Portland Homes Dot Ninty Five Diverse Neighborhoods

Portland is known as one of the most environmentally friendly cities anywhere. This is a city made up of 95 different and unique neighborhoods, each offering its own personality and lifestyle. Portland homes come in just about every type, style, price and size to satisfy anyone’s wants or needs. There are custom built single family homes, condos, town homes, lofts and large estate type homes available for sale. Portland has so much diversity and offers so many housing opportunities that it is wise to see your Realtor who can show you all of the different options available to you.

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WHAT IS ESCROW AND DO I NEED IT?

Many states do not have escrow requirements for real estate transactions and many people do not know about escrow and how it works. If you are in a state or relocating to a wonderful Vancouver neighborhood or the Portland area where escrow is required for all real estate deals, then you need to know more about escrow and what it is for, and one of the best ways is to ask your Realtor or Broker any questions you might have.

Whether you are the buyer, seller, lender or borrower, you want the assurance from a fiduciary company that no funds or property will change hands until ALL of the instructions in the transaction have been followed to the satisfaction of buyer and seller.  The escrow holders (escrow company) job is to safeguard any funds and/or documents while they are in the possession of the escrow holder, and to disburse those funds and/or convey title only when all of the provisions, or instructions, of the escrow have been complied with.

The seller, buyer, lender or borrower will give instructions, in writing, to the escrow company on what exactly is going to happen on the real estate transaction that is taking place or on the refinance of a piece of real estate if it only involves a refinance loan. If a real estate broker is involved in the real estate transaction, the broker may recommend an escrow holder. Usually the lender or bank will open escrow on the transaction if it is only for financing or re financing a piece of property and there is no transfer of title. The escrow instruction will indicate the amount of fees to be held   back at closing, the down payment which has to be paid to the seller, taxes to be paid, or held out of the final disbursements, or any other monies that are supposed to go to the seller or to the buyer. Usually the escrow company will coordinate the appraisal, the home inspection etc. Each escrow, although following a similar pattern, will be different in some respects, as it deals with your property and the transaction at hand.

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Portland – Vancouver Metro Area Tributes

Over the last few years, the Portland – Vancouver metro area has received numerous “Best Places” tributes, by Forbes and other media, and has made the “top city lists” for many things, including:

Forbes Lists:
* #15 Best Places for Business and Careers*
* #106 in Cost of doing Business*
* #86 in Job Growth*
* #39 in Education*
* #10 America’s Most Wired Cities 2010*
* #3 America’s Safest Cities 2010*
* #16 Best Cities for Singles 2009*

Combine these with the beautiful neighborhoods such as Edgewood Park and homes, great schools, wonderful houses of worship, city amenities, hometown pride of the residents, great shopping, entertainment, medical facilities and caring city fathers and you have a winning and forward looking team.

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Discovering Vancouver Washington Homes

I was just watching an excellent travel program on public broadcasting where the couple and their family was traveling across the Northwestern United States, to see and experience new places and new cities. They had been to Northern California, Nevada, Utah and Idaho and were now heading into Oregon and Washington.

As they left their motor homes encampment south of Redding California, they headed north and made the statement that they had heard many good things about Portland Oregon and Vancouver Washington and they wanted to see the area and everything it had to offer. Apparently they had friends who had just moved to Vancouver Washington and loved the area and everything about the city.

Wow, what a view as they approached the Columbia River coming up I-5. Many yells and screems from the kids too as they saw that huge beautiful river and the city on each side. Now the 23rd largest metro area in the U.S., it was impressive for sure. It became obvious very fast that this couple was really interested in Vancouver and the residential options there, the closer and closer they got to entering the city. To make this story short, after a few days driving around, checking out the Vancouver homes, schools and other amenities, they decided not to go any further and to purchase a home on the eastern side of Vancouver with plans to move to Vancouver by next summer. Big city life, horns, traffic, and crime had much to do with the decision to move to Vancouver as the lifestyle in Vancouver is small town, but with all the conveniences and amenities of a large city.

 

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Portland Property Tax Exxemption For New Homes

In Portland Housing market, there is a new tax exemption(LTE) program for newly constructed homes. This exemption reduces the homeowners monthly payments, and saves them thousands of dollars in the 10 year period.

-The builder would of had to apply for this program before even gaining building permits.
-The home must be owner occupied in throughout the exemption period.
-Property taxes become fully assessed once the ten year exemption period is over.

Ask me about this program and I will guide you thru the process.

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