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What can I buy in Portland?

July 28, 2020 by Jessica Berger and Tekela Fisher Leave a Comment

We had an absolute blast filming our latest series, ‘What Can I Buy?’! We decided it would be fun to take you around Portland and show you different styles of homes at different price points to get you an idea of what you can buy in this great city! While the homes here aren’t as inexpensive as say, Ohio, we are still the most affordable metropolitan area on the West Coast!

The first season of our new series is 6 episodes and we visited each of the 6 quadrants of Portland. We know 6 isn’t called a quadrant, but Portland likes to keep things weird, so let’s just go with it. You can click on any of the photos below to be taken to the page with our series video and full details on the home!

series episode 1 — The Royal, SW Portland

series episode 3 — Alberta Arts, NE Portland

series episode 5 — Hawthorne, SE Portland

Jessica’s favorite property that we toured was the New York style condo in the Chown Pella building. She loved the exposed brick, open floor plan, Pearl District living, and private roof top deck! For under 1 million, that condo is truly a great deal!

Tekela’s favorite was the Royal, the stunning contemporary home in SW Portland. She loved the floor-to-ceiling pocket windows, the gorgeous open kitchen, and the location that felt like living in the treetops! At 2.25 million, it’s a bit aspirational, but a girl can dream!

We hope that you enjoyed going on this tour with us! If you want to stay up to date on everything we are doing, follow us on social media, subscribe to our Youtube channel, and/or sign up for our newsletter!

The Open House

June 11, 2020 by Jessica Berger and Tekela Fisher 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

June 11, 2020 by Jessica Berger and Tekela Fisher 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!

February 2020 Market Stats

March 17, 2020 by Jessica Berger and Tekela Fisher Leave a Comment

Real estate by the numbers is out for the past month! The quick and dirty version of the February market is that inventory is still low keeping us in a seller’s market. Homes are appreciating by 5-7% over last year but dropped slightly compared to last month. And we are seeing many new listings as we get ready for the busy spring market. Read on below if you want details about your side of the river and the general market health.

Portland Metro

Looking at the numbers now just confirms what we were talking to our clients about last month. We saw more houses coming onto the market as seller’s were trying to get ahead of the spring rush. This push of listings also gave us more pending homes and therefore more sold homes. There are a lot of buyers out in the market and even though the inventory is climbing up, we are still seeing multiple offers on most close-in locations.

Many of us, myself included, expected to see more of a plateau in terms of appreciation, after the huge price jumps in 2017 and 2018. 2019 did see quite a bit of slowing, but so far this year the average sales price is up 5% over last year across the metro area. 4-6% appreciation is considered a steady and healthy market, so we should expect to see these numbers hold for at least a year or 2.

Selling

If you are considering selling your home now is an excellent time to get into the market. May-July are historically our busiest months for new listings, so if you want to take advantage of the huge buyer pool ahead of your competition, April could be the perfect month to list your home. Timing is always a personal choice, but you will likely net more money listing in the spring than early summer. If you want an individual valuation, reach out to us and we can discuss details. You can also get an instant home value by clicking here.

Buying

If you are thinking about buying, these numbers may seem a bit intimidating to you, but know there will be many more homes coming on the market very soon. With interest rates being historically low, even if you do end up competing on a home, chances are you are still getting a great deal. You also never know when the perfect home is going to come on the market, so if you are thinking of looking, it doesn’t hurt to start now to see what is out there. You can search all the homes in the area HERE.

East Portland

Overall the Eastside performed better than rest of the city in February. NE Portland saw the biggest jump in average home price, 2.5% since the beginning of the year, this is primarily due to some luxury listings closing. SE Portland continues to have the most new listings and the most closings because of its sheer size, at 247 closings, it had almost as many as NE and N Portland combined. North Portland is still one of the most affordable places to buy a home, with an average sales price of $407K you can still find cute homes in the 300K range.

West Portland

The Westside did vary a bit compared to the rest of the city, this is the only area that we saw the average days on market go up. The days on market are always quite a bit longer on this side of the river due to the condo sales. The condo market slowed substantially last year and this skews all the other numbers towards the negative. West Portland has a significantly higher average home price which also has a smaller buyer pool and therefore takes longer to sell.

We hope this helps to breakdown the February market in the Portland area. If you have any specific questions about your neighborhood please send us a message! You can fill out the form below or reach out to us on Facebook. We are always happy to discuss how this specifically affects you and your home value.

January 2020 Market Stats

February 18, 2020 by Jessica Berger and Tekela Fisher 1 Comment

The time has come to once again look back on the market and reflect on how healthy the market has been. January of 2020 was a great month for Portland. Home prices are up 6.3% from January of last year! Despite all the recession rumors, everyone that owns a home is still making money. Interest rates are still insanely low. If you are thinking of buying, do it now before home prices jump up even more. If you want to read more about all the specifics, continue on past the graphic below!

January 2020 Real Estate Market Statistics

What these numbers mean to you

We also saw a significant jump in new listings, pendings, and sold homes. Many people entered the real estate market after the holidays which explains this big jump. While it is good to see homes coming on the market, we are still sitting around only 2.2 months of inventory. If no one else puts their home on the market, every single home will be sold in just over 2 months. As a buyer, this means there will be competition on all those ‘Pinterest perfect’ homes and you should expect multiple offers. As a seller, this means there is almost no competition and as long as you are priced appropriately, you should expect to sell quickly.

Despite this, we surprisingly saw the average days on market climb as well. If you separate this stat out by price point it paints a very different picture. Homes under $500,000 are, on average, selling in 7 days or less. Houses up to $1 million are selling in about 30 days. Homes over $1 million are selling in 60-100 days on average. If you want specifics on how long your home may take to sell, send us a message and we will happily send you some data.

Ready to make a move?

You sometimes hear us say “now is the perfect time to move” but whether you are a buyer or a seller, there are some really strong cases to be made about 2020 being the right year to do it. If you want to look at homes currently on the market you can do so here. If you want an instant evaluation of what your home is worth, you can do so here. Take advantage of the current interest rates to get yourself into a new and amazing home! You’ll be glad you did.

Does our analysis match your perception of the market? How did you feel January of 2020 went? Let us know in the comments!