Why That Dream Home Isn’t Showing Up (LivPortland vs. Redfin vs. Zillow)

🎙️ Summary:

This episode is a wild ride from start to finish. Joe and Makayla kick things off with a spine-tingling story from a recent home showing that felt straight out of a horror movie—think missing keys, creepy basements, and lights turning on by themselves.

Once the chills subside, the duo dives into something every homebuyer needs: setting up a smart, stress-free property search. They break down how to use LivPortland.com, Redfin, and even touch on Zillow, sharing real-world tips to filter like a pro and avoid getting overwhelmed by irrelevant listings.

Whether you’re a first-time buyer, a seasoned investor, or just nosey (hey, no judgment), this episode delivers practical advice with just the right dose of personality.

🎯 Episode Highlights

• Creeped Out & Locked Out
  Makayla tells the kind of showing story that makes you question basements and smart cameras forever.
• Search Smarter, Not Harder
  Why just browsing on Zillow isn't enough—and how to avoid endless scrolling and irrelevant listings.
• The Goldmine You’re Probably Not Using
  Joe shows why LivPortland.com beats the big-name sites when it comes to speed and accuracy.
• Redfin vs. Zillow vs. Local
  Makayla breaks down where Redfin shines, what Zillow gets wrong, and why the local edge matters.
• What Filters Actually Matter
  The difference between what you want and what you need—and why it could make or break your search.
• How Big Is 1,200 Square Feet, Really?
  A simple garage-based analogy that finally helps you picture square footage.
• Avoiding Buyer’s Remorse
  Why setting alerts without overthinking them can save you from second-guessing every home.
• Behind the Curtain: The Pro Tools
  A peek at the advanced filters agents use that most buyers skip right past.
• The Beach House Game Plan
  Joe shares his exact (dreamy) filter settings for coastal properties—because planning ahead matters.
• From Books to Bandwidth
  A quick flashback to the days before online listings, and what that history means for today’s buyers.

 🔎 Set up your own pro-level home search (minus the creepy basement vibes) at LivPortland.com.
👀 Want to watch this walkthrough live? Check out the video version on our YouTube channel.
📲 Got questions or want help fine-tuning your search? Contact the LivPortland Team. 

Thank you for listening to this episode. Stay up to date on the latest trends and insights by subscribing to our podcast and following us on social media.

For more information about buying or selling in the Portland Metro real estate market, please visit www.LivPortland.com or contact us directly.

We appreciate your feedback, so please leave a review and let us know what topics you would like to hear more about.

Transcript

00;00;08;21 - 00;00;26;27

Joe Reitzug

Welcome to Off the Record talking real estate with Joe and Makayla. If you're interested in the Portland, Oregon real estate market and want the unvarnished inside scoop, you've come to the right place. Thanks for giving us a listen. Okay. Welcome, everyone. Thanks for joining us. Hello, Makayla. How are you?

00;00;26;28 - 00;00;28;19

Makayla Mast

I'm good. How are you?

00;00;28;22 - 00;00;37;27

Joe Reitzug

I'm doing well. I'm doing well. It's a Friday. It's completely pouring down rain here in Portland. But now you know it's spring.

00;00;38;00 - 00;00;38;18

Makayla Mast

It is.

00;00;38;18 - 00;00;40;01

Joe Reitzug

Today's the first day of spring. Did you know.

00;00;40;01 - 00;00;46;02

Makayla Mast

That? That's right. Yeah. And we had to run for cover to get our tacos across the street. It was kind of depressing.

00;00;46;06 - 00;00;47;14

Joe Reitzug

But wasn't it worth it?

00;00;47;14 - 00;00;51;04

Makayla Mast

So worth it. Yeah. Those are the best.

00;00;51;05 - 00;00;52;26

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. Puppy loves.

00;00;53;03 - 00;00;53;29

Makayla Mast

Out there.

00;00;54;01 - 00;01;20;03

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. I love that place, too. Yeah. So we've got a great show for everyone today. We are going to talk to you about how to set up a property search like a professional. Everyone goes online, does their searches on Zillow or Redfin or on our website LivPortland.com. And there's some do's and don'ts. And you know, sometimes people I think get a little bit frustrated with it.

00;01;20;03 - 00;01;29;13

Joe Reitzug

And there are definitely tricks that you can use to be able to, refine your search better and get better results. So, yeah, it's going to be an interesting conversation.

00;01;29;15 - 00;01;41;06

Makayla Mast

Yeah, I think it'll be helpful for people. Hopefully a lot of people get really overwhelmed with, you know, everything that they're seeing. But if they just took some time to filter it to their needs, then it would be more productive.

00;01;41;09 - 00;01;42;01

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. So love.

00;01;42;01 - 00;02;26;14

Makayla Mast

It. But before we get into that, I'm dying to tell you about this showing last night. I've been saving for the listener.

00;02;26;17 - 00;02;47;25

Makayla Mast

Excited to get out there. The first property that we had scheduled had just come on the market yesterday. So we're trying to get there fast and be the first people to see it. And then the second one had been on the market a long time, like I think 170 days. And it's more of a fixer upper. So we get to the first one and it's acreage and, you know, the clients are really excited.

00;02;47;26 - 00;03;10;26

Makayla Mast

They're right behind me and we're driving for an hour and a half. You know it's out there. Yeah. And we get there and the property just isn't what we thought it was going to be. It was super weird. Lot like wedged in between a quad triplex and then a neighborhood. But it was like four acres in its own little parcel, and there was no way to see that online.

00;03;10;26 - 00;03;33;05

Makayla Mast

So clients were bummed. It was kind of sad. The home was beautiful, but it just wasn't for that. So we move on to the next one and it's like six minutes away and we pull up to the property and it's a gorgeous property, like a meadow. Big barn, smaller shop and then the house. And we knew before going into it that the house was unfinished, like walls weren't there, floors were gone.

