That Portland Life

Portland Lifestyle and Real Estate

Contact Us!

pdx real estate

October Market Update

by Leave a Comment

October 2020 has been one of the busiest months to date for the real estate industry. Typically we see things start to slow down, less listings, less pendings, and less buyers out in the market. The numbers show that this year, that is not the case.

October 2020 Market Stats

Compared to last year we have 14% more homes on the market and 21% more closings. So while we are seeing new homes come onto the market in higher than average numbers, we are still not able to keep up with the demand. As a seller this means that if you are priced appropriately, your home will sell very quickly. As a buyer this means that we will likely be competing with other buyers and will need to be aggressive.

This low demand is causing home prices to continue to climb as well. We are up to an average price of $516,000 for the Portland Metro which is 1.2% increase from last month and a 12% increase from last year. We expect this trend to continue through this year and into the spring of next year. So if you are on the fence about buying, I would recommend getting into the market soon!

Both inventory and time on market remained the same as last month. 38 days seems like a high number when you compare it to what we are seeing in most neighborhoods. Many homes are going pending in 2-4 days. When we look further into the data we can see that both condo sales and luxury homes, which take longer to sell, are skewing that number up.

Want to see what is available across all of the Portland Metro? You can do so HERE! If you would prefer a specific search in an area of your choice, fill out the form below and we will get that set up for you!

How to Compete in this Market

by 1 Comment

The best words to hear after you have been out house hunting are, “Your offer has been accepted!” You did the hard work of finding your dream home, putting together a thoughtful offer, and waited patiently for what seemed like days to get the news back. Unfortunately, in our current market of high demand and low inventory, it’s becoming more and more rare to hear those fantastic words. Luckily, we have tools in place to help you get your offer accepted and to stand out against the competition, even if that competition is paying all cash.

Portland bungalow

It seems like every offer is competing these days. In the close-in neighborhoods with ‘Pinterest perfect’ homes, you could be competing with 12 or more other people. We know it is tough out there, but before you get discouraged, know that we have quite a few tricks up our sleeves to help make your offer stand out. Here are our top 4 recommendations to help get you that accepted offer phone call.

#1 Make a stronger offer

There is no way to know exactly what the competition is offering, but we can still make our strongest possible offer up front. In most cases, money talks, so offer over the list price and don’t ask for any concessions. Going in with a strong offer up front shows you are serious and that you don’t want to play any games. We can also write in an escalation clause. That allows you to set a cap and offer a set amount over the next best offer.

#2 Write a love letter

I know, its cheesy. But for most people, a home is a sentimental place. They want to know the home is going to someone that will love it just as much as they did. Tell them earnestly why you love the home and how you imagine yourself living there. A sweet case of serendipity may just win over their hearts.

#3 Waive or shorten some contingencies

The contract is written to strongly favor the buyers in the transaction. There are multiple opportunities that allow you back out of buying the house but there are none for the sellers. You can sway the contract a bit more in their favor by shortening or removing some of the contingencies. You can remove the contingency for the seller property disclosures, shorten the inspection period, and waive the right to re-negotiate price based on the appraisal. Discuss each of these options in detail with your agent. There are varying levels of risk with each contingency, so it’s important to know all the options before removing them.

#4 – Pay their closing costs

This isn’t something we see very often which means it could really sway your offer to be more favorable. Sellers have to pay title and escrow fees just like buyers do. We can offer to cover those costs to help bring the sellers net proceeds up just a bit. You could also offer to pay the commission which typically come out of the seller proceeds, but that is a much larger monetary commitment.

#5 – Surprise them

Do you have a special talent? A huge wine collection? Access to lots and lots of pizza? You can offer anything that you would like to get the sellers to accept your offer. I have had clients offer to brew the seller any type of beer that they would like (only in Portland right?). I have had clients offer free pizza for a year, a weekend get away at a beach cabin, the sky is truly the limit! The trick here is that you cannot attach any monetary value to it. We are giving it to them in exchange for the home, but it needs to be as a gift.

