Last Updated June 14, 2022
Over the past few weeks, we’ve dived into all the nitty-gritty of what buyers and sellers need to know in order to find success in our local markets. It helps to have a sense of the bigger picture, however, which is why we’ve brought on a very special guest today.
Cat Woodman is a principal advisor and co-owner of Impact Investors, a socially-responsible investment firm, and she gives us the lowdown on how she’s helping her clients navigate the uncertain market conditions that we’re encountering right now. Kip and her discuss the lessons of the 2008 financial crisis, what it means to be a socially-responsible investor, and – there’s more – Cat’s experience relocating from the San Francisco Bay Area to Eugene.
Last week, we interviewed Cat Woodman of Impact Investors about what’s going on in investment markets, what individual investors should be doing about it, and her experience as a pioneer in the field of socially-responsible investing. On this episode, we’re letting Cat take off her business hat and talking to her about her experience relocating to Eugene from the San Francisco Bay Area toward the beginning of the pandemic. Both her and Kip have some advice for other folks potentially considering relocation. And yes, we’ve also got our weekly market report, now with updates on mortgage rates as they continue their remarkable ascent.
Voiceover:
The world is changing fast, and so are the local real estate markets. Don’t worry, though, we’ve got you covered. Welcome to the Real Estate Revolution.
Kip Lohr:
This is the Revolution, the Real Estate Revolution Podcast. I’m Kip Lohr, your host with LOHR Real Estate. And we have an amazing show for you today. We have Cat Woodman with Impact Investors in the studio today. And, you know, in previous episodes, we have talked about how influences such as rising interest rates, inflation, the fluctuating stock market, and low housing inventory continue to create uncertainty in our financial markets. And so we are bringing Cat in today. She is a certified financial advisor, they have a fund of their own, and they also do portfolio management. And so she is in the financial world. And I thought it’d be great to get her take on what’s going on with them, what they’re seeing in the markets. So essentially, they’re kind of looking at the lens of the financial world through the stock market and the bond market and places to put your money in socially responsible ways. And we will get her on the show here in a few minutes. But, as always, we have to start out the show with our weekly market report with Ryan Neal of our Eugene office. Take it away, Ryan Neal.
Ryan Neal:
Here’s our weekly market report for the week of March 21, 2022. in Eugene, we’re finally starting to see a bit more inventory coming onto the market. But I really do mean a bit. During the past week, new listings came in above pending sales for the first time this entire month. And normally, you know, we’d start to see more listing activity coming in for the beginning of the busy spring buying season. But that just hasn’t materialized yet. But we’re starting to see some signs that things may be picking up. It may be a while, though, before buyers experience any more choices than what they have right now. Things just feel really tight. Most notably, what we saw last week was that activity was really weighted in Eugene toward sub-$400,000 properties. Pending sales were listed at a median of just $397,000. And that’s way lower than the prices that we’ve been seeing. So what gives? Simply put, Eugene’s most desirable inventory is selling fast. It’s fetching multiple offers and going way above list price – we all know the story. But there’s a big chunk of inventory that’s sitting on the market longer. And there are plenty of homes, especially at these higher price points, that just aren’t as palatable to buyers. So there are still plenty of sellers in Eugene who are overpricing their homes, and we keep mentioning this, but now it’s more important than ever before to price your home correctly. Otherwise, even in the market that we have right now, you might end up sitting on the market and having to make some compromises as far as final price. In Springfield inventory is up slightly, but it’s still even lower than it is in Eugene right now. The supply of $500,000 plus homes is extremely low. There’s only 10 of those available right now. Now, there are plenty of people who do prefer to live in Springfield over Eugene and there’s continued to be a lot of competition for these properties toward the higher end of Springfield’s market. In Bend, sale prices for the past week spiked way up to a $827,000 median. That’s a reflection of the offer prices we were seeing in February really rather than anything that’s happening more recently. Like we’ve been talking about the past couple of weeks, pending sales numbers are down a bit from, you know, those super hot numbers that we were seeing in February. Last week’s pending sales were listed at a median of $677,000, and buyer activity continues to be strong at the lower half of Bend’s market. There is more inventory coming on at the upper end of the market. Last week’s median list price was $825,000. So we’re starting to see more homes getting listed toward the upper end of Bend’s market. Inventory is still pretty low in Bend historically. But we’re starting to climb back up as we enter into the traditional selling season right now. There are more than 174 active listings currently in Bend and that’s compared to about 150 last week. So we’re starting to see a trickle of new inventory into the market. In Redmond, sale prices are pretty much comparable to what we saw last week. But there was a significant drop in both buyer and seller activity – just 15 new listings and 11 pending sales. We’re not seeing this as any indication that Redmond’s market is slowing down – it’s just kind of a blip, kind of a coincidence, really. Sales are still weighted toward the lower half of Redmond’s market. The median pending price is $499,000. Right now, the inventory that is available is weighted toward the upper end of the market. It has a median ask of $650,000. And like we’ve mentioned during previous weeks, Redmond is traditionally seen as a lower cost alternative to Bend. But depending on what price point you’re looking at, you may or may not actually be able to save very much money in Redmond. That does it for this week. Let’s continue with the rest of our show after a very short break.
Cat Woodman:
Welcome back to The Real Estate Revolution Podcast. I am Kip Lohr, your host with LOHR Real Estate. And it’s time – I promised you earlier in the show, we would have a great guest and we absolutely have a great guest in the studio today, her name is Cat Woodman with Impact Investors. And I’d like to say hello to you, Cat, how are you today? I’m good. How are you doing?
Kip Lohr:
I’m doing great. We’ve been trying to do this for – I don’t know, what, 2, 3, 4 weeks trying to get to the studio and talk to you about what’s going on. I mean, we we have had several episodes, you know, in the last few weeks where we’ve
Cat Woodman:
About a year and a half, a little over a year and a kind of been talking about the shifting sands of the markets and whatnot, and how that affects the real estate market. And I thought it’d be really a great opportunity to bring somebody who’s in the financial advising-slash-portfolio management kind of milieu to kind of come on the show and talk about what you guys are seeing from your angle. And on top of it, we helped you and your cute little daughter move up from the Bay Area, gosh, how long ago it now? half, three quarters, really.
Kip Lohr:
I mean, that’s, that blows kind of blows my mind away a little bit. It feels like we were rolling around not that long ago to find you a place.
Cat Woodman:
It’s the pandemic, everything feels both short and long. That is true. And so I’m hoping that we’ll start the show by kind of talking about the markets and what you do. And, you know, have you give some insights into the shifts that you’re seeing in the markets, and how you’re helping your folks kind of ride the wave of those shifts. But then I – you know, I hope we can talk about what it’s been like to pull up stakes and move you and Lila north to Eugene, Oregon, from the Bay Area, and kind of start life anew a little bit. I mean, I guess that’s part of the Gypsy lifestyle of being able to be a remote worker these days, right. So, you know, don’t let me forget to ask you a little bit about how it’s been. And I had no idea it’s been that long. So I guess getting caught up is really probably a good thing. So anyway, you are with Impact Investors, and you are an owner of the company, correct? I am. Yeah, I’m a 50% owner. Okay. And so tell us a little bit about you and your company. Okay, well, I got into this whole racket in my late 20s, when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up. And I came across the book about socially responsible investing. And for me, it was just the idea that possibly a transaction could happen, and it could mean something good happening in the world instead of, you know, something traumatic for the world happening. And that was basically the spark that led me to become a financial advisor. And that was in the year 2000, which if anyone remembers the Dot-com bust, was 100% a perfectly terrible time to start in the market. But it was great, because I learned mostly through other people there during that period of time.
