With 8 inches of snow in our recent past, it's hard to believe spring is right around the corner, but for those looking to buy or sell in Portland, believe us, the preparation starts now!

Buyers, your first step is to meet with our Buyer’s Team for an orientation to discuss current market conditions and strategy, our step by step process to purchasing your new home, and any burgeoning questions on your mind. The goal is to build an expert team around you, including the selection of a lender, home inspector, attorney if need be, escrow and title officers, contractors, industry vendors, and of course us, your real estate team. You are at the helm, and it’s our job to provide you with all of the resources and contacts to be successful along the way!

Step two is the fun part! We jump into the home search by setting up a customized listings search to keep you updated on available properties, and schedule the first property tours. Over 41,000 new listings hit the market in the Portland Area in 2016, and currently over 1,800 active listings await your perusing within 10 miles of downtown. The highest number of active listings will be found in June and July, but the Spring is full of new listings and increasing activity. We provide guidance to help you determine neighborhood and schools you prefer, give general house hunting insights, explain distressed properties pros and cons, assess un permitted work, and provide expert negotiation strategy.

Then, before you know it, there it is: “The One.” An amazing property hits the market and we’re there within hours to beat the competition. Investigation and negotiations commence, and despite all of the horror stories you’ve heard from failing homebuyer friends, your offer is accepted. How could that be? You've prepared; you know the market, you’ve toured all of the existing inventory, your expectations are reasonable, and you've completed all of the research necessary. We make it easy on the seller to choose you, by making you the strongest buyer through early preparation.

Unbelievably, this only gets you about half way to the keys of your new home, but with this solid foundation you’re well on the way to an excellent home buying experience!

Now sellers, here's your turn, but once again it's all about the preparation. Unlike buyers who may choose to wade into the market slowly, when a seller’s home hits the market, it’s the first impressions that are the most powerful. We help our sellers nail it, and almost always sell first week at or above the list price!

Seller's first step is to have Carrie and Kenny over to discuss the process. After previewing your property, aligning expectations with the market, coming up with a timeline, and going over stage one of our seller’s guide, we will complete a Comparative Market Analysis for your home. Good news, the Portland area average sales price rose 11.4% last year from $354,500 to $395,000 so you may be pleasantly surprised at your value!

With the price opinion in mind, we will guide you through the next steps of necessary repairs, savvy upgrades, and staging tricks. Equipping you with our guide on cost effective staging will help in determining whether or not to bring in a professional staging company. Most houses need tune-ups before going on the market, but which repairs will deliver the most value? This is our knowledge base, and we have you covered. Sellers should touchup paint, expose hardwood floors beneath carpet, but interestingly sellers shouldn’t necessarily replace the roof or repair the sewer line. We'll spend a good deal of time discussing negotiation strategy in relationship to which repairs will help your unique property sell at the highest final sales price.

The timeline is in place and the property is de-cluttered, de-personalized, and ready for the next steps. Now we bring in our professional house cleaners, staging company, and photographer. Have a unique property that would benefit from virtual tours or aerial shots? We have you covered!

Most of our listings go live on Thursday’s to be swept into prospective buyer’s email inboxes on Friday and home tours scheduled for the weekend. Sunday afternoons are perfect for open houses, and by Monday buyers are writing offers with their realtors. Holding off until Tuesday evening to review offers allows buyers to process their big decision (hopefully avoiding buyer’s remorse should you accept their offer) and gives them time to complete research on your property and neighborhood, square away an incomplete pre-approval, and sometimes see the property for a second time. At the same time, five days on the market is a short enough window where buyers are positioned against one another in a competitive situation.

The Thursday to Tuesday timeline has proven itself extremely effective in Portland's current market! The median time on market for our listings is 6 days while Portland as a whole lingers around 42 days.

Reviewing offers goes well beyond choosing the highest price, and we will break down the contract for an easy understanding as well as make recommendations as to which offer is the best overall. We are experienced negotiators and will command the best terms possible for your property.

For those of you Buying and Selling at the same time, you’ve come to the right place. Coordinating a buy/sell comes with it’s own set of challenges, but we’re experts in navigating the course and avoiding pitfalls through careful preparation. We’ve created an easy to understand system for determining your options and choosing the best course of timeline action. Welcome to home buying & selling with Home Team!

Kenny Yoder
Principal Broker | Owner
Home Team Realty
Licensed in Oregon & Washington

Spring Is Near