Even after doing all of these things, we may still have been beat out by a higher offer but it is important not to give up. The right home is out there, and when it is meant to be, it will be. Though it’s not on this list, having a great real estate agent on your side is crucial. Having positive working relationships with other brokers in the city has gotten our offers chosen over other (higher!) offers on many occasions. IF you want to get to know either or both of us a little better head over to our about us pages. You can read about Jessica here and Tekela here. Also, you can read our quick guide and meet our favorite lenders here. Lastly, if you want to look at the homes available on the market, you can find those here!

Clark Lewis

by Leave a Comment

This week we tried the farm-to-table restaurant Clark Lewis. They just recently remodeled and reopened for dine-in service so we were thrilled to try it out! The first thing we noticed was how open the restaurant felt. Like many other restaurants in Portland they have taken up some parking spaces to use as a patio, but they also have massive roll up windows that allow the whole restaurant to be an open air dining space.

It isn’t often that we have a lunch this classy so we decided to really treat ourselves and test out many of the items on the menu. We, of course, started with a half dozen oysters while looking over the rest of the offerings and deciding on a cocktail. Because Clark Lewis focuses on fresh and local ingredients I decided to try the marionberry margarita. It was perfectly tart and tasted exactly like you would expect limes and fresh marionberries to taste. There was a slight tequila kick to remind you that you were having a cocktail and it was very refreshing on this hot summer day.

The Food

For lunch we decided to share a couple of different salads and a wood-fired pizza. We tried a watermelon and beet salad with a horseradish vinaigrette, a frisée salad with black plums and a dill vinaigrette and a salmon salad with kale and mama lil’s peppers. All of the salads tasted as though you had just picked the vegetables from the garden and the vinaigrettes were subtle enough to just pull all of the ingredients together. The salmon with the Kale salad was some of the most tender and flavorful salmon I have ever had and I would highly recommend it to anyone.

For the pizza, we decided on the loaded veggie. With a garlic oil base, green olives, mushrooms, artichokes and Parmesan cheese, this pizza was delicious. It was a little salty, but in a way that just made you want to eat more, kind of like a potato chip!

There were also pastas and paninos on the lunch menu and with the food as good as it was, we will definitely have to go back and try it again. The dinner menu also looks to be quite impressive. Let us know if you have been here yet and until next time, Cheers!

Ecliptic Brewing

by Leave a Comment

This week we are featuring one of our favorite breweries and restaurants. With space themed decor and beer Ecliptic Brewing is just a fun place to visit for the whole family. They are currently only offering patio dining, but they have converted the entire parking lot into space for tables so there is plenty of space (pun intended).

Ecliptic also offers a wide variety of beverages, there is a full bar and some local wines to choose from. The real star, though, is of course, the beer. John Harris has been an important NW brewer since his early days at McMenamins. He then moved to Deschutes and Full Sail before finally opening his own brewery.

He doesn’t play it safe with his beer either, depending on the time of year that you visit, you can get almost every style of beer available. I love a fruity sour, there were multiple choices on the menu so I tried the the Carina Peach Sour. With the hot weather we also wanted to try a crisp and refreshing beer so we opted for the Ecliptic-Ruse Collab Pilsner. Both beers were refreshing, delicious, and exactly what we were expecting of the style.

Ecliptic Beers

Ecliptic has by far the best food menu of all the breweries. They focus on fresh and seasonal ingredients and switch up the menu often. This summer they are offering little gem salad, street corn and seared albacore tuna. You can also order one of their many burgers or sandwiches. They always have a great burger, but they are currently also offering a beet melt with goat cheese and granny smith apples and a salmon burger with avocado and jalapeño aioli. Head over to the website to see the full menu.

If you aren’t quite ready to head out to a restaurant you can order the food to go or have some beer delivered! You can order your beer HERE. Have you tried the beer/food yet? What did you enjoy most?

Want to check out our other hotspots? You can find those HERE

The Open House

by Leave a Comment

Today we are taking you behind the scenes of everything we do to prep for an open house! We made this great video for you to enjoy! If you prefer to read about it, we have that included below for you!

The first and most important thing that we do to prepare for an open house is to research the current trends in the neighborhood. We are constantly watching overall trends, but we want to be able to answer neighborhood specific questions to prospective buyers as well. We pull together a list of comparable properties, every other open house in the neighborhood, and our buyer book and head off to the house.

