emb7 wrote: It dropped another $50K in price about 10 days ago but we missed it til last Thurs. Wanted to make an offer Fri but owners were out of town til Sunday.

Do you have a byuyer's agent? It doesn't sound like it (and if so maybe you need a different one!) A good buyer's agent would alert you to changes (like price drops) in the listings of the homes that you are interested in and can negotiate on your behalf with the sellers through their agent.

We do have a buyers agent but he didn't catch it either. We haven't run into too many proactive agents in our lives actually. We have always found our own places, as have most people we know. The agent seems to just help get in to see the property, then negotiate and handle inspection/closing setup.

We have been transfered around the country many times and I've had my heart set on homes before only to have something not work out. I too have had sellers feel insulted at a low offer ( I once had a home offer fall through because I made the offer contingent upon them cleaning the dog poo out of their dog run in the back yard -this insulted them). I had to evolve into the philosophy if it's meant to be it will happen. Keep your eye on the market, I've not been thrilled with buyer's agents as a whole, but then again, I probably just haven't found a good one. I have had realtors call me up and say "you know that property you're considering, there's an offer, do you want to make an offer on it?" This is their job, they want to get the commission. You have to be content with the idea that you didn't offer more than what made you comfortable. A house will come along, just be vigilant, know the market, pounce on it when you know it's the one, know how much you can afford and stick with it.

Thanks cordova. I'm new to the house buying process and am so upset we didn't get this house with the market so slow and everything else. But like you said, if it's meant to be it will happen. And we continue to learn with each try. I think the thought of spending Christmas in our crappy little rental is part of the bummer and stress. I totally thought we'd be settled in somewhere by now!

I was once in this predicament. I couldn't find anything decent for what I wanted to spend what I was in Florida so I got out of there. That would be my advice. Portland sounds like a really nice city but find somewhere you can find a decent home to live in.

I to live in a small apartment with my family, but I(we) decided to wait until after the holidays and start again after the new year....

I just hope the market is still slow and we can find a home that we really like.

Don't worry you'll find a home and before you know it-you had moved in and settle.

Just keep a close eye on the market, that's what I do...I check on the real estate close to every day.

Good Luck

What part of portland are looking in? We live there too. Keep looking-we went through the same things as you. Our realtor must have talked us OUT of 5 homes we thought we would make an offer on before we found ours. Trust there is that perfect house there for you. Good Luck!

Well at least you get to try the city and various locations before you commit. I wish I had done that where I live. Is this a buyers or sellers market? Where I am even in a normal market most sellers would grab 6% under but I am in the NE

The thing is that after several disappointments, it is easy to buy something that you settle for that isn't what you really want. We went through that a number of years ago.

Do you need to take a break? Or, find a new realtor? Both?

Have a nice Thanksgiving. Focus on something other than house-hunting for a bit. (Christmas, for instance!) Let your minds "settle" a little, then come back fresh.

I can't imagine seeing TWO HUNDRED houses -- whew! Your realtor can't be doing a good job of culling, showing that many.

I've just moved to the Portland area (arrived yesterday) and will also be looking for a house starting next week. We're in a rental apt for now but I'd like to be in a house by March 1 (DH birthday is March 8 and I want to celebrate in a house).

emb7, are you looking within Portland city limits? What price range? We'll be looking in the surrounding areas. I want a bigger lot and can't afford one in Portland. Our apt is in Clackamas and we'll look around here and also to the west in Beaverton and Hillsboro areas. I'd like to be close to a MAX train station.

Good luck with the hunt. We've been working with a realtor for over a year (we've visited Portland every summer for 9 years) and he took us to several houses last year and I've been watching the market via the internet.

"Do you think selling realtors are always honest when they say they have an offer? Do you think they proactively got it in and trumped us by telling them there was another offer out there?"

I can't answer the first part of that question because I think it would depend on the realtor. An agent may stretch the truth about an offer coming in, but if there's an offer on the table, there's no reason to lie.

However, as far as the second part of the question goes, it is the responsibility of the seller's agent to alert all those who have shown an interest in the house that there is an offer coming in and to tell any buyer's agent who may have clients who are on the fence now is the time to make their move. It's not unethical; it's part of their job!

