Archive for the ‘Tips When Selling a Home’ Category
Monday, September 13th, 2010
If you think Green homes are still a fringe phenomena in the Portland Real Estate market, get ready for a statistical shocker. Homes with green certification, such as the Portland-based Earth Advantage Institute U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED for Homes, the federal Department of Energy’s Energy Star program, and the National Association of Home Builders’ Green Building Standard, now make up one out of every four new homes for sale in Portland area real estate. 25% of the new home market? It’s obvious that sustainable home renovations and construction are not a passing fad – and can make the difference if you’re trying to sell a home in Portland.
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Posted in Green Homes, Home Improvement, Investment Information, Market Report, Moving To Portland, Neighborhoods & Areas, Portland Real Estate, Real Estate Tips, Tips When Buying a Home, Tips When Selling a Home | 1 Comment »
Thursday, September 9th, 2010
Studies have shown that common pollutants in the home can lead to serious problems like asthma, allergies, and chronic disease, but it’s not hard to clean up your act and keep yourself and your family healthy. To help out, the Oregon Environmental Council, the oldest environmental group in the state, has recently put out a wonderful free Eco-Healthy Homes Checkup kit to check up on the health safety and sustainability of your home, complete with helpful tips. If you’re looking for green homes for sale in Portland, recently bought a home after navigating the Portland Real Estate market, or are trying to sell a home in Portland, you could definitely benefit from the tips and checkups in this free kit. Check out our overview of the tips in the package, and click here to receive your own copy free in the mail. It’s an informative, easy way to make a difference in the safety and value of your home – what else could be more worth your time and investment?
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Posted in Green Homes, Home Improvement, Investment Information, Moving To Portland, Portland Real Estate, Real Estate Tips, Tips When Buying a Home, Tips When Selling a Home | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 1st, 2010
Check out the new neighborhood profile detailing the Clinton area in Southeast Portland, filled with quirky boutiques and restaurants, classic Old Portland homes, and some of the best dining and shopping in town. The Clinton neighborhood is full of charm and community, featuring the fun Clinton Street Theater. Clinton is close to several bridges, providing easy access for commuters to downtown Portland, and is also near the popular Division Street area. Combining the best of urban accessibility and comfortable, small-neighborhood atmosphere, the Clinton District is quintessential Portland.
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Posted in Announcements, Inner SE Portland, Investment Information, Moving To Portland, Neighborhoods & Areas, Portland Real Estate, Real Estate Tips, Tips When Buying a Home, Tips When Selling a Home | No Comments »
Monday, July 19th, 2010
Trends in national real estate are showing that home buyers are increasingly interested in walkability, in many cases choosing smaller, more expensive, older houses with better access to amenities in pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods. In addition to good schools, low crime rates, and big yards, today’s home buyers are paying more and more attention to the proximity of stores, coffee shops, theaters, and parks. Traffic congestion and long commutes have become a fact of life for many Americans living in urban areas, increasing the attractiveness of a home situated in a place that would encourage them to use their walking shoes more than their engines.
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Posted in Investment Information, Moving To Portland, Neighborhoods & Areas, Portland Real Estate, Real Estate Tips, Tips When Buying a Home, Tips When Selling a Home | No Comments »
Friday, June 25th, 2010
In this age of high-end sustainable renovations, high-profile LEED certifications, and the seemingly never-ending marketing of the next popular Energy Star kitchen or home appliance, it sometimes feels like you need to spend a lot of money in order to cut back on energy use. However, like many things in life, small changes can add up to a big difference, and some of the most important adjustments you can make in your home are downright cheap.
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Posted in Home Improvement, Real Estate Tips, Tips When Buying a Home, Tips When Selling a Home | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010
Whether you’re restoring a historic home for sale or you’ve just purchased a diamond in the rough that needs some polishing, Portland has some amazing resources for classic restoration hardware, fixtures, and furniture that are true to the spirit of Northwest style and sustainability. What better way to be green when you’re fixing up a classic home than to use salvaged antique materials? Here are some of The McDonald Group’s favorite spots for browsing through classic tiles, old neon signs, gorgeous sustainable lumber, rusted scrolled keys, and giant boxes of original tin ceiling plates. Remember to use gloves, those edges can be sharp!
