Happy 4th!
July 4, 2010
Happy 4th of July everyone. Our video tribute to American Independence.
Foreclosure Filings Drop
June 10, 2010
Mortgage foreclosure filings dropped from last month, although they are up less than one percent from this time last year. As reported in the Bend Bulletin.
Strategic Realty Launches MovetoCentralOregon.com
June 6, 2010
In an effort to provide buyer’s with a user-friendly resource for navigating the inventory of homes for sale in and around Central Oregon, Strategic Realty has partnered with iHOUSEweb, Inc. of Davis, California, to launch MoveToCentralOregon.com.
The new website uses direct access to the MLS database hosted by Central Oregon Association of Realtors, and Google.com’s ubiquitous mapping system to provide a quick and easy way to for home buyers to shop for properties online.
One of the most compelling features of the new site is the ability for buyers to save their search criteria and use that search to automatically receive the latest property updates right in their email inbox.
Be the first to see new invetory as soon as it comes on the market. Sign-up at www.MovetoCentralOregon.com
We took our lumps…
May 26, 2010
from Bend Bulletin 5/26/10
Why am I so bullish on property values in Central Oregon? In a nutshell, because we were one of the most devastated markets in the country. Central Oregon took it’s lumps in this crash, and I feel like there is a good chance we’re done. The larger metros, especially on the west coast, skirted a lot of the devaluation. And, if I were in those markets, I’d be very leery of a potential “double-dip” market. But in many respects, Central Oregon home values were left in smoldering ruins, and I think that puts us in a much better position for recovery. We may not see and price appreciation, but I’m willing to bet the worst is over here.
How to sell your home faster
May 2, 2010
Given today’s economy, selling your home quickly is more important than ever. With so much uncertainty in the marketplace, time is not your friend. Here are three things you can do to get an offer sooner than the house down the street:
#1 Do not try and sell your house for sale by owner. This is a very appealing way to sell your house for a lot of people because not paying a real estate commission equals less cost, which is always better. This is not 2005 and inventory is abundant. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, the National Association of Realtors spend thousands and thousands of dollars each year conducting housing sale statistics. According to NAR, in 2006, only 7% of all home sales were open market for sale by owners. What the statistics don’t say, is that of the 7%, a broker almost always represented the buyer in the sale. Where I live, home prices dropped and average of 40% from 2007-2009 and the number of houses for sale skyrocketed. I don’t have to drive around and look at unlisted property anymore. Any real estate agent in town can find a list of 10 suitable houses for any buyer in any price range by simply searching their local mls. They know they will get paid and how much before they ever pick up the phone. If you sell your home yourself, you are not on this list.
#2 Stage your home. Staging your home does not entail an interior design degree or rummaging through a million color pallets trying to find a paint that will hypnotize a buyer into purchasing your home. Staging your home can be done at no cost and in a very short amount of time. The most important thing to remember as you are staging your home is this: How we live in a home and how we sell a home are two completely different things.
#3 Make your home easy to show on short notice. I talked to a real estate broker the other day who wanted to show one of my listings. Naturally, I asked how many homes she was showing this buyer. She said 19. Showing 5 homes and arranging the best route and best showing order is a chore. Showing 19 is unimaginable. Not to mention sorting through 50 properties to narrow it down to 19. If your home is similar to another home and all a real estate agent has to do is call you, the owner, and tell you a time or leave a message with the showing time on your voicemail, your home will be 1 of the 19 that gets shown that day. The other 31 homes don’t make the list because they require appointments, 24 hours notice, x hours notice, etc. The more showings, the better chance of an offer, the sooner the offer, the faster your home sells. You get the picture.
How to stage for free when selling your home
April 22, 2010
“You need to stage your home!” Often the first words out of many people’s mouths when they find out you are selling your home. What is staging? Staging is simply arranging your home so that people looking to buy it can see it for what it is. When it comes to staging, you have 2 options: Staging your home yourself or hiring a Staging Company. Staging companies come in many shapes and sizes. The thing they all have in common is that they cost money. So, if you have extra money lying around the house, feel free to hire a staging company. If not, below are some easy ways to stage your home by yourself.