00;03;33;05 - 00;03;50;29

Makayla Mast

It looked like it had been half demoed and someone maybe ran out of money or something. So we get there and there is a camera on every door and window crazy. And there's probably 4 or 5 doors to get in and out of the house. So every door has a ring camera. There's cameras above. Super creepy right? Jeez.

00;03;51;02 - 00;04;13;18

Makayla Mast

I open the lockbox and there's a set of four keys and none of the keys. Open the doors. And I was getting very frustrated. And, you know, it's pouring. My clients want to get inside and see the house, and we see, like, basement, like stairs down to the basement. Oh, no. Yeah. My client was like, why don't I run down here and see if this one's maybe this one's open?

00;04;13;18 - 00;04;23;12

Makayla Mast

And I was like, go for it. I tossed him the keys down the stairs as I did not think it was going to work. The door was unlocked and yeah, so I didn't.

00;04;23;13 - 00;04;25;01

Joe Reitzug

Have a camera on it too.

00;04;25;04 - 00;04;44;12

Makayla Mast

Oh, wow. We had permission to be there, but it's not like we're being watched. I just did not like the feeling. So we go in this basement. The home is 5000ft². So the basement was like the beginning of this maze. And all the electrical was, like, hanging down. So we had to, like, kind of fish for the lights, which worked, which is great.

00;04;44;12 - 00;05;01;16

Makayla Mast

But we wander around this basement totally empty. We go up the stairs and check out the rest of the house. It's probably like almost. Yeah, 2500ft² each up and down. So upstairs there was just like plywood over the like as the subfloor.

00;05;01;16 - 00;05;03;09

Joe Reitzug

So just some flooring. Yeah.

00;05;03;12 - 00;05;27;28

Makayla Mast

Yeah. Very, very unfinished. Crazy. Which was fun. You know, I love looking at homes like that. So we're kind of, you know, that our clients are just looking around like, oh my gosh, where would we even start, right? It's probably isn't a great option for us. Too much work. So we're sitting there talking and then I'm like, okay, well, let's, you know, we can head back and they're like, let's go out the way we came so we don't have to mess with the locks.

00;05;28;00 - 00;05;44;01

Makayla Mast

And I was like, okay, great idea. Thank you guys so much for going back out with me. And so we turn off all the lights. They go down the, towards the basement in front of me, and I'm the last one. I flick off the last light and we go down the stairs like off all the basement lights.

00;05;44;01 - 00;05;54;28

Makayla Mast

Go out that door, shut that door. Try to lock it with one of the keys, but it doesn't work. We go up out of the basement stairs and we turn around and the kitchen lights are on in the house.

00;05;54;28 - 00;05;55;15

Joe Reitzug

And they weren't.

00;05;55;15 - 00;06;11;10

Makayla Mast

Before. I flip them off on my way down. It was like the hairs on my neck stood up. We looked at each other and our client, he's so sweet. He's like, what would be the reason for the light being on? And I said, that is not a question we want the answer to.

00;06;11;11 - 00;06;12;24

Joe Reitzug

No time to go.

00;06;12;25 - 00;06;34;24

Makayla Mast

We jumped in our cars. We were saying hi as we were jumping and shutting our car door. I called them in the car to debrief because they were freaked out. Yeah, it was so so so creepy. Yeah. So I left the listing agent a nice little message to let them know what went down, but I'm sure the seller is aware of exactly what happened because there were so many cameras.

00;06;34;24 - 00;06;36;24

Makayla Mast

They had to have been watching us. Yeah, but.

00;06;36;28 - 00;06;38;21

Joe Reitzug

And it was pitch black too, wasn't it?

00;06;38;22 - 00;06;42;28

Makayla Mast

Yeah, it was okay. 745 at night. It was so creepy.

00;06;43;01 - 00;07;02;09

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. That this reminds me of the podcast that we did on our Halloween podcast last year. And if you guys haven't tuned in to that one, that's a fun one to check out. We tell all of our ghost stories from from our different experiences over the years. I think it might be one of the most commented on haunts that we've done.

00;07;02;11 - 00;07;05;08

Joe Reitzug

There was some weird stuff.

00;07;05;14 - 00;07;17;10

Makayla Mast

There always is. Yeah, I called my mom to tell her about that on the way home and she's like, well, now you have another story. And I said, you know, I'm over it. I don't need any more. No, no, I'm okay.

00;07;17;15 - 00;07;20;26

Joe Reitzug

Good with boring. Yeah, yeah, I know, isn't that crazy?

00;07;20;26 - 00;07;36;11

Makayla Mast

That's so creepy. And we were the buyers were like, was at the cellar messing with us? Yeah. Or was it haunted? And that's where they had all the cameras to check it out. Oh, I don't know. Yeah, I, you know, one of those things I'll never get out of my head.

00;07;36;13 - 00;07;51;28

Joe Reitzug

We have properties right now and I'm not going to name names, but there's a couple of properties. We have an inventory right now that be in there at night by yourself. It's just a little bit scary, right? Yeah, yeah.

00;07;52;00 - 00;08;07;06

Makayla Mast

So nothing like running to your car in fear. Oh my gosh. And like, with this one, that's why I called the listing agent. I was like, I'm sorry. I love my voice. Well, I was like, I'm not man enough to go back in there and turn it back off. I was so sorry. Your seller has one light on.

00;08;07;10 - 00;08;08;23

Makayla Mast

I can do it.

00;08;08;25 - 00;08;11;09

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. So anyway, I'm glad you survived.

00;08;11;10 - 00;08;13;07

Makayla Mast

I did here to tell the tale.

00;08;13;10 - 00;08;18;01

Joe Reitzug

Here to tell the tale. I know your clients that you're with. And I'm sure. I'm sure they're laughing about it today.

