About Polk County, OR

I stood in the entryway of a uniquely styled home with the listing agent. He said to me "This is where buyers will decide if they are going to buy the home or not - within seconds". He understands how important it is to "set the tone" and that first impressions were diappointing in this entry.

The pressure was high and the budget limited. Removing the cedar paneling and shingle like decor was not an option. It was a dark tunnel viewing into a stark white room with dated drapes and worn carpet.

Sometimes it's the smallest details that can make the biggest differences. If you can't remove or change it -- how can you make negative features look desirable?

We primed and painted the ceiling of the stairwell, which by far made the biggest impact.

Painted the living room a warm beige (although it is washed out in the photo)

Painted the curtain rods to match the oiled bronze light fixture we added in the dining room. Added contemporary furniture and drapes to attract buyers into the living room.

Out of view is a half round black entry table on the left and a black wrought iron mirror on the right. It tied into the stairwell, making it look contemporary and as though it "belonged". The added plants and art in the stairwell area broke up the dark look of the wood and gave it a "woodsy, organic" feel.

Now when buyers come to see this home and open the door it no longer reveals a dated and dark view, but one that is inviting, comfortable and contemporary! The home is now receiving raves on the architecture, while for months only complaints have been given about the stairwell and design.

When it comes to staging - remember the old song -- accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative -- it works!

Creative Concepts and Contracting provides professional home staging services, along with a huge inventory of furnishing and accessories. Our licensed and bonded contracting services can provide updates making it easy to prepare your home for sale! Contact us for information on how to get your home ready to compete in a buyer's market!

The presence of oil tanks is an issue that can rear its ugly head on an inspection every now and then. Thankfully the Oregon DEQ is doing something to help.

The Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) here in Oregon, has a program to help keep track of those oil tanks that may have been forgotten.

The site is: http://deq12.state.or.us/fp20/

If excavation or redevelopment is planned you can find information on known and suspected Heating Oil Tanks (HOT). Information on: if the site has received a closure letter for the decommissioning, assessment and certification of a HOT is available.

If a HOT is present there may be contamination of the surrounding area and a cleanup may be required. Decommissioning, assessment, and cleanup must be performed by a DEQ licensed HOT Service Provider.

For you agents out there check out this publication: What agents should know about underground oil tanks.

Located in Monmouth, Oregon Heron Pointe is a retirement and assisted living residence. They have cottages with garages along with their apartments. It is a beautiful building, very light and cheery with lots of open spaces. They work with medicaid and operate on a month to month rent with no buy in. The community is invited to get involved and are invited to activities including a once a month Sunday brunch ($5.00) and weekly bingo. Meals are served restaurant style and the dining room is very spacious.

President Obama unveiled his plan to help stabilize the housing market and keep millions of borrowers in their homes.

The Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan includes two initiatives to help struggling homeowners. One is a refinancing program for homeowners with less than 20% equity in their homes, or who owe more than their home is worth. The second program attempts to lower monthly payments for homeowners at risk of losing their home. In addition, the plan includes a third initiative to support low mortgage rates by strengthening confidence in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Many of the plan’s details are still being worked out and will not be announced until March 4, here is an overview of the plan’s main components.

Refinancing Initiative
Under current rules, those families who own less than 20% equity in their homes have a difficult time refinancing and taking advantage of the historically low interest rates. Therefore, the refinancing initiative in the new plan provides refinancing help for homeowners with less than 20% equity in their homes or who owe more than their home is worth. This initiative is open to homeowners who have conforming loans which are guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and who owe up to 5% more than their home is worth.

According to the plan, “credit-worthy” or “responsible” homeowners can refinance their mortgage into a 30- or 15-year, fixed-rate loan based on current market rates. The refinanced loan, however, cannot include prepayment penalties or balloon payments. For many families, this low-cost refinancing may help reduce their mortgage payments by up to thousands of dollars per year.

As with the rest of the plan, details about this initiative will be released at a future date—including what, if any, credit score requirements will be included.

Stability Initiative
This initiative aims at providing help to individual families as well as entire neighborhoods by helping reduce foreclosures and stabilize home prices. It is intended to help homeowners who are struggling to afford their mortgage payments, but cannot sell their homes because prices have fallen significantly.

The goal of this initiative is simple: “reduce the amount homeowners owe per month to sustainable levels.” To accomplish this, lenders are encouraged to lower homeowners' payments to 31 percent of their income by lowering their interest rate to as low as 2% or by extending the terms of the loan. In addition, lenders can also lower the principal owed by the borrower, with Treasury sharing in the costs.

Homeowners who are current on their mortgages but are struggling can still apply for this program. As such, this is one of the few programs designed to help homeowners who may face delinquency soon, but are current at the moment.

Since the focus of this initiative is on helping families and neighborhoods, investment properties do not qualify. This initiative also includes a number of additional elements and incentives that benefit homeowners and lenders alike, including:

• Incentives to Help Borrowers Stay Current: To provide an extra incentive for borrowers to keep paying on time, the initiative will provide a monthly balance reduction payment that goes straight towards reducing the principal balance of the mortgage loan. As long as a borrower stays current on his or her loan, he or she can get up to $1,000 each year for five years.
  
• Reaching Borrowers Early: To keep lenders focused on reaching borrowers who are trying their best to stay current on their mortgages, an incentive payment of $500 will be paid to servicers, and an incentive payment of $1,500 will be paid to mortgage holders, if they modify at-risk loans before the borrower falls behind.

Residential building is an ever evolving science that is improving upon previous knowledge and materials continually. A new home is a series of systems and components that rely on one another to perform properly. If the previous component is installed improperly all of the other systems that are built upon that component will not live up to their potential. I recently had the opportunity to inspect a beautiful new home here in West Salem, Oregon that was like a display home for just why you need a home inspection on a new home.

Cosmetically this home was very attractive. Vaulted ceilings, custom built-ins, crown molding and of course the ever present Brazilian cherry floors and granite counters. Under the fancy façade were a few very important details that the builder screwed up. One of those little things was a vapor retarder, big name for a very simple and relatively inexpensive component. It is basically a sheet of plastic stretched over the bare earth of the crawl space that prevents excess water vapor from leaving the soil (a normal and natural process) and being absorbed by the home's wood structure (also a natural process but very harmful to the structure of the home).

With the vapor retarder missing, the moist soil provides all the moisture and humidity necessary for an extremely conducive environment for wood destroying organisms. Wood destroying organisms like molds, termites, and powder post beetles and other critters that can call your home food.

When I popped the lid to that crawlspace a wave of mustiness (mold spores) slapped me in the face. Upon closer inspection of the very wet, very muddy crawlspace it could be noted that although the air was full of spores from actively producing molds, no visible growing mold could be noted on the structure. However the scraps of wood, construction debris, that had been left scattered about were covered with very healthy fungal colonies.

All of that excess wood was another little screw-up. All of these little mistakes, although ultimately the builder's responsibility, were also made by the contractors that were in charge of the vapor retarder, the contractors that left cellulose debris (plumbers, framers, and electricians), and the government official (building inspector) that is paid to ensure that these things don't happen.

This poor home had other serious issues. Homes like these sometimes makes me wonder about some people's integrity, however I guess it will always be job security for honest, independent building consultants.