diff --git a/livetree.c b/livetree.c
index f46a098..ad118c5 100644
--- a/livetree.c
+++ b/livetree.c
@@ -616,10 +616,25 @@ struct node *get_node_by_ref(struct node *tree, const char *ref)
 	return target;
 }
 
+static void add_phandle_property(struct node *node,
+				 char *name, int format)
+{
+	struct data d;
+
+	if (!(phandle_format & format))
+		return;
+	if (get_property(node, name))
+		return;
+
+	d = data_add_marker(empty_data, TYPE_UINT32, NULL);
+	d = data_append_cell(d, node->phandle);
+
+	add_property(node, build_property(name, d, NULL));
+}
+
 cell_t get_node_phandle(struct node *root, struct node *node)
 {
 	static cell_t phandle = 1; /* FIXME: ick, static local */
-	struct data d = empty_data;
 
 	if (phandle_is_valid(node->phandle))
 		return node->phandle;
@@ -629,16 +644,8 @@ cell_t get_node_phandle(struct node *root, struct node *node)
 
 	node->phandle = phandle;
 
-	d = data_add_marker(d, TYPE_UINT32, NULL);
-	d = data_append_cell(d, phandle);
-
-	if (!get_property(node, "linux,phandle")
-	    && (phandle_format & PHANDLE_LEGACY))
-		add_property(node, build_property("linux,phandle", d, NULL));
-
-	if (!get_property(node, "phandle")
-	    && (phandle_format & PHANDLE_EPAPR))
-		add_property(node, build_property("phandle", d, NULL));
+	add_phandle_property(node, "linux,phandle", PHANDLE_LEGACY);
+	add_phandle_property(node, "phandle", PHANDLE_EPAPR);
 
 	/* If the node *does* have a phandle property, we must
 	 * be dealing with a self-referencing phandle, which will be