Living Beaverton - Your guide to everything Beaverton

Recently I have been flooded with calls from landlords wanting to buy more investment properties. Why? Because here in the Washington County, Oregon area we have been seeing rent increases of upwards of $200 a month as the apartments are telling people that they have no vacancy.

If you are an owner of a duplex or a triplex in the Washington County, Oregon area and would like to consider selling, please give me a call and I can help you get it sold quickly!

Todd Clark - broker
Kastings & Associates
Phone: (503)524-9494
Fax: (503)622-8739

You have heard of the phrase why not when life hands you a lemon, make lemonade, right? Well, my 3 year old will be a big four on Monday, but while on vacation, she wasn't going to let the fact that it was raining spoil her fun! She made her own fun and why can't we all?

You see life is always throwing things at us, a flat tire, a down market, bad neighbors, sick, whatever it may be. So, why not turn those in to a positive and do something fun, and live life like no one else is watching, as you can see from the picture, my daughter was.



Todd Clark - broker
Kastings & Associates
Phone: (503)524-9494
Fax: (503)622-8739

If you lived in the 80's, the two Coreys really couldn't be avoided. They seemed to be everywhere! But, since this is the Inspired by Movie Song contest, I thought I'd better step it up and bring out a Corey and Steven Spielberg for this contest!

Then to take it up from there, I decided to end my vacation by going to the houses where these next two films were made. I even added a 90's movie set for our younger viewers today.

What movie that you can't forget brought Corey Feldman and Steven Spielberg together in the 80's? Of course it was "The Goonies" and it was filmed right here in Oregon about 15 minutes away from where I was on vacation. Not only is the Goonies a great movie, it taught you about team work and to never give up on your goal! Besides, how can you go wrong with a video that has Captain Lou, Rowdy Roddy Piper and the Sheik from WWF in it? Before the video you will see the house that the Goonies met at before they went on their adventure. We took this picture on Friday afternoon on the way back from our vacation.

The second movie was "Short Circuit" from 1986. It was not a great film, but if you remember Johnny 5, the robot that was alive, and any film in the 1980's that had Steve Guttenberg had to be good right? Don't you remember "Police Academy"?

This picture was the house where Ally Sheedy lived in the film and where Johnny 5 decided to take up as a safe haven to watch and learn from Ally Sheedy's television and books. It is only about 5 miles from "The Goonies" house. The moral of this story is when you believe in something, even when no one else does, you can succeed!

The song was actually a pretty big hit, unlike "The Goonies" theme. But, I never saw the video until today, boy is it bad! But, the house in the picture above is in it briefly.

OK, since I was out taking pictures of movie spots and this one was only two blocks from "The Goonies" house, I decided to take a picture of it for those people who didn't get in to movies until the 90's, but like Arnold Schwarzenegger. I decided to take a picture of the school where Arnold played a teacher for a week to protect a child in the movie "Kindergarten Cop".

So, here is my entry for the Inspired by Movie Song and I really hope someone else steps up and actually heads to the movie location where their movies where filmed and include current pictures like I have.

Good Luck,

Todd Clark - broker
Kastings & Associates
Phone: (503)524-9494
Fax: (503)622-8739

Part 1 (6:50am)

Since I got up before the rest of the family, I saw that the sun is out yet again. So I seized the opportunity and have grabbed my fishing pole and headed to the lake again, hoping to catch some not so awake fish.

Part 2 (6:58am)

Looks like the fish are safe, at least from me. The lake was not open yet. Who has ever heard of a lake having hours? I didn't see the hours, but the gate was closed to the lake. So, I guess I get to blog until everyone else is up and I can start cooking breakfast for everyone.

Part 3 (8:30)

Some boy who claims to be my son, says, "I don't like eggs or bacon" - HUH? Well, while everyone else is enjoying my breakfast, he is having a peanut butter sandwich.

Part 4 (9:30)

It looks like we need to start actually packing for the trip home. That really sucks, but we need to at least get back to go shopping for my daughter's 4^th birthday on Monday.

Hey, what happened to the kids? Oh, we have new neighbors with kids their age and they went and made friends so they don't have to help pack.

Part 5 (11:00am)

Now we're making the final preparations for the trip home! Then we are going to eat lunch and head to Astoria to get some pictures for the new contest inspired by song "Movies". I'm not telling you what we did or how it is going to work, but I'm taking it up a notch for this one!