The first thing to do : Remove any and all family pictures from your walls, shelves, and everywhere else. There are two reasons for this. The first reason is it disrupts the flow of a showing. When someone is looking to buy your house, you want them focusing on where they would place their furniture, how nice the granite is in the kitchen, whether or not their mother-in-law can sleep in the shop in the back, etc. Pictures distract people. The last thing you want is a buyer with cash in hand, stopping to see why you like poodles instead of labs. The second reason to remove family pictures is because they make rooms and hallways feel smaller. I am not sure when hallways became the “art walks” for the family tree, but they did. Art galleries are open with high ceilings and very few walls. There is a reason for this. Make your hallways and rooms feel like empty “art walks” so the next owner knows where to hang their art.
The next thing to do is remove any animal trophies (even the pictures). I cannot express how important this is. Unless you are selling a hunting ranch in Wyoming or New Mexico, it can cost you a sale. Enough said.
As for the rest of the house, here is the secret to staging: Take 1/3 of the stuff out of every room, literally. There are very few times you should break this rule. If you have 3 pieces of furniture in your living room, take one of them out and put it in the garage. If you have 3 lamps in an office, take one (you guessed it) and put it in the garage. If you do not have a garage, use one of the rooms in your house for storage. If you have 6 chairs at your kitchen table, take 2 out. This will leave your house less cluttered, but not empty.
Bookshelves and closets. Same rules. If your closet is like mine, 1/3 is very difficult to estimate. For clothes that are hanging on hangers, just make sure the clothes are hanging freely and not bunching together. The easiest way to decide what to remove, is take all the clothes you aren’t going to wear in the next 6 months out of your closet and store them.
Staging your home yourself helps you sell your house, helps you pack, and is free. When in doubt, take more out.
March Market Stats
April 12, 2010
NorthWest Crossing’s Natural Neighborhood
April 12, 2010
Drawing from Spirit of the Past Proves Popular for Hip ‘New Urban’ Community
Apr 07, 2010
SIMON MATHER CBN Feature Writer
When freshly sawn, a Ponderosa Pine’s pleasant scent is reminiscent of the forest where it grew –offering an apt metaphor for Bend’s popular NorthWest Crossing mixed-use community, which is rooted in a sense of place evocative of the spirit of older neighborhoods.
In fact, a detailed survey of predominantly second-growth Ponderosas prevalent on the old tree farm site was integrated closely into the project’s original planning process, with blocks, roads and lot lines laid out to preserve as many large specimens as possible; helping reinforce the feel of an established streetscape.
Such attention to detail was just one of the ingredients that went in to cultivating a connected, sustainable and livable traditional neighborhood-style development — as part of a vision formulated over a decade ago – resulting in the diverse, walkable, compact and vibrant community that the evolving 486-acre NorthWest Crossing is today. Read the rest of the article at CBN here.
Portland, OR Housing Market
April 3, 2010
Just checking out the housing market in Portland. What’s happened to traditional supply/demand curve? Plummeting prices, plummeting inventory? Does this mean that Portland is actually heading for some appreciation. Wait..what’s that little swing in inventory I see?
Inventory, Median Price for Single Family Properties in PORTLAND, OR.
The King of Social Networking, Facebook, heads to Central Oregon
January 22, 2010
In 2008, a client brought us 124 acres of dry sagebrush and juniper outside of Prineville, Oregon. Even at that time, the effects of what would be the current recession were being felt. Prices were plummeting, buyers were evaporating, and companies were beginning to announce lay-offs and closures. In particular, land prices were proving to be extremely susceptible to the snowballing decline. Kerry O’Neal, principal broker of Strategic Realty, studied the situation, stomped around the sagebrush, and informed the seller that we would do whatever it took to find a buyer for his property.
Fast-forward to the present, and you can now see the results of those efforts. Facebook, the largest social networking site in the world, is building its first data center ever outside of Prineville, Oregon, on that same 124 acres of sagebrush. This data center will house the webpages where people reconnect friends, colleagues, and family. Strategic Realty is proud to have played our role in moving this giant to the region.
Data centers are state-of-the-art, climate controlled facilities which house the thousands of computers needed to run international websites like Facebook. They can require immense amounts of electricity, communications connectivity, and water. The availability of these resources determine the most economical location for investment.
The impact on the local economy will be significant.
Kerry O'Neal has been a licensed broker for over 14 years. He has worked with residential, commercial, and industrial properties in the Central Oregon area for over 5 years. 
Josh grew up in a Portland real estate family. He was buying and selling rental homes and income properties, and managing large multi-family complexes, when most of his contemporaries were just beginning their careers. 
