If your home’s curb appeal makes a great first impression, everyone — including potential home buyers — will want to see what’s inside.

Better Homes and Gardens has shared some simple, low-cost improvements that you can do in a day, a week, or a month.

Check out the entire article here.

Portland Palate has shared with us some great places to take the women in your life for Mother’s Day 2012.

Enjoy Brunch:
Andina- Lunch and Dinner service for Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 8. Mama Doris will gift each mother with an alfajor.
Besaw’s-
Bistro 921-Brunch buffet, open from 10:30-1:30. We will be offering complimentary champagne along with live jazz and a rose for every Mom!
Blue Hour-Join us for Mother’s Day Brunch! 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM, prix frix menu at $45 per person.
Brix Tavern- Brunch Buffet
Gracie’s- Buffet is available 11am-3:00pm. Buffet prices are $55 per person for adults and $25 for children 10 and under.(Breakfast 8-10 and dinner 5-9)
The Heathman Restaurant- Buffet $38 adults $17 for children 12 & under 9:00am-3:00 pm
Jake’s- Special Mother’s Day Brunch Menu
Mother’s Bistro-
Oregon Zoo- Buffet including assorted pastries and muffins, scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes, bacon, sausage, omelets, French toast, salads and desserts. Reservations recommended. $24 for ages 12 and older $10 for ages 3 to 11
Urban Farmer- Opening at 3pm for an early Dinner. Spring Salmon, Roasted Tenderloin, Braised Lamb. Strawberry Shortcake, Spiced Honey Cake, Chocolate Souffle Cakes.
Screen Door-
Salty’s on the Columbia- Brunch Buffet $49.99 + $5 unlimited mimosas
Wong’s King Seafood: Traditional Chinese Dim Sum

Tour A Garden:
This time of year, the Roses aren’t quite ready, so your best bets are to take Mom to:
Portland Japanese Garden
Portland Chinese Classical Garden
Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden

Spa Day:
A day at the spa is a luxurious gift
Coldwater Creek Spa (Bridgeport Village)
The Dragontree (NW Portland)
Spa Willamina (NE Portland)

According to the Niche Report, the share of privately owned U.S. homes fell to a 15-year low in the first quarter, government data showed on Monday, suggesting that falling house prices are discouraging Americans from owning homes.

The homeownership rate slipped to 65.4 percent, the lowest level since the first quarter of 1997, the Commerce Department said. The rate was at 66.0 percent in the fourth quarter.

Read the article here.

John Waller, owner of Uncage the Soul Productions in Southeast Portland, brings us “Finding Portland,” an approximately four-minute video taken in March and April with time-lapse visuals of the City of Roses.  The time-lapse medium ”offers us a completely different perspective than you have in the everyday experience,” says Waller.  This video received a two-minute standing ovation after being presented at the Gerding Theater for the first time.

Check it out here.

Realtor Magazine has reported that, last year, 10 percent of REALTORS® complained about receiving low-ball offers on listed homes — offers usually submitted by the buyer for 25 percent or more below the list price, according to a National Association of REALTORS® survey of its members. But that number has dropped drastically.

According to a survey this March of 4,500 agents and brokers, no REALTORS® complained about low-ball offers. The main problem nowadays: The sudden drop in inventory of for-sale homes has led to fewer homes available to sell.

For home buyers who still think they have a chance of hitting it lucky with a low-ball offer, they’re finding in many markets that their offers are more often being rejected or countered closer to the original asking price, the Los Angeles Times reports.

West Neal with Prudential Olympia in Olympia, Wash., recalls a buyer who came in recently with an offer of $150,000 for a home listed at $250,000. Eventually, they negotiated a final sales price of $230,000, but it took a lot of negotiating on the agents’ parts to get the buyer higher.

“Low-ball offers are down a lot because we’re seeing more homes come on the market that are more realistically priced,” Neal told the Los Angeles Times.

Source: “Low-ball Offers Decline in Some Housing Markets,” Los Angeles Times (April 22, 2012)

It’s that time of year again!  To plan your next outdoor excursion in Portland, go to The Intertwine and use their extremely informative and easy to use interactive trip planner.  This new website provides detailed information about Portland’s extensive system of places to hike, bike, jog, paddle, walk, and explore, including favorites like Forest Park, Powell Butte, and Oaks Bottom, along with other destinations that are off the beaten path.

Now that you have found your dream home, gotten approved for a mortgage loan, and made an offer to purchase that was accepted, it is time for the closing.  MSN Real Estate has shared with us these six valuable tips for a painless closing:

1. Ask questions

Knowing what to expect and communicating with all parties involved in the deal are key to a successful closing, says Neil Garfinkel, a real-estate attorney at Abrams Garfinkel Margolis Bergson LLP in New York.

2. Anticipate human error

Richardson says he recently represented a buyer whose closing failed because of missing loan documents. The buyer was a co-signer on his brother’s mortgage, and the lender had requested 12 canceled checks showing that the brother, not the buyer, was paying the old mortgage. The buyer could come up with only eight checks, and the loan officer said that would be enough. That was weeks before closing.

“I kept saying that wasn’t going to work,” says Richardson, who also has worked as a mortgage broker. “The requirement is 12 checks. How can eight checks be sufficient?”

Three days before closing, the lender said it couldn’t issue the loan without the 12 checks, and the deal was canceled.

3. Review loan documents in advance

One way to ensure all is going as planned is to tell the lender that you want to review the documents before closing, or ask your attorney to do so.

By law, you have the right to review the closing-settlement statement, or the HUD-1 form, at least 24 hours before closing. Compare that form to the good-faith estimate you received when you applied for the loan.

4. Take a check

Another reason to review the loan documents in advance is so you know how much money you must bring to closing. And yes, you will need a check at closing, most likely a certified one.

5. Take the day off

A smooth closing may take less than 30 minutes, but you won’t know for sure if your closing will go as planned until it’s done.

6. Expect the unexpected — including typos

You’re at the closing table. You’re told everything is good to go. All you need to do is sign.

You must double-check the numbers on the mortgage note you are signing, even if you have received the HUD-1 form before closing.

“One of the biggest holdups in closing is when the mortgage documents are incorrect,” Castellanos says. “Sometimes, you have to correct the interest rate, or the amount is wrong and you need to fix it.”

Because of a simple typo, your loan documents may need to be sent back to the lender to be redone.

To prepare for these unexpected delays, borrowers should try to schedule their closings for earlier in the day. And don’t wait until the last day on the contract to close.

Read the entire article here.

Click here to view the most current inventory chart and residential highlights.

*Inventory in months is calculated by dividing the active listings at the end of the month in question by the number of closed sales for that month.

Source:  www.rmls.com

According to the Niche Report, Bank of America Corp., whose home-equity mortgage portfolio exceeds its stock market value, probably will say about $2 billion of junior loans are bad assets tomorrow even as some borrowers are still paying on time.

That’s what Barclays Capital estimates the bank will report in its first-quarter results, following decisions by JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) and Citigroup Inc. to reclassify $4.1 billion of junior liens as nonperforming.

Regulators are pressing for the change on concern that falling home prices have wiped out collateral on many second mortgages, leaving them as unsecured debt. About 20 percent of the nation’s $845 billion of home-equity loans exceed the value of the properties when combined with primary mortgages, according to CoreLogic Inc., and about 36 percent of Bank of America’s were at least partly “underwater” at the end of last year, according to regulatory filings.

Read the entire article here.

Home sales in February were up 9% from the year before, and the spring market has been heating up quick.

This spring season “will be the best in four or five years,” says economist Paul Dales of Capital Economics.

Read the entire article here.