My new favorite tool for capturing awesome houses is time lapse video. We take video for several hours, and even move the camera over that time. This eye candy really lets you know how it is to live in a home over a day or evening, not something a buyer usually gets to experience.
It's hard to believe, but selling your home by 
summer 2013 can mean starting at the beginning of the new year. Starting preparations in January helps create an easy and smooth selling experience so you can focus on the next step. On average, it takes about a month to get your home ready to go on the market. Usually there's two weeks for minor repairs, and another two weeks for our marketing team to capture the story of your home and create all of the amazing materials. That means your home would be ready for total exposure on the market in February.
Based on the average days on market for homes in Portland, your home could receive an offer around April. The transaction would close by May, and you would be ready to move on to the next step by June. Starting in January allows you to take the time you need to sell and prepare for what comes after. Let's strategize on how to sell your home in 2013.
2012 was a big year at M Realty. We finely tuned our marketing program and had some amazing success selling homes. Exceptional photography and videography is key to sharing the story of a property. From time lapse videos to panoramic views, this video shows just a small amount of the spectacular photos and video clips from this year's listings.
Marketing truly does make a difference when it comes to selling homes. Number of days on the market and sale price are the two important factors to most home buyers when selling their home. At M Realty, the numbers show that when spectacular, consistent marketing combines with a great agent, homes sell faster for more money.
In December, the average number of days on the market for homes in the Portland metro area was 100 days. For M Realty, the average days on market was 36 days less at 64 days on the market. Selling faster means more money in your pocket--one less mortgage payment, less selling expenses, and less hassle.
Exceptional marketing, both online and in print, helps your home stand out among the rest on the market. We do this by telling the story of every home we sell at M Realty, big or small, new or old. There's a buyer out there for your home, and a quality presentation of what your home has to offer will find the ideal buyer sooner.
Frozen peas were on the menu at the Oregon Food Bank on November 10th. Back in November, the M Realty staff, agents, and I got together and volunteered at the Oregon Food Bank in Beaverton. We had a great time helping out in any way we could, so we scooped and weighed those frozen peas while chatting away about holiday plans. Along with the rest of the volunteers that Saturday, here are the impressive stats we contributed to:
Not bad for two hours of work on a Saturday! It was really easy to sign up and volunteer for groups, individuals, and kids. Click here to learn more about volunteer opportunities in the Portland area.
We'll be heading out to do another session in the "cold room" in February, I'd love to bring you along!
To those who missed the Grand Opening of the Central Loop on September 22-23, by the time you read this the Portland Streetcar should be alive and operating.
The new route, called the Loop, begins at Portland State University and travels north through downtown, and  crosses the Broadway Bridge. From there, it proceeds along Northeast Broadway and Northeast Weidler streets, down Seventh Avenue, west on Oregon Street to the Oregon Convention Center, and south on Northeast and Southeast Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. to OMSI.  The return route is along Northeast and Southeast Grand Avenue and Northeast Broadway.  It will hopefully become a true loop in 2015 when the new Willamette River bridge is completed; currently the Portland Streetcar is $7.4 million short of the funds to make the connection from OMSI to the bridge.  The streetcar continues to operate its older west side route from Northwest 23rd to Avenue to Southwest Waterfrontâgiving downtown residents greater service.
Another new change is that downtown residents no longer have the free streetcar use they have been accustomed to. Starting in September, Portland Streetcar Inc. and TriMet, which runs the car on contract with the non-profit, instituted the following fare system: $1 to ride the streetcar for 2 hours: $2.50 to ride the streetcar and any TriMet facility - bus or light rail - for 2 hours, switching at will: $5 to ride any sort of mass transit all day. There are Honored Citizen fares for the elderly for $1.60, youth fares for $1, and monthly and yearly passes at reduced rates. Â These can be purchased at Safeway or the Lloyd District Transportation Management Association office at 700 N.E. Multnomah St.
Marketing matters. When exceptional marketing combines with the right price, anything is possible. In today's market, high quality photography, videography, and presentation stands out. Here are just a handful of last month's successes. 913 SW Westwood - $400,000
This classic Hillsdale bungalow features an expansive lower level and a great location in SW Portland. The M Realty media team did a full marketing production for this listing. The result was an outstanding custom website, flawless print materials, and interest from serious home buyers who fell in love with the property.
After this home went on the market, it received multiple offers within 6 hours. The house sold for $30,000 above asking price at $430,000, and the transaction closed within 32 days.