00;08;18;01 - 00;08;21;22

Makayla Mast

Totally. Yeah, they were laughing about it, but they were spooked.

00;08;21;27 - 00;08;23;03

Joe Reitzug

All three of you, it sounds like.

00;08;23;03 - 00;08;24;04

Makayla Mast

Yeah.

00;08;24;07 - 00;08;27;13

Joe Reitzug

So spooky. Scary stories.

00;08;27;16 - 00;08;29;29

Makayla Mast

It's what I got. But moving on.

00;08;29;29 - 00;08;34;26

Joe Reitzug

Moving on. Let's talk a little bit about how to set up that property. Search like a pro.

00;08;34;26 - 00;08;59;20

Makayla Mast

Sure, a lot of people don't know, which amazes me, but that's okay. That's why we're here, that they each of the different websites where you can search for home. So we're going to talk about LivPortland.com, Zillow and Redfin. All of those have search criteria that you can punch in and save to your preferences. That way when you're searching for homes, you'll only get ones that pop up in those preferences.

00;08;59;20 - 00;09;04;06

Makayla Mast

And then also you'll only be emailed with homes that match those as well.

00;09;04;07 - 00;09;15;27

Joe Reitzug

I would say 90% of the search that happens on like a Zillow or Redfin are people that really aren't looking to buy a home. They're just home. Curious, right?

00;09;16;00 - 00;09;17;09

Makayla Mast

That's true. Yeah.

00;09;17;12 - 00;09;40;22

Joe Reitzug

And 10 to 20% are people that are actually in the process of buying a home. So some of those folks, you know, maybe don't have it set up in a way, they're just like, yeah, I just want to see what's going on in this neighborhood or that neighborhood. And that's fine. LivPortland, though our website has a higher degree of people that are actually in the process of buying, and you can see the filters that they set up or don't set up.

00;09;40;22 - 00;09;59;22

Joe Reitzug

It's very interesting. If you're seriously searching for a home, you want to spend the time to fill out your search criteria and your filters in a way that you're going to be getting good homes to look at. You don't want to waste your time, and I know you have been a home buyer for a while now.

00;09;59;22 - 00;10;01;25

Makayla Mast

I have and.

00;10;01;27 - 00;10;11;03

Joe Reitzug

You know, when it just pops on, you're up on your phone constantly and it's like, I don't want to look at that one, right? Why is it sending me that one? Everyone knows that feeling and that's what we're what we're talking about here.

00;10;11;04 - 00;10;29;07

Makayla Mast

Exactly. My sweet, sweet husband got totally addicted to looking because he didn't have a search. And I'm lucky I get to have the MLS, which is even more, you know, detailed than all these websites. So I just hit the MLS and it gives me my account for the day. And if there's nothing new, I get to move on.

00;10;29;07 - 00;10;32;17

Makayla Mast

But he's slightly addicted to the Zillow.

00;10;32;20 - 00;10;33;15

Joe Reitzug

Yeah.

00;10;33;22 - 00;10;40;02

Makayla Mast

He's still kind of even though we're still pending. He's like I'm trying not to look. It's like habit now. Yeah.

00;10;40;04 - 00;10;47;06

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. We turn off our searches. So when we have automatic searches set up for clients, once we get a sale pending.

00;10;47;10 - 00;10;48;10

Makayla Mast

00;10;48;12 - 00;11;07;05

Joe Reitzug

Usually we'll just turn it off unless people ask us to keep receiving those because it's so distracting and it's so kind of, you know you start seeing homes and you're like, is this maybe better than that other one or maybe better than the one that I'm, you know, in contract on right now, all that it's easy to get buyer's remorse.

00;11;07;09 - 00;11;09;03

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. Really had to go sideways on all that.

00;11;09;07 - 00;11;31;24

Makayla Mast

Definitely. Yeah. That's good advice. Should we talk about the criteria that we think is important to punch in or do we want to save that okay. Yeah. So we talk about prioritizing needs versus wants. So sometimes you can over categorize or filter I should say. And you won't be getting all of the homes that are available, but you might actually like.

00;11;31;24 - 00;11;54;02

Makayla Mast

So focus on your must haves and stay flexible on the rest. So think about these things when searching number of bedrooms. Yeah. Number of bathrooms, square footage. And we're actually going to talk about square footage here shortly because so many folks have a hard time visualizing square footage. And I get it, if you're not walking through homes all the time, how are you supposed to know?

00;11;54;04 - 00;12;12;25

Makayla Mast

So we have a good analogy for that that we hope is helpful. And then lot size. So also hard to visualize, but similar to square footage, you know, there are lot sizes important. Do you want a yard? Do you not want a yard? Let's filter that in or out. And then the year built. Very important to a lot of people.

00;12;12;25 - 00;12;26;20

Makayla Mast

Some people only want new construction and some people only want older homes. And then single level versus two story, you know, if you're only in the market for a single level home, it's so easy to just filter out that second story and not have to worry about it.

00;12;26;20 - 00;12;36;14

Joe Reitzug

Okay, let's dive into portland.com and we'll do a quick run through of what those settings look like. And we'll chat about, you know, kind of some of the inside tips on how to do that.

00;12;36;18 - 00;12;45;25

Makayla Mast

Perfect. And if you're listening, we're actually going to do, this live on camera. So you can, pull this up on YouTube and get a.

00;12;45;27 - 00;12;48;05

Joe Reitzug

Yeah, this is going to be a visual pod.

00;12;48;07 - 00;12;50;22

Makayla Mast

If you find that helpful, tune into YouTube.

