Year: 2008

Appraisals

I have complained about appraisers a lot and even a time or two here.  Today I listened to a appraiser whom I gained a lot of respect for today. He dispelled some things that I have heard from other appraisers. Just last week an appraiser told a colleague that he wouldn’t appraise any house above […]

Friends of Trees

This is a pretty cool program. Allison just had a tree put in her yard and was giddy to help out. “During the 2007-08 planting season, more than 2,000 volunteers planted 1,852 street and yard trees in 62 Portland and Vancouver neighborhoods. Please visit our planting schedule to see if we’re planting in your neighborhood […]

Buy One Home, Get One Free

Sure why not. “Michael Crews Development is offering new, 2000-square foot cityscape row-homes worth $400,000 in Escondido for free — if you buy one Royal View Estate home in San Pasqual Valley starting at $1.6 million.” Creativity is at an all time high. Auctions Free cars Vacations and now buy one get on free. This […]

What Is That Blue Box The Front Doors?

Thais little box holds the key to the home.  There are a few different keys that agents can use to open them but all involve an infrared beam.  The keys need to be updated for the agent to use it.  The key that I have updates itself every 10 minutes or so. Some agents use […]

Sold

One of my listings closed today. My client decided to put this on the sign in place of a Sale Pending sticker. She sent me the photo a couple of days ago but I didn’t want to post it until it was truly Sold. Not that I am superstitious but why tempt fate? I know […]

Some Numbers

Remember that these numbers come after one of the fastest run ups in history.   As of 2004, “The average nationwide rise of 47% in median home prices since 1995 (after adjusting for inflation) is like nothing America has ever seen.”  These numbers are national. Sales of single-family homes during the first quarter  were down 20.9% […]

One-Level Homes The Next Big Thing

With the growing Baby Boomer population I would expect one-level or ranch homes to be big in the next 5-10 years.  In recent years, the reasons to choose a one-story home have increased. The baby boomers are aging and our entire population is getting older. More and more, we prefer to live our lives on […]

Why I Love Portland

There are many reasons to love Portland but I just want to list the overall benefits of our location and climate.  We mayhave incidents of the items I list but it isn’t so much that anyone expects these things.  I love Portland because we don’t have: Tornadoes Rattlesnakes Hurricanes Scorpions Earthquakes Droughts Floods (at least […]

Is Smaller Better?

I originally wrote this in 2008:  Small is really big now. (Terrible play of words but I had to.) Somehow as families got smaller, homes got bigger.  In the 50’s the average size home was about 1300 sf .  Now it is over 2000 sf.  Thanks to credit we could buy more stuff and we […]

Quick Hits

Find the cheapest gas for an area. My client bought this tomato and soon thereafter had an accepted offer.  I am not saying that it brought the offer but when a tomato is called the Mortgage Lifter, what are you going to do? Coyotes are on the rise in Lake Oswego. I was driving through […]

Happy Sewer Days

Talking with a sewer repair man I learned that there have been quite a few problems with new construction sewer lines.  When I first started in real estate I did what most rookie agents do, I never pushed my clients to do a home inspection on new construction. “It’s new.” “They will fix anything wrong […]

How To Price A Secret Room?

  Creative Home Engineering specializes in secret doors. (Above is a picture from a recent Street Of Dreams Home.) You have no idea how much I love hidden rooms.  I don’t know where it comes from but I saw one when I was a kid and it floored me. Up in a loft where everything […]

Map Based Home Search

Map Search of The RMLS   Serious buyers have an agent using the RMLS to email them the newest listings on a daily basis. Then they check about four different sites making sure nothing is missed. I think many enjoy the hunt of it all. Even when I was at the larger companies, where directional […]

“How Long Will It Take You To Sell My Home”

I, and assume several other agents, were sent a questionnaire from a homeowner that had 10 questions with multiple questions in most of the numbered questions. I have listings that have few showings and little interest. I have a listing that had 24 showings in less than 2 weeks. My marketing, photos, websites, wording, etc. are […]

Thanks For The Donations

St. Baldrick’s raised over $100,000 and your donations to me were more than $325 for shaving my head. Here is the result. Any votes on if I should keep it?

Don’t Walk Away From Your Home

According to Huliq.com, Borrowers facing foreclosure will be unable to obtain loan for up to five years through the mortgage giant, unless there is “documented extenuating circumstances” in which those borrowers would have to wait up to 3 years for a new mortgage, according to a release by Fannie Mae. At first this sounds like […]

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