You should tell your agent to tell the seller's agent to let you know in the event the deal falls through.

"Wanted to make an offer Fri but owners were out of town til Sunday. Made an offer Sunday afternoon, seller realtor was positive, called back 2 hrs later to say they had another offer coming in. "

Nearly the same thing happened to us except our offer was accepted on a Friday - sellers could not sign the offer until Sunday, and then magically another offer appeared - turned out they were showing the house through the weekend apparently advising everyone they "had an offer". We countered and offered higher, but to this day do not believe the sellers ever got our offer (which was 10K higher than they closed for and we were pre-approved with no contingencies and a flexible closing date). The person who got the house was the listing agent's customer. I would never ever make an offer on a Friday again... Grrr...
I get frustrated when agents send a house that looks nice on the MLS, but have no idea about the neighborhood, lot etc. Then I drive by and realize it is on a busy corner etc. Why don't some realtors scope out the market a little more for their customers?? Do most realtors have too many customers to service?

"...but to this day do not believe the sellers ever got our offer..."
In many states the seller will have to sign or at least initial a rejected or countered contract.
Hopefully all states adopt this procedure.

You all are great! Thanks! I am concerned about "settling" now so will be aware and try to keep that from happening. The house is still on MLS today?! I had our agent call them to see what's up and let them know we are still very interested and wish we could have gotten our heads around the last minute developments to change our offer-so please call us if anything about their current deal gets hinky! I realize it's a long shot but ya never know.

Minet, welcome to Portland! We visited several times too. Decided to see if one of us (no kids, just hubby and me) could get a job and wah-lah- we are here now and everything is going great except for this last house piece! We are looking in the city. We moved here from Chicago and still want some urban feel. Be able to walk to restaurants/pubs and jump on a bus. We are focusing on the east side between Division and Fremont but no further east than 60th. Many of the houses are small and the 2nd floor is the old attic so my tall husband hits his head on the ceilings!

Our original price range was $400-$450K but we are now considering up to $525K. The one we just lost was listed at $550K (it had originally listed in July for $675K)-it was in Laurelhurst and a good deal though a stretch for us obviously. Clackamas Co and Beaverton have newer nice homes, and better schools- you will hopefully find something easily.

What exactly are you looking for in a house? $400--$450k would be plenty to find a really nice place in the area you're looking in. I live off of Mississippi in North Portland and have another house in Alberta. Anyway, I love looking at real estate so I feel like I have a good sense of what places go for. I just can't imagine that finding a good size home, with vintage charm galore, within walking distance of restaurants, shops, et cetera for under $450k would be that much of a problem. Have you looked at the 97217 zip code at all? It covers an area right by the max and Denver Ave in Kenton is starting to pick up speed as a cute commercial destination.

Anyway, best of luck to you in your search! I'm sure something great will come your way :)

I'm sure someone has mentioned this, but if you've had to physically visit 200 houses then your agent isn't doing a good job. That is way too much stress on you!

We house-hunted for nine months while renting and were looking in two different states. Our agents would email us every listing that passed our minimum requirements on price, location and basic style. I'd go through them all, using Realtor.com and the selling agent websites, to find photos and get a handle on each house. Then I'd narrow from that, and let our agents know which houses we thought looked promising. They would then immediately preview each of those houses and report back. In a very short time, they knew exactly what we wanted.

This process helped keep our sanity - it's a whole lot easier looking at houses on the Web than spending hours visiting homes that don't fit your criteria.

By now, you know exactly what you want and so should your agent!

"By now, you know exactly what you want and so should your agent!"
That reminds me about showing homes in a sellers market a few years ago to someone who did not want to go above $145k, but kept wanting me to show homes up to $200k.
That lasted 2 days. I don't know if she ever bought.
Buyers who look at homes for 6 months are not motivated buyers in my book, I would establish a different preview regimen to save the buyers and my own time.

OP said--"Wanted to make an offer Fri but owners were out of town til Sunday. Made an offer Sunday afternoon."

