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re:PDX is presented by Claire Widmark, broker affiliated with M Realty LLC in Portland, Oregon.
Phone: 971-275-3691
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Comcast Redefines Home Shopping Network
Million-ton media gorilla Comcast has rolled out an interactive real estate shopping channel on its On-Demand network in Portland (one of only a handful of markets nationwide), where you can plop down in your Barcalounger to channel surf up to 3,000 property listings each week.
If you have Comcast On-Demand service, check out channel 888, and look for the Real Estate section. Homes for sale in the Portland metro area are sorted by area and price range. Make a selection and sit back while a 15-second spot for each listing appears. Every listing gets 3 digital photos treated with the Ken Burns effect, plus a text-to-speech narration of the agent’s comments to complete the video advertisement. Each segment lasts 7 minutes for a total of 20 – 28 listings per segment.
A local company, HouseInDemand.com is the exclusive Portland-area agent for selling these ads. I daresay they are going to be raking it in as agents look for new cost-effective, digital means to market their listings. I haven’t used it yet but HouseInDemand’s listing templates has made the process verrrry easy from what I can tell, so even technophobe agents should be able to create their ads effectively.
HouseInDemand claims over 25,000 viewers during just its second week of operation. (The On-Demand client base in the Portland area is approximately 400,000 viewers.) I suspect some of this traffic is due to the ‘looky-lou’ factor and their advertising blitz. For the next week, I would expect to see a fair bit of the Buena Vista inventory getting some pre-auction promotion.
For agents, it’s a relatively affordable advertising outlet—just $115 per week for ‘TV advertising’, arguably a better deal than pouring well over $100 into a one-shot, 4-line Open House ad in the Sunday Oregonian. But it won’t reach non-cable broadcast viewers, alternate cable provider or Dish/Direct subscribers.
So, I’m a DISH subscriber and haven’t used the Comcast On-Demand service. Has anyone out there seen Channel 888, and do you think homebuyers will use it to shop for a new house?
Is it Comcastic or merely bombastic?
[tags] Portland, Oregon, homes, houses, marketing, advertising, Comcast, cable, on demand, real estate [/tags]
Week Links – November 30, 2007
A sampling of Portland-related real estate links from the last week or so. Forecasters and prognosticators are making the rounds. I’ll share additional notes next week.
Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Portland forecast
Analysts Jerry Johnson, John Mitchell & David Ludwig address the Home Builders Association of Metro Portland. Net message: A slow 2008, perhaps slower than 2007, but a strong rebound in 2009.
Ryan Frank of the Oregonian covers the HBA Forecast. KGW’s coverage of the same event
Portland prices defy national trends
The front-page article in the Oregonian this week that buoyed some spirits.
Jeffrey Kempe, local real estate broker, drags us into his Conversation Pit with timely thoughts about green building, the upcoming Buena Vista auction, and a significant change to Oregon state law as it pertains to sales by out-of-state homeowners.
Yet another New York Times article
The NYT continues its love-fest reporting on the Northwest, this time on the coastal town of Manzanita.
(I should mention the previous NYT article which documented the in-migration phenomenon surrounding Portland quoted my recent clients Richard & Lila. Cheers and hope you are enjoying the new digs!).
[tags] Portland, Oregon, real estate, news, stories, reporting, links [/tags]
Guest Post – Organic Home Staging
To stage is all the rage.
Slower home sales are challenging agents to become more creative in preparing their clients’ homes for high-impact first impressions.
Today’s post comes from Ruth Chancellor, a home stager located here in Portland. She suggests that a trip to the local craft store for a few decorating knick-knacks is not the way to go.
Organic Home Staging
- Really? Really.
Recently, home staging has garnered a lot of attention and is being credited for selling homes faster and at top dollar. In short, home staging is the art of using marketing and decorating techniques to showcase homes both vacant and occupied.
But in a city known for scenic beauty and environmentally conscious citizens, fake ivy and silk flowers won’t help sell a house.
Effective home staging builds connection points, creating a vision of home that buyers want. While a silk plant might make the dining room appear a little less bare it won’t evoke that emotional connection that attracts attention. As perspective buyers tour a house, they imagine the lifestyle they would live in that home.
