The Real Estate Blog by Cari McGee

There’s no really pretty way to discuss this - houses under contract are waaaaay down for May, continuing a trend I’ve been watching since the beginning of the year. If you’re a seller, that’s not a stat you’re excited to hear, but it’s true nonetheless. If you’re asking ‘why’, I’ve got an educated guess that I’m going to throw out there -

Mortgages aren’t as easy to come by as they have been, ergo, fewer people are buying homes.

I was speaking with an agent from another office and he said to me, “It’s getting pretty awful out there, isn’t it?”

I replied, “What? Business?”

He said yes.

I was honest and told him that for me, personally, I had seen a dip earlier in the year, but for the past 6 weeks I’ve been crazily busy.

He said, “Oh.”

I post these stats because people like to see them and I like to help interpret them. But I don’t live or die by them. I didn’t know May was down 39.6% in contracts as compared to May ‘07, or - 31% from May ‘06, or -16% from May ‘05, or showing a drop of 9.3% from my very first May in the business in ‘04. I was busier than I had been in a long time in May, and in June the busy-ness continued.

Great, Cari - what does that mean for me?

If you’re a buyer, it means that there IS a house out there for you, they’re not being snapped up as quickly, because fewer people are competing for the same house you like.

If you’re a seller, it means your house WILL sell, IF you are priced correctly and your home is in good condition, but be patient, as there are fewer qualified buyers scoping out the goods.

Check out the chart below…

Download the full Tri-City Real Estate stats for May, 2008. (649k PDF)

Wow!  Did you watch the US Open?  Holy mackerel - what an amazing finish.  I wish I didn’t need to work tomorrow so I could watch the playoff.

One of my favorite parts of my job is when people ask me over before they put their home on the market to find out what they should and shouldn’t do to get their house ready.  I like it because it’s usually so much easier than people think.  However, if I don’t work in your market, or you want to surprise me when I do come over, click here for an easy, downloadable guide to preparing your home. You can also just do a quick, at-a-glance sort of thing, organized by items and rooms-whatever works for you.

Washington is known for its apples - but we grow cherries here, too, and we have some on our property, as a matter of fact.  Usually, by Father’s Day they are all picked, and the ones at the very tip-top of the tree are old and over-ripe.  This year, they became perfect for picking just yesterday.  These are the eating cherries, our baking cherries should be ready in another couple weeks, which is also much later than usual.  The culprit?…the unseasonable wind and rain and cold we had a while ago.

I always tell everyone reading this blog that if they’re in trouble with their mortgage, to contact their lender and try to do something about it.  I urge this because I have always had the impression that people care about other people and don’t want other people to lose their homes.  The people at Washington Mutual, however, are fans of the push-0-to-repeat-your-menu-of-options telephone customer service maze.  AND, they’re such fans of holding people at arm’s length, at least one person almost lost her home. BUT, thanks to contact info provide by The Consumerist, she’s worked out a plan to save her home.  Details here…

A woman in our office has a framed drawing of how each person involved in a real estate transaction sees your house.  I wish I could find one for my office. This is the closest I’ve found to replicating it, though, and it’s pretty darn accurate in some respects!

That’s all for now.  Market re-cap coming later in the week, so check back soon!

I can remember have heard stories about the gas crisis of the 70’s. The downside about that time was that there was no Internet back then, and so no nifty ways, like this mapquest deelybopper, to find the cheapest gas in your town. How awesome!

Another fun week, weather-wise…um, not really.  I wore a cap-sleeved light-weight shirt and long pants to work on Thursday and about froze between the wind and rain that was prevalent.  Saturday I wore a skirt and another short-sleeved top to a wedding (congrats, Nick and Amanda!) and was too warm!  Doesn’t Mother Nature READ?

I’m not a huge fan of bugs and insects and other pests.  I am also not a fan of chemicals that might do more harm than good.  Soooo, if you have an infestation in your home, check these tips out before you call the exterminator.

Oh. My. Gosh.  THIS guy needs to be institutionalized.  Seriously, seriously I almost couldn’t watch.

Oooooooooh - I love it when houses sell for a ton of money.  I think it’s because the house where I grew up, in Hacienda Heights, California, is now worth about $500,000.  Here’s the thing - I grew up in that house, there’s no way I grew up in a half-millon dollar home! But it’s all about location, and I know for my childhood home, the value is there because of its proximity to LA.  This house, in London, is reputed to be the largest single home purchase in THE WORLD, if it goes through.  Wow!

A ton of home local homes have ceiling fans.  Did you know there is a right and wrong way to work your fan?  Apparently there is - and the Consumerist helps us out.

And you know what?  That’s it!  Have a great week!

Our citizens have been positively abuzz with what the flood waters wrought in Richland - snakes!!

From the Tri-City Herald…

Richland officials say they’ve found five rattlesnakes in Howard Amon Park, theorizing they may have been flooded from their homes by the unusually high Columbia River. City officials issued a warning to visitors at riverside parks, and signs were posted around the park Friday and on the door at the Richland Community Center, where one snake was found on the patio and three were found in the garden.

It gives me the heebie-jeebies every time I think about it. So, in an effort to conquer my fears, I took a walk through the park yesterday.

and it was a snake-free zone, thankfully!

The expert interviewed in the article went on to explain this unnatural phenomenon -

“The snakes, they’re not trying to do anything disruptive on purpose, they’ve just been displaced because of the high water,” said Tim Werner, the city’s parks and facilities resource manager…Werner said he hasn’t seen rattlesnakes at Leslie Grove and Howard Amon parks in the more than four years he’s been with the parks department so he thinks they’re getting swept downstream from their homes. “I think what’s happening is that farther on up the river where the habitat is the water line is higher, so snakes will climb on brush or debris that’s lying on the land,” Werner said. “As the water gets higher, the debris starts to float and they get caught up in that and come downstream.” No rattlers have been spotted in Kennewick’s parks, officials said. The Western rattlesnake is common in Eastern Washington and typically found near its den, generally in rock crevices exposed to sunshine, according to the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife. But it has been a strange weather year and it wouldn’t be unusual for the high water levels to sweep rattlesnakes away from their natural habitats, officials said.

The water IS crazy high, as you can see from this photo -

Normally you’d be able to walk right up to that tree, and sit down under it to read a good book. Not today, not for a while, actually. I say go for a walk in the park and bring a book, anyway…but find a bench to sit on, okay?