Eric G just got back from a raucous little jaunt to northeast Oregon, and let me tell you, it's all about the vibes up there. Picture this: the stunning Wallowa Lake State Park, where the mountains give you serious postcard envy, and the fishing is... well, let's say it's more about the adventure than the catch. Eric reminisces about childhood trips where he fished with his dad, and despite the low water levels this time around, the nostalgia is thick in the air. We dive into the importance of taking breaks, soaking in nature, and how that recharge can bring clarity to life’s chaos, especially in the whirlwind that is the current real estate market. Spoiler alert: it’s wild out there, and Eric has the scoop on how to navigate these choppy waters. Now, let’s talk real estate, shall we? Eric spills the beans on the current buyer’s market, where prices are dropping faster than a hot potato at a game of musical chairs. Seriously, we’re talking serious cuts—like houses dropping 50k or more. It’s a dream come true for first-time buyers or those looking to snag a deal because, let’s face it, who doesn’t love a good bargain? Eric sheds light on how builders, like our friends at Lennar, are scrambling to sell homes by sweetening the pot with interest rate buy-downs. The blend of his vacation tales and real estate insights makes for a juicy episode that’s as informative as it is entertaining. And trust me, you don’t want to miss his advice for buyers and sellers navigating this shifting landscape. Wrapping it all up, Eric leaves us with some sage wisdom on maintaining peace of mind in the midst of real estate chaos. Whether you're looking to buy, sell, or just enjoy the scenery, there’s something for everyone in this episode. So buckle up, grab your favorite beverage, and get ready for a ride through the highs and lows of real estate and the joys of vacationing—Eric style!

Takeaways:

• Eric G shares his nostalgic vacation experience in Northeast Oregon, emphasizing the beauty and charm of Wallowa Lake State Park.
• The podcast touches on the current real estate market trends, highlighting significant price drops for homes across various regions.
• Eric's humorous reflections on the differences between urban and rural living add a light-hearted contrast to serious discussions on real estate.
• Listeners are advised to be cautious in the current buyer's market, as home prices are trending downward, offering potential savings for buyers.

Links referenced in this episode:

• aroundthehousehq

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• KWVR
• Lennar Homes
• Stein Distillery
• KXL

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Information given on the Around the House Show should not be considered construction or design advice for your specific project, nor is it intended to replace consulting at your home or jobsite by a building professional. The views and opinions expressed by those interviewed on the podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Around the House Show.

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Eric G. Welcome to the around the House show, your trusted source for everything about your home.

I'm Eric G. Thanks for joining me today.

I am back from vacation.

Last week I went up to northeast Oregon.

So if you're looking at Oregon far northeast spot up there in went up to Wallowa Lake State park, which is up in the Wallowa Mountains.

This is high country and I tell you what, it was spectacular.

Now I spent time growing up there as a kid.

We would go up there for a couple, two or three weeks every single year on vacation.

I'd go fishing with my dad when he was around and my brothers and all of that.

So it is a special place for me and I have friends up there.

It is a ton and a ton of fun and it is just one of those places that when I go out there, it is a great place to just camp.

Now I'm not camping.

A tent.

Brought the rv, brought the trailer up there, stayed in the state park and it was just stunning.

We had every season.

We got up there on Monday, we were out fishing on the lake and it was 83 degrees.

Did a lot of fishing, not a lot of catching, but that's kind of what happens this time of year.

The water is low in the lake because they're working on the dam, that kind of stuff.

So it wasn't optimal fishing, but it was still fun.

Paragliders out running around.

It was awesome.

And spent the whole week up there.

We had snow on the last day coming down on the hills above us.

It was in the 30s when we left.

So we had a great time up there.

Elise and I just had a blast.

Went down to Embers Brewhouse, visited my friend Raider Heck down there, who's a great buddy.

Love Raider and he has been family for a long time up there, which is just awesome and just had a ton of fun.

It was one of those times that you look at and and just enjoy hanging out.

And it was just one of those great times, but just had a great time guys.

It was fun.

Met with KWVR radio in Enterprise, Oregon.

We were on there for the longest time and they kind of slipped through the crack of our radio people out there at the time and I Just kind of did a good old fashioned email door knock and said, hey, can we meet now?

We're back on Northeast Oregon.

You've got us back on KWVR again.

And those guys over there, I love small town stations, took a look at a great whiskey distillery, stein distillery, had fun with them.

That was amazing and just had a great time.

So it was just fun.

And it's almost culture shock coming from the west side here to the east side, and it's serious culture shock.

You come from an area over here where we've got high crime, you've got homeless, you've got.

It can look like Zombieland depending where you are.

And going over there where there's not a piece of trash, there's no homeless, there's no freak show going on, no Zombieland.

It was dice just to be able to not have to really be concerned for your own personal safety like you have to sometimes in Portland.

And I just actually got done watching on KXL is my radio station here locally.

They just did.

They have a show there called Steven Natalie and they had the mayor, Keith Wilson on there and he's the mayor of Portland.

And I will hammer on these guys every time, but I also will say when they're doing something good.

I just learned watching that video I was getting some work done here, that they have sent out 600 homeless people this year so far.

Return them to their families.

So if you're one of the homeless people in Portland, Oregon, and you're like, man, I just like to get back to my family back in Arizona, guess what?

They'll throw in your plane, get you out that same day if they can.

They just have to be able to talk to that family member and say, hey, I'm sending them home to you.

You cool?

Yep, cool.

Awesome.

And they'll ship them out.

That's the first amazing thing I've seen them done doing a while down there.

So hats off to the mayor and whoever else is doing that down there.

I'll tell you when you're doing some good stuff.