A few people have hinted at this, and I hate to do this to another Realtor, but this is just plain laziness on the part of both agents. If you want to write an offer on Friday do so, even if the seller is out of town. I've worked with people living in other countries buying houses here. It wasn't easy, but faxes, computers, phones, etc are available in lots of places. Even if the sellers were going into a remote area of the mountains or something they could have been made aware of an incoming offer. (This kind of behavior is probably one of the reasons I see/hear so much Realtor bashing. It gives those of us that work at it a bad name. In defense of the agents though--if it's customary for both agents to be present when the offer is presented than it might be trickier with an out of town seller. Doesn't sound like that's the case though.

I do hope for your peace of mind something even better comes along soon.

hey y'all the Portland market is REALLY tight-even with this downturn, the market is still appreciating here. It really isn't a buyers market at all.

Our home has appreciated over 50% in just two years-it is just crazy.

There is an urban growth boundary here, which makes for some amazing and great neighborhoods, but houses and yards are pretty small-so it's tough to find that old charming house with 4 beds and 2 baths for sale at a decent price.

I am sure you will find and a great negihborhood and don't let the cranks here make you feel like you've looked at too many houses...this is your perogative.

Have you tried downtown Lake Oswego (1st addition)? It is close to downtown Portland and has everything at your fingertips. Alameda? Just some ideas- I am sure you have checked out all your options...and I wish you the best.

"Even if the sellers were going into a remote area of the mountains or something they could have been made aware of an incoming offer."
Good luck trying to contact a seller when hiking in the Rockies. Obviously where you live, cell phone contact is readily available, you don't know what remote means until you have lived here. We have towns where cell phone contact is non existent.

"Buyers who look at homes for 6 months are not motivated buyers in my book"

I obviously disagree. We have zero contingencys, zero debt, and cash ready to go down. We are stuck in a little rental with over half our stuff in storage. I hate not having a home. This market is very odd and it may have taken us a few months just to get a grip. So many homes have the second story built into the attic. My husband is 6'4" and I can't tell you how many times we see a fabulous main floor only to have him go upstairs and not be able to stand up straight anywhere but the middle of the room.
One house had the sink in a spot so if he stuck his head in the skylight he could wash his hands! Egad! :)

Do you and your spouses/partners agree on most housing issues? I got an apology from hubby last night because we lost the house. I wanted to go in at asking price or slightly over but even though he agreed the value was there, he wanted to hope our offer was the best (which as of Sunday evening their realtor said we were solid) and not get in a bidding war by trying to guess what the other buyer was doing.

Also, I don't think our realtor is lazy but maybe too passive. The selling realtor is actually the mother of one of the sellers and the seller herself has cancer and they were out of town for treatment over the weekend.

"don't let the cranks here make you feel like you've looked at too many houses...this is your perogative."

Excuse me? 200 homes *is* way too much. Either the realtor is not listening carefully or the client is having way too much fun and considers househunting entertainment.

I guess I just don't get why North of Fremont would be such a big deal. It's where the highest appreciation has been, it has some of the most interesting shops and restaurants, and there are beautiful houses available below $450k. If anyone is curious, go to rmls.com and enter the mls numbers below to seee some houses that would be in emb7's price range. Also, keep in mind that Portland is pretty compact so none of these houses are more than a mile or two from parameters that emb7 set--and some are much closer.

6094841

6098729

6076418

6098763

6100560

Two hundred houses may be too many for some people and not enough for others. To judge what is "the right number" for someone else is impertinent. As far as defining looking for six months as not being motivated, I disagree with that too. Putting a time and number constraint on finding the correct house could be likened to placing a round peg in a square hole. Sometimes what is available just does not fit. The buyer will know when they have found "the one".

Yeah, and then people say realtors get paid too much! lol, you couldn't pay me enough to show someone 200 houses! Do you have any idea how long it would take to show someone 200 houses? Rule of thumb is five houses per day limit. After five houses buyers get tired and stop absorbing what they are seeing.

