Those crazy real estate professionals

[ARDELL]

"wait - she doesn't think that 3% buyers agent fee is worth it? Happy to be paid it, just not to pay it when it's her turn. seems a bit, um, hypocritical"

I don't charge 3% on a million dollar puchase or sale transaction. I don't charge 3% on most transactions. If you read what you quote me as saying, you will see your error. Most often I charge a flat fee. I said I would offer what I would generally charge. Probably a bit more than I charge. No hypocrisy.

[The Tim]

Yeah I have to stick up for Ardell on that one. If you've read some of her previous posts you'd see that she's definitely not the kind of agent that just takes the 3%. She's been experimenting with a bunch of different fee structures outside of the "standard" flat percentage.

Not that I would personally use her services either way, but I definitely don't see the hypocrisy here.

[deejayoh]

[laxtosnoco]

I'm with deejayoh that it seems a little creepy tracking something that should be a private transaction. But I guess it was her choice to put all the info out there.

I just hope the sale goes smoothly for her and she gets close to asking in a quick transaction. Not that I like (or dislike) Ardell, but I doubt some of our fellow bubbleheads could restrain themselves from taunting.

[ARDELL]

I wasn't registered to see and respond to your forums, but someone sent me the link to the discussion about me and my house, so I decided to dip my toe in.

The conversation is going very well from what I can see. There was another error regarding the property being on market with no price changes when I purchased it back in 2005. It was reduced from the $899,900 original asking price down to $850,000 when I purchased it. I also walked off with a 4% Buyer Agent Fee and the seller paid my closing costs, so I had NO cash outlay and left with $34,000 at time of purchase.

I'm surprised no one is calculating the tax writeoff of the Interest and RE taxes when calculating my "profit". When all is said and done, which means after it closes, if in fact I do sell it, I'll do a final wrap up post and answer any questions people may have. For now I'm trying to keep it a Reality TV type experience on the steps of selling your home, and not a conversation about the financial aspects. But I have no objection to your doing that on "your turf" and I'll stay tuned.

I'm surprised no one has asked where I'm going Will I buy? Will I rent? I can tell you I won't know until it closes, or at least until it is in escrow and I'm not 100% sure it will sell at all.

[Matthew]

Ardell,

I just assumed that you would be buying in Redmond, probably 2 miles from the MS campus. I think that all real estate professionals will withdraw to the safe confines of the Walls of Microsoft, to make one final stand against the evil forces of Emperor Subprime and his dark bubble minions.

A force field will be erected 2 miles around microsoft, where Crystal will lead her army of pink ponies to repel the onslaught of bubble minions. Stay tuned as the battle is predicted to last several years.

[mike2]

How could we know how much you're writing off? Self employed people generally have a lot of deductions. One friend in particular runs a cash business and in order to buy a home merely claimed enough income to qualify for a loan - which at the time not much was needed to get a good rate.

[Alan]

[ARDELL]

I'm thinking about a lot of things.

What I said was "I'm keeping my eye out for a fixer as close to Microsoft as possible. That would be my next two year choice from a financial standpoint. From a lifestyle standpoint, it would be a similar home at a similar price or less in Juanita, or Finn Hill or Forbes Creek, playing the Annexation and Totem Lake Mall card."

I'm keeping my eye on a lot of things. What I actually do will be very telling... Will I choose using emotional criteria or financial criteria?

[ARDELL]

Mike,

All of it. But my point is that some here stack the deck against loss in real estate as much as the Realtors stack it to the opposite extreme. Most times SB and Realtors are polarized opposites and equally incorrect.

If you're going to run hypothetical scenarios, why not include the whole payment as a writeoff and the RE taxes too. You calculated my income, why not calculate the write-off. Seems like a conspicuous error stacked to make a worse case scenario, just like Realtors miss things to create best case scenario.

At least make it credible guys.

[PublicEnemy#1]

Ardell,

Frankly, I think you are making a good financial decision trying to sell this year rather than next. I think Seattle and the Eastside are in for a rude awakening this year regarding home prices and stubborn sellers will be watching equity vanish if they refuse to lower their prices.

The reality is, banks aren't willing to lend money to people who want homes for more than 3x income anymore without a substantial down payment. That period of crazy lending is now in the history books, only to be resurrected in another 30 years or so, once everyone has forgotten the lessons.

I think your current potential asking price is too high, if you truly want to sell, but it's your decision and I will be curious to see how it pans out.

It's like your home in Kirkland. $850K for a bungalow in Kirkland??? I grew up in Kirkland, graduated from Lake Washington High School, and cannot seriously see what makes a 1921 bungalow with a view of Mt. Rainier and easy walking distance to Moss Bay worth anywhere CLOSE to that price.

If you can profit from your purchase a few years ago, more power to you.

Finding a bigger fool is the key thing to do. When we sold down south, (01/2007), I was petrified that the buyers would back out at the last minute because I thought they were crazy to pay what we were asking (and got).

Relatives thought I was nuts for selling when I did.

I thought the buyers (80/20, zero down) were crazy for taking on that monthly payment. Seeing how the market has changed in my old neighborhood, I am thrilled I had to sense/luck to bail when we did.

I hope you don't get caught holding the bag on this one.

[Alan]

Ardell,

I found your desire to be close to MS interesting. As a MS employee, I can't afford the houses around here. Most of the people I know earn in the same ballpark as me (within 30%). There is a house at the corner of 50th and 148th that is asking $800k. People with double incomes would be stretching to live there (although they are advertising is as subdividable with a rentable basement -- so that does lower the barrier to entry). But I think most people I know would love a hyper-short commute so it is a desireable location.

So you have this high employee dense area where the workers want to live. That makes the land more valuable. The fact that it is more valuable makes people who do not work in that area want to own land there. That makes the land even more valuable.

But based on current prices and the incomes of MS employees, I could imagine a scenario where most of the land around MS becoming occupied by people who do not work here. The result? Lots of traffic leaving the area and lots of traffic coming into the area in the mornings and evenings. Everyone loses.

[perfectfire]

[ARDELL]

PB #1 You did good.

It's not a bugalow. It maintained the bungalow frontage. Behind the "bungalow" is a three story addition making the total about 3,300 sf of living space plus the oversized attached garage. They'll be pictures of it soon enough, but I see your point. No, a bungalow of it's original size, about 900 sf, would not be "worth it". But it would be worth at least $700,000 and likely $750,000 as a teardown. The house should be worth $60 a square foot I think plus the lot value.

[ARDELL]

Alan,

Don't ever buy on or siding to a busy road like 148th. It's a heartbreaker if you try to sell on a busy road in a bad market. You want to slash your wrists.