Waterfront homes are one of the most sought after properties in Central Oregon.  Central Oregon offers many choices of riverfront property.  Pricing, style, age and type of home varies as much as the bends of the rivers.

The Big Deschutes River is navigational by motor boat, it is the widest and deepest of all 4 rivers in most places.  The Big Deschutes River has private and public land along it’s banks.  Many of the homes located on The Big Deschutes River are located on what is often called the high side of the river.  When purchasing a property on The Big Deschutes River there are several things to keep in mind.  The water quality, the type of sewer, river setbacks and if there is a dock is it an approved dock?

The Little Deschutes River joins The Big Deschutes River at Crosswater Golf Course.  Several beautiful homes are located on The Little Deschutes River, such as Vandevert Ranch, Crosswater on the upper end and for more affordable homes Lazy River South is one of the most well known.  The Little Deschutes River is not generally navigated with a power boat or even a drift boat for any distance.  The Little Deschutes River does tend to have trees down and areas that are unexpectedly shallow.  Most of the recreational activities you will find on The Little Deschutes River is tubing, rafting, fishing and swimming.

Fall River is a shallow river that is extremely beautiful.  The Fall River Fish Hatchery is located on this river along with the subdivision Fall River Estates.

Spring River runs into The Big Deschutes River at Sunriver.  Homes on Cooper Drive are located on Spring River.  There are several homes currently for sale on this road, prices are varied from the high $400,000 to over a million.

When purchasing property on any of these rivers there are things you need to know, there are issues that an experienced Realtor® should know and also will need to disclose to you.  I am available to answer questions and show you the beauty that Central Oregon has to offer.

Click below to obtain your personalized list of Central Oregon Riverfront Properties or any other list YOU would like.

River Front Homes

In all honesty the current real estate market in Central Oregon has brought out a series of buyers that vary almost as much as the Central Oregon landscape.  One common thread Realtors® hear no matter what the price point of the buyer or the type of home a buyer might like is that they would like to see foreclosures.  The public knows that a foreclosure is priced below the market value and that they can get more bang for their buck.

You Can’t Buy a Foreclosure!

Foreclosure is a process not a status of a home.  As an experienced real estate agent in Central Oregon, I don’t correct my buyers when they say they want to see foreclosures, I show them Bank Owned Homes or homes that are also known as REOs (Real Estate Owned).  A foreclosure is the process that a bank, homeowner and property go through when the homeowner is behind on the payments.  In Central Oregon most mortgages are actually Trust Deeds, meaning that if you default there will be a process that leads up to a Trustee’s Sale.  Once you are 90 days past due the bank can issue what is called a Notice of Default.  At some point during this process your lender will turn the information about the default out to the public. That is where websites like RealtyTrac, Zillow and Trulia (Zillow and Trulia appear to actually get this information through RealtyTrac) pick up homes that are listed as FORECLOSURES.  These homes are often listed on these sites with a price of half what other homes are selling for or obviously great deals.

It May Not Be For Sale!

This week it became painfully clear to me that the public needs to understand that those websites out there that show homes in the foreclosure process that are not for sale. I was cruising through Trulia and had answered a couple questions that the general public had asked to have answered, something I do occasionally.  (sometimes it is fun to see out of area agents try and explain things from Central Oregon they can be pretty humorous) Then I noticed a common thread, there are a lot of buyers out there looking at these Foreclosure homes and asking for information.  Sometimes the addresses are listed a price and even a photo, why would a buyer not think they could buy this home.

Beware of Owner!

So let’s say that one of those homes really peaked the interest of a buyer.  Saturday rolls around and the family is out for a drive and the parents say, oh that house we saw online last night is in this neighborhood, we should stop and take a look.  They pull into the driveway it appears the house is vacant, the yard is slightly over grown, there seems to be signs of disarray. When people get into financial trouble, they often give up or sink into depression.  Back to our happy buyers, they pull into the driveway, and the kids start running around the yard, mom is working her way around back to look in the kitchen window and dad is heading for the window on the side of the garage, just then he hears a voice (or a gun being chambered) can I help you?

No Sign – No Agent – Generally Means Not For Sale

On these foreclosure properties, the home is generally worth less than is owed, so if the house is for sale, it MOST of the time is listed through a real estate agent.  If this home is not upside down it might be a for sale by owner, or it simply may not be for sale.  Just because a home owner gets behind in their payment does not mean they will lose the property.  Home owners do find ways to bring the payments current, or have the bank modify their loan.

List of BANK OWNED HOMES

La Pine Bank Owned Homes

Three Rivers South Bank Owned Homes

Sunriver Bank Owned Homes

Bend Bank Owned Homes

Many times throughout the last couple years I receive requests to provide listings or show bank owned homes.  We have a lot of them in Central Oregon and in the past most of the Bank Owned Homes were priced well below a traditional sale.  Today we are seeing some changes in that pricing.

Every area of Central Oregon, offers a few awesome bank owned homes but they also offer some great buys in a traditional sale.  So, what is the difference you might ask, below is a list of things you can expect with a purchase of a bank owned home and a traditional sale.

