Buyers coming to Sequim and Port Angeles are shopping very very carefully.   They may be few and far between in this slow market, but they are still shopping.   They’re being very careful, far more than normally.   They’re looking for the ideal home in the best location, which for so many up here means a water view.   They’re filtering through the hundreds of homes in the MLS.

They’re arriving to look at those homes, comparing and filtering again.   Then they are expecting a great price, because they know it’s a buyer’s market, that they are one of the few buyers ready, able, and willing to close a deal.

When they negotiate the price starting with the first offer, they expect the seller to negotiate reasonably, which means they expect the seller to come down a meet them, at least halfway.   When a seller only comes down a few thousand dollars, buyers often consider this ridiculous, unless the listing price was so darn reasonable to begin with, which is rarely the case.

Buyers have a huge advantage in this market, especially with the powerful and convenient Internet MLS search available now.   Buyers can get on the Internet from the comfort of their own homes and Search the Entire Sequim and Port Angeles MLS, which they are doing enthusiastically.

As I’ve written elsewhere on this blog, buyers are then cherry picking the best homes off the market.   We’ve never seen a real estate market like this.   Buyers may like it, but it is tough for sellers.

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Buying the ideal home in Sequim is not quite as simple as many people think.   Sure, you spend some time searching the Sequim MLS and filter through the huge inventory of homes for sale, and then you drive around alone or with your Realtor and narrow it down some more, but there’s a dirty little secret with serious implications.

Here’s the secret I discovered showing homes in Sequim:   The best homes for sale, and the one or ones you could fall in love with (“Yes, I could live in this home forever!”) are also the same homes that others with good taste and money will fall in love with.

Consider for just a moment the clear implications of this truth.   The inventory of homes for sale may be large, BUT you and dozens of other qualified buyers are all going to be attracted to the same small number of houses.   How do I know this?   Because it keeps happening.

True life.   I’m showing houses to a couple from Henderson, Nevada, and we narrow down the list, and on their short list of eight houses, two of the houses are already under contract (someone made an offer which was accepted).   This happened on two of the days this week to the same buyers.   What does that tell you?

This same week another client with whom I’ve been working for quite a while calls me to say they want to look inside what they think is the perfect home in the perfect location on the perfect lot.   I look it up in the MLS, and Voila! it is under contract.   “Darn it!   We really loved that location and everything about that home from the information and the photos we saw!,” was their predictable response.

There are several other really important keys to successfully buy a home in Sequim, and some of these “keys” are things that have taken me literally decades to figure out and learn.   More about those later, but today the most important thing I would share with buyers is that if you find the right home, beware that others like you are also finding it.   With interest rates at a historical low, if you find the perfect home, you know what you need to do.

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Search the entire Sequim MLS or Port Angeles MLS.   No money has been spared to give you the most advanced cutting edge MLS search tool, so you can search all the homes for sale in the entire MLS in Sequim and Port Angeles.   You can also search for vacant land.

You can narrow your focus by city, or even areas within and around Sequim and Port Angeles, and you can get as specific as you want with your parameters (bedrooms, square footage, etc.).   Once you get a list of results, just view the details for a full listing sheet with photos, too.

And I also added a map feature, so you can see where each property is located.   Just click on the image below to start your search now.   Notice that I have not required that you register your name and email.   Of course, if you find this useful, I would love the privilege of being your buyer’s agent.

Sequim real estate and Port Angeles real estate found here.

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Searching the Sequim MLS or the Port Angeles MLS, which is the Olympic Multiple Listing Service, is unreliable, which means you might not find what you are looking for because of incomplete or inaccurate data.   Most people do not know this, so let me explain.   Then I’ll give you a partial answer to the problem.   [By the way, many Realtors have not thought this through either.]

There are three reasons the database of real estate for sale is not accurate in the MLS:

1.   Not all agents enter all data accurately;
2.   Not all agents enter all the data on each of their listings in the same way;
3. The MLS data input sheet is not perfect and creates some divergence in how the database stores information and the expectations of consumers when they enter search parameters.   (I’ll explain this.)

If you are a buyer searching for your ideal home or land in Sequim or Port Angeles, you need to know that the database is a great source of information, but it is not perfect, and you may miss that ideal property, or several of them.   Here’s a brief explanation of the three reasons.   (For sellers this is also vital information, because your primary task is to connect with buyers, and you can’t do that if the buyers don’t know your home’s features because they can’t find your home in the MLS.   This is another reason I do more on the Internet than any other Realtor in Clallam County.)

Not all agents enter all data accurately.   I have seen this many times.   Let’s admit it.   Agents are human.   I know, there are plenty of jokes about real estate agents, as there are about lawyers and used car salesmen.   The MLS data input sheet is quite lengthy and detailed.   Not only do agents make mistakes, but believe it or not, there are lazy agents, too.

Not all agents enter all the data on each of their listings in the same way.   How many times have I looked at listings, even for the same listing agent, and found dramatically different data.   Sometimes the name of the development is included, sometimes not.   Sometimes the street address is included, sometimes not.   Sometimes the lot number is included, sometimes not.   There are probably a couple of hundred input fields, so there is a lot of room for inconsistency here.

The MLS data input sheet is not perfect and creates some divergence in how the database stores information and the expectations of consumers when they enter search parameters.   Sometimes the folks in programming are not of the same mindset as the agents working on the street.   The data sheet we fill out as Realtors is not necessarily what we would create in a perfect world.   But it’s more than that.   For the sake of brevity, one example here.   A client told me last weekend she searched the MLS by checking the “water view” option.   She also searched the “mountain view” option, and she searched the “water and mountain view” option.   The last option does not include the properties in the first two.   You would think it would, but it does not.   You get three different results, or property lists, although not completely different, because there is some overlap.   The result is unreliable or inconsistent with what consumers expect.