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Posted in Archetecture, Green Homes, Home Improvement, Real Estate Tips, Tips When Buying a Home, Tips When Selling a Home | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 16th, 2010
According to the most recent RMLS (Regional Multiple Listing Service) report, one in six homes bought in Portland were bank-owned homes. Buying at or near the bottom of the real estate cycle can be the best time to buy a home. It also may be the best time to sell if you are moving into a replacement home that suits your needs better than your existing home. Why buy now? Let me count the reasons. It is now a “buyers market” meaning the asking prices on property is at or near the bottom of their cycle and homes are not receiving multiple offers as they were during the “bubble” days. As you can see from the statistics on bank-owned homes above, there is a high percentage of bank owned real estate and short sale deals out there if you have the right agent to walk you through the maze. (more…)
Posted in Investment Information, Portland Real Estate, Real Estate Tips, Short Sales, Tips When Buying a Home, Tips When Selling a Home | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009
Interesting little article in The Wall Street Journal. I agree with them; many couples are waiting it out. I have seen one couple that can’t make up their mind, house on the market, off the market, on the market… but overall, with no money to dispute over it’s more of who wants to take on the liability. I read through the article and there is an idea they didn’t present…. and interestingly a co-worker of mine and I were just discussing this the other day…
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Tags: credit, deed, divorce
Posted in Portland Real Estate, Real Estate Tips, Tips When Selling a Home | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009
Just to get up to speed on this particular post, commissions for Realtors are paid by home sellers. A listing agent and seller come to agreement on a total percentage to sell a home. The listing agent then in turn offers a percentage of that, usually around 2.5% – 3% to whichever ”buyer agent” brings the buyer that purchases the home. This percentage is referred to as BAC or a “Buyers Agent Commission”. The BAC is noted in every listing in RMLS for all agents to see but the information is not shown publicly.
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Tags: bac, buyer agents, Commissions, listing your home
Posted in Listings, Tips When Selling a Home | No Comments »
Friday, July 24th, 2009
So we’ve been saying it for a while now, the low end of the market is moving, everything else is still hurting. Well, Coldwell Banker sent agents a flyer for a quick reference showing exactly what we’ve been talking about. The market under $300,000 is up 9% from last year, the markets over that price range are down and the down market doing the best is down -26% from last year. Interesting cheat sheet of stats.
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Tags: market statistics, market trends, portland real estate market
Posted in Market Report, Moving To Portland, Portland Real Estate, Real Estate Tips, Tips When Buying a Home, Tips When Selling a Home | No Comments »
Friday, July 24th, 2009
Boy have we been busy…The last RMLS market action report came out about a week ago and
I’m just now able to sit down and get my commentary and this blog entry in and the latest June 2009 RMLS Market Action Report shows why; the market is moving folks! We’re seeing lots of activity, lots of buyers, FHA in just about every transaction these days, seller paid closing costs in most as well and of course that first time home buyer tax credit. Things are a rollin’ however we are concerned that come the end of November we could see things come to a screeching halt. Check out the RMLS market action report and our commentary on it to find out why.
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Tags: portland real estate market, rmls market action report
Posted in Market Report, Moving To Portland, Portland Real Estate, Real Estate Tips, Tips When Buying a Home, Tips When Selling a Home | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Back in the day of skyrocketing home sale prices between 2001 – 2006 the appraisal of a home you’re buying
(or selling) was of very little concern to buyers, Realtors, lenders etc because it almost seemed as though appraisers were asking the lenders “what do you need it to appraise for?” before doing the appraisal…no accusations here, but there was some funny business going on and it was one of many factors that encouraged the housing bubble to burst. Since then appraisers have completely reversed course and potentially to the detriment of the market.
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Tags: appraisals, real estate market
Posted in Real Estate Tips, Tips When Buying a Home, Tips When Selling a Home | No Comments »
Monday, June 22nd, 2009
The May 2009 RMLS Market Action Report was released a few days ago and being the busy season with a lot of transactions in 
escrow I just didn’t have the time to do my write up on it until today, but it’s there now! Indicators are basically what we’ve come to expect in this market, significant depreciation, -13% overall since this time last year, and high inventory though we did manage to shave 4/5′s of a month off that from 11 down to 10.2 months. Read our write up on the Portland Real Estate Market and from that page you can also download the full report.
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Tags: portland real estate market, rmls market action report
Posted in Investment Information, Market Report, Moving To Portland, Portland Real Estate, Real Estate Tips, Tips When Buying a Home, Tips When Selling a Home | No Comments »
If you think Green homes are still a fringe phenomena in the Portland Real Estate market, get ready for a statistical shocker. Homes with green certification, such as the Portland-based Earth Advantage Institute U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED for Homes, the federal Department of Energy’s Energy Star program, and the National Association of Home Builders’ Green Building Standard, now make up one out of every four new homes for sale in Portland area real estate. 25% of the new home market? It’s obvious that sustainable home renovations and construction are not a passing fad – and can make the difference if you’re trying to sell a home in Portland.
Senate Bill 628 is congested with too many words for me to read thoroughly but it “sounds” like all it is is a law that says that lenders must send homeowners a notice of clear instructions on who and how to can contact someone via phone or in person to discuss whether they would qualify for a loan modification. (We know that few homeowners will have the opportunity to meet with someone in person)
/ summation of the numbers and comments on what we’re seeing in the market and how that is represented in the numbers. Additionally we blogged a while back about which homes are selling and why, a blurb about that in this month’s commentary as well as a link to an eye opening PDF;