Safe Harbor Homes for Rent
Marie Pettie owns Safe Harbor Property Management and Safe Harbor Property Development services. She’s a very busy woman business owner.

Today, we want to talk about the local real estate market. I know that the Pacific Northwest is often talked about as a very hot real estate market in general.  Right here in the South Sound area especially, it’s very busy and active right now.

Can you talk about the areas that your company serves and what’s going on with the market presently?

I can speak to the Pierce County area which is where we mainly service our properties. And, you had mentioned that the South Sound market is generally a hot market. It is, but it has had a downturn from last year because of interest rates. Buyers are being more cautious, but we are going into the buyer/seller market coming up after taxes, March/April of this year..

I’ve already started to get in the pipeline some sales coming up.

When you say prices are shifting are you referring to commercial and residential or mostly the residential market?

Mostly the residential market.

Marie, you work with property owners to help manage their properties and also assist them in their real estate transactions. What opportunities are you seeing? 

Right now, I’m seeing a lot of construction going on in the Pierce County area. The supply chains are opening up a bit, people are venturing out there. They are still having problems getting things done, but there are a lot of things being built, a lot of developments in the apartment community. I haven’t seen single family homes. I have seen a lot of affordable housing and multi-family construction going on.

Is it typical in a downturn to see the increase in the development of properties or is that usual for our market?

I think these were in the pipeline and people are seeing the opportunity to go for it now. The city of Lakewood, the city of Tacoma have tax abatements in place. They also have other things in place, that make it attractive for people to start to build. There is a lot of opportunity, especially when the supply chain is opening up just a little bit.

What is the day to day of your business? Is it shifting how you’re spending your time?

We are still busy with property management and development. We have quite a few apartment development communities in our pipeline that will be open, at the end of 2023. We are doubling our unit count, so we are really excited. We just hired a new property manager/leasing person who is on fire and really doing a great job.

You are busy, in the new development properties but also just you’re keeping your current rentals serviced and leased.

Yes, we are seeing the tail end of dealing with pandemic moratorium issues. We are trying to get through court on some of the units and trying to tie up loose ends, now that we don’t have any more restrictions. And of course, assisting owners through that process.

Marie, you love to work with owners that have multi-family units and also single family units that have those rentals already or if they’re looking? Are you also looking to talk to people that are building their portfolio?

What was really good about coming to us for that particular looking where to build or where to purchase is that we get phone calls all the time looking for units. We can say, for example, “We are getting a lot of phone calls in the University Place or in the Auburn area, you might want to look in that area because people are really interested in those areas.”

Even though one of the Safe Harbor companies is a property management firm, owners and investors can come to you for that pulse on the market too. You see what’s going on on the renter side and investor side, it’s part of your role every day. So you speak with authority on that because it’s your experience in the office right? 

The two go hand in hand because even if you’re a “mom and pop” you’re still going to run it as a business and you’re still an investor.

If you want to know more about what those hot rental markets are, give Marie a call.
Call my office number at 253-302-3079, fill out the contact us form on our site. We hope to hear from you soon!

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