Contact Us

text: (425) 502-5397
email: info@pickettstreet.com

Blog


  • Yes Virginia, zero down loans do exist…

    September 18, 2009 /
    Jesse D. Moore /

    Question: Is it still possible to get a zero down payment home loan? Answer: For the month of September, yes. (Now extended through the end of December). I received a phone call on Monday - a request from a young couple wanting to walk through a few of the floorplans available at the Summit View plat in Bothell. As we walked through the homes I asked the common questions - making sure that they were aware of the $8,000 tax credit, and it's looming expiration date. They were. I asked if they were aware of the special financing available on these brand new homes, including zero down payment and a 3.875% interest rate if they made an offer in September. They were. In fact, they were way ahead of me... She is a grad student, an unpaid intern on her way to a stable and well-paying vocation. He is self-employed, has been for five years. They have two kids in elementary school, so getting into an award-winning school district was important to them. If they would have tried to buy three years ago there wouldn't have been a problem. "Stated income" loans existed then - a now extinct type of…Read more

  • Jesse goes on vacation

    September 10, 2009 /
    Jesse D. Moore /

    [caption id="attachment_633" align="aligncenter" width="451"] Welcome to Yellowstone National Park![/caption] [caption id="attachment_619" align="aligncenter" width="451"] Always a lot of elk at Mammoth Hot Springs.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_620" align="aligncenter" width="451"] Bison on the way to the cabin.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_621" align="aligncenter" width="451"] My family's cabin - 1 mile north of Yellowstone Park.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_629" align="aligncenter" width="451"] View from the patio of one of our cabins.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_624" align="aligncenter" width="451"] Selah with my grandfather's 75-year-old wagon[/caption] [caption id="attachment_623" align="aligncenter" width="451"] Kami and David.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_627" align="aligncenter" width="451"] Selah turned 3 while we were gone.[/caption]Read more

  • HVCC, HERA & other Bureaucratic Sausages

    August 19, 2009 /
    Dennis S. Pearce /

    The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is inefficiency. An efficient bureaucracy is the greatest threat to liberty." Eugene McCarthy In the spirit of an inefficient bureaucracy, and under the guise of "economic recovery", we've seen several new edicts handed down from the mountain lately. The 2 most onerous directives go by the handy handles of 'HVCC' & 'HERA'. Both attempt to right the wrongs perpetrated in this last housing runup, but from my perspective, they are relatively undisguised attempts by big banks to utilize the fear in the marketplace to have their way, creating legislation that does little to remedy the actual problems, while pushing the BIG BANKING agenda well down the road. The Home Value Code of Conduct (HVCC), enacted in April, puts severe restrictions on the lines of communication between lenders and appraisers, requiring the use of an automated online system to place appraisal orders, while keeping lenders and brokers from speaking directly, and purportedly preventing the collusion that took place in the dark ages between '04-'07. The fly in this ointment is the reality that quality work requires quality people. The new system requires lenders to draw anonymously from a predetermined pool of appraisers,…Read more

  • Housing: swimming in info, searching for the bottom

    July 14, 2009 /
    Dennis S. Pearce /

    The US Housing market officially hit bottom on Tuesday, June 16, 2009, according to Mad Money's Jim Cramer. Based on his analysis of better than expected housing starts, increasing sales, and decreasing inventory, Cramer argues that we've seen the worst of this housing debacle, and can begin the slow climb back to sanity. And yet, a month later, we're still seeing headlines that read like footnotes to the 4 horsemen's sightseeing tour. So, how can we have this extreme swing in opinion? We're all getting the same numbers, and existing on the same planet, correct? Yet I'd swear I've never seen more schizo info. There's nothing consistent, no standards of reporting, no BIG HOUSING CHART that we're all referring to- like the digital counter ticking up the national debt ( I think they ran out of slots on that one). Shouldn't there be some agency (job security!), or body of standards keepers (bureaucrats) who sift through all the info and disseminate it into neat little bite-sized, easily digestible (And Accurate) chunks so those of us with lives to lead can get our (Useful) news and still have a life? I'm sure this was the original thinking behind the current crop of infotainment/news…Read more

