Home Staging Tips

goldendiningroom1Spring is traditionally the strongest time of year to sell your home.  If you want to sell, you need to get your home ready.  You want to win the beauty pageant.  The place to start, before you list your home for sale, is with proper home staging.  The way you live in your home and the way you sell your home are two different things.  It does add a layer of care to your already busy life, but it will payoff when you sell by getting your home sold more quickly and by helping you to get the best price possible.

Start by standing out at the street.  This is your buyer’s first impression.  Can you see the front door?  Can you see all of the windows?  Is the lawn green?  Are flower beds free of weeds and bushes nicely trimmed?  What about the color of the paint?  Is it one of the popular shades used today or something from when you moved in in 1996?  Is the roof clean and free of moss?  If you said no to any of these questions, then you’ve got work to do.  Too often homeowners let trees and bushes become over grown and drown the house.  Over-growth makes you house look like a big blob.  Do you want to buy a blob?  Neither does a buyer.

Next stand at your front door.  I believe this is the most critical moment for a buyer.  Remember that they will pause here for a minute or two while the Realtor gets the key from the lockbox and opens the door.  Your buyer will have time to look around and get a close-up look at everything around the front door.  I truly believe that they make a decision at this point.  If they like what they see, they will enter the house with a positive attitude and look for positive input to reinforce what they already believe.  If they get a bad impression, they’ll be critical as they go inside and look to find fault; again to reinforce what they already have decided.  The front door is usually a small area.  Here is what you need to do.  Wash or freshly paint the front door and the windows around the door.  Sweep or pressure wash all of the walls and ceiling around the door to get rid of spiders, webs, moths, and bug stuff.  Scrub the weather stripping at the threshold so that there is not one speck of grime.  Make sure weather stripping is in good shape, but that the door opens and closes easily.  Make sure the lock works!  Now add some color.  A couple of pots with flowers, a wreath on the front door.  Please, no holiday decorations that are months old, or pots of dead easter lillies.  Splurge and spend $20 on some nice flowers, then be sure to water them.

You’ve done it!  You’ve gotten your buyer inside.

You are moving, right?  Why not get a leg up on the job and start packing BEFORE you put your house up for sale.  You want to de-personalize your home.  Take down personal momentos, collections, most family photos, all of the stuff on the refrigerator.  It should be like a model home that you want to move right into.  And all of your very personal stuff keeps your buyer from feeling like it is “their” house.  I recommend that you do this one room at a time.  Just make a big pile in the middle of the room that you want to either store or donate/toss.  It is ok to have a few family photos.  For instance, a bookshelf with a combination of a few framed photos, some books, perhaps a small piece of art work or decorative glass, that is fine.  But that hallway photo gallery showing Joey, who is now 35, in every grade of school he ever attended:  take it down.

Less truly is more.  As you clean out clutter and stream-line each room, you will make them look larger.  A small home, well staged, can look bigger than large home full of clutter.

This is also true of furniture.  Make sure you store away anything that gets in the way in hallways, at the top of stairs, as you enter rooms, and on stairway landings.  The fact that you had no where else to put the furniture just screams “This house is too small!”.  In addition, they could actually be a safety hazzard when you have a group of people seeing the house together and unable to maneuver on the stairs.  Another important thought with furniture is do not cover up a homes features.  Don’t place TV’s in front of windows, or dressers across closets, or a couch across the fireplace.    Move the furniture around and show off each rooms best feature.  Make sure to not have too much furniture.  A few pieces in each room is all you need.  For a living room: a couch, a chair, a love seat, and a coffee or similar table is plenty.  If you have a piano, don’t be afraid to store the couch or the love seat.  You want the room to feel big and not to be dwarfed by the furniture.

The kitchen and bathroom counters are the toughest to empty and also the most important.  Many a buyer has ruled out a home because either the kitchen or the bathrooms seemed too small.  You can make them big, with a little effort.  As much as possible, but things away in cupboards.  A few things may be impossible to put away because they are constantly in use.  Hello?  The coffee pot?  With things you just have to have handy, cluster them into one group.  So if you have the coffee pot, the decorative decanter of olive oil, and the pepper mill tastefully gathered in one corner, and nothing else anywhere on the counter, you’ll get away with it.  Take away the cluster and string the three items around the kitchen and suddenly you got clutter.  Bunching is a wonderful thing.  The same thing holds true in the bathroom.  I also highly recommend baskets or decorative boxes.  If you use a container, you can pretty much fill the container and still keep things attractive.

