Buy a Home in Portland

Kami Price, Principal Broker is our lead buyer’s agent and a top 1% buyer’s agent in the Portland metro area. Kami has been licensed since 2004 and has helped hundreds of local home buyers find their next property. She has a long list of awards and additional education certificates.

If you’re considering buying a home in the next twelve months, Kami Price, buyers specialist would love to hear what you’re looking for. Call today to set an appointment.

Kami Price, Realtor
Represented Hundreds of Buyers
Licensed since 2004
503-773-0000

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short sale help in portland

How to Write a Winning Portland Short Sale Offer

May 24, 2012

Nothing is more difficult to purchase these days than a short sale! The numbers on successful Portland short sale offers are terrible, many reports suggest 1 out of 5 Portland short sale offers actually ends up in a sale. While no short sale offer is guaranteed to succeed, there are a number of things a Portland buyer can do to increase their chances of success. 1. Ask your Portland real estate agent to find out how many banks are involved in the short sale. Often a seller will have a first and second mortgage with two different banks and sometimes even a third in the mix with a home line of credit. Simply put, the less banks involved the better...

real estate time table

Is now the best time to buy a Portland home?

May 14, 2012

According to many Portland Realtors, buying a home may never get any cheaper than right now. Prices are down 34% nationally and even more than that in Portland. In Portland prices have dropped in luxury homes as much as 50% in the last six years (generally speaking the higher the price of a Portland home, the greater percentage of loss in a down real estate market). Other homes in Portland have seen 40% to 20% losses. Mortgage rates are historically low, holding right now at high 3% or 4% depending on your credit. This will not last. We already saw mortgage rates climb in Portland briefly this spring and then plummet down again. Very soon rates are likely to raise...

portland affordability

How affordable is the Portland Real Estate Market?

April 27, 2012

Nationally, you’d have to go back more than 50 years to find a more affordable time to buy a home in America. Locally, in Portland’s real estate market, you’d have to go back even farther. Affordability is an easy measurement. Basically, affordability is simply the percentage of a family’s income that goes towards a home mortgage payment. Nationally in 2010 14.2% of people’s income went to pay their home mortgage. In 2011 that percentage shrunk even farther to 13%. In the Portland real estate market the numbers are even better: 13.9% in 2010 and a huge drop in 2011, all the way down to 11.4%. It might be a good idea to talk to your local Portland real estate agent...

own a home in Portland

In Portland, Buying a Home is Cheaper Than Renting

April 13, 2012

Max Radi and his partner Seth are not your typical homeowners. As recent college graduates with entry-level jobs, they were just looking for a decent place to rent near downtown Portland one year ago. “Then we started thinking about how we could get a decent return on our investment,” Max says. He looked at the numbers and realized that the cost was about the same to rent as to buy a condo in downtown Portland. “When you’re renting, that’s money you’re losing,” he says. When the two expanded their home buying search to condos outside the downtown neighborhood, the options were greater and the savings even more substantial. Seth had no credit, but Max’s credit was good enough to qualify...

portland neighborhood map

Buying a Portland Home: Which Neighborhood Are You?

April 5, 2012

Some cities are defined by a sports team, a university or an industry, but Portland, Oregon is a city of neighborhoods. The homes, businesses, institutions and open spaces that comprise Portland’s neighborhoods create distinct personalities, embodied by the individuals who call their Portland neighborhood their home. When relocating to or buying a home in Portland, it’s important to consider which neighborhood you want to be a part of. This decision will affect what kind of home you live in, where your kids will go to school, how you’ll get to work, what kind of groceries you’ll buy, whether you’ll feel safe at home, and much more. Start by thinking about where you currently live. What do you like or dislike...

portland home prices rising

Going Up: New Apartments, Portland Home Prices

March 20, 2012

The average price of a home in Portland is up and the total number of residential properties on the market remains low, according to the most recent Market Action Report from the Regional Multiple Listing Service. Good news for sellers, but with the city’s population climbing at a steady rate, where is the needed housing to come from? Enter the apartment developers. In 2012, 21 new apartment projects will open around the Portland area, according to a recent report in the Portland Business Journal. Those projects will alleviate the tight the rental market in the city, which saw vacancy rates fall from 5.6 percent in 2009 to 3.6 percent last year. Many of these new apartment buildings are selling out...

picking a mortgage lender

How to Pick a Mortgage Lender in Portland Oregon.

February 22, 2012

How do I pick a Mortgage Lender in Portland? There are three basic choices when you are ready to find a lender for your Portland home. 1. Brick and Mortar bank: This refers to a Wells Fargo, US Bank, Chase, etc. that has a local presence and services the public’s checking and savings and well as many of their loan options. 2. Credit Union: Similar to a brick and mortar bank, these banks provide all encompassing financial services, but they are non-profit institutions and tend to provide a higher rate of return for their members (instead of their stockholders). 3. Direct Lending Mortgage Company: These companies focus exclusively on real estate lending. They often have a physical location, but not necessarily (like...

credit score mistakes

Top 10 Credit Score Mistakes

December 21, 2010

1. DON’T APPLY FOR NEW CREDIT OF ANY KIND. Including those “You have been pre-approved” credit card invitations that you receive in the mail. Every time that you have your credit pulled by a potential creditor or lender, you lose points from your credit score immediately. Depending on the elements in your current credit report, you could lose anywhere from 2-50 points for one hard inquiry. 2. DON’T PAY OFF COLLECTIONS OR CHARGE OFFS during the loan process. Paying collections will decrease the credit score immediately due to the date of last activity becoming recent. If you want to pay off old accounts, do it through escrow, and make sure that 1) you validate that the debt is yours, and...