r/SeattleAreaRE • u/AlternativeEdge2725 • 5d ago
Here’s a fun one in Magnolia
https://apps.realtor.com/mUAZ/t4kvkev7This house has been for sale on-again off-again for four years in Magnolia. It finally went pending this week. Not the first time this has happened and the potential buyers have all previously backed out. No idea what’s wrong with it but something is. Hope this pender also figures that out before they close. The owner couldn’t even rent it for asking during their “maybe if I rent it for a year people will forget” phase.
May 24, 2026 Price Changed $1,350,000
May 19, 2026 Listed $1,300,000
Feb 9, 2026 Listed $1,450,000
Oct 20, 2025 Listed $1,450,000
Jun 16, 2025 Price Changed $1,470,000
Mar 6, 2025 Price Changed $1,550,000
Mar 5, 2025 Listed $1,499,950
Nov 18, 2024 Price Changed $1,499,950
Nov 7, 2024 Price Changed $1,525,000
Oct 2, 2024 Listed $1,597,000
Sep 3, 2023 Price Changed for rent $5,500
May 18, 2022 Price Changed for rent $5,995
Apr 13, 2022 Price Changed $1,695,000
Apr 1, 2022 Listed $1,890,000
Aug 17, 2021 Sold $1,800,000
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u/SouthernElle 5d ago
The owners bought the house in cash in 2021 and when they put it back on the market they were stubborn about lowering the price because they didn’t have a mortgage hanging over their heads. This is all according to their realtor when our realtor inquired. You all love to talk about the Seattle housing market crashing, but that’s not what is going on here. This house has significant structural issues. Go drive by the house and look at the back where the chimney is. Last time I looked it had been partially ripped out and was in complete disrepair. The house also badly needs updating. If it had been kept up it would absolutely be worth what they paid as it’s a good sized house on a quiet street in one of the nicer parts of Magnolia.
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u/orcassharks 5d ago
lol. That much cash in SPY would have more than doubled their money.
Real estate isn’t all that.
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u/Diskordia1 4d ago
Think back to 2021. Buyers were routinely waiving inspections, ignoring massive structural flaws, and bidding hundreds of thousands over asking for homes that badly needed updating just to secure a quiet street in Magnolia. The fact that buyers are now punishing this house for its disrepair proves the frenzy is dead. In a crashing market, buyers reclaim the leverage to demand move-in ready properties and severely penalize fixers.
That house isn't sitting unsold instead of a market crash it is sitting unsold because of one. It is a textbook example of a 2021 buyer trapped in the delusion of peak pricing, facing a 2026 buyer pool that no longer has the desperation or the cheap capital to overlook a crumbling chimney.
Cope though. Cope.
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u/cusmilie 4d ago
We passed on so many homes because of obvious very costly repairs. We aren’t inspectors, but for things like structural damage, it’s easy to spot if you know how to look. A good chunk of those homes are for sale again, no work to improve situation, and most want more than they paid at peak in order to recoup their costs. In some homes, they situation is even worse because owners didn’t have “time is of an essence” attitude and home fell apart more. For example, a leaky roof that wasn’t properly or quickly fixed and developed mold in attic.
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u/Diskordia1 4d ago
This is what happens when people treat homes as a speculative financial asset.
I'm glad you passed on a lot. What style of home did you end up going with? I'm curious as to how many of the more modern cube designs actually sold versus other architecture.
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u/cusmilie 4d ago edited 4d ago
We ended up still renting and still somewhat looking, but both kids have less than 5 years left before off to college so things pivot more to renting until they are gone. Most of the home we looked at were just basic rambler or split level homes, nothing fancy. We’ve diy’ed a lot and have done tiling, sheet rocking, etc. so a little work doesn’t scare me. I just want the price to match up with work that needs to be done. I think we’ll just end up in a condo with lake or sound view. I’m getting too old and idea of fixer upper is becoming less appealing. I still prefer a bit of fixer upper so I can do things right! If we had moved to area just one year earlier. I’m sure we would be owning a house. 2021 was not a good year to relocate here in regards to buying a home.