The areas to focus your attention are:  the entry, the living room, the dining room, the family room, the kitchen, and the master bedroom and bath.  Do the whole house if you can, it will pay off.  But if you have limits to your ability to take on this project, at a minimum, get to these rooms.

Now for those of you who are after the best money and the quickest sale, you’ll take it to the next level.  Clean out closets and fold and stack everything in an orderly and tidy fashion.  Get your kids on board helping you.  Those big tubs that are made to hold toys are great.  Tell them that when they are finished playing, just throw everything in the tub.  It makes for a pretty quick clean up.  Go around the house and wash all of the windows and clean out all of the window tracks.  The pickiest buyer I have ever worked with did three things:  checked the window tracks for dirt, looked inside the oven to see if it was clean, and opened the dishwasher to look at the outer framing of the door.  If these areas were clean, she knew the rest of the house would be too.

Speaking of clean, it is absolutely the cheapest thing you can do to make your house show ready.  No one, not one buyer out there, wants to buy someone else’s dirt.  It just doesn’t happen.   Pay attention to the bottom of cupboards, the baseboards, around the bottom of the toilet.  Yep, everywhere.

You’ll need a place to store all of the stuff you are packing away.  If you can, rent a storage unit or get one of those PODS that allow you to pack things and then have them stored off-site.  If you can’t pay for storage, use your garage.  I would rather have a staged home with a garage that is stacked wall-to-wall and top-to-bottom than an empty garage and a messy house.

There are a couple of good websites I found that will give you ideas and perhaps be helpful:

From the National Associaiton of Realtors, click here.

From US News and World Report, click here.

And to visit Barb Schwartz’s website, click here.  Barb Schwartz is the queen of home staging.  She has been teaching Realtors techniques of home staging since before I was a Realtor (over 22 years).  I used to refer to staging a home as “Schwartzing” a home.  That’s how ingrained in my head this lady is.

goldenoldlrAt the top of this article is a photo of my listing in Mt. Park.  I want you to compare that photo to the one that you find to the right.  Can you see the big improvement?  The photo to the right is how this room used to look.  This was not a home with a problem of clutter.  This was a house that needed to show case the homes features.  The home owner moved the living room furniture to the other end of the room in order to showcase the wonderful windows.  Where a TV cabinet had blocked windows, now what you see is light and sunshine.  In addition, the owner replaced several windows that had broken seals.  Now when you walk in, you step back and feel the wow factor.  That is what sells a house.

Market Activity for May 18-24, 2009

Lots of houses continue to come onto the market, as is typical in the spring. Even with the holiday weekend there were 25 new listings in Lake Oswego. We also saw 21 houses receive offers and go pending and 2 closed sales.

Here is the latest market activity for Lake Oswego (see below the tables for additional notes):

NEWLY LISTED (May 18—May 24, 2009)

ADDRESS
LIST PRICE
TOT. BEDS
TOT. BATHS
TOT. SQ FT
PROP TYPE
LIST DATE
Address List Price # BR # BTHS Total SF Prop Type List Date
100 KERR PKWY $94,900 1 1 617 CONDO 5/21/2009
45 EAGLE CREST DR $139,900 1 1 768 CONDO 5/20/2009
86 KINGSGATE RD $149,900 2 2 849 CONDO 5/20/2009
276 CERVANTES $183,000 3 2 1,209 CONDO 5/21/2009
235 CERVANTES $188,000 2 2 1,100 CONDO 5/21/2009
16250 PACIFIC HWY $220,000 1 1 841 CONDO 5/19/2009
16428 SW BONAIRE AVE $269,950 3 1 1,240 DETACHD 5/19/2009
16250 PACIFIC HWY $274,500 2 2 1,305 CONDO 5/19/2009
4 WHEATHERSTONE $334,950 3 2.1 1,692 CONDO 5/18/2009
6321 ALYSSA TER $339,000 3 2.1 1,582 ATTACHD 5/18/2009
14141 GOODALL RD $389,900 3 2.1 1,907 DETACHD 5/22/2009
19221 REDWING CT $397,500 3 2 1,374 DETACHD 5/22/2009
147 6TH ST $425,000 3 1 1,584 DETACHD 5/18/2009
668 MCVEY AVE 425000 – 450000 3 1.1 992 CONDO 5/20/2009
16950 LAKERIDGE DR $479,000 4 2.1 2,305 DETACHD 5/23/2009
4938 MULHOLLAND DR $529,900 3 2.1 2,498 ATTACHD 5/19/2009
4959 BILFORD LN $547,500 3 2.1 2,456 DETACHD 5/19/2009
475 COUNTRY CLUB CT $549,000 3 2.1 1,705 DETACHD 5/18/2009
5400 BAY CREEK DR $550,000 4 2.1 2,856 DETACHD 5/22/2009
686 SUNNY HILL DR $569,500 4 2.1 2,300 DETACHD 5/21/2009
4305 UPPER DR $749,000 4 2.1 3,474 DETACHD 5/20/2009
1755 SOUTHSHORE BLVD $949,000 5 3.1 4,757 DETACHD 5/21/2009
943 SW ATWATER RD $975,000 4 2.1 3,874 DETACHD 5/21/2009
14480 KRUSE OAKS BLVD $1,149,000 4 3.1 4,661 DETACHD 5/18/2009
18042 SKYLAND CIR $1,499,000 4 3 4,800 DETACHD 5/22/2009

