Living Beaverton - Your guide to everything Beaverton

Sometimes you just have to love the personality of people and how they express that personality. I have to say, when I met these people while door knocking, I had to find out the story behind this little pink house and who was behind it.

After we met the owners who happened to be home, we found out they built the garage from the ground up and still have the model that the designer originally built to show what it was going to look like. It was really awesome!

Homes like this are all around Portland. They all give Portland personality, but this one just stood out for me. This home is one of those homes that make you realize why we have bumper stickers around town that say "Keep Portland Weird".

From the pink flamingos, to the hand chair and tub in the front yard, this yard just makes this neighborhood what it is. Talking to the neighbors, they too love what they have done with the house, because it was just the plain Jane house of the neighborhood when they moved there in 2001.

But, as you can see from the pictures this home has some personality and so do the people who own it!

Thanks Sandy and Tim for making Portland such great place to live!

This second portion is written by Seraina Aguayo my walking partner and mentee! Thanks Seraina!

Minutes from the N St. Johns shops and restaurants; In the midst of manicured lawns, old growth trees, quaint little bungalows and cottages resides a vibrant Flamingo Pink bungalow that screams expressions of creativity and individuality.   Todd and I were pleasantly greeted by owners Tim & Sandy outside of their artsy abode.  Todd and I couldn't help but admire the extravagant foliage that surrounds the outside front and left side of the pink home.  To the side of the garage rests a perfectly designed pink with red and white trim office/shop with metallic red garage door.  "I grew up in San Francisco, CA and wanted the home to show that flair.  Hence the pink flamingos in the yard and yes "Pink Flamingo" paint."

Sandy , who used to have an act as "Betty Boop" in California, and Tim who is a talented mechanic reveal much of their personality in the décor that adorns the shop and home.  Betty Boop memorabilia and chrome mechanic artifacts are made decorative art pieces within and without the shop and home.

It is always a joy and wonder to see and investigate the history and motivation for these unique properties that help to make Portland known for its' irresistible character and charm. 

My Kudos this week go to Tim and Sandy of N Portland!

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

 

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

Today is Friday, June 27, 2008 and it is time for another breakdown of homes sales in the Washington
County, Oregon market. This week I'm starting to see a pick up of listings and also showings. Summer has arrived and the good news is we are starting to see more and more families looking for homes in the 3 to 4 bedroom and between the prices of $250,000 and $350,000. I think by summers end we will have seen some good sales, but I don’t think any where near the rate we saw last summer. Prices are still staying relatively steady in Washington County, but sales over all are down since last year. I look forward to reporting this summers sales at the end of August and hopefully I will have some good news.

So, if you have a family home that you are thinking about selling, this is a great time to get it on the market!

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

Recently I got a call from someone that I had met a couple weeks back at an open house, the house I had wasn't the one for them, but they were out looking and said they would contact me if they found something. I didn't want to push it as it was an open house, but they did take my card and asked me a lot of questions about lease options.

Now, fast forward to yesterday when they decided to call back and say that they were sorry they didn't use me, but wondered if I would help them. HUH? Well, you see they had found a property that was a lease option and they were using another agent that was a little more aggressive at an open house. But, the problem is, this agent apparently had never done a lease option and every question they asked, he would say, "I don't know."

Now, they are calling me asking me for advice and I had to tell them, that I'm not their agent and these are question they need to ask their agent. He kept saying, "But, my agent doesn't understand lease options!"

I understand this. You hired that agent to find you a home, but if you hire a plumber to do an electricians job, don't call the electrician when your plumber is in trouble. They are not going to fix the problem over the phone and certainly aren't going to be offering their services to you for free.

So, if you have special needs, such as lease option or owner financing, I suggest you call an agent that specializes in lease options or owner financing or it could cost you a lot in time, money, and possibly even time in court if the paperwork isn't done properly. If you are in the market for a home that is either a lease option or owner financing, then please give me a call and I would love to help you get in to that home. But, if you're calling to have me help your agent that decided to break the rules and try something that he didn't understand, or has no knowledge of then, I'm sorry, I can't help you, I have my own clients to take care of.