Part 6 (12:15)

We have departed the yurt and are on our way home...Back to regular blogging starting later today and hope you don't get sick of me before my next vacation...I do tend to blog way too much according to my wife.

As promised here are the pictures of a yurt inside and out!

Todd Clark - broker
Kastings & Associates
Phone: (503)524-9494
Fax: (503)622-8739

Today is Friday, April 25, 2008 and it is time for another breakdown of homes sales in the Washington
County, Oregon market. This week was a little slow for sales, but we still had some movement in the market. I am now adding stats for expired listings to the weekly pages for each neighborhood because of the increase of over priced homes that are not selling. 

                                        

While this is not news, but if you price your home correctly, you still can have a quick sale.

Here is a breakdown of homes sales for the week by neighborhood. Just click on the link to your neighborhood for the complete breakdown of what the average of homes that are on the market, how long they have been on the market, how many have sold, what their average price was, and how long they were on the market.

As always, if you are looking to buy or sell in the Washington County, Oregon area, I would love to show you how you can save the most money by being on your side during the negotiations.

Neighborhood # of Active Listings

Todd Clark - broker
Kastings & Associates
Phone: (503)524-9494
Fax: (503)622-8739

Part 1 (7:30am)

Mother Nature has decided to wake me up early again with sun coming through the sun roof, but I'm not going to let it get the best of me today. I got up and started breakfast and got the kids eating immediately!

Part 2 (8:30am)

The sun is still out, we are heading to the beach to have fun and since it is only a minute and a half away, we should beat any rain that should try to sneak in on us.

Part 3 (10:00am)

It's still sunny, so we are going to have some fun today! We are now heading to Netul Landing. (The place where Lewis & Clark landed when they arrived here at Fort Clatsop, the Netul river is now known as the Lewis and Clark River)

Part 4 (11:00am)

We decided to head back to Fort Clatsop today, because the kids had completed Part of 3 of their Junior Ranger badges and needed the stamp from Fort Clatsop and their badge from there as well. They taught my daughter how to start a fire with Flint and Steel. (We could be in trouble now.)

Part 5 (11:30am)

Lunch - the old fall back of BBQ Hotdogs!

Part 6 (12:15pm)

I haven't told the kids, but we are heading up to Washington to hit all the spots where Lewis and Clark were before they crossed the Columbia and built Fort Clatsop. The first stop was Dismal Nitch. This was the spot where Lewis and Clark's journey had to stop for 6 days because of a winter storm and they couldn't budge. They thought they were going to die less than 12 miles from the Pacific Ocean and their true destination.

The next stop was Cape Disappointment, learned a lot there and ended up seeing some more eagles, that was pretty cool.

Part 7 (6:00)

I'm letting my nine year old be the fire starter and dinner cooker tonight, let us see how she does with BBQ burgers. I ended up taking over on the burger cooking!

Part 8 (7:30)

We played games the rest of the night and cooked a few smores and really look forward to having some fun on our last day, doing whatever the day may bring.

Wait, there is more... 10pm we got a knock (OK, scratch) on the door and this is who we had as visitors to our yurt stopping by to say hello.

                                           
                                         Looking out our yurt window at 10pm, but who do we see

                                          
                                        There is three of us, our buddy knocked, if we beg, will that help?

                                          
                                         How about if we look sad and give you puppy dog eyes?

Todd Clark - broker
Kastings & Associates
Phone: (503)524-9494
Fax: (503)622-8739

Part 1 (7:00am)

I'm a blogaholic! If you have read the previous posts about this vacation, you know we have seen snow and rain on the Oregon coast. Well, we are staying in a yurt with a skylight so we can look up at the sky and see the weather. This morning we got up early thanks to a surprise guest, the wonderful sun!

The kids' weren't up yet, so I decided to take the laptop to the beach and get my blog addiction out of the way, do some comments, and post about day two of our vacation.

Upon getting done at about 8:00, I decided that since the sky was blue, I should go back make pancakes for everyone and we should get our day started.

Part 2 (8:15am)

The day was looking good...But as I was cooking breakfast for everyone, Mother Nature decided to take my blue sky and cover it up. The wind started to pick up as I made pancakes for everyone this morning and by the time breakfast was done, and everyone had eaten, the downpours were back and it looks like we are going to have to find indoor activities again.

Part 3 (9:00am)

For the next three hours we played Skipbo while it rained outside. Then we cooked hotdogs on the camp stove. I know fire is better, but I wasn't up for trying again to start a fire in the heavy rain.

