It's officially May, and hopefully summer is right around the corner.
I want to take a minute to thank all of you for coming here to read, comment and contribute to the blog. The discussions have been civil and I've learned more about the market because of them. Knowing I've been able to help a few buyers better navigate the current rocky real estate market has made it all worth it.
But I have also noticed things quiet down lately, which I think is good. I feel that there was a perceptible change once the local market moved into negative territory as I and others no longer needed to scream that it was coming. You'd have to be an idiot not to acknowledge that Portland will follow the rest of the country towards lower prices. I know I got pretty burned out for a while, but I am more committed than ever to sharing my insights into the market and exposing the tricks that used house salespeople are using to try to boost business.
Keep sending in interesting sightings, news stories, and misinformation you see, and I will post whatever I can.
So what's on your mind as spring springs and we enter "peak buying season"?
Thursday, May 1, 2008
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19 comments:
Yeah, I noticed the silence, also. Kind of wierd. Even over on the Turner blog, no one commented on the C-S data until I posted. Still, the usual contributors are quiet. Has shock set in?
Turner's blog is boring. This is the only blog in my favorites.
Turn the boring blogs into informative blogs...ask questions, give examples, tell your story...
"Has shock set in?" Quite likely.
"Turn the boring blogs into informative blogs" Nah, bring more readers here! I'd like to see more Realtors post and get some real discussion going.
I got a chuckle out of Charles' recent post about WalkScore, since I posted about that a few months ago. I also saw someone trying to use it as a selling point today.
And notice how Turner is burying his post: Portland is Late to Housing Party. I have never seen him post so much so quickly!
Turner- His post more and more resembles his peer group. However, he remains the only realtor out there that has had enough cajones to continually report on the debacle. I still can't stand his blog though.
I've been bearish on suburbia, but after I saw that article on the Wall St. Journal site last week about how people in suburbia are digging up their front yards to start mini-farms I'm thinking there might yet be hope for suburbia.
Peak oil means you've gotta grow the crops close to the city. And you've gotta have smaller farms that don't use as much petroleum inputs. Suburban farms seem to be the perfect fit.
Digging up the front yard this weekend... Anybody got tips on growing rice?
Great idea for all the empty lots...community gardens! At first I thought plant grass and trees but why not food!
hmm, doesn't rice use lots of water? which we've got i guess!
From Housing Tracker:
The Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton Metropolitan Statistical Area approximation has 26,160 total listings of which 20,930 are either Single Family or Condo homes. The area includes the major cities of Beaverton, Clackamas, Gladstone, Gresham, Hillsboro, Lake Oswego, Marylhurst, Portland, Troutdale, Vancouver and many others.
The Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue Metropolitan Statistical Area approximation has 17,935 total listings of which 15,172 are either Single Family or Condo homes. The area includes the major cities of Auburn, Bellevue, Bothell, Everett, Kent, Lakewood, Puyallup, Renton, Seattle, Tacoma and many others.
Anyone else shocked that we have more houses for sale than Seattle?!?!?! OMG!
http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/01/real_estate/new_rules.moneymag/index.htm?postversion=2008051205
Five New Rules for Home Buyers:
Rule 1: You can't time the bottom
Rule 2: One reason to buy now - mortgage rates
Rule 3: Another reason to buy - rates on big mortgages
Rule 4: Don't buy cheap; buy good schools
Rule 5: Make sure your agent has your interest at heart
Are the Bubble Blogs on holiday today?
Three more reasons to CAUTIOUSLY consider buying now:
1) Record inventory, MANY houses to choose from
2) Not a heck of a lot buyers out there, relatively speaking, no buying frenzy, so one can take one's time and choose wisely
3) I am seeing some sellers actually price their homes realistically
anon 7:02: "Are the Bubble Blogs on holiday today?"
Nope, but some days my day job does require my full attention. I've avoided putting advertising on the site, mostly because all the companies that have asked are hacks. So I do rely on the day job to pay the bills and keep us in diapers (my daughter, not me!).
"Rule 5: Make sure your agent has your interest at heart"
I wonder which realtor that would be. Would a realtor who has ever had its clients interests at heart please stand up and be heard? Nobody?
The real estate fallout may hit others in the industry: Suit against Escrow firms for Reconveyance fees: http://www.hbsslaw.com/escrow
“I wonder which realtor that would be. Would a realtor who has ever had its client’s interests at heart please stand up and be heard?”
I have my client’s interests at heart, as do most good Realtors I know! Yes, there are bad ones out there just as in any business. You can fire a Realtor you’re not happy with, just as I’ve fired bad clients (yup, they’re out there too, and I’d rather loose a fee than work with unreasonable and unrealistic clients). There has to be mutual respect and trust!
I want my clients to send me referrals and repeat business – the lifeblood of any good service business. I work very hard to make my clients happy - I don’t pressure them to buy a particular house or accept an offer that they won’t be happy with. I advise them, give them the pros and cons, and let them make their own decisions.
Future business is more important to me than the fee I’m getting for the current transaction. Why would I jeopardize that to make a few extra bucks now? I get about 1.5% of the purchase price (and that’s gross – I have to pay taxes, overhead and expenses out of that). That’s only $15 per $1000 or $150 per $10,000!
I try to get the best deal for my buyers and make sure they don’t overpay in. I do a CMA to determine the current value of the house they want to buy and have recommended buyers offer less than they were willing to pay.
Please email me at larryb@meadowsgroup.com or call me at 503.416.7633 if you’d like to talk – I don’t want to take up too much space here. You can also visit my website:
www.HouseThatFits.com.
Hey, here's a Mediterranean style manse with a "specious" living room:
http://portland.craigslist.org/wsc/rfs/684635515.html
Check out the pics: they actually built part of the house as a bridge over the swimming pools - how very Venice-like. And it's in the boonies outside of Hillsboro.
skeptic, we need to discuss your purchase criteria...
I think that house is amusingly cool. I would never live in it, much less drop close to a cold MIL to live behind Beaverton -- but I'd sure give them a gold star for effort. :)
It made me think of this slightly cool but mildly wacky (and out in the woods) house...
http://www.clarkcountyexpert.com/MyHomeDtl.asp?HomeID=553177&P=8
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