PENDING SALES (May 18-May 24, 2009)

ADDRESS
LIST PRICE
TOT. BEDS
TOT. BATHS
TOT. SQ FT
PROP TYPE
DOM
Address List Price # BR # BTHS Total SF Prop Type CDOM
45 EAGLE CREST DR $134,900 2 1.1 1,056 CONDO 6
4000 CARMAN DR $149,900 2 2 925 CONDO 699
4000 CARMAN DR $179,900 2 2 1,100 CONDO 72
1602 BONNIEBRAE DR 224900 – 254876 2 1 864 ATTACHD 256
103 KINGSGATE RD $299,900 3 2.1 1,352 DETACHD 56
18543 LONGFELLOW AVE $305,000 3 1.1 1,279 DETACHD 97
5918 SEVILLE AVE $315,000 4 2 1,752 DETACHD 14
45 TANGLEWOOD DR $345,000 5 3.1 3,166 DETACHD 71
15 MASARYK ST $349,900 3 3 3,680 DETACHD 131
111 3RD ST $399,900 2 2 1,206 CONDO 276
815 10TH ST $399,950 3 2 2,190 DETACHD 298
606 2ND ST $420,000 4 3 3,022 DETACHD 34
17825 SARAH HILL LN $464,900 4 2.1 2,525 DETACHD 5
2 PIMLICO TER $479,900 4 2.1 2,301 DETACHD 21
14412 MEADOW GRASS ST $500,000 4 2.1 3,563 DETACHD 364
5026 HARTFORD PL $524,900 5 2.1 3,253 DETACHD 319
17445 LAKE HAVEN DR $539,900 4 3 2,949 DETACHD 9
1245 BAYBERRY RD $559,000 3 2 1,728 DETACHD 342
5590 KODERRA AVE $599,900 4 2.1 3,072 DETACHD 10
5322 Langford LN $759,000 4 2.1 3,218 DETACHD 178
17970 ROYCE WAY $995,000 4 4.2 5,226 DETACHD 285

SOLD (May 11-May 17, 2009)

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ADDRESS ORIG. PRICE SALE PRICE
TOT. BEDS
TOT. BATHS
TOT. SQ FT
PROP TYPE
DOM
Address O/Price Close Price # BR # BTHS Total SF Prop Type CDOM
4724 SW FIRWOOD RD $299,900 $279,900 3 1.1 1,240 DETACHD 296
13805 REGENCY CT $419,000 $373,000 4 2.1 2,045 DETACHD 29

Criteria: Homes in the 97034 and 97035 zip code, listed, pending or sold between the dates listed above as reported by the Regional Multiple Listing Service (RMLS). DETACHD refers to Single Family Detached Residence, MFG refers to manufactured housing, and ATTACHD refers to single-family residences with some portion of the structure attached to another property, but not constituting CONDO ownership. DOM stands for days on market, or the number of days from when the listing became active and when it received an acceptable offer, with CDOM standing for “cumulative days on market” accounting for “refreshed” listings.

