I have been actively looking to purchase a rental property here in Portland Oregon for myself and this in addition to my experiences with a couple of recent clients has made me more aware of making sure to learn as much about a property as possible.  I don't mean checking recent sales figures to determine the best price (which you DO need to do).  I am talking about the small details that can get lost on the shuffle until it is too late.

For instance, here in Portland Oregon, we have a lot of old underground oil storage tanks.  Checking on the condition and verifying the decomissioning is am important think to look into.  Another item that most people never think about is permits.  You walk into a remodeled house and everything looks so nice and shiny, but how do you know the work was done safely?  Make sure to pull permit records and find out what has been done.  Note to sellers...  If you are thinking of selling your home, now is a good time to make sure that any permitted work you have had done has the permits finalized.  It is much better to be proactive on this than let it be a nasty surprise to a buyer.

The last area I will touch on here is checking the taxes.  Just because a house you are looking at has a tax abatement doesn't mean that it automatically transferrs to the new owner.

Whether it is taxes, permits, oil tanks, or somehting else, taking the time to investigate a property fully will be worth every secons spent doing it.  For more information about buying or selling homes in the Portland Oregon area, please visit my Portland Oregon Real Estate website.

Let me know if you have any questions about this information or anything else.

Adam Highton