Organic materials bring a sense of well-being, both consciously and subconsciously. Potted herbs, bamboo, and fresh flowers add a feeling of luxury that buyers aspire to. With a trip to the farmers market, a few props and some creativity, any kitchen can feel gourmet. An average bathroom can have a serene spa-like feeling with artfully arranged sea shells, polished polish rocks and coral.
And while occupied homes can easily be staged with live plants or fresh flowers, organic materials can easily be incorporated in the staging of a vacant home. An empty home feels anything but homey. A few furnishings and some nature-inspired accessories add warmth to an otherwise cold environment.
In the current market, the decision facing Realtors and home sellers is not “if” but “how” the home should be staged.
Contact Ruth at:
Ruth Chancellor
Chancellor Designs
(503) 807-8167
Footnote: Staging Under Fire
On a related note, a Realtor organization that exclusively advises home buyers suggests that home staging is ‘distracting’, uses ‘trickery, and misleads buyers to overpay for homes that are nicely presented.
I don’t think I’ve read anything more absurd in a long time. Heaven forbid you present your home as a nice place to live!
For further details, read the Realty Times commentary on the NAEBA ‘advisory’. Craig Schiller, interior designer and staging expert, also weighs in on the subject.
[tags] real estate, staging, organic, marketing, selling, homes, houses, NAEBA, Realty Times [/tags]
Which way is the wind blowing? Setting prices for quick sales
While the Portland real estate market may not be suffering some of the inventory and price-erosion problems as in other parts of the country, there are still some homeowners that need to sell quickly.
Home condition, curb appeal, and strong marketing are certainly keys to selling, but proper pricing is the primary motivating factor to entice buyers to act quickly. Pricing decisions purely based on backward-looking information (i.e. a review of comparable properties sold in the past 3 to 6 months) may be an incomplete picture of the true state of the market.
Are homes languishing on the market? Did homes sell for their list price or were steep discounts required? How much inventory has come on the market in the past month? How long are homes in the surrounding neighborhoods taking to sell?
My comparative market analyses are always accompanied by ‘market status’ sheet, showing active, pending, and sold properties in the same geographic area, with figures for length of time on the market and listed price vs. sold price.
Past performance is helpful, but current trends are just as important if you need to sell your home quickly. Here’s a convincing clip from Money Talks.
[tags] home, house, sell, advice, Money Talks, CMA, comparables, values [/tags]
Springtime Photos Yield Year-round Curb Appeal
Buds and blossoms are bursting forth here in Portland as we enter 70-degree spring days.
Springtime’s early harbingers, iris, daffodils, and tulips, are at their peak. Lawns are greening up with a quick shot of fertilizer. It reminds you of the landscaping you see at the Masters tournament at Augusta. You step back and note how good your home might look to a potential homebuyer.
The problem? You aren’t planning to sell until later in the year. Perhaps at a time of year when your garden is fallow. Or when it is 43 degrees and drizzly. Or late summer, when it’s tough to keep that lawn from browning a bit.
No problem…plan ahead. You need to take photographs now if you want show potential buyers later in the year what your home looks like during the peak blooming months of spring. Pull out your camera on a bright day. Try different lighting conditions. Be careful of too many shadows creeping in and muddying up your shots.
Tuck them away on your computer and when your real estate agent comes calling to put your listing active, let them review your bright shots of daffodils, plums and cherries, azaleas, and more.
If you don’t use the pictures in your listing photos, you can put them in a photo album on your countertop or in an expanded online photo tour. Since nearly 80% of homebuyers are now using the Internet to begin their hunt for a home, you want to put your best foot forward in the visual marketing of your home.
Even if you plan to sell in the summer, fall, or winter, capture your home’s springtime curb appeal now. You (and your agent) will be glad you did.
[tags] photos, landscaping, garden, flowers, bloom, pictures, real estate, home, spring [/tags]
Paint Chips, Web 2.0 style (beta)
From the productivity-maven LifeHacker (motto: Don’t live to geek; geek to live) comes this handy, online paint color selector application for Behr paint. Called ColorSmart, it’s a nifty example of a Web 2.0, consumer-friendly interactive site.
