Let’s check in again on the cheapest homes around Seattle proper. Here’s our methodology: I search the listings for the cheapest homes currently on the market, excluding short sales, in the city of Seattle proper. Any properties that are in obvious states of extreme disrepair based on listing photos and descriptions will be excluded. This includes any listing that uses the phrases “fixer,” “rehab loan,” or “value in land.” I post the top (bottom) three, along with some overall stats on the low end of the market.
Please note: These posts should not be construed to be an advertisement or endorsement of any specific home for sale. We are merely taking a brief snapshot of the market at a given time. Also, just because a home makes it onto the “cheapest” list, that does not indicate that it is a good value.
Here are this month’s three cheapest single-family homes in the city limits of Seattle (according to Redfin):
| Address | Price | Beds | Baths | SqFt | Lot Size | Neighborhood | $ / SqFt | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8137 10th Ave SW | $115,000 | 2 | 1 | 550 | 5,000 sqft | Delridge | $209 | bank owned |
| 9026 10th Ave SW | $119,900 | 2 | 1 | 770 | 4,760 sqft | Delridge | $156 | bank owned |
| 10715 59TH Ave S | $119,900 | 3 | 1 | 1,360 | 7,683 sqft | Rainier Valley | $88 | bank owned |
All three are new since our last update. Two of the top three from our last update were pulled from the market without selling, while the third went pending on February 8th.
Stats snapshot for Seattle Single-Family Homes Under $200,000 (excluding short sales)
Total on market: 106
Average number of beds: 2.6
Average number of baths: 1.3
Average square footage: 1,235
Average days on market: 105
Inventory, beds, and baths are all holding steady, but the average square footage and days on market continued to steadily increase.
Here are a couple of charts to give you a visual of the trend of these numbers since I adjusted the methodology last April:
Here are cheapest homes in Seattle that actually sold in the last month, regardless of condition (since most off-market homes don’t have much info available on their condition).
| Address | Price | Beds | Baths | SqFt | Lot Size | Neighborhood | $ / SqFt | Sold On |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9929 Beacon Ave S | $107,000 | 3 | 1.5 | 1,770 | 9,736 sqft | Rainier Valley | $60 | 02/11/2011 |
| 5110 S Medley Ct | $110,000 | 3 | 1 | 2,700 | 5,663 sqft | Rainier Valley | $41 | 02/22/2011 |
| 4101 Delridge Wy SW | $118,200 | 2 | 1.5 | 1,200 | 2,483 sqft | North Delridge | $98 | 02/18/2011 |
I predict that at least one of these will pop back on the market within six to nine months as a rehab flip. Number two seems like an especially good candidate.
White Washed Rehabs
I saw a foreclosed home a RE worker rehabbed and he lived in it for about 6 months after he bought it for cash and cleaned it up…..no, no new kitchen, rugs, roof and floors, etc….white paint everywhere….all the kitchen cupboards painted white, all the walls….it was selling about 30% below the neighborhood market, but he paid about 60% below market retail.
So you can remodel an old Bates Motel House too, all ya need is a bunch of white paint and elbow grease, and a sucker buyer….LOL
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The Tim, have you ever thought about doing this primarily by price per square foot instead of sale price? Maybe you’d end up with the same area, or even the same homes (like the one at $41/sq ft), but I’m wondering if that might yield at least some results in, shall we say, less urban areas? i’d do it myself if redfin let you export data from the cluster view.
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I buy homes in the area all the time and it is a great place to live. Close to the downtown and easy to get in and out. Thanks Tim for the breakdown. Great stuff.
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RE: softwarengineer @ 1 –
Not necassarily a sucker buyer, but maybe some one who wants affordable housing.
I used to do the all white, on white, with beige carpet until the internet craze. We had a property, new roof, new, siding (the vinyl siding Kary), new windows, plumbing, electrical, Insulation, and sheet rock, bath, kitchen the works. It was the cheapest thing in the neighborhood. When the idiot Real Estate agents would call me with thier stupid questions I would repeat the price.
One day Marlow Harris showed the property to her buyers, and I thought, great! Well, she had a list of things for me to do with the property, and no her buyers weren’t interested.
So we took the property off the market, painted the interior, planted some frigging pansies out front, and fixed a bunch of little handy man stuff inside. Less than $500 later, and raising the price $1K, the thing sold the first week end it was back on the market.