00;12;50;24 - 00;13;19;13

Joe Reitzug

Tune into YouTube LivPortland.com. All right. Thanks guys. Okay. Welcome back everyone. We are showing for those that are just audio, we are showing on our screens right now and LivPortland.com. And, if you want to see this you can go to YouTube, go to our our channel LivPortland real estate professionals and, you'll be able to see our podcast, all of our podcast actually we do we do video and audio for all of these.

00;13;19;13 - 00;13;29;08

Joe Reitzug

So if you'd rather watch, you can go there. But for this one, especially, it's going to be a very visual one. So just a quick warning, but we'll try to keep you in the loop if you're just following via audio.

00;13;29;10 - 00;13;31;08

Makayla Mast

So hopefully it's still engaging.

00;13;31;11 - 00;13;54;14

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. So here we are on the LivPortland page. We make it nice and easy. There's a search bar right in the splash page, the top of the screen here. There's also a search button up there that you can go to and do advanced search, those type of things. We also make it easy, to explore communities. So we list out a lot of the different communities that we are that we work in.

00;13;54;14 - 00;14;14;25

Joe Reitzug

And, we've got experience in. So you can go to those and we've got preset searches set up so you can click on that learn, learn a little bit about the community and also just quickly see what homes are available there. But for today we're going to do the advanced search on LivPortland.com. And if you want to at the top you can just type in an address.

00;14;14;29 - 00;14;38;29

Joe Reitzug

You can type in MLS number and then it'll take you right to that property type. I see this once in a while and in fact I do it in Arma less sometimes where I'll have multifamily and commercial and residential. Click do you want to make sure you got residential right property subtypes? We're talking detached. Attached is like a townhouse or something like that.

00;14;39;02 - 00;14;57;27

Joe Reitzug

But you want to be able to look and find exactly what your what you're searching for. So single family residence is what we're going to do today. You can do pending and sold on LivPortland.com, which is a great way to keep track of certain areas, certain neighborhoods and just see what stuff sells for. Right. We do that.

00;14;57;27 - 00;15;18;15

Joe Reitzug

I probably get a 25 or 30 searches set up for different areas that I'm interested in. And every single day, sometimes 2 or 3 times a day, I'll go through and just review what's come on the market, what's pending, and then look at what's sold to see, you know, how much did they get versus their asking price, all of those type of things.

00;15;18;15 - 00;15;20;16

Joe Reitzug

But for today we're going to focus on the buyer side.

00;15;20;16 - 00;15;31;12

Makayla Mast

Right? Right. But if you are a seller you can absolutely use this tool to see what's going on in your neighborhood. And maybe try to be a realtor and, and see what your home might be worth.

00;15;31;12 - 00;15;55;20

Joe Reitzug

So all the basics price range, square foot bedrooms, base year, built, lot size, HOA fee, if anything, garage space, all that type of thing. Very basic stuff when it comes to to to getting a good search set up is starting out tight right? So if you say, yeah, I want a three bedroom, two bath house, you know, go ahead and put in 3 or 4.

00;15;55;23 - 00;16;14;09

Joe Reitzug

And do you know your square footage? I always recommend if you're looking for minimum 2000, you know, put in 1800 1850 because there might be something that's really close and is a little bit better priced. Not quite what you were hoping for, but maybe that doesn't make a difference. Right?

00;16;14;10 - 00;16;18;06

Makayla Mast

Right. And what's the difference of 100ft² if it's laid out really well?

00;16;18;10 - 00;16;41;20

Joe Reitzug

Exactly. So moving on from that. Additional features. This is where you can get really detailed. And I think you and I differ a little bit. Like I said, I like to get very specific right off the bat because if I can do a search for exactly what I want, including all sorts of different criteria, and it'll spit out 5 or 6, I want to see those first because I've just said, hey, this is what I'm looking for.

00;16;41;27 - 00;16;59;25

Joe Reitzug

Show me exactly what I want from there. You know, a lot of times you get one right or none, and then you got to start, you know, taking things off of your search criteria or broadening it more or less square footage, you know, price range needs to get wider, that type of thing.

00;16;59;27 - 00;17;05;29

Makayla Mast

Yeah. I like to start really narrow. And then if I don't get anything or if I only get 1 or 2, then I'll like, you know.

00;17;06;05 - 00;17;39;23

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. So additional features you can do all sorts of different stuff here. You can pool, hot tub, full basement, finish basement. This is all of our search criteria is actually what is in Arma. Less so this is every bit the same as what we do every single day with the multiple listing system. So getting all that set up, you know, you can see we've got a counter on the side that shows you right now, residential homes, single family residents, active on the market 7467.

00;17;39;29 - 00;17;40;17

Makayla Mast

Dang.

00;17;40;22 - 00;17;41;23

Joe Reitzug

Do you think that's higher? Low.

00;17;41;29 - 00;17;43;08

Makayla Mast

Whoa. Wouldn't you think?

00;17;43;10 - 00;18;08;20

Joe Reitzug

Yeah, I think I probably would have guessed more like 10,000, but, so let's say I want to do 500,000 to 550. I'm not really concerned about square foot. I'm looking at three, three bedrooms or more, minimum bathrooms. I need two bathrooms, minimum is 90. I know I'm on and you got to get me at least one car garage.

00;18;08;21 - 00;18;24;00

Joe Reitzug

So if we do that, there's 480 of those. Now show me. Hillsborough. We're not going to do it by address. I guess.

00;18;24;02 - 00;18;37;18

Joe Reitzug

So we can go down. We can view all of those. Here's our city. Sorry. We'll go city and we'll go. Hillsborough.

00;18;37;20 - 00;18;39;21

Joe Reitzug

23. So let's view those.

00;18;39;26 - 00;18;42;16

Makayla Mast

And that's more than I thought it would be.

00;18;42;19 - 00;18;58;28

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. So mostly new construction. What if I don't want something new construction but something close to being new construction. Yeah. So there's a lot to choose from, right?