While you can always find printed color-chip guides at the home center or paint store, with ColorSmart you can click and pick swatches from the comfort of your own chair. Choose one of Behr’s pre-configured palettes, or if you’re creatively inclined, make up your own body+trim+accent selection.
If you’re selling your house soon, my advice is: go with the pros’ color selections. Trust me, very few will really like your ‘artistic’ turquoise exteriors or lavender interiors.
You can save your color choices for later review, and print out chip codes to get your paint ordered. With ColorSmart, you can buy an 8 oz. trial size to check your colors first. If you choose a paint that doesn’t sell samples in small amounts, then go ahead and buy a quart. I recently painted my home’s exterior, and my first choice….well, let’s just say that the $9.00 I spent on the tester quart was an excellent investment. We went with choice number 2.
One reviewer of the Behr site mentioned Sherwin Williams’ version, the Color Visualizer, which I thought was cool because they actually simulate different rooms and architecture styles with your color choices. Just drag-n-drop the color on the walls. You can even preview different faux finish techniques.
[tags] remodel, paint, web 2.0, sherwin-williams, behr, home, improvement [/tags]
All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up
It’s been happening less and less, but now the practice (or laziness) of minimizing the visual marketing aspect of listings in the local MLS will be prohibited.
The multiple listing service (RMLS) that covers the Portland metro area is now requiring brokers to submit at least one picture of their listing.
Cool. But here’s the real bonus….
If multiple photos are uploaded, the first picture must be of the exterior.
I love this new rule. Nothing like having to paw through 6 or 7 images of interiors and panoramic views before you get to a shot of the outside. A decent exterior shot helps a potential buyer take in the architectural style and curb appeal, before proceeding with the additional images. If they don’t want a ranch house, they aren’t going to appreciate finding out that detail on photo number 8.
Brokers will have up to 4 business days to add a photo once the listing goes live. Even bare land listings are required to have a picture. The seller can authorize the listing agent to omit the photo, but I cannot think of any instance where that makes any sense. Most brokers have access to a digital camera, so there is no excuse to post at least a few pictures, even if the property isn’t the most photogenic.
I think the visual marketing of real estate is critical, so I am saving my nickels and dimes to buy a solid digital SLR and a wide-angle lens.
In addition to 8 thoughtfully chosen shots for the multiple listing service, my customers get enhanced picture tours showing their listings. Here are a couple examples: West Linn Contemporary and John’s Landing Craftsman.
Your property deserves the best, too.
[tags] photography, real, estate, photos, listings, RMLS, marketing [/tags]
Don’t Buy Without a CLUE
(It’s hard not to title this post without a pun….)
One of the practices I have begun employing when representing buyers is to request a CLUE report from the home owner or seller.
CLUE is short for Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange and it takes into account all insurance claims (and inquiries, too) on you and your property going back 5 years.
Why would a buyer be interested in your insurance claim history? Well, homes with multiple claims can end up being uninsurable. And if the home is uninsurable, it’s unlikely you’ll get a loan on the property. It’s a quick way for a transaction to go sideways.
The categories of ’causes of loss’ on a CLUE reports include smoke, water, wind, lightning, hail, and fire damage, as well as contamination, worker’s comp claims, liability, vandalism, and more.
Also, please note that even inquiries about potential claims can be noted on your CLUE report as ‘unpaid’ claims. For example, let’s say you call your agent to talk about a water pipe in the house that leaked one day and caused some damage. It may get noted on your report even if you didn’t file a claim, but rather fixed the damage yourself.
You can’t order a CLUE report on a property you don’t own–only the homeowner (or their insurance agent) has access to the report. So in the process of writing an earnest money agreement, make sure your agent includes a request in the additional provisions section. Also, get your homeowner’s policy ordered sooner than later in the home buying process to avoid any last-minute insurability snags.
As a home seller, consider being proactive and acquiring a copy of your CLUE report and providing it along with disclosures when an offer is accepted. The report costs $19.50 and can be ordered online. Visit www.choicepoint.com or call 1-866-312-8076 to order your report.
More information about CLUE reports can be found at this FAQ from the state of Washington.
