Homing In On Portland

Helping you home in on your best life in Portland

Tis the season for…housing market forecasts! Whether you plan to buy, sell or stay put next year, watch Episodes 5 and 6 of Homing in on Portland to get the jump on the Metro market now

After a remarkable year despite the pandemic, what lies ahead for Portland’s housing market in 2021? Based on a review of some of the best research and forecasts, my 2-part market preview offers insights for homeowners planning to stay put as well as prospective buyers and sellers. Click the play buttons below to watch Episodes 5 and 6 of Homing in on Portland. Once you reach youtube, click the “Show More” links in the descriptions below the screens for timed outlines that enable you to cherry pick content.

Can I help you make real estate plans for 2021? Call or email me at (503) 705-5725 or catherinequoyeser@kw.com

Are you planning to buy or sell a home in Cedar Mill or Cedar Hills? First take the temperature of these neighborhood markets with my quarterly newsletters tracking hot and cold prices, activity and speed!

As Oregon enters a new Coronavirus “freeze,” I’m more determined than ever to provide valuable content across all channels, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and this website. Public health concerns limit opportunities for face-to-face communication. But video can help to offset social distancing, offering a more personal and compelling alternative to the written word.

So going forward, my blog will do double duty as a vlog. Click the play button below to view Episode 1 of Homing in on Portland. (It’s short and sweet at just under 1.5 minutes.) Then subscribe to either or both of my quarterly newsletters by sending your name and email address to catherinequoyeser@kw.com

In the biggest transactions of your life, the price has to be right — get your head into the game with home sales data

Forest Heights contemporary

If you’re a fan of HGTV’s Property Brothers, you may wonder how realtor Drew Scott can travel around Canada and the US confidently telling sellers and buyers what homes – theirs or others – will sell for. After all, real estate markets are highly localized, not only from city to city but from neighborhood to neighborhood. How does Scott wrap his head around so many of them?

The answer in three words is comparative market analysis (CMA).

Whether you’re considering putting your home up for sale or making an offer on someone else’s, a CMA enables you to estimate its fair market value. Using data and digital applications from the local multiple listing service, your realtor can make side-by-side comparisons with homes that:

  1. Closely resemble the property in question in size, features and quality;
  2. Are located in the same area; and
  3. Have sold recently, are pending, or currently on the market.

Irvington Storybook

Dollar adjustments up or down are made to comparable properties (or “comps”) depending on how they differ from the subject property. For example:

  • Do they have more or less square footage?
  • Are they older or newer?
  • Have they been updated or remodeled?

And so on. Then the adjusted values of comps are averaged to estimate the fair market value of the subject property.

Oak Hills Rummer

A CMA is both science and art. On one hand, the math and some selection principles are objective. For example, recently sold homes take priority over other types of comps. Since their sale prices are unknown, pending and active listings play a limited or supporting role in the process. And distressed homes should not be included. Fair market value assumes that both buyer and seller are knowledgeable, willing and unpressured. In a short sale or the sale of a foreclosed property, the seller doesn’t match that description.

On the other hand, a realtor’s intuition and local market knowledge also influence the selection of comps and the adjustment of their prices. It’s impossible to assign an objective dollar value to a view, a fireplace or a pool, for example. A realtor can look to appraisers for help, but there’s always an element of by-guess-and-by-gosh in the process.

Sellwood bungalow

That said, CMAs are an indispensable tool in buying or selling a home. They not only help you to get or pay a fair price, but also save time and stress. If you list your home at a fair price, you’re almost guaranteed to sell it faster (and for more money!) than if you ask too much. And if you’re confident in the value of a home that you want to buy or sell, you can approach negotiations with greater strength and peace of mind.

3 reasons to work with a realtor

cloak-of-invisibilityI often wish Harry Potter’s cloak of invisibility would descend when I enter a store – giving me time to size up the merchandise myself before anyone offers their help. My kneejerk response is “Just looking, thanks.”

If you’re like me, you approach the biggest transaction of your life in the same way, taking virtual refuge in the likes of Zillow and Trulia. In fact, research shows that home buyers spend several months in the browsing stage.

And that’s all to the good. Learning about the market and reflecting on your needs and wishes will improve your decision making.

But when you get serious about buying a home, you have a lot to gain from working with a realtor you like and trust.

