South Shore and North Shore Hood Canal Waterfront Home and Vacant land Values~How much is your waterfront property worth?
The past few weeks has seen a substantial increase in Hood Canal Waterfront property owners asking for an evaluation of their property in today's current real estate market. I think that part of this was brought on because most of these were just recently re-assessed for their taxable value for next years taxes and there was a substantial INCREASE in their new tax assessed value.
So what are some of the factors that contribute to establishing a current Fair Market Value for your home in todays real estate market?
There are many, but let's talk about a few... And this by no means is all of the process but it will give you an idea of some of the many variables involved. That's also why it is so important to not gauge your value on the "neighbors" down the street or next door.
Every property is unique in it's own way. We are a fairly rural county, therefore we do not have "tract housing" where all of the homes are very much the same with the same amenities etc. So adjustments need to be made.
But let's talk about the waterfront market here locally. This would be the Hood Canal which includes South Shore and North Shore. This is a totally different market than the normal "non-waterfront" home. One of my recent blogs also talked about a "market within a market." This fits that picture perfectly. A market within a market.
There are many homes for sale along South Shores and North Shores of the Hood Canal. One of the COMMON factors all of these homes have is that they all have saltwater frontage. That's where the likeness ends... Even within that water frontage there are many differences such as do they have deep water available for moorage of a boat at all times? Is there a dock? Is it lo-bank or a high bank? is it pebbled or rocky? Can you access the beach easily? Is there shellfish on the beach? Do you own your own tidelands?
When preparing a market analysis for Hood Canal waterfront homes, it is important to know the value of waterfront linear footage for the Hood Canal waterfront as well. What does this mean? It means what is the shoreline frontage worth on a piece of property? Hood Canal waterfrontage typically runs linear water frontage numbers from $2800 per liinear foot for poor location, muddy, shallow shoreline and continues on up $5000 per linear with the ever pristine no bank, great beach, the most desired directional exposure, and more than likely a dock as well. This value is a starting point to work with and from there add and/or subtract based on other amenities from there.
The interesting thing is that over the years - this value has not changed dramatically. A superb, pristine, pebble and sand beach, lo bank, western exposure, deep water water frontage along the South Shores (and parts of the North Shores) of Hood Canal can value out at $5000 per linear foot. But ALL the factors and amenities have to be in order to achieve that value.
So if you have 100 feet of awesome beach, the lots deep and level, western exposure or desireable exposure, no standing water issues and it has utilities on it, your numbers are reaching into the $500,000 mark but you have to adjust from there- (plus or minus other factors that come into play from here). The research goes way beyond just linear foot frontage. You cannot just take a straight linear footage number and apply to all properties along the South Shores or North Shores of Hood Canal. All of the other variables and factors have to be taken into consideration as well.
Some of these factors are: Are their utilities? Is there a home? Is it an adorable cabin? Is it a shack? Is it the Taj Mahal? Is there a dock? Where is it located? Is it a one story? Is there offstreet parking? Is it remodeled and the list goes on and on.....
We also will look at dollars per square foot of the home. Square footage is going to include the heated living spaces of the home and are based on that size, the homes amenities and the condition. Hood Canal Waterfront Home Sales along the North Shore and South Shore of Hood Canal have been around $325.00 per square foot for a good condition home with an an average of up to 1700 square feet. As weird as it sounds, the more square footage above that - you actually loose $$'s per square foot. The same with the water frontage.... if you have 200 feet of pristine waterfront you cannot just figure a straight value of a million dollars - it just doesn't work like that. I know it sounds confusing! That's why it is important to work with a real estate broker who has the experience, knowledge and skill to successfully achieve your real estate purchase or sale goals.
So in gathering the information of the sold properties and homes similar to what we are evaluating, it is adjusted up and down depending on the varying factors to establish a value from there.
This is just the beginning of how to determine a current fair market value. From this number, we can make a decision of where the home should be priced. Is it a sellers market? Is it a buyers market? Where are the buyers spending their money (pending sales) and what is your competition (active for sale listings and you have to be the better priced home out there to sell in today's market). We'll save "How to be positioned correctly in the market with your price" for a later discussion....
As you can see, there are many many factors looked at when preparing a market analysis report specifically for your home. Just as all real estate is LOCAL - every home is" LOCAL" and individual to itself as well because of the different amenities. By using all of the stats available and knowing the market area of Hood Canal Waterfront Homes, a value can be established and a price can be determined to be positioned correctly for the current real estate market. My goal is to sell your home in the shortest amount of time at the highest rate of return as possible.
Price your home correctly for your local real estate market and you will be a winner!
Here's the scenario:
