Nancy Braam

One Real Estate Investment Plan: Never Sell

This works best with 1st time home buyers, but can work for most people until you get into high-priced homes.

To start: Buy your first house and immediately start saving your next down payment. It will most likely take a few years to save it so this gives you time to enjoy your home and lay down some roots.

When you have your next down payment saved, buy your new home, but don’t sell your old house. Keep it for a rental. Most likely it will more than cover the monthly payments, so what you are really doing is letting the renters finish paying the house off for you. If there is excess money over the payments you can either apply it toward the principal and get it paid off faster or you can put the extra in the next down payment savings account.

If you buy into this plan, you will pick your first couple of homes with an eye toward rentability. Go for 2 baths if at all possible – you can get as much or more rent for a 2 bedroom, 2 bath than you can for a 3 bedroom, 1 bath. And there are less people to wear out the house. 3 bdrm, 2 bath is ideal though.

For other real estate investment ideas, click here.

French Flea Market Meets Driftwood Salvage – Design Trends For 2012

It means that most anything goes in 2012. With the housing market still in the dumps, many people are choosing to update their current home. Here are some tips from top designers.

Emphasis on contrasts… in textures, patterns and colors.

“The basics get bolder: Over the last year, we’ve seen wood finishes getting lighter, rougher and unfinished. As a result, upholstered furniture is fighting back from beige! We are seeing a slow trend towards bright, colorful and bold patterned sofas and chairs. It’s not “grandma’s floral,” but rather rich velvets, silks and chintz with bold patterns and contrast.”  Kelli Ellis Interiors, Orange County, CA

“Layers of silky fabrics and luxurious wool, the combination of velvet and brick, stainless steel and wood design ideas create attractive contrasts.  Mixing decor accessories, made of natural stone and shiny plastic, metal, wood and fabrics are interesting home decorating ideas that add charm and unique character to contemporary interior design.”  Accord Staging – see their blog.

What’s happening on the color front? We continue with deep and bold colors.

“The dominant color is Grey. Warm Grey, Light Grey, Charcoal Grey. On walls, furnishings, window treatments, artwork, grey will be everywhere. Also coming on strong will be Yellow! In addition, know that Orange will still be hanging around; Purple is on its way out and Brown, which had a very long run, is gone.” Stephanie Henley (Stephanie coined the title phrase.)

Remember: Paint is still the cheapest improvement with the most impact. Fresh paint makes everything look new. Pick a  modern color scheme to make your home current.

Supersizing is still in…giant mirrors, large wall art, over-sized graphic scale. On a budget? Try stencils, framed posters or enlarged photographs.

If moving isn’t in the cards for you this year, remodeling and updating can make your current home your dream home.

HUD Foreclosures In Bellingham and Whatcom County – Week of 12/26/11

There are more HUD homes for sale this week than normal. 9 total. Only 2 are new.

This new one is at 3625 W. Rusley and they are asking $205,000. It’s a 3 bdrm, 2 bath, built in 1968.  West Rusley is a little close to the freeway as you can see on the map, but not a bad area or neighborhood. It looks like a pretty good deal.

Click here to see the others available this week. Prices are as low as $73,800! The highest is $225,000.

If you’d like to make an offer, see inside or get more information, contact me.

If you don’t know about buying HUD homes, here’s what you need to know.

A Word About Hiring Contractors Your Friends Recommend

Ellen trusts Rudy. In fact, they go to the same church. Ellen needs some work done on her house before she puts it on the market. Rudy recommends Mike. Mike has been a contractor for years.

First Ellen hires Mike do to some odds and ends inside the house and he does a fine job. When they discover the roof needs replacing, she hires Mike to do that also.

I met Mike. He talks the talk. He knows a bunch of the local builders and developers and we swap stories. He completes the work and Ellen pays him. All said and done, about $7500.

The house sells in the next couple of months and the purchaser prudently has a professional inspection. Much to our surprise, the inspector says the roof was “unprofessionally installed”. There were a lot of nails showing and the shingles weren’t even fully overlapped. The valleys were tarred. We had it inspected by a professional roofer and they said that basically it was a hack job done by someone who didn’t know what they were doing.

Since we told the buyer that we just installed a new roof, this made them understandably uneasy, and they were ready to walk.

Luckily, Ellen is a smart woman and knew that if the problem wasn’t remedied with this buyer, it would have to be remedied with the next, or any buyer. Besides, she paid for a new roof and a new roof she would get.

We had a new roof installed by a professional roofing company that warranties their work and saved the sale. In checking on Mike, we found that his contractor license expired in 2002 and naturally he isn’t bonded.

Mike’s story is that the roof was installed okay, although now he is not returning phone calls or emails, and he didn’t bother to talk to the inspector or the roofer. Maybe he thinks the problem has gone away. What do you think?

We are prepared to go to small claims court if he refuses to pay for the new roof. I think it’s a slam dunk win. I love small claim’s court.  I’ll keep you updated.

Moral: Don’t hire people to do expensive repairs who have no way to guarantee their work.