  1. Realtors owe clients fiduciary responsibility, a legal term meaning that they must act in a client’s best interest at all times. This responsibility applies even if a buyer hasn’t signed an agency agreement with a realtor.
  2. Full-service realtors escort buyers through every step of a complex process. They will help clients search for and view properties, estimate fair market value, write an offer, negotiate with the seller, oversee inspection and appraisal, coordinate any repairs, and see the transaction through escrow to closing – including a final walkthrough and delivery of the keys.
  3. Spanning months or several weeks, a realtor’s many services are delivered without any financial obligation unless and until the sale closes. Even then, the seller pays the buyer’s agent as well as his or her own. Here in Oregon, compensation for the buyer’s rep is set in percentage terms in the seller’s agreement with the listing agent. Of course, sellers take these costs into account when setting prices for their homes.

The best brokerages hold realtors to high quality standards by soliciting anonymous client feedback. They also support brokers with training, services and oversight – so that clients benefit from the knowledge and experience of the entire team.

The bottom line: Browsing on your own is fine in the early stages, but there’s no substitute for a good realtor’s advice and services when you’re serious about buying a home.

5 winning strategies for Portland homebuyers

Vintage Maplewood bungalow
Vintage Maplewood bungalow

In this posting, I offer an inside look at an open house I hosted recently. My aim? To draw lessons for buyers in Portland’s hot market.

A sweet, well-kept bungalow in the friendly Southwest neighborhood of Maplewood, the property was listed at $325,000. Built in 1910, it has a defined entry with coat closet; a window seat, fireplace and original hardwood floors in the sitting room; two bedrooms, one bath and over 1,400 square feet; and a large backyard perfect for entertaining – with a wooden deck and fence.

Though close to downtown, home to a highly rated elementary school, and criss-crossed by hills, creeks and green spaces, Maplewood is not known as a walkable neighborhood. But a house of the same vintage just across the street has been converted to a popular café with garden space. Among other things, it hosts monthly neighborhood association meetings.

Given so many desirable features and a friendly price point, I had expected lots of traffic when agreeing to do the open house a week earlier. And over 20 parties – mostly Millennials – visited in the space of two hours.

The listing agent and I had also expected the home to sell quickly, but we couldn’t know how fast. It sold the day after it went on the market and the open was announced. So I had to break the bad news to each of the visitors Sunday.

A few left without touring the house. Many more said they could understand why it had sold so quickly after having a look around.

Who was the lucky buyer? A Baby Boomer looking for compact, one-level living as she nears retirement. She turned up with her agent toward the end of the open to plan renovations. We talked about removing half the wall between the kitchen and sitting room to create a breakfast bar and open plan living.

I asked if it was her first offer. She laughed and shook her head. Her agent described her as battle-scarred.

The moral of this story?

  1. Be persistent – You may make several offers on several houses before succeeding.
  2. Know your needs and wants – If you clearly identify your “must-haves,” you can size up a home quickly and compromise on your wants. It’s normal for your priorities to shift over time as you see more properties. Just stay focused on your current needs.
  3. Know the market – Home styles, prices and inventories in different neighborhoods are bedrock realities your needs and wants bump up against. The internet and your realtor can help you to understand these realities. Armed with the bulleted figures below, for example, a would-be buyer could have spotted a great opportunity to move into Maplewood at a low price point and predicted keen competition and a quick sale.
    • The median price of a home in this close-in, close-knit neighborhood was $380,000 in 2014 (the most current data available)
    • Whereas the median for Portland Metro including outlying areas was $300,000 last month
    • So the bungalow list price of $325K was much closer to the Metro median than the Maplewood median
    • The number of homes for sale in Maplewood decreased by over 31 percent between June 2014 and June 2015
    • There were just 7 active listings in the neighborhood at the time the bungalow went on the market
  4. Be prepared to pounce – Knowing your needs, wants and the market helps you to act quickly. Getting mortgage preapproval before starting your search is also key. And it’s important to view a property that speaks to you as soon as possible after it goes on the market. Waiting even two days may be too late for a good home in a good neighborhood.
  5. Make your offer sweet – Your first offer should be your best. You may not get another chance. Be prepared to meet or exceed the list price if your realtor determines that it’s fair market value. In some cases, it can be a good idea to include an escalation clause, which commits you to beating the best offer by a certain dollar amount below a stated ceiling. While price is key, other factors can come into play. Your realtor should contact the listing agent to ask about other factors and tailor your offer accordingly. For example, you may win the seller over with:
    • a slow or fast closing
    • a rent back agreement allowing the seller to stay in the home for up to 90 days while trying to find a new one
    • a “clean” offer that minimizes or waives contingencies and conditions
    • proof of funds for the down payment and closing costs along with a mortgage preapproval letter
    • a personal letter explaining what features of the home wow you