2E // Real Estate & Home Builders Guide // October 2016
A
& H om ebu ilders G u ide
EAST ZONE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Home Buyer's Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14E
Pendleton Landlord Rentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19E
Subscribe to REG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 04E
Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12E
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To Advertise in the Eastern Oregon Real Estate & Homebuilders Guide Contact
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Q
: About three years ago, I started
planning for my retirement and the sale
of my home. I contacted a top Realtor to
give me advice about selling my home.
Homes in my area are selling for
$800,000 and more. I was told to declutter
my 20 plus years of “things” and get back to
the Realtor. This Realtor gave me the name
of another person to work with to buy my
retirement home, but when I tried to contact
the Realtor a year later I got no response.
So, I found a different broker who came
in, gave me a $20,000 list of things to do
to the home (including painting, hardwood
cleaning and window washing). He planned
on marketing the house around $650,000. It
didn’t work out with him.
Also, I hired an appraiser and he told me
to cancel the listing agreement as it could
hurt me. He said there were “no comps” for
my home at the time. So, I went on to broker
number three. This broker had absolutely
nothing good to say about my home. This
broker said that we would meet later to
discuss price, but months later I heard
nothing from her.
My home has not been on the market
but I have now started to work with broker
number four. She is talking to an architect
to get advice but neither she nor the archi-
tect is talking to me. She has been talking
about a sales price hundreds of thousands of
dollars below tax value for the home.
I don’t understand what’s going on. My
home has been well-maintained physically.
The home was originally built in the late
1940s with a major addition done in the
1980s. I know it has laws but also know
that it is in a great location, close to great
hospitals and businesses. Do you have any
ideas for me because I have the feeling that
if this meeting ever happens it will not go
well. I have given her my bottom line price
and she asked me for my igures for how
I came to that total. I found that insulting
as an educated professional. I knew that it
might take time to sell my home, but never
thought I would be unable to get it on the
market.
: We appreciate your situation but your
letter is revealing both by what it does
not say and by some of the clues you’ve
included. Buyers these days want to move
into a home and be done with it. They’re not
looking to do too much work and frequently
want old homes to look like new. We’re in
the HGTV generation, and buyers expect
homes will look like the homes they see
on their favorite television shows or on
Pinterest.
Given this, all four of the real estate
agents you have talked to appear to see big
problems with your home. We also imagine
that the brokers are afraid to tell you the
truth or, if they are calling it like they see it,
you aren’t listening to what they have to say.
You say you know that your home has
laws. If four top real estate agents refuse
to list the property, it has more than a few
simple laws. We think you need to really
need to step back and look at your home
objectively.
We’ve seen homes located in highly
sought after areas that don’t sell or sell
for far less than their owners anticipated
because they believe that their homes are
perfect. In reality, the homes are perfect
for them (the sellers) but leave much to
be desired by buyers. Perhaps the homes
have years of deferred maintenance
including moss growing on the roof, ivy
that’s overgrown over windows, shutters
that are off their hinges, driveways with
potholes, overgrown trees and shrubs that
have overtaken their original purpose.
Once you’ve lived in a home for a decade,
you may not see these issues as clearly as a
buyer who has driven by your home for the
irst time.
Inside, we’ve seen homes with worn
carpeting, overstuffed closets, basements
that seem more like a warehouse, attics
that are not accessible due to the clutter and
rooms that have magazines piled all over
the place. Some homes have bookshelves
covering all of the walls of most rooms,
others have wall decorations covering every
square inch of the walls. Each of these
situations creates a unique situation and
problem for a broker trying to sell the home.
A real estate agent would prefer to see a
home that is in good shape, well taken care
of, spotlessly clean and clutter free. They
would prefer to see a home with neutral
colors that allow the light to come into the
home.
So, what are we saying? If you’ve had
four top brokers in to see your home over
the past 12 to 18 months and none want to
list your home, they must know it’s going
to be a really hard sell. It’s either a hard sell
because you are unrealistic about the value
of your home or there are severe deicien-
cies in the way your home shows to make it
unrealistic to sell it at the price you want.
R e al E state
Jeanne Jewett • Amanda Jacobs • Audra Workman • Dayle Stinson
Stephanie Newsom • Chris McClellan • Terri Briggs
By Ilyce Glink
and Samuel J. Tamkin,
Tribune Content Agency
Eastern Oregon
Advertising Sales
Realtors refuse to list
home. What gives?
Umatilla County:
Clark Jennings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18E
Coldwell Banker
First Realtors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 03E, 16E
Coldwell Banker Whitney and
Associates . . . . . . . . 07E, 09E - 11E, 13E, 14E
Garton & Associates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 05E
Pendleton Southgate Realty . . . . . . 15E, 17E
Roff Real Estate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14E
Seaquist Real Estate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 08E, 14E
The Whitney Land Co . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13E, 20E
Wheeler County:
Real Estate Outback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16E
Wallowa County:
Intermountain Realty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16E
Affiliates:
Bank of Eastern Oregon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14E
State Farm Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 04E
Stearns Lending, LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 01E
Zollman's Larry Burd Well
Drilling LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 04E
Umpqua Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15E
W= WEST: Umatilla, Morrow,
Gilliam & Wheeler Counties
E = EAST: Umatilla, Morrow,
Gilliam & Wheeler Counties
M = MOUNTAIN: Union,
Wallowa, Baker, Grant,
Malheur & Harney Counties
W
E
M
October 2016, Volume 31, Number 10 Eastern Oregon Real Estate & Home Builders Guide is published monthly
by the East Oregonian Publishing Company, 211 SE Byers, Pendleton, Oregon 97801. Subscription rates are $16 for 12
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