When your house is about to go on the market, or you are preparing to find the perfect Portland home, choosing the right Portland real estate agent shouldn’t be a blind Trick-or-Treat grab bag. You deserve to come up with a full-size candy bar—not a walnut!

The right choice can make all the difference between a smooth, seamless process and a stressful, ongoing post-Halloween nightmare—the kind that can pop out of the woodwork to haunt you for years to come! Before you buy or sell a Portland home, here are some qualities you can keep in mind as you select your real estate agent:

1. True Enthusiasm

Look for real enthusiasm from your real estate agent brings to your project. Every good salesperson will present themselves with energy—but a truly engaged agent will demonstrate true enthusiasm by being willing to work with you in a way you that fits your personal style. Beyond just feeling comfortable with the agent’s personality, if you’re accustomed to communicating via text messages or email, the right real estate agent should volunteer to communicate that way. If you […]

Despite what just feels like the right answer, buying a home in Portland can be significantly cheaper than renting one. It’s one of those rare cases where, if you stop and make common sense judgments about the factors at play, the ‘just feels like’ conclusion is the opposite of the one common sense leads you to. Much of the reason has to do with short-term versus long-term considerations (buying a home starts with paying a sizeable down payment, after all); but over the long haul, the amount of cash at stake is so great it’s worth taking a hard look at this fundamental housing choice.

Four leading factors that currently come into play:

·         Increased Demand Has Made Rentals More Expensive

After the subprime mortgage mess-between 2007 and 2013—something like 6,200,000 people were added to the number of tenants. That boost created enough extra demand for rental units that owners had no trouble increasing monthly rates. It’s a simple case of too little supply chased by too much demand.

·         Low Interest Rates Make Homes Cheaper in the Long-Run

The current unusually low interest rates makes […]

Buying an Portland home—especially if it’s your first—takes attention to detail, even for home buyers with spotless credit. The challenge is a good deal greater if your credit score has dropped below the level most banks require to approve a home loan.

The good news is that potential Portland home buyers with less than outstanding credit can still buy their first home—if. That “if” is in italics because ignoring it can turn into a real stopper. The thing that can make buying a home possible even with spotty credit is if you do some careful financial planning.

Careful = details are attended to—every one.

Financial = it’s about the money: columns of figures, dollars and cents—not emotion.

Planning = charting out the specific effects of actions taken now.

The first detail to be mastered is self-education: understanding the rules of the credit game. The most important factor banks use to determine mortgage eligibility is your FICO (Fair Isaac Corporation) credit score. FICO credit scores, which range from 300 to 850, are based on a number of factors. Two factors leading the parade are how much debt […]

A recent Zillow survey again confirmed that extensive renovations are usually not the shortest path to a sale. Across the board, experts agree: it’s still curb appeal and home staging—staging that highlight’s a home’s best features while downplaying its flaws—that often prove most effective.

So, after your Portland house smells like fresh-baked cookies and your walls have been freed from family photos and a roaring fire has made the living room warm and inviting…what if those basic staging moves still haven’t produced the offers you know your home deserves?

Portland staging pros have a lot more tricks up their sleeves. Here are three:

1. Hide Your Demographic

Maybe you’re the parent of four, so your house is full of kids’ bedrooms, toys and playrooms. Perhaps you’re selling a home or bachelor pad with minimal decor and lots of high-tech devices. Maybe you’re putting that empty nest on the market after living in it for decades. The fact is, Portland staging veterans work from the premise that potential buyers shouldn’t be able to walk into a house and be able to tell how old you are […]

Having a Portland home for sale as autumn swings into full bloom has more than one advantage. First off, this is definitely not looky-loo season—the majority of home shoppers this time of year tend to be serious-minded (perhaps because many are hoping to be comfortably moved in by the holidays). Whatever the reason, because many other owners will wait until spring to put up their own Portland home for sale, if you are listing now, you can usually count on a narrower amount of competition.

A subtler reason why fall is an exciting season to put up a home for sale has to do with what can be a presentation advantage—the same reason home décor professionals like this time of year. It’s the Autumn Advantage: a time of year loaded with eye-catching decorating ideas. When the leaves start to change, it’s time to take advantage of the autumnal decorations that can make any Portland home for sale extra inviting.

• Pumpkins aren’t Just for Jack-o’-Lanterns

Modern Man may have cracked the atom and devised telescopes that can see to the very edge of the Universe, […]

Your Portland home listing is, hands-down, the most likely place prospective buyers will get their first glimpse of the home you are selling. Most serious prospects will go online as an early step in the process of winnowing candidate properties by area, asking price, number of bedrooms, etc.—so the photos in your home listing will be your offering’s face to the world.

You probably already know that—and that not all pictures are created equal. What’s important to realize is that some home listing photos actually scare away buyers! Whether you are preparing for a professional photographer’s shooting day or just helping your Realtor^® choose the shots that will be included in your area home listing, here are some red flag/don’t go there/bad idea/just-say-no off-kilter ideas for real estate photos. If you steer clear of these approaches, you home listing will benefit:

Adorable Pets in the Shot

Resist the temptation to make your home more appealing and homier by include the cuddliest member of the family—your pet. “But,” (your may be thinking) “half the commercials on TV have a dog or a cat in them! […]

If you find your Portland rental property without a tenant this fall, it may not take long before you’re tempted to take the first applicant who shows up. Sometimes it doesn’t take much longer to remember why that can be a costly mistake!

Hastily selected tenants can transform your Portland rental property from a dependable revenue-producer into a sputtering headache-producer. Troublesome tenants are hard to manage, can cause serious damage to your Portland rental—and can be infuriatingly difficult to remove.

Of course, the best solution is to avoid renting to trouble-making tenants in the first place. Whenever your rental property falls vacant, you’ll be much more likely to sign a quality tenant if you follow the basic self-protection procedures:

1. Be Wary of Cash Buyers

A tenant who’s willing to pay cash upfront for months in advance might seem like a walking windfall—after all, doesn’t it seem as if the offer would eliminate a degree of risk? But sometimes cash shouldn’t be king. Experience shows that there is usually a reason why an applicant wants to rent on such seemingly advantageous terms. It may be […]

Sparks are flying. Your imagination has become hot and heavy. It’s true love. You’ve fallen hard–for a Portland house!

Buying a Portland house is serious business. It’s not only where you’ll be hanging your hat: it’s also a great investment. So when you find the one that’s the total knockout you were hoping for, the excitement can be blissfully overwhelming. But—easy there, partner! Falling in love with a house too soon is a predictably bad idea.

·         Love at First Sight Can Backfire         

Whether you drove by or saw the home on an online listing, it’s all too easy to get stuck on a home’s curb appeal. Exteriors count for a lot, and with more houses in Portland than ever being listed online, wise sellers know how to make sure their property looks great from the outside. But beauty that’s skin deep in a Portland house isn’t good enough. It’s what is inside—the bones of the place—that can be the difference between a canny investment and one that never quite pans out.
Takeaway: Don’t ever judge a book (or a Portland house) by its […]