ON THE HUNT - house / retirement community hunting in Portland

Day 1 - Thursday
Awake at 3:15 AM to catch our flight. Land in Portland at 10:30 AM and house hunt until sunset. Pick a place for dinner that has WiFi so we can continue the online house hunt. Get to bed after being up for 20 hours.

Day 2 - Friday
Robert had a meeting in the morning. After the meeting he rejoins Jenny and Jim for a day of scheduled house showings and driving around searching for For Sale signs. Tour a small bungalow in the midst of being renovated top to bottom. Robert is willing to overlook the electric wall heaters in the upstairs and the lack of air conditioning because the rest of the house is completely redone. We strongly consider making an making an offer. After our realtor’s expert counsel on renovations being done, we are rightfully persuaded away from this one. Heads hung low, we are back on the hunt. While Robert is at his afternoon meeting, Jenny identifies one that could be “thee one.” The view from the back deck is wonderful. The lot is 2/3 of an acre and already has city zoning approval to be platted into three house lots. It seems we could easily $$sell$$ the adjacent land (our realtor is surprised this land remains undeveloped). This could be a great $opportunity.$ The house needs some work, but it cute. A spiral staircase leads to the upstairs master suite (previously the attic). Jenny shows Robert around the house, and as the sun is setting, we decide to make an offer. We head to dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Multnomah Village and we discuss the house well into the night. Robert has a spiral staircase revelation – how do we get furniture up the master suite? Does the spiral staircase need to be removed? Yikes. HHhhhmmm (the air hangs heavy with concern).

Day 3 - Saturday
We meet Jim at his office at 7AM to put together an offer and to contemplate the architectural challenges of spiral staircases. Jim shows us the tax records which explain the incredibly low taxes. It turns out that the city is unaware of the significant addition / renovations – translation – all this work was done without a permit. Concern hangs real heavy in the air. We decide to nix the offer. We are back on the hunt! (#%$*#)(&@%$$)
Jim – How about the Northeast? Robert and Jenny – let’s do it. Wow, sections of the Northeast are great. A beautiful house that has been completely renovated has just gone on the market. A few minutes before it opens for an open house, we stop in for a tour. WOW! It is phenomenal! We think this HAS to be thee one. We love the house 100% and we would not change a thing. Jim needs to tend to some other business, so we proceed conduct thorough due diligence on the neighborhood. After spending 9 hours in the neighborhood touring the streets, visiting the local grocery store and coffee shop, talking to people, and researching crime statistics (yikes), we return to the house for one more exterior look and walk around. This ain’t gonna work. Back on the hunt.

Day 4 – Sunday
Kick off the day with Internet surfing for new listings and touring more homes. We find two houses we are interested in, and they are in a great section of town (no crime statistic research needed). One of the houses is a stylish 1929 English cottage with a lot of character and the other is completely renovated 1950s ranch. At first we weren’t even planning to tour the 50s ranch, but after seeing the inside we decide to make an offer. Jim heads to his office and we head to lunch at Alameda Brewhouse. A couple cell phone calls later we decide on the details of our offer and learn that a relocation company is managing the sale of the house (this is bad). The relo company had received an offer last Wednesday, but nothing was in writing yet. We decide to bid above asking price in hopes that that he relo company may reconsider. Fingers crossed (based on Jim’s past experience dealing with this relo company, his is not confident). Did we mention there is a 3rd offer? Yes, the Portland real estate market is quite active. We conclude the day by running through various scenarios in our minds. After all, there is another house we are seriously interested in, but it is in stark contrast to the house for which we are bidding. Robert decides to extend his trip and fly back with Jenny on Wednesday.

Day 5 – Monday
Robert drives to Tigard to meet one of his contacts for breakfast. After some online house hunting in the AM, Robert and Jenny reconvene for some sightseeing/house hunting in the Terwilliger area (on the mountain - the views are unbelievable) the search for a retirement community for Nanie begins! Cathy Hume with A Place for Mom has scheduled 3 tours. Cathy is great, and we complete all three tours and we are now better educated on potential options. Jenny and I take a drive to scout out a community in the Northeast that is on tomorrow’s tour schedule. It looks like it has potential and is close to where we would like to live. We head to meet two nice people (a resident and fellow from OHSU) for an outstanding dinner at Farm Café.

Day 6 – Tuesday
With our offer in a state of limbo, we head put in a load of wash at the Holiday Inn Express and we head out to meet Cathy Hume at a retirement home in Milwaukee. Driving through Milwaukee convinces us that we have NO interest in touring this community. We meet Cathy Hume in the parking lot and without even going in the front door, get back in the car to head to The Courtyard Plaza in the Northeast (the community we stopped by yesterday). We tour the independent living and assisted care sections of the property. Everyone is very nice and seems to be active and happy. After we tour the apartment of a colorful retired veteran, Herbert Herbert, we decide that his property is a great fit. We are excited and we reserve a 1-bedroom (while getting on the waiting list for a 2-bedroom unit)! Back on the hunt.

Bad news from Jim – even though our offer is higher, the seller and relo company decide to honor their verbal agreement. ^#%#$*^%*#$*(% If you are keeping score, we are 0 for 3. HHhhhmmm. We drive by a couple more potential houses and schedule a 2nd tour of the 1929 green stucco English cottage. After walking around the green stucco house and talking with the neighbor (who has tow Dachshunds), we head to lunch at a bakery on Fremont St. After lunch we meet Jim at the green stucco house. We are 95% confident this is the one, but we follow Jim to a couple other houses. After touring these houses we are confident we should make an offer on the green stucco house. Did we mention that the sellers had just reduced the price last night? :) We write the offer and head to Mio Sushi for dinner. You're not going to believe this, but stick with us….remember the neighbor with the two Dachshunds? We run into her at the sushi restaurant!!! This restaurant is NO WHERE NEAR the house. There are over 500K people within Portland’s city limits. VERY WEIRD. We get an 11PM call from Jim – the sellers would like to accept our offer, but we wrestle with agreeing on a closing date. Jim offers to do his bets to explain the situation to the sellers and get them to accept our offer.

Day 7 – Wednesday
We catch an early morning flight home, connecting in Newark. Since our offer expires at 10AM we know Jim will hear from the sellers while we are in the air. Upon landing at Newark there is a voicemail from Jim – our offer has been accepted (with two conditions)!!! Jenny persuades the people at Continental’s Presidents Club to let us in the Club so we can use the fax machine. The fax takes 45 minutes to receive and costs $36! We sign it and head to the currency exchange office to use their fax to send (the fax in the Presidents Club does not send)! Tick, tick, tick….our departure time nears. The woman can’t get the fax to transmit to the first fax number. Robert calls the sellers agent to tell her and get an alternate number. The fax FINALLY transmits. We call back the seller’s agent, pay our $37 fax fee, and run full speed through the terminal to catch our flight. Jenny almost passes out on the way and Robert is sufficiently winded, dripping sweat, and frustrated as hell at the theatrics of the entire week. The fax transmission is confirmed, we call Jim, and we make our flight. Just another day. Barring any unforeseen inspection issues, our new house is pictured above !!!

Day 8 - Thursday
Robert returns to school and Jenny picks up the pooches from the kennel. In the afternoon Jenny sorts out logistics of the move with the moving company and Robert works with our lender to lock-in a rate. We are now officially underway!