Feature articles and real estate expert sources by Brian and Sam in local and national media publications:

Seattle Homes and Lifestyles Magazine - "Getting on the Water"  - June 2009
Realtor Magazine - April 2000, July 2009, October 2009
USA Today Newspaper - 2005
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer Newspaper - "In The Lap of Luxury at the Four Seasons" - 2008
Fox Business -  Home and Personal Finance - "Don't Blow First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit" - 2009
FT Press's Book - "Homebuyers Beware" - 2009
Inman News - "Multiple Offers:  The New Norm" - 2009


By Julie H. Case
This article originally appeared in the June 2009 print issue of Seattle Homes & Lifestyles.

Home sales are down, prices are relatively flat overall and, for those in search of their first waterfront property, this may be the perfect time to buy.

For starters, there’s more product on the waterfront market than ever before, in terms of both listings and actual units, agents say. An influx of condo conversion projects recently came on the market, pushing up the median price of waterfront condos nearly 5 percent in 2008, and pushing down the total number of those condos sold 13 percent, according to Sam DeBord, director of marketing for SeattleHome.com and a broker and realtor with RE/MAX Connected.

Meanwhile, sales of King County waterfront houses and townhouses were down 38 percent in terms of sheer volume in 2008, though prices were relatively flat—down less than 0.5 percent, DeBord says. That, of course, is not a complete surprise, given that prices for homes on the water are typically higher than others in the market. For example, in the 17-county Northwest Multiple Listing Service area, the median price of all homes sold in 2008 was down 6.1 percent compared to 2007, according to a Windermere market report, but the median price for homes $1 million or more was off just 2 percent. A home on Seattle’s waterfront can easily run into the $6 million to $7 million range—or more. 

 - - -

Waterfront properties on Puget Sound priced for less than $3 million are also available, though the quantity is smaller. In Edmonds, 16 properties were on the market for less than $3 million this spring, and nine were available on Alki in West Seattle. Three waterfront condos have already sold on Alki this year, DeBord says.

Gone, too, are the days of bidding wars. The relative glut of lower-end waterfront properties, combined with the fact that many have been on the market for more than six months, is allowing some buyers the luxury of negotiation. One of DeBord’s clients recently made an offer on a Puget Sound waterfront home in south Seattle that was listed at $2.5 million. When all was said and done, the client bought the home for about $1.95 million.

While the majority of waterfront is still primarily open only to affluent buyers, this can be an opportune time for first-time buyers, too. House-boats, for example, can start as low as $300,000, DeBord says. And with waterfront condos in Seward Park, in Madison Park, on Bitter Lake and on Eastlake sometimes even lower, at last some buyers have opportunities not only to get into a first home but also to get into a waterfront property.

The bottom line? Whether people are saving up for a first home and willing to go for a condo or houseboat or are biding their time until they find the perfect lakefront second home, they may find that limping prices, low interest rates and a relative abundance of choices may be making this the best time in years to buy a home on the water. 

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Realtor Magazine, October 2009
By G.M. Filisko
Give First-Timers the Direction They Need,
Source:  Sam DeBord, Broker, Realtor, SeattleHome.com

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Fox Business - Home/Personal Finance
"Don't blow first-time home buyer tax credit with credit card bills"
By Marcia Frellick
Excerpt:

Make sure your documents are in order. Don't assume your agent or lawyer has everything covered. If you're buying a foreclosure, for instance, check to make sure the trustee's deed has been properly recorded by the foreclosing attorney, says Sam DeBord, broker-Realtor with Seattlehome.com.

"The buyer needs to be pressuring the realtor to make sure those things get done or do it themselves," says DeBord.

And if your annual percentage rate has changed more than one-eighth of a percent from the original truth-in-lending statement, the amount must be re-disclosed, under the change instituted in July under the Mortgage Disclosure Improvement Act. A re-disclosure puts closing off a minimum of three days by law.

"Follow up with your lender to check your APR at least a week before closing," DeBord says. "Also make sure you have a copy of your appraisal at least three days before closing. A lender has to have proof that they gave it to you in that amount of time."

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FT Press's Book:  "Homebuyers Beware"

By Carolyn Warren
Excerpt:
Sage Advice for Home Sellers
"Most home sellers have never seen a rescission, a hazard disclosure form, or an inspection response.  Today we have material facts and environmental concerns that need to be addressed;  and if it can be shown that there was anything that the seller was aware of that wasn't disclosed in the proper way, it can leave them open to lawsuit--for years to come. 
"Also, is the seller aware of the correct amount of earnest money to be collected?  On a contingent offer, is the timeline short enough that they're not strung out by a would-be buyer, only to find they've wasted months?  Home sellers need a full-service, full-time agent to protect them and keep them on the right track."
-Sam DeBord, RE/MAX Seattle, www.SeattleHome.com
 
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Inman News -  Multiple Offers:  The New Norm
Competition Returns To Slumping Markets
By Peter Barnes
Excerpt:

Up-market homes consistently sell above asking in a New Jersey suburb. Bidding wars break out in hot neighborhoods in Cape Cod, Chicago and Seattle. Short sales in some Florida and California markets draw as many as 40 bids.

It's a far cry from 2006, but brokers and agents across the country say multiple offers are once again the norm in specific corners of the market.

 - - -

Seattle broker and Realtor Sam DeBord says a couple recently made an offer on a house that was on the market for three days, only to be trumped by one of nine other offers. On their next try, they offered full price on a property that was on the market for two days and beat out two other bids to get the house.

"We've really seen pockets like that" in the last few months, DeBord says. Not all parts of town fare so well, but in his clients' Ballard neighborhood the median time on the market is only 12 days.

"When something comes on that's $300,000, everybody comes to see it the first weekend," DeBord says.

Property values in the Seattle area are down about 20 percent from their 2007 peak, according to the Zillow Home Value Index, and a National Association of Realtors report this month stated that the median price of single-family resale homes in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro area fell 13.7 percent from second-quarter 2008 to second-quarter 2009.