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Kristina Browning | Realtor

Realtor to partner with Developers & Builders

May 23, 2016 Kristina Browning Leave a Comment

If you are looking for a realtor to partner with and you are building in the greater Portland metro area, Oregon City, West Linn etc., I would be happy to meet with you about listing your development of homes or condo complex. Whether you are building loft-like units, rejuvenating historic properties or starting on a new sub-division, let’s meet to see if we could become partners.

Condos: At no cost to you, I can hep you get FHA approved for your new condos with exclusivity as your realtor.

Homes: I can facilitate the staging and open houses along with the marketing of the property including photography and video for web ads and sharing on social media.  This requires minimal effort from you – since your job is to build beautiful properties and mine is to get them sold.

If any of these scenarios below describe you, please connect with me in whatever manner suits you best: phone, email or text and we can talk about your goals and priorities. 503-479-5764

  • I am… looking for a real estate agent to sell my home
  • I am… looking for a real estate agent to parent with and list homes in my development
  • I am… looking for a realtor to market and sell my condo project.

I would be happy to meet with you on location to learn about your timeline and past efforts.

Filed Under: Listing your Home, Selling your home Tagged With: developing oregon city, real estate agent to sell my home, realtor to partner with builder, realtor to partner with developer

What moving company to use?

July 22, 2015 Kristina Browning 3 Comments

If you are deciding what moving company to use, read this blog post first. As a Portland Real Estate Agent, I come across people every day making plans to move so when I had a bad experience, I wanted to help others avoid making the same mistake.

I made reservations well in advance with PODS #51 (doing business at 2522 N Marine Dr. # C Portland, OR 97217-7709) to deliver a 16’ truck to my condo in SW Portland.  I measured my driveway to ensure there was enough room and spoke with the customer service agent about it.  He assured me it would be fine.  Before it was delivered, my husband watched a video of how they deliver the POD and maneuver them into tight spaces so we felt confident they could do it. The evening before, they gave me a window of time for arrival between 7-10am.

The driver showed up on time and was very polite.  He said he would need to turn around to properly place the pod into our driveway which is admittedly a tight space in our condo area.  After turning around he decided he didn’t think he could put the POD straight in because of the 1’ overhang of the roof above our garage (meaning it would need to be at an angle.) Since our neighbors just moved out, I told him that would be fine.  Then he told me it would be sticking out into the street by 3’ and since the street was our condo’s fire lane, that was illegal.  So I asked what he suggested. He suggested ordering a smaller POD.  I got on the phone to their call center before the driver left to see how quickly they could dispatch a smaller POD.  I would need to order two since I didn’t have enough room for ONE 16’ POD, I certainly would not have room for (2) 12’ PODS. Logistically speaking, one would need to be dropped off, packed and hauled away before the next could be delivered. I had the driver explain to Mike (the call center rep) the circumstances so it could be noted to my account.  The driver left at 10am and Mike assured me the Wilsonville manager would call me back as soon as he was out of his meeting. 2:00PM rolled around and I still had not heard anything so I called back to speak with Mike.  Another rep said they would send an internal message for Mike to call.  An hour passed and I still had no call from Mike so I called back and explained everything to yet another rep.  She told me they had no 12’ PODS available until Saturday. I asked if she could then at least give me priority delivery since they were supposed to have something to me today.  She told me no, they don’t guarantee delivery time.  So I said “Maybe at least try to spin it positively?  Maybe say that you will do everything you can to make sure I am taken care of even though you can’t guarantee a certain time.  Can’t you call the dispatch people to explain that I’m in a bad situation because you said you could deliver here?”  I explained that I am a realtor and this would be a great opportunity for me to be PODS biggest advocate and fan since I come across people every day that are making moving decisions.  She called the Wilsonville manager who told her he wasn’t going to deliver ANY POD to our property.  And that was it. No solution of any kind.  To make matters worse, when my neighbors moved in a year ago, they used a POD which was indeed parked here on the property directly across from our condo so I know it is not only possible, but has been done before.  I had reserved that same exact guest parking spot in case they couldn’t place the POD in my driveway. I checked my credit card and found a pending charge for $179.49 and had to call back yet a fourth time for the order to be canceled and a credit to be issued. Now I am left with no moving plan and our condo closes on Monday.  I’ve got four days to figure out a new plan.   DO NOT USE PODS.  They don’t care about your situation and will leave you stranded without even batting an eye.