  • Pickett Street on the radio

    June 24, 2009 /
    Pickett Street Properties Team /

    On Tuesday Dennis and I were asked to participate on a round table discussion of the real estate market on "The Money Thing," a local talk radio show that airs on Tuesdays from 12-2pm on 1150AM (KKNW). Neither of us had ever been on the radio before, but that would never keep us from offering our opinion! :) The show is hosted by Howard Bono, a mortgage originator and owner of Old West Mortgage in Everett. We had only met Howard once before, but that meeting prompted enough thought that he asked us to come on the radio program to share our ideas with his audience. The discussion was lively, and was largely in reference to the short sale processs, what we anticipated for our local market over the next 12-18 months, and how we counsel buyers in times like these. The entire program segment is available on Howard's website, TheMoneyThing.com, but I've posted just our segment below. Thanks to Howard for having us - and thanks to Jerry Jaz for taking the time to take in-studio pics.Read more

  • New home page for PickettStreet.com!

    June 21, 2009 /
    Jesse D. Moore /

    Everybody needs a makeover from time to time, and although our website had evolved much over the past three years, the home page hadn't changed at all, and didn't accurately reflect the true scope of all the resources that we've come to provide at PickettStreet.com. Last week we unveiled a new landing page to our site that we think better reflects our team, our services, and our current real estate market. From the home page users can now go directly to a search for bank owned properties, short sale properties, and our featured new construction properties. Much like our team, our home page is now unique, resourceful, and memorable. Let us know what you think of the change in our comments! OUR NEW HOME PAGERead more

  • A loan we don’t need: HUD’s curious permissions for the $8,000 tax credit as down payment

    June 4, 2009 /
    Pickett Street Properties Team /

    I've tried writing an opening sentence that explains the heart of this post, and the shortest I could make it was more than 50 words, which is hella long. So let me try another tact. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 allows residents (first-time homebuyers) the purchase a home before December 1st a tax-credit of $8,000. The Washington State Legislature recently approved a measure that allowed eligible residents to use the promise of this credit to secure a loan from the state government so that those funds could be used on the down-payment of home, thus enabling people that have not saved the minimum 3.5% down the opportunity to (1) become a homeowner and (2) take advantage of the $8,000 tax credit while it's available. Said measure sat in political purgatory as it seemed that the legislature (and other state legislatures that had approved the measure) may have overstepped their bounds - so the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has been meeting to decide if they were going to allow homebuyers that hadn't saved the minimum down payment requirement to use state funds as a short-term loan for the down payment. So the HUD has ruled:…Read more

  • Maybe the sky isn’t falling.

    May 11, 2009 /
    Andy O'Shea /

    Maybe the “sky” isn’t falling?! A chicken and a pig walk into a grocery store…………..Nah, I’ll save that story for another time. : ) I get asked at least once every day, often multiple times: “Andy, how are things going in real estate, REALLY?! Is it as bad as it sounds?" Truthfully, in my opinion: No! I’m seeing offers being written on homes - almost every day. I’m meeting with sellers who realize 2007 prices are gone - but that they can still sell their home, and do. I’m helping investors find incredible values - on all types of properties. I’m marketing new construction homes for Builders - and receiving offers every weekend. I’m working with Banks to offer 3.75% interest rates to First Time Home Buyers – who are loving it! Yeah, I’d say things are “looking up”. Did you read the article in last week’s Seattle Times entitled: “Pending sales of single-family homes in King County surged in April”? The article mentions some of the good news: King County Pending sales were up 25% in April over March. Snohomish County Pending sales were up 28% in April over March. One factor to keep in mind, though, is that…Read more

  • Building Green- Was Kermit Wrong?