We narrowed down the area so we could cut down on the houses we look at. We had seen very little N of Fremont that were decent. The Mississippi area is cool but we want more of a neighborhood feel with trees and neighbors who also upkeep their homes. Opticcurve, I appreciate the search you did and you're pretty close to my way of thinking with the ones you chose actually. I have seen all of these but one since I look online daily but feel free to offer suggestions because I know I miss stuff!
6094841 - cute house, only street parking, ceilings in upstairs too low (can kinda see it in the bathroom picture how you can't really get to the tub faucets

6098729 - very cute but no living room. You walk right into the foyer and that's considered the livign room (2 chairs maybe?)

6076418 no place to park (we'd prefer a garage but have learned that may not be realsitic but must have a driveway, not parking on the street forever)

6098763 hmmmm....I don't think I saw this since it's further N than my target area. May drive by and check it out

6100560 went into this one. Very small inside the way it's laid out. no yard at all really and right on Fremont (busy).

We need a 3 bed home with some type of closet space, 2 bath (will take 1.5), high ceilings, off street parking, basement, decent size kitchen (can be old and we will re-do), some type of yard, decent neighborhood. We'd like but realize it may not happen: a porch, hardwoods, fireplace and basement with potential to make into a tv room. :)

This is a good exercise for me actually-thanks!

We looked at FSBOs, open houses and, of course, the houses we needed a realtor to gain entry into. I'd venture to say many others do the same. Because someone looks (and I'm sure looks has many definitions - drive by did not enter, walked out after three minutes, returned twice, etc.) at a large amount of homes it does not mean a realtor went with them.

Well, since it's the holiday season you may have to wait until late January before you have many more options, but I know that you will end up with something great. Please keep us posted and let us all know when you find "the one".
Also, welcome to Portland. It's great to have more Midwesterners here--my husband's from Minneapolis. I'm from NYC and love Chicago. Portland's the best though, despite the current weather :)

I don't think that someone that looks for six months before buying a home is unmotivated. We looked for about 6 months before we bought our first home almost 30 years ago. We were in a very tight price bracket, with very few homes in our price range at that time in the area we wanted to live in. We didn't want to compromise. (this was way before Al Gore invented the internet so it wasn't as easy to follow the market), but we looked every weekend, open houses at first and then found a good realtor finally that apprised us when new homes entered the market and when our first home became available we knew it was the right one for us and we were ready to make the offer on the spot, and we did.

"Rule of thumb is five houses per day limit. After five houses buyers get tired and stop absorbing what they are seeing."

Really? Jerzeegirl, either you are underestimating buyers or I am way above average, because my brain can handle WAY more than five a day. The last time I relocated, I came in town for a brief househunting trip; I saw 20 houses in a variety of areas and price ranges in one day. Several of those could have been eliminated with drive-bys and honest pics, but that was impractical/unavailable for me. I knew a lot about the market after that single day trip, and the agent knew a lot about my tastes. I absorbed enough that four years later, I can still tell you a good bit about most or all of those houses.

Do you know what a rule of thumb is, quip?

Yes, jerzeegirl. Of course I'm basing my judgement upon my experience and the people with whom I associate, certainly not your clients. Still five seems really low to me.

I don't think anyone was saying 200 houses is too much (at least that's not what I was saying), it just seems like a lot of wasted time for the buyer. I know we would get frustrated by the number of "almost" houses that just weren't quite right and end up feeling like we'd never find a house. Seems like seeing house after house after house would get tough.

When we did look at houses, we'd do as many as possible on any given day (at least 6), and block them by locations to use time well. I think most people can walk in a house and know pretty quickly if it's a keeper or not.

I do think that going inside 200 houses (if that was done) is a lot in the modern era given web sites with lots of photos and virtual tours. That said, I don't think that looking for six months means someone is not motivated.

We looked casually (online...not at actually going in houses) for 6 months to get a feel for the market while we were getting our house ready to sell.

We listed in March and started looked at houses in person at that time. Over about 6 weeks I think we looked at about 4 houses (going inside) and drove by several others, and looked at many, many listings.

About that time, land came on the market where we looking. We had very particular "wants" and so decided to buy the land and build (in April).

We still kept an eye on the market, always remaining motivated if the right house came on the market.