Kip Lohr:
Yeah. learn from other people’s mistakes.
Cat Woodman:
Hopefully, yeah, hopefully. So then yeah, I started in this business of being both a financial planner and financial advisor and managing my own portfolios. So then it was 2007. That was my turn to really see how my portfolios did a during major downturn. And it was like, it was definitely eye-opening, somewhere between eye-opening and traumatic to be like, this is a diversified portfolio. It’s supposed to do what I want it to do.
Kip Lohr:
Right. And everybody got hammered. So it wasn’t you, Cat.
Cat Woodman:
I know. I know. But of course, everyone I ran into said, “Oh, of course,” like it was obvious. “I saw it coming. I think it was pretty obvious.” My dad said that to me.
Kip Lohr:
He made a bundle on the downturn in ’08 though?
Cat Woodman:
I don’t think so. I think he was like, pulling me out of real estate. But anyway, long story short, that was an educational experience. And then, so I’ve mostly been a singleton. I’ve mostly sort of run my own practice. Until about seven years ago, I purchased the business of a woman who was retiring and then met up with a gentleman who was to become my business partner. And at first I hired him just to do some consulting for me, and then we really hit it off. And so he came with the Impact Investors moniker. And so we merged in early 2017. And that’s when we became business-married. And it’s been really great.
Kip Lohr:
Yeah, yeah. So for folks who are not familiar with impact investing, or socially responsible investing, kind of help folks out there have an understanding of what it is, what’s different about what you guys do than any of the other firms out there.
Cat Woodman:
Yeah, well, the, the basic gist is that we’re trying to invest with people’s values. And so most of the values that most of our clients have, are along the sort of liberal edge. There are also socially-responsible investments out there that are more Catholic- leaning, or more Christian-leaning. But those of ours tend to be more about environmental responsibility, and social equity, social justice, that kind of thing. So it’s really doing whatever you can do in the world of money to try and further those values. And there’s a whole range of things that can be done, either further upstream or more in public markets or more in community investment. There’s a wide range of things that you can do and things that you can invest in, but it’s really trying to both make money and still become retired, while also doing as much good as you can possibly do at the same time.
Kip Lohr:
Right, which I think for most people would be like, almost antithetical, right? Where it’s like, you know, capitalism is bad. And if you’re making money, you’ve got to be making it on the backs of other people, you know, going up the ladder, which – there are parts of the capital markets that definitely operate that way. But, you know, green energy is a great example, right? Where there’s companies that are environmentally-conscious that are putting a lot of entrepreneurial effort into, you know, making the planet a better place. And once there’s a market for it, then people can make money, right. Like one of the things that I talk about with my clients sometimes – you know, because the real estate market is another one of those markets, where people are like, you know, you’re doing this on the backs of other people, and making it unaffordable to a whole segment of folks. And there is truth to that. But there’s also this other side of things where capitalism can, like – for instance, you can go down to Costco of all places and buy organic produce today, right? And you couldn’t have done that, like, what, 15 years ago. You create a market where the initial impetus of that is to do something good for the environment, and provide something that’s going to be more nutritionally sound for people. And then all of a sudden, when there’s a market, then people jump in, and there’s money to be made. So I understand that. But I think it’s interesting that a lot of people have a hard time grasping that.
Cat Woodman:
Yeah, I mean, basically, if you sort of swing wildly from either end of the spectrum, to me, it doesn’t make a lot of sense. And I’ve seen it both ways. I’ve seen people say, There’s no way you can make money while also trying to do good things. So you might as well just make as much money as you can. And then when you retire, you can donate part of it. And that’s the argument on one side of things. And then on the other, I’ve met people who said, Well, I put all of my money into renewable energy, and then it tanked. So I put it all in GE. Like, whoa, there’s a lot of middle ground. You know, we’re always trying to find the middle ground, like how do we get you retired and get you a balanced portfolio, while also doing as many responsible things both from the fiscal side of things, as well as responsible from the social and environmental side of things at the same time? That Venn diagram, like, what’s the middle?
Kip Lohr:
Yeah, what’s the middle? And so you were telling me off-camera – we’re not on camera, but you know, off the air that what you guys do is a little different. Along with your kind of financial advising services, you also have a fund that you have started, correct?
Cat Woodman:
So we are financial planners. We’re all CFP-certified financial planners. So we help people with just answering the questions that have numbers as answers, like, how much should I be saving, and when can I retire, and all that jazz, as well as managing our own in-house portfolios. So there’s just a lot of advisors in the world who do kind of one or the other. And we do we do both of those things, mostly because of my own hubris. No way – I have the best way, nobody else will do it my way. So I’m just gonna, we’re just gonna do it my way.
Kip Lohr:
So this comes from my control freakiness.
Cat Woodman:
Right. I guess, you know, like I mentioned that I had, you know – 2007-2008 were really harsh and I did a lot a lot of research and studied a lot of academic journals and found there were several styles of investment theory that really did protect more against downside risk. And I didn’t find anyone who was out there doing both socially responsible investing and this theory, which is called risk parity, basically. And it’s Ray Dalio and Bridgewater and blah, blah, blah – there’s, you know, there’s people who do it who are not focused on socially-responsible investing. But I wanted to do both. I wanted to have a really diversified, really defensive portfolio, at the same time as also having it be as socially-responsible as we could possibly make it.
Kip Lohr:
So you want to have food and eat it too.
Cat Woodman:
I did, I wanted both of those things. And I did try finding third-party managers before where I asked, you know, can you manage it like this? And they said, “No.” And I was like, “Okay, well, I’ll make it myself.” So there’s that part of managing our own public portfolios. And then also, we were mostly doing that from the call of our own investors, who said that they were willing to lose money to take a risk in order to really invest in something that they were really excited about. And we said, well, you don’t have to lose money, we can do this in a really good way. And so we started our own private investment, which – so we’re in a space that’s really unusual, because we’re an RIA, a registered investment advisor shop. And we’re not like a billion dollar pension fund, right. But we’re still creating this fund for qualified investors who can invest in these really cool high impact investments that really do have a tangible effect on the world. It’s not so much like, well, you know, we aren’t investing in Facebook, or we aren’t investing – it’s not just about minimizing damage, but full on investing in things that really are improving people’s lives. So it’s something that I’m really excited about.
Kip Lohr:
Well, so the current state of the world obviously has shifted in a way where we’re seeing inflation. We’re seeing possibly bubbles in certain segments of the markets out there. How is the – what is currently, you know, going on right now, how is it affecting the way that you guys go about helping people financially plan right now? How does it, as far as your recommendations of where to put their monies, to invest them? What are you seeing right now? And how are you guys coping with kind of the shifting landscape?
Cat Woodman:
Yeah, well, as you mentioned, having rising inflation like we have not seen in a really long time – I mean, to me, it’s amazing, actually, that it took this long to see this kind of inflation, because people were saying that this is what was going to happen for a very long time before it actually happened. And then we – you know, interest rates are rising, and it’s just what’s going to be needed in order to control that inflation, which – and then, of course, you have the the war in Ukraine as well. So it’s a lot of uncertainty. It’s rising interest rates, which a lot of different asset classes don’t really like. But for me, I’ve seen – the whole thing just tickles me a little bit, just because I have basically been saying, you know, these valuations are so high, they can’t possibly go much higher. And I’ve been, and I’ve been saying it for years.
Kip Lohr:
Yeah, yeah.
