PDX Bound

Well, it finally happened. After 4+ months of looking for a house in the Portland area, we settled on a place. However, it wasn't completely cut-and-dry to how it all went down.

Early last week (July 17th, actually) we saw a house come on to the market that totally caught my eye. After doing some initial research, I called up Violet and told her I was ready to move in to this house. I think my actual words were, "I'm ready to put our house up on the market after seeing this house". That evening we drove by the house and immediately put a call in to our agent, asking to see the inside. Our agent informed us that there was already an offer on the house, but it was a "bumpable" offer. That means the people who put the offer in had a contingency clause stating that they would buy as soon as their house (in California) sold. She also told us that every past similar situation she had been involved with had ended in the 1st position buyer dropping the contingency and following thru with the purchase. If we were to put in an offer, we would be in 2nd position and the 1st position buyers would have 72 hours to respond. So, she said, "Don't get too attached to the house. It's unlikely you'll end up with it."

1:30pm the next day, we were able to walk around the house and see the inside. We fell in love. However, the price on the house was a bit outside of our "affordable" range. So, we sat on it for a few days to debate it all. That Friday (July 21st), we made the decision to put in an offer on the house.

This last weekend was tough. We had a funeral to go to and there was a lot of family in town. We were excited about the possibility of getting the house, but at the same time we didn't want to get our own hopes up for something so unlikely to happen. 72 hours later, the 1st position buyers defaulted and we moved in to first position. That was yesterday at 3pm.

So, what does that mean? It means we're moving to Portland. Finally. It means that we have a hell-ton of work to do before we put our house on the market and move. To make sure we don't end up carrying 2 mortgages for any length of time, we need to put our house on the market in about 3 weeks. We also need to come up with a wad of cash for earnest, down payment, and closing money. We're borrowing as much as we can from friends and family, and then we'll have to figure out a way to come up with the rest on our own. We're going to be hella busy for the next 3 months. It's scary and exciting.

Anyway, closing is in September. The house is in Laurelhurst. Hooray PDX! Oregon is the greatest. Biking to work is going to rule. Living in Portland is going to rule.