00;18;59;01 - 00;19;00;12

Makayla Mast

There's our cumulative listing.

00;19;00;19 - 00;19;28;02

Joe Reitzug

Two different pages here. We've got a couple of them here. But that's kind of how you know for LivPortland how that works. And then from there you just click on you know, you get details of of of the property in a way. You go all sorts of good stuff. But the key to this is knowing, you know what you want and what you need, right?

00;19;28;05 - 00;20;01;14

Joe Reitzug

Make sure you get your needs in there. I have to have this right and start squaring it away from there. But I'm I'm amazed at how fast searches come. Right. So back in 2000, I had a website called Portland Homes Aecom. And it was kind of at the beginning, maybe it was 2002, I don't remember, but it was right at the beginning and I would try to send clients there and people would be like, well, my internet at home is just way too slow for that.

00;20;01;16 - 00;20;05;29

Makayla Mast

That's crazy. I can't imagine looking for homes a different way.

00;20;05;29 - 00;20;19;21

Joe Reitzug

I know, I know well, ever since Wi-Fi and the internet bandwidth has gotten bigger. Where you can watch video, you can do anything you want. That was unimaginable, Mac back in the day, right?

00;20;19;21 - 00;20;20;14

Makayla Mast

Crazy.

00;20;20;14 - 00;20;43;01

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. So so that's LivPortland.com. And you can save all these. You can set up all sorts of different searches, all that sort of good stuff. When you come to the site, all you have to do is log in once the next time you come, if it's on the, on the same, device, you won't have to to log in and it'll have all of your saved searches there for you.

00;20;43;03 - 00;20;44;14

Joe Reitzug

So that's LivPortland.com.

00;20;44;15 - 00;20;48;02

Makayla Mast

Love it. I think that's very helpful.

00;20;48;04 - 00;20;51;09

Joe Reitzug

And just like that look at that. We switch seats.

00;20;51;11 - 00;21;12;15

Makayla Mast

It's like magic. Magic okay. So we're going to run you through Redfin.com. You know I'm a little biased I do think LivPortland.com is the best you know. So if you are in the market to purchase a home, we would absolutely love for you to look on our website. But we understand that people have preferences and Redfin, Zillow and they pop up first.

00;21;12;17 - 00;21;13;14

Makayla Mast

And that's okay.

00;21;13;14 - 00;21;31;23

Joe Reitzug

I'm finding more people go to sites like ours LivPortland.com, and of the big ones, Redfin. I think especially in the tech area where I live in Hillsboro, there's a ton of people that use Redfin. I think it's easier to use than Zillow is what I get from.

00;21;31;26 - 00;21;59;10

Makayla Mast

Yeah, I think they like the the history of the home is easier to see. People really, really like that. They're nosy like us. So I like to know when the home last sold and for how much good information. Okay, so I'm on Redfin's platform. It has, again, all of the same function that Portland does, but I'm going to go to all filters so I can be a little more specific.

00;21;59;13 - 00;22;10;17

Makayla Mast

They start with, price. So I'm going to do 500 to 550 just like turn it.

00;22;10;19 - 00;22;19;01

Makayla Mast

What I'm going to do at least a two bedroom 1.5 bath. So I'm not as naughty as Joe.

00;22;19;01 - 00;22;23;01

Joe Reitzug

I need two full. I'm sorry.

00;22;23;03 - 00;22;30;24

Makayla Mast

My husband and I have been living in a one bathroom house for the last four years. We're almost done and we're so excited. But we survived.

00;22;30;24 - 00;22;45;12

Joe Reitzug

I remember those days. Yeah, my, just a little side note. My grandparents, on my dad's side, had a 1200 square foot home that was a bath and a half, and they had eight kids.

00;22;45;12 - 00;22;47;04

Makayla Mast

Oh my gosh.

00;22;47;08 - 00;22;49;11

Joe Reitzug

Imagine the battles that happened over there.

00;22;49;11 - 00;22;53;10

Makayla Mast

Shower. No. Oh no. You never speak to my siblings and guard.

00;22;53;12 - 00;22;55;26

Joe Reitzug

Yeah, crazy, crazy.

00;22;55;29 - 00;23;25;06

Makayla Mast

So then, Redfin is very similar again. You choose house, townhouse, condo, land, multifamily, mobile, home, co-op or other. So I'm going to go ahead and select house. They do the coming soon or active or under contract slash pending. So coming soon is a really really great feature that not a lot of people punch in. It means that, the home is coming soon to the market, so it's not yet available, for viewings, for showings.

00;23;25;06 - 00;23;41;04

Makayla Mast

But you know, you can get a head start at looking at it, which is nice. And a lot of times those get filtered out on accident, but they are there, time on Redfin. I'm not totally sure why you would want to punch this in, but,

00;23;41;06 - 00;24;08;12

Joe Reitzug

If all you want to see is new new to the market, I should say so. Less than three days. If you're if you're actively searching and you're on the app all the time and you can do this in Portland as well, where you only want to see new ones. So you're not, you know, seeing homes over and over when they have a price change or, you know, some detail and the listing is changed, it, it will send it to you.

00;24;08;15 - 00;24;09;28

Joe Reitzug

I think that's a nice feature actually.

00;24;09;28 - 00;24;19;07

Makayla Mast

It is actually really less than seven days just for fun.

00;24;19;09 - 00;24;29;20

Makayla Mast

Then we have square footage, lot size stories and year built. I'm going to do 1000ft² to.

00;24;29;20 - 00;24;30;03

Joe Reitzug

What about.

00;24;30;03 - 00;24;30;23

Makayla Mast

Everyone.

00;24;30;28 - 00;24;48;23

Joe Reitzug

Who is looking for a single family? What do you mean? Well, the reason I bring that up is a single family home. Like, there are things called daylight ranches where the main level is, you know.