Cat Woodman:
Right. You know, also, like I was around during the bubble, and I remember listening to analysts talking about the real estate bubble in, in 2004 and 2005. And they were saying exactly things like this, they were saying, “Well, according to our models, there should have been a bust years ago. It hasn’t happened.” So yeah. So luckily, I never totally believe my own press. I just think, like, the question’s always like, well, what if you’re wrong? So making any big dramatic moves, almost no matter what’s going on, usually hurts you, you know, depending on how you’re already invested. Right? So we were already in fairly defensive portfolios, because of these really high stock valuations that you still see. There are very few economists that you listen to these days who will say, “Oh, yeah, you should expect really high returns in equities in the next 10 years.” You’re not going to hear a lot of that, just because everyone else is looking at the same chart that I’m looking at and saying, you know, how much upside can there be here, people are paying so much just to own the stocks they have right now. So, and that’s where a lot of the growth is in the economy. So there are places to be, but you know, there’s not 100% escape from – there’s no such thing as a no-risk version of things.
Kip Lohr:
Right. And historically, you know, the stock market in particular has – it trends up right, so you know, it has its peaks and valleys, but look at what happened in 2007-2008. You know, the real estate market, the financial markets crashing obviously affected the stock market pretty dramatically as well. And the stock market was the first thing to rebound, which I thought was a little nuts. But what I found in my own personal experience and being in real estate was, this was the first time for most people that they had to actually think about their personal finances. Most of the people up to that point really didn’t understand how money worked. And then when they ended up losing their homes, they had to be cash and carry, they couldn’t borrow money, they couldn’t get a credit card, they couldn’t borrow money for a car, they couldn’t borrow money for a house. So they were in cash and carry mode. And, there was also a lot of feeling like they were not good people – “I’ve lost my house, I signed a contract saying that I pay this money back, and I didn’t.” And so it took about five years for people to get back on track. And in that five years, they really learned how to manage their money in a way that I think was almost historic for this country, as far as the number of people that were able to like, oh, you know, for me to be able to buy capital things, bigger things, I’ve got to be able to put some money away. And to do that, I’ve got to be able to know what I’m spending in the first place. And that really created this new, more conservative, more thoughtful way of borrowing money for a lot of people. And we’ve gotten a little bit away from that for some folks. But I can tell you a lot of the folks who I help right now, they have not pulled a ton of equity out of their house, even though it’s gone up dramatically over the last three or four years. And, so you know, we’re in a stage where people are like, oh, the sky is falling a little bit, or the real estate market’s got to pop at some point, and the stock market’s got to start heading downward. But I feel like fundamentally, just in my guts, from the real estate side of things, people are just smarter about their money than they ever used to be, you know, just kind of in the working man and woman part of the population where they weren’t necessarily as savvy before the market crashed. And it was a deep psychological wound for a lot of people.
Cat Woodman:
I hope that’s everything that – I don’t hope for wounds, but I hope that you’re right that a lot of people learned things. I, you know, I work with a lot of different people. And some people kind of get the financial planning side of that, the kind of cashflow side of that, and some people don’t. You know, I think it’s really case-by-case from from what I see. And it doesn’t matter how much you make. That’s what’s been sort of a lifelong, surprising lesson to me, which is that you can have a couple who makes half a million a year, and they can be living very much paycheck to paycheck. And it can be almost dire at any given moment. And you can have somebody who’s making $40,000 a year who’s just living in a style where they’ll be fine, no matter what happens.
Kip Lohr:
And that’s kind of what I’m thinking, you know, what I have seen is kind of like that. Middle America, that middle class of our economy – I think, I mean, almost everybody in that part of our economy got hurt, and had had to learn a pretty hard lesson. And I can just speak only, you know, from my own experience, but most of the people who I work with – you know, I do get what you’re saying there are definitely folks out there who are, you know, living paycheck to paycheck, and they make $500,000 a year, which most of us would be like, how the heck do you do that?
Cat Woodman:
You sign up for a lot of things.
Kip Lohr:
Yes, drinking a lot of $500 bottles of wine.
Cat Woodman:
Yeah, and private school.
Kip Lohr:
Schools. Yeah, well, yeah. In the Bay Area. I mean, like some of this is just depends on where you live. It’s all relative, right?
Cat Woodman:
Absolutely. Well, I was gonna say, I mean, the interesting thing to me, like the very basic thing, the seed of what you were saying that people learned, is kind of that basic idea of cash flow, which you see in Kiyosaki’s book, “Rich Dad, Poor Dad,” and Ray Dalio has this great video called “How the Economic Machine Works,” which is so great, where he talks about, you know, the dangers of credit, you know, how credit really works – that it works to kind of multiply the amount of money that’s out there because of credit. And then exactly the opposite happens during a recession. Whereas the – basically it’s like all of this liquidity just can disappear. And almost overnight. That has, almost almost overnight. So yeah, I think that at its core, I think people who understand that lesson aren’t going to get themselves into too much trouble.
Kip Lohr:
Yeah, since ’08 for me, I have been able to, you know, get folks – because we specialized in doing short sales, and when the market crashed, that’s kind of how we stayed above water. And we ended up doing – I mean, just in Bend, Oregon, we ended up doing over 350 of them. It was. And at the same time, it was probably the
Cat Woodman:
Oh, that’s so sad. most gratifying work that I’ve ever done in my life. Because, you know, it was at a time when we were coming in and being able to help guide people through what they thought was something that was impossible. You know, they’re underwater by $100,000 and asking, what am I going to do? And we got them on a path to being able to get the bank to forgive that and for them to move on, and in a way where they could start sleeping again at night, and start licking their financial wounds. And we had marriages that were on the rocks, because of this, you know, people who were literally on the edge of suicide with this, and to be able to go into people’s living rooms and say, “Hey, there’s a pathway forward for you, and it’s gonna suck up front, you know, it’s gonna affect your financial life for the next four or five years, but it’s going to take that heavy weight that you’re feeling right now off your shoulders,” and I was able to get many of those people back into homes once they Yeah. And so the people who were in trouble, who were underwater, got to the point where their credit had recovered from doing a short sale. Straight across the board, it was like this revelation for them where they were gonna be 20% down and, you know, their financials were super solid. By the time they were ready to buy again in ways where, prior to the crash, it was just – you could be 0% down, you could have stated income loans were you know, if you’re self employed, you could pretty much just tell the bank that you made anything, and they would lend you money, and the money was so easy to get. And the music was playing – such sweet music – that people thought they would never stop. And we stopped, and there were no chairs to sit in, you know, yeah, the whole room of people had no chairs to sit at. But at the other end of it, I just, I guess I feel a lot of optimism from – we’re just close enough to what happened in in 2007, that I think that people’s memories, they still are remembering that and they kind of guided their finances in a way that I feel like the fundamentals – I guess I have some faith in as far as kind of that middle of our population, the you know, the middle income folks. was that mostly due to people, you know, treating their houses like a piggy bank and taking out HELOCs and so forth? Or was it really just the drop in the market that was doing it, or a combination? Oh, it was it was all over the map. So in Bend, Oregon, in particular, because it was one of the markets like Las Vegas, and Phoenix, Arizona – of all places, those were like three of the worst-hit markets in the entire country, where the property values dropped by more than 50%, if you can’t even imagine that, right. So clearly, unless you kind of own your place outright, you were going to be affected by this thing. So everybody was kind of affected. But then there were people that, in the run-up for it, and Bend – it was a speculative market; we had a lot of people coming in from out-of-area who were buying new construction. So they buy a house, let’s say for $300,000. And it’s going to take four or five months for the construction to go. In four or five months, the construction’s done, and then they immediately sell it and make $40,000 or $50,000 in the course of you know, four or five months. And there were enough people doing that, that they were doing like four or five or six of them at the same time. So there were those folks who were kind of speculating. And then when the music stopped, they all got wiped out. In fact, the first short sale I ever negotiated, was with a guy that had six of these that he did. He was a lender at Wells Fargo, and he had borrowed all of his money from Wells Fargo, the place where he worked. And so we’re negotiating, essentially, with his employer to basically wipe out these six, you know, loans that he had on these things. But there were also tons of people that you know, had no skin in the game. On day one, they were getting 0% interest or zero down loans. So they had a little bit of equity maybe that they had built, you know, as the market went up, but you can’t recover from a 50% drop if you didn’t start out with any money in at all right, right. So, you know, kind of any of the scenarios you could possibly imagine we saw different versions of it. And some of the most painful for me were ones where – you know, I had a lender friend who, she had two homes, and because she was in the industry, she was not going to be delinquent. And so she went through all of her savings, making her payments. Then she pulled out all of the retirement that she could pull out and made her payments. And then she ran out of money and lost them anyway, to the tune of about $300,000. Right, so she made the payments until she couldn’t and went through her entire retirement. And so one of the things that I feel really good about is we were able to help people get to a place where they could get out from underneath these homes and not completely wipe out their retirements and be starting from square one again. I just feel like, you know, historically, we’ve seen these up and downs, and we’re in another one of those kind of historic moments, but ’08 was a pretty big deal. kind of across the board. Yeah. And what do you think about now – because I just had a neighbor who was saying, like, well, “We’re in another real estate bubble.” And I was like, um, I kind of don’t think so. I mean, if there’s a recession, the value of all assets will fall. But that’s different than a real estate bubble. You know what I mean?