Real Estate Market Update For Bellingham and Whatcom County 3rd Quarter 2011

You’ve been hearing all sorts of negative news lately, haven’t you? Well, it’s not all that bad. Prices are down, the number of sales are up. Inventories are falling. Have a listen…

 

Banking Line Up For Bellingham and Whatcom County

MARKET SHARE OF LOCAL BANKS

The amount of Whatcom County total deposits in each bank, percent change in the past year and local market share. The latest deposit numbers are as of June 30, 2011:

Peoples Bank: $644.7 million, up 7.5 percent. Market share: 21.73 percent.

Washington Federal: $397 million, down 8.5 percent. Market share: 13.38 percent.

Bank of America: $369 million, up 6.3 percent. Market share: 12.43 percent.

Banner Bank: $242.1 million, down 5.9 percent. Market share: 8.16 percent.

U.S. Bank: $232.7 million, up 11.3 percent. Market share: 7.84 percent.

KeyBank: $207.6 million, down 11.6 percent. Market share: 7 percent.

JP Morgan Chase: $179.6 million, up 3.1 percent. Market share: 6.05 percent.

Wells Fargo Bank: $177.5 million, up 11 percent. Market share: 5.98 percent.

Whidbey Island Bank: $175.2 million, up 11.9 percent. Market share: 5.9 percent.

Bank of the Pacific: $118.5 million, up 10.3 percent. Market share: 3.99 percent.

Sterling Savings Bank: $96.2million, up 6.4 percent. Market share: 3.24 percent.

Skagit State Bank: $63.7 million, up 3.8 percent. Market share: 2.15 percent.

Union Bank: $43.5 million, down 32.3 percent. Market share: 1.47 percent.

Business Bank: $18.2 million, down 12 percent. Market share: 0.61 percent.

Columbia State Bank: $1.9 million, up 46.2 percent. Market share: 0.07 percent.

SOURCE: FDIC

Why Smart Sellers Stage Vacant Houses

Look at the difference in this very nice home in Sudden Valley, Bellingham, WA.

The vacant rooms don’t tell you anything. You can’t tell how big, or small they are. There’s no warmth. There’s no allure. If you were a buyer, which house would you want to see?

Remember that now nearly 90% of ALL home buyers search for homes on the internet. You have to make this first important cut. Your vacant rooms won’t make anyone’s heart beat faster.

A few thoughts about staging vacant homes:

• Don’t use the old furniture you don’t want to take with you. Not the impression we’re going for.
• Hire a stager. They are well worth the money and run about $350 for a consultation where they can visit the house and chose pieces that will best enhance each area. There’s a monthly or quarterly charge for the furniture. It varies widely so you’ll have to check around.
• You don’t have to do the whole house. That would be ideal but it’s not entirely necessary. Do the living room, dining room and kitchen at a minimum. Get advice from the stager on this.
• Think of it as a way to make a buyer respond positively to the first impression of your house.
• Think of this simply as a cost of doing business. Your house is a product on the market and you have to help make it stand out. Pictures of it will be blasted everywhere – make the most of them.

Your effort counts. Showing your house off, means good pictures. It’s hard to take a great picture of a vacant room.

More Bellingham Washington Weather Facts

• 

  Here’s the weather today!

  Bellingham snowfall – 11 inches

• Ski area snowfall – 647 inches
• Sunny days – 71
• Partly sunny/cloudy days – 93
• Cloudy days – 201
• Measurable rain – 150 days
• Occasional strong winds – 25-35 mph
• Humidity – monthly averages 73-83%

Weather Facts For Bellingham, Wa

How Many Stinking Offers Do I Have To Make?

Let’s call her Leslie. She’s a first time home buyer getting an FHA loan with 3.5% down payment and hoping for a little help with closing costs from the seller. Her credit is good. She is a professional with a good job and a bright future. Her price range is $200,000 or less. It sounds doable, right?

So why is she is making offer after offer and not getting a house?

1. It’s tough to compete with cash. In her price range there are some good bargains. This is also the price range in which investors are looking. Leslie feels justifiably slighted when the seller counter-offers a cash buyer who made a lower offer than she did. She’s the one that stepped up on the price. Her offer was even the first one written.
2. She’s making offers on houses out of her price range – hoping the sellers may be some of the really motivated one’s we’ve heard about. Is that a bad strategy? No, but it’s a long shot to start with, so most won’t work.
3. She’s making offers on short sales. This is a complete wild card. Even if you offer the list price there is no guarantee the bank will approve. More on short sales.
4. She doesn’t make a quick enough “buy” decision. There are a lot of folks looking for bargains right now. When one comes on the market, there is no time to do research or anything else. We have plenty of time for that after they accept. If you wait until there is another offer, almost anyone with a bigger down payment will take it away from you.

Under $200,000 in Bellingham is very competitive. If you are a low down payment buyer, just expect to stay in the game and keep looking and making offers. Keep your spirits up. Try not to take it personally. If you just keep going, I guarantee it will all work out.