Right now, just a few days into spring, we are right at the start of nation’s peak real estate selling season. I’ve always found it odd that you don’t hear much about it—but that also makes it the beginning of the buying season, too!

As a licensed team of Realtors®, throughout the course of the year we are privileged to act as the agent for both buyers and sellers in many different transactions. The details we’re called upon to manage do vary somewhat depending on which side we are representing in any given sale—but there is one very significant goal that I regard as identical, no matter in which capacity we serve (more on that later).

There are some generalizations that usually hold true about the difference in mindset between prospective buyers and sellers. For one thing, sellers automatically have in-depth knowledge about their area property. Gained through the years, they know the community; they know […]

For home shoppers who anticipate taking advantage of today’s low mortgage interest rates, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has a few words of interest. The CFPB thinks it has found a way for consumers to get the best home loan deals.

The way they recommend is to shop around.

Now, it may seem as if everybody would know that without needing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to clue them in, but the CFPB has evidence to the contrary. The last time they looked, nearly half of mortgage borrowers hadn’t shopped around before they signed up for their loan (47% of them, to be precise). That is rather surprising, since even an eighth of a percentage point difference in the interest rate works out to a lot more than spare change. Why more home buyers don’t compare mortgage deals may be due to a number of factors.

For one thing, anyone who has spent much time on the internet has had the unfortunate experience of being promised that they can “see today’s rate” […]

It’s one thing when you see the word “water” figuring prominently in descriptions of west coast properties. Any time that word comes into play, it’s a cinch that the property in question is more valuable than any waterless neighbors. Everyone knows that a shorefront or beachfront property is likely to be worth more than an identical inland place. In areas like Florida, condos with docks (or even access to a dock) are highly prized. Wherever a lake, river or stream is noted in a listing’s description, it’s likely to add significantly to the asking price—even if it’s only because of a distant view.

The conclusion anyone would draw from the foregoing is that, as a general principle, “water” is a desirable feature when it comes to real estate—and Portland real estate would be no exception.

But that’s only for good water.

Bad water is something else again. Bad water is the kind of water you can’t do anything useful with. […]

This one was news to me. The Wall Street Journal had it buried in a ‘spread sheet’ section of their online Real Estate section: “Why It’s Harder to Sell Your Home in an Election Year.” If you are like me—never having had an inkling that homes for sale have rough sledding in an election year (like this one)—you’d have to read the details.

“The uncertainty of a looming election can cause a dip in home sales,” it detailed, “especially if the race is close.” The article was illustrated by a cartoon showing a neighborhood street whose every lawn was graced by alternate “vote!” signs and homes for sale signs. The underlying thesis was that in close elections, house hunters are reluctant to buy if an uncertain political future makes them unsure about their own financial fortunes.

This might sound reasonable from a logic perspective, but as you read further into the factual basis for the idea, you’re likely to start losing confidence.

The whole basis for the […]