Leavenworth Real Estate

Leavenworth Real Estate | Sold Homes May 2010

 

Before we get to May, there was one additional house that closed in April but was not reported as sold until May.

 

20689 Miracle Mile, Leavenworth

List price: $698,800.  Sold price: $480,000.

Days on Market: 818

4 bedrooms | 4.25 bath | 3128 sqft | .39 acres

This is a large home in Kahler Glen that backs to the 18th fairway and a pond.  It was used as a nightly rental and could accommodate a large number of guest and as set up to be business retreat.  The sellers were a non-profit organization who were gifted the house when the previous owners couldn’t sell it.

 

 

May Sold Homes in Leavenworth and Lake Wenatchee: 

This month 5 homes and 1 condo sold.

 

 

 

8475 Lake Street, Peshastin

List price: $135,000.  Sold price: $135,000.

Days on Market: 38

3 bedrooms | 1 bath | 1452 sqft | .11 acres

This starter home in Peshastin went pending the first day it was on the market.

 

 

 

 

21829 Pinto Lane, Leavenworth

List price: $354,500.  Sold price: $275,000.

Days on Market: 211

2 bedrooms | 2 bath | 1200 sqft | .26 acres

New construction home in the Ponderosa Neighborhood near Plain.

 

 

 

 

12790 Pobst Place, Leavenworth

List price: $439,000.  Sold price: $360,000.

Days on Market: 261

0 bedrooms | 1 bath | 500 sqft | 5.01 acres

This house was a converted garage with a loft.  The acreage was nicely forested, backed to Forest Service property, and had a small creek.

 

 

 

 

12789 Spring Street, Leavenworth

List price: $699,000.  Sold price: $419,000.

Days on Market: 1175

3 bedrooms | 2.5 bath | 2096 sqft | 1.0 acres

This house has interesting design with three different levels of living space.  It also has a two car garage and accessory dwelling unit that was used as a rental.  Sellers went through three different agents and ended up chasing the market down.

 

 

 

 

17801 North Shore Drive, Leavenworth

List price: $750,000.  Sold price: $522,000.

Days on Market: 546

2 bedrooms | 1 bath | 840 sqft | .34 acres

Older cabin on the lake with 75′ of waterfront and a dock.  The lot didn’t really have a driveway down to the house and most of the value was in the lot.

 

 

Leavenworth Condos

 

 

138 West Whitman Street #2, Leavenworth

List price: $215,000.  Sold price: $133,000.

Days on Market: 271

2 bedrooms | 2.5 bath | 1066 sqft

This is a non-nightly rental condo in the residential part of Leavenworth.  Two of its sister condos sold in Feb 2010 for $129,000.  There is currently still one condo similar to this one on the market.

 

 

 

 

More Leavenworth Real Estate Info

• Click Here to See Leavenworth Sold Homes for April 2010
• Click Here to See Cashmere Sold Homes for May 2010
• Click Here to Search for Leavenworth Homes for Sale

 

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Required Disclaimer

NOTE: This representation is based in whole or in part on data supplied by the North Central Washington Association of Realtors or its Multiple Listing Service. Neither the Association nor its MLS guarantees or are in any way responsible for its accuracy. Data maintained by the Association or its MLS may not reflect all real estate activity in the Market.

Cashmere Real Estate | Sold Homes May 2010

 

In Cashmere last month, two homes sold.

 

8010 Taber Road, Cashmere

List price: $168,000.  Sold price: $170,000.

Days on Market: 187

4 bedrooms | 1.5 bath | 2730 sqft | 1.40 acres

This home was a short sale and needed extensive work. 

 

 

 

316 Peshastin Road, Cashmere

List price: $205,000.  Sold price: $199,000.

Days on Market: 41

3 bedrooms | 2 bath | 1430 sqft | .17 acres

Cute in-town rambler with a garage.

 

 

More Leavenworth and Cashmere Real Estate Info

• Click Here to See Cashmere Sold Homes for April 2010
• Click Here to See Leavenworth Sold Homes for May 2010
• Click Here to Search for Cashmere Homes for Sale

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Required Disclaimer

NOTE: This representation is based in whole or in part on data supplied by the North Central Washington Association of Realtors or its Multiple Listing Service. Neither the Association nor its MLS guarantees or are in any way responsible for its accuracy. Data maintained by the Association or its MLS may not reflect all real estate activity in the Market.

Why doesn’t my Leavenworth home get more showings?

If you are asking this question about a current home in Leavenworth, think about the following dilemmas.

• Overpriced. With over 160 Leavenworth homes for sale  homes that are not aggressively priced aren’t likely to get shown.
• Expensive homes. Let’s face it. Very few homes sell above $700,000. Expect fewer showings because less qualified buyers exist.
• Tough showing instructions. 24 hr notice? Listing Agent must be present? No lock box? Call agent for appointment?  Vacant homes with lock boxes get the most showings, period.
• Poor photos online. Only 1 photo online? Bad lighting? Cluttered house? Online visitors are likely to want to see your home. If your home shows up on this website it’s bad news.
• Staging? Is your house vacant or well staged or is it cluttered, dirty and filled with pet and cigarette odors.
• Is it winter? Is your drive plowed? Do I need a big 4×4?
• Is your house remote? Houses that are easy to get to are easy to show.
• Too unique? Houses that are near the “median” get shown more. Cabins and condos under $300,000 are our bread and butter.  The less your house fits the “average buyer” , the less it is likely to show.