Finding a Great Restaurant

For some time now I’ve been wanting to highlight some local restaurants and places that I enjoy frequenting here in Lake Oswego.  Today I want to let you know about 3 wonderful restaurants on the Lake Grove side of town.  All 3 are practically institutions in the area, having been in business for many years.  They are also located in a cluster along the same stretch of Boones Ferry Rd, the main road through the West end of town.

la-provenceLa Provence is the youngster in the group.  The founders of the restaurant, Pascal, Didier, and Alain came from France in 1996 wanting to share their passion for the French Patisserie, which is a bakery that specializes in pastries and sweets.  Don’t be fooled by the outstanding selection of breads, tortes, cakes and croissants that are showcased as you walk-in.  This restaurant offers first class food well beyond the temptations of sweets.  When the restaurant first opened it specialized in breakfast and lunch.  My favorite breakfast choice has long been the smoked-salmon hash.  Served over crispy hash browns, the smoked salmon is topped by a poached egg and creamy dill sauce.  The homemade bread makes delicious toast, and the coffee is outstanding.  For lunch I recommend the French onion soup.  It is the best I have ever had.  And in the last year or so the restaurant has begun to stay open for dinner service.  I recently had a wonderful dinner there at a time when they were offering live music.  I consider the pricing to be affordable and the food highly reliable.  The atmosphere is relaxed and sunny with bright splashes of color from the art work and provencial-style table cloths.  Located at 15964 Boones Ferry Rd, you can find menus and more information at their website, www.provence-portland.com/

gubancsNext door to La Provence is Gubanc’s.  Gubanc’s and I have something in common.  We both came to Lake Oswego in 1976.  I guess you could say that we kind of grew up together.  Owned by Tony and Anne Gubanc, this restaurant is a neighborhood classic.  The atmosphere is classy while being comfortable.  Not too expensive, you’ll find the food to be Northwest with an interesting flair.  The restaurant is most famous for its soups.  They have 80 different varieties that were personally created for their menu.  While the traditionals like clam chowder are available, you will also often find unusual selections like Chicken and Pear or Santa Fe Chicken with White Bean.  Yum.  A great deal at lunch is the Soup Board.  For $7.50 you get a generous bowl of homemade soup with a side board of bread, cheese, and fruit.  Dinner options include South Western Pork Wraps, Chicken and Dumplings, and Halibut Provencial.  For dessert they are well known for their Fresh Fruit Cobbler.  You’ll find it busy every night of the week.  There is a full bar and I think there are quite a few regulars who eat dinner here several nights a week.  To continue to fill the dining room night-after-night for over 30 years, you know they must be doing something right.  Located at 16008 Boones Ferry Rd.  For a copy of the menu and more information, visit Gubanc’s website at www.gubancspub.com.

riccardosFinally, I want to brag about Riccardo’s.  This is my favorite “special occasion” restaurant in Lake Oswego.  Not that you would only want to go there on special occasions, like an anniversary or a birthday.  I have gone there with friends for a casual lunch or dinner many times.  It’s just that I’ve also celebrated many birthdays and anniversaries there.  In my mind, it is a special place that provides just the right atmosphere for a special night out.  Opened in 1980 by Riccardo and Georgette Spaccarelli, it is very fine Italian dining at it’s best.  The Spaccarellis are known for their annual trips to Italy where they visit wine producers and make selections to offer with their food.  The entire meal is extremely authentic.   It’s also mouth watering and complex.  My favorite item on the menu is the Penna Strozzapreti.  Penna pasta with a sauce of cremini mushrooms, black olives, garlic, and sun-dried tomatoes in a light cream sauce that is then dusted with parmigiano reggiano.  That is comfort food to me and a real taste treat.  There are two dining rooms.  The inside room seats 55 and is very nice.   But my favorite, and where I always make it a point to dine, is the outside patio.  It seats 75 and is surrounded by high walls that in the summer are topped with flowers.  There are terra cotta tiled floors and several fountains.  The perimeter tables do have a roof over them and in cooler weather they have numerous heaters to keep you warm.  No, I don’t think you’d be able to dine out there in January.  But for most of the year you can.  It is not only comfortable, you will feel like you’ve gone to Italy.  Riccardo’s is just across the street from Gubanc’s and La Provence at 16035 Boones Ferry Rd.  You can find their menu and more information at their website, www.riccardoslo.com

There are other great restaurants in LO.  I’ll work on giving other recommendations in the future, but this is a good starting point for a new resident in the area.  And just like the long-time residents, you’ll go back again and again.

