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An Interview with Margaret Smith on Confidence and the World of Real Estate
November 9, 2017 /This week marks the fifth anniversary of Pickett Street’s Margaret Smith. Though I’ve only been working with her for about six months, I’ve already come to know Margaret as a positive and hardworking force of nature. Margaret is the Director of Operations for Pickett Street Properties; she recruits, screens, and interviews candidates and manages social media, client events, system evaluation, branding/marketing, and overall growth and planning for Pickett Street. I was recently lucky to be able to chat with her about her experiences in the world of real estate. Hi Margaret! Congrats on five years of working with Pickett Street. Can you talk to us about how you started working for Pickett Street? Before Pickett Street I was the Docent Program Coordinator for the Seattle Art Museum. I NEVER thought I would work in sales or for a sales company--and now I can't imagine anything else in my future. This career gives me an opportunity to help and inspire people in a much bigger way and through a bigger platform than I ever imagined. I was ready to leave the museum because I wanted a career where I could support myself financially, and that's hard to do in the nonprofit…Read more
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Education = Power.
December 2, 2016 /Mortgage Rates on the Rise as Equities Recover As expected, mortgage rates climbed during Thanksgiving week as equities recovered based on speculation of economic expansion. In fact, these market conditions led the Dow Jones Industrial Average to record highs. In general, with election season fading into the rearview mirror and with Trump beginning to assemble the foundations for his political team, it’s expected that markets will return to a sense of normalcy after their initial uncertainty. That’s not to say that we won’t see any more volatility; in fact, market experts expect that, even if things are settling down now, we should expect a few more market surprises in the foreseeable future. Any political concerns aside, it’s important to note that mortgage rates are increasing, just as this blog has predicted on numerous occasions. More specifically, just before Halloween, the average 30-year APOR was about 3.52%. By the end of the first week in November, that rate had recorded a modest increase and risen to 3.58%, while it rose again the following week to 3.61%. By the end of Thanksgiving week, the average 30-year APOR had increased to about 3.98%. Likewise, MarketWatch estimates that the average 30-year FRM has…Read more
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Auction opportunity: Ranch or equestrian property in Snohomish
March 20, 2011 /Every week over 150 properties are scheduled to go to auction (trustee's sale) in Snohomish County. On Friday, March 25th, a property in rural Snohomish is scheduled to sell on the courthouse steps, and it represents a great opportunity for anyone wanting acreage or equestrian property for under $275,000. The structure is a daylight rambler with over 3,400 square feet of living space, with 4 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. The home needs a little TLC, but the real appeal of the property is the 15 acre lot. For those looking for equestrian or even small ranch potential, this is a unique opportunity to buy horse property wholesale. We have investors that will loan cash to qualified buyers on the day of the auction, and even a resource to start an automatic refinance into a contemporary home loan after you purchase the property. The property is occupied, and we want to be sensitive to the situation that the owner is facing, so we're only making further information available to those that schedule a personal consultation to go over the details. If you're interested in learning more about this property or taking advantage of opportunities similar to this, please fill out the…Read more
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How I lost my roommates
December 12, 2010 /Trevor is my brother-in-law. I've been helping him and his wife to find their first home over the last couple of months. We made an offer on a bank-owned home in Edmonds that was accepted, but in a long and twisted tale of banking regulation gone wrong, they had to give up that home and start their search over again. They also had to move - they had given notice at their apartment complex and their unit had already been rented out. So that's how I gained two roommates :) Trevor and Liz were originally hesitant to consider properties sold at trustee's sale, but being forced to live with me encouraged them to look at all options. After watching a few properties that would normally be outside of their price range sell well within their range, Trevor and Liz threw themselves into the process. They were pre-approved to borrow funds at auction, received a username and password to search our trustee sale database, and started driving properties that they were interested in. Trevor bid on a home at auction every week for three weeks prior to Thanksgiving, barely losing out on all three. He was being conservative at my insistance…Read more
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Pickett Street investor purchases at trustee’s sale
November 19, 2010 /Last Friday, new investor Ron Wong purchased his first investment property at a steep discount (67%) in South Everett. The home was a very well cared for 1955 built rambler on a great street and large lot with a detached garage. Ron met the owner earlier in the week with me (John McCants) and toured the house. The owner had been trying to work with one of the largest banks in America on a modified payment plan for over two years with no success. He was unable to afford the repairs the house and the house ultimately went to trustee sale (auction) and sold to our investor. The property needed a new roof, some landscaping, and touch-up on the inside to hardwood floors and paint. The home has two remodeled bathrooms and a new kitchen. It is very unfortunate for the previous homeowner that he could not keep his home, but to Ron, it was a opportunity to do what he has dreamed about for years: build his wealth by buying real estate at wholesale. Ron plans to complete the work in the next few weeks as the previous homeowner moves out and re-list the property with the Pickett Street…Read more
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Knock, knock: Gaining access to a home going to auction
November 10, 2010 /I was in the field yesterday driving a few "Hot Properties" with a investor client. We were driving the list of properties with bids we had and few that looked hot based on their location and debt amount that did not have specific opening bids. We found a couple homes that were not so hot and marked them accordingly to update our website, but we found a couple properties with valley views of the Snohomish River and one overlooking Puget Sound and views of the Olympic Mountains that were wholesale values prime for auction purchasing. At one property in a really good neighborhood of Everett we found a nice home occupied by the owner. The homeowner toured the house for us and explained in detail all he had done to update the property and what was wrong still needed updating. We asked why he hadn't worked out the situation with the Bank and he said he had been trying for over 2 years with no success. We discussed that issue for a few minutes and left the home with the owners contact info for use later. After leaving the home my investor stated "that was a great house and great…Read more
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Buying a home at trustee’s sale in Washington State
November 9, 2010 /Remember 2006? When there were basically only two types of real estate to buy - resale or new construction? Most people, including real estate agents, hadn't even heard of short sales, and bank-owned properties made up such a small percentage of the market that finding one was a little like hunting a rainbow. It's a different time, and our team has done our best to diversify. It started by educating ourselves on the short sale process, extended into representing local and national banks on marketing their foreclosures, and in the last six months we've developing an effective system of representing buyers purchasing properties at trustee's sale in King and Snohomish Counties. What is a Trustee's Sale? Sometimes generically referred to as auction, county auction, sheriff's sale, or foreclosure auction, trustee's sales are the natural process in our state for foreclosing on a home. There are two types of foreclosures in our country, either judicial or non-judicial. Judicial foreclosures require banks to go through the court system to foreclose on a property - non-judicial foreclosures, like those in Washington State - don't go through the court system, but instead follow a set of established laws and notices that eventually lead to…Read more
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All the things short sales are. And those that they are not.
July 28, 2010 /DISCLAIMER: This was initially published as part of an email newsletter to my clients. It made the rounds, and I was asked to post it on the blog to make it more accessible. I wish that there were more short sale jokes - in the same way that there are lawyer jokes, blonde jokes, or jokes about North Dakota. This would mean that there was at least a level of understanding about short sales that was shared among a large group of people. And it would mean that there was something humorous about the process... I've had a couple of painful weeks with short sales. Most real estate agents don't handle short sale transactions because they (1) take a long time (2) pay less money and (3) are frustrating beyond measure. When some of my own clients were faced with the possibility of having to short sale, I decided to educate myself on short sales to ensure that they received the same measure of customer service as my other clients. Negotiating short sales is a lot like navigating a minefield...only it's on a giant treadmill where the environment is constantly changing, and the threat of danger has to be reassessed…Read more