I called Door to Door next and explained what had happened. The gal said my call was the second like that she had today. Since it’s the busiest season, the wonderful gal Andrea at Door to Door wasn’t able to get a container delivered to us until two days after we have to be out.  On to the next company!

Pack-Rats don’t service our area despite the online ads that appeared when I entered PODS competitor into Google search.

U-Pack can’t move people intrastate.  (From an Oregon address to an Oregon address.)  The gal I spoke with doesn’t know why.

When I called United Mayflower the automated prompt asked me to enter my “to” and “from” zip code, and once it realized that I was a local move, it instructed me to go online with no further assistance.  I went online and filled out a form and asked for someone to call. (never got a call)

GotBins asked me to leave a voice mail and someone would call me back. (never got a call)

GoMini’s said they are unable to provide me a quote based on the zip code that I provided…they are not in Portland Oregon yet.

Ultimately, SmartBox was the company that saved the day. Not only could they deliver boxes for me this weekend, but they called back to say they could deliver them a day earlier!  The customer service has been fantastic and the boxes are stored locally in a climate controlled warehouse.  I am beyond thrilled.  SmartBox MovingHalf way through filling the four boxes that we ordered, we realized that four wasn’t going to be enough so we ordered another.  Rob was the delivery guy who went above and beyond.  He was so kind, precise with the forklift and came in after he was off for the day to adjust the box placement to appease us and our HOA rules.  BRAVO!  I would recommend them hands down above the other companies!

 

 


Kristina Browning is a family friendly, Oregon City real estate agent, designer, photographer & adventure seeker. Lover of beer, travel & gourmet living. Mom to a sweet boy named Blue.  Follow her on Twitter here.  

Filed Under: Listing your Home, Selling your home Tagged With: movers, moving, moving company, oregon, Oregon City real estate agent, PODS, portland real estate agent, reviews, storage

A letter from a couple that listed FOR SALE BY OWNER

May 28, 2015 Kristina Browning Leave a Comment

A letter to people thinking about listing your home for sale by owner; why we won’t do it again. Some words of caution…

 

To all those people thinking about listing your home for sale by owner,

How difficult could that be, right? That’s exactly what we thought going into the For Sale By Owner (FSBO) world. We thought to ourselves, “How difficult could it be to find a buyer and sign a few sheets of paper?”

Listing our home FSBO seemed like a great idea because we thought we would save thousands of dollars.  I can tell you from personal experience that was a huge misconception and that’s why I’m writing this letter. We quickly found out that we didn’t know what we were doing and we were in over our heads.

This is a list of some of the issues we encountered along the way that we could have avoided if we had just listed with a realtor:

  • Listing your home at the right price is difficult. If it’s too high, no one will come and see it.  If it’s too low, we lose money. An agent has access to data that the normal person doesn’t. What’s happening in our market that should effect our price?  Ummmm. (We drew a blank.)
  • Advertising? Yeah we did some of that, I think. Web, newspaper, open house; no fun.
  • Multiple times we had set appointments to show our home and the potential buyers either never showed up or they were very late.
  • We had buyers tell us they were pre-approved and then found out that they weren’t.
  • Staging our home…what’s that? Oh yeah maybe we should have done that and our home would have sold faster.
  • A buyers agent tried to sneak a high percentage commission in because we were naive. There is nothing like having an agent representing YOUR INTERESTS.
  • Receiving an official offer was exciting BUT THEN it took hours of reaching out to multiple resources to make sure we actually understood what was being offered so we could make an educated decision. An agent would have probably understood it in 15 minutes.  It took us days.
  • Counter offering. How do you do that? I took us a while to figure that one out. Strategy? Again, let a sellers agent worry about it.
  • Who pays closing costs and all the unexpected fees?  How do we even begin to understand this without an agent?
  • Next: The home inspection. What do we do with the results?  Who is responsible for fixing issues?

