February 2015 Hello! Wow - An early Spring! This has been amazing. Enjoy the sunshine while it’s here and remember it when we get our April showers.

We have received the Team Gold Award Of Excellence again this year. This “Award of Excellence” recognizes the North Puget Sound Association of Realtors members who have achieved certain & specific high standards, honoring REALTORS® for their outstanding contributions to the Association and the real estate community.

To better serve our clients, we are always working on bettering ourselves. Charlie will be attending the RE/MAX Convention next week where he can network with other agents and attend classes. Jeannie will be taking classes to get her Certified Residential Specialist designation. This designation is the “master’s degree of real estate”. Every CRS designee must have a proven track record in the business, as well as advanced education in related areas .

It’s an interesting market that we are beginning to have. Inventory is very low and buyer demand is high (especially under $300,000). One of the major things that is so different from the previous tight cycle is there is not the big “move up” push that went on back then.

In 2004-2006 lots of people were buying up as high as they could afford to use the previous house equity to leverage the largest house and yard they could afford. Today there is a much more conservative use of funds to buy up then we’ve seen for awhile. We think this will change if the lower portion of the market continues to strengthen.

We are entering another interesting chapter in the real estate world . We are definitely looking for listings, so if you know of anyone who is thinking about selling their home, please have them give us a call. We will take great care of them.

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If you are considering “flipping” houses. Here is something to be aware of.

SBH 1843/RCW 18.27 Substitute House Bill 1843, and the resulting law (RCW 18.27) state that if a person or entity purchases a property and intends to rehab it and sell it for a profit, then that person or entity MUST be licensed and bonded as a general contractor. If you or your entity (LLC, corporation, etc.) intends to resell a particular property within 12 months, and if you spend more than $500 on rehabbing the property, you or your entity will need to be licensed and bonded.

$500 you say? Yes, I know. It is crazy. That means that if you intend to paint the inside of a house, something that any person could do, you need to be a general contractor that is licensed and bonded in the state of Washington.

A common question is: “Can’t I just hire a general contractor that is licensed and bonded?” The answer to that is NO. The person or entity that takes title to the property needs to be the one that is licensed and bonded.

This Bill was supposedly put in place to protect the consumers from people or “flippers” who do poor quality renovations, or hire unskilled labor. It gives the consumer or end buyer the option of getting monetary relief for this poor workmanship by going after the contractor bond.

In a way, I can agree with this because it does weed out some of the bad apples. But the fact is, anyone can get a contractor’s license in the state of Washington. There are not any classes or tests. So someone with ZERO knowledge of construction can become a contractor! Again, CRAZY. But these are the rules that we play by.

I was at a Realtor meeting where the speaker talked about a client that had hired all licensed contractors and not touched any tools at all to help them. When the inspector asked him if he ever straightened out an outlet cover, the client said sure. That got him a $1,200 fine for being unlicensed.

Source: Website realestateinvestingnw.com

Skagit County Real Estate Market

Last month there was a pretty good push in the $500,000 and $600,000+ ranges. That has tailed off with only 4 this month and most of them being in Anacortes and 1 in LaConner.

Inventory is very low, especially with sales continuing to be so strong. This has the effect of pressing the prices up, especially in the most popular price ranges. Note the comparison of listings to sales from one year ago - that is huge! Our absorption rate continue to fall indicating this situation will be staying with us for awhile.

The saying, “indecision is the thief of opportunity”, has never been more pertinent than now. Give us a call!

ACTIVE UNITS SOLD UNITS AVG. SALE PRICE

AREA JAN 2015 JAN 2014 JAN 2015 JAN 2014 JAN 2015 JAN 2014

Anacortes 102 127 21 14 $341,189 $389,320

Burlington 67 83 16 13 $213,915 $224,423

Mount Vernon 169 236 30 28 $268,768 $221,211

Sedro-Woolley 57 62 17 11 $183,466 $199,879

LaConner 23 38 8 2 $339,156 $274,000

Lyman & East 47 57 7 7 $164,600 $103,166

Totals 465 603 99 75 $258,940 $240,410

Closed Sales By Area & Price

ANA BUR MTV SDW LACON

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EAST

$0-$99,999 - 1 1 1 - 1

$100,000-$199,999 2 6 5 8 2 3

$200,000-$299,999 10 8 12 7 2 2

$300,000-$399,999 3 1 10 1 1 1

$400,000-$499,999 3 - 2 - 2 -

$500,000-$599,999 1 - - - - -

$600,000 & more 2 - - - 1 -

Closed Sales By Price

Source: NWMLS Source reliable but not guaranteed. All statistics include residential only.

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$600,000 & more

Right now we feel is the best time to move up to a bigger home. The under $300,000 market is crying for more inventory, making it possible to sell your home in a shorter time frame and the over $400,000 are still looking for buyers.

Enjoy the feeling of getting rid of that cramped house that needs updating and spreading your wings out in a larger home! Give your home the best exposure - let us get professional photos and list it on the MLS.

We just received a rate sheet from one of our lenders - interest rates are 2.875% to 3.625%. Wow, hard to beat!