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

Photo courtesy of xlucas

Yesterday, I had to sit down with a client that I've been working with for the past four months to help her and her family buy their first home, and give her some bad news. In the beginning, I sat them down, did all the speeches and gave them the stories of past clients, but once again, they seemed to have missed the stories and now I have to sit and watch the tears roll down her face.

You see, this is the part of my job that I hate, telling a person that they have to unpack all their boxes that they had loaded in the truck for their pending move. This is when the tears start to roll down the face of the mother that has to tell her kids that the room they had just packed up, because they were told they were finally going to get their own room, has to unpack those boxes and stay put.

The kids got upset because they had slumber parties planned at the new home with their friends and now they have to call and say, "We aren't moving after all" and the party has been canceled. You have to explain to them that the $5,000 they put down as earnest money is now also gone because of the breach of contract.

You see one of the things I stress to people in our initial meeting with me and their mortgage broker, is that once you are pre-approved, I don't want you doing anything that has to do with money that you haven't asked us about first, especially if filling out a credit application is involved.

Well, yesterday I had to break it to a client that her house isn't going to close as she had planned and that was because when the credit company pulled her credit again they found that she bought a car last week on credit.  This has now caused her debt to income ratio to go way too high and her credit score to dropped to the point that now she couldn't get a loan on the house.

You see, I don't like to see anyone cry, and to be honest it brought a tear to my eye to have to sit on the couch with her and tell her that her family now was going to have to continuing renting this place that they hated... if the landlord hasn't already rented it to someone else. If he has, they are still going to have to move and that will lower their credit score even more to fill out applications for places to move in to.

So, please don't make me have to tell you news that is going to make you cry. Listen to your real estate professionals that you have hired to help you in your home purchase. We really are telling you what is best for you and that you shouldn't buy anything large, and nothing on credit, until your home has funded and recorded with the county and you have moved in.

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

Complaints from the public happen when you are in business and I've been lucky in my real estate career to not have one, until today. Now, this complaint really isn't against me, but more against the seller for not disclosing something in the contracts, and the buyer wants to blame the seller and I for not disclosing what he considers very material, and says he wouldn't have bought the house had he known.

You see this buyer wasn't mine, I didn't know anything about the buyer besides he liked the home and the area. But, what I didn't know, that might have brought up this material fact, was that he ran a business out of his home. But, the buyer's agent never told me or the seller this. He just said he was moving from central Oregon to be closer to most of his clients.

Now, the title of this of this post had I actually said it, would have just sent this buyer off the deep end, because his complaint is there is no mail service in this town. You have to have a PO Box and drive to the post office to get your mail. I didn't personally think there were places like this anymore, but apparently this little town doesn't have mail trucks and mailboxes.

Not having a mailbox in front of a house is very common for this area, usually you just have a common box at the end of a street where you pick up and send your mail from, so the mailman can just stop at one place and drop off and pick up everything. But, this town went one step further and has only one common place, the local post office.

This has made the buyer very upset and this isn't something that is on the disclosure forms. If he didn't tell us that this was important to him, how were we supposed to know? Now, I'm guessing, like me, he assumed that it was just a common mailbox at the end of the street somewhere. Lucky for me, one of my other clients has a mail forwarding service, that they will pick up and deliver your mail from the post office twice a day for a very reasonable rate and then take any mail you have back to their business and ship it out for you at no charge. The other agent and I picked up the cost of this for one year and this has made his client very happy, but it may not have been that simple.

So, please if something is important to you, please ask. I will always answer truthfully, even if it loses me the sale, but if I don't know what is important to you, then there is no way I can tell you everything about a property.