[tags] insurance, CLUE, report, loss, homeowner, claims, advice [/tags]
Avoid Property Pix Faux Pas
I was recently quoted in the West Linn Tidings real estate feature section in which local brokers were asked to share their top tips for improving the prospects of a quick and profitable house sale.
While most brokers offered good, tried-and-true staging advice, my tip touched on one of my pet peeves–poor property photos (or none altogether).
Online photos have replaced the ‘drive-by’ as the most common first impression. Studies show that nearly 75% of home buyers start their shopping by viewing properties on the Internet. And nothing inspires clicking the “NEXT” button faster than a listing that includes poorly lit or composed photos.
So, don’t let your remodeling, curb appeal, and staging efforts go to waste due to sub-par photos.
A few thoughts on taking property pictures:
Do’s
- Take note of your home’s most attractive rooms and features. At a minimum, take a picture of the front, the kitchen, the main living areas (living/family room), master bedroom, and if applicable, the valley or mountain view or maybe shots of deck, patio or other yard feature.
- Remove the breakfast dishes and any other clutter from your countertops before shooting the kitchen.
- For exterior shots, minimize shadows by shooting at midday or under flat lighting conditions.
- Turning on lamps and spot lighting can add nice glows to pictures, particularly from the outside if light is waning.
- Stand on a small ladder and shoot pictures from up high. It adds some interesting perspective and can make the room look bigger.
- Unless you are good with cropping and resizing pictures, take tightly composed shots. Don’t use the zoom function on the camera. Move in as close as you can so the camera can take in as many details as possible.
- Take plenty of pictures to choose from. Digital photography is so inexpensive, there’s no excuse for not having a bunch of choices to pick your top 8 or so that will make up your online portfolio.
Don’ts*
- Don’t shoot toward a bright window and expect to see any detail in the foreground.
- Don’t take your pictures in vertical or upright orientation. I’ve yet to see a multiple listing service that doesn’t show photos in horizontal (or landscape) orientation.
- Don’t take a picture of the bathroom where the focal point is the toilet.
- Don’t shoot pictures of the inside of your garage unless you are showing off a workspace or garage organization system. No one wants to see your car or clutter.
- Don’t upload your pictures to the multiple listing service (or whatever you might use to sell by owner) in the wrong order. Nothing like paging through 3 or 4 pictures of the interior before getting to the 1st exterior shot.
- Don’t use a camera phone to grab images.
* Listings featuring these poor marketing efforts are too common in my opinion.
Image by eqqman.
[tags]home, selling, staging, advice, pictures, photography[/tags]
Past Projects without Permits in Portland?
If you are a homeowner in the City of Portland and are considering putting your home on the market, save yourself some headaches and be sure to research the permits pulled on your property.
If you’ve done some of your own work, or inherited remodeled features from the previous owner, your sale could be put at risk if a real estate broker, lender, or buyer asks if the work was done under permit. Much of that information is public, found at the city’s PortlandMaps resource.
Here’s a list of projects that require permits in Portland (requires Adobe Acrobat).
In cases where permits were not secured in advance, the City of Portland has extended a program, Get Legal, to help homeowners get their property straight with city and state permit requirements.
The Get Legal application fee is $350 and it covers:
- Consultation inspection performed at your property.
- An in-person meeting with the Get Legal Team to discuss plans and options for legalizing the work done at the property.
- A customized work plan developed and mailed to the applicant after the team meeting.
- A team specialist to assist the applicant to prepare and submit an appeal application. If an appeal is not necessary, $100 of the initial application fee will be refunded.
- A team specialist to assist the applicant in the Development Services Center with obtaining all necessary permits needed to legalize work.
This is not a ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card. Note the fee does not include any of the permit fees themselves, but gains you access to city employees and information to get your property legal. You also have to complete permitted work within 1 year.
You could plead ignorance. But the prospects of a stalled home sale and the potential liabilities due to faulty work are not worth the risk.
Links:
- Bureau of Development Services
- PortlandMaps.com (search by address, then click ‘Permits/Cases’)
- Get Legal Program (requires Adobe Acrobat)
- Projects that require permits (requires Adobe Acrobat)
Image by Mr. Greenjeans
