By Kim Parmon, May 16, 2024
Find out what’s happening in the Portland real estate market for mid-May 2024.
Hi, I’m Kim Parmon, listing specialist and Principal Broker with Living Room Realty here to tell you what you need to know about the Portland Metro market for mid May, 2023.
Upcoming Changes
You’ve likely heard that the way real estate commissions are structured will soon be changing. Starting in August of this year, buyer agent commissions will no longer be advertised as part of a house listing’s marketing.
This means that buyers and their agents will need to agree on a compensation structure before touring properties. In the event that a seller won’t agree to pay for the buyer’s agent’s commission, the buyer would be responsible for paying for their agent’s fee as well as their down payment and closing costs. Yikes!
I am a listing agent only, and yet I still believe that working with a quality buyer’s agent is the right move for EVERYONE in a real estate transaction. Why does working with a buyer’s agent matter anyway? We’ll get to that in a second.
The Market
Despite higher mortgage interest rates sticking around longer than expected, we are still in a strong seller’s market where competition over good homes is normal. At Living Room this week the average days on market for homes was less than a week across the board!
Remember, selling your home, period, is not the goal: I can offer you $5 for your house it right now. Do you want to sell for that price? Of course not! The goal is not AN offer, it’s THE BEST offer that works for you.
As a listing agent, I want to make sure my clients are not only choosing an offer with the best price and terms, but with the greatest chance of making it to closing with the least amount of stress. Which is EXACTLY why working with a buyers agent is so important.
The Value Of A Buyer’s Agent
A strong buyer’s agent understands the current market conditions and also will be able to help a buyer research a home and talk through potential concerns before even submitting an offer in the first place, reducing the risk of the buyer walking away due to cold feet. They can help make sure the buyer is sticking to their goals and plans, that their choice of home fits within their budget, and that the buyer is aware of a host of details that they aren’t thinking about when they’re excited because they just saw a cute home that they love.
As a listing agent, I’m listening for how buyers’ agents respond to disclosure items, how they ask questions, and I’m generally interviewing them to see how adept they are at navigating potential issues during the buyer’s many contingencies.
Having a strong partner helping guide a buyer through a complicated, stressful process full of pitfalls and liability makes the chances of success (for both the buyer & seller) significantly higher. As I always tell my clients, someone can offer you hundreds of thousands of dollars above your list price, but it’s all Monopoly money until they actually close. A great buyer’s agent’s job is to help their client navigate this process and smooth out the kinks. We may be on opposite sides of a transaction, but we have the same goal: to make it to closing!
Do you have questions about why working with a buyer’s agent may or may not be the right move for you? If so, reach out! We are fiduciaries whose job it is to help you figure out the best possible moves for YOU in this market.
Make A Move
If you’re ready to make a move, call us today, we would love to help you find your next Living Room.
Kim Parmon
Principal Broker | Earth Advantage Certified | OR
She/Her
Kim Parmon
Principal Broker
Lead Listing Agent
Earth Advantage Certified | OR
kim@livingroomre.com
Oregon is the fifth state that Kim has called home in her life, and this one is sticking! After moving multiple times in her childhood, Kim fully understands how empowering homeownership and having roots is. She loves waking up every day in this beautiful place and wants everyone to experience what it feels like to live in their dream home.
As a kid, Kim spent her free time wandering through open houses and exploring construction sites for the fun of it. After careers in the professional ballroom dance world, the entertainment industry, and the service industry, Kim stumbled into real estate as both a passion and a profession through the purchase of her first bungalow. After renovating it with her husband and selling it for enough of a profit to pay off their debt as well as buy a new house to live in, everything clicked: she decided to get her real estate license and help her community experience the emotional and financial benefits of homeownership.
Kim put down roots in Portland in 2015 and has cultivated a referrals-based business throughout the years. She understands that real estate is a service and the experience she gives her clients is first-rate. She works hard to anticipate needs. She is responsive, thorough, empathic, and a skilled negotiator who enjoys market analytics and strategy as much as she enjoys connecting with her clients. Her ethics and reputation are the cornerstones of her business and the happiness of her clients is the yardstick that she measures success against.
Kim merged her business with the best agents in Portland at the beginning of 2022, which has allowed her to give her clients more resources, more advocacy, and a top-notch real estate experience. She is honored to be a part of her incredible team and feels lucky to go to work every day.
In her free time, you'll find Kim enjoying lazy evenings by the fire with her husband, daughter, and rescue dogs. She loves dancing, live music, exploring all of the beautiful places around us in the PNW, enjoying a cider and a good meal with friends, and browsing Powell's for a great new book.
Andee Ziegler
Licensed Listing Team Operations Manager
andee@livingroomre.com
Loving where you live will change your life. Everyone deserves that joy. For me, real estate has been a way of nurturing my community and doing what I can to help people find stability, grow generational wealth, and create a little space of their own in the world.
For 15 years I found the most joy in helping first-time homebuyers, guiding my peers through their first major investment and dreaming up what home means for them. I’ve done restoration work on homes from a variety of eras, 1894 Victorian farmhouse to classic 1950’s ranch. I enjoy empowering new homeowners with the knowledge I’ve garnered over the years, from systems to finishes.
In 2022 I joined forces with some of the best realtors in the biz and shifted my focus to operation management for listings. This welcome change opened up space in my life: more cake, less pants.
Andee Zeigler | Licensed Listing Team Operations Manager | andee@livingroomre.com
Jessica LeDoux | Lead Buyer Agent | Broker Licensed in Oregon | jessica@livingroomre.com
Karim Alaeddine | Operations | Principal Broker Licensed in Oregon | karim@livingroomre.com
Jenessa VanZutphen | Buyer Operations Manager | Licensed in Oregon | jenessa@livingroomre.com
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- T: 503-438-5101
- kim@livingroomre.com
