Bend Premier Real Estate is fortunate to have Erik Chapin, one of our Premier Brokers who is also a licensed appraiser, as an expert on the appraisal business in Central Oregon. According to Erik, Covid-19 has had a dramatic impact on appraisals locally.
Erik typically operates with a lead time of 4 weeks to complete an appraisal. At this time in 2019, he averaged twelve appraisals a month. Last week over a three day period, he received ten appraisals on top of fifteen he already had. He is working six to seven days a week and is having a hard time keeping up. There are a number of reasons why there is such a backlog:
1) Low in...

Concerns over the spread of Covid 19 have quickly changed how we conduct real estate sales in Central Oregon over the past few weeks. Shelter in place, social distancing, travel constraints, economic concerns, social changes, and just an overall fear of catching the coronavirus has really impacted human behavior. As a result, we are seeing two distinctly different groups here at Bend Premier Real Estate when it comes to real estate transactions.
The first group was the first to emerge as soon as the panic set in. With predictions of massive layoffs and record unemployment, we started to hear concerns of potential job loses and uncertainty...

In this never before seen world with the coronavirus pandemic changing how we live our lives, having options on how buyers can tour a home is invaluable. At Bend Premier Real Estate, we invested as a brokerage in Matterport 3D two years ago. We currently own two cameras complete with all the set ups required and have two videographers trained to film these tours.
For our sellers, the benefit of having buyers virtually walking through their home enables us to screen through buyers for whom the house may not work - all without physically being there. For buyers, the opportunity to view the home in 3D can help them determine if that property makes their top list and eliminates time and work in viewing homes which are not a good fit. T...
With the outbreak of the coronavirus worldwide, which has sickened thousands and created panic and uncertainty in our stock market, we are left to question if the effects will extend to the US real estate market, and more specifically to our local Central Oregon real estate market.

Mortgage Interest Rates have already fallen to new record lows (3.29% as of March 5th) as investors are taking money out of the volatile stock market and putting it into safer US Treasury Bonds. Historically, when bonds are strong, mortgage rates go down.
A mild winter and continued high demand has led to a boom for February 2020 home sales in Bend. When the February 2020 sales of Bend single family homes on less than an acre are compared with February 2019, the following changes can be noted:
Winter is typically a slower time fo...