Conclusion.   If you do a very careful search of the MLS with specific parameters, and if you expect to find that ideal property, think again.   That perfect property may not show up in your various MLS searches, but it may actually be out there . . . somewhere.

Partial Answer.   I have written elsewhere that it is important to find a competent and experirenced Realtor before you start looking at properties.   Why?   Because a good Realtor will know the market, and can help you find that needle in a haystack that you might otherwise never find.   Anyway, as a buyer, your Realtor doesn’t cost you a dime.   The seller pays the commissions.   You gotta love that!   More importantly, you want to be certain you find that “one” property perfectly suited for you and your family.

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The Sequim MLS and Port Angeles MLS consists of the Olympic Listing Service (OLS) and for some the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS). All local brokers and agents are members of the OLS, but not all are members of the NWMLS.

I’ve been meditating on this issue in light of the great conflict that stirs quietly behind the scenes among brokers. Mediation is a good thing. It reduces stress and sometimes gives us answers that seem to drop down out of the heavens.

While I was meditating on the relative merits of these two competing listing services, I had a revelation, and suddenly something hit me on the head pretty good. I thought God’s messenger had miraculously tapped me with wisdom. When I got up, I realized it was just the book on my computer monitor that fell. Fortunately, my head cushioned its fall. Unfortunately, my revelation probably found its roots in terra firma rather than the heavens.

By now, you’re probably thinking, “So, what is the revelation?” Perhaps it’s more of a reflection, rather than a revelation. Okay, here it is. Since us local agents are all members of the OLS but not all members of the NWMLS, that makes the NWMLS pretty much useless. Let me explain.

When an agent does a search of the listing database of all homes and land for sale in Sequim and Port Angeles, he needs a complete database. If the database is incomplete, he cannot expect to pull together a decent set of comps to determine price or make accurate comparisons. Since not all local brokers are members of the NWMLS, that database is incomplete, and any data used to arrive at price comparisons will also be less than complete.

Some brokers or agents like to make the argument that having a listing in both systems gets exposure to Seattle side agents and buyers, but no agent I know in Sequim or Port Angeles has been able to tell me that they have sold a listed property that way. Local agents use the OLS, not the NWMLS to search for local properties and to email clients reports.

I have used both listing services, and there’s no question at all which is better–it is the NWMLS. The NWMLS has much better technology, and it has much better content with the statewide forms. Unfortunately, because many brokers refuse to be part of the NWMLS but all are members of the OLS, that means only the OLS is a complete database. Why don’t all agents and brokers simply agree to be part of the NWMLS?

First, we are not, in fact, picking up any buyers through the NWMLS. That alone ought to be enough. Some of my clients will logically say, “Well, don’t we get more exposure?” Reasonable question, but I never got any calls from Seattle area Realtors during the entire year I was a member of both services here, nor has any Realtor in Clallam County ever sold one of their listings through the NWMLS that I know of, and I have talked with many many agents on this issue. Sure, someone somewhere is going to come up with an exception from years past. But we don’t deal with would of, could of, or maybe. We are trying to sell real estate now to real buyers.

Second, where are our buyers coming from? Mostly from out of state, and I also track Seattle area people hitting my website. Guess what the Seattle buyers are doing (and I just wrote an offer for a Seattle area buyer on a $419,000 house)? They are jumping up on the Internet and going to the search engines. They don’t go to a Seattle area Realtor’s website to log into NWMLS. They are finding my sites directly through the search engines. That’s what people do now. They use search engines. They type in phrases like, “Port Angeles real estate water view” or a similar phrase. When they type that in a search engine, they get real results right here in River City. If they type such a search in the NWMLS, they don’t get much, because the majority of local listings are not there, but they are NOT going to the NWMLS to do this search. They, like everyone else, are using search engines, like Google.

Third, most people don’t realize the NWMLS cost about $960 for me as a broker to sign up, and about $360 per year for me and every one of my agents. If a broker is a member, it is mandatory that all agents be members. Since leads don’t come in from the NWMLS (honestly they do NOT), that would be like throwing money off the bridge.

Fourth, the OLS and the NWMLS are only two databases available on the Internet, and there are about three dozen that people use. Most all of these real estate databases are pulling information from sources other than the NWMLS. These other database services or Internet services are optimized for the search engines. The NWMLS and the OLS are not optimized for search engines.

Until all local brokers agree to be members of the NWMLS, there is not a compelling reason to do so. Why do you think the largest local brokerage, Coldwell Banker Uptown Realty, is not a member?

Courtesy Sequim & Port Angeles Real Estate, LLC

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You can search over 1,500 Sequim MLS listings and Port Angeles MLS Listings from my website at: Search MLS Listings.

There’s a short audio on how to use the MLS search to find what you are looking for. If you are unable to find exactly what you are looking for, do not assume it doesn’t exist, as the audio explains. The local MLS input data sheet has many check boxes, and not all agents complete all the “include” or “exclude” sections. It’s easier for agents to use the “comments” or “remarks” section to describe something unique or special about the property.

Sometimes people run into trouble when they try to listen to an audio on their Internet browser, whether it is Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. The solution is to check the options in your browser, and make sure that the default setting for listening to “.mp3′s” is the audio program you use on your computer (i.e. Windows Media Player, Winamp, etc.).

If you have any difficulty or can’t find the home or land you are looking for, email me at chuckmarunde@gmail.com or simply call me at 360-775-5424.

P.S. I will be glad to help you with any technology problems you’re having on this. Come on now, when was the last time a Realtor offered help with your tech issues?

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