Kip Lohr:
Yeah, no, I totally agree. And I think that what I can say is that the markets in the Eugene/Springfield area, well, throughout the whole country that have hot markets – they’re not hot, they are white hot, they are like scalding lava coming out of the volcano hot. They are, you know – and I agree with you, does that mean it’s a bubble? And I think that, you know, for me, it’s a reflection of the lack of inventory. You know, it’s -basically the easiest economic concept for everybody to understand is supply and demand. And it’s a supply and demand issue. And, right, you know, interest rates going up is going to lower the demand to some extent, but it’s not going to be enough to, you know, extinguish enough demand to have it make a major shift in the market, at least for the next year, I think. Even the big boys, you know, Zillow, Corelogic, you know, they talk aboutm we’re going to get to a more normal, kind of like 4 or 5% a year increase in value. I mean, would you be bummed out at a 4-5% return on your money? I mean, I wouldn’t.
Cat Woodman:
No, no. I mean, and certainly, historically, that’s the wrap on real estate, is that you can expect sort of inflation-rate returns over time. That’s what the normal has historically been.
Kip Lohr:
Yeah. And, and I guess the thing for me in real estate investment is really, it’s about cash flow for me. And, I know that you and I have talked about this before but, you know, when you’re also – like in ’08, people who owned real estate, their portfolio, let’s say they own their house, outright, their portfolio, their house, the value was cut in half. But if they were renting that house out, the rent actually went up. So even though the value of the home went down, the actual cash flow went up. And so for me, there’s definitely a place in people’s portfolio to have some real estate in there from a cash flow perspective without having to be looking at it from a standpoint of like, I need a five or six cap on this thing to have it make sense.
Cat Woodman:
Yeah, absolutely. Just having the diversification – I mean, as many different asset classes that, you know, make sense, is helpful. I’m laughing in my head, because I did hear an investor, it was an entrepreneur who was presenting their business idea, which was to be able to sell stock, like, basically a sliver of ownership in tennis shoes, and like rare – in rare tennis shoes. And yeah, and there was a really large segment of the the people who were hearing this who were like, “This is great,” you know, “this is wonderful.” And I’m like, those things just disintegrate over time. Tennis shoes disintegrate over time. Yeah, and for me, I just felt like maybe I’m too female, too white and too old to really, truly –
Kip Lohr:
For the sneaker market to be a part of your portfolio.
Cat Woodman:
Well, there was, there was part of me that was like, this is the sign, this is the end of times.
Kip Lohr:
This is the end of times, like sneakers as an asset class. You’re like okay, that’s right.
Cat Woodman:
This is the fall of the Roman Empire.
Kip Lohr:
I need to tap out right now. Yeah. Well, I mean, that’s not any different than like people who collect stamps or rare coins or baseball cards – you know, when there’s a perceived value. Well, I’m totally like, sidetracking here, but Tom Brady retired. You know who Tom Brady is. right? Yeah, quarterback for the Patriots, right? Well, he was the former quarterback. Well, anyway, he retired, and the last football that he threw – in LA, his last touchdown pass.
Cat Woodman:
I think I heard about this.
Kip Lohr:
And this football ended up selling for like $500,000 – and then he just came out of retirement.
Voiceover:
I remember, like a week later/
Kip Lohr:
It was in the same week. It was the same week that this thing, yeah, went for auction for like $500 grand or something like that. And so, you know, yeah, it’s – to some degree, it’s all absurd. You know, it all will be dust someday and it – just some of it will be dust sooner than later, you know. So – I don’t know if we got off track or we’re completely on track. But I mean, that’s the fun thing about these kinds of interviews, we just kind of can rap about, you know, some really interesting topics that I think folks out there whill be excited to hear some different perspectives about. But as far as like, the markets and impact investing, and your company, Impact Investors, is there anything we left out? I mean, in probably 10 shows we couldn’t cover it all. But is there anything that we need to cover that we haven’t covered?
Cat Woodman:
I think we’ve gotten the basic gist. You know, I think, just – yeah, I mean, I think I would just say in terms of our portfolios, I just really believe in true diversification. And I just think it’s among financial advisors – first of all, financial advisors, as a group, as a just very general group, don’t tend to care as much about the social and environmental good. And maybe that’s a shocking statement to make. But, you know, when investors have been surveyed, especially women investors, especially younger investors, care a great deal about the impact that their investments make on the world. But financial advisors – the last statistic I saw was a little, I think it was at least five years old, but it was like 7%, of advisors actually gave any kind of a crap about socially responsible investing or having a positive impact with their money in any way. I just think it’s something to me that seems just pretty obvious. And it is finally, kind of having its day. And you know that that’s the case, because there’s all of these large players out there who are now starting to, you know, have their socially responsible mutual fund, or they’re buying up a lot of socially responsible companies so that they can have this in-house department that does this, because they’re finally figuring out that, oh, these people are serious. Like, oh, these kids who are inheriting all this money, they actually do care about this stuff.
Kip Lohr:
Yeah, well, it’s organic produce, right? Like you could get it in Costco today. 20 years ago, you had to go to the farmers market or grow it in your backyard. So you guys are just the organic produce of the financial markets, right? You’re, you know, you guys are early adopters in something that, you know, back to the original thesis here, right? Like, if there’s a profit center, and it’s a decent one, people are gonna hop on. And then once you’ve got enough people hopping on, then you become more competitive with more traditional investments.
Cat Woodman:
Right? And the bigger sort of players out there can kind of talk the talk, you know, so you do have to be careful, because there’s no such thing as purity in the financial world, right there. It’s – nothing is black and white. It’s all shades of grey. But you know, when you do have these big players that are like, oh, yeah, we’re socially responsible, and then, you know, and then you look at their investments, and you’re like – you’re really, you’re really not, you know, and I’ve been doing this for a long time, which doesn’t mean that I’m the best or, no, everything is –
Kip Lohr:
You’re the best, you know, you and all of your folks at Impact Investors are the best.
Cat Woodman:
But it does mean that I’ve been committed for a very long period of time. And I had a client’s other advisor say something to me, like, “Well, I know this is really, like, chic right now.” And I was like, I’m gonna reach through that phone.
