Yesterday and today I showed Sequim homes for sale to a client as his buyer’s agent.  I love being a buyer’s agent, and with 20 years as a real estate attorney and now again a Realtor, my clients tell me they appreciate what I bring to the table for them.  I also enjoy the fact that I help each of my clients negotiate the best possible price and terms, but it is the seller who pays my commission.  It almost seems unfair, but my buyer clients love it and so do I.

Something amazing happened while I was showing Sequim homes for sale yesterday and today.  It’s a pattern I keep seeing, but buyers don’t see this pattern because they don’t do this every day like I do.  So here is a very important pattern that buyers will want to be aware of.  It could make a big difference in how you search for a home and what you do when you find one you like.

Sequim Homes for Sale

What is the pattern?  The market is not what many buyers think it is.  For example, many retirees who are looking at Sequim homes for sale think that because the inventory of homes for sale is so large, they have all the time in the world and all the choices in the world to buy a home in Sequim or in Port Angeles.  That isn’t true, and here’s why.

Discerning retirees who are on a mission to find a home in Sequim are more alike than you might at first imagine.  The vast majority of buyers coming from California, Nevada, Arizona, and elsewhere have very similar preferences in the homes they want.   The home that is in the center of the bell curve of what the vast majority of retirees want is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath home from 1,800 to 2,800 square feet, a 2-car attached garage, a low maintenance yard with a private setting and a nice area [no junk nearby], preferably a mountain view, and a price range between $240,000 to $400,000.  [The largest number of Sequim homes for sale are sold between $200,000 and $300,000, and buyers are cherry picking in each price category.]

Sequim Homes for Sale a Bargain

In an earlier article I wrote about this subject:

Buyers are not all that different. In other words, 100 buyers tend to gravitate toward the same houses, the nicer homes in nicer neighborhoods.

Buyers are cherry picking the best houses in the best neighborhoods at the best prices. This makes 90% of the existing inventory irrelevant or not part of most Buyers’ universe of potential homes. Since the cherry picked homes are not part of the 90% of remaining homes for sale in the MLS, the available inventory that is suitable for a particular buyer is really quite small, perhaps only 10% of the actual inventory.

In Clallam County, we have about 800 single family residences in the MLS for sale. If I am right about this cherry picking process that is going on right now, that would mean there are probably only 80 homes that might actually be suitable for you. But then we both know that you would narrow that list of 80 homes down very quickly, because that includes all homes at all prices in all neighborhoods. So by the time we filter that list of 80 homes based on your parameters, that will leave something like 20 homes on the market that might be suitable for you.

How long do you think those 20 homes will last when all other buyers like you are doing the same thing you are doing–cherry picking the best homes in the best neighborhoods at the best prices?

Sequim Homes for Sale Disappearing

Here’s what happened today.  Of the dozen homes my buyer and I had picked out to look at over these two days, three of them were sold and one was foreclosed on.  This kind of thing happened when the market was hot back in 2005.  A Realtor would have a dozen homes picked out, and while they were looking at them, two or three would sell out from under them.  It is happening now, but the reason is because discerning buyers are cherry picking the best of the best, and that tends to narrow down the list to the same small number of homes.

Interesting, no?  I would not suggest getting in a hurry when you buy a home.  Take your time, but realize how this market is working.  This is a bifurcated market, and the 5% of the Sequim homes for sale that interest you are also interesting to other retirees . . . with tastes and preferences very similar to yours.  Sequim homes for sale are quietly disappearing.

Last Updated on September 4, 2011 by Chuck Marunde