OR Real Estate cheat sheet

Freehold estates: fee simple absolute (indefinite, inheritable), fee simple defeasible (ends on a stated event), and life estate (measured by a named life, leaving a reversion or remainder).

Tenancy in common gives each co-owner an undivided, inheritable, non-survivorship share; joint tenancy requires unity of time, title, interest, and possession and carries survivorship.

Easements are appurtenant (benefit a dominant parcel) or in gross (benefit a person); they arise by express grant, implication, necessity, or prescription and terminate by merger, release, or abandonment.

Encumbrances include liens (mortgage, tax, mechanic's), easements, CC&Rs, licenses, and encroachments; they burden title but do not necessarily prevent transfer.

Government powers over land are police power (zoning, building codes), eminent domain (condemnation with just compensation), taxation, and escheat.

A variance relieves hardship created by the ordinance, a conditional use permit authorizes a listed special use, and a nonconforming use may continue but generally cannot be expanded.

Oregon's land use program rests on 19 statewide planning goals administered by DLCD; cities adopt comprehensive plans and urban growth boundaries.

Oregon preserves resource land through exclusive farm use (EFU) and forest zoning, where dwellings and partitions are sharply limited.

Land measurement: 1 acre = 43,560 square feet; 1 section = 640 acres = 1 square mile; a township contains 36 sections.

Fiduciary duties owed a client are loyalty, obedience to lawful instructions, disclosure, confidentiality, accounting, and reasonable care and skill.

Agency is created by express agreement, implication from conduct, ratification of an unauthorized act, or estoppel; Oregon requires agency agreements to be written.

A client has an agency relationship and receives fiduciary duties; a customer receives honesty, fair dealing, and disclosure of known material facts but no fiduciary duty.

In disclosed limited agency one brokerage represents both sides; Oregon requires informed written consent and bars the broker from advocating for one party over the other.

Confidential information gained in the agency relationship generally remains protected after termination, while the duties of loyalty and obedience end with the agency.

A principal broker supervises affiliated licensees and is accountable for their acts within the scope of the brokerage's business.

Compensation is fixed by the agency agreement, not by fiduciary status; a broker may earn a commission by producing a ready, willing, and able buyer.

An undisclosed dual agent breaches loyalty and risks loss of compensation and license discipline; disclosure and consent cure the conflict, silence does not.

Valid contract elements are offer, acceptance, consideration, capacity, and lawful purpose; an unqualified acceptance of the exact terms shows mutual assent.

The statute of frauds requires real estate sale contracts, leases longer than one year, and agency agreements to be written and signed by the party to be charged.

A counteroffer terminates the original offer; revocation is effective on receipt, while acceptance of a bilateral offer is typically effective on dispatch.

Earnest money is not required for validity but evidences intent; a liquidated damages clause lets the seller keep it only if the sum is a reasonable forecast, not a penalty.

Contingencies (financing, inspection, appraisal, sale of the buyer's home) condition performance; failure of a contingency permits cancellation without breach.

Remedies for breach include compensatory damages, specific performance of a land sale, rescission, and liquidated damages; the nonbreaching party must mitigate.

The parol evidence rule excludes prior or contemporaneous oral statements that contradict a fully integrated written agreement.

Assignment transfers rights and delegates duties, novation substitutes a new party and extinguishes the old obligation, and delegation alone does not release the original obligor.

Loan-to-value = loan amount / lower of price or appraised value; down payment = 1 - LTV; private mortgage insurance is generally required above 80% LTV.

One discount point equals 1% of the loan amount and is prepaid interest that buys down the note rate.

Monthly payment on a fully amortizing loan: M = P x i / (1 - (1 + i)^-n), where i is the monthly rate and n is the number of payments.

Typical underwriting ratios are 28/36 for conventional loans and 31/43 for FHA, with total debt ratios commonly capped near 43-50%.

RESPA requires the Closing Disclosure at least three business days before closing, limits escrow cushions, and prohibits referral kickbacks and unearned fees.

TILA and Regulation Z require APR disclosure and give a three-business-day right of rescission on refinances of a principal residence.

Loan programs: conventional (conforming limits), FHA (low down payment plus mortgage insurance premium), VA (eligible veterans, funding fee), USDA (rural).

Oregon deeds of trust permit nonjudicial foreclosure by trustee's sale, while mortgages are foreclosed judicially.

Market value assumes a willing buyer and seller, both informed and not under duress, with reasonable exposure to the market.

The sales comparison approach is preferred for owner-occupied housing, the cost approach for new or special-purpose property, and the income approach for income-producing property.

Adjust the comparable to the subject: subtract when the comparable is superior, add when it is inferior, and never adjust the subject.

Cost approach: value = replacement or reproduction cost - depreciation + land value.

Depreciation takes three forms: physical deterioration, functional obsolescence, and external (economic) obsolescence.

