Galvanized pipe corrodes from the inside out until it splits or pinholes. Here’s why it fails, what replaced it, and what buyers and sellers should do about it.
Most of a home inspection report is the same short list of findings, house after house. Here’s what actually shows up across Portland and the Willamette Valley, what’s routine, and the handful that genuinely matter.
Buyers in Portland are feeding their inspection reports into ChatGPT and panicking themselves out of good deals. Here are four prompts that actually work — and where AI ends.
A home inspection is one of the most valuable things you can do before buying a house. A good inspector will walk every inch of the property, test switches, poke at joists, run every faucet. And they will still miss things. Not because they’re bad at their job—because some things are simply not visible. The… Continue reading What Hidden Systems Really Cost Portland Home Buyers
You’ve probably heard of a home inspection happening *after* an offer is accepted—but what about before your home ever hits the market? In Portland’s market, where inventory has climbed to approximately 3.7 months—its highest level since early 2023—buyers are more cautious, and pricing and preparation matter more than ever. That’s why smart sellers are turning… Continue reading The Role of Pre-Listing Inspections
The Oregon Property Buyer Advisory (link updated 9/8/09) is produced by the Oregon Real Estate Agency. It begins: A real estate licensee is vital to the home buying process and can provide a variety of services in locating property, negotiating the sale and advising the buyer. A real estate agent is generally not qualified to… Continue reading Buyer Due Diligence
Disclose, disclose, disclose. I don’t think anybody has ever been sued for saying too much about the condition of a property or providing too much information. Due diligence works both ways and ignorance of something that you should have known will not serve as a defense later on. Real estate is often an individual’s largest… Continue reading Bedtime Reading for Buying and Selling Oregon Real Estate
Question…. I have LP siding on my house. I have had a siding specialist out and they say that the siding is fine. It is in “good” condition and say that there is no point in replacing it. However, I want to sell my house and my Realtor says LP siding is bad. Do I… Continue reading Can I sell my house with LP Siding?
PortlandMaps has a wealth of Portland specific information on it. You can find out about building permits, oil tanks and other valuable home information. Other information, including sex offenders living around the neighborhood, might be pertinent to the purchase of a home but might be considered buyer due diligence rather than seller required disclosure.
Our personal passion/affliction is old Portland homes. We’ve got four of them in our portfolio. We sold one this year and used a 1031 Exchange to purchase two more. Part of our due diligence on both included a search on PortlandMaps.com to see if there were records of old oil tanks on record. Both show… Continue reading Oil Tanks