00;24;48;26 - 00;24;50;07

Makayla Mast

Toggle level.

00;24;50;09 - 00;25;14;08

Joe Reitzug

Single level, right? Single level, ranch home type of thing. But daylight ranches are it has a basement that's open. So a lot of times these are built like on a side hill or something like that. And the top is main level in the front, but in the back a basement is a party. Yeah.

00;25;14;10 - 00;25;23;04

Makayla Mast

Yeah, I like that feature too. Let's scroll down there. I'm going to do I'm gonna punch one garage. See right there. You can.

00;25;23;04 - 00;25;26;04

Joe Reitzug

Do. Does it give you a number for how many? There are.

00;25;26;06 - 00;25;35;28

Makayla Mast

What do you mean? Oh, we're at eight homes. Okay. Is that what you mean? Yeah. Air conditioning. That's a big one. Air conditioning has a video fireplace.

00;25;35;28 - 00;25;36;23

Joe Reitzug

6 to 7.

00;25;36;24 - 00;25;50;16

Makayla Mast

Yeah. That's interesting. So I'll see if I click. Basement. No results. Basements are super common here but that's okay.

00;25;50;18 - 00;25;59;13

Joe Reitzug

Then you can go into your cost and finances and that type of stuff listing type by age and for sale by owner. Foreclosures.

00;25;59;15 - 00;26;20;07

Makayla Mast

And then redfin's also really thorough with the schools. And then you can also select homes that only have an open house this weekend, which is kind of nice. And then the lock score. I'm not super in the know with what the walk score exactly means, but the higher the walks or the more walkable the neighbor is, neighborhood is.

00;26;20;10 - 00;26;29;03

Makayla Mast

Sorry. So with that little search, I got seven homes in the Hillsborough area, which is great.

00;26;29;06 - 00;26;31;20

Joe Reitzug

Mostly all new construction.

00;26;31;23 - 00;26;33;29

Makayla Mast

Interesting like our own search.

00;26;33;29 - 00;26;40;28

Joe Reitzug

Just like our old search. Except we don't have advertising. Maybe we should.

00;26;41;01 - 00;26;45;21

Makayla Mast

Know people will come because they don't want ads. Yeah, right.

00;26;45;24 - 00;26;47;21

Joe Reitzug

No ads any time.

00;26;47;22 - 00;26;52;09

Makayla Mast

No ads here unless we get paid one day.

00;26;52;11 - 00;26;57;19

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. We can't guarantee that it's always going to be ad free.

00;26;57;22 - 00;27;02;10

Makayla Mast

So yeah, that's Redfin. Big fan of Redfin. Anything else you'd like to mention?

00;27;02;13 - 00;27;21;04

Joe Reitzug

No, it is a it is a good website. I've found that our website LivPortland.com actually loads faster for Arma less. So I just we just put on a new home on the market today. It's already on LivPortland.com, but I do not see it on Redfin or Zillow yet.

00;27;21;07 - 00;27;21;29

Makayla Mast

That's awesome.

00;27;22;04 - 00;27;32;07

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. So if you're in a competitive price range or doing a, really super competitive area, search LivPortland.com, I'm telling.

00;27;32;07 - 00;27;42;12

Makayla Mast

You, faster, better, no ads and we wanted to talk about Zillow, but I think it's pretty self-explanatory. It's Zillow is very.

00;27;42;13 - 00;27;43;23

Joe Reitzug

Laid out.

00;27;43;26 - 00;28;05;00

Makayla Mast

Very similar to the others. It seems like people are moving off of Zillow. I really like Zillow's map function because I like to, I'm, you know, especially if I'm in a random neighborhood or state, I like to just hit my location and see what's active around me. I feel like there is is the fastest.

00;28;05;02 - 00;28;22;24

Joe Reitzug

You know what I don't like about that is I was in Palm Springs three years ago, and I was in this really cool neighborhood, and I thought, I wonder how much it cost to live here because I was, you know, you're down in the sun on vacation. You're like, I could do this. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So I told it.

00;28;22;25 - 00;28;37;21

Joe Reitzug

It's logged into my account. So it was me and did a search and I was like, okay. Yep. Great. This is the home I'm looking at right here. And I saved it. I got so many flippin emails from Zillow.

00;28;37;21 - 00;28;38;20

Makayla Mast

Oh yeah.

00;28;38;20 - 00;28;44;25

Joe Reitzug

And that thing still hasn't sold, by the way, I, I've been getting emails for three years from Zillow about this one property.

00;28;44;25 - 00;28;48;08

Makayla Mast

That's insane. I know you should just buy it.

00;28;48;11 - 00;28;58;22

Joe Reitzug

Yeah, I don't think so. It's easier and cheaper for me for how much we get down to the sun. It's a better investment for me. Just a short term rental.

00;28;58;24 - 00;29;05;18

Makayla Mast

Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. I was just playing. Should we tell people about our little square footage analogy?

00;29;05;20 - 00;29;06;20

Joe Reitzug

Yeah, I think that's good.

00;29;06;20 - 00;29;27;01

Makayla Mast

I gotta say, I did not come up with this. It was I, but it was helpful because I didn't have this analogy. And people are always asking me, what the heck does square footage mean? I don't have any idea how to articulate that. So I thought it was interesting. So everybody has been inside a two car garage, right?

00;29;27;07 - 00;29;42;17

Makayla Mast

Right. So a two car garage is 400ft². So if you can picture that you're standing in 400ft². So then if you can picture yourself in four, two car garages, you're in 1200 square feet.

00;29;42;20 - 00;29;43;14

Joe Reitzug

Interesting.

00;29;43;14 - 00;29;46;01

Makayla Mast

Sorry three.

00;29;46;01 - 00;29;49;17

Joe Reitzug

Interesting math.

