Is the Winter a Good Time to Sell a Home?

There are many great Portland area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (503) 427-9233 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Is the Winter a Good Time to Sell a Home?

Today we are here to answer the question to whether or not you should still continue to list your house during the winter season. We actually think it is a great idea to list your home during the winter season, although conventional wisdom might tell you otherwise. 

The big advantage to selling in the winter is that buyers are more serious at this time of year. Let's be honest, if you are looking for a home in the cold winter weather during the holidays, you are going to be serious about buying a home.  In our experience, buyers are definitely more serious during this time of year.

If you have any questions for us at all, give us a call or send us an email. See you next time!

Portland Real Estate Market Update for Summer 2014

There are many great Portland area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (503) 427-9233 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Portland Real Estate Market Update for Summer 2014

There is so much going on in the Portland real estate market right now.It's been so crazy that we haven't had time to update you with a video in quite some time. We're back now and decided that now is a great time to catch you up to speed on what's going on in Portland real estate. 

We have been getting some panicky messages from sellers who have heard that the market has cooled off. That is not necessarily the case. According to the Case Shiller Home Price Index, while appreciation and home prices have slowed, they are still appreciating in value, both nationally and locally. We can't have 12% appreciation every single year, so this is not the end of the world.

Most economists realize that inventory plays a big part in this market trend. When we talk about "months of inventory" we are referring to how many months it would take to sell the current inventory assuming nothing new comes on the market. So, for example, if we have 6 months of inventory, that means we have the same number of homes coming off the market as there are going on it. In some of our local areas in Portland, the inventory we have is 45 days or less. This has forced buyers to back off of their home search for a while due to limited choice. This is having an effect on how fast our market is appreciating.

Right now is an amazing time to sell. We have just realized double digit appreciation in most of our local markets and interest rates continue to be at historic lows. Neither of these things may continue in the near future. New construction will start increasing as the economy grows, and we'll be competing with brand new homes and new properties on the market. If you want to figure out what your home is worth, we can give you an instant  valuation right here on our site, or you can give us a call and we can give you a free, no obligation detailed home valuation. 

How we helped Rebecca with her real estate transaction by listening to her needs

The whole experience exceeded my expectations. Our agent was so caring and she really listened to what we wanted. She always kept us informed of what was going on and kept checking in with me. The result was that we got the house that was exactly what we were looking for!

Attention Buyers: Act Quickly to Capitalize on Low Interest Rates

There are many great Portland area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (503) 427-9233 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Attention Buyers: Act Quickly to Capitalize on Low Interest Rates

Prices have risen aggressively in the past year – some Portland areas have experienced as much a 15% increase! By looking at those numbers, the housing market may not have recovered as well as we think. Trulia, a well-respected resource for this subject, recently wrote an article about the housing recovery and broke it down into five very important factors:

1. Home prices have gone up substantially
2. Delinquency and foreclosure rates
3. Existing home sales
4. New construction starts
5. Employment rates for people between the ages 25-34

In addition, Trulia, Zillow and Forbes are all predicting rising interest rates as soon as the year ends. So, what does this mean for you as a buyer? You should get it in gear! Home prices will continue to rise and so are interest rates – the real estate experts are predicting that this won’t last much long.

As a seller, if you don’t like your values now, good things may happen if you wait. However do keep in mind that as interest rates rise, you could potentially lose buyers and as values go up, more and more people will sell their homes. This will increase your competition!
For more a more detailed look at these numbers, visit the main article here.

If you have any questions regarding our market or the surrounding area, please feel free to call or email us. Thanks and have a great day! 

Portland Market Update: What do the Recent Price Increases Mean for You?

There are many great Portland area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (503) 427-9233 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Before I started on today’s topic, I wanted to ask for a favor. If there is anything you would like me to discuss in a future video, please email us or better yet, comment on this post. We really appreciate and remain true to providing you with the best information.

We’ve been receiving many questions about the recently-realized price increases. However, they have tapered off in the past few weeks and remain unchanged. Currently, the median list price is sitting at $325,000 and the Market Action Index shows that we are still in a seller’s market. However it does suggest that we are creeping down to a more neutral market. Also, Portland’s average days on market is sitting at 131.

In mortgage news, last week’s job report was better than expected. However, mortgage bonds still remain unchanged. This is a pretty boring week in finance as we all wait to see what the Fed’s next move will be after their meeting on March 18th. They are expected to keep short-term rates at the same levels.

Mortgage rates are hovering at about 4.5% which makes it increasingly important to consult a mortgage advisor. Rates have the tendency to change multiple times over the course of a day and also every circumstance might not meet your individual goals. We thank Shelby Spencer over at Guild Mortgage, who is our preferred lender, for this information!

If this information interested you and you would like a report that is tailored to your specific situation, don’t hesitate to contact us. If you are also interested in buying or selling, ask us about our 59 day guarantee! Thanks and I look forward to reading your comments.

Sell Your Portland Home Quickly and for Top Dollar: Make Sure it's Priced Accurately!

There are many great Portland area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (503) 427-9233 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

As we move forward into 2014, I wanted to speak with you about accurately pricing your home for sale and why it’s important. Before I get started, I wanted to point out a few of the great features on our blog. If you’re a seller, we have a link for a free, instantaneous home value report. It may not be 100% accurate, but it gives you a wonderful place to start and contains a lot of useful information. As for buyers, we have a home search that utilizes the local MLS which is constantly updated. It also gives you the option to have information sent to you on a daily, bi-weekly or weekly basis.
 
Pricing a home is somewhat of an art form; you don’t want to price it too low (for obvious reasons) but if you price it too high, you can make one of several mistakes that will hurt your bottom dollar. You could end up with no activity, which forces the home to stay on the market for as little as 30 days, and will generate a much lower offer. We have also seen that the first offer you receive is 90-95% of the time is the best.
 
That offer could be lower is you had accurately priced the home correctly in the first place. Pricing your home too low also leaves money on the table. It is extremely important for our clients to maximize your hard-earned equity.
 
Our home evaluation is a great start, but if you would like a more detailed report we would be happy to generate one for you. This will help us see the entire picture before signing off on a recommended value for your property. Thanks and have a great day!

Should You Get Pre-approved Before Shopping for a Home?

Today I wanted to talk about why it’s critically important to be pre-qualified before looking at homes as a buyer. While I know getting a pre-approval on a mortgage is not as fun as shopping around for houses, it’s very important to find out what your financial situation is before we find the home for you. Otherwise, you could end up scrambling at the last minute and with our market’s low inventory, that lapse in preparation could cost you the house.

Sellers also want to specifically see pre-approval letters from buyers up front; they may not even let you view their home without one, especially during the holiday season when time is precious. If you’re thinking about buying a house, be sure to check out our state of the art home search. Thanks and have a great day!