Being a citizen of Portland is not a matter of where you are from, it is a mindset you bring with you.
I’m here to give you one man’s opinion:
Everyone wants to close the gate once they’re in, but more and more fine folks are moving to Portland. I, for one, am a transplant from Seattle. I moved here following my heart and have made it my home.
Whatever your reason for coming to Portland, I want to make you feel welcome. I, of course, work with a whole bunch of people moving to our area. Some have stayed because it felt right, some have left because the perception was different than the reality. Some leave again for work, some leave because of the long grey winters. I do want to say that Portland is not just one thing. There are many little cities hidden within the whole and I hope that people, families, friends, humans, dogs, cats and pet fish all are welcomed and can find their perfect niche to call home.
I’ve heard it said that our transplants from the south (ie: California) often try to get rid of the license plate as quickly as they can. But in reality, this is a city of transplants, just don’t be a jerk 😉
My buyer Clayton was referred to me by some of my favorite past clients ever, so I knew he was going to be great to work with. His ideal home would be in North Portland where he has lived for a long time as a renter, and would have the space and bedroom count to be able to comfortably rent out a room or two to roommates. He lost out on 2 houses, but they were not the best houses for him anyway. And when a great 4 bedroom house (2 beds on the main floor and 2 beds upstairs) came on the market he went to the open house and met the listing agent who was super impressed by how kind Clayton is and how through of a job he did looking at the house (he even went into the crawl space!). He loved the house and we wrote up an offer, and thanks to his letter and the listing agent explaining to her seller how awesome Clayton is, the seller wanted to sell to Clayton, but with another offer on the table that was over $100,000 over list price, the seller went with the crazy high offer.
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Sarah and Craig were referred to me by a dear longtime client. They just had a baby and were ready to buy a house to settle into and raise their kid in. When we first spoke this past spring, they had not yet spoken with a lender and didn’t really have an idea of how much they could qualify for. I gave them some names of great lenders I work with including the Portland Housing Center. After meeting with Portland Housing Center’s loan officer, they found out they qualified for a $15k grant if they bought something in the City of Portland, so that sealed the deal for them on which lender to use.
I couldn’t be more excited for my very dear longtime clients Emily and Ben. They outgrew their vintage cream puff bungalow in Foster Powell that I helped them purchase 7 years ago, and despite the horrors of the current market, they were able to sell their very much loved home and get under contract and close on an even better and bigger house that hit nearly every single one of their check-list items before they have to be out of their bungalow.
Congratulations to my buyer Brooke on beating out 10 other offers to snag this perfect home in the Richmond neighborhood. Brooke found me because her sister’s kids attend the same school as my kids in SE Portland, and they were looking for an agent familiar with the area. Brooke is from Seattle and recently went through a divorce and sold her longtime home in Seattle with the intention of moving to Portland to be closer to her sister. Brooke has a daughter that has some disabilities and is mobility challenged, so the home she knew she wanted to purchase would ideally be near her sister, and have the right set-up for her daughter to be able to get around on the ground floor, and have a flat backyard. We spent a good 2+ months on the hunt, which meant nearly every weekend for 2 months Brooke drove down to Portland from Seattle to check out houses. She wrote offers on 3 homes and while it was brutal to go through rejection after rejection, in the end it was all good because like most buyers, the best house was the last house we saw and she wrote on.
My buyer Alison got in touch with me over 3 years ago after she was referred to me by her close friends, who are old clients of mine. Alison thought she wanted to purchase a condo at a complex in the Brooklyn neighborhood because she had a friend who lived there, and the idea of easy maintenance seemed appealing to her at the time. For what turned out to be a blessing in disguise, none of those units came on the market while she was looking. She then decided to go to grad school and put her house hunt on hold while she went through school and figured out the next phase of her life.
Back in November of 2018, Kelley and Satomi were referred to my by one of the lenders I work with. They had just been given notice that they needed to be out of their rental home soon, and they were in a bit of a pickle. I met them for coffee and I think within 48 hours later they had an offer accepted on a skinny house over in Mill Park. When they bought that house, they were using the Oregon Bond, and they were literally the last buyers to lock in a low rate- within an hour or two of the lender locking them, the Oregon Bond rate went up enough so they would not have been able to afford to purchase the home. They loved their home, but when their daughter was accepted into a magnet school in Portland Public Schools, they decided they needed to move to a house within PPS district, so we started planning to get their home ready to list.
Back in 2015 I helped one of my very favorite people Tiana purchase a home in Cully on a large lot with her then wife. Back then, the market was competitive, but not so competitive that a buyer with only a small down payment couldn’t get a house on the first offer they wrote. Two and a half years ago life circumstances changed and Tiana and her ex-wife broke up and I helped them sell the house. At that time in late 2019, the market had pretty much flat-lined, and when we sold that house, it did take a few weeks to go pending. Ever since then, Tiana has talked about getting back in the market to buy another home.
This cocktail ready 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom mid-century in St. Johns was listed at $470,000. After 4 days on the market my sellers received 5 above asking offers all with great terms, and the home just sold for $575,000.
Some friends of mine purchased their first home, a sturdy 1910 bungalow right off Alberta street nearly 20 years ago. Seven years ago and 2 kids later, they outgrew their Alberta house and I helped them purchase a larger home in NE where they still live. They loved their Alberta house, and even though they had moved out, they weren’t ready to part ways, so they held onto it as a rental. They have had a great run of tenants and their current tenant has been there for over a year. My sellers have talked about selling the house over the years, but were also quite happy to keep it as a rental. And then almost on a whim, my sellers purchased a dream property on the Washington side of the Gorge as a vacation property. They weren’t sure they really wanted to own 3 homes, and with the market as on fire as it is, now seemed like a great time to consider selling their rental.
