Seattle Desi

Nice article on finding/buying bank-owned homes -- http://seattlebubble.com/blog/2010/08/23/how-to-find-bank-owned-homes/ REO listings of various banks -- http://ceforward.com/?p=376

Check out a related article on seattleBubble.com. Following are a few more links to property management companies that offer rental. http://www.northwestidx.com/index.php?site_id=2070 http://www.ahcpropertymgmt.com/available-properties.html http://tsquaremanagement.com/?page=rplistings http://www.aboda.com/pm/available_listings.html http://www.wpmnorthwest.com/index.cfm/page/39925/View_Our_Listings.html http://brinkpm.com/?page=rplistings http://www.jimkennedyrealestate.com/index.php?pid=Rentals http://www.macphersonspm.com/?page_id=53

Tips on making offers on REOs -- http://homebuying.about.com/od/foreclosures/qt/051308_REOTIPS.htm Discussion on buying a bank-owned home -- http://www.trulia.com/voices/Home_Buying/Buying_a_bank_owned_home_before_it_s_listed_-165001

Check out http://seattlebubble.com/blog/2008/10/08/where-to-search-for-rentals-in-seattle/ for links/tips related to searching for rentals in the Seattle area. Be sure to check out the links in the comments also.

Check out a very useful discussion on "foreclosure auctions" at http://seattlebubble.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1350 Websites offering Foreclosure listings http://www.usa-foreclosure.com/ (FREE) http://www.realtytrac.com/ http://www.foreclosurepoint.com/ Classes on home-buying, RE investing and foreclosures are listed at http://www.press-on.com/ourclasses.htm Redmond based firm that helps with buying foreclosures/short-sales/etc is at http://www.realestateinvestmentfirm.com/ (I haven't used them & cannot vouch for their services) There are only really two big firms that handle just about all the foreclosures in town. Regional Trustee Services and Northwest Trustee Services Check out NTS records in King county using the following steps... Click on http://www.metrokc.gov/recelec/records/ Click "Records Search" Accept the legal notice Click "Search" next to "Official Records Search" Under Document Type select ...

Member of the forums on SeattleBubble are tracking some of the "home-purchase flops" (i.e. "homes being sold for a loss") on Seattle's eastside RE market. Check out " Eastside Flops ". Seems like the "strong" RE market in Seattle has started to crumble.

Now that the "bullet-proof" Seattle housing market has started to loose steam , a lot of people have asked me if it's a good time to buy a home. Here are my 2 cents about this topic – pls take it for what it’s worth. IMHO the Seattle area's home prices started going down only a few months ago, and it has a few more months to shed prices (some say it has up to 15 more months of decreasing prices, based on trends in other cities). From an investment perspective -- I’d wait till the end of the next summer to see how things turn out (unless the prices show signs of a increase). At the very least, I’d at least wait till the end of this summer & then make a decision – since, seasonally late-Aug/September has the highest inventory. Housing prices don’t swing as quickly as the stock markets – so, I think there will be some clear signs of a broad price increase before the market turns around. When the price of a home is going down – the money lost on interest+maintai...

Compare the costs of buying or renting comparable homes. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/10/business/2007_BUYRENT_GRAPHIC.html?ex=1176955200&en=f19f23f7517d8826&ei=5070

Going through a huge economic cycle is interesting. Take for example, the current "housing bubble" -- almost everyone that I know seems to be thinking that the housing boom will exisit forever. Very few want to sell homes & almost everyone wants to buy a first or a second or a third home. Any home that comes on the market on the west coast seems to be getting multiple offers (many above the asking price). Credit is dirt cheap; buying a home in a city without seeing the property (& sometimes even without seeing the city) has become a common thing. "The housing market has never crashed; so, buying real estate is not risky" is a commonly heard statement. People don't seem to remember the past bubbles . Earlier today, I read an article that claims that the number of people searching for a bubble on the web has increased . Some experts claim that the the housing market is 'more prone to bubbles than stocks '. Only time will tell if there's a hou...

http://www.stern.nyu.edu/globalmacro/cur_policy/housing.html One article especially worth reading is at http://economist.com/finance/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3477796