Part 4 (1:30pm)

We weren't going to let Mother Nature win! We decided to go to the beach anyway and play for a little bit in the rain and then go shopping.

Part 5 (3:00)

On the way back from the store we saw a sign for Fort Clatsop and the Lewis & Clark National Historical Park and decided after getting our groceries on ice that we should head there. It was pretty darn cool finding out things that we didn't know about Lewis & Clark. Like the fact that they came with a very large dog and a slave that was part of Clark's family since he was a child. They were actually more friends than slave / owner as Clark let him help make decisions and then remain and be free upon leaving.

Part 6 (5:30)

Dinner time, going to cook up some Chicken no matter what the weather says!

Part 7 (7:00pm)

Dinner was awesome, some of the best chicken I've made ever! We headed back in to the yurt to team up with my 3 year old Tascha to kick butt at Candyland! Maybe tomorrow we will have some sun...I'm ready!

Todd Clark - broker
Kastings & Associates
Phone: (503)524-9494
Fax: (503)622-8739

Part 1 (8am)

Well day one was a real bust as it snowed on the Oregon coast. What is up with that? We did have lots of fun watching the storms on the ocean from the car and the yurt. We also had to buy a space heater to keep the yurt around 65 degrees. That made sleeping last night a lot better than Sunday night where the yurt was at about 45 degrees!

So day two is being attacked with a whole different mindset. Since it is no longer snowing but is raining very heavily, I'm going to go the lake with the fishing pole and see if I can catch me some stupid fish. OK, maybe not stupid...But, ones that think no stupid human would be out on a day like this, that worm can't have a hook in it.

So it is either me or the fish today, the fish may stay wet or I may get wet myself. Can fish smile?

Part 2 (11:00am)

Well, the fish stayed wet and we got a break in the rain and I stayed dry. But, I felt pretty good for the hour we were out there we weren't the only ones not catching anything.

This Bald Eagle that you see in the picture, was watching us as much as we were watching him and neither of us caught a thing for that hour. He took a couple swoops, but nothing! Guess it wasn't the day to be out fishing at the Oregon coast.

Part 3 (12:30)

We headed to the Fort Stevens War Museum to check it out and hope the rain would stop, so we could check out the rest of the fort, but no such luck! Here are some cool pictures from the museum. You just don't realize how big some of the bullets were until you stand a three year old next to one.

Part 4 (2:30)

We decided to take a break from the rain and come in and used my computer as a DVD player and we watched season one of the Muppet Show. I forgot how good that was, and the kids sure loved it!

Part 5 (4:00)

I decided to head to the ocean just to watch the storm waves in the rain and boy am I glad we did. In the picture below, you can't see it, but I promise there are two whales there just past the last wave. Talk about a good time to be at the Oregon coast, I didn't expect to see those two during our day.

Part 6 (5:30)

As a true Oregonian, I have managed to light a fire in the rain and I still plan to cook burgers in the rain. What a better way to keep your burgers moist than with a little Oregon rain water.

I think we will finish the night out playing board games as the rain hasn't let up since noon. So until tomorrow, I guess we will see what a new day brings us. I'm really hoping for a little dry weather, so we can actually walk on the beach for more than 5 minutes without running back to the car.

Todd Clark - broker
Kastings & Associates
Phone: (503)524-9494
Fax: (503)622-8739

I thought about my target market recently, and I really have two, the first being family and the second is first time home buyers. Both of these groups involve more work, but the work to me is more satisfying.

I truly believe each and every one of my clients is special and if I can't help them, then I'm doing a disservice to them and my family. If you are a seller, and you think your home is special and would be great for a family or a first time home buyer, please give me a call. I would love to see if I can create a match made in heaven with one of my hundreds of buyers that call every month.

Todd Clark - broker
Kastings & Associates
Phone: (503)524-9494
Fax: (503)622-8739

My family and I decided to take a small vacation to the Oregon coast to go camping. When we planned this in February, we thought for sure it would be a lot warmer and dryer than it is on day one.

The latest snow fall ever recorded on the Oregon coast was in mid April 1956 and guess what it is doing here, right now, as we are camping!

Yep, snowing! Here is a picture, the Oregon coast is still beautiful, but I was hoping for about 20 degrees warmer!

Todd Clark - broker
Kastings & Associates
Phone: (503)524-9494
Fax: (503)622-8739