This holiday season, in addition to health, family, freedom, and all of the regular stuff…we’re very thankful to get to work with the clients that we spend everyday with. Your continued faith and support of us have made Strategic Realty a successful company, which allows Josh, myself, and our staff to feed and take care of our families, pursue our dreams, and do all the things that make us happy. We couldn’t be more appreciative, and there are a lot of families that are not as fortunate.
If the work we accomplish at Strategic Realty helped you make a little money this year, or save a little money, consider sharing some of it with those in need.
What happens to Bend homes for sale in Winter?
A client recently asked me what happens in the Bend, OR real estate market in the winter. As I described some of the historical trends to her, I thought this might be helpful for other people in the market for Bend Homes for Sale.
Below is an excerpt from the email:
Blacksmith, Joe Elliot
I know this doesn’t have a lot to do with real estate…well, maybe it does….but last night I was fortunate enough to be invited to an airing party for an episode of Oregon Art Beat produced by Oregon Public Broadcast. The feature story was on Bend, Oregon’s own Joe Elliot, a master blacksmith with a forge in downtown Bend. In fact, that was the location of the party. Surrounded by iron, steel, fire, tools, food, and some of the most interesting people that Central Oregon has to offer.
Now, here’s where it has to do with real estate. The pieces of art, both functional and beautiful, that Joe produces adorn some of the finest custom homes around. If you are looking to build from scratch or remodel in the Bend Oregon area, you owe it to yourself to give this guy a call ans see what he can offer. It provides any home with a dose of authenticity that anchors it in Central Oregon. We’re a very fortunate community to have talent like Joe’s among us.
For those of you that didn’t get to see the original airing, here is the segment for your enjoyment. Also, the home filmed in this episode is for sale in Broken Top. If you are interested,contact us and we’ll let you know who it is.
Thanks, Joe!
Oh, and let’s not forget a link to Joe’s website at DryCanyonForge.com!
Facebook Datacenter Prineville Photo Tour
After working with the team to locate the Facebook Datacenter on a plot of my client’s land in Prineville, Oregon, they were kind enough to invite to me to the grand opening this last Spring. It was a great party with Mark Zuckerberg as the suprise guest of honor (for those that stayed at the party late enough for the surprise). However, one thing that the grand opening was noticeably missing was an actual tour of the facility.
You see, for whatever reason, the party was held in tents right outside the Prineville facility. There was a nice hosting station, plenty of heaters, good food, and a large illuminated “like” button at the entrance. But after working with the team to get the right amount of electricity, water, and land for what was going to be the most energy-efficient datacenter of its kind in the world, I kinda wanted to see what it was wall about.
Well, you can imagine my delight when I ran across this recent blog article with a Photo Tour of the Prineville Datacenter…and I must say it is even cooler than I imagined it. The post is from Robert Scoble‘s website and popular blog, Scobleizer. As reported, it is an enormous wind-tunnel with evaporative cooling. This was the plan from the start, but somehow, seeing these pictures, the real scale of it is dumbfounding. The gentleman giving the tour is Thomas (Tom) Furlong. Tom was always in the team that we met with during the Facebook scouting trips (or Vitesse as they were codenamed at the time.)
I find it interesting that Scoble was up here touring the Facebook Datacenter so recently. He works closely with Rackspace on their new Building43 project. Rackspace is one of the companies rumored to be looking for Prineville land for sale.
For those of you who are following up on rumors of our continued activity in the Prineville datacenter world, yes, we are in contract to bring the next large datacenter to the Prineville area. Stay tuned here and we will certainly post information when we are allowed to release it.
Tour of Pronghorn and Brasada Ranch
Interesting tour yesterday as I took a couple of really nice clients out to look at both Pronghorn and Brasada Ranch destination resorts not far from Bend. The clients were originally looking for home for sale in Bend, but decided that in their quest of drop-dead-gorgeous mountain views, they should really expand their search and consider some of the outlying resorts.
We started off with Pronghorn in the morning. For those that haven’t been to Pronghorn in a few years, I must say that there are quite a few homes built. More than I realized before I drove every street. Prices are depressed there as you might imagine. We previewed one very nice home for sale at $980,000 that had previously been listed at $2,300,000. Pronghorn is known for being exceedingly private and that feel was still apparent. Perhaps mostly because if felt like we were the only people on property. My clients were looking for great mountain views, and those are not easy to find in Pronghorn. The terrain is mostly flat, by Central Oregon standards, and what we refer to as “white mountain views” are mostly had from the second story of homes. The golf course looked like it was in very good shape as usual, however, my clients are no golfers so this wasn’t a big plus.
The favorite part of the Pronghorn tour, for me, was when the broker from the sales center came into where we were lunching (Trailhead, casual restaurant on property), and handed us a brochure for a specific house she really wanted to see for $1,600,000 or so. Only later did we find out it was her personal home she was trying to sell. If you’re into golf…and by that I mean some of the finest golf the world has to offer…and you would like to search for Pronghorn home for sale, please visit our Pronghorn Homes for Sale page.
As we headed to Brasada, the sun came out and made the touring decidedly more enjoyable. The lifting of the clouds also staged Brasada Ranch well for what it is best known for…huge panoramic views of the cascades. Sitting up against Powell Butte is like stadium seating for the white mountain views, and they were truly breath-taking.
The weather-worn appearance of most Brasada Ranch homes (builders spend a lot of money in rusting metal and using reclaimed wood to achieve this) takes everyone a little while to get used to, but our clients were quickly appreciating it. The look makes it appear that the development has been there forever. We looked at each home and tried to imagine what it would be like when all the other homes are built.
That’s the toughest part about Brasada Ranch right now. With only about 38 homes built, and views being the main draw, it’s important to remember that most of those vistas will someday be overtaken by future construction. At least we found a well-priced home that also afforded some common area to the rear that would protect much of the stunning mountain views.
As our tour wound down, we next headed to the real trump card at Brasada Ranch. It’s a great development with many nice features. Welcoming golf course, fine restaurants, fitness facilities, recreation and views…but to tell the truth these things aren’t all that rare in the High Desert. Where Brasada Ranch beats all the rest is HORSES! Yes, that’s right…if you’re into horses, your probably going to be into Brasada Ranch. For (at this writing) only an extra $440 /month you get a really nice paddock, horse area, access to a giant indoor arena, and most importantly, someone to take care of your horse! It’s a whole culture at Brasada Ranch and a real standout feature for those shopping for their Central Oregon home.
If you want to see Brasada Ranch homes for sale, please visit our search page at Brasada Ranch Homes for Sale.
Foreclosure Notices Drop in Deschutes County
Reported in the Bend Bulletin this morning, Notice of Defaults (the official notice that your bank sends you when you are not making your payment, and they’ve, frankly, grown tired of waiting on you) were about half last month of what they were in September 2010. This notice initiates the foreclosure process for the lender. From our experience, this is when most homeowners consider foreclosure alternatives. One of the most common methods of avoiding foreclosure is a short sale.
It’s hard to say what this means for a market. It is not necessarily saying that people are now making their payments. We’ve seen some banks allow people to stay in their homes for well over a year before serving them with an NOD. We speculate that receiving an NOD has as much to do with internal bank processes as it has with the lack of a payment.