The Advantages of Using a Local Lender

If you need financing, you should reach out to your Realtor in order to find
a local lender that can provide better service than a larger institution.

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Should you reach out to your Realtor in order to find a local lender? Yes. Real estate agents have access to many local lenders, credit unions, and mortgage companies.

Larger institutions can’t service your financing needs as well as mortgage companies. They usually offer limited products, whereas mortgage companies usually offer 15 products or more. You’ll also face a better chance of pre-approval with a mortgage company because they offer more loan products to choose from and are more flexible with down payments and credit scores.

The advantages of working with a preferred lender are numerous. Our preferred lenders have amazing customer service, they’re great to work with, and they’re always available after hours and on the weekends.

If you have any questions about our preferred lenders or what’s going on in the real estate market, please give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you.

How to Pick the Best Offer on Your House

When you're considering multiple offers on your home, there are many other 
variables besides price to consider before making a decision.

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When you’re selling your home and juggling multiple offers, is the highest offer always the best?

Not necessarily. There are a lot of other variables in play, including the terms of the loan, whether or not it’s a cash offer, some contingencies, and the length of the closing. You should consider four things before accepting a buyer’s offer:

1. Their financing
2. The length of the closing period
3. The terms of the loan
4. Any contingencies

Sometimes cash buyers are better than financed offers; however, cash buyers usually come in lower. A qualified professional can help you select the right offer by recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of each one.

If you have any questions about buying or selling real estate, feel free to give me a call or shoot me an email. I look forward to hearing from you.

A Quick Tour of the Sellwood Neighborhood

Today we're taking a quick look at the Sellwood neighborhood in Portland, located on the east bank of the Willamette River. It's a walkable neighborhood with tons of great amenities.

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Today, we wanted to take you on a quick tour of the lovely Sellwood neighborhood in Portland. Sellwood is located on the east bank of the Willamette River, near the southern end of Ross Island. It's about two miles long and a mile wide.

Sellwood is a teardrop-shaped area that's rich in natural and recreational amenities, including four public parks. Sellwood also boasts a full range of businesses and services, like specialty retail stores, antiques, grocery stores, hardware stores, banks, and dry cleaners to name a few.

It's a very walkable neighborhood for both errands and exercise.

One of the great parks is Sellwood Riverfront Park, which stretches 7.6 acres along the river in Southeast Portland. The park has a boat dock, canoe launch, an off-leash dog area, paths, and riverfront views. It's a popular area for celebrating the Fourth of July thanks to the great views of the downtown fireworks. The park is just south of the famous Oaks Amusement Park and Roller Rink.

Sellwood has a New Seasons Market nestled right in the middle. New Seasons is a locally-owned chain of grocery stores that supplies many locally-sourced items and sells home goods and wellness products as well.

In the video above, you can see a good example of a Sellwood house. This bungalow was built in 1904 and is 1,899 square feet with three bedrooms and one bathroom. This home sold for $500,000 in November 2015.

I hope you enjoyed this look at Sellwood! If you're interested in buying or selling a home in Portland, give me a call or send me an email. I'd love to work with you!

How Does Housing Inventory Affect Your Home’s Value?

What do you need to know about current housing inventory? Here is a brief rundown.

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Why is housing inventory an important statistic to track on the market? Housing inventory is measured in months of inventory. This is basically how many months it would take for all of the available homes to sell if no new homes were listed on the market. A good housing inventory would be about four to five months of houses on the market. If that number is smaller than four, it means that the home buyers are dominating the market and that there are relatively few sellers. In that market, home sellers have the advantage. A number over five would mean that buyers have the advantage in the market.
How does housing inventory affect your home’s value? While your home’s value is affected by size, location, and condition, a tight real estate market—or one with a lower inventory—will always drive prices up. It’s the law of scarcity. If you’d like to know the current housing inventory in your area or have any other questions related to real estate, please give me a call or send me an email. I’d be happy to help you!

A Tour of the Woodstock Neighborhood

We recently took a tour of the Woodstock neighborhood, and I wanted to give you a look. This neighborhood has some great shops and restaurants, and plenty of architectural charm.

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Today I'm excited to give you a quick tour of the Woodstock neighborhood in Portland.

This area has some great restaurants, grocery stores, health care facilities, and many kinds of shops, all within walking distance. My person personal favorite is New Seasons, which has a rooftop bar.

The neighborhood has many mid-century homes and some turn of the century homes, as well as new construction. In the video above, you can see a quaint mid-century ranch with two bedrooms and two bathrooms, which sold in March 2016 for just under $400,000.

Thanks for joining me on the tour. If you have any questions about this wonderful neighborhood, give me a call or send me an email. I'd be happy to help you!

