Herb's Portland Oregon Real Estate Blog your RE/MAX Agent

Recent action by the Federal government has caused Mortgage Rates to Plummet. For those who have been standing on the dock, Now is Your Moment . Don't miss the Boat !

This mornings news is great for home buyers. While the news stations all are a tither over AIG and the bonuses mortgage rates have been falling with little attention given.

The Rates have fallen below 4 3/4 %. Check it out here http://budurl.com/wg74 for the latest rates offered at Wells Fargo.

Why buy now? The market has begun shifting with improvements in many eastern markets. The west normally follows the east.

Although still dampened Portland Metro February 09 sales have improved significantly over January 09. Housing starts across the US have made a significant increase reported at some 22 % which again shows an iimproving real estate market. Of course it will take several more reporting periods before we can call it a trend but it is encouraging.

Over the past 20 years that I have been in business I can not tell you how many times I have seen peoples dreams dashed as they realized the market had left them behind. " I just waited to long" or " I was waiting for the market to hit bottom " and " My dad said wait till the market gets better". These statements are Dream Killers. I have heard them to many times.

Don't let your dream of home ownership die for lack of trying. Take advantage o these historically low interest rates and low low real estate prices.

If your looking to buy that first home but just don't know where or how to start then drop by The_Picklefor a simple IDX Search presented on a neighborhood map. Full listing descriptions are available.

For those who would prefer to let the computer work for you, then by all means House_Hunt_Portland is just right for you. Come see how your next home can find you.

For Portland Oregon area information and a more traditional web site be sure to stop by www.portlandrealproperty.com .

Do you get trapped into language shifts? It is funny how the evolution of the English language eventually catches up to us all.

I have always enjoyed the role that slang plays in our daily communication. Yet there have been times that I have resisted, nay, dare I say rallied against a particular word or phrase.

Take for instance the now very common phrase " No Problem ". I hated this one from the start and truth be known I still don't care for it. To state " No Problem " presumes that I have given the impression that there was a problem in the first place when most likely there was No Problem at all.

Then there is " Cool " as in " That's Cool or He or She's Cool. This one word is interesting to me. Made popular in the 60's completely disappeared off the radar until the 80's when it began to make its way back on to the scene. I remember the first time my children heard me say " That's Cool ". It kind of shocked them and impressed them at the same time. I smiled inside remembering how common the phrase was when I was a teenager.

Try as we may it is hard to resist these changes. For one of the very things that we all crave is to be accepted socially. Slang words are the avenue towards acceptance. Even the dreaded " No Problem " which I can not stop from using no matter how hard I try.

Check out the Portland Oregon Buyer's_Web_Site for real estate an Idx solution. It's so Fly.

Some two plus years ago in the late fall of 2006 I was struggling to find success with an Internet marketing strategy.

Over the Previous 3 or 4 years I had several web sites that had not worked out.  Finally I found what I believed to be  a pretty_good_platform  at Alamode.com. I chose a domain_name_for_Portland real estate that I thought might work well and set out to create the Worlds Greatest  Site!

My web site offered me the ability to change the pages and add new pages at will. Which I did on a somewhat regular basis. Yet after almost 2 years the sight remained obscured amongst the myriad of other like minded individuals. For the search terms Portland Oregon Real Estate there were close to 2 million sites ( according to a Google_search ).

As I read more and more about search engine optimization I became more determined than ever to push my site to the top. Or at least close enough that I could be seen occasionally.

That is when I was first introduced to the Blogosphere and the world of Blogging. I joined two blog sites within days of each other. The first at Activerain and the second was a Wordpress_Blog. Activerain is a blogging platform for real estate minded individuals and for consumers as well who want to know what the Buzz is in Real Estate.

About a week later and after I had written a few posts on my two new blogs I went back to do another Google_search for Portland area real estate.  After being totally obscure for years suddenly I was on page 35. I was stunned and encouraged all at the same time.

