Blog Review: Turner Team Portland Real Estate

By Stevie Duffin Updated on 12/16/2013

“Remember mixed tapes?  My ex-girlfriend from college made me one that included Barenaked Ladies ‘If I had a Million Dollars’ which include the lyrics, ‘If I had a million dollars / well, I’d buy you a house.”

So begins the May 20 entry Million Dollar Homes in Portland on PortlandRealEstateBlog.com, and it proves that yes – Portland is really as cool as everyone says.

Charles Turner and his wife, Jenny, head the Turner Team Inc. at Keller Williams Realty Professionals. Charles is the author of the team’s blog, and, thanks to what I’d guess is the world’s only real estate/ mixed tape reference, its resident badass. Just ask CNBC, who quoted him in their Portland profile for Top 10 Turnaround Towns 2013:

“[The double-digit jump in the average sale price] is frightening. Hopefully the market will settle down to an appreciation rate of around 5 percent. That should be sustainable.”

Turner is rather quotable where market updates are concerned – the principle discussions of his blog are RMLS trends and monthly Case-Shiller roundups. The reviews are on point, scannable and consistent, making the Portland Real Estate Blog a treat for any housing or finance fiends who want a quick and dirty market beat. And Turner does his absolute best to keep up, even apologizing for late entries,

“Bad blogger, bad blogger. When you realize your last post was March’s RMLS Market Action report and April’s came out two days ago it’s time to start typing. So here we go.”

How can you stay mad at him? You can’t. Plus the guy is busy. The Turner Team is made up of seven agents and extends from the Willamette Valley into Washington. Their reach goes a lot further, as evidenced by their “Neighborhoods” page (on which they awesomely refer to the listed communities as ‘hoods).

The Portland Real Estate Blog is not all market updates and ‘hoods. You can find plenty of shockingly useful advice. Charles Turner does not just provide home selling tips, and buying “Do’s and Don’t’s” – he reaches into a homeowner’s very soul and illuminates their innermost desires, as evidenced by his February 1 post:

Make Your In-Laws Sleep in the Yard. Build an ADU.

Yes – please tell us how to do that.

The blog is also highly visual; with every market update comes a graph, and every article a picture. Every so often you’ll catch a video - my favorite was an October 11 time lapse of the view from a listing in Kings Heights. It’s no big deal, you just see the rising of the full moon. The video is so convincing that I wanted to live on the property without ever having seen the house. Maybe I should have reviewed the Turner Team YouTube channel?

After spending time on the Portland Real Estate Blog, a few things become instantly clear: Charles Turner understands the market numbers, he knows Portland, and he’s dedicated to keeping the updates sharp, pictures interesting, and attitude just above the radar. I wholeheartedly recommend you pay it a visit - if not for the market updates, then the subtle in-law jokes:

“Under the ‘why did [they] do that?’ heading I think I would have to give the award to the in-law ‘bedroom’ next [to the] family living space with no separation.”

Rock on, Charles – rock on.

Visit the Portland Real Estate blog here.