James Hsu

All depends on how long you will be hanging on to the house. If you intend to sell in less than 2 years...
don't bother buying. It's highly unlikely you will break even in the short term. If you plan on staying in it for the longer haul ...then you can find some exceptional buys in this market. - Yesterday, 00:03

I haven't had one with rent that high yet, but I've rented out a handful of homes this year so far and they've all been via Craigslist. Saves you from having to pay a finder's fee. I've used the MLS once after a month of trying to rent online, but we also dropped the price by $100 (down to the $1600 range) and we had prospective tenants calling left and right almost right away.

$3k to $4k rent sounds like a huge house. I'd also hit up some big companies or people you know at big companies to see if they can post stuff like that internally... you're looking for execs at that rent range...usually.

good luck! - Wed Jul 23 2008, 00:19

are you on the leasee's side or the lessor? If you are the leasing agent, I've done and seen usually between half of one month's rent to 1 full month's rent. On the renter's side, I've seen anything from flat finder's fee to 25% or 50% of 1 month's rent. - Tue Jul 22 2008, 22:21

That's a comprehensive list, but can be misguiding.
#1 - We all yearn to be the go-to listing agent for a high end community, but that does not necessarily translate to great work. Rather than automatically focus on the agents that seemingly do a lot of high end homes in the area, I'd recommend interviewing them and a few others that may not be as experienced in the waterfront/high end homes.

#2 - not sure how this is relevant enough to be #2 on the list. As a buyer's agent, I'd perhaps agree with this more, but the primary role of the listing agent is to market the house to as broad of an audience as possible. I'm not convinced the listing agent has to be from the area (though 10mile radius is pretty wide). For example, ..a proper marketing plan/system should work in Federal Way as it would in Everett ...or anywhere in between.

#3 - Definitely wouldn't hurt, but I don't think Seattle Magazine is the final authority in who's the best in the industry. I read somewhere they survey 31,000 home buyers each year. As of June 2008, there are over 28,000 members of the local MLS (NWMLS). Of the 31,000 buyers surveyed, how many responses did they get? How many of them bought more than one house in the same year?...probably very, very few ..if any. So if I turned in a survey for my agent and I gave him/her a glowing review ....does that mean he/she gets a Best in Client satisfaction award? If someone knows how Seattle Magazine does it, I'd love to know...cause I'm on the opinion it's a marketing gimmick. Much like the "awards" that JD Powers gives out. Did you know the company that "wins" has to actually pay for the plaque that is "awarded?" What if I got lucky with this particular agent and he/she is normally just average?

#4 - very important to know. Everyone has a different marketing plan / philosophy and it has to make sense to you and make also make sense in how much money you're paying for it.

#5 - the gap between list and sales can be easily misleading. If I pressured all my clients to list their house at a low, low price....my stats for the list price to sale price delta would be amazing. I could even claim that my listings sell for more than they are listed for sometimes! ... but that's wouldn't be telling the whole story...actually, it would be a very inaccurate story.

#6 - this is a fun metric to play around with, but if you really think about all the variables that play into how fast a house sells, ....you should realize that this metric really doesn't say anything of value. Some of those variables are ... price, condition of house, location, market conditions and luck. In the hey-day of the market of 2005/2006 ... houses would sell hours after they hit the market. Was that because of the listing agent's sheer genius... unlikely. It was a condition of the market. Likewise in this slow/flat market, ...if you priced a house $100K under true market value ... it would likely still sell very fast .....which has nothing to do with how "good" the listing agent is.

Keep in mind that waterfront homes is a unique property. Depending on you exact location, it could even be seen as rare properties. Scarcity usually has value, but the challenging part of waterfront homes is the subjective value of it. If I've had a few waterfront properties before, I may not perceive as much value of the waterfront as someone who has been trying to buy their first one for a long time. Numbers wise, there is of course a huge premium for waterfront. Whether that's $50K, $75K, $100K, ...$250K ... is somewhat subjective. ....This is where a bit of luck comes into play. If a buyer is out there right now looking for something just like your property, ...then it could sell very fast ...if they perceived the value to be close to what you have it listed at.

Okay....so ...what kind of criteria should you use then?! ... I liked your #4. I agree with Stacey that you have to get along and be able to build trust with your agent. It could be a long journey and the last thing you want is to have to work with someone you clash with every time you talk. The best way is to take the time to sit down and interview several agents. Lots of people claim 3 ...but if you can afford the time, more than 3 would be good. At some point, you will be able to see who stands out and why (sometimes good, sometimes bad). Think of the agent as your personal real estate consultant. What are they going to bring to the table that is unique and effective. ...and of course...how much is all of this going to cost you?

I hope I didn't come across as slamming your metrics. They do seem legitimate and reasonable metrics to hold an agent to, but many of them can lead you in the wrong direction if you relied on it heavily.

If you want some more clarification, or if any agents out there want to chime in with agreements or disagreements, ...by all means. - Tue Jul 22 2008, 23:17

Stacey, ...I didn't mean to imply that pulling solds is the only method ..it is one method to see if that particular builder has been flexible on the sale price. Most builders aren't, but I've worked with some that have been. If it shows that they are, then the buyer has two avenues to negotiate on...sale price and back end stuff. - Tue Jul 8 2008, 11:09

New construction is best negotiated on the items Stacey mentions. One way to see how well the builder is negotiating on the front end (sale price) is to have your agent look up all the closed sales in the development to see what they have sold at compared to what they were listed for. You'll get a good idea how much the builder can be moved on price.

As for how well the market is in the areas you mention ($750K to $850K, Bellevue/Kirkland/Redmond). For statistical purposes, I included both condos and single-family homes in these figures:
The first half of 2008 had 222 closings. The median price was $767K. The median time on market was just under 2 months at 57 days. Interestingly 32% of these homes were sold in the first month they were on the market. 21% sold in the 2nd month, 11% in the 3rd month, 8% in the 4th month and 28% more than 4 months. ...this means a the majority of homes in this area and price point sell fairly quickly. In general, these homes all sold for almost 3% under the last listed price.

Now...that was for all homes/condos in the 3 cities. If you filter out just the new construction ones, only 56 have sold since the beginning of the year (there are 104 still available). The Average sale price is about 2% under sale price in general. 2-bedroom homes seem to have the most flex in price as they sold for nearly 5% under list (although there was only two 2-bed homes that have sold that are new.

Anyway, ..the point is ..there is room to negotiate depending on the builder. Many builders are sticklers for their price (something about them being able to show their bank what price point they can fetch). Definitely negotiate all the back end stuff hard. Closing costs, upgrades, etc. .(look at Stacey's list).

remember builders everywhere are feeling the pinch to some degree. Some worse than others. Have your agent do their homework to help you figure out what the builder's most likely position is and go from there. First rule of any negotiation, ....learn everything you can about the other guy.

good luck and have fun! - Tue Jul 8 2008, 01:51

Before you personally can check someone's credit, you need to have something signed by the potential renter granting you permission to run a credit check. Second, you need to be registered/approved by the credit bureau's (approval requires an on-site review of your office, a business license, and a couple other things) before they will give you a credit report for anyone. See the referenced pdf for the rules for individual landlords. - Thu Jun 19 2008, 22:17