Since we sold our house in July we looked in person at 5 houses. We seriously considered all of them. Made an offer on one (seller didn't respond and pulled house off market), entered into an option on another (cancelled due to deed restriction issues) and entered into contract on the last one. This was a near ideal house - we specifically wanted a guest house and this actually has a new guest house. We jumped on it as soon as a saw the listing which was less than a week after it went on the market. We close next week.

Wow, I have read several posts and everyone seems to have had a bada experience with real estate agents. I was the opposite. I have only had good, dare I say great, ones before becoming one myself. They were the reason I chose this path actually. Before this, I was a chemist working long hours with no contact to the outside world. I love being around people and real estate allows that.

I would like to apologize for others in my profession. When the housing boom happened, many "agents" got in only for the money. During thi time, all you had to be was there to get business. Now, it's slowing and the true agents will still be around after the others have left. I know how you feel about not getting houses. I have clients that just missed getting the first house they wanted. Then a second one came available that I knew they'd love, but they couldn't get off til after 4 and it was gone by then. We finally did get their home this time. It's definitely rewarding to be able to help someone get the home they want. I hope everything works out and you get the home you want as well.

Buyers who look at homes for 6 months are not motivated buyers in my book, I would establish a different preview regimen to save the buyers and my own time.

We looked not-seriously from March until June. We looked SERIOUSLY after that until we signed a contract to buld about 10 days ago.

A few things happened. One is that we learned we couldn't have what we wanted and changed what we would have accepted. The other is that with the current market, people who don't have to sell yet are waiting--nothing new has come on the market in the last few months here. I was looking daily on-line and our agent was looking for us--we were hoping to have purchased and moved before school started. Nothing new was coming up--even up to another $200k over our price limit.

We had some non-negotiables that made it hard to find a house. We need 5 functioning bedrooms (one could be in the basement), a kitchen at least as nice as the one I was leaving, a basement, at least a 3 car garage and we didn't want to change middle school districts. DH wanted a newer house since he didn't want to spend every spare moment doing home improvement.

We increased our price range. We increased it again. I was looking at houses that were *double* our initial plan--still didn't find something 'perfect'--and at double our price range, we didn't want to have to finish the basement, replace the floors, re-do the kitchen, add on a garage or anything else in the $10k plus range.

Out of curiosity, after we raised our budget and relaxed some of our earlier wants, I went back and looked at the flyers of houses we'd looked at earlier--and still wouldn't have bought them.

We might have done better if we'd been seriously looking May and June, but we were too busy planning our wedding to househunt :-) But 6 months didn't mean we weren't serious--it meant we were *particular* (or fussy, if you prefer). Up until the day we signed the contract to build, we'd have bought a pre-existing one if we could have found one.

--Beth

emb7 -
Have you thought about building your next home? It's hard house hunting, epecially if it's not your first home because you want to move up and when you see all the other homes they might just be off in the little things and they put you off in a big way because you are spending more money.

Maybe you should just start looking at land and get in contact with a builder. Or if that's not for you, find a great location with a cheap house and think about remodeling? Prices in Portland are going up so maybe it's time to think outside the box. I would be wary of going above your price range though because no home is so perfect it should ruin you if things come up.

Thanks! Miac, I agree-if we go to high and head towards the "house poor" category what happens if (when) we do have to fix things? I am going looking again tomorrow, we are considering expanding the area of our search.I guess we are picky too so are trying to be more flexible. Not really any undeveloped lots in the city but there are fixer uppers. Hubby works from home so having a huge construction project is a concern. We would consider a kitchen/bath remodel but that's really about it. I know holidays are tough for new listings, do you think people will list in January or wait til further into Spring? I hope some good ones come up soon!

Don't let anyone get you down. If the right house isn't out there yet, it will be eventually. The fact that you've made a couple of offers shows that you're serious about buying.

We went 6 months and 200 houses also before buying. Believe me, there was nothing fun about it as we were homeless at the time and camping out at a relatives house over 100 miles away. We were motivated, but at the same time knew this house was one we would probably live in for a long haul. Thank goodness we waited for the right house as houses ended up tripling in value over a 4 year time span- we could never have afforded to upgrade our living arrangements after a couple of years. Settling on what was available would have come back to bite us.

