Looking at Sequim homes is a lot of fun, and perhaps that accounts for why I so thoroughly enjoy showing my clients Sequim homes, as well as Port Angeles homes, and also periodically Port Ludlow homes.  In showing clients hundreds of Sequim homes over the last 18 years, I have found a recurring reason why some homes don’t sell, which is another way of saying why buyers don’t like certain homes.

Sequim Homes Built by Retirees

Yesterday I showed a home that was listed as a Sequim home with a water view.  In fact, there was a certain water view that could be seen while standing on the property, but there was no water view at all from the house itself.  The house was built perpendicular to the Strait of Juan de Fuca with the living room and dining room looking east and west.  This means the home has absolutely no view of the water to the north.  Not only was the house positioned on the property in the worst possible way taking no advantage of the water view at all, there was not one window on the north end of the house on either the first or second floors.  I kid you not.  The north wall of the house had no windows at all.  And yet there was a beautiful northern view, including water in the distance.  Sequim homes without a water view?

Sequim Homes – Site Planning

The mistake the builder of this home made is clear, but at the time they built the home and did the site plan (the exact location and positioning of the home on the lot), the retired owners did not know that one day they would want to sell their home, and that it would not sell because they positioned it wrong.  It has been on the market for almost two years and has not sold.  Sequim homes that have been on the market for two years or longer certainly must have a serious buyer disadvantage.

Sequim Homes – When Building Consult With a Realtor

What could retirees do to save themselves from the nightmare of not being able to sell their Sequim homes some day?  Builders are not always the best advisers for the kind of floor plan or the site planning in order to make a house sellable.  Builders build homes, and they are focused on that task, not the marketability of the home years later.  Here’s wise advice.  Before you build a home, buy an experienced Realtor breakfast and take him out to the lot for advice on the house’s location and view, and show him the proposed floor plan.  Most retirees are not planning to sell their Sequim homes soon, but we all sell someday (or our children will).

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I examined Sequim homes for sale in the MLS and made a shocking discovery, something that has huge implications for buyers, and especially for retirees who are planning to buy a home in Sequim.  Take a look at this graphic, which depicts the Sequim homes for sale in the MLS in both the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS) and the Olympic Listing Service (OLS).  You can use your mouse to click on this image to enlarge it on your computer monitor for easier viewing and more details.  I’ll explain what this information means.

Sequim Homes for Sale in the MLS

Sequim Homes for Sale in the MLS – 2 MLSs

We have two multiple listing services in the Sequim area.  One is complete, meaning that it has all of the local listings (or 99%), and the other MLS does not have all the local listings.  The OLS has all of our local listings, and the NWMLS as you can see in this graph only has a small percentage of the listings.  Obviously, the MLS to use if you are a buyer is the OLS, otherwise you will not see all the homes listed for sale.  Most template broker MLS sites do not give you the option or they do not make it clear which MLS you are searching.  My Sequim MLS site does.  If you want to learn more about why we have two MLSs or how they work, you can read more at Sequim Homes for Sale in the MLS and Sequim OLS and Sequim NWMLS. 

Sequim Homes for Sale in the MLS

Here is the shocking discovery.  The number of Sequim homes for sale in the MLS is surprisingly small.  A dramatic number of homeowners have not re-listed their homes for sale after their listings expired on December 31st.  You can see on this image above that there are only 106 homes listed in the OLS in the price range of $200,000 to $300,000.  The NWMLS only shows 57 homes listed for sale.  That would be because many listing agents are not members of the NWMLS.  I am a member of both listing services, and I was the first broker in Sequim to give buyers the ability to search both the NWMLS and the OLS in Sequim on a website.  You can see the drop down search option on my Sequim MLS site.  I have not seen this option on any other broker’s site.  I really do have a lot of special tools just for buyers that no one else has, but that’s beside the point right now.