By the end of my third week of blogging I had moved up into the top 5 pages of Google where I remain today for a variety of different key words.

My strategy is an organic strategy that of writing blog posts using a variety of key words that I hope will be entered by consumers in the search engines that will lead them to me.

Today's strategy is much like those early days with a few new twists. My main Web Site www.portlandrealproperty.com has become more of a landing page.

While at my Portland Oregon Real Estate web site you can do an   IDX_Search_for_Portland_Real_Estate  . You can  Find_a_Portland_School on a map or enter your address to  find_the_Portland_School_for_your_home_address.  You can also find Mortgage information, Mortgage calculators to help you to calculate what you might qualify for. There is also a link to Portland_public_Golf_Courses and many other links as well.

My main strategy though Starts with Blogging, is exposed through Social web Platforms and Listing sites, Teased by Twitter and eventually lands on one of my web sites.

I write 4 blogs, Herb's_Activerain_blog, Portland_Flips , Rose_City_blog, and The_Pickle.Each of these blogs have a life of their own and are updated differently as I see fit. I also belong to several Social Web Platforms like Facebook ,  Linkedin , Naymz and Twitter just to mention a few. There also a variety of Free Listing sites, Search Engine Sites, Photo Editing sites and Video editing sites where I have added my profile with links back to my web and blog sites.

The process begins by developing a blog post topic. I will generally create it on Microsoft Word as I am doing this one. Photo's and or videos if to be used will be shot and edited. Each of my blog posts are generally written for one of my blog sites. After uploading the text and adding in the photo's I then read and re-read editing where needed.

Next step is to upload the blog and the go to either Budurl or Tinyurl to shorten up the link for the blog post. Next step is to Tease the post on Twitter with a tag line like" On The Pickle ! A real estate Investor's Web site. http://budurl.com/s2jt "

This seems to be a good strategy for me at this time. Driving interested parties to my web Sites at Portland_Real_Property for information and searches, House_Hunt_Portland , Portland_Flipstwo automated email search sites allowing the buyer to enter their search criteria and receive daily updates of the MLS ( RMLS) . My third web site The_Pickleis an interactive IDX site which allows consumers to search live RMLS activity by Neighborhood on and intuitive interactive map with no sign up required.

I hope that you are finding success as well with your Internet Strategy. Please comment here and let us know what type of strategy is working for YOU!

When I was a kid growing up my Grandmother was a guiding force in my life. She would bake, discipline, and dispense wisdom like there was no tomorrow.

One of my Grandmothers favorite sayings was " You got yourself in a real Pickle there". Then she would purse her lips together as if she had just taken a big bite out of a Juicy Dill Pickle. We all knew what she meant.

Today in our troubling economic times I would suspect that my Grandma would be talking about Pickles all day long. How many of us have been living our lives on the edge, the Payday to Payday program? A sure fired recipe for Pickles.

My grandmother and her favorite saying was the inspiration for my new web blog site The_Pickle .  At the Pickle you can read stories involving Oregon and Oregonians, financial matters concerning home buying and selling matters and view photos in and around the Portland Metro area.

A unique feature offered at The Pickle is a Portland Oregon Real_Estate_Search engine. The search function begins with a map of the greater Portland Metro area and allows Home Buyer's and Seller's alike to search right down to the neighborhood level all without any sign up conditions.

The Pickle frames the entire MLSso you will quickly be able to search for homes offered through RMLS Oregon in any Portland Metro neighborhood and view them all online in just a couple of clicks.

Of course for those of you who prefer to have_your_Home_Search_emailedto you House Hunt Portland is available as well the Investors_Email_notification_and_Real_Estate_searchat Portland Flips. What ever your real estate needs I am always looking out for you. Be sure to stop by Portland_Real_Property as well for additional search functions as well as a whole host of links to the Portland area.  

Be Sure to stop by The_Pickle today and say hello. I'll be looking for you.