Real Estate Technology

As a top real estate team in the U.S. it has been crucial for us to stay on top of the ever-changing real estate technology trends in order to better serve our homebuying and selling clients. To help us maintain our edge, we research and write reports on the latest technology to buy or sell a home.

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

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

Fact: Professional Photography Sells Portland Real Estate

December 8, 2017

It’s happened to all of us. We see an item in the store, something about it makes us feel great, and we buy it on the spot. Our Portland real estate team has figured out how to capture that “love at first sight” effect to sell homes. How? Picking the right professional photography company to partner with. Because 95% of home buyers search online for their next home (according to the National Association of Realtors), the images they see are going to make the difference between asking their buyers’ agent for a showing and clicking on to the next listing. Here’s another fun fact: According to the Wall Street Journal, home buyers look at photos for three times as long...

Use Technology to Help Your Portland Home Purchase

May 26, 2017

The Portland real estate market right now is competitive! Everyone is moving fast, so some good tech tips can go a long ways. Here are my top seven real estate agent tech tips to help you find that next Portland home. 1. Stalk an excellent buyer’s agent. No, really! Finding a buyers’ agent who will truly work for you is the single most important thing you can do as a home buyer in this market. Hint: If you’re on the Yelp app, close it down. Zillow and Realtor.com both have verified agent reviews (check out our blog post on real estate agent reviews here). Don’t stop there, though — go to that Realtor’s web site and read about what makes...

Top 5 Reasons To Use The Best Portland Home Search Program

February 6, 2017

Are you looking for a home in Portland this year? Did you know that we have our own real estate search tool that outshines the big guys’ at Zillow, Trulia and the rest? Here are the top five reasons you can’t afford not to use PortlandHomesforSale.com. 5. It’s updated every 30 minutes. There is only one primary source of information about property listings in any real estate market: The real estate agents themselves. After signing a listing agreement with a client, they quickly go to the Multiple Listing Service, a database only licensed real estate agents have all the access to, and enter the information. From there, corporate sites like Zillow, Trulia and Redfin copy the information and make it...

When to Use a Drone Video to Sell a Luxury Home

June 12, 2015

Aerial drone videos are a relatively new but powerful marketing tool that can help you sell the right luxury home. Here are two main reasons to use a drone video to help sell your home: 1. If you have an amazing view (like the video below) pictures cannot capture the value of a majestic view. 2. If you have acres of land and a lot of the value is in the property itself, pictures cannot convey the vastness of what you are selling, but a drone video in a short video can. If you don’t have a lot of land or an amazing view, a drone video is pointless. A great professional photo of the exterior of your home is...

Sell Your Home Fast With Professional Staging and Photography

February 23, 2015

Spring buying season is here and Portland home sellers will need to make some big decisions. Picking a great real estate agent is first. After that, it would be a good idea to start thinking about who will help you stage and photograph your home. Is staging really that important? It depends. If you have a big vacant home (2200+ Sq. Ft.) I think it is. If you have a small vacant home typically the buyer’s imagination is enough. If you are currently living in your home, think of the stager as an interior designer with a focus not on what you want, but what sells (what the market wants). My recommended stagers do whole house consultations and it is...

The Best Real Estate Map Search for Portland Homes

September 9, 2014

When you go for a road trip, you always bring a map, whether on paper or on your smartphone. You want a map that’s both easy to use and accurate, so that you arrive at your destination without getting lost or driving into a lake. Setting off on a journey to buy or sell a home in Portland? Maps are becoming a key online tool to not only find homes for sale but also to learn about market trends and neighborhood statistics. They display information visually and in layers, instead of as a list or block of text, so that it’s fast and easy to understand. Good maps make it easy to click-through to learn more information about a given...

Professional Photographs – should I use to sell my Portland home?

October 29, 2013

In a word, yes. Unless you are selling a fixer in as-is condition, professional photographs will make all the difference in marketing your Portland home for sale. The number one thing that makes homes sell these days is internet exposure (see our in-depth post here) and I strongly believe the number two thing is the pictures those buyers see online. Amazingly, many Portland real estate agents take terrible, and I mean terrible photos of their own listings. Personally as a licensed Realtor in Portland, I have taken a few classes on professional photography and bought for myself a top of the line Canon SLR with the appropriate lenses. And still, I recommend calling in the professionals – more often than...

Top 4 Real Estate Websites: Zillow, Trulia, Yahoo, & Realtor

July 31, 2012

Continuing their dominance, Zillow, Trulia, Yahoo, and Realtor.com round out the top four used real estate websites, according to HitWize. For those who are unaware, Zillow powers Yahoo’s real estate sites making Zillow as a program both first and third. Realtor.com has slowly slipped from the top spot, but remains number one in a number of other important categories, like time on site. As a local Portland Realtor, my suggestion is to use Realtor.com, or my Portland home search program. While Zillow continues to be the most popular it also has the worst data. Homes shown as active on Zillow may have expired or sold months or even years prior. Trulia maintains a better data program, but still suffers from...

Professional Photographs?

January 6, 2011

As a top Portland real estate agent, I believe I take great photographs for my clients and have even taken some classes to enhance my skills. Yet, I always offer professional photography services to all my listing clients. Why? Right now, there is nothing more important in selling your home than its online exposure. 92% of buyers are using the internet in their home search (NAR report 2013). I pay to feature my homes on the top 5 real estate websites so they show up first in search results – and it makes all the difference. Photographs are the most impacting part of your online presentation. I take great photographs, but I cannot compete with professional photographers who have the...