It’s Spring Break! Where Teens Go in LO…

westend-bldgLake Oswego is known far & wide for its family-friendly environment and involved citizenry. The schools here are excellent, there are clubs and outlets for all kinds of interests, and of course a myriad of programs for kids of all ages.  I wanted to take a moment to highlight a terrific resource called the “McKenzie Lounge for Teens”.

bright-roomThe McKenzie Lounge is located in the West End Building at 4101 Kruse Way.  The Youth Action Council, YAC, and other generous donors have made sure that it is packed with the kinds of things teens find inviting, including: a pool table, foosball table, ping pong table, TV’s, couches, comfy chairs, bean bag chairs, video games, refreshments and plenty more.  It was designed specifically for teens by Janet Bocci, as well as YAC and parks and recreation staff members.

tablesAccording to the city’s website, drop-in hours are 6-9PM Monday thru Friday for all teens ages 12-18 who want to come and hang out with friends and/or meet new ones. After school it is open to Jr. High teens from 3-6PM for the After School Program. Since its inception in the Fall of 2007, it has hosted over 3,000 visitors, not including special events like Java Jam, LakeFest and others (figures as of November 2008).  The Lounge is also the magnet meeting place for all teen groups such as YAC, the JavaJam Planning Committee, The After School Activity Program (ASAP) and clubs from both high schools including Ping Pong Club and Reflections.

couches1The best thing about the McKenzie Lounge however, is that teens actually report enjoying it! For instance, during the election, the Lounge hosted a series of “Debate ’08” nights featuring the Presidential and Vice Presidential Debates, opportunities for lively discussion, as well as food and extra credits from social studies teachers. The debate series attendance reportedly totaled 115 students, drop-in attendance is reportedly growing by 25% every three months, and teens have been quoted as saying that the McKenzie Lounge ranks right up there with Taco Bell and the video game store as cool hang-out choices.

With Spring Break upon us, upcoming activities include March Madness games and March’s Java Jam featuring two musical guests and YAC’s “Project Runway” contest.

In addition to the ongoing happenings at McKenzie Lounge, Lake Oswego offers more fun teen activities this Spring Break including: Ski and Snowboard Camp at Timberline Ski Resort, Glow-In-The-Dark-Bowling, Rock Climbing and a Portland Lumberjacks field trip. Check out the city’s website (link above) for more information!

Real Estate “No No’s”

nono1A while back Dianne wrote a post on the Realtors Code of Ethics.  I loved that post because I don’t think most people are aware of all the standards to which Realtors are held.  It really is great to be in a profession where we are mandated to treat each other and the general public with respect. That mandate then becomes a part of our culture. I notice it in the conversations I have with other Realtors.  There definitely is a flavor of deliberate respect that is not always the experience for most of us in the day-to-day “non-real estate”  wider world of affairs.

I read something in the recent REALTOR magazine published by the Portland Metropolitan Association of Realtors (PMAR), and written by Jo Becker of the Fair Housing Council of Oregon on subject matter along the same lines that made me think you’d find it interesting. This is regarding words Realtors may and may not use in promoting properties, and the overall guidelines of the Fair Housing Act.

HUD is the federal regulatory body with the power to enforce the Fair Housing Act.  Generally speaking, the Fair Housing Act is in place to ensure that discrimination and something called “steering”, among other things, do not inhibit peoples’ right to live wherever the heck they want and are qualified to. It is also set up to ensure that the public receives information about housing that is fair and as free as possible of inaccurate and/or unduly influencing or discriminatory language.  “Steering” is essentially trying to influence buyers to live in, or not live in, certain areas based on something other than the buyers’ own parameters for what they want in a new home & neighborhood.  Basically, a Realtor is to supply a buyer with options for potential homes based on the information a buyer supplies to the Realtor regarding their wants & needs.  A Realtor will often refer a buyer in the overall Portland area to this website:   www.PortlandMaps.com where the buyer can enter the address of any property and view all kinds of facts on a property including statistical, demographic and crime information. Buyers are ultimately choosing a home that fits their particular needs, and Realtors are there to assist with service, information and real estate expertise.

The Fair Housing Council of Oregon’s website states plainly:

The Fair Housing Council of Oregon (FHCO) is a civil rights organization with a mission of eliminating housing discrimination through enforcement and education across Oregon and southwest Washington.

We promote equal access to housing by providing education, outreach, technical assistance, and enforcement opportunities specifically related to federal, state, and local fair housing laws. These laws protect against illegal housing discrimination based on “protected class status.”

The federally protected classes are:
race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status and disability

There are additional state and local protected classes.

