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

Whose Fence is it Anyway? How to Resolve Fence Problems with Your Neighbor

March 17, 2023

Living in a city often means living in tight spaces. Portland is no different, especially with the possibility of an increase in additions and new construction, thanks to the city’s new Residential Infill Project (RIP). Homeowners install fences on their properties for a variety of reasons: to keep pets and children safe, to serve as a tidy perimeter for landscaping, and to maintain privacy. It’s been said that good fences make good neighbors, but fences can also cause antagonism when disputes between neighbors arise over property boundaries. Here, we’ll sort through Oregon fence laws and local codes and restrictions and offer some useful tips for resolving fence conflicts peacefully. What Causes Fence and Boundary Conflicts Between Neighbors? Previous negotiation—Your neighbor...

Selling Mom and Dad’s Portland Home

March 8, 2023

Underneath the plains of Romania lies a cave that has been sealed off from the rest of the world for 5.5 million years. According to the BBC, “While our ape-like ancestors were coming down from the trees and evolving into modern humans, the inhabitants of this cave were cut off from the rest of the planet.” Insects, spiders, fungi and bacteria evolved separately in the low-oxygen environment, and scientists have discovered at least 33 species that exist nowhere else on earth! Does this cave sound like a place you know? Before a house becomes a “property” listed on the real estate market, it’s somebody’s home. And some of these homes have been, like Movile Cave, sealed off from the rest...

Portland Home Energy Score – Required for All Rentals? 2023 Update.

February 10, 2023

The city of Portland’s Home Energy Score (HES) program has been in effect for five years now, and since its inception in January of 2018, almost 35,000 HES assessments have been performed (as of November 2022). A key driver in its creation was the 2015 Climate Action Plan, in which the Portland City Council identified actions to support the goal of reducing CO2 emissions 80% by the year 2050. One of those was the implementation of a home energy scoring program, and Portland became the first city in Oregon and only the second in the country (after Berkley, CA) to establish one. Let’s take a look at how the HES program has grown over the past five years. Portland Home...

Modern Kitchen Upgrades to Boost Your Home’s Value in 2023

February 6, 2023

As a real estate agent in my 20th year working in the Portland metro, I have seen every possible style of kitchen, from those that seem to be “frozen in time” and never updated after being built or up to a certain decade to high-end remodels complete with the latest technology, and everything in between. A common saying among real estate agents is, “kitchens sell houses”, and with the way we live at home, with meals, activities and socializing revolving around the kitchen, and the reality that updated kitchens are the number one priority for prospective homebuyers, this adage rings true. Remodeling Magazine’s Cost vs. Value report for 2022 reveals that the national average return on investment (ROI) for a...

5 Options to Sell Your Home Online in 2023

February 3, 2023

According to a 2022 report by the National Association of Realtors, 47% of homebuyers first consulted online listings when beginning their search for a new home. This is an increase from 43% in 2020, and also important to note is the fact that 96% of all buyers used online tools during their search process. While the internet has played a major role in the housing market for many years now, its importance only continues to grow and its role in real estate transactions continues to evolve. This brings us to the increasing presence of iBuyers: online companies that claim to buy your home as-is for cash in a quick and easy sale with rates that are competitive with local realtors....

The Bigger the Home, the Less it Sells for Per Square Foot.

January 30, 2023

After selling homes in Portland, Oregon for twenty years, I’ve picked up on a lot of consistent patterns that helps me to price homes correctly and give my clients the best possible real estate advice. Whether it is the best time to sell or buy a home, knowing the factors that causes a home to sell for more or less, or the reasons why a home sells or doesn’t, I’ve enjoyed the process of learning and researching over the years. I can tell my clients exactly how much value is added to a home if they add an ADU, solar panels, or a swimming pool (all based on local statistics). Through my local research I can let them know how...

Do Solar Panels Increase the Value of a Home in Portland, Oregon? 2023 Report

January 16, 2023

There have been a number of national studies on the impact installing solar panels has on home value. But, as one might imagine, there is likely a strong regional effect. Installing solar panels in Arizona might be a lot more desirable and have a greater impact on their home values, than adding solar panels to a home in the cloudy Pacific Northwest. So it is important to have some local research done, so a homeowner knows what the home value impact will be where they live, in this case Portland, Oregon, which is also likely to reflect the impact of solar panels on home values within its greater region – the Pacific Northwest. (We conduct many other regular research reports...

3 Hacks to Help a Home Sell in a Slow(er) Real Estate Market

January 13, 2023

The Portland real estate market slowed down significantly in late 2022 and is still much slower than normal as we enter 2023. There will be a spring bump, as that is always the best time to sell a home in our metro area, but we expect prices to drop again in 2023 by July or August (most likely July). See our full forecast for the local 2023 real estate market here. The 4 Main Reasons a Home Sells (or Not) The are three foundational elements to a home sale. The market. The house. The price. The marketing. This is important to contemplate when a home is not selling. Is it just the market, and you need to wait for the...

For Sale By Owners Homes Sell for 25% Less, 2023 Report

December 19, 2022

The National Association of Realtors, NAR, puts out an annual in-depth research report on what actually causes homes to sell across the U.S., down to a percentage point. This annual report also includes information on for sale by owner homes, how many there were in the last year and how they performed versus Realtor listed homes. In 2022, a full 10% of homeowners sold their property FSBO, or for sale by owner. This was a pretty big increase from the 2021 report and most believe it is due to the ever increasing low inventory, a wildly strong sellers market, which led more homeowners to try FSBO than in previous years. Also, desperate homebuyers tried contacting more homeowners direct, that didn’t...

How to Get a Home to Sell in 2023

November 18, 2022

In order to increase your changes to sell a home in 2023, which is expected to be a tougher real estate market than usual, it is most important to know exactly how homes sell across the country. What causes a home to sell or not? We perform a ton of research locally to answer that question, and thankfully NAR, National Association of Realtors, puts out a huge report annually to assist in answering how homes sell nationally. Three Main Factors that Lead to a Home Sale According to the latest NAR fall 2022 report, the buyer found the home they ended up purchasing using these methods: % of the time Where the buyer found the home they purchased. 91% Found...