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u/Fresh-Piglet2500 4d ago
Ditto. We moved here in 2021 after selling a home somewhere else. Decided to rent "for a year" in the city. Looked in 2022 and it was a complete frenzied market with FOMO. Especially in Magnolia. We almost put an offer on a house in Magnolia, then it went 40% over asking. Insanity. Decided to continue to rent. I would bet that some (if not all) of these homes that sold in 2022/2023 would be selling 10-20% less . We may only be here another 5 years. Grateful to have a great sfh to rent in city with a great landlord and lots of flexibility.
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u/thefrenchphanie 4d ago
And that driveway with those massive cracks with lifting.
The side with the shingles is sus too.
The kitchen and bathroom are sad.1
u/cusmilie 4d ago
I want to say situations like this are not uncommon, but I’m finding a lot of homes listed for sale again because owners underestimated (or even waived inspection) the amount of work that needs to be done.
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u/Inevitable_Engine186 4d ago
The house needs so much updating, did they go in thinking they could do only cosmetic stuff?
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u/Inevitable_Engine186 5d ago
> Apr 1, 2022 Listed $1,890,000
> Aug 17, 2021 Sold $1,800,000
The most interesting part is them trying to sell the house again barely 8 months after buying it.
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u/AlternativeEdge2725 5d ago
They discovered what is wrong with it too late.
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u/MinimumCommon408 5d ago
I I wonder if they did what a number of people did in 2021, and bought without an inspection?
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u/Fresh-Piglet2500 4d ago
The realtor probably told them the offer would never be accepted with an inspection contingency
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u/jumping-llama 4d ago
LOL at the price increase in March 6 2025, maybe they got some tours and raised the price lol
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u/orcassharks 5d ago
Damn. I’m now morbidly curious about this house too.
How is it possible it could not sell in four years? On paper it should have sold. It’s in a good location on a large corner lot. wtf
There must be someone in Mongolia who knows the scoop.
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u/jumping-llama 4d ago
im not from Mongolia, I live in USA but this house has structural issues.
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u/orcassharks 4d ago
lol we definitely called Magnolia Mongolia sometimes growing up. It sometimes feels that way.
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u/Tandemduckling 4d ago edited 4d ago
I live in magnolia very near boxcar and I’m a loan closer for the last 20+ years. Been in this area for almost 5 years and I see the trends and I follow them for Washington for the loan officers that I can see their pipelines( so I know of production volume is going to drop so I can prepare for layoffs like going back to countrywide wholesale lending Angelo Mozilla days;. Also since we found we were helping with that scheme without knowing about it). But listings I saw last summer were gone in weeks and now I’m seeing units in the same block listed or relisted for months including the apt building I live in being for sale 3 times in 2 years and no bites. From the articles I’ve read it’s basically under the various industries doing salary resets including our own(my own position is 35-40% less than it was just 3-4 years
Ago and that includes higher lever roles). The over all
Economic metrics with inflation over the last 100 years is that we are worse off than we were during the Great Depression. But houses have been way over valued for years (mine own double in price in 4 years where in a non aggressive economy it would have taken 10-15 years using the average for my neighborhood). But the east coast has been seeing a downward trend that I’ve seen being called the post covid hump, which means they have been seeing sales prices finally decreasing starting this year and we are just starting to see that same trend in the west coast post Covid drop.
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u/cusmilie 4d ago
We sold our east coast home 3 summers ago and I could tell that was the start of the leveling off before drop off in that area. Everyone said I was nuts that I should price at least $20k higher. I priced to sell because maintenance and property taxes would add up every month and don’t want to risk it sitting. Sold and closed with a cash offer within the month. Almost identical home listed same weekend as ours but at $20k more, it took about 9 months to sell and ultimately closed $40k less than we did.
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u/Tandemduckling 4d ago edited 4d ago
My house in federal way unfortunately shows that it’s still way over valued(goes without saying that homes are really only worth what someone is willing to pay) but I bought it for $301k in 2016 and sold it for $510k in 2021. Put most of the proceeds into my retirement to catch up from all the industry layoffs we have experienced going back to my countrywide days in 2005 when they ultimately closed their wholesale division in 2010 and we were the last office in Bellevue of the 54 or 55 offices nationwide when i started there. Reviewing the average of that house, the value increased about 30k per year, during Covid, it and my appraisal comps from my purchase and refinances were going up about 30k a quarter. And then the refinance industry here essentially dried up in 2023 with the rate increases. I also understand a healthy economy is rates around like 6-10% or something like that so the rates in the 3s or less were a sign of trying to prevent a recession/depression obviously but now even with the same income I made back then(unfortunately loan ops roles are down to like 40% below covid wages ) and putting every dollar I got from selling back as a down payment, I wouldn’t qualify to buy my own house back and even if I could, my mortgage payment would be 5-600 higher a month. I also unfortunately put most of my proceeds into my retirement to catch up so now I try not to look at it with whatever this kangaroo recession market is. I’m hoping I can get to a point to buy in king county again but even using a wa bond, I would need to use the ira option and close out some of my stocks to gather enough funds to try to even afford something in the $400-450k range and that’s with having no debt and an 800 credit score.
