Portland Real Estate Blog

The phrase “Real Estate Bubble” returns 899,000 hits on Google, now 899,001. Nobody can predict what the real estate market is going to do. It all a matter of opinion though some of those opinions are a little better informed than others.

I had to leave voicemail for a client yesterday telling her that she had missed out on a condo that she was interested in. It was the second such call. Her return call started out, “we can’t !@# around.”

Another buyer missed out on two properties before getting an accepted when the first buyer failed to perform.

We sold the house we were living in in 28 days for over asking including one sale fail on the last day of the inspection period.

We are selling an investment property that was on the market for 36 hours. We are through the inspection period and everything looks good.

These aren’t signs of a cooling market.

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 need to replace it before I put my home on the market?

Answer…..

LP siding has caused all sorts of problems over the years. In fact Charles and I had to replace the LP siding on one of our houses in 2000. With new siding costing over $10,000, we felt lucky that we got $3000 from LP. The days of LP paying out are long over but the LP siding does still exist in our market place.

That said, the siding does not always need to be replaced prior to listing your home. However, you have to account for the siding in your pricing and marketing. You may choose to offer a “siding credit” up front or perhaps you just want to wait and see what the buyer asks for.

You should definitely make the siding report, as long as it is from a licensed and bonded siding contractor, part of your seller’s property disclosure. Then the opinion that it is in good condition is not a seller representation, but that of a professional. You need to know that just because you have the report, doesn’t mean that a buyer will pay market price for a house with LP as it requires a lot of upkeep, caulking and painting to keep it waterproof. A new buyer may not want to take on the additional risk of future failure or maintenance.

If the siding is over 10 years old, it will be even harder to encourage a buyer to accept. I would suggest that the siding disclosure is provided up front to any prospective buyers and their inspectors. Home inspectors do not like LP siding and a favorite saying is “It’s not a matter of if it’s failing, it is when it will fail”

*** Disclaimer: this is not tax advice- consult an accountant with specific 1031 Exchange questions!

We’re selling NE Ivy St. as an investment property. The price difference of what we bought it for in 2001 and the selling price now would be taxable as a capital gain on our income taxes. The 1031 Exchange allows us to reinvest the money in another property (or multiple properties) without paying capital gains.

Wikipedia has a great synopsis of the way it works.

In a nutshell, we have 45 days from the day NE Ivy closes to identify the property, or properties, we are going to purchase. We have a total of 180 days from the closing date on NE Ivy to close on the new property.

We will never touch the money. It goes from the buyer of NE Ivy to a Qualified Intermediary (also known as an Accommodator). The QI holds the proceeds from the sale until they are transferred to the seller of our new property. Anything that finds its way into our bank account is taxable as a capital gain.

So, the burning question is what to buy? Don’t know the answer. I do know that we are not going to take on any more rentals as a landlord. We will hire a property manager to do that for the foreseeable future.

74 NE Ivy was listed on Saturday evening. An agent in our office held an open house on Sunday that was well attended. We got an offer on Sunday night. Monday morning, we had accepted the buyer’s counter to our seller’s counter and we are now under contract to sell the house! The buyer’s home inspection is on Saturday.

This is the first post on the sale of our property at 74 NE Ivy. I’ll write about the sale as often as pertinent. We bought the house as a fixer in 2001 for $142,000 on contract from the seller and proceeded to do a permitted remodel into 2002 before making it a rental property. We will be selling it as a 1031 exchange (more on that later). The renters moved out at the end of February and it took until yesterday to get it back into “showroom condition.” The clean up included new carpet, refinished fir floors, new appliances, fresh paint and the claw foot tub refinished by Stanley Tubs. It is listed for $319,900.

As Realtors we help many families each year. Less often, we move ourselves. Last Thursday, two West Side Moving and Storage trucks showed up at the front door and everything we own was moved two blocks. Not exactly a long distance move but moving two blocks or 2000 miles is pretty much the same hassle. Fulton Crane moved the oversize items off the deck since they wouldn’t make the corner of the stair case.

The remodel project still has some work so we’re currently living at The Inn at Northrup Station while the final touches are put on the house. We’re making use of the special room rate that is set up for our clients! The room is great since it has a full kitchen so we can either eat out or stay in. We’ve had numerous past and present clients stay here. I’m typing this through their wireless access.

Since the hotel isn’t pet friendly, we’ve been taking the dog to day care at Noah’s Arf. We are talking with the owner about how to add their services to our relocation plan.

We’re also using a PODS storage container. Truck shows up, PODzilla unloads the container and is placed back on the truck. I’ll try to get pictures when it returns.