Sell a Home in the Portland, Oregon Metro

Top 1% Seller’s Agent

Planning on selling a home in the next year or so? You’ve come to the right place. Stephen FitzMaurice, Principal Broker is a top 1% sellers agent in Portland with over 2,000 local sales under his belt and writes extensively about the Portland real estate market.

The Right Way to Sell

Our team charges 4% commission max. and we pay more online to market our Portland and SW Washington homes so they sell faster and for more. (In Salem and Bend areas we charge 4.25% max.) We have a reasonable commission fee, while still providing more marketing and services than our competitors. We back it all up with a cancel anytime policy for no charge.

If you’re thinking of selling your home in the next twelve months, Stephen would love to tour your home. Call today to set an appointment.

Stephen FitzMaurice, Realtor
4% Max. to Sell a Home
Cancel Anytime Policy
Licensed Since 2003
503-714-1111

Homeowners are Becoming More Accurate at Predicting Home Value

September 1, 2023

We’ve been reporting on the discrepancy between what homeowners believe their home is worth and actual market value for several years. During that time the trend of homeowners overestimating their home’s value held steady, as it had been doing for years. According to a June 2020 article published in the Journal of Housing Economics, “… in most scholars’ opinion, dwelling owners tend to overvalue their properties by about 5%.” Recently though, we’re seeing an interesting deviation from the tendency of homeowners to be overly optimistic about potential sales prices – to now underestimating the market value of their home by an average of 0.77% – a difference determined by comparing homeowner opinions with appraiser estimates. A Shift in Homeowner Perception...

Virtual Home Staging – A New Way to Sell Homes

August 14, 2023

Each year we write a report on home staging, how much it costs, what kind of ROI to expect when you hire a professional stager, and more. We’re turning our attention to virtual staging now, a newer way to sell a home that’s quickly growing in popularity. Along the way, we’ll show some real life examples of virtual staging we’ve ordered for our clients (and we always provide this service – if desired and it makes sense for the home – at no extra charge). See everything we do for our home selling clients here, along with our lower than average commission charge. While there is a bit of controversy in the staging industry about the authenticity of virtual staging,...

Top 4 Free Home Value Estimates to Check, Before Selling a Home

August 7, 2023

Curious about your home’s value in a fluctuating Portland real estate market? I get it. Licensed since 2003, I’ve seen the ups and downs of Portland real estate pricing. In fact, I keep a category of this site dedicated to home value articles of interest and create greater Portland metro real estate reports – monthly. Whether they should or not, these online home value estimate websites drive customer perception about what their home is worth. While none of these sites can estimate a home value with the accuracy of a licensed appraiser or experienced local seller’s agent, there are better and worse home value sites because they come with different feature sets and levels of accuracy. 4. Redfin.com’s Home Value...

Home Staging Sells Homes Faster and For More, 2023 Report

July 21, 2023

We are all familiar with the integral role the internet plays in real estate transactions today. When the first stop for many potential buyers is to browse online home listings, up-to-date information and current photos are essential to success in selling your home. High-quality online photos, and now professional 3D home tours, have become the expectation for potential buyers previewing homes from their computer or laptop, and they can make the difference between your home ultimately being sold or sitting on the market longer as buyers flock to homes with beautiful online photography. As a seller, you may wonder how you can achieve the best possible photos of your home that will lead to the ideal sales price. The answer:...

How Long to Sell a Home in Portland, Oregon? 2023 Report

July 7, 2023

History of Time on Market in Portland Taking a look at the days on market in Portland, Oregon can tell the story of its real estate market as a whole. It is easy to see the trends, shifts, and market changes over the course of years. Typically days on market exceeding 60 days is a buyer’s market and time on market less than 60 days is considered a sellers market. Past Years Average Number of Days to Sell (go pending) in Portland, Oregon Past Years Average Number of Days to Sell (go pending) in Portland, Oregon 2022 29 ( hottest first half I’ve ever seen, slow second ) 2014 70 2021 27 ( fast all year ) 2013 83 2020...

iBuyer Warning. Read before selling your home to Opendoor, Zillow, etc.

May 29, 2023

Over the past few years, the iBuyer model surged and faded, with companies like Opendoor and Zillow leading the way. iBuyers acted as intermediaries, providing quick purchases for sellers and reselling to buyers or amassing their real estate portfolio and turning those homes into rentals. However, this seemingly ideal solution has faced some recent challenges.  The model thrived when housing prices were rising, allowing for profitable transactions. But when the market started shifting,, iBuyers like Opendoor and Zillow ran into some difficulties. They were accused of driving up prices during the boom and faced a backlash during the new market. While some expected praise for making housing more affordable, that was not the case at all. As a matter of...

How to Pick the Best Offer in a Bidding War

May 22, 2023

The Portland real estate market has been buzzing with activity in the spring of 2023. While we saw home sales slide quite a bit from May of 2022 to the end of 2022, we are experiencing a strong rebound in the spring of 2023 (though we expect it to slow down again in the summer and more so in the fall and winter). With the current real estate market conditions, sellers who price their homes at or below market value often find themselves receiving multiple offers. Understanding how to handle the multiple-offer scenario is important if you’re in this situation. To help you make informed decisions, we’ve compiled a list of frequently asked questions regarding handling multiple-offer situations as a...

Is the Zillow Zestimate® Accurate? 2023 Update

May 19, 2023

These days, anyone interested in selling or buying a home is familiar with the home search engine Zillow and the proprietary Zestimate® formula it uses to place an estimated value on a property. Many times people will be motivated to make decisions about selling their home based on the Zestimate® they discover online. Or buyers may feel like they must offer a certain price based on a number generated by Zillow. But unfortunately, this price estimate can be misleading and has a wide margin of error according to Realtors, other sites, and even Zillow. This might cause you to wonder why Zillow would continue to post the Zestimate® and what is useful for if it cannot be trusted to accurately...

Top 5 Colors to Paint Your Home to Increase Home Value in 2023

May 15, 2023

If your home is in need of a fresh coat of paint or you are considering painting your exterior to enhance its curb appeal for potential buyers, choosing the right color can feel like a weighty decision. It’s true that the most important photo for your home’s online listing is the first one, and that first impression is crucial for capturing a buyer’s attention. Learning about the types of colors that work well for your home’s design and in your neighborhood – as well as colors that are currently trending for home exteriors – can go a long way toward narrowing your choices. We’ve provided an overview of the most popular home colors this year to help you discover the...

How Many Home Showings to Sell a Home? 2023 Report

May 5, 2023

My clients want to know, how many showings on average does it take to sell a home? So for a number of years now I’ve been writing a local research report on the topic. Thankfully, we do have access to the necessary data through RMLS. We get daily buyer traffic reports and inventory reports. The smart lockboxes we use locally record every home buyer showing. The MLS records when an offer is finally accepted and the homes goes into pending status. If you’re curious on the average number of days it takes to sell a home (annual reports), we have that for you. If you’re curious what the current real estate market is up to in the Portland, Oregon metro...