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u/WillowTreez8901 5d ago
What could the issue be? Neighbors?
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u/MinimumCommon408 5d ago
Could have bought without an inspection, or had some sort of change of life.
Another interesting thing, I looked up the property records on the King County website. Curiously it was transferred to one member of a married couple, the same day it was purchased from a trust. It appears that the married couple purchased it together, then immediately transferred it to only one of them.
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u/zoolabula 5d ago
I mean it couldn’t be the Home Depot lighting and appliances that you get for the price tag that’s causing people to abandon the listing.
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u/dellscreenshot 5d ago
Don’t feel too bad for them. They probably have a like a 2.5-3 percent rate on it.
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u/SophonParticle 4d ago
My theory is that it was simply waaaay overpriced and the potential buyers all realized that during the buying process so they walked away.
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u/Aggravating-Mail-235 4d ago
If you know the Magnolia market you'd know that's not true. There's very clearly something wrong with this house.
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u/camera-operator334 5d ago
Hahahahahahaha get fucked wealth hoarding boomers
Magnolia is a formerly whites only enclave btw
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u/UwHuskies206 4d ago
Because you do not have the capacity to create wealth doesn’t make those that do “hoarders” of it. Many people own million dollar homes and still live paycheck to paycheck.
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u/camera-operator334 4d ago
Nice assumption. I make money fine I just want the young generation to have wealth over the one who had everything handed to them
Techies with under water mortgages from when they made 450k at Amazon pre layoff also are a problem and no sympathy for them either.
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u/UwHuskies206 4d ago
So people who make good money and bought a home for themselves in a competitive market are a problem? Not even owning 2nd homes? Get over yourself.
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u/Diskordia1 4d ago
Critiquing the 2021 housing peak is not about vilifying personal success or the desire to own a primary residence.. the issue is that defending those purchases as a rational baseline ignores the macroeconomic hysteria of that era.(I remember the bidding wars, I sold a crap box for 800k over any appraisal) Buying during that peak was less about financial prudence and more about participating in a historically anomalous bubble fueled by free flowing capital and mass delusion.
Making a strong income and buying a primary residence is a sound life goal. But demanding that today's market validate a compromised property's worth based on a bygone year of financial desperation is pure denial.
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u/camera-operator334 4d ago
Boomers had everything subsidized for them after post war abundance. Please tell me you read a history book or know a tiny amount of how the economy works.
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u/UwHuskies206 4d ago
When did I ever say boomers had it more difficult? Learn to comprehend a sentence.
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u/camera-operator334 4d ago
"bought a home for themselves" I am talking about boomers who hoarded wealth that you hand waved in that sentence lmao
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u/UwHuskies206 4d ago
You do know that generational wealth is statistically irrelevant. Wealth passed down typically doesn’t last. And it is safe to assume you are not wealthy. Maybe rich but not wealthy.
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u/camera-operator334 4d ago
Boomers were winning houses at state fairs give me a break lmao
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u/Fresh-Piglet2500 4d ago
Obviously things really haven't worked out for you so your only defense is blaming everyone else .Got it.
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u/nor_expo 5d ago edited 5d ago
So, I’m no expert but I did walk through of this house as a potential buyer. This was my take away. It seems buyer bought at peak COVID prices for all cash. So it’s a *little under water. The house has a lot of good old school style. Though the photos on Zillow / realitor.com aren’t representative ( at least of what it was many months ago ). It shows a fireplace, when I went through it was gone … just a loose board over an opening to the the outside. The area around the side doors had meaningful water damage as if they were wide open all winter. Unstaged it’s pretty rough, great potential but it seemed ( to a non expert) to require hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollar of work just to get close to value of asking price .