Sunday, May 9, 2010
San Antonio VA Loans
For anyone relocating to San Antonio, you should contact Kurt Hudspeth with Hot New San Antonio Homes. Kurt can help you with all of your relocation needs, and set up with one of the fastest-closing funders of San Antonio VA loans.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Popular Portland Suburbs
If you're considering moving to the Portland, Oregon area, it's good to get a quick overview of places to live. We'll save a discussion living in downtown Portland for another article and focus this time on the most popular Portland suburbs. If you're shopping for Portland real estate, you'll want to take a look at these neighboring towns to see if they will provide the lifestyle you and your family are looking for.
Lake Oswego
Lake Oswego is a small community just south of Portland. It's an easy commute for those who need to work downtown; only about 20 minutes. Lake Oswego is a beautiful suburb of Portland with great neighborhoods.
Hillsboro
Hillsboro is a suburb of Portland just 30 minutes to the west. If you get on Highway 26 heading west until you pass the city grid, you'll start seeing some open space. That's how you know you’re coming up on Hillsboro. Just pass the Portland-Hillsboro Airport to go into town, or drive around the west side of town to find Hillsboro homes with more open space around them.
Beaverton
Beaverton, Oregon is a small community just 15 minutes west of Portland. Most Beaverton homes were built in the 50's and 60's, with an abundance of ranch style homes and cottage homes. Beaverton homes are reasonably priced and a great place to raise a family.
Tigard
Tigard is a community about 15 minutes southwest of Portland. It is a nice little bedroom community, with homes that date mostly to the 60's and 70's. There are a lot of ranch style homes in Tigard. One of its biggest assets is that it is so close to both the city and countryside of the Portland area.
West Linn
West Linn is great little suburb of Portland that sits just over 20 minutes due south of Portland. It is a quiet little area just across the river from Oregon City and minutes from Willamette Falls.
Click here to find an experienced Portland buyer's agent.
Lake Oswego
Lake Oswego is a small community just south of Portland. It's an easy commute for those who need to work downtown; only about 20 minutes. Lake Oswego is a beautiful suburb of Portland with great neighborhoods.
Hillsboro
Hillsboro is a suburb of Portland just 30 minutes to the west. If you get on Highway 26 heading west until you pass the city grid, you'll start seeing some open space. That's how you know you’re coming up on Hillsboro. Just pass the Portland-Hillsboro Airport to go into town, or drive around the west side of town to find Hillsboro homes with more open space around them.
Beaverton
Beaverton, Oregon is a small community just 15 minutes west of Portland. Most Beaverton homes were built in the 50's and 60's, with an abundance of ranch style homes and cottage homes. Beaverton homes are reasonably priced and a great place to raise a family.
Tigard
Tigard is a community about 15 minutes southwest of Portland. It is a nice little bedroom community, with homes that date mostly to the 60's and 70's. There are a lot of ranch style homes in Tigard. One of its biggest assets is that it is so close to both the city and countryside of the Portland area.
West Linn
West Linn is great little suburb of Portland that sits just over 20 minutes due south of Portland. It is a quiet little area just across the river from Oregon City and minutes from Willamette Falls.
Click here to find an experienced Portland buyer's agent.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Home inspectors are looking out for you
Just a word of advice - don't take the work of a good home inspector for granted. Too many buyers are so anxious to close a deal that they intentionally close their eyes to the property's problems. They fall into the trap of trying to save time and short term money, not considering the fact they their emotional decision may cost them dearly if they don't have someone take an objective look at the physical health of the property.We all know it's truth that a home purchase is an emotional decision. How could it not be? We're parting with a significant amount of money, investing it in a nice piece of Portland real estate we're going to call home (in most cases, at least). There's bound to be some emotional connection to the property.
Hiring a home inspector serves to bring a disinterested third party in to take a look at the structure and property to point out any defects that ought to be known prior to entering a deal. Can a good home inspection kill a deal? Yes, of course, but that's rare. More often than not, it simply brings to light a few items that need to be taken care of prior to the closing.