Income approach: value = net operating income / capitalization rate; NOI is gross income less vacancy and operating expenses, before debt service and income tax.

Highest and best use must be legally permissible, physically possible, financially feasible, and maximally productive.

A CMA or broker price opinion is a price opinion used for listing or lending support, not a USPAP appraisal; Oregon separately licenses and certifies appraisers.

A valid deed needs a competent grantor, a named grantee, words of conveyance, a legal description, stated consideration, the grantor's signature, and delivery with acceptance.

A general warranty deed warrants against all title defects, including acts of prior owners; a special warranty deed covers only the grantor's own period of ownership.

A bargain and sale deed carries no warranties beyond the grantor's interest, and a quitclaim deed conveys whatever interest the grantor holds with no covenants.

Recording with the county clerk gives constructive notice; a later purchaser with notice takes subject to the recorded interest.

Title insurance protects against covered defects: an owner's policy protects the buyer and a lender's policy protects only the loan balance.

Adverse possession in Oregon requires actual, open, notorious, exclusive, continuous, and hostile possession for 10 years.

Closing includes prorations of taxes, rent, and interest, payoff of existing liens, delivery of the deed, and recording; the Closing Disclosure itemizes final costs.

A cloud on title is cured by a quitclaim deed, release, or quiet title action; marketable title is title a reasonable buyer would accept.

Gross lease: landlord pays operating expenses; net lease: tenant pays some expenses; triple net lease: tenant pays taxes, insurance, and maintenance.

Percentage lease rent equals a base rent plus a percentage of the tenant's gross sales, common in retail centers.

Oregon's Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (ORS Chapter 90) governs most residential tenancies and implies a warranty of habitability.

Oregon landlords must account for and return a security deposit within 31 days after the tenancy ends, with an itemized statement of deductions.

Oregon requires at least 24 hours' written notice before non-emergency entry, at reasonable times.

Oregon caps rent increases for many residential tenancies in buildings at least 15 years old and requires advance written notice of increases.

A 10-day notice is used for nonpayment of rent, and a judicial eviction (FED) follows if the tenant does not cure.

Commercial leases commonly include CAM charges, estoppel certificates, subordination, and attornment clauses.

Federal Fair Housing Act protected classes are race, color, religion, sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity), national origin, familial status, and disability.

Oregon adds marital status, source of income, and gender identity to its fair housing protections, and local ordinances may add more.

Prohibited practices include refusing to sell or rent, offering different terms, discriminatory advertising, steering, blockbusting, and redlining.

A reasonable accommodation changes rules or services for a disability; a reasonable modification is a physical alteration, generally at the tenant's expense.

Service animals are not pets; a landlord may not charge pet rent or a pet deposit for a required service animal.

Federal exemptions include owner-occupied buildings of four or fewer units, single-family rentals without a broker and without discriminatory advertising, religious organizations, and private clubs; Oregon's exemptions are narrower.

RESPA Section 8 prohibits fees for referral of settlement service business, and antitrust law prohibits price fixing, group boycotts, and market allocation.

Advertising should display the equal housing opportunity logotype and must not express a preference based on a protected class.

The Oregon Real Estate Agency administers ORS Chapter 696 and OAR Chapter 863 and is advised by a seven-member Real Estate Board.

Oregon license types are principal broker, broker, and property manager; the salesperson license was eliminated and brokers work under a principal broker.

Broker applicants complete 150 hours of approved pre-license education, pass the state exam, and submit fingerprints for a background check.

Licensees renew every two years and complete 30 hours of continuing education per cycle, including required fair housing education.

At first substantive contact a broker must give the consumer the OREA Initial Agency Disclosure Pamphlet and explain the agency options.

Disclosed limited agency requires the informed written consent of all parties and limits the broker's duty of loyalty and confidentiality between them.

Oregon's Seller's Property Disclosure Statement (ORS 105.464) covers residential property of up to four units; a buyer who receives it late may revoke within the statutory period.

Measure 5 limits Oregon property tax rates and Measure 50 caps assessed value growth at 3% per year; Oregon has no state real estate transfer tax.

Commission = sale price x rate; net to seller = price - commission - loan payoff - seller closing costs - prorated items.

LTV = loan / value; down payment = price - loan; equity = current value - loan balance.

Proration: taxes are usually prorated on a 365-day year and rent on actual days in the month; the seller is charged for days the buyer owns.

Cap rate relationships: value = NOI / rate; NOI = value x rate; rate = NOI / value.

Gross rent multiplier = price / gross rent; value = GRM x gross rent.

Property tax = assessed value x (mill rate / 1,000); one mill is $1 of tax per $1,000 of assessed value.

Percentage change = (new value - old value) / old value; area conversions use 1 acre = 43,560 square feet.

Total interest on a fixed-rate loan = monthly payment x number of payments - original principal.