Keith's Blog

Believe it or not, as I was "speaking-with-conviction" to my son this morning as he lounged in bed about the importance of cleaning his room, even on Spring break, the part of my brain not being used drifted to a real life real estate metaphor. Both adolescents and water have something in common:...

OK you brokers, I did what Dave Liniger, founder of RE/MAX, told me to do yesterday at a personal appearance in Portland, OR. I attended a meeting last night at my synagogue about raising funds for a new charity, and chatted with an old friend. He informed me he'd be looking for a home this summe...

I heard Dave Liniger, the founder of RE/MAX speak in person today in Portland, Oregon. This guy is good. In essence he said our success in this market boils down to ATTITUDE, A POSITIVE ATTITUDE!  I know that sounds simple, and I wish you could have heard him in person, but he was right. This is ...

The February, 2008 numbers are in from the RMLS and Portland's inventory has dropped from a high in January of over 12 months to just over 10 months for February, 2008. Inventory of 10 months means that if not another listing was added to the RMLS starting now, it would take approximately 10 mont...

The word "dryrot" is a bit of an oxymoron, in fact it doesn't make any sense at all because it is a result of wet... so you would think it would be called, "wetrot". Hmmm, so what is dryrot anyway? Dryrot is the result of moisture seeping into wood over a long period of time. Quite often it is se...

All Winter we've been using our furnace air ducts to bring warm air from the furnace into our homes but now it's getting warmer so we're using our furnaces less. But don't forget that if you have an air-conditioning system, you'll be using your furnace air ducts all over again to cool things down...

Well, you've heard it a million times, but baking cookies before your agent holds an open house really makes your house feel warm and inviting. If it's not open house day, but you know brokers are coming with buyers, you should still bake! Your basic chocolate chip recipe is all you need. The fam...

If you're listing for sale remember to CLEAR OUT THE VALUABLES, REMOVE DRUGS FROM THE MEDICINE CABINETS, AND LOCK UP FINANCIAL INFORMATION! Assume that if you're holding open houses, anything can be stolen. An agent holding open the house has only two eyes, and if he/she is escorting one person o...

As I write, my contractor is putting hammer to nail out back making a wonderful racket that will be my new deck! Through my experience with home inspections I know that my contractor needs to properly bolt the ledger board to the house with "lagbolts" and then add "flashing" where the deck meets ...

Listing your home for sale? Then it's time to think about the throne! If the floor around your toilet is a bit spongy, or the vinyl is beginning to peal back, it may be because the wax ring inside the base where the toilet connects to the sewer line is corroded. It may need changing! Any good ins...