Have you been watching any of the Stafford luxury real estate for sale lately?  Home prices are plateauing in numerous areas around Portland but this area of West Linn continues to offer homes at prices not seen in over a decade.  While our housing industry continues to firm up, higher priced luxury homes like those offered in the Stafford area remain favorable to buyers.  Estates in this location tend to have a 5 acre minimum giving imagination a fighting chance on how to use the land.  Many owners simply prefer the privacy of rolling hilltops and limited neighbors within sight.  Others use estates for beautiful gardens, vineyards or an equestrian setup.  Houses themselves will be very well kept and finishes are constantly of the latest designs and rival appointments found in other locations of luxury Portland real estate.

Take a look at one of the latest listings on Big Fir Road, mls 12367581

“Stunning remodel and updates blending into an open floor plan of contemporary elegance. Gourmet kitchen with stainless appliances, granite and heated tile floor, formal dining and family rooms, easily a 5 bedroom home (no closet). Spacious master suite with balcony overlooks 2 professionally designed water features. One of the most affordable homes in Stafford!”

One of the most common questions out there for bargain hunters and Portland home buyers is; “How do I get a hold of Portland foreclosure lists?”  Great question and reality is that most of these properties are already listed on RMLS (Regional Multiple Listing Service).  Yes, there are lists of Portland bank owned properties available without a doubt and numerous companies sell these.  But, how many of these are really top secret, dumped at bargain basement price on the courthouse steps, or not openly publicized on an MLS?  Few, if any these days.

• Find bank owned not short sales
• Get foreclosure updates immediately
• Figure offer financing strategy beforehand
• Up your chances of getting an accepted offer
• What kind of deal can I get?

Find bank owned listings - Realtors now have a specific field in which to indicate whether a property is bank owned.  Unfortunately, I believe that this data does not transfer to sites outside of RMLS, which means that buyers of foreclosures will need to have a Realtor set up an automated search to get notifications of new listings.  It’s really quite painless, even though you have to talk with an agent.

Short sales and foreclosures are not the same.  If home buyers want to be assured of closing the deal, don’t go for short sale listings.  Short sales mean that offers are subject to a 3rd party approval and sellers really aren’t in control.  RMLS has a required data field specifying whether such approval is needed for each house but again, you’ll have to have a Portland Oregon Realtor filter your search because this parameter is typically not available on public sites.  Dang!

Financing requirements -Comments on listed properties are available in two locations; public comment and private comment sections.  Portland’s MLS breaks the fields up into separate regions so that listing agents can write notes to other Realtors without displaying on public sites.  Notes may include mention of financing requirements, earnest money and instructions on offer writing.  It’s quite common that foreclosure/bank owned homes for sale will not qualify for FHA or VA type financing and selling bank will not even entertain offers of such.  Most often the reason is that the subject home is in such poor condition that not meet lending guidelines.

Up chances for offer acceptance - Cash speaks volumes to banks.  Eliminate contingencies like loan qualification, appraisal and underwriting.  Do a quick close, two weeks or less is quite doable for cash transactions.  Even when using a mortgage broker 3 weeks is often possible but be aware that selling banks usually have a per diem charge for not closing on time.  If a buyer’s financing is delayed it can become costly very quickly (often $100 per day closing is delayed).

How low can you go? - Offering 50 cents on the dollar against listed price is not going to fly.  Typically bank owned properties in Portland have been very aggressively priced.  That’s not to say that there’s no room for movement but it’s unlikely that you’re going to get more than 5% off list for homes that’ve been active in the marketplace for less than a week.  Multiple offer situations are more common on foreclosures than regular resale due to aggressive pricing.  The key is to be first in line with your offer and make it strong by comparison to listed price.

For example:  A Beaverton Oregon home for sale lists at $250k and is a extremely good deal by comparison to surrounding properties.  Buyer should consider immediately offering something like $255k (net to the seller).  Do this the same day house hits the market!  Sitting on the fence in these situations will guarantee competition from other buyers and limit chances of success.  Paying a couple bucks more than list price is negligible in the big scheme of things.

For more information on Portland Real Estate visit www.maxwellsinclair.com .

Today many search options are available online.  One of the easiest ways to start a home search is to use Google or another search engine.  Key phrases like Portland Houses for Sale will give a million results.  Most of which are Realtor sites or sites that link to major companies like John L Scott, Re/Max, or Prudential.

Here’s a bit of education that the average shopper may not be aware of.  Portland’s Realtors input listings of homes for sale into RMLS (Regional Multiple Listing Service).  Regardless of which company or agent lists the home information will be input into the same database, RMLS.  All sites showing on the results page from search engines get their data exported from RMLS.  You’re seeing second hand information.

What’s wrong with second hand information?  Nothing for the most part except that it’s not always complete.  Depending upon which website you’re searching results can differ slightly and in the end a house or two could be missed.  I’ve witnessed this numerous times over the years.  While some searches are very accurate some are out to lunch.

One of the best ways to make certain buyers end up with a complete list of houses available is to hook up with a Portland real estate agent.  Agents pay for access to the RMLS database and set up search parameters based upon input from their buyers.  Search results can be sent automatically as new properties hit the For Sale market.  Benefit is that you’re getting information directly from the horse’s mouth rather than second hand.

Additional searching on the buyer’s end is incredibly common, kind of human nature.  Outside of Craigslist or a For Sale by Owner site it’s all redundant searching.  Even these two websites generally have their listings already on RMLS.

Many buyers will insist on continued searching on their own, however, convinced that their agent could not possibly be sending all the listings.  When agents get specific information the search is set up based upon buyer-set parameters.  As long as given information is accurate, so are the search results.  But, garbage in, garbage out.  Problems occur when requests for house parameters are too specific.

The best thing you can do?  Give your agent a broad spectrum.  Instead of saying 1990 and newer homes only say 1985+.  Instead of saying 1800 sq ft 3 bedroom 2.5 bath, say 1700+ sq ft and leave it at that.  Much better to weed through a larger list of candidates and find that there’s a house with 2 bedrooms and a den that will potentially work than miss out.

Map searches of properties for sale are the worst.  A good number of listings can potentially not show up due to a couple of reasons; data export parameters from RMLS and inaccurate location information input by the listing agent.  Recently agents are required to verify gps mapping location on any new listing.  Some agents plain just don’t bother to make sure map location is correct.  This explains why clicking on mapping links occasionally puts a selected house in a completely different city.

Map searches are fantastic for getting an overall feeling of what sort of house prices are available in a specific area and getting ball park ideas.  Freely browse sites and search online for Portland homes for sale until you’re serious.  Then contact your agent to get the latest up to date selection near your target area.  You’ll be assured of seeing all listings!

Happy searching