6900 SE 28th - $920,000
We captured the story of this gracious colonial home with our M Realty media team, which included our on-staff photographer, videographer, designer and copywriter. The team produced a beautiful website and print materials, such as our multi-page Super Flyer. All of these materials highlighted the incredible details and spaces in this classic Eastmoreland property, and ultimately helped find a buyer who fell in love with the home.
2201 NW Pettygrove - $609,000
With an exceptional location in the heart of Northwest Portland, this updated and spacious townhome offers plenty of space for entertaining and living in the city. An open floor plan connects the gourmet kitchen to the expansive living space, and the dining area opens to the terrace for indoor/outdoor entertaining. An abundance of windows keep the various spaces of this home bright and airy.
With a full suite of marketing materials, everything this downtown home had to offer was elegantly marketed to lots of potential buyers. This property was on the market for 46 days, and the open house had 27 potential home buyers. This home, which was listed for $609,000, sold for 99% of the listing price.
In Portland Oregon high end real estate is becoming more and more active. Homes listed at $1,000,000 and above are not common, but more and more are coming on the market as people are seeing their neighbors successfully selling.
Below are all of the homes currently listed for one million and above. Click on the homes to view the whole listing.
[listingsearch type="layers" layerid="15" hqid="1040,1004,1003,1041,1123,1002,1006,1007" orderby="id" order="ASC" lp="1000"]
Condos aren't just for downtown and the Pearl District, there are plenty of great units for sale in new and classic buildings on the east side of the Willamette. Locations close to the MAX, bus lines, food carts, and great neighborhoods makes buying a condo a great option. If you aren't into maintaining a yard or leaving a house empty when you travel a condo could be a really great option. Call me to see any of the properties for sale!
[listingsearch type="layers" layerid="15" hqid="1040,1004" orderby="id" order="ASC" ptype="CONDO"]
The Selliken Group, which I am a member of, is excited to present the first listing in a joint effort to co-list and market winery and vineyard properties with Peter Bouman. The property is the Beran Vineyard and Winery: 30088swegger.mhom.es. Located 40 minutes from downtown, this turn key property is ready for a wine crusher to make their own. The Beran Winery property is well located for connecting directly with Portland area wine consumers. The winery has historically sold a high percentage of its wines directly at winery events or to wine club members. Proximity to Portland, Hillsboro, and Beaverton make this a great location for a business plan that is designed to target as much direct-to-consumer sales as possible. The gazebo and lawns surrounding the winery are beautifully designed for hosting wine sales events. The winery is close to several small wineries and vineyards, and on the threshold to Oregon Wine Country.
Check out the walk through tour of the winery, which is a converted dairy barn.
The real estate market in Southeast Portland has become more and more competitive over the last few months. Inventory (homes for sale) has continued it's seasonal drop over the winter, but the number of buyers has stayed the same. So there are more people looking at and making offers of the same few properties. In Inner SE PDX homes there are enough buyers, as of February 2012, to buy up all the houses currently on the market in 6 months. A 5-6 month absorption rate is considered a neutral market, 4 or less months is a sellers market. If we continue on the same trend we have recently seen the market will only become more competitive. Eventually this leads to multiple offers on homes, prices increasing, and the housing market stabilizing.
North Portland is becoming an ever more popular place to buy homes. The newest listings of homes for sale in NoPo are below. To view the property details, click on the listing. To see a home in person, call me at 503-367-1877.
[listingsearch excludeShortSale=1 type="layers" layerid="15" hqid="1003" orderby="id" order="DESC" ptype="DETACHD"]
Inner Northeast and Southeast Portland are known for older homes, but in the last 10-12 years there has been a lot of new construction. Below are homes for sale that were built in 2000 or more recently. Many are under construction. These homes are mostly built to fit into the existing neighborhoods, so they have traditional styling on the exterior, but modern features and layouts inside. To view the properties click on the listings, and to see them in person call me at 503-367-1877.
[listingsearch type="listingids" listingids="12307207, 12421169, 12491039, 12283194, 12304868, 12186617, 12376330, 12532284, 11500381, 12383690, 12318522, 12089637, 12416681, 12513022, 12670728, 12597855, 12047930, 12414532, 12596573, 11245771, 12162940, 12058273, 11071263, 12689440, 12641711, 11554610, 12454830, 11147232"]
Below are All Homes for Sale in Northeast and Southeast Portland.
