Coach/Trainer/Realtor
On the left side you will see the heading, “What I am doing now (more or less)”. Twitter is a tool where I can send a text message and it will pop up a on my Twitter page and on the side of my website in an instant. I have been looking at Twitter for […]
This has nothing to do with real estate but I find this quote from Tiger Woods to be a fascinating. It is so easy to get stuck in a rut and dwell on our mistakes or problems. This quote succinctly puts it all into perspective. “I view my life in a way … I’ll explain […]
This chart surprised me. It shows that housing starts per million people fell starting in 2005. This information is from US Census Data. Our slowdown came later than others places and luckily we haven’t fallen as hard. Las Vegas started having troubles in 2006 if I recall correctly. One buyer sued the builder because just […]
For me and some of my colleagues showings have slowed down on our listings. This started in the middle of May. Look at the chart and there is part of the explanation. It doesn’t help that the price of a barrel of oil has done a similar spike. This reminds me of the Time article […]
According to this report, some homeowners are finding interlopers in their pool. So far this is a phenomenon in England. As a real estate agent I like the information that I can find online for homes and Google Earth is one of tools I use. As a homeowner I can imagine that it can be […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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% […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
