About Us
Tony and Libby Kelly, MBA, M.Ed. are ranked in the top 1% of REALTORS in Portland Metro. They have been featured on HGTV's "House Hunters" 3 Episodes & "My House is Worth What?" 4 Episodes.
New Tools For Home Buyers
First, we have an iPhone application that has been created by Zillow.com that allows you to look up a listing while you are out and about. A lot of home searching is done on the move, driving around neighborhoods you are interested in. This way you can find out the price, number of bedrooms and bathrooms and the square footage without having to go home and log on your computer. This app uses GPS so the map can follow you.
InvestorLoft.com is a website with a new tool called PropScout that can help out those who are looking for the investment. There are those buyers out there who do not care what the house looks like, only what the house could be worth. Included are search filters that can find the biggest discrepancies between the listing price and the estimated value. They can also be ranked by amount of profit or percentage of profit.
Trulia.com has a new filter that enables consumers to search listings for price reductions. You can also look up the number of times the price has dropped, when it dropped, by how much and the percentage of the reduction. This way you can gage how desperate the seller is or if they are due for another price reduction.
Some say the future of real estate marketing is in video. Which is why YouTube and Coldwell Banker has started a channel where you can watch agents talk about real estate in their specific areas. It will even feature video listings which can offer greater detail of a home before you even head out to see it in person.
Finally we have Cyberhomes.com for a market report. This service costs $9.95 and offers projections for specific neighborhoods and includes 12- and 24-month price-change forecasts. It also reports the number of distressed, foreclosure and REO properties within a ZIP code and then compares that to the rest of the metro area and the state. You can also find the strength of your market and the predicted volume of sales in the next year.
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/real_estate/0906/gallery.New_homebuying_tools/
PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST ON THE HOMEPAGE OF OUR WEBSITE http//:www.TonyandLibby.com
Portland Ranks 3rd for Least Wasteful City in the U.S.!
From Rain Barrels and Recycling to Walking and Buying Second-Hand Clothes,
“The Nalgene Least Wasteful City Study” Puts Top 25 Metros Under Scrutiny for Wasteful Behavior
Here in Portland we pride ourselves for leading the pack when it comes to respecting and protecting our environment. Now it looks like our efforts have been effective according to a new study that focused on on wasteful behavior in our nation’s cities. “The Nalgene Least Wasteful City Study” ranked 23 waste-focused habits of urban Americans, from recycling, to using public transportation, to shutting off the lights when leaving the room. When the results were tallied, San Francisco earned the title of America’s Least Wasteful City, while Atlanta ranked last in the study. Other cities at the top of the least wasteful list are New York (2), Portland, OR (3) and Seattle (4). In addition to Atlanta, Dallas (24), Indianapolis (23), Houston (22) and St. Louis (21) were in the bottom five of those surveyed. Individuals can visit www.leastwastefulcities.com for complete rankings or to the take the survey themselves.
The Tony and Libby Kelly Group is also making an effort to be less wasteful. Soon we will be using Eco-Flyers to curb the use of paper and ink, as well as lessen the amount of garbage generated. We have also gone paperless in our listing and marketing presentations (we love our MacBook Pro) and transaction management.
Historic Interest Rates & National Portland Exposure
This is a great story about how a bank passed on some of the federal bank bailout money to clients in the form of lower interest rates for home purchases. The Great Northwest Home Rush was sponsored by Community Financial Corp. and Banner Bank. The homes included, in what turned out to be one the biggest home shows in the area, were offered a 30 year fixed interest rate of 3.875% by Banner. The show ran for most of March. Half of this National CBS story was filmed in Portland.
Inflated Home Values
This article on CNN.com mentions that one of the reasons that home prices were soaring too high was the appraisals. Loan officers and mortgage brokers were (and do) putting lots of pressure on some appraisers to “hit the number” that the officer or broker was looking for.
So now there will be a Home Valuation Code of Conduct starting in May. These will be guidelines for appraisals being used in loans being sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The guildelines prohibit lenders from coercing, extorting, colluding with intimidating or bribing appraisers.
So what you are telling me is, this was not against the rules before.
The only way this will be of any help at all is if it is actually enforced. Otherwise the appraisers following the rules will be the ones not getting work.
The enforcement comes by way of complaints from appraisers or consumers. If a lender receives too many then they won’t be able to sell loans to Fannie or Freddie.
As usual, I’m sure there are already pleanty of regulations in place that are not already being enforced. Perhaps more are needed but I would be willing to bet that TRUE enforcement is what is really called for here.
http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/14/real_estate/appraisal_reform/index.htm?postversion=2009011405
PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST ON THE HOMEPAGE OF OUR WEBSITE http//:www.TonyandLibby.com
$1 – $750 mil
I just thought these two articles were more interesting when put together.
There are some areas of Detroit that are going into forclosure where the banks are just giving up and selling for $300, $100 even $1! The closing costs and broker’s fees add up to much more than that! Even the property taxes are around $3,000! If they are lucky those areas will turn around someday in the future and it will be a worth while investment. Otherwise, at least it didn’t cost much.
http://www.foreclosure-support.com/wp/article-0820131.html
A home in the French Riviera was just sold for $750 million dollars. It has broken a world record (it better have!) and just the commission alone could set someone up for life. The amount of the property taxes would have a family living very comfortably. I cannot even figure out how many foreclosures you could buy in Detroit with the downpayment!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/11/villa-leopolda-sold-for-7_n_118112.html
PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST ON THE HOMEPAGE OF OUR WEBSITE http//:www.TonyandLibby.com
Recent Blog Posts
May is National Moving Month
Friday, May 4th, 2012
May marks the official beginning of the moving season, and is known as "National Moving Month". 10 Tips To Prepare Your Home to List
Tuesday, April 17th, 2012
Ten tips to prepare your home to list. Agency Info
Keller Williams Realty Portland Premiere
17700 SW Upper Boones Ferry Rd
Portland, OR 97224