    April 17, 2009 /
    Dennis S. Pearce /

    With all the talk since January of inventive incentives to seemingly stimulate everything from hair growth to employment, never mind the pin-striped panhandlers on Wall Street (don't even get me started!), it's been interesting to watch the recent evolution of the environmental movement. From a tree-dwelling band of radical long-hairs with an agenda but little else, the cause has grown to encompass nearly every segment of our consumer-centric society. To paraphrase Chickenman, "It's Everywhere!" From Dr. Bronner's soaps (one of the true originals) to the Toyota Prius, there's been a sea change in perceptions of the impact our daily activities have on the planet. Few consumer products have escaped the scrutiny and benefit of an eco-makeover, with some being truly re-made, while others have received the marketing equivalent of a botox injection- also known as 'Green-washing'. Being green was once a tough sell due to the perception that it was 'difficult', and expensive. As green products and processes have slipped into the mainstream, that position has gradually become harder to defend; especially as the businesses who once protested have come to realize the economic benefits of waste prevention, thoughtful  materials utilization, and positive PR.  Green has become a critical component…Read more

  • The $64,000 Question

    April 1, 2009 /
    Cody Touchette /

    I had a client the other day ask me about the real estate market and waiting for the bottom.  In this case he was hoping for real estate prices to come down so he could buy at a lower price.  I told him that was a great idea, but it is really tough to time the market and that many professionals get that type of thing wrong, so I would be wary of trying.  In his case he was looking for a $200,000 house, and a 5% price reduction which represented a $10,000 difference in the cost of the house.  We agreed that was a lot of money.  However, I told him that if the bottom of the market was already here, and we just didn’t recognize it yet, waiting longer could cost him a bunch more. I explained that once the housing market bottoms and we see the market for homes stabilize, demand will increase and we will probably see a significant amount of buyers since plenty of people have had the same thoughts about waiting for the market to bottom.  Because of that we could see prices rise quickly.  This would actually not be the most costly part of…Read more

  • When is a Stylish Buchan Craftsman Home like Succulent Panko Encrusted St Peter’s Fish?

    March 26, 2009 /
    admin /

    After an intense (and fun) Pickett Street Properties retreat, I needed a bit of mind-numbing TV. In my search for something to watch, I came across the Food Network show called “Food Detectives.” It’s a show that does experiments with food—sort of an Alton Brown meets MythBusters. On the night of my respite, they did an experiment on food and how it tastes based on presentation and flowery descriptions. Two groups of diners were told they were going to be reviewing a new restaurant and after their meal they were given a survey to fill out. The first set of diners’ menus said they would be having “Green Salad, Fish, Green Beans, Potatoes and Chocolate Cake.” They were sat at tables with plastic table cloths, served New Jersey red wine in plastic cups, and their meals were presented on rather dated plates. The second set had “Crisp Mescluin Seasonal Greens, Succulent Panko encrusted St Peter's Fish, Hericot Vert, Potatoes au Gratin and Belgium Double Chocolate Cake.” They were sat at tables lit by candelight and adorned with linen table cloths. They were served a red wine from Nappa valley and the meal was presented on a classic plate. Did I…Read more

  • What is Mark to Market?

    March 19, 2009 /
    Dennis S. Pearce /

    Warning: if Accounting isn't your language of choice, your eyes may be about to glaze over. However, as with many things arcane, mark-to-market accounting  may be having a huge impact on the world we live in right now, and according to many critics, could well be one of the root causes of the current financial crisis. Mark-to-Market accounting is a reporting rule that requires financial institutions to value their current investments at today's value, even if they have no intention of selling those assets now, or anytime in the foreseeable future. As an example, if you were to consider the current value of your own 401k, which most of us are already doing with some significant trepidation, you're  likely down about 50% from the highs of 2 years ago.  However, you're able to do the calculations and realize that so long as you don't sell today, you've still got a chance to recover on the long haul. Mark to Market doesn't allow banks that option, but instead forces them to report the values on their holdings at todays value, as if they were going to sell everything today. Because banks are not allowed to lend every dime they have access…Read more