Some people said nasty things about our realtor and that we needed to exchange her for someone else, but we realized it really had more to do with our looking for the long term but not knowing exactly what we could live with in a house. There were houses DH loved that I wouldn't even consider and vice versa. We had to find the house that suited everyone's needs, and we eventually did- the weekend after they lowered the price into our range on this one.

We too had put in an offer on another house and lost it to a slightly higher offer, I was heartbroken and cried over it, but then after we found this house that had more to offer for less money, I am so glad we did not get the other. It all works out in the end somehow. Don't settle if you plan to stay in this house for a good long time. The right house is out there somewhere and will turn up for you when the time is right.

Good luck, I know it's tough to wait it out.

When DH and I were shopping for our first home in 2001 we probably looked at about 75-100 houses within a few months. However, it wasn't with one agent, since it wasn't in one area. We looked in Long Island, Queens, Westchester, and finally No New Jersey before finding the house we wanted in Bloomfield, NJ. But we had three different realtors - one for each area (actually, we didn't have ANY realtor in Westchester when we looked there).

If I was a realtor I'd certainly get sick and tired of taking a client around to so many houses, but that's why I'm not a Realtor. =)

Now that I've actually moved here to the Portland, Oregon area we've begun to get more serious about working with our realtor. We've been working with him on a casual, long-distance basis for over a year (we were in SoCal before).

I don't want to waste his time on showing me houses that I can tell from the outside won't work. On the internet they all look good, but often I can tell just from actually seeing the exterior of a house in person that the neighborhood isn't right, or the street is too busy, or the backyard is too small, or whatever. So for the houses I really want to see, he'll take us inside. On others he'll email the MLS fact sheet and I can go look at the house outside and then decide if I want a closer look with him.

Yesterday DH and I looked at the inside of 3 houses with our realtor and then looked at about 5 or 6 others just from the outside. One of them I think we want to look at inside but the others we can tell we're not interested in.

One we saw inside yesterday was disappointing ... looked so nice on the web ... but just wasn't right as a total package, when we saw it in real life. We'll look again this weekend, in a different area. We're trying to look at them in groups that are close together geographically.

Minet-welcome to Portland, glad you survived the crazy snow! Everyone else, thanks for the good thoughts. It does really help to know about other housing close calls and realize the right one is out there!
It is good to look geographically to compare apples to apples. That said, in Oregon we have found that if you just drive by many houses that look pretty small from the curb are actually much bigger inside. I look hard at square footage (above grade, they include unfinished basements in most totals), any recent upgrades (roof, furnace, water heater, etc). While curb appeal is nice, the inside and the neighborhood itself is more important to us.
We are totally looking for long term so again, we may seem picky but are being very realistic and are very motivated. I hope some new homes get listed during this holiday season!!

Well I got more info on the last house we bid on and lost that crushed me. I called the selling realtor because the sign is still up as "for Sale" with no pending or sold notice (those tend to go on pretty quick here in Portalnd OR). Turns out she was on vacation and will put the sold sign up on Tuesday. It was a full price cash offer closing right away so they didn't have to think twice or worry about financing. We only had 23% to put down so I guess we lost to deeper pockets. Somehow I can find solace in that we lost it that way vs. being oh so close.

Is anyone expecting much to list in December? I am thinking no one wants buyers walking through during the holidays but maybe serious sellers will still list. I so want to buy something so have to be careful about settling!!

emb7 wrote: Is anyone expecting much to list in December?

We're listing our house (for the second go round) probably week after next. It's been off the market for over a month and we're in the process of doing more improvements, updates, etc. It's vacant so we don't have to deal with showings over the holidays. I keep hearing from various sources that things have picked up here (NoVA) in the past few weeks. A woman my H works with just sold her home for 1.1 mil (down from 1.2 mil) after 9 mos on the market--an all cash deal too.

So I am cautiously optimistic....

Minet-
You are so right about the web photos! I'm actually impressed how well sellers and their agents can frame & angle photos just right to make the homes look fabulous as depicted in their glossy fliers or fancy websites. After seeing the inside of some of these homes, I actually cracked up because the difference was so absurd.
For me, web shopping was discouraging when I realized that too often, those photos bore no resemblance to reality.
Lsa A.