PORTLAND OREGON 
REAL ESTATE

Celia Lyon
Principal Broker

503-260-6231

CeliaLyon@aol.com

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Portland Homes Summary


Portland Housing Patterns


Portland Housing patterns tend to be homogenous, meaning homes worth $100,00 are located in $100,000 neighborhoods. It is important for properties to be within the general pricing patterns of their neighborhoods because over-valued homes, even if they are exceptional, are sometimes difficult to sell at full market price. Remember, lenders want to compare your home to nearby homes. If your Portland real estate is located in a neighborhood of $100,000 homes but you have added another $100,000 in improvements, you may have over- improved your property in that lenders will be reluctant to lend the higher amount.

Many sellers think that the price of their home is determined solely by what they are willing to accept and what the buyer is willing to pay. However, the lender’s appraisal in Portland is one more variable and it can complicate the sale of your home. In these cases, it helps to have a knowledgeable REALTOR working on your side.


Portland Real Estate Cycles


During a slow economic time, fewer people are buying homes in the Portland market. Even so, some homeowners find themselves in a situation where they must sell. Families grow beyond the capacity of the home, employees get relocated, and some may even find themselves unable to make their mortgage payment - perhaps because of a layoff in the family.

During sellers' markets, Portland real estate sells quickly and sellers have a lot of pricing power. As a result, prices rise more rapidly than at other times. During buyers' markets, Portland real estate may sit on the market for a while before selling, so sellers become more flexible and may even drop their prices.


Portland ...How To Determine Price


The asking price of your Portland real estate is not something to decide willy-nilly. Price it too high and you may not get any offers. Price it too low and you fail to maximize the return on your investment. Here is a good way to go about determining the price for your Portland home.

Buyers who will consider your Portland are out there inspecting and comparing a variety of homes that are for sale at the same time your home is on the market. If your home is priced significantly higher than comparable Portland homes, you may not get very many buyers to even look at your home. Ultimately, it is buyers who determine what your home is worth. Buyers who are represented by an agent are privy to knowledge of what homes are actually selling for. You should be armed with this knowledge as well and you should use this knowledge to guide your pricing decision.


Bitten by the Portland Home Improvement Bug?


Money isn’t everything however so that if the most important consideration for remaining in your Portland home happens to be the school where your children attend or the proximity to your work or to a particularly attractive recreational opportunity then remodeling may be the best option. On the other hand, if the idea of having your Portland house torn up for weeks at a time makes your blood run cold, it really doesn’t matter how much money you might make turning a fixer-upper into a model home. You will be far better off selling the home you have and moving to a home that better fits your needs.

Does Your Portland Have Curb Appeal?


Every prospective buyer who visits your Portland home is struck by a variety of impressions regardless of whether your landscaping is eye-catching or merely so-so. Plants that overrun the walkway, trees that badly need pruning and visible suggest to the prospective buyer that this home will take a lot of landscaping maintenance and yet if your yard is well-maintained, the prospective buyer is inclined to simply admire the fact and move on. If your Portland front porch or front door need paint, the prospective buyer is likely to notice the paint job inside and out and think about how much maintenance that will take on a yearly basis. The important message here is that things that look bad or run down call attention to all the work that needs to be done while things that are well maintained conjure up ideas of how pleasant it would be to live there.

Tips for Buying or Selling Portland


Most experienced real estate agents and brokers already have Websites that showcase their local MLS data so your Portland can show up online as soon as it is listed. On the other hand, if you are selling on your own it will take time or a considerable advertising budget to get your individual Portland property to show up on the major search engines where prospective buyers will find it. You could tap into one of the several For Sale by Owner Websites but that would limit your market of buyers.

Buying real estate in Portland is also much easier when you work with a real estate agent who knows the area and the market. While there is a great deal of information online about real estate asking prices, it is not always so easy to find out what a property actually sold for. And even then, specific terms of a sale often make a difference in how to interpret the sales price.