Central Oregon Real Estate

Selling Your Home On Your Own? Important Info

If you live in Central Oregon and you are trying to sell your home on your own be careful of the scams out there.  As a REALTOR in Central Oregon I advertise a lot on the web.  Recently I have had a rash of scam emails regarding interest in properties.

Some of them claim they are interested in the property and would like to make an appointment to see the home.  Some claim they want to make an offer right away.  Most of them recently claim to be buying homes through an investment group.

Research on each of the emails I have received have turned out to be bogus and actually trying to create a list of properties to try and obtain interest on, then sell the names back to the REALTOR(R).

Remember that if you get an email regarding your property and they ask you to complete any form prior to the viewing of the home they are generally bogus.

Central Oregon is ripe for scams, with our days on market being high and the economy tight these scammers know that sellers are motivated and may be desperate enough to give up the info they need to make a buck off you.

No buyer needs to know who holds your mortgage, if you are behind on your payment or any of your personal information.  Do not give this out to someone you do not know.  Be careful and be smart.

If you need help, even if you want to continue with selling your property on our own feel free to contact me for info on what I have found about some of these scammers.  If we band together we can make the process safer for you and for others out there.

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Will The Property Taxes Go Up or Down When I Buy?

One of the most commonly asked questions from a buyer is what will the property taxes be after I purchase this home.  Oregon Property taxes are a little different than some other states.  The sales price of the home has no baring of the tax assessed value. 

The bigger question a buyer should be asking in Oregon is - have any new bonds been approved by voters, are there any new assessments and so on.  Bonds and tax increases for such things as schools, fire and police protection can increase your taxes. 

Generally your assessed value can only go up 3% a year - of course this can be changed if we the voters were to vote in favor to change this.  That does not mean your taxes will go up 3% per year - they can and sometimes do go up more than that.  This brings us back to bonds and budgets - if the voters prior to you purchasing approved a bond or additional budget the rates for these will increase.  Then your taxes will go up.

La Pine, Three Rivers South, Sunriver and Bend all have a tax base which you can find on the Deschutes County Website.

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Property Disclosures in Oregon

Property Disclosures in Oregon are often the source of contention and fact finding missions. When a seller lists their property for sale they are required to complete a 4 page disclosure statement (really only 2.5 pages of questions) that asks all kinds of questions.

Buyers are provided this disclosure during the escrow period and sometimes prior to escrow. By law a buyer has 5 business days to review and withdraw from the contract if they disapprove of the disclosure. Each question has a series of boxes for the seller to check. The choices they have are yes, no, unknown and on some of them n/a.

Many Central Oregon Sellers are absentee owners, those of second homes, vacation properties or investment rentals. When these sellers complete the property disclosure they often times know nothing about some of the questions. A couple examples are; Has this home ever been used as a drug manufacturing or distribution place. Since a seller does not want to say no and have the buyers find out from the neighbors that the past tenants were selling from the property they will often say unknown.

What does this do to the buyer? It raises a big red flag - they generally assume that unknown on this question is a real yes. Central Oregon does not have an easy website to verify this information - and very few of the homes - in fact last I checked only 1 in La Pine had been “condemned” due to manufacturing. (that home has been torn down and a new home sits on the property now)

Another question that is often confusing and causes red flags concerns underground tanks - almost every disclosure in La Pine should say yes there are underground tanks - however they are septic tanks not oil tanks and you should differentiate this. If the box is marked yes the Seller should mark what type of tanks are on the property.

My message here is two fold - Sellers please answer these questions accurately and to the best of your knowledge - if you do not know the answer - maybe you should do a little checking instead of giving the buyer a reason to doubt you. Buyers when you receive this document please read it carefully, ask your agent questions - research those that you have issues with and let your agent be of assistance.

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First Time Buyer TAX CREDIT

If you are a first time home buyer (or not owned a home for 3 years or more) you may qualify for a great tax credit up to $7,500. This credit is like a 0% interest loan - there are some stipulations and a portion of it would need to be paid back if you sold your home. A list of bullet points is provided below;
* The tax credit is available for first-time home buyers only. Purchaser (and spouse) may not have owned a principal residence in the previous 3 years.
* The maximum credit amount is ten percent of the cost of the home and can not exceed &7,500
* Property eligible is any single-family residence that will be a principal residence.
* The credit is available for homes purchased on or after April 9, 2008 and before July 1, 2009.
* There are income limits. Single taxpayers with incomes up to $75,000 and married couples with incomes up to $150,000 qualify for the full tax credit.
* The tax credit works like an interest-free loan and must be repaid over a 15-year period. Each year 6.67% of the credit to be repaid – if you received the full credit that is only $500.25!. If sold before 15 years than remainder of credit is paid at time of sale.
To view the summary or full bill visit H.R. 3221 Housing and Economic Recovery Act

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Homes that Have Sold in La Pine This Summer!!!

La Pine has seen the same dip in the market that other areas have - but the numbers are starting to pick up. Since June 1, 2008 we have seen 21 homes gain new owners and there are 22 getting ready to change hands.

What does this mean? Is now the time your home will sell? We still have a very high inventory of homes in La Pine. We have seen a pick up in the market but the price range that has seen the best movement is still the $225,000 and under. Earlier this week I wrote about homes on the market under $200,000 and there were a total of 199. So if we have a total of 43 homes that have either sold or are in escrow in the last 3 months chances are only a portion of the 199 currently on the market will sell.

To see a complete list of the homes that have sold or are in the “pending” status (have an offer but have not changed hands) click here

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