(maybe less than excited about that but they’re still cute), and HOLY JEEZ POSSUMS Y’ALL. I’ve got the possum sweats y’all. I’m ready to be their queen in my castle AND CREATE A KINGDOM. Bring it.”
Dave used to live across the street from me until about 2 or 3 years ago (who can keep track of time these days?) when he and his partner divorced and he moved into an apartment a few blocks away. His oldest kid and my oldest kid have been besties since before they could walk or talk, and it was Dave and his 2 kids who we had our last out of our family bubble non-socially distanced get together with on March 14th, 2020 at my older son’s 10th birthday party. When we parted ways that day, we didn’t know when we would be able to get together again in such a carefree way because the following day we all went under lockdown. And nearly a whole entire year later, we are still waiting for that day.
Who doesn’t love getting an email from new buyers letting you know they want to work with you because you could be their dream agent. And that’s exactly what my buyers Liz and Alex wrote to me when they first got in touch. After we had a Zoom meeting, I could tell they were going to be dream buyers. Liz and Alex were looking for a home where they could start a family, live as close-in as possible on the east side, and wanted vintage charm out the wazoo.
My clients Elizabeth and Tom contacted me in early October. They were getting all their ducks in a row to start the home buying process within the first 6 months of 2021. After we spoke, Elizabeth got in touch with a great lender and it was after she spoke with the lender that they realized they were actually a lot closer to making home ownership a reality then they had anticipated. Once pre-approved, they realized that with rates below 3%, buying a home sooner then later to take advantage of the low low low rates was within their reach. Besides staying within their budget, location was the most important feature, and they knew they wanted to be as close-in as possible, preferably west of 82nd and within walking distance of places you would want to walk to and near transit so once the pandemic ends Elizabeth could easily get downtown to her job at Mercy Corps.
My clients Laura and Umar contacted me in mid-October because they had just been approved to purchase a home at 
About 5 years ago I helped my clients Tim and Elizabeth purchase their first home in the Cully neighborhood. It was an older home on a nice sized lot with a lot of old house quirks. Earlier this year in the year (though it feels like it was 10 years ago) they contacted me because a new co-housing development was about to break ground right in the heart of the Cully neighborhood called Cully Green. Built by Orange Splot, who is well known for their green building, use of whimsical features and lots of real wood in their buildings, Cully Green is a community of 23 homes- 22 newly built townhomes and 1 home from the 1920’s that is original to the space. Tim and Elizabeth heard about this new community and had gone to a couple of meetings to learn more, and realized this was going to be exactly the kind of community that they wanted to be a part of. Featuring a community building, gardens, and even a sauna- some of the highlights of physical features of living in a co-housing situation along with the opportunity to build a new community from the ground up was super appealing to them. The buildings in the development are built around several courtyards with large covered front porches designed to invite neighbors to pull up a chair and chat. We wrote up an offer on a yet to be built unit in early March,and at the time we wrote up the offer, the expected completion date was around January/February of 2021.
A little over 4 years ago a most fabulous lady named Claire contacted me to help her purchase her first home. At the time, she was working for a non-profit and while she didn’t have a lot of funds or a high paying job, she did have fierce determination to buy a home. It took a while, and included several grants and first time home buyer programs, but she wound up purchasing the most adorable condo ever that I was listing. My seller on the condo had purchased the condo a couple of years before, and then met the love of her life and they sold the condo to buy a bigger home. Claire wound up buying the condo after a break-up with a former partner. Fast forward 3 years and Claire contacted me again because she had met the love of her life Timothy. Claire had moved out of the condo into a larger apartment with Timothy, and she was ready to sell the condo. I listed the condo and within a couple of weeks got a great offer and a month later she closed on the condo and that chapter of her life. Timothy is a veteran and eligible for a VA loan. I hooked them up with Jennifer Leon over at Umpqua who is fabulous with VA loans and they got pre-approved for a nice sized loan. Off we went to go look at good sized detached houses with 3 and 4 bedrooms in great parts of town.
Five years ago I helped my clients purchase this great 3-bedroom home in Cully at 6001 NE Milton St.. Earlier this year my clients contacted me because they love the Cully neighborhood and were super intrigued by a new co-housing development being built by Orange Splot, called Cully Green. After doing their research they decided that they wanted to sell their home and buy a new home at Cully Green. And then the pandemic happened. But thankfully by the time they were ready to sell their home, we had figured out all the protocols for handling sales. We listed the home, got a great offer, and they just closed on selling this one. Next week- on to buying the new house in Cully Green!
Houses with the sunburst pattern in the siding over the front porch are special and this Irvington home with the sunniest of siding is no exception. My buyers recently moved up to Portland to be closer to family and after a couple of months of looking for the ONE, they found it here. Because it’s a special house, of course it had 3 great offers. My buyers were the first to write on the house, and when it came time for the sellers to choose which offer they would accept, thankfully being first offer in was a big point in our column. Congratulations to my buyers on getting the first and only house they wrote on!
I helped my buyers Brooke-Lynn and Ivan sell their classic mid-century in Rose City Park back in March. They loved their old 2 bed 1 bath home, but were ready for something bigger and in closer-in NE Portland. When they sold their home they had multiple offers and were able to get a buyer who gave them 2 months of rent-back. Once late May came around, they still had not secured their next dream home, so off they went to stay at friends houses, then AirBnB’s.