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.

#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.

Any chance anyone has at avoiding foreclosure is often doused when there is a second mortgage loan.  You can work all day long on getting the first mortgage to take less than owed and even if they approve, the second mortgage may not.  The second mortgage will usually settle for fractions less than you owe, but it is usually more than anyone wants to pay them.

So what happens to second mortgage loans in a short sale?  You guessed it.  They need to agree to a short sale also.  Although second mortgage rates are typically higher, the amount owed is usually less.  Here is how it works.  You send the offer and any other required paperwork to the bank who holds the second mortgage.  They review all documentation and come back with an amount they need.  Most of the time, they come back with a number which is too high.  The key to negotiating with second mortgages, is to push as hard as possible and get them to take the smallest amount possible.  A very typical number is between $3000 and $5000 dollars (although every situation is different).  Many second mortgage holders will accept something in this range.  So after 30-60 days of negotiation, you finally get them to agree to accept the short sale.  Phew, glad that is over.  So who in the world is going to pay them this money?

Most of the time, the first mortgage will pay them some money as part of their short sale approval.   Bank of America will typically pay $3000 to the second mortgage and IndyMac (now One West Bank) pays $2,000, to give you two examples.  Simple math tells you that $3000 is less than $5000 and there is still $2000 left.  So now you are down the road 90 days, you have short sale approval from the first mortgage, short sale approval from the second mortgage, and guess what?  You can’t close because no one is willing to pay the extra money to get the second to go away.

Lately, big banks are under scrutiny for trying to get money from Realtors, buyers, etc., to get the amount they want.  The good news is that people are finally paying attention to the poor practices of big banks.  The bad news is that your home still won’t sell and you end up as another tally on the long list of foreclosure victims.

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.

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.