PORTLAND OREGON 
REAL ESTATE

Celia Lyon
Principal Broker

503-260-6231

CeliaLyon@aol.com

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Buying and Selling Portland Condos


Portland has special regulations


Every area has its own building regulations. You need to know how these restrictions will affect the design of your Portland home. Issues to consider include zoning, setbacks, rights of way and easements. Most subdivisions have CC&Rs (Covenants, Codes and Restrictions). Studies of Portland demonstrate that these carefully to make sure they are not too restrictive for your needs or create excessive building costs.

Portland FAIR MARKET VALUE


When you buy Portland real estate or refinance your present home, your lender will ask you to pay for an appraisal to help ensure that the sales price and mortgage amount is consistent with the property's market value. The appraiser uses the Rule of Three. What that means is the lender wants to evaluate three "comparables"—recent sales of nearby homes that are very similar to the one you are buying. Based on this information, the lender will make adjustments to reflect the differences between the properties and arrive at a fair price for your home.

Buying Portland Real Estate...Will it Pay?


With a typical 30-year loan, most of your monthly payment goes toward interest payments with only small amounts going to the principle in the early years. Only half the principle is repaid in the first 23 years of the loan. You can build equity in your Portland faster by choosing a 15-year loan instead of a 30-year loan.

As a Portland real estate owner you have the right to pay more towards the principle loan amount each month. Let’s say your monthly payment is $700.00 a month and $100.00 a month is being applied to the principle. If you choose to pay $900.00 instead of $700.00, the $200.00 overage will be applied entirely to the principle. Thus, instead of gaining $1,200.00 a year in home equity, you gain $3,600.00. Investing in Portland can be a very good idea.


Does Your Portland Have Curb Appeal?


From cottages to castles some Portland have so much curb appeal that passersby can’t help but stop and admire them. When visiting property with great curb appeal, prospective buyers often experience 'Love at First Sight' and this disposes them to love the entire home before they even walk through the front door.

Portland curb appeal is the result of a perfect blend of architectural style, landscaping, up-keep and color choices. Money alone does not guarantee outstanding curb appeal. I’ve seen very expensive Area homes with costly landscaping that fail to appeal and I’ve seen very modest priced Area homes with outstanding curb appeal. In part, the landscaping aspect of curb appeal is a matter of personal taste.

Does Your Portland Have Curb Appeal?


Good curb appeal is definitely an advantage to home sellers when prospective buyers visit your Portland and can be an advantage in advertising in the newspaper and on the Internet. However, it is important to note that even a home with great curb appeal can look bad in an advertisement if the photographer did a bad job with the camera. A photograph of a Portland home on a dreary day will look quite different from a photo of the same home when the sun is shining. Sometimes it is better to take a picture of a home from an angle rather than a straight on shot that may turn out to be more about the garage door than about the house itself.

Portland DEDUCTIONS


One of the advantages of home ownership is that while most other types of interest are not tax deductible, the interest you pay on your Portland loan is deductible on your Federal and State income tax. This fact alone gives homeowners a distinct advantage over renters.