Now's a great time to sell your house in Grays Harbor
Do you happen to have a three-bedroom, two-bath house in excellent condition that you want to sell in Grays Harbor? If it’s priced right, local real estate agents say it’s likely you’ll have multiple offers, maybe even a bidding war.
Grays Harbor houses are in demand with many more buyers looking than sellers ready to put their houses on the market.
“It’s a great time to sell, but not a great time to buy, just because there isn’t much to buy,” said broker Jill Warne of Century 21 Real Estate, whose office is in Elma. “The market is actually kind of stuck because sellers don’t want to be homeless,” she said.
Jason Atwood, the owner/broker of Oly Pen Real Estate in Montesano, agrees. “We are seeing lots of creativity of homeowners who are selling then moving in with their parents for a while or making other arrangements as they look for a house to buy or wait to move in.”
“The demand in Central Park and Montesano is crazy,” Atwood said. “A house in Montesano can be sold in three or four days if it’s priced right, probably with multiple offers. A few years ago multiple offers were once in a blue moon. Now, it’s wild out here.”
In Montesano, the average buyer right now is looking at a house between $250,000 and $300,000 with three bedrooms and two or more bathrooms on a good-sized lot, Atwood said.
“If it has room to build a shop, that’s even better. A frequent request is to have neighbors, but not too close by. People want clean, move-in ready houses that don’t have super small bedrooms,” he said.
Travis Jelovich the owner/broker of Windermere Real Estate, Aberdeen, agrees that more houses on the market would be great for the area.
In the Aberdeen area, he is seeing a lot of demand for three-bedroom, two-bath houses in the $185,000 to $235,000 price range.
“We are still seeing low inventory here. It’s a seller’s market in most price ranges,” Jelovich said. “We are seeing a lot of out of town buyers coming from all over from up north as well as from out of state.
“While local people think that prices here are crazy high right now, out of towners see them as a deal,” Jelovich said.
Atwood observed: “We are seeing an influx of buyers from California as well as retirees from the Seattle area. In addition, the ramp up of real estate prices in 2015-2017 because of Amazon’s influence in Seattle has finally begun to affect us. Some Seattle buyers moved to Tacoma as housing prices escalated in Seattle.Then as the demand for houses in Tacoma increased the prices there, some Tacoma -area employees started buying in the Olympia area. Now, some of those Olympia-area people are buying homes in Grays Harbor,” he said.
For many people, the 30- to 40-minute traffic-free commute to the Olympia-area from Grays Harbor is well worth the lower housing prices, Atwood said.
Warne of Elma said that while many people are coming from out of the area, and commuting to work, others have been brought to Grays Harbor by new jobs.
“Summit Pacific Medical Center has been expanding and bringing people here and Overstock at the Satsop Business Park now has some 350 employees,” she said.
“A lot of stuff is happening here, plus there is a housing shortage all over the state and the interest rates are at record lows and the economy is booming,” she said.
Jelovich agreed. ”If you are looking to sell your house in Grays Harbor, now’s the time. Interest rates are low and buyers are plentiful,” he said. “If you are ready to move on, it’s time to go for houses in most every price range.”
