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Happy New Year and
Welcome to our first Email Newsletter!
Greetings!
We aim to provide timely and relevant real estate information to our clients and friends on a monthly basis. We provide the latest pulse on local and national trends. With this information you can evaluate your primary home, residential and multifamily investment and vacation properties.
Thanks to our amazing clients! We love getting to know you and helping you and your friends, relatives and colleagues in these important times in your life!
We welcome any feedback and hope you will send these newletters to others who may benefit from this information and who are looking for experienced and committed agents to assist them with their next sale or purchase.
Here's to a wonderful 2009!
All the best-
Susan and Amy
Two Generations Serving Your Real Estate Needs
for Over 25 Years
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Market Pulse 
As full-time Realtors constantly out in the market, we get a real pulse for what is going on from a feet on the street perspective, away from all the media hype and national trends. We develop our pulse from office meetings, seminars, agents, and transactions. This is key to knowing what is going on in our area...that's why they say..."All Real Estate is Local."
- After a fairly quiet December, our sales board for both sales and new listings is filling up quickly! We think lots of people took advantage of the perceived "bottom" of the market during the traditionally slow holiday periods and decided to "make a deal".
- Realtors in the Madison Park office are reporting more calls, more showings on listings, and generally a boost of activity since in the New Year.
- We have seen a few articles lately showing increased median sales prices in Seattle and the interest rates are very attractive- both for new purchases and for refinances.
Optimism! |
Price Per Square Foot Trend 
We rely heavily on statistics when determining pricing for a home
or comparing properties for a purchase. Most CMAs are based on a few homes in a targeted price range and neighborhood, but it also helps to know what the trends are on a broader scale. The above chart depicts the entire Seattle area for the last year including all price ranges and in city areas for single family residences. Most recently the average for December 2008 was $247 per square foot.
We subscribe to the real estate statistics service Trendgraphix, which provides current and historical data on a every metric in our area, highly customizable by price, neighborhood, and a wide range of other data to give an accurate picture of trends over time. We include several of these graphs in all of our CMAs. |
Great Book for Our Times 
A great book we are reading about the changed real estate market is "Shift: How Top Real Estate Agents Tackle Tough Times" by Gary Keller. One discussion focuses on the so called Buyers Market, in which buyer reluctance is high and urgency is at an all-time low. This paradoxically contrasts with the prior Sellers' Market in which Buyers were excited to buy and were lining up to buy whatever was available, without any fear of value!
The moral is, you cannot "time" the market because once you've realized the shift, things have already changed. So buyers who are ready, willing, and able, have a strong plan and realize that real estate is a sound investment over time will definitely be able to take advantage of this market.
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How We Help You
* Conditions Assessment-
we see your house through "buyers' eyes" and provide you with an assessment of any work or improvements needed. By presenting your home in the best possible condition, this helps you get the most money from your house in the quickest amount of time.
* Comparative Market Analyses (CMA)- no cost, no obligation way to see a probable market value for your home. This includes: all recent comparables in your area, comparables in other neighborhoods, photos of those listings and all details on their price, square footage, features, etc. We also provide various graphs and statistical analyses to show you different ways to value your home. Then we mix the math with years of experience and intuition and arrive at a value range. You know the value of your stock portfolio, you should know the value of your home!
* CMA on prospective purchases to make sure you are getting the best deal possible.
* Tireless work on each and every transaction from start to successful closing.
* Expert negotiation and knowledge of markets, financing, positive relationships with other agents, lenders, escrow, title, and other service providers.
* Full service representation
We would love to hear from you on how we can help you achieve your goals! |
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Seattle Job Growth
The Seattle (including Tacoma & Bellevue) area added 19,900 jobs in November 2008, ranking the area fourth in the country, behind three much larger areas. Seattle is a desireable place to live with tons of recreation, global pathway to international markets, and fabulous diverse neighborhoods and vital downtown. | |
