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Why preapprovals matter

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Chances are if you have ever had a conversation with a Realtor you have been asked “are you pre-approved?” A pre-approval is a letter from a lender that states you have the ability to purchase a property within a certain price.  They take a quick look at your debt, income, and what you want your monthly payment to be. Then they are able to give you an accurate price range. Not only does this give you criteria for your home search, but it allows you to shop confidently without wondering whether the house payments will be too high.  While your peace of mind is important during the real estate transaction, that isn’t the main reason that pre-approvals matter.  We will get to that in a moment.

In Portland houses are selling faster than hotcakes!  If you are looking for a home in a desirable neighborhood, that is move in ready, you are going to have a lot of competition.  statsAs an example, here are the stats for the Richmond neighborhood.  As you can see, the average days on market before a home went pending (upper box) is 10 days.  That is less than 2 weeks on the market before the seller has negotiated and accepted an offer.  If you look at the closed sales (bottom box) you can see that the average is only 3 days!  While I did select a specific neighborhood, this trend continues into almost every neighborhood of Portland.

So, Back to the importance of the pre-approval. Say we are out looking for houses and you fall in love with one of these cute homes; 47th 30th

if you didn’t already have that pre-approval on hand, you wouldn’t be able to write an offer in time to even be considered. There are a lot of people out looking for the same homes and the only way to win is to be more prepared than your competition is.  The first home that you lose is always the hardest, and while sometimes there really is nothing more that you can do, if you lose a house because you missed a step in the beginning, you will always regret it.  Calling a lender and talking numbers for 20 or so minutes may not be the most fun thing in the world, but it is a lot more fun than losing a house.

If you are getting ready to enter the real estate market and need some referrals to lender, I would love to help you out. And as always, if you or anyone you know has any real estate needs, I am never to busy to help!

What is Radon?

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January is National Radon Action Month! I frequently get asked by my clients which tests they should do during an inspection.  I always recommend a general inspection, a sewer scope, and a radon test. This is almost always followed by “what is radon?” Well, radon is a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas that is slightly radioactive.  Because of this radioactivity, it is dangerous to the human body in high doses.  In fact, it is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the united states.  Sounds a little scary right?  Lucky for us, we can test for it!

It’s important to know there will be some level of radon present in all homes.  The gas enters the home through the soil at the lowest level of the house.  This is why the best place to test the radon is in the basement or near the crawl space entrance.  You can buy simple tests at places like Home Depot or Lowe’s, or you can pay a professional to conduct a 3 day test. The professional tests are much more accurate, but if you are just curious about your home, the do-it-yourself test will suffice.

In the real estate world, an average of 4 Bq/m3 or becquerel per cubic meter is considered a safe level. Throughout the test the radon levels will fluctuate greatly, sometimes reading around 1 Bq/m3 sometimes it can go up to 90 Bq/m3  As long as the 3 day average is under 4 Bq/m3, the radioactivity in the Radon gas is not high enough to be greatly concerned about.  If your average is higher than 4 Bq/m3  don’t worry, you don’t have to abandon the house!  You simply have to have a mitigation system installed.

There are multiple different systems that can be installed but the most recommended system keeps the radon from entering your home at all.   For example, the system shown to the left has a fan that blows the gas from under the house to the exterior of the house so it can simply be diluted into the air.

If you have other questions about radon gas, the EPA has a great site you can find here or leave them in the comments.  As always, If I can help you or anyone else that you know with the purchase or sale of a home, I am never too busy to help!