Fortunately, most loan underwriters require a home inspection to make the loan. But even in cases where the money lender does not require one (like in cases of private money or peer to peer lending), you should always insist on getting a home inspection. As a buyer, Portland real estate inspectors are looking out for your best interest, and they may bolster your case of the need for price negotiation.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Mobile Portland Homes Search
Check out this cool little fast-loading site to search for Portland homes. It's about as streamlined as you can get, and covers several popular neighborhoods. You browse listings in preselected search links for various prices ranges, then you can narrow your search down if you'd like.
With the exponential growth in mobile-phone web browsing, mobile real estate search websites are fast-becoming an important source of traffic for real estate agents looking to master the next phase of technological innovation (there's always something "next," isn't there?).
The site is designed by a company that specializes in real estate websites. Here's their site dedicated to mobile real estate sites.
With the exponential growth in mobile-phone web browsing, mobile real estate search websites are fast-becoming an important source of traffic for real estate agents looking to master the next phase of technological innovation (there's always something "next," isn't there?).
The site is designed by a company that specializes in real estate websites. Here's their site dedicated to mobile real estate sites.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Searching online for Portland homes
Unless you've been living under a rock since the 90s, you probably already know that you can search for Portland real estate online. But what you may not know is that all Portland home search websites are not at all created equal.
When you're searching for Portland real estate online, you want to make sure you're using a locally owned website belonging to a local real estate agent, not a big national site. Why? The results you get are usually going to be more current, and the service you will get is likely to be better.
Local is everything
The big national websites (to remain unnamed...you know who they are!), have two major flaws. They are not complete, and they are not always up to date with current listings. Why is this the case? Well, think about it like this. Every region in the country has what's called an MLS, right? That's where local REALTOR® boards band together to create a shared database of real estate listings.
But the problem is that there is no national MLS, and probably never will be (slap my hands for not being a visionary on this one). There is no national MLS because it each board of REALTORS®, acting in its enlightened self interest, will ever cede its power over its database of homes for sale to a national entity.
Without going into the politics of how each MLS tries to protect its most valuable asset (its database of listings), suffice to say that there is not a movement to release control of the local data on a national scale. This means you'll always be better off searching for Portland homes through the websites of agents located in...you guessed it...Portland.
But aren't there some big national real estate sites?
Yes, there are big national real estate sites with multimillion dollar marketing and search engine optimization budgets, which is why you know of them. But they continue to be plagued by stale listings (old listings that aren't removed in a timely manner), and incomplete data (listings where the listing agent hasn't opted into the service to show their properties).
These two problems make it a much better proposition for home buyers to find a local Portland real estate site to search for their next home, rather than going to the big name sites. Buyers are much less likely to waste their time on stale listings or miss listings that haven't been included in the national site by simply working on the website of a local Portland agent.
When you're searching for Portland real estate online, you want to make sure you're using a locally owned website belonging to a local real estate agent, not a big national site. Why? The results you get are usually going to be more current, and the service you will get is likely to be better.
Local is everything
The big national websites (to remain unnamed...you know who they are!), have two major flaws. They are not complete, and they are not always up to date with current listings. Why is this the case? Well, think about it like this. Every region in the country has what's called an MLS, right? That's where local REALTOR® boards band together to create a shared database of real estate listings.
But the problem is that there is no national MLS, and probably never will be (slap my hands for not being a visionary on this one). There is no national MLS because it each board of REALTORS®, acting in its enlightened self interest, will ever cede its power over its database of homes for sale to a national entity.
Without going into the politics of how each MLS tries to protect its most valuable asset (its database of listings), suffice to say that there is not a movement to release control of the local data on a national scale. This means you'll always be better off searching for Portland homes through the websites of agents located in...you guessed it...Portland.
But aren't there some big national real estate sites?
Yes, there are big national real estate sites with multimillion dollar marketing and search engine optimization budgets, which is why you know of them. But they continue to be plagued by stale listings (old listings that aren't removed in a timely manner), and incomplete data (listings where the listing agent hasn't opted into the service to show their properties).
These two problems make it a much better proposition for home buyers to find a local Portland real estate site to search for their next home, rather than going to the big name sites. Buyers are much less likely to waste their time on stale listings or miss listings that haven't been included in the national site by simply working on the website of a local Portland agent.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)