In the price range of $300,000 to $400,000 there are only 64 homes listed for sale in the Sequim OLS.  Isn’t that amazing?  This has major implications for you as a buyer if you are trying to find your perfect retirement home in Sequim.  You can imagine that of 64 homes in this price range, probably only a half a dozen fit your preferences.  Of those, you would undoubtedly filter down the number to one or two that you could call home.

Most people understand that this is a buyer’s market, and it certainly is, but that doesn’t mean you have plenty of homes to chose from.  Read more about the selection of homes and how the market is bifurcated by reading more articles on this blog on that subject.   The interesting discovery for me as I looked in our MLS to examine what is listed for sale for my buyer clients is that the number of  Sequim homes for sale in the MLS has shrunk dramatically.

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The Sequim weather report is cold.  It’s 34 degrees F, and the sun is out.  Most of the snow we had over a week ago has melted.  Here’s the interesting news.  The Sequim weather (snow and low temps) has not put a damper on buyers who continue to shop and buy homes in Sequim.

Sequim Weather Not a Damper on Home Sales

We had a few days of snow, which was a surprise, but I was also surprised and delighted to submit an offer on a Sequim home during the snow storm.  I also have a transaction closing today, and yesterday I showed houses all day to a couple from out of town.  Saturday we’ll look at more houses.  Some of my clients have expanded their home search for a water view home beyond Sequim to Port Ludlow.  I sold one home in Port Ludlow, and will be showing two more this Saturday.

Sequim Weather – Still Showing Homes

Retirees are clearly still planning to move to Sequim in significant numbers, and even though we are in the middle of the winter season, retirees have not stopped their careful process of searching for their perfect retirement home.  I know many of us often say, “there’s no such thing as the perfect home,” and that may be true, but it sounds better than “ideal retirement home.” 

It’s true that it is rare that anyone will find the perfect home, although it has happened.  It’s more often the case that a home has nearly all of the features a couple want, and what the home doesn’t have can be added or compensated for in some way.

Yesterday the homes I showed did not include the perfect retirement home for my clients.  Three of the homes were fun to look at, but did not pass my client’s test.  One home had an absolutely stunning panoramic water view, but it was an older manufactured home, which turned my clients off.  A couple of the homes had what I call “unconventional” floor plans, partly the result of remodeling that occurred in one home built in 1954. 

I find it fascinating that homes with unconventional floor plans are priced the same as new homes with great modern floor plans.  Of course, when I put it that way, it is obvious that a home with an unconventional floor plan should be priced less, and substantially less in some cases, but apparently that it not so obvious to the owners and/or their agents.  If you’ve been out looking at lots of homes, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about here.

Sequim Weather – Don’t Let It Stop You

If you’re planning to retire in Sequim, don’t let this cold (and recently snowy) Sequim weather stop you from coming to look at homes.  In my opinion, looking at homes before the crowd arrives in the spring is a good idea.  The one home you might fall in love with will undoubtedly be loved by other retirees who think like you do.

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A Sequim real estate broker who practiced as a real estate attorney in 1994, started the first Sequim real estate website dedicated to giving away free real estate information, law, forms, checklists, and guidance on buying and selling real estate.  In 1994 the world wide web had just begun to go public, and building a website back then was not as easy as it is today.  He also published a print newsletter letter to help Realtors.  Eighteen years later Chuck Marunde’s online websites, blogs, eBooks, videos, and photographs have grown into the largest source of real estate information for buyers and sellers in the Sequim and Port Angeles area.  Click on the image below to read the full 1994 article, the beginning of what has turned out to be something very big, especially for buyers from outside the Sequim area.

Sequim Real Estate Broker

Sequim Real Estate Broker

I’m Chuck Marunde, and I absolutely love helping buyers.  One way I’ve been doing that for my entire career, going back to the mid-’70s when I first became a Realtor, is to give everything away, including information on buying and selling real estate, checklists, legal issues in real estate, case law, guides to buying and selling real estate, forms, and lessons learned in the trenches on negotiating price, foreclosures, short sales, contingencies, and unique issues to Sequim and Port Angeles areas (septics, wells, water flow, water quality, drainage).  In 18 years I have not stopped writing and posting and giving away real estate information, and I can unequivocally share that buyers tell me they love having all this information available 24/7 from their home computers absolutely free and with no obligation to register their confidential information.