When a Realtor enters listing information into RMLS, it is scanned for potential “no no’s” that are most always either unintentional or erroneous, i.e., as the article I mention elaborates- the RMLS program may highlight the word “white” for the Realtor’s attention when it is only being used as a description for a picket fence etc.  A real human at RMLS who understands context always reviews these issues, according to the article. There is no “list” of unnacceptable words as many people believe.  It’s all about intention, and about upholding our highest societal values… as well as the law.  Some terms can seem to be either benign or on the edge but for their context, for instance, the term “Walk-In Closet” is commonly understood to describe a well-known feature in many homes.  As long as the Realtor is not trying to imply a limit on access to someone who is not ambulatory this term is not a problem. “View Property” falls into the same category as long as no one is limiting access to the “view property” to sighted individuals only. The same goes for “Mother-In-Law Suite” and “Bachelor Apartment” according to the article. Where it can become trickier is with words like “near”.  Often a house will be described as “Near shopping, transit” etc., which is OK.  What is not OK, due to implications that certain people may or may not be welcome in that neighborhood, are things like: “Near ABC Mosque” or “Close to the XYZ Church” or “Near the LMN Jewish Community Center”.  It is also not considered proper to refer to specific schools due to the potential for using this technique to promote some schools over others for the same kinds of reasons. It is generally considered all right to refer to school districts as long as this is done consistently throughout a Realtor’s listings.

The article refers to a few blatantly illegal and discriminatory statements that have evidently actually been published on a popular local online service. These are obviously examples of absolute “no no’s” and you will not see these or anything like them on RMLS:

  • “No minorities”,
  • “African Americans and Arabians tend to clash with me so that won’t work out”,
  • “Ladies, please rent from me”,
  • “Requirements: Clean, Godly Christian Male”,
  • “Will allow only single occupancy”,
  • “No children”,
  • “Christians only”.

These are all clear violations of the Fair Housing Act.  Fair Housing Act laws apply in newspapers, flyers, yard signs, verbal statements, and online advertising among other instances & places.

For questions about Fair Housing Laws visit:   www.FHCO.org

or call:   503 223 8197   or   1-800 424 3247.

Open Houses for December 20th and 21st

I salute the brave Realtor who is hosting the only open house promoted for Lake Oswego on the RMLS this weekend:

41 Hillshire Dr, a detached home with 2670 square feet. Built in 1983, it has 4 bedrooms and 3 baths. it will be open this Sunday, December 21st, from 1:30 to 3:30.

Have a lovely weekend. Stay safe and enjoy the snow.

Code of Ethics

While having lunch with friends recently one woman was telling us about the difficulty she had with some of her co-workers. I guess there was a good deal of gossiping and even some back stabbing that went on behind people’s backs. My initial reaction to her story was dismay over her situation and then personal gratitude that I don’t work in such circumstances. And then it occurred to me why I don’t have that sort of work environment. It’s the code of ethics! As a Realtor, I must adhere to a code of ethics that requires fair dealings with other Realtors. I simply am not allowed to say bad things about them. It then occurred to me that the general public probably doesn’t know about the Realtor Code of Ethics. At this time of year, when our thoughts are turned to family, friends, and religious celebrations, it seems appropriate to tell you about the Code of Ethics.

In order to be a Realtor in the State of Oregon you must agree to adhere to the Code of Ethics. Both the Oregon Association of Realtors and the National Association of Realtors require abiding by the Code of Ethics. It is possible to be a real estate agent without being a Realtor, but it is not possible to be a Realtor without meeting the requirements of the Code of Ethics. A Realtor is required to take training on the Code of Ethics every 4 years to make certain that he or she remembers and is familiar with this code. What is it? In a nutshell, it pretty much boils down to the golden rule. Be fair and honest in all of your dealings with clients and with other Realtors, just as you want them to be fair and honest in their dealings with you.

The Code of Ethics is actually a rather beautiful document. The Preamble begins “Under all is the land. Upon its wise utilization and widely allocated ownership depend the survival and growth of free institutions and of our civilization.” It is well written, well thought out, and something that can be applied to life as a whole. Besides the Preamble, there are 3 sections: Duties to Clients and Customers, Duties to the Public, and Duties to Realtors. Each section contains guidelines for fair and honest business practices, honesty in advertising, as well as professionalism and protection when dealing with the public. This code serves as a promise to the public that when dealing with a real estate agent that is a Realtor you can expect honest and ethical treatment in all of your dealings. How cool is that? Don’t you wish every profession had a Code of Ethics? I do.

