Housing Market for Sellers? (Spokane: bank owned, short sales, real estate)

[mikester23]

We bought our house on Five Mile (Strong and Elm ST) in April of 2010, it was a new construction 5BR 2.5 BA 2 story house. We paid 225,000 My employer is relocating me to Utah and we have to sell the house. How is the market for sellers up here at this time? Is there direct competition with the home builders like Viking, Victory, and Copper Basin?

We're really going to miss Spokane, but we've got to sell fast. My employer is supposed to be assisting us with a Buyer Value Option, still not entirely sure what that is.

[Mounty]

Impossible to sell anything without a big loss. Probably just like everywhere else.

[CoreLysium]

Definitely rent in Utah if they're moving you around.

Someone suggest a good retailer to Mike.

[Cdarocks]

Is it possible your employer will buy the home from you? This is usually not good for your neighbors home values, depending on how it works, but it could get your out of your home. I would definitely follow the advice to rent in Utah. I would not buy a home unless you are going to be there for a good length of time. I highly doubt a new build you bought in 2010 in Spokane has appreciated at all. We don't live in the area any longer, but we did also buy a home in 2010. We got a fabulous deal and were feeling very good about it all, but even our home has gone down in value and we are not in an economically depressed area. What I would take from the that is a home in Spokane, which is economically depressed, is going to require you bringing $$$ to the table when you sell.

[buyandsell509]

Selling conditions have improved dramatically in the last 6 months. Your area is very popular, but you are right about competing with new construction. Depending on how good of a deal you got when you bought and how much you put down, you might be all right equity wise. Right now, in the 5 mile area, there are 81 homes priced between 200 and 250, of which 21 are pending. That's a 26% pending ratio which is really good. Also, homes are selling for about 98.5% of asking price, which is also very good. Moderator cut: see note but I can tell you that inventory is depressed, and buyers are increasing. This all translates to more money on your bottom line. Additionally, we are entering the last part of prime selling conditions in Spokane because sales are cyclical and tend to drop off after September. One other note, Sales have incresed about 20% and we've even seen increased asking prices and even a little bit of growth in home values this year. Hope that helps and good luck!

[fearnofish]

We just bought a house in Coeur d'Alene in June. To be honest we only looked at one or two tradition sells. Everything else was a short sell or bank owned. We got a short sell house for well over 20k below what it would normally go for.

So from the sellers side I would say it is a terrible time to sell because those of us coming into the area looking to buy won't hardly even look at a tradition sell because we can find the same size house, if not much larger for much cheaper.

[buyandsell509]

Short sales and REO (foreclosure) properties can hurt resale values, but not as much as you'd think. Additionally, Short sales and foreclosures have decresed more than 20% the last 6 months, and there aren't very many distressed properties in the 5-mile area right now, which is a good thing. People need to buy/want to buy in that area, and if there isn't a killer once in a lifetime deal on the market, they are paying market value.

[fearnofish]

Also for 'full disclosure'. We did not look at any houses in Washington.

[buyandsell509]

Originally Posted by fearnofish

Also for 'full disclosure'. We did not look at any houses in Washington.

Washington has a comprehensive seller's disclosure that is required for any brokered transaction. It is filled out entirely by the seller and this form keeps the seller liable for any issues that they were not honest about. Additionally, if a real estate professional knows of a particular item that is witheld from the disclosure form, they have to disclose it in the listing or risk being liable for said issue. I'm just curious what ID has to offer that is in excess of Washington's seller disclosures.