Seattle Real Estate | Real Estate Investments are on the Rise in the Northwest

Purchasing property now in Seattle is a gamble. You have got to have all the right cards. These include credit, capital, and long term security. Sure, these may sound obvious, but in today's market, home sellers and the banks issuing loans are looking closely at potential investors. Real Estate is still a commodity. People are just taking a higher level of morality and opportunism to it. If you are in the market to buy, be sure to work with a trusted real estate professional. Then, if all the cards are right, you can bet on a big win.

Seattle Bubble editor Tim Ellis recently noted that increases in pending sales did not seem to be leading to a similar boost in closings.

A 33-percent jump in pending sales from February to March, for instance, did not bring a corresponding increase in closings a month later. In fact, April closings were up less than 4 percent from March.

This fact "is good to keep in mind when you start reading news reports in the coming weeks about the market supposedly picking back up," Ellis wrote. "It's an illusion."

What gives?

Ellis pointed to the listing service's decision last June to move a listing to pending once a seller accepted a buyer's offer, rather than waiting until after the buyers and sellers had worked out any issues raised in a home inspection.

In fact, closed sales went from 89 percent of the previous month's pending sales in June to 80 percent in July and have ranged from 60 percent to 84 percent since.

Bob Gent, director of business development and member relations for the listing service, acknowledged the definition change had an impact. In fact, he provided statistics showing that the rate of pending listings going back on the market jumped from 1.5 percent in January through May of 2008 to 4 percent in June 2008 through April 2009.

But said the change could only account for part of the recent increase in pending sales. Take out all the pending sales that went back on the market last April and this April, and there's still a 6-percent increase.

''Did it have an impact? Yes," Gent said. "It's not big enough to explain the situation."

So why are the increased pending sales not yet showing up in closed deals?

"The length of time from going pending to close has increased dramatically in the past few months due to short sales," Gent said.

Short sales are deals where lenders agree to accept less than the mortgage balance as part of a sale, because a home is worth less than the balance and the owner doesn't have the money to make up the difference. They cost lenders less than foreclosing and have less of a hit on owners' credit.

Real estate professionals have complained loudly in recent months about how long lenders are taking to decide whether to approve short-sale deals.

So there you have it, Seattle is making pains to recover as quickly as possible from the housing market crunch. For savvy investors, opportunities await. It's just a matter of having in place the proper credit, capital and security.