00;29;49;19 - 00;29;53;19

Makayla Mast

Therapy. Two car garage is 1200 square.

00;29;53;19 - 00;29;56;25

Joe Reitzug

Feet, you know, and Rick is still going to make us look smart, even.

00;29;56;25 - 00;29;59;19

Makayla Mast

Though I think she should. I just just let.

00;29;59;19 - 00;30;01;27

Joe Reitzug

It just let it ride.

00;30;02;00 - 00;30;10;06

Makayla Mast

I'm dyslexic. Yeah. Okay. And then we have a 20 500 square foot home is roughly six two car garages.

00;30;10;08 - 00;30;11;22

Joe Reitzug

Okay.

00;30;11;25 - 00;30;16;17

Makayla Mast

Can you picture yourself standing in six, two car garages?

00;30;16;19 - 00;30;17;01

Joe Reitzug

No.

00;30;17;01 - 00;30;26;04

Makayla Mast

Our picture picture three, two car garages. And then know that there's a second story with an additional the rest of your square footage.

00;30;26;05 - 00;30;39;27

Joe Reitzug

You know, it's crazy now, having been in the business 30 years. And this is kind of a humble brag a little bit, but I can walk at home. And pretty much tell you within 100ft² of how big it is.

00;30;39;27 - 00;30;40;09

Makayla Mast

I bet you.

00;30;40;09 - 00;30;41;16

Joe Reitzug

Can. Yeah.

00;30;41;18 - 00;30;42;12

Makayla Mast

That is impressive.

00;30;42;15 - 00;31;05;12

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. We also when we're on vacation, not really on vacation but mostly here around town every once in a while. My two older sons, my younger son doesn't do this. He doesn't care about real estate. But my two older sons are getting at that age where they're like, you know, they're getting interested in real estate and, you know, I was driving around with my middle son, Aiden, the other day, and he's like, how much you think that's worth?

00;31;05;14 - 00;31;22;18

Joe Reitzug

And I was like, I'm probably $1 million, maybe 1.1. And he looked it up real quick. News 1.050 pretty good, pretty good. Some not very good. Now that's the running game of can you stump dad with what, a certain home.

00;31;22;18 - 00;31;25;10

Makayla Mast

Cost? I love that keeping you sharp tail.

00;31;25;11 - 00;31;31;27

Joe Reitzug

Keeping me sharp, keeping me humble. That's my boys.

00;31;31;29 - 00;31;34;25

Makayla Mast

Anything else about searching for home? Yeah.

00;31;34;25 - 00;32;03;17

Joe Reitzug

I mean, I think it's always smart to set alerts, even if you're not an active home buyer. Sometimes it's nice to know. Especially like setting a search for your own neighborhood to know when something comes on the market. It's always very interesting. I have one set for, for my neighborhood, and we had one come up, last week, and it's always kind of one of those things where I was like, I drove by, I saw the sign when I drove home, and I was like, oh, okay.

00;32;03;20 - 00;32;22;17

Joe Reitzug

I'm guessing that, you know, I had a number in mind. But I got the little search on my phone. The alert, and sure enough, bang it pops up, get to see the whole thing. But if you're if you're interested in real estate, want to stay up on real estate, get those alerts set up so that you get pinged on on what's going on.

00;32;22;20 - 00;32;30;18

Joe Reitzug

Now, if you're on Zillow, like that story I just told you, I don't know how to turn that off, but still out there, I'm sure there's a way, but it's.

00;32;30;20 - 00;32;32;22

Makayla Mast

Unsubscribe.

00;32;32;24 - 00;32;53;07

Joe Reitzug

To everything. How do I just say I don't want to see any more on this home? And I tried to go to the listing and do that, and it got a little squirrely on me, so. But set alerts. You know, Makayla says don't over filter, but I say filter as much as you can to where you're receiving the properties you want.

00;32;53;09 - 00;32;56;08

Joe Reitzug

Get as specific as you can.

00;32;56;10 - 00;32;58;18

Makayla Mast

Right. Great advice. Yes.

00;32;58;20 - 00;33;07;07

Joe Reitzug

But you think you can go overboard and all of a sudden not be seeing homes that you're actually would be interested. Yes. Yeah, there's a fine line there.

00;33;07;08 - 00;33;27;25

Makayla Mast

Especially on price because of something, you know, if you're pre-approved up to 700. But there's something that's been on the market for a little while at 727, 25, maybe there's some negotiating in there you don't want to miss out. True. Because you just didn't see it. Yeah, but I agree it. I'll be specific if you can.

00;33;28;00 - 00;33;29;01

Joe Reitzug

Yeah, exactly.

00;33;29;04 - 00;33;32;18

Makayla Mast

And please search on LivPortland.com because it is the best.

00;33;32;26 - 00;33;52;28

Joe Reitzug

That's fantastic. Prioritizing needs versus wants. We want to have versus what you absolutely have to have. So I've got a wife, three boys and two rambunctious dogs. I could not get away with less than four bedrooms.

00;33;53;01 - 00;33;55;12

Makayla Mast

Oh, yeah. No, you could not.

00;33;55;14 - 00;34;19;08

Joe Reitzug

No. And I would have to have a yard. So those are have to's. Those are needs. What I want. I would love to have an acre, but that's just a want. You know what I mean? And that directly affects affordability. You know, certain areas you just not going to get an acre in certain neighborhoods that I would want to live in.

00;34;19;11 - 00;34;38;26

Makayla Mast

Right. So should I share my filters? Yeah. We did the area that we wanted, which I'll keep to myself. And then we did a minimum, lot size of 7000ft². And then we did a minimum home size of 2000ft² and a minimum of four bedrooms.

00;34;38;26 - 00;34;40;08

Joe Reitzug

00;34;40;11 - 00;34;42;08

Makayla Mast

Nice. And then price. But that was about it.