Kip Lohr:
“I’ve been doing this for 20 years, you jerk.”
Cat Woodman:
It’s going to be my 22nd year in August.
Kip Lohr:
Well, you can say, “Well, I have been chic for 22 years. And you’re just now getting to be chic,” you know?
Cat Woodman:
I guess so. But I did it back when I was told by Barney and the big brokers, like, you can’t build a business on this. You can’t; this can’t be the only thing that you do. And luckily, I mean, I might have believed that because I was in my 20s, and 20-year-olds believe a lot of things. But luckily, I had met some other advisors who were already doing it. Yeah. And I was like, now I’ve seen examples of success. I know it’s possible.
Kip Lohr:
Well, for better or for worse, we are a culture that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, unfortunately. So there’s a lot of issues in the world right now that are getting to the place where they’re broken and broken in a really profound way that are going to take some very fundamental shifts in sensibilities and fundamental shifts in the way we do business just globally and also locally, right. And so in a way, you know, you guys are positioned in a part on the economic side of things that your days here – I think maybe you were chic for the last 22, but now you’re fundamentally necessary, right? You know, when we see big companies like Ford and GM throw billions of dollars at electric cars which, you know, we don’t want to get go down the rabbit hole of like you said, there’s no 100% clean energy or anything like that. So that’s not the point. The point is, is that the big boys are seeing the shift, and some of it is like it’s out of necessity. And some of it’s like, I don’t want to be left behind. You don’t want to be the last one through the door on some of this stuff. So why don’t we take – we’ll take a little break. And when we come back, let’s talk about you and your relocation to Eugene, Oregon. In my office, we specialize in helping people relocate from all over the country, you being one of them. And I thought it would be fun if we kind of just talk about what that process was like both just in general and then, you know, maybe specific to your experience working with us, and how we how we were either helpful or unhelpful in helping facilitate that for you guys. How’s that sound?
Cat Woodman:
That sounds great.
Kip Lohr:
All right, we’ll be right back. Wow, it looks like we’re running out of time, and we’ll need to air the rest of the interview with Cat Woodman next week. For now, here’s the latest installment of Kip’s tips. This
week’s tip for buyers is:
do not waste time. Get into the market now. We are seeing interest rates go up pretty dramatically, and we anticipate them to continue to rise throughout the summer. And we also anticipate prices to continue to go up as well. Now we will see some softening of prices towards the end of the year but I don’t anticipate prices in the Eugene/Springfield or Bend/Redmond markets to go down. So now’s the time. Buyers, get in while you can. Thanks for joining us this week and we’ll see you next week.
Voiceover:
Thank you for joining the Revolution. We are over and out until next week, when we’ll continue to fill you in on all that matters most in our local Bend and Eugene real estate scenes. See you next time on The Real Estate Revolution.
Where Do Investment Markets Go From Here, Part 2 Transcript
Voiceover:
The world is changing fast, and so are the local real estate markets. Don’t worry though, we’ve got you covered. Welcome to the Real Estate Revolution.
Kip Lohr:
This is the Real Estate Revolution Podcast. I am Kip Lohr, your host with LOHR Real Estate, and I have Ryan Neal in the house today as my co-host.. Hello, Ryan Neal.
Ryan Neal:
Hello, Kip Lohr. How are you today?
Kip Lohr:
I am well. We had such a great show last week that we had to split it into two separate episodes. We had Cat Woodman from Impact Investors in the studio. And the first part of that show, which was last week’s episode, kind of talked about investing in the market, what impact investment is versus typical traditional investments in the market and some strategies to employ in – weird times, I guess is a short way to put it. And this week’s show is a continuation of last week’s interview with Cat, and we will be talking about her relocation from the Bay Area to the Eugene/Springfield area, and what it was like to do that kind of during COVID. So that’s gonna be a good one. It’s a continuation of last week’s show. Before we drop right into our weekly market report, I do want to mention that we are in some pretty extraordinary times in the real estate market. We’re seeing lots of shifts and activity. And most poignantly, the interest rates are definitely starting to be an issue for folks. And so we’re going to add to our weekly market report a “Brought to you by Mortgage Express with our local lender of Brad Tozer” giving us, you know, the weekly 30-year-fixed rates to kind of use that in context with the rest of the information that Ryan will give you every week. And yeah, I just think it’s really important that we add the kind of the weekly interest rate changes because they are happening on a weekly basis right now to our weekly market report.
Ryan Neal:
That’s right, such a huge factor in the crazy real estate market that we’ve seen since the summer of 2020 has been historically low interest rates, and what we’re really seeing – and you know, really, it’s just been in the past few weeks, those interest rates are really starting to increase dramatically. It hasn’t been as gradual as I think many of us may have perhaps hoped they would – that, particularly if you’re a buyer, you know, you’ve probably been hearing that interest rates are forecasted to go up in 2022. But it’s really just hit us kind of suddenly here.
Kip Lohr:
Yeah, it’s something to look out for, but it’s going to be something that’ll be gradual. Yeah, it’s been pretty phenomenal, and maybe we’ll invite Brad Tawzer with Mortgage Express back to the show to talk about maybe some of the causes of that. But the reality is that we’ve seen a one point interest rate increase just in the last week. And so why don’t you guys go ahead and take it away.
Ryan Neal:
Alright. So with mortgage rates fluctuating so much, we promised you weekly updates. As of today, March 28 2022, the 30 year fixed rate on a 20% down mortgage is right around 5%. Locally, that’s a pretty dramatic increase compared even to as recent as a week ago. So buyers are going to need to recalibrate based upon these new higher rates. We will keep you posted and coming weeks. In Eugene, we’re seeing more activity in the middle end of the market, with pending sales going back up during the past week to a median of $459,000. A week before that, we saw more activity at the bottom end of the market. So basically, if we look at it month-over-month, compared to February, prices are appreciating modestly. We haven’t seen a dramatic increase in prices, but they’ve gone up just a little bit. We’ll have our end-of-the-month numbers for you next week. But it’s looking like the bottom line just, you know, isn’t too different. Anecdotally, in Eugene’s market, the most desirable properties in the most desirable locations are going for more than ever now. But the overall quality of inventory available is also on the decline. It’s an interesting dynamic. There’s a lot of inventory that’s kind of sitting on Eugene’s market that just isn’t that compelling to buyers, and that’s keeping prices from going up too much overall, even though we’re seeing these pretty drastic increases actually in properties that have the most desirable finishes and are in the most desirable locations. In Eugene, there continue to be more new listings than pending sales, but the difference is very slight. And basically, Eugene’s inventory is still hovering near record low numbers. This isn’t really normal. We’d expect to see a nice influx of inventory really starting around this time of year, but that still hasn’t materialized. In Springfield, activity continues to be weighted toward the bottom end of the market both from buyers and sellers. Less expensive homes have been hitting the market, and the higher-end homes that have gone on Springfield’s markets are continuing to go really fast. Like in Eugene, inventory remained pretty flat in Springfield over the past week, though it’s up a good amount from the record lows that we saw earlier in the month. In Bend, inventory continues to increase modestly. Right now, there are 187 residential homes on the market. That’s up from 133 at the beginning of the month. Pending sales are up during the past week to a median of $740,000. And that’s still below the sale prices that we saw in February, when we were getting pretty close to $800,000. But it’s probably only a matter of time before we get back up there. Inventory in the bottom half of Bend’s market is continuing to be bought up. And right now, what is left on the market has a median ask of $860,000. In Redmond, inventory is also a bit higher. There are 87 active properties compared to 66 at the beginning of the month. We’re starting to see more buying happening toward the upper upper-middle end of the market. Last week’s pending sales hit a median of $549,000. Meanwhile, we’re seeing some more listing activity finally at the lower end of Redmond’s market. There were 21 new listings the past week with a median ask of just $390,000. But these are going pending really fast. Now, all these numbers are just, well, numbers. So with interest rates doing what they’re doing, what are we expecting to see moving forward, basically, is that buying activity should start dropping off a bit. The prices we’re seeing now are reflective of an environment where rates were lower. Prices will not drop overnight. Unfortunately for buyers, and especially this time of year, when there’s a lot of FOMO still operating, buyers are trying to get into the market before rates go up even further. But this is the beginning of a process we expect will play out over the next few months. So we’ll just continue to keep you posted. On to the main part of our program.