 

And unfortunately..

• Less houses are being sold (and shown) than in 2006. Sometimes home sellers can do everything right, but that’s not enough.

Rash of Lake Wenatchee And Plain Break-Ins

I received the following email from John Burpee of Leavenworth Property Services who let me share it with you:

I am sending you this email to alert you of recent break-ins that have occurred on vacation rentals in the Lake Wenatchee and Plain area. There have been several break-ins on vacation rentals since March 2010.

The specific areas that have been hit are as follows – Pine Tree Rd (off of Chiwawa Loop), Beaver Valley Rd and Telemark (off of North Shore Rd.) There have been a total of 5 break-ins according to Deputy Brad Norton of Chelan County Sheriff’s Office.

It appears they are targeting vacation rentals and at this time they do not have any suspects and are urging vacation rental owners and 2nd home owners take measured precautions and do frequent checks on their vacation rentals / 2nd homes. It is hard for them to figure out when the break-ins are accruing when the home was last cleaned or inspected days or even weeks before the break-in was discovered.

After speaking with Deputy Norton it is obvious there is a need for security patrol with all the 2nd homes and vacation rentals in the area but unfortunately there are currently no affordable security patrol options in the area. There are a couple of security companies out of Wenatchee but because of the commute the patrol costs don’t make since for owners.

Leavenworth Property Services, LLC offers $25.00 courtesy checks for the accounts they service but since they are primarily a vacation rental service company that offers services such as Hot tub service, Maid Service, Window Cleaning and Concierge services they can only offer courtesy patrol checks to their direct owners who use their services because of Washington State security patrol license requirements. We also offer a monthly program that offers biweekly checks and weekly checks and include security warning signs we place on the rental. In the future we plan on retaining our security patrol license so we can help protect your homes but at this time we can’t offer it to everyone.

In the mean time we have taken the time to work with some owners and with discussions with Deputy Norton we concluded that owners can benefit a lot from do the following to protect there homes -

1) Make sure you don’t have your address on your website. (NOT even your street name). Criminals can take just the street name with a photo of your house and drive the street looking for it. Now we know that using the availability calendars is a must but with your street name, address and knowing when your rental is vacant by looking at your online calendar is a recipe for disaster.

2) Invest in warning security signs. You can buy them off the internet for cheap and they will deter the bad guys. Criminals want easy targets and if they think there is even the slightest chance you have a security system or surveillance cameras they will skip your house and move to the next. Make sure you buy big visible signs not just the little ADT security signs. Get a big warning sign. If you need help finding a good sign just give us a call and we will give you options. For as small fee we can even take it out and hang it up for you if you need us to.

3) For owners who use Leavenworth Property Services, LLC services you can put language on your site stating that we do frequent patrols to the units. Now only the owners who actually use our courtesy check services should do this because you don’t want to put this on your site if you don’t actually have this service. This will deter the bad guys from putting you on their hit list. It will also deter your guest from getting to crazy if they think there is a chance we may drive by and catch them in the act;)

Well that’s it for now. I will keep you posted with any updates in regards to the break-ins. Feel free to give me a call if you have any questions.

John Burpee

Owner/Operation Manager

Leavenworth Vacation Property Services, LLC Phone – 509-293-9587

Email – Info@LeavenworthPropertyServices.com

Leavenworth Supply of Homes Continues to Grow

A few times last year I wrote about the record number of homes for sale in Leavenworth and Lake Wenatchee.

The first quarter did see an increase in the number of sales in Leavenworth, but I am worried that too many home sellers think that the market has regained its past glory.

Unfortunately, it looks to me like we will continue to break new records as far as the number of homes on the market.

Is this a bad thing? Not if you are a buyer – there are lots of options to choose from and it should put pressure on sellers to bring prices down.

Is this a bad thing? If you are a seller it is. A healthy market has about 6 months of supply of homes.

In the last 12 months 73 houses (single family homes) sold in the Leavenworth area. At the moment I’m writing this we have 160 homes actively being marketed for sale.  This is  26 months of supply – more than two years!

At the current rate of sales to have a balanced market we would need to have 37 homes on the market. (Imagine what it would look like if 100 families decided this summer was a bad time to sell and took their homes off the market.)

 Look at the January and March numbers for 2010. We are already seeing a double-digit % increase in the number of listings compared to last year.

Before we can claim to have “recovered” from the slump we are in we are going to have to tackle the issue of supply.

Only two things can help:

More houses sell

Less people decide to list their house

 

Any guesses which is likely to happen in Leavenworth?

 

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Required Disclaimer

NOTE: This representation is based in whole or in part on data supplied by the North Central Washington Association of Realtors or its Multiple Listing Service. Neither the Association nor its MLS guarantees or are in any way responsible for its accuracy. Data maintained by the Association or its MLS may not reflect all real estate activity in the Market.

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