Forget haunted houses. The scariest thing you can find in a home is a $30,000 problem hiding behind freshly painted drywall. It's October in Portland, which means pumpkin patches, Halloween decorations, horror movies, and the annual return of that lovely Oregon weather that makes you question every decision you've ever made about living here. My fingers are crossed we don't get rained on this...

The boring shit you keep ignoring until it costs you thousands. Owning a home is great. You get to build equity, paint the walls whatever color you want, and enjoy the satisfaction of knowing that nobody can raise your rent. Unfortunately, you also get to experience the absolute joy of discovering that a $12 part you ignored for three years has now caused $15,000 worth of damage. Welcome to...

Here in Portland, we have officially reached that magical time of year when summer starts packing its shit, the sun begins clocking out early, and the sky prepares to become one giant gray wet blanket for the next several months. Yes, the rain is coming. I know. Shocking development. And every year, despite having lived through this exact same weather approximately 47,000 times, people wait until...

So, you’ve decided to sell your house. Fantastic! I can help with this! Then you start walking around looking at everything through the eyes of a buyer for the first time in 12 years. That paint looks like shit. When did that cabinet start doing that? Why is there a crack there? Jesus Christ, have we always had this much crap? And suddenly a relatively simple plan to sell your house...

Everybody gets horny for the spring real estate market. The sun comes out, flowers start blooming, sellers throw some bark dust in the yard and suddenly everyone decides this is the weekend they need to buy a house. Open houses are packed, buyers are circling the same listings, and sellers start feeling pretty damn confident. September is different. September doesn't get nearly as much hype, and...

There’s this weird thing that happens when people decide to sell their house. Suddenly, every little thing they’ve ignored for the last seven years becomes an emergency. That chipped baseboard? WE HAVE TO FIX IT. The slightly dated bathroom light? NO BUYER WILL EVER LOVE US. That one cabinet door that has been crooked since Obama was president? CALL A CONTRACTOR. WE’RE...

Every few months I hear some version of the same thing: "I'm waiting for the market to crash." Usually it's said with incredible confidence, like this person has a Bloomberg terminal in their basement and Jerome Powell personally texts them before making monetary policy decisions. I get it. Nobody wants to buy a house and find out six months later that they bought at the absolute worst possible...

If you're selling a home in the Portland area right now, there's a decent chance you're going to have a conversation with your Realtor about reducing the price at some point. That's not me being negative. That's just the reality of selling in a market where buyers have choices, homes aren't flying off the shelves in 48 hours, and slapping a ridiculous number on the listing because your neighbor's house...

Every year it happens like clockwork. July rolls around and everyone in Portland collectively decides productivity is optional. People are floating the Clackamas River, drinking beer in someone's backyard, camping on Mount Hood, heading to the coast, or pretending they don't have a mortgage, a job, or kids who are about to go back to school. Honestly, I get it. We spend nine months living under gray...

Every summer, I hear someone say, "Portland doesn't need air conditioning. We only get a few hot days a year." Bullshit. Maybe that was true twenty years ago, but Portland summers have changed. We seem to rack up more and more days in the 90s, and every year it feels like there's at least one week where we're all wondering if we accidentally moved to Phoenix. The Pacific Northwest is still an...