Kip Lohr:
Welcome back to the Real Estate Revolution Podcast. I’m Kip Lohr, your host. I’m with LOHR Real Estate. We have Cat Woodman in the house with Impact Investors. How are you, Cat?
Cat Woodman:
Good, how are you?
Kip Lohr:
Goo,? Well, this is going to be the second part of our show. And we talked about all these really cool, very heady concepts about the markets and how to go about being a socially responsible investor. What I’d like to talk about now though is more fun. Not that that other stuff wasn’t fun. But, you know, so full disclosure, Cat is a client of LOHR Real Estate and myself. We helped her and her super-cute daughter Delilah relocate from the Bay Area about a year and a half ago. And so I thought it would be interesting for folks who are, you know, contemplating being in your shoes to hear kind of what your experience was like, and kind of the A-to-Z of what made you decide to leave and look at Eugene. And, you know, once you started doing the research, how did you get hooked up with us and that kind of fun stuff.
Cat Woodman:
Okay, great.
Kip Lohr:
So take it away.
Cat Woodman:
Okay, so I think I found you guys through my friend, Nancy. Nancy is such a researcher. And she actually, I think, was the first of the two of us, she was really gearing up to escape. So I’ve been in the Bay -I was in the Bay Area from 1995 to 2020. So it’s a pretty long period of time. And basically, from about 2003 on both Nancy and I have been like, where can we move? How can we get out of here? But there’s a vortex, there’s a vortex that’s difficult to escape from and especially once you build a business – and, you know, having a financial advising practice with clients who were used to seeing me face to face. And then, when I, you know, bought a practice, there were even more local clients. You know, I was even more embedded in the Bay Area. So then when the pandemic happened, and I looked at everything that happened in 1918, and said, Wow, this is probably going to be a few years, right, I realized that, that it was an opportunity to just experiment and to see what happens. Because, you know, I had a lot of fear of leaving the area with so many clients in the Bay Area. And my daughter’s dad still lives there. And, you know, I didn’t really know how it was going to be, but I sort of felt like this is the time, this is the moment if I’m going to do it. This is just the time to do it. Because I literally know that I’m I’m pretty sure I’m not going to be seeing anyone face-to-face for probably two years right now. Right? So that was the circumstance.
Kip Lohr:
Right, and did you think, like, eventually when and if things get normalized on that front, do you think you’ll make trips down there to, you know – kind of, I’ll spend a week down in the Bay Area and and hit a up bunch of clients and then come home?
Cat Woodman:
Yeah, that’s the plan. And I’m thinking of starting that up soon. I think we’re finally at that place.
Kip Lohr:
Where you can start getting some face time.
Cat Woodman:
Yeah, yeah. It’s nice being with people in person. So, you know, I think they would put up with me – you know, they put up with Zoom calls, but it’s fun for all of us when we get to see each other, right.
Kip Lohr:
And the Bay Area’s a nice place to visit. You know, my brother lives down there. So I love going down there – you hit the restaurants, you know, you get the Bay Area air in your lungs, and then, you know, you come home. You come up to Eugene, right.
Cat Woodman:
Right. Oh, my gosh, yes, that’s such a change. So there were a number of different factors that made me also look up here. I mean, my friend Nancy was into it, but also my aunt and uncle live in Marcola, just outside of Springfield. And so I’ve been coming up here since 2000, when they moved here, right. Usually, you know, sitting in a bedroom reading Lord of the Rings and Twilight movie, or Twilight books while it rained outside. You know, it was just so beautiful and such a, like, calming place to come to. So I really enjoyed that. And, I really wanted to live in community, I had lived in a co-op in Oakland from 2005 to 2011, I think. Well, 2010. But lived for five years in community. And I really liked that. And I wanted that back. All of those different reasons brought me to Eugene.
Kip Lohr:
Yeah, I remember. So we we ended up, you know, having several conversations with Nancy before we had actually met you. And, you know, when we first started talking to you, I remember the shifting sands of, you know, where we started out as far as what you were looking for, and obviously what you ended up with. And, you know, I think that’s one thing that, for folks who are listening out there who are contemplating moving from out of area, having a big open mind of what your expectations are is really important, especially on the front end. Because the – well, first of all, the market’s really tight right now. So there’s not a lot of inventory. So it’s not like you get a whole, you know, 30, 40, 50 houses to look at, but also just the expectation, you know – it’s very different in theory than it is being on the ground. What was it like once you got on the ground with us, and we started showing you around Eugene?
Cat Woodman:
Well, that was great. I liked all the tours. It was really helpful to be told, like – I think we actually walked through the Market of Choice on 28th. And that was really great. I was like, okay, you know, I can shop here – like, this is very, you know, reminiscent of organic grocery stores.
Kip Lohr:
Yeah, yeah.
Cat Woodman:
Yeah, I had – how was it? I was talking to somebody, I think, who moved here maybe about five years ago. And they were talking about how it just depends so much on what part of Eugene that you see in terms of how you might feel about it, if you’re really just breezing through it. It’s kind of the same thing with the Bay Area. You could go through parts of Oakland and be like, I don’t want to live in, you know, in or around here. You know, it’s really urban, just sort of urban decay. And, you know, West Eugene has an awful lot of warehouses. So, yeah, it really depends on – but I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface, because we did get here in a pandemic, and I am quite a bit of a homebody. You know, if I like where I’m living, and, you know, all I kind of need is groceries, I’m not getting out a ton. So every time I go to a new place, I’m like, has this always been here? This is so great.
Kip Lohr:
But you didn’t tell me about this place!
Cat Woodman:
I went by the rock climbing places over on, was that 4th or something? And that was really neat. And I went to Wildcraft that night, where they were having all these events. And so it sounds like – and what my housemate said is, she’s like, well, Eugene is just starting to wake up. And this is what you do. That’s like, you know, and that just – I probably hadn’t seen it, probably because I hadn’t left, I had been mostly at home because of the pandemic, kind of reemerging.
Kip Lohr:
No, I think that’s absolutely true. And so it’s one thing to take that big leap of faith that you took, and then to be doing it in a time when the sidewalks are, you know, rolled up, you know, not not just at night, but just period You know, the pandemic just rolled up the sidewalks, and socializing and getting getting to know people. I mean, I think that’s been the hardest thing for folks that we’ve helped over the last couple of years – just that, you know, you get on the ground, and you’ve left all of your friends, you know, you’ve got kids and they’ve left their friends, and you’ve left your circles and the things that make you feel at home, and you’re going to start this new adventure, but you can’t really start the new adventure yet. Because you don’t even know what people look like, because they’ve got a mask on. It still freaks me out when I see somebody’s face after literally getting to know them without ever seeing their face, you know, and I feel like I know them, and then I see their face. And I’m like, who is that? Like, that is not what I would have pictured that person’s face look like. You know, yeah, I got taken aback a little bit. I’m like, what? That’s not what I was thinking at all.
