NEW LISTING! - FABULOUS 180° MT. HOOD VIEWS

Once again I am co-listing this home with the ever-talented Vickie Duchscherer, whom I work with at the Bethany Summa office. We have combined our powers to bring this fantastic home to market in all the glory it deserves!

You won't believe the Mt. Hood, Cascade, and valley views that are visible from almost everywhere in this Mid-Century home! Expansive living and dining space windows bring the outdoors in from dawn to dusk, while the main level deck, lower level patio, and rolling park-like back yard give you almost limitless room to enjoy this property.

LISTED FOR $779,900!

Pass this on to anyone looking for a fantastic home with incredible views!

Here are plenty of great links for you to check out! I recommend the HD Listing and HD video tour!
HD Listing Link
HD Video Tour Link

RMLS Link
Listing Link
Virtual Tour Link
Zillow Link

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Happy Halloween everyone!

I hope you and you family have a fun and safe holiday. Don't forget to brush those teeth tonight, kids!

-Stephan

SUMMA HAS MOVED OFFICES!

Exciting Summa Realty news! The "Bethany" branch (which is where I'm based) has moved to a great new office! We are now in a larger, more upscale office space in the AmberGlen Business Center. Front and center in the 1925 building we face Cornell Rd. and are just across the from the Streets of Tanasbourne Shopping Center.



Our office is on the main floor, first door on the left when you enter the lobby. There's a bright, cheery vibe with ample windows front to back and floor to ceiling glass office walls.

Please feel free to come by anytime to check it out and say hi. We're located at the address below...

Summa Real Estate Group
1925 NW AmberGlen Pkwy
Suite 100
Beaverton, OR 97006

And here is a quick link to our location via Google Maps.

Hope to see you soon!
- Stephan

BEAVERTON HOME PRICE .com

Hello again folks, sorry for the lack of blog posts lately. I trust everyone has been enjoying their summer, then winding down and getting back into the groove of life this fall. I've been keeping busy with both Real Estate as well as my technology duties here at Summa Realty. I am known around the office as the "Director of Technology" as I help guild our company's tech choices and integrate those with our existing systems. That probably sounds more hi-tech than it really is, but the point is we continually work hard to keep everyone here as up to date as possible with what's available.

So, on to what I really wanted to talk about today…

I recently put together a new website aimed at helping home owners in my immediate area (Beaverton, OR). And that website is… (drum roll please)… BeavertonHomePrice.com.



I have an a few freebies available, like an automated, quick and dirty Competitive Market Analysis (CMA), as well as a complimentary Staging DVD. The CMA will give you a rough idea of what other homes are selling in your area and for how much. I can personally provide a much more detailed and accurate analysis, which I am more than willing to do. The free staging DVD is a great way for potential home sellers to get an idea of how to prepare their home for sale as well as what to expect during the 'showing' period.

Also on the website you will find links to search for homes, my own contact info and website, as well as our other Summa Realty agents. That may seem a bit strange to offer a link to other Realtors, right? The way I see it is that let's be honest, not all of us mesh with each other in quite the way that we'd like. We may get along just fine, but maybe you're looking for someone that just 'fits' your personality better… and I get that. So I think it only fair to provide you with options. If we don't end up working together, ideally I would like to see you work with a fellow Summa agent. How many other Realtors have told you that?!?! I'm guessing not many. While we are our own businesses, we are still a great team and love to work together and share the wealth, and I hope folks recognize and respect that.

That said, I hope you take a few moments to check out the site, click through some of the pages and feel free to let me know what you think!

Thanks for the time and talk to ya'll again soon!

- Stephan

OPTIONS

As I meet new people and catch up with old friends, we inevitably end up on the topic of real estate. And one of the most common questions to come up is "Where do I start?"

What I, and a lot of Realtors will tell you is to speak with a mortgage lender.

This may seems like a simple pass off, but I assure it is not. Knowing what you have, what you anticipate having, what you need, and how much you can get is very important, and best to know before you start your home search.

Speaking to a lender, providing them with basic personal information, and even receiving a pre-approval letter is in no way an obligation from you to that lender. You could do more research or get a referral from a friend and opt for a lender that better fits your needs. You could stick with that lender but not even start seriously looking for a home for months or years. Or you could do nothing further at all. Either way, there's no commitment or cost to you to get the basic loan info you need anticipate a real estate deal, so don't be scared.

Just like Realtors there are a ton of mortgage lenders out there, and their companies all offer a variety of mostly the same, available loan programs. I suggest you find someone that you get along with, work well and on the same level with, as well as actually like. You don't want to dread making or receiving a call from your mortgage professional.

So, that being said if you need some direction or suggestion of who to work with, here are a few folks I recommend…

Brian Billups
Bay Equity Home Loans
office (503) 305-5826
Company Webpage

Dereik Mason
First Choice Loan Services
direct (503) 988-7258
office (512) 843-2717
Company Website

Peter Wease - or - Jason Marshall
Alpine Mortgage Planning
Peter office (503) 699-6444 / Jason office (503) 748-2804
Peter's Company Webpage
Jason's Company Webpage

If you give any of these fine folks a call, please tell them I sent you and that I say 'Hi.' (And then demand the 100% special ultra-secret discount! Just kidding!)

- Stephan

AND ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST

It's not always easy folks.

There's an old perception that Realtors don't do anything for their paycheck. I can personally vouch for the inaccuracy of that statement.

In my newly budding career I already experienced a wide variety of conditions. From old friends to complete strangers to new partners, the diversity of client and agent interactions has been great.

There have been "when will this happen", "wow that was fast", "how can this be", and "thank goodness it's over" moments. No matter the situation I am very grateful for the continuing on-the-job education, and am happy to report that everything thus far has had a happy ending for everyone.

That said, I'm not sure how many "regular folks" spend just about every waking hour contemplating, researching, or performing your typical working duties, but I know I do. There's not a lot of true down time, but there are pockets to relax throughout whatever you would call a "regular day" for me. It's very different from a traditional hourly gig, but I couldn't be happier that I made the switch!

Stephan

WEBSITE UPDATES

Quick website update before bed…

Added a purchases section to the "listings" page. Since not every real estate transaction is a listing I figure it would be good to show you folks what I get done on the buyer side of things too!

Also made a few other minor and random changes. Fixed some Firefox alignment issues on the "contact" page as well as added a 'touch to call' feature on the phone number section. That only works correctly via a touch screen and voice enabled device, like an iPhone.

You may have noticed I added automatic image rotation on the main page. Now you don't have to reload the page several times to see all the available images. I will update and add to that rotation of images soon as well.

Over on my twitter page I updated the background images to fit properly again. Twitter keeps changing things and it messes with everyone's custom backgrounds. :( Hopefully they leave it as is for awhile now.

I believe those all are the changes as of late. Time to get some rest before I get back out on the real estate trail tomorrow morning!

-Stephan