The Big Set Up

All of our open houses are marketed on multiple websites and through facebook ads, but you never know who might be driving by, so we also place many signs around the neighborhood to make it easy to find us.

Once we are at the house we want everyone to feel like they are already home. We have both sweet and savory snacks available, white or rose wine, sparkling water, and plenty of napkins. We also want to turn all the lights on so the home shows the best it can no matter the weather. This also gives a chance to get even more familiar with the property. We look for the furnace, water heater, and any quirks that people may have questions about.

Open houses are one of the most fun things you can do as a realtor. You get to meet quite a few people and usually spend a couple hours inside a gorgeous house. If you are starting to think about getting into the market, we are happy to send you weekly open house lists. Just fill out the form below! You can also search for homes by clicking HERE

The Listing

by Leave a Comment

Today we are taking you behind the scenes of everything we do to prep and win a listing appointment! We made this great video for you to enjoy! If you prefer to read about it, we have that included below for you!

The first and most important thing that we do to prepare for an upcoming listing appointment is to research the current trends in the neighborhood. We are constantly watching overall trends, but pricing a home and creating a personalized market plan requires specific data about which homes have just sold, how long they were on the market, and many other factors. We pull together all the market data, put together a personalized marketing guide, print the contract and head over to the potential new listing!

The Interview

A listing appointment is when we are truly being interviewed. We put our best foot forward and show everything that we have to offer. Typically we are going to be competing against 2 or 3 other agents so it is critical that we set ourselves apart. One big thing we do is send our ‘7 tips for Selling your Home’ booklet to the potential client before we even meet them. You can download it HERE if you want to check it out.

Some other big differences you can expect to get from us are the scope of our marketing knowledge and the brand power we bring. We are well-versed in running social media ads so we can guarantee the listing will get many more views than any neighbor’s listing. We also have the power of the Sotheby’s brand behind us. That gives us access to all of their marketing partners. We get to see our listings on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Mansion Global and many, many more websites around the world. The home is also marketed directly to our global Sotheby’s network. It may just be the perfect fit for an investor or someone relocating here to Portland.

Marketing

In the video above, our listing proposal stood out and we won the listing over at least one other agent. It always feels good to win, but now that we have the contract signed, it is truly time to get to work. Here is quick list of everything we have to coordinate in the week before the listing goes on the market.

Professional photos are the most important step at this stage. NEVER hire an agent that tells you they can take the photos on their phone. They won’t look good and you only get 1 chance to make a first impression. We also do a stunning walkthrough video, 3D tour, and drone pictures. Your home will be the best looking one on the block when we are finished.

The home in our video went pending for full price after only 4 days on the market. If you need some guidance about what to do to sell your home, we would love to come and interview with you! If you want a quick snapshot of your home’s value, you can find that HERE. Or if you prefer to check in on your neighbors homes, you can search for everything on the market HERE. You can also fill out the form below and we will be in touch soon!

How to Tell if a Home has Good Resale Value

by Leave a Comment

Are you making a good investment? Let’s talk about buying a home with resale potential! If you aren’t into videos, jump ahead to read the transcript.

https://youtu.be/X_xG2mJtpdw
Resale Value

Last week we talked about why buying the nicest home in the neighborhood isn’t always a great idea, especially for resale value. You can find that post HERE if you missed it.  There are a lot of other things to think about when it comes to resale value as well!  Today I want to go through the top 3 other things that are important to consider. 

Most people aren’t exactly thinking about selling their house while they are looking at buying that house. It’s a little counter-intuitive and it’s certainly not as much fun to think about as decorating your new home!

I can’t wait to move into this house so we can sell it…”

It is, however, an important thing to consider because chances are good that, at some point, you are going to resell the house. We want to make sure that when we do that, you have access to as many buyers as possible. 

So, there are 3 things that most everyone is going to consider. Let’s jump right in! 