Bank Owned Home

• No guarantee how long a home has set vacant – in our extreme temperatures this can be an issue.
• No repairs – other than major safety or code violations
• No  history of the home to know how something may work
• Occasional delays because the asset manager (person over seeing the transaction) has multiple files.
• Title and escrow is generally handled with an out of area company
• Often times past due water and sewer accounts are not checked.

The Traditional Sale

• Home has been typically lived in or at least taken care of
• Sellers are more inclined to do repairs to sell the home than a bank will
• Sellers are generally willing to share how the systems of the home work, like winterizing the sprinkler systems and such.
• Sellers are more motivated to get documents signed and keep the contract moving forward
• Title and Escrow is handled in the area of the home, where the title company is familiar with the local associations, districts and so on giving you better protection.
• Water, sewer and other expenses are generally current, or are brought current at time of closing.

Great prices are available in both the bank owned listings and the re-sale listings – if you would like to be notified of listings that fit your price, or other needs I would be happy to set you up with an automatic email for listings that fit your specific needs.

La Pine Bank Owned Homes

Three Rivers South Bank Owned Homes

Sunriver Bank Owned Homes

Today Buyers and Sellers of Central Oregon homes are hearing these terms more and more which bring more questions than answers most of the time.  There are many misunderstandings of what these terms mean and what the process is or can be.  The current real estate market is one that even veterans of 40 plus years have never seen before.  Let’s explore what these mean here locally and have a glimpse of what they may mean in other areas.

The Short Sale – A seller is attempting to sell their home for less than they owe the bank.  That is the simple answer to what a short sale is.  As we tread on you will see that the answer is not all that simple.  How can the seller do this is one of the most common questions followed by how can I buy this home for less.  The seller of a short sale is usually behind at least one payment and can not keep up with the current mortgage.  The banks do not want to have to take the home (Foreclosure).  Some of the reasons are, banks are not in business to be home owners and the average cost to the bank for a foreclosure is in excess of $30,000 according to some experts.
Ashley Drake Gephart, Associate Broker, REALTOR® a good friend in Albuquerque explains in more detail what a short sale is

A short sale of a residential property is still owned by the owner, but the owner is usually behind in their payments and the price listed is short of what is needed to pay off the mortgage and closing costs. There is no guarantee that the bank will accept a short sale even if the owner offers the full list price, and the response time from a bank on an offer can take up to six months.

A Short Sale is always subject to the lender approval this process is far more complicated that it sounds.  Some homes currently listed as a short sale have a first and a second mortgage.  In these cases approval by both lenders is necessary.  Most short sales will be sold as is, with few if any warranties.  Everything about the contract depends on the bank agreeing to it.  A short sale can take weeks to months to get bank approval.

Joshua Jarvis REALTOR® in Georgia also explains short sales;

Pre-Foreclosures are also called Short Sales in some cases. Most of these will be listed as well.  Short sales can be a great deal and opportunity but do require patience and a easy living arrangement in case the deal falls through. Not all pre-foreclosures are short sales, but most will be.

The process is not as simple as it sounds.  There are specific documents the seller will need to provide sometimes multiple times, the listing agent will need to have extensive communication with multiple parties to keep the ball rolling and be familiar with the process and the specific situation.
As a buyer you can have the best agent out there and if the listing agent is un-aware of the process your offer can be a total waste of time.   Sellers if you are working with an agent and trying to short sale your home, make sure your agent knows the process.  More than one buyer can tell you that they had an offer with a short sale only to find that it went to foreclosure anyway.  Reasons for this can vary from the bank would not accept the offer to the listing agent did not ask for the sale date to be delayed while the offer was negotiated.
Some banks will not discuss a short sale or price until you have an offer, others will work with you on price and terms right from the start.  More often than not you will need an offer before the bank will talk about price and so on.  Part of the process of a short sale is that once that offer comes in – the bank will ask other brokers for their opinion of the value of the property, this is referred to as a BPO.
The Bank Owned Home, also called an REO or REPO – These are homes that have already been taken back by the bank.  These homes can be pristine or they can be real fixer up type properties.  Once the bank owns the home you are dealing with one person generally.  Although responses can be a little delayed because the decision maker is generally has a ton of files on their desk.  Acceptance of these properties generally only takes a couple days and things move a long much like a standard real estate transaction, if you agent knows what to expect that is.  There are a few quirky items that your agent needs to know to protect you.

Now that spring is here the buyers seem to be more active and the banks are starting to place properties on the market that have been sitting for a while.

A couple of the homes that you will find on these lists have been sitting vacant  for several months.  That does not mean they are a better or worse home, I only point it out so that you will understand that these lists may start growing for the simple fact that the banks are starting to get properties put on the market for sale. The weather is improving although we certainly could use some of our beautiful sunshine.

Bank owned homes can appear to be the best deal on the block, but remember there are other homes that may be a better value.  My job is to know what you need or want in your dream home and help you make that dream a reality.

Each Box Below will take you to a current list of Bank Owned homes in each area.