Rain City Guide

I don’t normally cross-post between 4realz.net and Rain City Guide, but tomorrow I’m having a conversation with the Chief Economist of the National Association of REALTORS that I think will interest many people in the Rain City Guide community.   We’re going to be talking about the effect that the recent news associated with the FDIC [...]

Larry asks: “ Isn’t it too simple a model to look at the sale price of a property by looking at the square feet of the structure? A property around Seattle, correct me if I’m wrong, has about half of its value in the land, and half in the structure. If real estate appreciates or depreciates. [...]

I started working on some June YOY stats over on my blog, but I think I’m going to give it a few more days to make sure all of the June closings are posted before making any comparisons over here besides the regular stats.  It is a holiday weekend, and I’m sure more than the [...]

Due to a settlement from a class action lawsuit where they were accussed of reselling personal and financial consumers information for marketing purposes, Transunion is offering free credit monitoring.   Selling the information is a violation of Fair Credit Reporting Act.   You only have until September 24, 2008 to apply for your benefit of either free credit [...]

As always, this is not legal advice. If you want legal advice, consult an attorney, not a blog.
Is the Form 17 part of the purchase and sale agreement (PSA)? Should it be listed in the “Addendum” paragraph of the PSA? In a word: NO! (At least if you’re the seller — if [...]

I was a meeting this weekend with an agent in Southern California where he showed me a website he says he visits a couple times a week.   A competitor had built up a large repository of “pocket listings” for the Beverly Hills area and then stuck them behind a registration wall… of which he visited [...]

My purpose for this post is to hit it home what a great window of opportunity we have with FHA Jumbo mortgages which are only around until December 31, 2008 unless Congress passes an extension of some sort (which is a possibility-but not guaranteed).
For the remainder of this year, you can use $17,550 to buy a [...]

This is not legal advice. For legal advice, consult an attorney directly, not a blog.
It’s common knowledge (based on those comments, at least) that some buyer’s agents will not show properties with an SOC of less than 3%. Is that a problem? In a word, Yes.
First, the ethics: The term “ethics” in this context refers [...]

Update October 27, 2008: many of the changes mentioned below have all ready changed!  Please visit Rain City Guide’s Mortgage Info page for the most current information.
I was just reading Brian Montgomery’s speech from yesterday which reminded me of what’s on the horizon with FHA insured mortgages.   He points out that the increased loan limits are temporary–you [...]

To this title you might ask, “which salmon is available?”  Well, I’m not really talking about fish with scales and fins here.  What we’ve noticed over the past month is that the fishing with low offers is getting pretty common in a lot of price ranges.  These occurred in neighborhoods ranging all over the area [...]