Sequim Real Estate Broker

I love being a Sequim real estate broker, and I’ll continue to post articles, information, and powerful tools for buyers, and many of these you will find directly on this site on the right side.  If there is anything that you would like to request, please email me, and if I can do it, I will.  Free of course.  By the way, once in a while someone will ask me what do I get in return?  Nothing up front, but I’ve learned that in the long run, buyers appreciate the work I do for them, and many retain me as their Sequim real estate broker and buyer’s agent.

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The question, “Do people buy homes in Sequim in the winter months?” came up recently, and with this recent snow, it certainly is a relevant question.  The short answer is yes, but here’s a fuller explanation of who, what, and when on the subject of buying and selling homes in Sequim during the winter with another nice graphic illustration brought to you by the research staff of Chuck Marunde.

Homes in Sequim

Homes in Sequim and Peak Sales Years

A chart like this tells its own story.  Two quick explanations are necessary.  The months are shown in the bars as consecutive months, so for example in the first grouping of bars we have November and December of 2004 plus January of 2005, which keeps the months together.  Also I only include homes that sold for $150,000 or more.  You can’t buy much for less than $200,000 in Sequim, but I included low priced homes, some of which are probably foreclosures.

Homes in Sequim sold during the winter months of November, December, and the following January show us an interesting pattern.  The peak year for the sale (closing) of November homes in Sequim was 2006.  The peak year for the sale of December homes in Sequim was 2005.  The peak year for the sale of January homes in Sequim was 2006.

This is why I consider 2005 the peak year for home sales in Sequim.  Even the peak closings in January of 2006 were the result of deals written in November and December of 2005 since most transactions close 30 to 60 days after mutual acceptance.

Homes in Sequim and January Sales

The homes in Sequim that closed in January confirm a few things for us.  It turns out 2009 was the trough for lowest closings in January.  Only 11 homes sold in January of 2009.  That reflects buyers who were looking at homes in the prior two to three months.  And 2010 wasn’t much better with only 12 homes sold in January.  Interestingly enough 2011 sales jumped way up in January to 22.

Here we are today, the 21st of January, 2012, and so far this month we only have 3 closings.  What can we make of that?  We have 7 closing days left in the month, and closings often happen near the end of the month, so we shall see.  Check back at the end of the month, because I will update the number of closings in January.  One preliminary interpretation I will share.  I would expect January of 2012 to have  low numbers for Sequim, because in the summer and fall of 2011 retirees stepped up their purchases from the prior two years.  They told me that they had put their plans on hold for the past couple of years while they waited for the economy to begin to recover and the status of their retirement funds to stabilize, but after waiting, many have decided it’s time to move on and buy a home in Sequim and retire, regardless of the uncertainty in the economy and in the world.

Now you know about homes in Sequim that are selling in the winter months.

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Sequim weather is snow!  It is a surprise, and the last three days have dumped a lot of snow on Sequim.  Our Sequim weather is normally much dryer, although this time of year rain is not unusual.

Sequim Weather and Snow

Sequim Weather Cold

I took this photo on Dryke Road in Sequim.  Ehad!  Snow everywhere, and plenty of snow ball fights and even sledding in Robin Hill Park.  The temperature has been freezing at night, and a few degrees below freezing.  We have had winters in Sequim with no snow at all, and we’ve had winters with snow that lasted two days to two weeks.  Next calls for 40′s and rain, so all this snow may be melted by then.  We shall see.  This winter the Sequim weather surprised a few of us.

Update:  Two days later and the snow is melting rapidly.  It’s much warmer and some rain is helping to melt the snow.  Oh well, Sequim weather is somewhat unpredictable.

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