Don’t Hate the Buyer’s Agent!

Money Magazine senior writer Stephen Gandel apparently doesn’t trust buyer’s agents. From his article on CNNMoney Mr. Gandel tries to convince the reader that your buyer’s agent is really working for the seller and not necessarily looking out for your best interest. Since the buyer’s agents are showered with so many incentives they will push those houses to their buyers over all other homes…overlooking what the buyer really wants or needs.

Now I cannot speak for all agents out there, and I’m sure there are agents who do exactly as Gandel accuses, but I want to believe (call me naive) that the majority of agents out there remember their duties to their buyers and are working on the behalf of their buyers to try and find and help them buy the best house for them at the best price. Would you as the buyer feel cheated if the perfect house for you that you got at a screaming deal just so happened to also pay your agent more than the traditional commission? I kinda doubt it. If you would feel cheated, how would you feel if the perfect house for you that you got at a screaming deal paid your agent far less than the traditional commission? Read the rest of this entry »

King County single-family homes finished 2006 with about a 9% average appreciation for the year. Most of those gains were in Q2 and the largest gainer was smaller homes (which makes sense as everything else was approaching a half million or more!). Since these stats only looked at data from 2006, I couldn’t calculate an appreciation figure for Q1. Read the rest of this entry »

Snohomish County single-family homes finished 2006 with about a 10% average appreciation for the year. Most of those gains were in Q2 and Q3 while Q4 sorta stalled. Since these stats only looked at data from 2006, I couldn’t calculate an appreciation figure for Q1. Read the rest of this entry »