anonymous
// Feb 22, 2006 at 9:44 am
Dukes:
You are out of line baiting realtors to make statements that you take out of context. Scott, the realtor you cite, did not guarantee any price increases. He simply indicated that prices have been going up about 2% per month. He did not state that this trend would continue. Your threat to report him to the Board of Realtors is outlandish and is a complete waste of their time and yours.
7
ob
// Feb 22, 2006 at 10:53 am
Also a waste of our time for reading that hateful drivel.
Who cares if someone thinks they can get $200K more then they paid? Maybe they can, maybe they can’t that’s the free market.
I’ll laugh when it’s time for dukes to buy or sell and all the local realtors ignore or hang-up on him.
8
Anonymous
// Feb 22, 2006 at 11:23 am
Scott the realtor said, “The longer you wait the more you will pay.” Although he may be right, it is still a form of manipulation to get Dukes to buy now, hurry hurry hurry!! The game is over. The only people telling you that it is not are home owners, realtors and mortgage brokers. The rest of us arn’t buying it anymore. Which is sad for you and this broken economy that has been feeding off the housing bubble and can’t survive on it’s own. Service jobs don’t pay the bills.
9
Dukes
// Feb 22, 2006 at 12:13 pm
I always love getting criticized here, if it bothers you so much i have a suggestion: “Don’t read it”!
Anon said I was “out of line baiting realtors to make statements that you take out of context” - what a crock of "chocolate", stop your whining. I was looking for an honest reason that this guy/woman thought they could get 200K more for their dump.
What I got was more real estate spin cycle nonsense. For those of you who are math challenged Scott the realtor is suggesting 2%/month increases in perpetuity (24%/year) - which means to me, as he stated, I better get in now or I will pay more later. This is NONSENSE! and if you can’t recognize this as a scare tactic you are a fool. I have an idea, let’s all quit our jobs, buy houses with 0% down and just get rich forever, wow what a great idea, housing doesn’t depreciate, so says Scott - give me a break.
ob: I would like to know what is hateful in what I wrote? What an ass to make a statement like that. Also, I don’t think I will have any trouble finding a scab realtor when I need one, they are like flies on a piece of rotting meat, there are many, many more of them than we need. Hence we get statements like the one about perpetual appreciation from Scott.
Get over yourselves, this mother is going overboard in a slow death spiral, if you are going to let lying realtors keep your head filled with tooth fairy stories that is your problem, I won’t stand for it! Scott is being reported to the Washington State Board of Realtors…
10
seattle price drop
// Feb 22, 2006 at 1:35 pm
Go DUKES!!
Yes, if what the RE Agent said was exactly the way you stated it here, then it was clearly a scare tactic designed to perpetuate the buying frenzy of the past several years.
And anyone who is watching the RE market (which any professional RE Agent SHOULD be doing) has got to know that it is at this point HIGHLY QUESTIONABLE whether RE will keep appreciating.
This agent is either a liar or he’s ignorant- too ignorant to be working in the field.
11
Anonymous
// Feb 23, 2006 at 2:13 pm
I stand behind my earlier statements in defense of the realtor. Dukes, you say that “Scott the realtor is suggesting 2%/month increases in perpetuity (24%/year)” and “housing doesn’t depreciate, so says Scott.” Neither of these are fair interpretations of what he said. I recognize he did say “the longer you wait the more you will pay.” He should have qualified this statement and said something like you “might” pay more or if “current trends continue, you could pay more.” Even without these qualifications, his statements cannot fairly be read as a guarantee of any sort. In the end, house prices are set by market forces, not any one or any hundred realtors. Your continued ranting and raving at realtors will not solve the problem of escalating home prices. It is the prices that homes are purchased for, not the prices they are listed at, that is the root of the problem. You should be ranting and rabving at the buyers of these homes, not the realtors.
12
Anonymous
// Feb 23, 2006 at 3:05 pm
Very true that buyers themselves have pushed prices up.
When will they realize that it is within their power to bring prices down?
BOYCOTT!!! It has worked for Americans in the past.
Let’s get the monthly cost of shelter back reasonable levels and put our money to better uses.
13
Dukes
// Feb 23, 2006 at 5:00 pm
Anonymous, with all due respect you are missing the point.
You say: “He should have qualified this statement and said something like you “might” pay more…”
Yes, but he didn’t, did he? After he told me about 2% per month he went on to brag about his properties doubling. Now, if that isn’t trying to act as if “you better get in now”, which is a FEAR tactic, I don’t know what is. You are really naive.
Also, since Scott has now been reported I think it is safe to say that there will be one less SHILL out there trying to scare the foolish home buyer into the market at the wrong time.
We have a difference of opinion that is all, I enjoy my rantings. Like I said before, if you don’t, then don’t read them.
14
ob
// Feb 23, 2006 at 5:27 pm
“Also, since Scott has now been reported I think it is safe to say that there will be one less SHILL out there trying to scare the foolish home buyer into the market at the wrong time.”
