Blue Sky Real Estate is excited to share that the North Cascades Pass reopened today!!  Grab your skis to acces the back country or drive over and enjoy the gorgeous spring flowers that are in full bloom. This weekend is the Sunflower Relay and Western 49′rs parade and activities.

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/passes/northcascades

Blue Sky Real Estate is the Methow Valley Real Estate Leader

Who's number one?!

 Methow Valley Real Estate‘s new leader in sales for 1st quarter 2012 is Blue Sky Real Estate.  Our new team is taking the valley by storm!  Add to these figures about $705k in For Sale by Owner sales and clearly Blue Sky Real Estate is the valley’s new leader.  Click on the report to see the detail.  Overall, sales on homes are up slightly by prices continue to edge downward making it a good time for buyers.  Land prices have edged up slightly.  If you or someone you know has an interest in buying or selling real estate in the Methow Valley contact any one of our top agents.  Congratulations to the Blue Sky Real Estate team! 

Blue Sky Real Estate is the Methow Valley Real Estate Leader

This rule of thumb from Trulia is just as true here for Methow Valley real estate as elsewhere across the country. It is best to avoid this common pitfall that Sellers often make.
Rule of Thumb #3: List it high, to give yourself bargaining room.
Fact or Fiction: Fiction.
The fact of this matter is that if you are selling a home in a strong buyer’s market, your competition is steep. The home that presents the best value for the price is the one that is the most likely to sell. Listing your home higher than what you know it’s worth is a surefire way to alienate that relatively rare specimen: a qualified buyer with a sense of urgency who might otherwise be interested in making an offer on your home. Smart buyers who are ready to leap off the fence into homeownership do their research, and may have seen dozens – even hundreds of online listings before they make an offer. If your home is overpriced, chances are good that they’ll pass your home up, even if they like it, waiting for you to get a clue and cut the price.

There are simply too many other great homes at great prices on the market. Overpriced listings are much more likely to be a source of prolonged stress and handwringing to their owners than a source of successful sales.

If you’re tempted to list your home high, there’s something else you need to be aware of: the sweet spot phenomenon. Homes that are listed too high sometimes go through one, maybe even several, price cuts before they hit a sweet spot – the price at which buyers are drawn to the value like moths to a flame, sometimes even generating multiple offers over the discounted price (but below the original list price). Here’s some good news: you don’t have to wait months and months and go through the agony of showing upon showing and price cut upon price cut to get your home’s list price to the sweet spot where it sells.

Work with a local agent who has a strong, recent track record of selling homes, quickly and at or near their list prices, in your area. Then, trust their pricing advice. (You might find it easier to trust them if you select your agent after speaking with several.) It’s the most efficient way to leverage local market expertise to get to your home’s pricing sweet spot, quickly and with minimum drama.

Is the housing crisis coming to an end? With the banks starting to loosen credit standards and interest rate at historic lows, it looks like sales may start picking up. Now would be a great time to buy. Read more details in the article below.

http://www.linkedin.com/news?actionBar=&articleID=5567733516482908167&ids=cP8SdjsUdjcTdjsUcjwUd3sRdiMUe3sOejoSdjoNdzcPejoPdPkRb34Tc3wMd3kOe3AVcjwMdP8TdjkIdP8RczkRejcOc3wPcPATejoRdiMTdz4Uc3AOe3gScjkPcPsTdzkR&aag=true&freq=weekly&trk=eml-tod2-b-sum-0&ut=3ra-aqR_Ce3581

Below please find a link to a very good article regarding the online home value estimator programs.  As numerous consumers are utilizing the various home estimator websites I thought you may be interested in the technology behind the calculations which this article explains.  Relying on these programs for
refinancing or purchasing may be risky at best.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/the-fuzzy-math-of-home-values-.html

In our market we have found the website reports to be very confusing as the majority of our homes are custom construction which is difficult to value even in the most active markets.  In our current market where “truly” comparable sales are few and far between, providing market valuations for buyers and sellers can be challenging.  As agents, we rely on the old fashion method of manually selecting comparable properties and correlating the market approach with the cost approach to estimate a value.
Shouldyou want an estimate of value for one of the homes you are considering
purchasing, be sure to ask me as I would be pleased to assist.   I
would hate for you to become disappointed after using one of the websites that offer home value estimates for our location

Ski Your Dream! 5 acres on Goat Creek Road, Mazama. $265,000

Incredible and inspiring day in the sunny Methow Valley.  The Nordic Trails are open and ski conditions are excellent. I recently listed this 5 acres on Goat Creek Road in Mazama. It is one of my favorite locations in the Valley.  These expansive fields host MVSTA’s quiet meandering year round trails that connect with the Methow River and its luscious riverbanks and Goat Creek with its towering majestic pines. They are also the summer home of the most colorful Western Mountain bluebirds. Invest in your mountain lifestyle and aspirations. It doesn’t get much better than this. Check out our website for more info at www.MethowBlueSky.com and come ski and see this incredible property for yourself.

The activity in real estate during the Summer was very slow but it appears that the fourth quarter is off to a good start. Check out the link below for information on pending offers and sales. The Fall has brought back some buyers to our market and the agents are busy showing and writing offers, it is a welcome change. We are all looking forward to the year ending on a good note for the real estate industry.

http://www.matrix.nwmls.com/Matrix/Public/Portal.aspx?k=3616J4Q2&p=DE-10374733-893

This article describes two housing markets. One for most people and another for the rich. It seems million dollar homes are selling like hotcakes but for most people, “In the housing market inhabited by most Americans, prices have fallen 30 percent or more since the peak in 2007. That’s a steeper decline than during the Depression.” That just sounds terrible.

We have not seen much activity in high-end homes in the Methow Valley. Only 2 homes have sold over $500k for crying out loud and nothing over $1M. Where are these buyers?! Tell them to call me, I will send them a map on how to get to the valley and some listings of the most beautiful, high-end, bargain priced homes in the state of WA.

Truly, no matter what your price range now is the time to buy.