[listingsearch type="layers" layerid="15" hqid="1040,1004" orderby="id" order="ASC" ptype="DETACHD"]
The Dundee Hills Winegrowers Association has a great event/deal for April. Buy into the
Passport Tour for $20 and you receive a stamp book that gets you 50-100% off tastings at over 25 participating wine tasting rooms, along with special offers from area restaurants, shops, inns and B&Bs. Visit the wineries, many of which will be specially open for the the event, receive a stamp at each location and create a memorable keepsake with your passport. Passport holders then will be able to enter their name into a drawing for a chance to win the GRAND PRIZE: A Wine Country Weekend for 2 Couples!
Sounds like a great way to explore Yamhill County's world renowned wineries, see some amazing landscapes, and taste some great wines.
[nggallery id=21]
Telling the story of a home in pictures and text is the key to marketing effectively. At M we are focusing on beautiful materials: Print and Online. We are also focusing on CONTENT. Content is key, and all the materials would be wasted if once someone started reading there was just fluff or made no sense. Here is a sample of the story of 6900 SE 28th Ave, ML# 12058544.
"This gracious colonial is situated on a large beautifully landscaped private lot in Eastmoreland. The details throughout the home are extraordinary and correct for the vintage and style.The home is great for entertaining year around. French doors open from the formal living room to a large covered patio and level yard. The backyard and main patio can be accessed from the great room off of the kitchen. The master bedroom is exquisite with gorgeous built-ins, window seat, fireplace and private patio. It boasts generous closet space. The home is perfect for the person who appreciates classic architecture and craftsmanship. This is a rare gem and an opportunity to live in one of Portland’s finest neighborhoods. This home is located near Reed College, Berkeley Park, Eastmoreland Market, Eastmoreland Golf Course and the Springwater Corridor."
You can probably picture parts of this home in your mind, but looking at the actually photos is more fun:
[nggallery id=20]
If you'd like mor info on how I can tell the story of your home in order to sell it quickly and for the best price, call me at 503-367-1877.
The story of the real estate market in Northeast Portland for the last year has been that there are buyers, but not many houses for them to pick from. The absorption rate topped out in June of 2011 at 18%, which means that almost one in five listings sold that month. That's a really good number. The number hovered around 14-15% for most of the rest of the year.
My new listing in the Sabin Neighborhood went through the full M Marketing Campaign, starting with professional staging and consultation. My favorite staging company Spade and Archer came through the home and recommended colors, new flooring, lighting, and a kitchen rehab. The seller followed their advice, and the professional photos and video were done within the last few days. Take a look at all the photos, the story of the house, and community information at the website: 3905 NE Grand Ave.
The home is listed for $290,000, it has 4 bedrooms, 2.1 baths, including a master suite on the main floor. Total square footage is 1770. The schools are Sabin and Grant. The home is on the corner of NE Grand and NE Failing, just 2 blocks north of Fremont Ave. Call me today for a showing!
Portlands has a ton of competitive and charitable runs throughout the year, but March
kicks off the warmer weather and lots of runs. Join in the Portland pass time:
Fort Vancouver Run: March 4th
Muddy March Madness: March 11th
Shamrock Run: March 18th
Sellwood Scamper: March 24th
Gorge Waterfalls 50k: March 25th
Southwest Portland is a fantastic residential area that is known for quick commutes to
downtown, quaint neighborhoods, and easy access to suburbs such as Lake Oswego. Luxury properties are either penthouse condos in the Southwest Waterfront and Homestead, or large estates throughout the area. The market for homes for sale in SW Portland is very competitive, there are not that many luxury homes for sale at any given time.
[nggallery id=19]
[listingsearch type="layers" layerid="15" hqid="1006" orderby="id" order="ASC" lp="750"]
Running the actual numbers is important, even if you aren't a statistics geek. I like to see the results and analyze how the actual market is affected, so I'll give you the results:
The North Portland real estate market has seen a decline in inventory (houses for sale) over the last year. The greater Portland Metro Area has seen a decline in listing inventory for the last year as well. The houses that are in good condition, marketed well, and priced right are selling. Buyers who want to live in the houses they are purchasing (not investors) are having a tough time finding the right house and making an offer on it before it sells. The absorption rate in North Portland has bounced up and down over the last year, but on average we are seeing a rate of 12.7%. So every month about 13% of the houses for sale are selling. At the bottom of the market we were only seeing around 3-5%.
Beth Silva has been a Realtor in the Portland Metro Area for 10 years. She is committed to providing excellent service to her clients, and has a deep love of houses of all shapes and sizes.