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

Photo #1 courtesy of evelynhoff
Photo #2 courtesy of sibaudio

I've come to the conclusion that I may have to answer this for some of my clients, but others don't see the problem. Many sellers would jump at the chance to sell their home to a buyer if they brought an offer in for only $400 less than asking price. Some would even willing to go as far as $5,000 to $10,000 below asking price to sell their home.

So, why is it when you ask them to spend $299.00 to sell their home quicker they say no? How is this possible? Am I not explaining myself clearly? Do you want your home to sell or do you want to have it sit on the market for another six months until it cools off outside?

What am I getting at? Well, when it is 75 degrees outside and your house sits at 92 degrees inside, then it is very hard to convince people that if the temperature reaches 90 degrees outside that it will get cooler inside your house. Now, some homes just can't take an air conditioner well, even a window unit. But now Costco and other stores sell a unit that just plugs in to the wall and has a pipe that fits out the window for $299.00 and can keep your house cool during those summer showings.

People looking during the summer are not looking to buy a home that is hot, even on the coolest days. They want a home that is move in ready and is comfortable to them in style and livability, and being cool can be considered livability. So, if your home is sitting at 92 degrees today, while it is cooler outside, may I suggest you spend the $400 to get your home sold quicker, or you can wait until fall and watch the price of your home drop as well.

For more information on selling your home quickly and for top dollar, please give me a call. I would love to give you some ideas on how to market your home to help you get everything it is worth. 

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

Recently I took a listing along a street in a very nice neighborhood, but something has been happening to my signs, they come up missing everyday! Now, I would say it was a neighbor trying to sell their house, but the three other agents signs don't seem to disappear. (Two belong to one agent and one belongs to another lady in her office.)

I've had my signs cut up, thrown in the blackberries and just plain disappear and on a daily basis. Now, where these signs disappear from there is a dip in the road, so no one could see you take them, but the one on the major roads seem to stay in place....HMMMM, weird huh!

Well, to the person who is taking them, I now have paid a teenager a nice wage of $1,000 if he catches, on film, the car and the person who is taken them and I will press charges. I will also go after your license if you are another agent and are taking my signs to keep me from selling my client's house.

I would like to think times have not gotten so desperate for agents, but when my signs are the only ones being taken and only one other company has signs up in the area that never seem to come down, what am I supposed to think? I'll find out soon enough and I promise I will give these pictures to the local news at the same time I give them to the police, so the neighborhood can find out who they live next to, or if it is an agent who they hired!

So, to whoever is stealing my signs, smile for the camera!

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

Today is Friday, June 20, 2008 and it is time for another breakdown of homes sales in the Washington
County, Oregon market. This week I'm starting to see a pick up of listings and also showings. Summer has arrived and the good news is we are starting to see more and more families looking for homes in the 3 to 4 bedroom and between the prices of $250,000 and $350,000. I think by summers end we will have seen some good sales, but I don’t think any where near the rate we saw last summer. Prices are still staying relatively steady in Washington County, but sales over all are down since last year. I look forward to reporting this summers sales at the end of August and hopefully I will have some good news.

So, if you have a family home that you are thinking about selling, this is a great time to get it on the market!

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

This is a warning to anyone hiring someone to do work on their house. I had a client of mine hire a "NON-LICENCED" contractor to do some work on their home about six months ago.

What happened is this "contractor" required $500 down before they started the work and the remaining was due within one week of starting the project. Well, it has now been six months and I bet you already know what happened the day they got their money. They didn't come back and finish the work and now my clients have a half done bathroom and kitchen.

Six months later and they are out $15,000 and have no work done to show for it, besides a gutted mess that they could have done themselves.

So, if you are looking to have work done on your home, DO NOT pay for the services until the work is done. You can pay for materials, but make them produce receipts and only do it as a reimbursement and not as an upfront cost to you.

Hope this is a warning to anyone looking to have work done on their property. Only hire licensed contractors when you want work done on your home or investment property. If you are in the Beaverton, Oregon area and are looking to a general contractor, feel free to contact me and I can give you a list to interview for the position.

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

photo courtesy of ba1969