Bwahah, easily the funniest thing posted on any housing blog this week.
I don’t know what is funnier though, one person trying to change the whole industry (getting realtors to stop lying? Are you going to make em stop eating too?) or thinking that anyone at the “reporting” agency gives a crap about your complaint.
15
Dukes
// Feb 23, 2006 at 5:46 pm
You and I differ ob, what can I say? I see you are a defeatist as well.
You see, I look at a situation and DO something about it, whatever little that thing may be. You on the other hand bend over and grease yourself waiting for the inevitable poke.
Sorry, not for me, I will stand up to a liar in a lying industry and now bow down like a schoolgirl. Maybe you should grow a backbone.
16
Anonymous
// Feb 23, 2006 at 6:09 pm
Dukes:
can you tell us what the exchange/response was when you reported our lying realtor of the day (or should I say hour?)?
17
Dukes
// Feb 23, 2006 at 6:25 pm
Yes anon, the Washington State Board of Realtors has taken the complaint, passed it on to their complaint enforcement division and they are now in the process of notifying the agent that he is being looked at over this, and their is a mark on his record of a complaint.
This may, or may not do anything, but I am TIRED of being lied to by realtors. So, when it happens, I point it out to the realty board in this state.
18
ob
// Feb 23, 2006 at 6:38 pm
“You on the other hand bend over and grease yourself waiting for the inevitable poke.
Sorry, not for me, I will stand up to a liar in a lying industry and now bow down like a schoolgirl. Maybe you should grow a backbone. “
I’m fine letting the other guy take a poke, and the more pokes they get the further out of real-estate they will stay. Then it’s my turn to start picking things up. The longer the market takes to stabilize/drop the longer I am out of it, and I don’t like that.
Basically we are both expecting the same thing. You are trying to single handedly fix things though, and I know that the worse things get, the better off I’ll be. It’s really a zero sum game, so the more money other people lose, the more I can make. (btw sold nearly all real-estate holdings in the summer, including my home.)
19
Dukes
// Feb 23, 2006 at 6:48 pm
ob, glad to hear that you got out when you did, very smart move. I don’t know why you felt the need to attack me like you did, but … what the hell.
I was in financial services for over 10 years, I am no slouch in the investment arena, but get frustrated when being lied to by those who I am willing to bet have done less research on their own industry than I have.
I am positioned to do very well from a real estate downturn via light shorts in builders and heavier shorts in sub prime lenders. Then I am also short the cubes.
So, we are both wanting the same thing. All I wanted from this realtor was an honest answer, which I have gotten from others. Instead he chose to be an asshole, but, so be it.
20
ob
// Feb 23, 2006 at 7:04 pm
Just a different take on the situation i guess. I prefer to let liars lie and the chips will fall where they do.
Say for instance I’m re-listening to the TOL 4th qtr conf call, and man what a crock. But I’m not going to try and report them, or chew out Bruce Toll. I’m just going to collect cheaper puts :D
I guess my attacking response was triggered by your attacking the agent. Just seems like a waste. Like telling a ditch digger his boots are dirty.
21
Dukes
// Feb 23, 2006 at 9:35 pm
I still don’t feel that I was attacking this guy. I was looking for a straight answer and what I got was a crock of "chocolate" designed to goad me into a fear purchase.
Robert Toll, you would not be able to get through to him if you wanted to so no sense trying. In this case, I was able to affect this situation, so I did.
22
Anonymous
// Feb 23, 2006 at 10:03 pm
Here’s a question for anyone who might have an answer:
If a home is on the MLS list for a while under one MLS # then goes off the list for a few days and goes back on under another #, does the RE agent have to tell you that info IF YOU ASK?
I realize they may not want to offer that info up w/o your asking. But if you DO ask, do they have to tell you?
About a month ago I printed out the Caldwell Banker listings for a certain neighborhood.
Since then I’ve been following what’s happening w/ the properties, price reductions, etc.
This week I noticed 3 properties that had gone off last week were re-listed under different MLS #’s.
23
Dukes
// Feb 23, 2006 at 10:52 pm
That is a good question that I don’t the answer to.
I know that if I did ask him and he wasn’t truthful with me, I would tell him right then and there that you have the old MLS #’s, and want to know why he isn’t telling you the truth.
I have access to MLS, once you are in there you can access “property history” which shows all previous listings. If I can do it, so can he.
24
Anonymous
// Feb 23, 2006 at 11:36 pm
Thankyou for your answer Dukes.
I have worked with both honest and dishonest RE Agents in the past.
I’ve got a feeling that as this thing begins to unravel, there could be a lot more disreputable stuff going on out there than there has been in the past.
Anything that will help ferret out the silly/stupid liars from intelligent helpers is info worth having.
Yep, if MLS history is available to every agent then there’s my amswer.
Thanks!
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