Spokane Real Estate Tanked?

[Skalanman]

wow that sounded like a trying experience - wish you all the best in your new home and that's great that you were greeted like that with the helping hands. You almost should bill the other agent. Not normally one for litigation, but if you had an attorney help with any of the transactions I wonder if a person couldn't make them do the right thing (reimbursing for cleaning) since they were almost childish and didn't act in good faith by leaving it a disaster for you like that... not being sue-happy, but for the principle of it. Did you have the cleaning in any of the paperwork? (either way as other's have already said, karma has its way of coming back to bite folks for pulling something like that;p)

[Deena160]

Thanks, everyone! We had asked over and over for the house to be cleaned and I told you what we were greeted with... Funny thing is after the house closed and everything, we get a message from the other agent that the family selling(it was an estate sale) had authorized for cleaners to come in and someone would come and pick up the stuff.
After farting around for a couple of weeks with THAT agent, we finally got someone in to at least clean and deodorize the downstairs family room carpet(the only one we're keeping). $200+ later it smells much better! All the upstairs carpets have been ripped out(thanks, sweetheart!) and the new flooring should be finished tomorrow.
The rest of the cleaning I'll deal with--that agent tried to send over Merry Maids. No offense to them, but that's not the kind of cleaning we had in mind. The only bad thing left, really, is the stainless steel stove. I think the fridge isn't going to be staying long...
No one's come to pick up the stuff yet. My husband is giving them to the end of the week then he'll just leave it at that agent's office with his name on it. :~) D

[Casportsfan]

Originally Posted by Deena160

Can't find the thread with the post that said that the Spokane real estate market had finally tanked. I think it was from Coffeepot...
Anyway, I asked my RE agent about it and this was his reply:

"Tanked? Hmmm...I wouldn't say that. The market went up 40% and if it backs up 30% then that's a great leap still! The problem lies where there are buyers ready and wanting to move and buy here but they can't until their properties sell in other areas and that is a major set back I think. The market time frames have 2-3x increased and is close to a normal Spokane marketing time. So I think it's still good here."

I know, it's his job to be optomistic. What are your thoughts?

The spike the real estate agent is probably referring to (if the numbers are correct) is most likely due to private investors snatching up affordable housing up there. Given the state of the current economy, it's definitely not due to people relocating. You also have to take into context that a 40% increase from an already stagnant number does not mean much. That's just playing with statistics to increase consumer optimism.

For example, if there are 400 single family lots available and 10 sell in July, a 40% increase the next month would mean that 14 sell in August. Not very impressive.

Short sales of the nature I referenced in the first paragraph are controlled by the banks, and they have been attempting to manipulate the market to make it appear more favorable, allowing some to go through for one quarter, and loosing up to allow more the next quarter.

Sounds like typical real estate BS to me.

[Swigchow]

It seems the number of foreclosures in Spokane is accelerating.

[tjarado]

Well..quite a bit of time has passed since the previous post..over 6 months actually. And housing has entered a double dip. Hopefully, the LAST dip.
But I want to correct a misconception that has been repeated as truth on and off since the original poster. And that is the statement that a price decline of 40% followed by a price rise of 30% results in an overall increase of 10%. Not so.
e.g. A 100k house which drops 40% to 60k will only rise 18k, i.e to $78,000!
A 50% fall requires a 100% rise just to get to original price parity.
So don't listen to realtwhores when buying in a boom..or a bust.. or a flat market, for that matter.
They were the third musketeer in the housing axis-of-evil.

[Myhedhurtz]

I just want to know if Deena's hubby had to make that item deposit at the realtor's office. What a sad situation, but that would certainly be an interesting way of letting the agent know how unsatisfactory they operate their business.