Not all real estate agents are Realtors. So when choosing a professional to help you to buy or to sell a home, be certain to find out if they are a Realtor. If they have the Realtor designation, you can gain assurance that your transaction will be handled by someone who adheres to the Realtor Code of Ethics.

If you’d like to read the Code of Ethics, here is a link to the Portland Metropolitan Association of Realtors where a copy is available: click here.

Open Houses for Sunday, December 7th

What a gorgeous day today! I guess I need to check the weather for Sunday, but it could be a great day to look at Lake Oswego properties. Here’s what will be open according to RMLS:

18959 Kristi Way, $384,400, 3 Bd, 2 Ba, Open 1-3:30

14371 Holly Springs Rd, $427,500, 4 Bd, 2.5 Ba, Open 2-4

668 4th St, $439,900, 2 Bd, 2 Ba, Open 2-4

5807 Ridgetop Ct, $549,900, 5 Bd, 2.5 Ba, Open 1-4

624 Livingood Ln, $574,900, 4 Bd, 3 Ba, Open 1-3

605 SW Country Club Rd, $595,000, 5 Bd, 2.5 Ba, Open 11-1

4676 Winthrop Ct, $599,900, 4 Bd, 2.5 Ba, Open 2-4

17706 Marylbrook Dr, $699,900, 3 Bd, 2 & 2 1/2 Ba, Open 1:30-4

943 SW Atwater Rd, $1,225,000, 4 Bd, 2.5 Ba, Open 12-2

16359 Chapin Way, $1,439,000, 4 Bd, 3.5 Ba, Open 1-4

24015 SW Newland Rd, $1.695,000, 4 Bd, 4 Ba, Open 1-4

Lake Oswego Real Estate Activity – November 24-30, 2008

Market activity typically slows down during the holidays and last weeks stats certainly reflect this.  Having said this, it is good to see that the market does have some activity.  7 new listings, 4 pendings and 4 closed sales happened last week.  While the market is slower, it is still very much happening.

NEWLY LISTED (November 24 —November 30, 2008)

ADDRESS
LIST PRICE
# BEDS
# BATHS
TOT. SQ FT
PROP TYPE
LIST DATE
3433 MCNARY PKWY
$214,900
2
2
1,008
CONDO
11/27/08
3834 BOTTICELLI ST
$224,900
2
2
1,055
ATTACHD
11/24/08
600 TIPPECANOE CT
$439,800
3
2
1,812
DETACHD
11/24/08
1189 SUNNINGDALE CT
$724,000
3
2
2,056
DETACHD
11/26/08
51 HILLSHIRE DR
$849,900
3
2.2
4,306
DETACHD
11/25/08
1667 VILLAGE PARK LN
$899,900
6
3.1
4,743
DETACHD
11/24/08
1055 COUNTRY CLUB RD
$1,000,000
3
2
2,804
DETACHD
11/24/08

PENDING SALES (November 24 —November 30, 2008)

ADDRESS
LIST PRICE
# BEDS
# BATHS
TOT. SQ FT
PROP TYPE
DOM
668 McVey AVE
$144,850
0
1
485
CONDO
740
455 10TH ST
$473,950
2
2
2,284
DETACHD
180
17561 SHEPHERDS CT
$675,000
4
2.1
3,011
DETACHD
287
13010 KNAUS RD
$1,249,500
4
3.1
4,312
DETACHD
737

SOLD (November 17—November 23, 2008)

ADDRESS ORIG. PRICE SALE PRICE
# BEDS
# BATHS
TOT. SQ FT
PROP TYPE
DOM
4644 LOWER DR
$136,900
$129,000
2
1.1
1,170
CONDO
30
4000 CARMAN DR
$149,900
$135,000
2
2
869
CONDO
22
2435 PARK RD
$749,990
$480,000
4
3
2,940
DETACHD
302
16 NORTHVIEW CT
$599,900
$495,000
4
3.1
2,962
ATTACHD
419

Criteria: Homes in the 97034 and 97035 zip code, listed, pending or sold between the dates listed above as reported by the Regional Multiple Listing Service (RMLS). DETACHD refers to Single Family Detached Residence, MFG refers to manufactured housing, and ATTACHD refers to single-family residences with some portion of the structure attached to another property, but not constituting CONDO ownership. DOM stands for days on market, or the number of days from when the listing became active and when it received an acceptable offer.