Thurston County Homes Sales Report ~ August 2011

Kevin Lynch’s Home Sales Report







Thurston County


Let’s look at the numbers for August:


Homes for sale ~ 1,724 homes are currently listed


                                   low $49,000  high $6,400,000


                                   Median $295,000


                                   Avg. days on ~128


Pendings      ~       195 homes are in escrow

                                   low $36,000 high $1,290,000


                                   Median $224,900


                                  Avg. days on ~104


August Sales  ~  221 homes sold in August 2011


                                  Low $36,000 high $625,000


                                  Median $224,900

                                  Avg. days on ~ 110

Hawks Prairie Home Sales Report ~ August 2011

Hawks Prairie  ~ NE area 446

Let’s look at the numbers for August:

Homes for sale ~ 175 homes are currently listed

                                  Low $115,000 ~ High $6,400,000

                                  Median $294,900

                                  Avg. days on ~ 159

Pending Sales ~ 23 homes are in escrow

                                Low $189,900 ~ High $429,000

                                Median $225,000

                                Avg. days on ~89

August Sales ~ 23 homes sold in August 2011

                              Low $149,000 ~ High $425,000

                              Median $264,216

                             Avg. days on ~137

                              There is still a lot of inventory in the NE for sale. The pending market time has improved.

Delphi Hills Home Sales Report ~ August 2011

Delphi Hills  ~ SW area 442

Let’s look at the numbers for August:

Homes for sale  ~ 53 homes are listed

Low $49,000 high $2,500,000

Avg. days on ~173

Pending  ~ 8 homes are in escrow~ low $65,000 high $435,000

Avg. days on ~43

August Sales  ~ 9 homes sold in August 2011

Low $137,000 high $365,000

Avg. days on ~ 57

Westside Home Sales Report ~ August 2011

The Westside  ~  NW area 444

Let’s look at the numbers for August:

Homes for sale  ~

164 homes  are listed ~ low $125,000   high $2,900,000

Still a log jam of available homes on the Westside.

Avg. days on ~179

Pending  ~ 11 homes are in escrow~ low $139,000 high $799,000

Avg. days on ~204

August Sales  ~ 14 homes sold in August 2011

Low $116,000 high $356,000

Avg. days on ~ 262

Just bend the letter C to make it an I

My wife went back to work and was then injured on the job and sent to a local chiropractor. There is a term for that coverage I think “hurt at work” or something like that, and the company picks up the tab. That same job also provides our family with health insurance for the first time in 20 years. We always carried health insurance, but it was bare bones coverage for emergencies for our children, I just remember writing very large checks for very little coverage.

So Jill was quite impressed with this chiropractor and strongly urged me to go let him look me over and begin working on stuff I have been sniveling about for years.

With selling homes I will meet people that need my services but  really have no idea what they are in for and as I start describing to them the experience, I will start veering off with real estate jargon and terminology that begins to give them a glazed over look. I know exactly what I am talking about, but just maybe, they really don’t.

So I meet the chiropractor, we have a chat and then off he goes with jargon “body jargon”. It is at that time he starts to lose me, so I just keep nodding my head.

So let’s see if the realtor can best describe the experience the chiropractor will be doing to this very beat up realtor body.

We are going to take the letter “C” (me), and see if we can’t bend it into the letter “I” (the new me).

It’s a great life!

My $100,000 mistake

Most who know me will agree,  that I run around in life being me and being what I am with a pair of reader glasses hanging around my neck and it is not uncommon to flip my glasses on and off my nose 200 or 300 times during the day, as I move through life, more importantly, to see.

I can’t see fine print and my vision is certainly not getting any better.

On my 40^th birthday my older sister was at my surprise party and as lovingly, and kind of in my face (drink in hand kind of in your face), warned me of what the forties would be like. One being, your vision will start to go. Of course I didn’t listen and of course she was right.

I loved the forties now that I am 53 and looking back at how kick ass the forties really are/were. I just did not like needing to wear glasses and refused to wear them for the first few years after my subscription to wear glasses had been issued.

So I meet a client who takes a liking to me, and to this day, he is one of smartest men I have ever met. A real mover and shaker and had done amazing things with real estate throughout his life. Investment, development, a real estate office, commercial development and large plots of speculative land.

So I become his agent to sell the large plots of land. A few 40 acres, 60 acres, some 20 and 25 acres. They are all beautiful in south Thurston County, builders and developers were buying it up.

One offer I was presenting from a buyer was all cash, $325,000, my clients asking price (I remember it well) was $325,000... I called my client to discuss the offer over the phone, and reported to my seller that the offer was all cash but, $100,000 less than our $325,000 asking price, “they offered  $225,000”...

He instructed me to tell the buyer he was firm with the $325,000. So I called the buyer back as instructed, and told him “my seller was firm at $325,000”.  The buyer was concerned to say the least, why would I being telling him the seller was firm at $325,000. After all, he had given the seller $325,000. And what the hell was going on. Now he’s pissed off and offended.  As the buyer is starting to scream into the phone, I am now fumbling around my desk in total panic trying to find that damn prescribed pair of glasses I never wore. As the buyer now, is not happy. I find them, put them on and now have the contract in front me with glasses on. It reads - $325,000 - all cash.

So now, life with glasses is a must. They hang around my neck and probably are not all that fashionable and sometimes in the way. But I could not get through a day without them.

In the real estate business, “if you truly care about serving clients at the highest level, you will not make the same mistake twice”.

Rip - Jerry

Spring, Summer, Fall or Winter ! - when is the BEST time to sell ?

I sat with two potential sellers this week to discuss taking their homes to market. It's early November the "selling season"  is winding down, holidays are near, and for most, a shift in lifestyle takes place for the winter months.
A discussion always take place with all sellers, "what about the spring time to put our home on the market" ?
The spring is indeed, a great time to take your home to market.
As a full time professional, real estate is going on all year long. The last Friday of any month at an escrow company, there is a frenzy of activity to record (close) many real estate transactions. The last Friday of December (year end) can be very busy at escrow companies also.
 The early part of any year coming into springtime, there is typically more inventory coming to market all the way through the summer months, which probably could be called a selling season.
In soft markets, there are plenty of sellers who went to market back in February, March, last spring who have not sold their homes and have been on the market 7 or 8 months. The market views time as "days on market". 240 - 250 days on the market can be a very long time. If you did start back in the spring, it would be very important now to put the price at what it needs to be, to get it sold. Or pull it off the market through the holidays and try again next year.
Fall and winter sellers need to sell. Fall and winter buyers need to buy.
I have had many very busy holiday seasons with activity I would have never thought would happen. But, that is also when I realized, the fall and winter buyers and sellers, are in the market usually because they need to be.