Did we save thousands of dollars like we initially thought? Not really. It took time away from our family, brought about many moments of frustration and anxiety, we had millions of questions and moments of uncertainty, was it worth it?  No.

Save yourself the grief and feel confident by listing with a realtor. At the end of the day when it’s all said and done, you’re really not saving anything at all, in fact it might be costing you.

Claudia & Berno Gonzalez 

To all those people thinking about listing your home for sale by owner

Filed Under: Listing your Home, Practical Advice, Selling your home Tagged With: Agent, For Sale By Owner, FSBO, listing your home, real estate, Realtor, sellers agent, selling

Gratitude – Real Estate Agent Reviews

January 8, 2015 Kristina Browning Leave a Comment

When someone takes the time to write something kind about their experience with me as their real estate agent, I am filled with gratitude. So often, life gets in the way and setting aside the time to express your feelings in a review is a big deal. I understand how hectic moving can be so it is with great pride that I keep your penned words here for others to reference when deciding what real estate agent to use when buying or selling a home in the greater Portland area.  So, if you are looking for real estate agent reviews, look no further.

Whoa, what a roller coater ride this deal was!  I am so thrilled for this adorable couple being settled into their ideal home and thank you for such a lovely review about your experience with me!

Liz&BrendonTestimonial

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My first time home buyer client was just finishing his second college degree and decided he was ready to find a close-in condo to call his own.  With as busy as the market was, we found him a condo with character and got an accepted offer…maybe not on the first time around, but nonetheless, we got it done! IanCopp

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a tight market this is!  March of 2016 brought multiple offers on virtually every listing in Portland.  I am proud to say my client was able to successfully close on a lovely condo in the Mississippi neighborhood. Whether you are looking to buy or sell in Oregon City or St. John’s, this market has proved to be a bit challenging, but I am here to guide you through it.

SarahMedeirosTestimonial_Webiste

Relocating is more stressful than moving across town.  From trying to grasp the lay of the land to living out of a hotel or with relatives, the whole thing is enough to make even the most assertive types hide under the blankets.  Rest assured that I understand you don’t have the luxuries and familiarity that your home provides.  I can help with your relocation just as I did with Bob and Darian Wand below.

Real Estate Agent Reviews

This past summer, I made the trip to Seattle for Oprah’s Live the Life you Want Weekend. It was nice to get away from the daily grind and take some time to re-evaluate goals, aspirations and my own path.  After the workshops, I realized more than ever that I am doing exactly what I should be, using all of my natural skill sets to make a living that enriches those around me.  Nothing gives me greater joy than being needed in a very big decision and transaction in the lives of others.  I am absolutely up to the task.

Real Estate Agent Reviews

Often times I am delighted to find that the people I meet initially in a Real Estate environment end up being people that I can call friends by the end of the transaction.  That’s exactly what happened with Tara throughout her search for a condo.  The more I got to know here, the more I was rooting for her and her quest for independence. I hope to know her for many years to come and she has been officially added to my Christmas card list too!

Reviews for Real Estate Agents

Portland Real Estate Agent Testimonial

Hey, I look at reviews before making a large purchase too so I don’t blame you one bit for seeking out Real Estate Agent reviews.  I would too!  If you have more questions, feel free to call, text or email me.  My contact info is below.

In gratitude ~Kristina Browning / Real Estate Agent in Portland Oregon / Bellmoore Realty / 503-479-5764 /  Kristina@PortlandHomeGal.com

 

Filed Under: Listing your Home, Real Estate Agent Reviews, Selling your home Tagged With: buying, gratitude, home, house, mississippi neighborhood, moving, oregon, oregon city, portland, real estate agent in portland oregon, real estate agent reviews, Realtor, relocating, selling, what real estate agent to use

     Kristina Browning is a licensed broker in the State of Oregon. © 2017
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