We’re just a week away from closing and though nothing is official until it is recorded at the county office, I am comfortable saying that Sapphire Development LLC’s new rehab project is at 2356 NW Hoyt in the Alphabet District. It is a 1906 home that has been largely untouched and certainly not remodeled recently.… Continue reading 2356 NW Hoyt
If you look closely at the lower left wire, you’ll see why I ran off on Tuesday rather than writing a long post about Case Shiller. We’d had PGE out last year to our rental property when the electrician said whatever was going on was a PGE issue; they came out and fixed. When things… Continue reading Shocking Real Estate
I’m almost finished with writing a post on a different subject but this is more important. In real estate, we test and test and test through the transaction; oil tanks, radon, pests, and the list goes on. Oregon real estate law has a provision for smoke detectors. Carbon monoxide? It’s rarely mentioned in real estate.… Continue reading Carbon Monoxide Kills Family of Four
Sewer scopes reveal all sorts of things: cracks, roots, clogs, transitions from terracotta to cast iron, and even completely shattered or nonexistent lines. This was a new one for us: the yellow conduit at the top of the sewer houses an active gas line!
According to a press release issued today by HUD, using the $8000 first time buyer credit as your down payment is back on: For Release Friday May 29, 2009 The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 offers homebuyers a tax credit of up to $8,000 for purchasing their first home. Families can only access… Continue reading First Time Buyer Credit as Down Payment on Again?
The graphic above is a snapshot of an interactive graphic in this article at MSNBC. The article begins:
We’ve started making a transition to non-paper fliers at our listings. Replacing the flier box with a 11×15 sign. We are still putting paper fliers inside the property. The weather-proof sign solves some common paper flier problems: Damp/soggy fliers Waste (the sign backing can be reused) Out of date information Complete lack of information if… Continue reading Texting for Portland Real Estate
Even in the world of “seller to make no repairs” oil tanks are something that we’ve even seen banks take care of prior to closing when revealed during the inspection period. PortlandMaps has always been the first place to begin the investigation as to whether or not a property has a below ground oil tank… Continue reading DEQ Oil Tank Lookup
The EPA rates radon as the number two cause of lung cancer. This is the PSA video they published regarding radon. It’s a little long at 13 minutes but it has some serious information presented in a lighthearted way. Radon has been around longer that real estate but only recently has radon become one of… Continue reading Breathing Easy: What Home Buyers and Sellers Should Know About Radon
The Oregon Health Division has a spreadsheet of radon levels tested around Portland. I created the graphs below using their data. The general recommendation is that any home testing over 4.0 pCi/l should have radon mitigated as it is the second leading cause of lung cancer behind smoking. It is important to take both graph… Continue reading Who Needs to Test for Radon in Portland? Everyone.