Jay Silver, North Seattle Real Estate

There seems to be a growing "changing of the guard" in our local area here in North Seattle. More homes are being sold through the owners' estate as their families try to deal with the assets left behind by a loved one's passing.

Just in the Northgate/Maple Leaf/Pinehurst areas there have been more than 10 homes sold through estate in the last 6 months, with more currently active on the market.

A quarter of my sales in North Seattle have come about this year when someone has passed away and his/her family chose to put the home on the market. I've learned quite a bit through these experiences and thought I'd jot a few things down.

1.) Many people who purchased a home during the "boom" of the 50's and 60's in the Northgate/Maple Leaf/Pinehurst areas loved their neighborhood so much they never left! One factor I use to evaluate a neighborhood is to research what I call it's "turnover factor". Meaning how often people move in, then move out, of the neighborhood. Maple Leaf tends to have the lowest turnover in this area, which means people really love living here. As a fellow Maple Leafer, I can see their point!

2.) Many times you don't realize just how much stuff an elderly person has in their home until they pass away and you are now in charge of finding a new home for their books, furniture, tools, and knick-knacks. I've found second-hand stores and estate sales to be particularly helpful in this situation. Sometimes the second-hand store will bring a truck and pick up a lot of items that didn't sell at the estate sale. This can be helpful after relatives have already chosen remembrances from the home and you find there are still many belongings left that need a new home.

3.) If you are considering buying a home through estate, take a quick look at how the individual paid the property taxes. Most will have been paying a discounted senior tax rate and may have been paying this tax in advance for the whole year. If they pay their taxes one year in advance, then you may have to come to the table with a little more money than you thought. You may need to pay your taxes in advance for that first year. Somehow the state wants to keep its records in order, so if the previous person paid their taxes in advance, you may need to as well for that first year and that can be quite a surprise when you go to your final signing.

- Jay Silver

I recently posted a little powerpoint on my website (ABODEN.com) about this, but I thought I might go into a little more detail.

My latest research shows that the Maple Leaf neighborhood in North Seattle is fairing better in the housing market than some other areas.

Check out the diagrams and I'll explain:

• Long story short - over half the homes in Maple Leaf are selling in 30 days or less (orange area).

Here's another diagram showing how much homes actually sold for compared to how much they listed for:

• Long story short - Homes that sold in less than 30 days went for over 99% of their listed price (again, orange bar on right graph).
• After 30 days, though, sellers took a much bigger hit on the price (all other bars).

Here's my opinion on these stats:

Example: Seller A and Seller B have the exact same home for sale on the same street. Everything is the same except Seller A priced their home at $400,000 and Seller B priced their home at $412,000 (which was the top of the pricing scale their Realtor gave them).

Who's house will stay on the market longer? Seller B, right? Yep.

Seller A is part of that "30 days or less" category in the diagram. Seller B is part of the "more than 30 days" group.

Seller B, after 30 days has gone by, has to reduce the price of their home to be competitive.

What price do they reduce to? Seller A's price. Why? Because that price got the home sold while Seller B's home is still on the market collecting dust.

So Seller B reduces their price to $400,000 and their home gets sold for $395,000. All together, Seller B had to wait 3 months before their home sold because they didn't price it right to begin with. They were too greedy.

So, how much did it cost them to overprice their home? Let's take a look:

$412,000 (original price for Seller B)

- 12,000 (perceived loss. They didn't really lose this amount because it wouldn't have sold at this price)

- $6,000 (3 months of mortgage payments while the home was on the market)

- $5,000 (buyers took advantage of seller's desperation. Wouldn't offer more than $395k)

- $1,500 (cost for 3 months of professional home staging)

Total Loss (perceived and otherwise) = $24,500.00

Total Actual Loss = $12,500.00

Ultimately, Seller B sold their home for about 4% less of their original price. This is also what's indicated on the diagram. Homes taking longer than 30 days to sell are selling at around 2 -4% less.

How can you avoid this frustration as a home seller? Here's my advice:

If you know that the housing market in Seattle is on a mild downward turn, don't price your home at the current market price!

Price your home just ahead of the downward curve! You'll sell your home in 30 days or less and avoid the losses accumulated by Seller B.

This is only one aspect of selling your home quickly and making the most of your time and money. If you need more help with selling your home in North Seattle, let's talk.

- Jay Silver

Yes, I finished the Mercer Island "Escape From the Rock" triathlon this last weekend! Things went much better this time around. My bike chain stayed on and my time was an hour better because of it.

The only thing that wasn't so great was my endless nausea throughout the the whole process. I think I sucked down too much water during the swim. Oh, and about the swim - the water was much colder than usual! I was a bit shell-shocked for the first 5 minutes but finally got into a groove.

Mercer Island is so beautiful! I love participating in this triathlon every year.

Here are a couple of pics from my day of pain...er, fun. :-)

Just before the swim...

Just after the swim. Yeah, I was a little tired and nauseated.

The bike leg was great! They shut down the express lanes on I-90 just for us!

Yes! Finally done!

Ooh, pretty finisher's medal! :-)

- Jay Silver

Just another day at Carkeek Park for my wife and I.

Don't be fooled, that water is ice cold! I ran out soon after the pic was taken!

Juliana's a brave soul for enduring the cold water for this pic.

There were only a handful of people at the park this day. So much fun!

- Jay Silver

Okay, so I finally got my first triathlon of this season over with last weekend! I jumped into the season a little late, especially since Seattle's triathlon season lasts only a few months.

It was a beautiful, sunny morning and the water was perfect! I think there were about 600 people athletes there, and their ages ranged from the early teens to the mid-60's.

As most of you know, a torn knee ligament a couple years ago forced me to expand my athletic horizons beyond basketball and volleyball. So I tried out a triathlon and I was soon hooked!

Now I have several triathlons lined up to do this season and the Beaver Lake Triathlon was last weekend. I've never been to the Beaver Lake area before, but I'm glad I got to see it. It's a very beautiful part of Sammamish. The race course took me through Beaver Lake Park and the surrounding neighborhoods. Sometimes I would turn a corner and see one of the neighbors outside their house offering water and encouragement.

The most grueling part of the race was the 14 mile bike ride because it felt like the entire thing was UPHILL! There were several people who ended up walking their bikes up parts of the hill, but I made it up without even breaking a sweat! Okay, I'm lying. I made it up, but not without feeling like my legs were going to fall off.

Going downhill on the bike ride provided its own challenges. My bike chain fell off twice. The first time was the worst. My chain notonly fell off, it also jammed around the crank and I spent about 15 minutes trying to pry it out as the other athletes I had passed earlier began to pass me. That was lame!

The run portion was about 4 1/2 miles and I thought that would be the greatest challenge because the hilly bike ride. I felt great throughout the run, though. I even had enough wind to cheer on the other athletes I saw.

I'm still a little bitter about my chain coming off. It killed my race time by at least half an hour! So my goal is to get revenge at my next tri stop - the Escape from the Rock Triathlon on Mercer Island.

My wife, Juliana was kind enough to take some pics of me during the event. So as soon as I get them off the camera, I'll post them here.

If you're interested in local triathlons, check out the websites http://www.envirosports.com or http://www.seatri.org and search for local events.

- Jay Silver