How The Appraisal Process Works

You may know that getting an appraisal is an important part of any home purchase transaction, but do you know how the process works?

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One of the most crucial aspects of buying or selling a Portland home is the appraisal of the property. Here are some of the key parts of the process:

What is an appraisal? A non-biased third party will physically come to the property and inspect the interior and exterior of the home. The appraiser will then pull comparisons from the neighborhood—typically homes that have sold or are currently pending within a close radius—gather the information, put it into a very thorough report, and come up with a value. Upon finishing the report, the appraiser will then send it to the lender, the lender will contact the buyer, and the buyer will be able to pick the report apart to find out how the value was calculated.

How do appraisals affect the home buyer? The appraisal is performed to protect the buyer from overpaying for the property.

How do appraisals affect the home seller? If the appraisal comes in below the sales price, the borrower will not be able to obtain a loan to purchase the property. If this is the case, either the seller will have to lower their sales price to accommodate the appraised value, or the buyer can come in with a larger down payment to make up the difference.

If you have any other questions about the appraisal process and what to expect during it, or you’re thinking about buying or selling Portland real estate, give me a call or send me an email. I’d be happy to help you!

Explore the Mississippi Ave. Neighborhood in North Portland

Today we’re touring Mississippi Avenue, a fantastic neighborhood in north Portland that features great restaurants and an eclectic combination of home styles.

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Mississippi Avenue is a north Portland neighborhood that runs just east of the I-5 between Skidmore and Freemont. This neighborhood is a cozy pocket of Portland near the PCC Cascade campus and allows easy access to the interstate and the MAX.

My favorite eatery in Mississippi Ave is Prost! Stop by Prost! for a great German meal with beer and sausage. The best thing to order for lunch is the German Pretzel Sandwich with German potato salad and a Franziskaner beer.

"Mississippi Avenue is a great, cozy pocket of Portland."

Of course, for a true taste of Portland cuisine, you should visit Homegrown Smoker Vegan BBQ. I recommend the Slowsmomofo Sandwich with Mac-No-Cheese. It’s delicious!

For a true Portland recycling experience, hop into the Rebuilding Center. You can find a variety of affordable building materials and things you didn’t even know you needed. 

The average home price on Mississippi Avenue is $450,000. This neighborhood features an eclectic combination of home styles including new homes, quaint bungalows, old Portland craftsman homes, and Victorians. In fact, a gorgeous Victorian home that was built in 1896 sold this May for $700,000. The 3,000 square foot home has four bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a carriage house that was converted into an additional dwelling. This is just one innovative way that Portland is answering the call for more housing. 

If you have any questions about this neighborhood or other areas in Portland, give us a call or send us an email. We would be happy to help you!

Maintaining Your Heating/Cooling Systems

With summer nearly over, I’m sure you (like us) have been reminded just how much we use our air conditioning. Soon, in the winter, you’ll be reminded of how often you use the furnace, too.

It’s one of the major systems in your home, and a surprise issue with one of these systems can be a nightmare if handled improperly. That’s why we wanted to share a video from Angie’s List that we recently saw about proper maintenance of your heating and cooling systems.

If either unit is having issues, did you know you can actually hire technicians who are specially trained to work on certain brands? For example, if you have a Trane system, you can find a tech who is trained specifically to work on Trane products.

Secondly, always remember to get a second opinion when someone recommends that you replace a system because oftentimes a repair will do. You want to be certain when it comes to a part of your home that should last 20 years, especially considering the cost of a replacement.

Unfortunately, as the video points out, there are a lot of people out there in that deal in these systems and prey on customers that don’t know any better. If you’re hiring a company, you should investigate them by checking out their web reviews or social media pages.

Also, be proactive with service with on these systems. If you wait until the system is broken down and needs repair to get it checked out, you’re now at their mercy.

As always, for any real estate questions for the Syracuse area, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I’d be happy to answer them for you!

How to Stand Out When Buying in Portland

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Call me at (503) 427-9233 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation

How can you stand out as a buyer in the competitive Portland real estate market? There are a few ways to achieve this.

1. Pre-approval from your lender and a competitive offer. A pre-approval shows you are qualified for a mortgage and are financially able to buy their home. These days, sellers won’t take an offer seriously without a pre-approval letter, especially in competitive markets like Portland. Don’t even consider making a lowball offer. Sellers have a slight edge in this market, so if you want your offer to stand out, you need to show that you’re serious.

2. Quick timelines on inspections and appraisals. Sometimes, a competitive offer price isn’t even enough. To many sellers, favorable time lines like those on inspections, appraisals, and closing carry more value than a few thousands dollars. The buyer’s agent should reach out to the listing agent to find out the seller’s goals and if they want to close quickly or if they want to close after their children are done with the school year.

