This summer, success in selling a home in Portland will depend upon the same factors as always: location; quality; buyer appeal.

A home’s location—short of calling in the house movers—is pretty much what it is. The structural quality of workmanship and the level of maintenance that it’s received though the years can be gussied up where it shows (and should be!), but that, too, is largely a done deal.

Which leaves that other factor in selling a Portland area home—the little things that reach out to appeal to buyers. The difference between receiving a swift offer and not can hinge on what makes your home more desirable than others in its price range.

A good example is with closet space. Any property with a closet organization system will carry great appeal to a large number of prospective buyers. Likewise, advanced technological touches can stick in buyers’ memories at the end of a long day of house tours. They don’t even have to be expensive or whole-house systems: a simple programmable thermostat that can be accessed on a smart phone can be an interesting selling […]

When you determine to sell your house, one of the first choices that comes up is tactical: do you try to sell it yourself as a Portland “For Sale by Owner” property—or do you enlist a real estate agent? Since your object is to maximize your profit, you might think that most thrift-minded home owners would decide to eliminate the agent’s commission and do the work themselves. But that’s not the case.

The majority of sellers ultimately team up with a Portland real estate agent. Sometimes they go the For Sale by Owner route first, but after testing that method, change courses. The statistics show that the selling price of Realtor^®-assisted home sales is higher (a $40,000 difference, according to the latest study) which certainly would explain part of the reason. But other factors come into play, too:

1. Pricing:   If you aren’t immersed in the Portland area’s real estate business five to seven days a week, there’s no way you can have the intimate knowledge about the current market that comes with daily work in the field. A real estate agent comes armed […]
   

Wasn’t it just yesterday that we seemed locked into a classic home buyer’s market in Portland? Bad economy, bad job numbers, tanked real estate values were all we heard about…until it eventually shifted. Over the past year or so, it’s become a very different landscape. If you’ve been out looking to become a Portland home buyer, it’s possible that you’ve found yourself putting in offers on multiple houses…and also possibly watching from the sidelines as another Portland home buyer walked away with a deal. If this isn’t a true seller’s market, to you the difference may not be apparent.

In any case, when a prospective home buyer in Portland finds themselves vying for one of the plum homes that are now appearing in this summer’s Portland listings, there’s no need to passively watch as others get the nod. If you are sure of the value of the property you are going for, there are straightforward tactics for improving your chances of winning the day:

–          Offering at or above list price is the time-tested way to give you the best shot of getting […]

If you’re thinking of selling your home in Portland this summer, you’ll want to fetch top dollar for your efforts. Preparing the property is a given, of course, but savvy home sellers often share another kind of preparation. They prepare themselves by adopting the attitude shared by legions of successful salespeople—they assume that success is inevitable. They think and act positively.

The essence of the kind of positive attitude that will make selling your Portland home a pleasure can be boiled down to the simple assumption that it really is going to sell—and sooner rather than later! When you proceed from that assumption, it follows that your buyer’s home inspection will soon be at hand. Since that’s a lead pipe cinch, get ahead of the game by making all repairs that a keen-eyed inspector will report. It means fixing problems that range from misbehaving light switches all the way to seriously outdated furnaces.

The more items that a home inspector finds, the more bargaining leverage it puts in the hands of the buyer. You can perform your own DIY inspection, or even better, […]

In Portland today, more and more often shopping of all kinds has become a virtual affair. Instant information is at everyone’s fingertips—nowhere truer than in local Portland real estate. No sooner has today’s buyer made the decision to start looking than—boom!—the laptop/tablet/iPhone is out and town virtual tours are underway.

What’s most surprising is the key finding of the joint Google-NAR study of the growth of the web in home buying. “90% of home buyers searched online during their home buying process,” was the headline highlight. That’s 9 out of 10!  

“What’s surprising about that?” you might be asking yourself. The answer: that data is more than two years old! And we know online searches and virtual tours have skyrocketed since then.

To capitalize on the online home search juggernaut, real estate agencies increasingly bring video to their Portland virtual tours. Many video formats are being used, but the even the most basic use zooms and pans that draw prospects into the picture in a way stills cannot.

First-rate Portland virtual tours, whether they include video or not, augment the buyer’s search […]

Suppose that in the course of buying a home in Portland, your eye is drawn to a bank-owned home, or a home held in a trust. There are many reasons why you could find yourself buying a Portland home that’s currently vacant—which can also mean that the usual owner disclosures are not to be had. There are perfectly innocent reasons why this situation develops. Suppose the sellers of the property have just inherited it. How would they know that water tends to pool under the house during a strong rainstorm? Or that unpermitted repairs were made to the electric wiring in the kitchen?

If thoughts like these cause beads of sweat to pop out all over your forehead, don’t fret. This summer we can find you plenty of alternatives in Portland’s traditional housing market. But before you automatically pass on a vacant home because of unknowns in its history, you should know that, with due diligence, you can still end up with a home that is worth your money and a safe place to live!

When you consider a vacant home, the most […]

When any investor first begins to mull over the idea of acquiring a rental property in Portland, it’s usually in competition with an array of other investment types—each with its inherent plusses and minuses. Some of them are new ideas (new technology company stocks; new forms of commercial exchange)—but real estate is definitely not one of those. It may not be innovative, but being a landlord has always been one of the leading sources of passive income.

What is exciting about rental property is why it has always been recognized as a sound investment. When the income from a Portland rental property is able to pay for its own underlying mortgage, it self-propels its growing equity. The rental property’s investment value grows as the loan is paid down month by month, year after year. Added to that is any appreciation in its market value.

And with the best Portland rental property scenario, when rental income exceeds mortgage and other expenses, it will even throw off an extra income stream. Needless to say, choosing the right rental property in Portland is worth the effort! […]