Pansies! For gawd sakes, it’s pansies!
To be more fair, the interior paint showed much better in the pictures. The front looked better, and more attractive. We have been doing the details ever since. Marlow is by far a resource worth having on your side in a sale. She also got the next project sold for us, same scenario.
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RE: David Losh @ 4 -Does Marlow work for Redfin now? Findwell? …………With all your hype for her I hope she brings something NEW to the table or at least rebating a good % of her commissions. Hope shes not like that husband and wife team that talk about 101 things to do in Seattle or something. What a great pitch that is…
Or maybe that Mack the knife guy…………..”Don’t mess withe me Ray”…Gotta love these characters even more then Tim’s bargain basement door busters. Tim, its about time you do some “Local Agents and their Sales Pitch” or something along that line…
Lastly, is it only me sick of the Steve Tytler commercials. I can’t take it anymore. He’s all over Dori Monson and hearing him pump Best Mortgage is causing me to lose hair..I can’t handle his smiling face on website and his voice..I’d rather listen to the TILA jingle all day..
http://www.bestmortgage.com/ …Although I do have a bit of a crush on the girl in the background of the video..But, then I keep hearing that voice and seeing that jaw…
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RE: ray pepper @ 5 –
You know Ray it is interesting that you would ask. Tomorrow is the REBar Boot Camp for Real Estate professionals. redfin will be serving coffee, and breakfast! The online Real Estate crowd will be learning how to get people to trust them.
Marlow, though featured over the years by Inman News Connect thugs, may be there or not because her award winning web presence kind of dwarfs what the big boys put out there on the table.
It is a case of you get what you pay for. Marlow has, over twenty seven years consistently made me well over 5% more, for the price of a 3% commission. She also has demonstrated repeatedly that she can move stale product when other just couldn’t perform.
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RE: David Losh @ 6 –
If Marlow made you money then I like her.. Thats good enough for me..
I’m missing ReBar camp. I should go. I had a good time when I attended last year. My greatest memory was of the loud mouth woman who hated Red Fin and she was in my group class. She was VERY athletic, Angry, opinionated, and had bandages all over her.
I forgot her name but she was somewhat popular or at least in her own mind she was. Who was she ? Help me Ardell? Jillayne? Who was the athletic, bandaged , physically fit, loud mouthed, Red Fin bashing Agent?
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RE: ray pepper @ 7 –
Athletic? Bandaged? Redfin bashing? I’ll look for her today.
I am going against my better judgment. There is a firestorm of the social media Real Estate crowd that has turned extremely ugly. You probably don’t recall that redfin also entered our Real Estate market by bashing “traditional” agents, or the “old way” of doing things. The internet was supposed to be all inclusive, sharing, nurturing.
The firestorm of last week end, and the one two weeks before about the new Real Estate Forum on Face Book are showing the online Real Estate community is very small, and very out of touch.
Sorry Tim, but you are implying in today’s post Real Estate agents are the ones who need to learn something. In my opinion the people who are attempting to manipulate the Real Estate Industry need to learn we are all one community. What has happened lately is disgraceful. It’s an attempt to bully, threaten, and is extremely divisive. I don’t care who is right or wrong, I’m just saying that the online Real Estate community is acting badly when we are all in the same industry.
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RE: David Losh @ 4 – What you’re describing is fresh eyes looking at something. Someone who sees a property every day will see less than someone (e.g. a property manager) who sees it once a month, who will see less than someone who sees it for the first time.
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Tim, this is crazy — We bought the #2 house that you mentioned as most likely to be flipped! I didn’t think I would ever own a house in Seattle, but the prices dropped enough to take the plunge. It needs a ton of major work, for sure, work that rightfully scares most buyers away, but we paid cash and plan to fix it up and move in later this year, and then have a home mortgage-free near a light rail stop.
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RE: Vivian @ 10 – Wow, nice. Sounds like a sweet plan. Congrats, looks like you found a nice deal. I love the mortgage-free plan.
Were you a regular reader of this blog, or did you just stumble upon this post because I mentioned your house?
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RE: Vivian @ 10 –
Really nice house! I’m always interested in project properties. My time is limited, but we have done a ton of these. You can contact me with questions anytime.
You can do this. You are bright capable people.
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