Kelly Gebler's Q&A

Hi - I would call Jodi White at Sunset Mortgage Co.  She is awesome and would be happy to run a quote for you on this loan.  Her number at the office is:  503-594-1134 or her cell phone is:  971-235-1917....

Hi Denise - My manager is close to you.[content removed by moderator for being self promotional]

Hi Olga - this is a wonderful home and I can see why you were watching it!  The gardens are amazing. The home was originally listed on April 24th for $448,500.  On June 14th they dropped the price to $436,900, and accepted an offer on the home on July 3rd.....only 70 days on the market from start date to accepted offer - that's barely more than 1/2 the average market time of 133 days for the Beaverton area according to the RMLS Monthly Market Action Report.  It's taking 30-45 days on average for a sale to close a sale so we're looking at not knowing what it sold for until at around August 3rd give or take a few days.  If you will post a new question sometime after August 3rd asking what this sold for - I'm sure we'll all be happy to check for you and let you know.Hope this helps answer your questions for now!   Kelly

Hi - this home was sold in April 2009.  It looks like it belonged to Carol Atwood prior to that.  The sale was recent enough ago that you could probably write a letter to her at this address and it would get forwarded to her by the post office.Hope that helps.Kelly GeblerReal Estate Broker & Loan OfficerKeller Williams Realty and Sunset Mortgage Co.

Hi - generally the probate attorney will lay out the procedures for you.  Sometimes they have specific Realtors they want you to use, and others will allow you to choose your own.  With no will in place, it can take up to six months for the probate attorney to have everything in place for you to move forward with selling as they will need to notify the heirs and allow time to respond.  If all are easy to locate and willing to cooperate - it will make things go much faster.Hope that helps.Kelly GeblerReal Estate Broker & Loan OfficerKeller Williams Realty & Sunset Mortgage Co.

Any Realtor that works with commercial properties should be able to give you a good solid market analysis on your property free.  I work with a Realtor at Keller Williams that would do an awesome job for you - if you want to check with her, her name is Diana Ferguson and her number is 503-756-4738.Kelly Gebler

Hi again - I just answered your FHA question!  Whether you are buying a foreclosure or short sale or a traditional seller home, best advice I can give is to start with a good lender and get your loan approval.  There will be criteria for your loan that you will need to know prior to writing an offer - first piece will to be to determine how much you can spend on your home and have a payment that you qualify for and that meets your budget.  Another main factor being whether you need the seller to contribute to your closing costs and pre-paid expenses.  And, if you do - you'll need to know how much those are going to be....the loan officer will calculate that for you.Once you have your financing lined up - it's time to talk to a good Realtor and have them set up a customized search meeting all the details about what you are looking for in your home, where you'd like to be, and that meets the requirements of your approved loan.  Usually what you'll get first is a list of everything currently meeting your criteria - after that you'll get new and price reduced listings as they hit the market.  You just need to then start looking and pick the one you like best.One new factor that came into play this week for First Time Home Buyers - sounds like an approval has come out allowing certin organizations to loan you up to the $8,000 FTHB Tax Credit upfront to be used towards buying your home.  They haven't got all the quirks worked out yet - but it's in the works.  The word I heard yesterday is that it can't be used for your 3.5% FHA down payment requirement, but can either be used as additional down payment, or to buy your rate down or closing costs.  Check with your lender on this - it should be available very soon.Hope all this helps.Kelly Gebler

Hi - yes it is!  I list REO's and 3 of them have sales pending where the buyer is using an FHA loan.  As long as the condition of the home will qualify for FHA - you are good to go!Kelly Gebler

Good morning - besides being a Realtor, I'm also a loan officer.  I checked some scenarios out for you and can up with a options on your financing.  Let's say you have at least a 720 credit score and have documentable income, with a 20% down on an investment property, rates on a 30 year fixed conventional loan are looking like they are roughly 6.25% this morning.  But - if you put 25% down, rates drop down to more like 5.25%.  Big difference and will save you quite a bit of money in your monthly payment and over the life of the loan.From the Real Estate standpoint - now is an awesome time to be in the investment property market!  My team lists REO's and Pre-forclosure/short sale properties....these folks losing their homes are going to be in the market looking for a decent rental home to move to.  While they may no longer be able to afford their current house payment, they will be able to afford something less and there are folks looking for rentals in all price ranges.  I did some tracking recently and just in Clackamas County alone, there are roughly 480 homes set to go to auction in the next 8 weeks!  Hopefully some will be able to resolve their situation and stay in their homes...but if even 1/2 get sold - that's over 200 displaced families that are going to be looking for a rental.The need is there and if you have the means and ability to get into this market - you stand to not only begin building a nice investment portfolio for yourself, but you also would be in a position to maybe help some of these displaced families get through these tough times.Hope that helps!Kelly

Hi Peggy - I just checked that stats on condos for the Portland Metro area from the most recent Monthly Market Action Report published by RMLS.  It looks like 2008 saw median the median sales price on condos started the year at roughly $220,000, fluctuated up and down a few times and ended the year at a median sales price of around $199,000.2009 started the year with a little bit of a drop and looks like the median sales price started closer to $170,000.  Values jumped to $220,000 in February, dropped back to about $199,000 for March, and stayed just about the same for April.  Altogether for the past 1 1/2 years - there's been some fluctuation, but it seems to be following suit along the same lines as a traditional home.  Values have dropped about 10.4% from this time last year and that pretty much is exactly what the info on the condos confirms.Having said that - I have a bank owned condo for sale in The Pearl District - the same exact units were selling for $395,000 six months ago.  We are now priced at $289,000!  We got an offer in Friday for even less. It sounds like you aren't under any pressure to sell/move - you can always try listing it for what you want and see what happens just to test the waters.  If you don't get the price you want you are under no obligation to sell.  If you are thinking about buying something else - now is the time to make that move as you will get an awesome deal!  And if you aren't seeing the price you want for your condo, but still want to buy something else - you could always hang onto the condo and rent it out for awhile until values were better again.  As long as all your debt-to-income rations work for your financing, that might be a good option for you.Hope all that helped!Kelly GeblerReal Estate Broker&Loan OfficerKeller Williams Realty & Sunset Mortgage Co.