Cat Woodman:
It’s totally like those little kids where you can – where they have this little box where you can change their clothing, you know, where they just move the page, and then suddenly, they’re wearing a different outfit. And it’s kind of like that people take their masks off, and you’re like, well, I was picturing a totally different –
Kip Lohr:
A completely different person. Yeah, exactly. So how has it been for Delilah in her move? You know, there’s a lot of people out there that are considering making the move, like you guys have, and they have kids, and how has it been?
Cat Woodman:
Yeah, well, I think now that the schools are open – you know, because anyone making the move now will probably be moving to places where the schools are open. You know, she never really loved school all that much at any point and really was never somebody who was like, I can’t wait to go to school. And the solution for that is just to keep them at home for two and a half years, and then eventually –
Kip Lohr:
They can’t wait to go to school.
Cat Woodman:
They start getting excited about school. So I, you know, because I work from home, I was able to be more cautious this last fall. So when I saw the numbers spiking, I was like, I’m not going to do this. So she basically only had maybe two or three months of in-person school last spring. And then she’s been in-person since January of this year. So she really enjoys it. She really enjoys the people here. She came home from our first day of school and said, I’m so grateful for how nice everybody was. I didn’t expect that. And I said, Yeah, Eugene people are really nice. We get a really nice group of people. And same thing when you’re driving – when I feel like I’ll get on the freeway and go, I can’t believe they let me in. I wouldn’t have let me in. I wouldn’t have been as nice as that. And I can just imagine some Oregonian thing like, Yeah, you’re from from California, where you have to, like learn to be aggressive, or you will, you know, be run off and –
Kip Lohr:
You’ll get in a wreck if you’re not driving
Cat Woodman:
Yeah. Whereas down here, I was picking up some aggressively. Defensive – or offensive driving is what it is. chicken feed at Backyard Farmers, and I heard all these horns going off. And he said, Oh, it’s probably a Eugene Traffic jam. And what he meant by that was like, everyone’s just at the stop sign, like all saying, No, you go, no, no, you go.
Kip Lohr:
No, that’s right. And what’s funny about that is like there are literally wrecks that get caused by that. Because people get to the intersection, and they’re like, you go, no, you go, then you go, and then they both go and wreck into each other. Finally, when somebody’s got to go, they both go. And then they have a fender bender. So it is a little ridiculous. But you know, the alternative – you know, the alternative is not as fun.
Cat Woodman:
It’s California. You end up in California.
Kip Lohr:
For sure. So would you share with me, what were some of the things that we were able to help you with, in the course of you relocating that you feel like, wow, I didn’t know a real estate company or a real estate agent would be doing that?
Cat Woodman:
Well, I definitely didn’t know that you would be literally driving me around and giving me a tour of the place and you know, giving –
Kip Lohr:
Of the city.
Cat Woodman:
Yeah, the city. Yeah, we weren’t looking for houses. We were looking at the city.Yeah, you were like, here’s where you’ll go grocery shopping. Here’s the vet that I use for my dogs. And, I know I got some help from you guys in terms of trying to price rooms here. In the duplex that I got, you know, I needed to figure out rents, and when you’re coming from a place where there’s no frame of reference. So that was really helpful. And, I mean, you guys were just really responsive. For me, it was a really positive experience. And I just felt like, is it okay that like, I don’t know how long this is gonna take, right, taking up a lot of time and – you know, is it really worth it for you guys?
Kip Lohr:
And you learned what? The answer to that question was yes, right?
Cat Woodman:
I learned that you guys were willing to – whether it was worth it is up to you guys. But you were certainly very willing, which was – all of you guys – which is really sweet, really helpful.
Kip Lohr:
Well, I appreciate the shameless plug, and the $20 is in the mail, but –
Cat Woodman:
No, no payment necessary.
Kip Lohr:
All kidding aside, I think that, you know, our model Yeah, I can see that that’s true. And it’s true that even is very different than, I would say – I’m pretty confident – than any other company out there. Really, we understand that relocating from another place, especially when you’ve got a kid or two or three, is a big deal. And we treat it like a big deal. And a lot of the folks that reach out to us, they’ve never been to Eugene. I mean, they’ve never been to the area before. And so for me, I can’t imagine moving somewhere without having somebody take you by the hand and really say, Okay, here’s the good and bad and the ugly of this place. And let me drive you around the areas that, you know, you’re indicated to me kind of what your vibe is. So let’s drive through the areas that are going to be in alignment with that vibe, and like you say, you know, walk you through the grocery store that you’re probably going to shop at and take you by the University, if you’ve got kids that are getting ready to get into college, and those types of things are really important to me, because I want to make sure that you are making the right decision, you know, and when we get to the part where it’s, you know, looking at houses, that’s fun, too. But we really take the helping you pin down whether this is the right spot to land for you and your famil – we take that really seriously. though I had been coming up and visiting my aunt and uncle in Marcola, I spent almost no time whatsoever in Eugene or Springfield, so I didn’t really know the town hardly at all right? So I felt comfortable just knowing there was family nearby. I didn’t have any references or knowledge. So all of that was super helpful to me, because I didn’t really have it. desire to maybe get into community again, you know, which the thought of a place like Marcola is kind of in alignment with maybe what the stereotype of being in community can be like – you know, I’m living in a bus out at somebody’s 10 acre parcel, you know, that kind of deal. But what you guys ended up doing was pretty off the charts. I’ve never seen that before. You know, we first started looking at properties that were, well – maybe we can put a yurt on the property, or maybe you can have a couple of tiny houses. And then we find this duplex that’s up, you know, on some property just outside of the city limits. So you’ve kind of got the best of both worlds there where you’re out a little bit out of town, but you’re still close enough that you can come in and still feel like you have some of the urban feel.
Cat Woodman:
Yeah, it was definitely not what I was looking for. I was looking for, like, fixer-uppers that I could convert into something where there could be multiple people. But at the time, I was also nervous about the law that only allowed, what was it, four or five unrelated people to live in the same house? And I was like, Oh, well, that might get in the way of my whole community ideal. So the fact that this place was a duplex was great, but then I have heard that recently, they’ve changed that law, or that’s what somebody had said to me.
Kip Lohr:
Yes. I think, you know, with the difficulty in housing that we have in Oregon, specifically in the Eugene/Springfield and Bend/Redmond areas, we are seeing, you know, community and the local government saying, we’ve got to do something, we’ve got to change up the paradigm a little bit. So are there any, like words of wisdom for folks who are listening as far as, like, I wish I had done this or I’m sure glad I knew this before I jumped, or is there anything that pops into mind that you’re thinking, these are some really important things to be thinking about when you’re making the
Cat Woodman:
I mean, there are certainly learnings I’m going jump? through right now. But I feel like there’s so much more about living in community. And, that’s like a pretty – that might be a fairly narrow subset of humans. But, you know, I’ve learned, because I lived in a co-op before – I thought that a lot of that stuff would really just translate into this new, totally different situation with totally different dynamics. And as I’ve learned a lot – I’m happy to talk about that, but you know, in terms of the city, I mean, I’ve been here for a year and three quarters, and I feel like no matter what, I’m definitely not going back, because I was afraid that – well, if that doesn’t work out, like, I guess I’ll go back. And I’m, just like, why would I do that? I don’t need to do that. I feel like – I feel great about the decision. I just feel like, there’s so much that I love. I love the traffic here. You know, it’s like, I have moments where I’m like, Oh, this is rush hour here. That’s right. Oh, it’s like, isn’t that cute.
Kip Lohr:
They call this rush hour.