"Find an agent that you can trust."

3. Trust for your agent. Your agent is a real estate professional who works full-time studying the market in order to get you the best deal. They’re also expert negotiators who can get you the best deal on a home and find ways to make your offer more attractive to a home seller.

We can help with all of these factors. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out.

See All That Wonderful Dunthorpe Has to Offer

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Call me at (503) 427-9233 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation

Located just minutes south of downtown and right next to Lewis And Clark College, this safe community offers the best of both worlds with huge estates and an amazing school system. The Riverdale school district in Dunthorpe has the high school and the elementary school with 18 students per classroom and an average of $14,000 spent on each student.

I’m joined by Andre, who just moved to Dunthorpe from Pasadena, California, to talk about Dunthorpe and his favorite parts of living here.

“The location allows us to be almost in a country-like environment right here in Dunthorpe, and yet we are 10 minutes away from Lake Oswego, we are 15 minutes away from downtown, we have access to the Five Freeway very easily,  and we have a number of ways that we can go downtown,” Andre said. “The access from this position is outstanding.”

Andre has already found several favorite restaurants here in “The City of Restaurants,” as he says, including Tucci and A Cena for Italian and Tavern on Kruse for a modern option, and of course a number of restaurants he frequents downtown both on the East Side and West Side.

Lewis and Clark offers a wonderful library, lectures, and music, all of which Andre plans to take advantage of, living just walking distance from the college.

I also want to show you this beautiful custom home built in 2007 between the Willamette River and Highway 43 on Riverwood road, in one of the most exclusive parts of Dunthorpe. It recently sold in 2015 for just under $1.6 million.

Take a look at Elk Rock Gardens, one of my favorite spaces in all of Dunthorpe. Elk Rock Gardens boasts about six acres of English gardens designed by an amazing firm in New York City that also designed Central Park. It’s a great place for a picnic where you can sit knowing you can be here seven days a week.

Thanks so much for joining me in our tour through the beautiful Dunthorpe neighborhood. Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions. I look forward to hearing from you!

What Are Our Favorite Places in Milwaukie?

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Today we are excited to give you a tour of one of our favorite areas in Portland, Milwaukie. Milwaukie offers a small-town charm, but is just a few minutes away from downtown. It was recently voted one of the top 50 places in the country to raise a family. Milwaukie is close to the river, and there are over 100 parks in the area, offering great hiking, backpacking, and cycling options. Today we are going to highlight some of the great things about Milwaukie, from the food to the real estate. Let’s get started.

Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods was started by local resident Bob Moore, who founded the company in 1978. Today, they produce over 400 different products and are known as the leaders for grain production in the United States. 

Another great local spot is Wine:30 wine bar. It’s a great, cozy neighborhood bar, with an open-air atmosphere and complete with comfy furniture. They have a great patio area, which is built on top of a few parking spots in the street. They offer local music throughout the week and a daily happy hour from 4-6 p.m.

Milwaukie is also home to one of the largest farmers’ markets in Portland. You’ll find over 75 local vendors with organic meats, produce, baked goods, garden crafts, and more. There are also local artists there every Sunday.

Milwaukie’s Riverfront Park is an 8.5 acre park spanning along the Willamette River. It was recently renovated to include a new boat launch, parking, restrooms, a public lawn, and a riverside path.

The orange light rail system connects Milwaukie to the city of Portland and travels across the Tilikum Crossing Bridge, which you usually don’t get to go through in a car. 

If you have any questions for us about this area, or anything else real estate related, we would love to hear from you. Give us a call or send us an email today!

West Linn Neighborhood Tour

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West Linn is located in Clackamas County and it’s where I was born and raised. There are some lovely old homes in this rustic area, and if you’ve never been in the area, I recommend you come and take a look.

Holloran Winery and Oswego Hills Vineyard are popular spots for locals. McMenamins is where I’m shooting this video, and this restaurant was the first brew house in West Linn. Their Sunflower IPA is their signature beer, and this is because their beer garden is lined with sunflowers.

If you come here, you need to see the Williamette Falls. There is an intricate lock system built by the pioneers that settled here, and these falls are the 17th widest in the United States!

West Linn was established back in 1913, and in 2011 CNN and Money Magazine ranked West Linn as the 69th best place to live in America. We were also voted as the top place to live in Oregon!

We are also named ‘Tree City USA’ by the Arbor Day foundation for our commitment to urban forestry. Developers like to come to West Linn and renovate old homes into new and beautiful ones. We are actually doing this right now and will be selling 3,000 sq. ft. homes for about $575,000. 

If you want to find out more about West Linn, please don’t hesitate to contact me!