School Districts

Whether you personally are planning on having kids or not, school districts directly influence a homes value.  The better the school district, the higher value the homes will be.  This is just one of those things that gets tied together. Lots of people that buy homes do so because of a change in their family. You want to make sure that if you can buy in a good school district, you do.  That way, when we do sell down the road, everyone is so excited to have the opportunity to live in that great school district.  My favorite website for neighborhood and school ratings is niche.com

Location, Location, Location 

The second thing is of course something we talk about all the time.  Truly though, it is basically the only thing you can’t change about a home.  You can change everything all the way to tearing the house down, but you can’t change the area.  You really want to pay attention to where the home is.  Whether you want something super urban and walkable, or quiet and on a cul-de-sac, you want to really hone in on those areas. That is what the majority of people are going to want.  It is going to be much harder to sell a home sitting right on top of a freeway than it is to sell a home in the hills with a view. Everyone of course wants different things, but be mindful of whether what you want will also appeal to the masses.  

Flow and Floor Plan 

The last thing is the layout and feel of the home.  You might notice this the minute you walk in. Some houses just have weird floor plans. They will feel odd while we are touring them.  Some houses may have a very specific floor plan that is exactly perfect for your family, and if that is the case, go ahead and buy it. Just know it may be harder to sell down the road.  3 bedroom 2 bathroom homes are always going to be the most popular.  Also consider the actual structure of the home. A 1 level home is worth slightly more than a 2 level home of the same size.  Homes that follow the Feng Shui guidelines are going to be more desirable than homes that don’t.  These are all things that we know quite a bit about, so feel free to pick our brains while we are out looking at homes. 

Having a good realtor to help guide you through all of these steps is so important.  On average, people are going to sell their homes after 7-10 years and we don’t want you to come back to us after that time and then find out your home will be hard to sell.  That means that while we are looking at homes, we are going to point out things that may or may not be desirable. That way we can be certain that no matter how long you live in your home, you are making a good choice, a good investment, and that you’ll be able to sell your house again when you eventually want to do so!  

If you have any questions about this, or you want to talk about buying or selling in general, we would love to chat with you!  Fill out the form below or give us a call and we will talk to you soon.  Hope to hear from you! 

Why you don’t want the nicest home in the neighborhood

by Leave a Comment

Today, we’re talking all about buying the right house at the right price point in
the neighborhood that you love. 

https://youtu.be/-oNRttpv9-s

We all love looking at houses, that’s why we are all so hooked on HGTV.  My personal favorite show is Million Dollar Listing, I love looking at those LA modern mansions, they are basically what dreams are made of. 

If you’re anything like most of my buyers, you’ve likely had your eye on your ideal neighborhood for some time now. Maybe you’ve taken drives through it or walked down its streets. Maybe you’ve even toured a few open houses and are still waiting on your dream home…
But sometimes that dream house might not be the best investment. I’ll explain why.

Here’s the thing about houses…although they are places where we make our nests, they are also massive investments. Often the biggest investment you’ll ever make. So despite the warm fuzzies that come with the idea of THE HOME, you still want to look at it as an investment, which means resale value should always stay top of mind. So it’s important to consider the following: 

#1 Buyers Want Mid-Range Homes 

A lot of people want that big expensive house, but they know the mortgage that comes with it. So many people compromise with a lower-priced home in their ideal neighborhood. This means that there are more buyers looking for mid-range homes. And when demand goes up, so do the price. This is why mid-range homes often command a higher price per square foot than bigger homes in the same neighborhood. 

#2 Your Home Value is Determined By The Homes Around You 

If you have the least expensive home in the neighborhood, the other homes will actually drive your home value up. But the opposite is also true. If you have the most expensive house, the other homes will drive your home value down. This is another reason why mid-range homes tend to have a higher price per square foot than the fancier homes down the street. 

#3 Your Home Will Be Harder to Sell In Tough Times 

 If the market shifts, and it does about every 7 years, you may be stuck at the top of the market in your area. When times are tough, buyers will opt for a less expensive home in hopes of getting a better deal. 

This is where having a good agent is incredibly important.  it’s imperative that they understand the importance of resale value. and help you to understand resale while we are looking at homes.  We won’t run around pointing out the negatives of a home, but we will help you to understand the potential quirks of the home you just fell in love with. 

If you’re thinking of buying a home, I can show you what characteristics to look for, in order to help you get the maximum resale value if you sell down the road. You can start your search HERE
If you’re thinking of selling, I can help you determine the current value of your home by giving you a complimentary market analysis. You can get an instant one HERE