Now, is it cleaner down there?

Yeah, it's cleaner.

It's getting better.

Is it still a massive problem?

Absolutely.

So they're breaking the ice on it.

So give them that.

They're just gonna have to do a lot more to turn that ship around because it's a big cruise ship going down the wrong river right now.

So hopefully they get that together.

Enough about that.

That was a fun time and happy to see that they're doing some great stuff here in Portland.

Getting some things Turned around, maybe some problems fixed.

So that's some good news.

Now I wanted to give you an update here.

Oh my gosh, this was crazy.

And got Elise's kid moved into.

Him and his fiance moved into their place this last weekend.

That was great.

Got them.

I'll tell you what, when you're.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna call these guys out a little bit because they were so good until they weren't.

So I did the inspection on their home here.

Walk through it.

New build.

Wish I could have seen it earlier, but that's not how it worked out.

And I gave them a very comprehensive list.

And this was Lennar Homes national home builder.

And they really tackled right off the bat the biggest stuff.

There were walls that were misframed that had a, an overall inch of movement to them.

Upstairs on the second floor where you had in a forefront run, you had a half inch of bow in a wall that you could really see from the outside because of that lap sighting.

And they came in and tore off a bunch of sighting on the second floor.

Did some framing changes, did some leveling stuff out there.

Made things look a heck a lot better.

But you know something, they just absolutely knocked that part out.

And then the easiest stuff at the end, they 100% failed.

100% Failed.

There was probably four hours worth of touch up work.

Little stuff like that, getting the cabinet people back out there, getting where there were splits and moldings or anything like that.

Not just stuff touched up, painted, little bit of touch up stuff.

Get their junk out of the garage.

And I tell you what, lesson learned.

One thing, when you're dealing with a home builder, and I knew this, but I just really had thought that they were really taking care of it.

So I was just, I was so impressed that they knocked out the hard stuff and they absolutely 100% failed on the last two days.

Just no cleaning, just.

It was just a mess.

Linar.

Better get on your A game out there, guys.

And you can tell that they're having a hard time selling homes in our area here because they have been offering to new homeowners to buy down the interest rate 2 points.

So you know that they're having a hard time selling homes when they're having to give that stuff away to get it out the door.

And you would think with new home construction they could just get that finished up to the end.

But I tell you what, every time I've had to deal with these guys and this is the second time, they just get it so close and then they Just don't get it across the finish line.

And I don't know if it's their system.

I don't know.

And here's the issue.

And just for you guys out there looking at new homes, buying new homes, what they want to do is they want to take your project and push it over into the warranty department.

And that's what they tried.

Doing it with him is those last days, like, we had some electrical issues, something was going on they wanted.

Didn't want to fix it.

They wanted to push it to the warranty department.

So here's my advice for people out there buying a new home or buying a new harm home from Lennar Homes.

I would sit there and say, we're not closing until it's a hundred percent.

And if you got to walk out of the closing thing and say, hey, we're not here yet.

That list isn't done.

That's the best way to play that game.

So my advice to you guys out there is if it's not done, don't sign across the dotted line, because now they closed week and a half ago.

They're finally sending somebody out this Friday.

And that, to me, is absolutely insanity.

So you would think with builders out there trying to sell homes, that they would really try to get that across the finish line, and they just aren't.

So I hope they get it turned around now.

The next thing I wanted to touch on is just the housing market out there.

We are seeing this as a buyer's market.

If you're buying a home, prices are going down.

In most places, they are not going up.

Are there exceptions?

Absolutely.

But I would say in most cases out there, you're seeing prices drop so many times.

When I'm looking at homes, I am seeing price dropped by $50,000.

And you're seeing that maybe a hundred thousand dollars if it's more expensive.

And these are things that I think are gonna get really interesting to see what's gonna happen out there with everything that's going on with all of our properties out there.

So I think what you're gonna see is you're gonna see houses dropping in price, which is great for the younger generation.

That will help a little bit with housing affordability.

But really, I think we're gonna see continued price drops out there, and we'll see what happens.

I think I'm seeing houses that I saw at $1.6 million that are $1.3 million.

I'm seeing houses in great locations that used to have five, six, seven offers on them.

Man, Big cuts.

I'm looking at one right now, which is way out of my price point.

But this is.

I know this house cause I used to live by it.

Big four million dollar mansion.

They just cut it $250,000.

That's a lot.

So you're seeing a lot of those things happen out there.

Big price cuts out there.

20, 30, 50, $200,000.

There's one house that I drive by all the time that I'm like, man, this place is gorgeous.

Not a house I need, but it's gorgeous.

They just dropped at $155,000.

So you start thinking about that when you're seeing a seven figure house and they're dropping it in the hundreds.

That gets kind of crazy.

Gets kind of crazy.

So be careful out there.

This stuff adds up pretty quick.

If you're a seller, you might be with worth just holding on to it.

Unless you don't have, unless you have to move.

You're transferring, you're moving.

And I think that there's a house that's five doors down from me here that's for sale and I think she's gone down what, 30, 40, $50,000.

And that's not even a half a million dollar house now.

So starting to see what that does.

That adds up pretty quick.

So be careful out there, protect your investment.

Do we see a crash coming?

Absolutely not.

Is it going to be soft for another year?

Yeah, I'm going to bet that unless some things really change and turn around, I just don't see it any other way.

All right guys, we got a great new show coming up this weekend.

Thanks for the best of show this last weekend where we remixed some hits and gave it back to you.

But we'll have a brand new show coming up on Saturday that I can't wait to share with you.

I'm Eric G. Thanks guys for tuning in around the House.

We'll see you next time.

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