Cat Woodman:
Right. I mean, I have memories of being in Mill Valley, in Marin County. And being on a two way street where literally, we’re just parked. And just hoping that someday we get to the highway. You know, so I know. And I know that that changes. I can just hear the voices in my head of the people who are like, it’s you Californians coming here, and you will ruin the traffic. But I know that there are also a lot of transplants here. So I try not to feel too guilty about it.
Kip Lohr:
You shouldn’t, you shouldn’t. I mean, I think it’s always a double-edged sword with our people who, you know, are maybe second, third-generation Eugene person or a second third generation Ben person and their towns change. And that’s just life – everything changes, right, like change is the only thing that doesn’t change; you count on change. And so, I’m much more in the camp of appreciating what folks like you bring to this community rather than worrying about whether I have to slow down to 30 miles an hour rather than drive at 45.
Cat Woodman:
Yeah, yeah. I mean, that is the thing, too, is that people who do come to an area can bring, like different sets of skills and different perspective. And hopefully, it’s not a Californication. Because, you know, I really enjoy what’s here and want to help preserve that as much as possible.
Kip Lohr:
I’m a native Oregonian. And I can tell you without any hesitation that the parts of culture that Californians in particular have brought with them, I very much appreciate, like our food here, I believe is better. We have better restaurants in Eugene and better restaurants in Bend than we would have. Otherwise, you know, it – you know, we’ve had to up our game a little bit, which I don’t think is a terrible thing. And the ethic – here’s the truth. One thing that is really an Oregonian thing is we love our state, we love our communities, we have deep passion for keeping the water clean, the air clean. You know, we want to have trees to look at; we don’t want to cut them all down. We want to find balance between responsibly removing timber and keeping the trees for us to enjoy when we’re out hiking and biking. And so, what I have found is people from out of area, whether it’s California or any other part of the country, they come to Oregon because of that, you know, and they share those values. So in a way, it’s kind of a natural selection, where people are attracted to Oregon who kind of have a similar ethic, I think, for the most part.
Cat Woodman:
Yeah. Certainly, I’ve seen that. And I hope that to be the case. And yeah, I mean, I think the food here is amazing. I think the Farmers Market is amazing. I think the people are really wonderful. And I haven’t been there, but somebody told me about it a restaurant or a store where everything has been made within 100 miles, something like that. It’s a restaurant. And I hear that. And that’s just both amazing and not at all surprising, because there’s so much of everything that’s being created here. I mean, and I grew up in Iowa. So you can get corn and soybeans and maybe some pork, and maybe, maybe some milk, but there’s not a lot of dairy there. And that’s kind of it, living in the Midwest. It’s surprising just how fruits and vegetables and produce out here are just such higher quality than what you get in the Midwest, which is supposed to be, you know, the breadbasket. It’s a whole different level here.
Kip Lohr:
Yummy food.
Cat Woodman:
Yeah, very yummy. It makes a difference?
Kip Lohr:
Well, you know, I think we’ve blabbed as much as we possibly can. Well, that’s not true. We probably blabbed as much as we need to for today. But I can’t thank you enough for giving me your time today and really kind of creating an interesting show from a couple of different angles. What I do want to come back around, circle-wise is just that I’d like to give you an opportunity to if you’d like plug Impact Investors one more time, and if there are folks who are interested in getting in touch with you, or somebody with your company, they need a financial advisor, they would like some advice and places to put their money, especially in kind of uncertain times. Would you like to give people a way to get ahold of you?
Cat Woodman:
Yeah, absolutely. So our website is theimpactinvestors.com. And you can go there and contact us through the website and get a gander at me and the team. There’s my business partner, Shane Johnston, and myself. You’ll see Catherine Woodman, because I’ve shortened my name as I’ve gotten older, but most of my clients know me as Catherine. So, okay. Yeah, any questions or anything that comes up, anyone can feel free to reach out and contact me.
Kip Lohr:
Yeah, this is a really good time to be actually talking to somebody who knows what they’re talking about. Because we are in a time of kind of some shifting ground underneath our feet. And I think this is becoming really on top of the mind for a lot of people – what’s the next thing I need to do to make sure that my family is in good shape financially over the long haul? So, again, thank you so much for joining the show. And we’ll probably do this again; there’s probably something else we’ll be able to talk about. We’ll catch you guys next week. Thanks. Well, you’ve heard this 1000 times before, but this is the Real Estate Revolution Podcast. I am Kip Lohr, your host with LOHR Real Estate. And it is time for a another installment of Kip’s Tips. This week’s tip is – Look before you leap. And this is a tip for folks who are looking to relocate from out of area to the Bend/Redmond or Eugene/Springfield markets, no matter where you’re coming from across the country or from other lands beyond our shores. The idea of looking before you leap is really talking about – this is a big decision that you’re making. And you can only read so much about your new projected hometown online. And it’s important to do a little bit deeper dive. And what we recommend is coming and visiting. Take a trip out. I know that sounds pretty straightforward, and kind of like no duh, but I can’t tell you the number of people that we have come to our area looking to purchase a home who have made the decision and they’ve never been here before. And so universally, I recommend that you take at least one trip out and get a tour from a qualified tour guide. And I just happen to know one, actually. So at LOHR Real Estate, we do a patented LOHR Real Estate area tour. Whether you’re looking at Bend/Redmond or Eugene/Springfield, we actually take a half day and just drive around neighborhoods based on a short interview with you to get a sense of, you know, what kind of vibe of neighborhood you’re looking for. And then we follow that half day tour up with getting into some properties in those neighborhoods that we’ve identified as prospects for you. And it’s a pretty unusual service. Most real estate companies don’t do this. And I can’t tell you the number of people that we’ve had come into town, do their own self guided tours, and be very skeptical about whether or not this is the community that they want to move into. And they have a completely different experience once they’ve rolled around town with us. So I highly recommend that you come in and have somebody guide you around town. You know, it’s even a better idea, especially with the low inventory that we have right now. Once you kind of decided that yeah, we really like the Eugene/Springfield area, we really like the Bend/Redmond area, we highly recommend that you relocate and rent temporarily. Usually it’s going to take a few months to get you into a home purchase anyway. And so it’s really a lot easier to purchase a home when you’re launching that search from living in the area. Which isn’t to say that it’s not possible. We’ve helped several people get into homes who don’t ultimately relocate here first, but I highly recommend, you know, relocating to the area and renting for a while. If you’re moving to the Bend/Redmond area and you have lived in San Diego all your life, or you’ve lived in Phoenix, Arizona all your life, then I highly recommend you come and live here for a year before you relocate. You know, our winters are not like the Midwest winters or the East Coast winters, but we do get cold in the winter in the Bend/Redmond area. So, I highly recommend folks who are kind of indigenous to warmer parts of the country, get three seasons – you know, at least the winter, the fall and winter seasons under your belt before you make a commitment to move into the area permanently. So there you have it – look before you leap, and appreciate everybody listening this week. We have a great show for you next week, but until then, we’ll see you next week.
Voiceover:
Thank you for joining the revolution. We are over and out until next week, when we’ll continue to fill you in on all that matters most in our local bend in Eugene real estate scenes. See you next time on The Real Estate Revolution.
Further reading
When Will the Housing Market Crash (and Housing Prices Drop) in Oregon?
Eugene Seller’s Agents: How to Know Who’s Best for You
The Ultimate Bend, Oregon Relocation Guide
Eugene Oregon Relocation: The Ultimate Guide
Best Places to Live in Oregon: Bend vs. Eugene
Tips for First-Time Home Buyers in Oregon
Looking to Retire in Bend, Oregon? Here’s What to Consider.
Looking to Retire in Eugene, Oregon? Here’s What to Consider.
Best Neighborhoods in Bend Oregon: Our Definitive List
Best Neighborhoods in Eugene Oregon: Our Definitive List