00;34;42;15 - 00;34;46;16

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. Do you want me to share my criteria for the beach.

00;34;46;18 - 00;34;49;29

Makayla Mast

Yeah. So 5,000,005.

00;34;50;02 - 00;34;59;15

Joe Reitzug

No no no no no. So I am always actively looking at the beach because at some point someday I will have a beach place.

00;34;59;18 - 00;35;01;03

Makayla Mast

Yes you will and me.

00;35;01;03 - 00;35;02;20

Joe Reitzug

Casa su casa, by the way.

00;35;02;22 - 00;35;03;18

Makayla Mast

Good to know.

00;35;03;18 - 00;35;21;17

Joe Reitzug

Yeah, yeah. But for my beach search, it's not based on price. It's based on, proximity to the to the water. Either have a view or be on, the ocean. That's kind of my need. I, you know, I love being.

00;35;21;17 - 00;35;23;07

Makayla Mast

At the beach. You're going to get all the way down.

00;35;23;07 - 00;35;46;20

Joe Reitzug

There, right? And even if you don't have a view of the ocean, the beach is fantastic. But for me, I want to be able to see it, have my cup of coffee and see the waves rolling in. And then I want to have, windows right. Which is hard to put in a search, but big windows, ocean view, all of that.

00;35;46;20 - 00;36;01;07

Joe Reitzug

You can go into the remarks in LivPortland.com and search for which remarks you want. So that's the way I do that. But I get that every morning. It's my little dose of dopamine. Oh gosh.

00;36;01;09 - 00;36;07;23

Makayla Mast

I understand like completely. Yeah I get bummed out when there's nothing but the rush you feel and there's something new.

00;36;07;25 - 00;36;08;12

Joe Reitzug

And.

00;36;08;14 - 00;36;10;02

Makayla Mast

Very exciting. Oh worth it.

00;36;10;05 - 00;36;38;18

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. So that is our little search tutorial. And also you know a few little tips and tricks loaded in there but LivPortland.com. Highly recommend it. It's fast. It gets you homes that may not be on the market on some other some other platforms. And if you need personal advice or if you're wondering how to get a search set up or you just want to, you know, talk about this, reach out to Makayla.

00;36;38;21 - 00;36;42;25

Joe Reitzug

She's ready and willing to have a phone conversation.

00;36;42;27 - 00;36;43;28

Makayla Mast

Sure. You.

00;36;43;28 - 00;36;45;22

Joe Reitzug

Are actually much better at this than I am.

00;36;45;28 - 00;36;51;08

Makayla Mast

I'm not. You've been doing this since before there was an internet,

00;36;51;10 - 00;37;00;13

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. Quick story. I sat in a a sales meeting at a company I used to work for. This is back in 1996.

00;37;00;15 - 00;37;01;18

Makayla Mast

So before I was born.

00;37;01;20 - 00;37;23;18

Joe Reitzug

Before you were born. But quite a bit. Yes. Thank you. And there was the internet or the MLS. Used to be a book that came out every two weeks. Did you know that? Yes, yes. So it was a book that came out every two weeks, and you weren't supposed to share the book with clients or anything like that.

00;37;23;18 - 00;37;24;21

Makayla Mast

Ooh.

00;37;24;24 - 00;37;25;14

Joe Reitzug

And you would think.

00;37;25;14 - 00;37;26;25

Makayla Mast

You call.

00;37;26;27 - 00;38;06;07

Joe Reitzug

To set up a showing and, you know, all that sort of stuff. And then the computers came around and they had this green screen of death. It was amazing, actually primitive, but it was all of the listings on a computer. And I sat in a sales meeting and I was just a young buck. And, you know, I'm just kind of listening at the sales meeting where all the sales associates are listening to the manager who was actually the, the owner of the company then, and they were having a discussion on pros and cons of did they want to just still operate off the books, or did they want to use the computer?

00;38;06;09 - 00;38;28;16

Joe Reitzug

Well, I now and I just remember sitting there with my coffee, it was like 830 in the morning and I was just like, are we really having this conversation? And only are they talking about this because I'm going to be on the computer and if something new comes on, you had to wait possibly two weeks until the next book came out.

00;38;28;18 - 00;38;39;29

Joe Reitzug

Can you imagine that now? Yeah, that's how far real estates come from the websites we were just talking about to, to what we're doing now.

00;38;40;01 - 00;38;40;24

Makayla Mast

Crazy.

00;38;41;00 - 00;38;42;28

Joe Reitzug

It is crazy. So.

00;38;43;00 - 00;38;44;28

Makayla Mast

So enjoy your searches, people.

00;38;45;01 - 00;38;53;15

Joe Reitzug

All right, folks, well, hey, thank you so much. Have a, wonderful day. And, we'll talk to you soon. Bye.

00;38;53;17 - 00;59;08;21

Makayla Mast

Thanks for joining us today. If you're interested in finding out more about Joe, myself or the LivPortland team, you can go to LivPortland.com. Thanks for giving us a listen and see you next time on the Off the Record podcast.

00;59;08;23 - 00;59;12;27

Makayla Mast

Rekha will be a wizard in editing. It'll be like it never happened.

00;59;12;27 - 00;59;24;00

Joe Reitzug

I feel like we don't give Rekha enough props. She puts together the entire podcast, does all the video editing, makes it so that we actually seem intelligent.

00;59;24;01 - 00;59;26;16

Makayla Mast

Yeah, which is a lot of work.

00;59;26;18 - 00;59;27;19

Joe Reitzug

That's heavy lifting.

00;59;27;20 - 00;59;31;28

Makayla Mast

Also, she edits every time I move my microphone, which is at least four times an episode.

00;59;32;02 - 00;59;35;06

Joe Reitzug

She's incredible. Yeah, she is absolutely incredible.