Greater Portland Agent Blog

straffas — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 17:03:10 +0000

Case-Schiller Article. Interesting and relevant

straffas — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:59:28 +0000

http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20091103_realestateoutlook.htm

Wow, what a game!

straffas — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:44:16 +0000

Taking it on the road to Autzen Stadium today!

straffas — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 17:34:25 +0000

Go Ducks!

New Loop website

straffas — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:22:33 +0000

www.inourloop.com

A group of Portland area business professionals that give of their time and know-how to positiveily impact each others businesses and lives.

straffas — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:19:40 +0000

Facebook Fan Page for the Burton Team.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Burton-Team-Portland-OR/169124068957?ref=nf

Volcano

straffas — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 17:53:31 +0000

Aloha-

Jessica and I are in Hawaii on the Big Island, and we are about to head to the Volcano Park. I have been wanting to do this for years, and I am happy now is finally the time. I will post some pictures, and give a few highlights later.

Mahalo,

Steve

Top 10 U.S. Rental Markets

straffas — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 18:32:45 +0000

A list of the top 10 US rental markets forecasted by NAR for 2009-2013.

Portland made it in at #10 (still very good).

Simplifying

straffas — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 23:18:50 +0000

I have a Apple Macbook laptop with Leopard OS, and a PC desktop running windows.

I was able to install a new copy of XP on my laptop in conjunction with Apple Parallels (that came in my Christmas stocking). I installed both products yesterday on my laptop, and now I can run my Windows only applications on my Mac.

We are now going to clean up and donate our desktop, and reorganize my office. My parents computer is really old. Even though ours is not that new, it will be a major upgrade for them.

The local multiple listing service (RMLS) requires Internet Explorer, which by default, discourages real estate agents from using Macs. I am bucking the trend. I can now run Safari and Internet Explorer simultaneously if I choose. Fun stuff.

Guest Contribution

straffas — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 02:41:12 +0000

The folowing is a guest contribution from Steve Nassar. He is the founder of the Nassar Group at Cosmopolitan Funding.

It’s certainly no secret that all eyes have been on Wall Street lately and many are looking for a safe place to put their money. Buying real estate continues to be a safe investment vehicle. While the real estate market has definitely seen some declines in recent years, it is safe to say that real estate inherently has limitations on how much it can decline. At some point, real estate reaches a point (if it hasn’t already) where the cost to buy an existing home on the market is far less than the cost to build a new home. Furthermore, as rents go up and home prices come down, the gap between the cost of renting and the cost of owning is closing quickly. This can only continue for so long, while the declining value for the pieces of paper bought and sold on the stock market continue to be in question. The other plus for investors is that when you buy a home to live in or even as an investment, you are buying a piece of land with an actual structure sitting on it that you can live in—it is a very tangible asset. Since we all have to live somewhere—instead of merely renting and investing monthly into your landlord’s portfolio, invest into your own by trusting the safety of real estate.

Steve Nassar

Senior Loan Officer