3 BR 3 BA condo in PDX

What I love about it? 3 BR 3 BA so there’s enough room for a bedroom and two offices, one serving as a guestroom if we ever have guests again.

It’s all on one level, with elevator access, which is great for aging in place.

We looked at it when it was for sale before, but weren’t ready to spend that much money. It looked completely different at the time, lots of color, and overstuffed with art. Currently the all white leaves me cold. And still not ready to spend that much money.

Also, it’s on a main drag (but 6th floor with view is great). The city is currently having a crisis with houselessness and lawlessness. So living in our little neighborhood feels safer. We can still get up and down the stairs, for now.

The HOA dues on that Portland condo....

We keep looking at ranch homes in our area with an eye to the future when stairs might not be a good idea. Still haven't seen anything that would prompt us to move.

And there's always a stair lift.

quote:

Originally posted by wtg:
The HOA dues on that Portland condo....

Hopefully, one of the amenities it would cover is the defibrillator paddles I would need every month when I paid my HOA fees.

Doug,

quote:

lots of color, and overstuffed with art. Currently the all white leaves me cold

Adagio, I agree, it's very cold as is.

I've gotten into the habit of looking at those NYTs real estate articles (the titles are usually either "on the market in region X" or something like "what you can buy for X amount." Almost always the photos are highly staged, and almost always there's amazing artwork and very hip decor etc.

It's funny what a huge difference artwork makes.

quote:

Originally posted by AdagioM:
3 BR 3 BA condo in PDX

What I love about it? 3 BR 3 BA so there’s enough room for a bedroom and two offices, one serving as a guestroom if we ever have guests again.

It’s all on one level, with elevator access, which is great for aging in place.

We looked at it when it was for sale before, but weren’t ready to spend that much money. It looked completely different at the time, lots of color, and overstuffed with art. Currently the all white leaves me cold. And still not ready to spend that much money.

Also, it’s on a main drag (but 6th floor with view is great). The city is currently having a crisis with houselessness and lawlessness. So living in our little neighborhood feels safer. We can still get up and down the stairs, for now.

Screw the HOA. It's a block away from my favorite wine shop!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Doug:

quote:

Originally posted by wtg:
The HOA dues on that Portland condo....

Hopefully, one of the amenities it would cover is the defibrillator paddles I would need every month when I paid my HOA fees.

Whatever you do, don't look at the property taxes...

quote:

Originally posted by wtg:
The HOA dues on that Portland condo....

We keep looking at ranch homes in our area with an eye to the future when stairs might not be a good idea. Still haven't seen anything that would prompt us to move.

And there's always a stair lift.

I don’t think we can have a stair lift in our current house; the staircase is narrow and steep because they were originally attic stairs.

I’ll add all my other comments here, too:

The HOA fee didn’t make me blink, my MIL’s condo in St. Louis has similar fees. Although they have a doorman, and this building does not.

The taxes! They went up since the last time the property was on the market; I think it was $13k before. I think it can go up drastically with each sale.

Mik, come buy wine! I think we’re thinking of the same place; nice people running that shop.

The one thing I’m leery about with condos: Special assessments. If something needs to get fixed, and it’s unexpected, boom! I think they had a $10k special assessment this past year. At least with my house I can decide what’s going to get fixed, and in what way, and shop for my price.

Mr. AM doesn’t want to live in a ranch house. He wants a building. Or to just stay where we are. Our house is paid for, and it has 3 BR/2.5 BA. Kids have moved out, and we both have home offices.

I'm also leery of condos.

There are extraordinary circumstances that may necessitate a special assessment but it seems that they are often just a result of bad planning.

It's all about good management and financial practices, and HOA boards often don't know what they're doing and neither do the property management companies they hire.

Those HOA fees are one of the main reasons we're unlikely to buy anything in Portland. It's insane to me that we could potentially buy a condo outright yet still have monthly bills approaching or in some cases exceeding our current mortgage. And for what? A concierge to receive my Amazon orders and dry cleaning? I don't get it.

Yep, taxes are crazy high.

That said, I don't particularly like this house, but the backstory intrigues me:

https://www.redfin.com/OR/Lake...-97035/home/25827391

The story on this one: It's down the street from us, we are good friends with the previous owner. They sold this place in early October, 'as is,' to a flipper, for less than what they paid for it 10 years earlier. I've been in the house a lot, and it wasn't noticeably falling down or anything. The flippers sold it for almost a million dollars more than they bought it for!!

To be fair, their renovations look pretty solid, but I'm having a hard time thinking that any reno they did (including big ticket items like repiping, roofing, etc.) was more than a few hundred thou. They made out like bandits! On the additional plus side, it certainly improved our property values!

quote:

Originally posted by Nina:
Those HOA fees are one of the main reasons we're unlikely to buy anything in Portland. It's insane to me that we could potentially buy a condo outright yet still have monthly bills approaching or in some cases exceeding our current mortgage. And for what? A concierge to receive my Amazon orders and dry cleaning? I don't get it.

Yep, taxes are crazy high.

That said, I don't particularly like this house, but the backstory intrigues me:

https://www.redfin.com/OR/Lake...-97035/home/25827391

The story on this one: It's down the street from us, we are good friends with the previous owner. They sold this place in early October, 'as is,' to a flipper, for less than what they paid for it 10 years earlier. I've been in the house a lot, and it wasn't noticeably falling down or anything. The flippers sold it for almost a million dollars more than they bought it for!!

To be fair, their renovations look pretty solid, but I'm having a hard time thinking that any reno they did (including big ticket items like repiping, roofing, etc.) was more than a few hundred thou. They made out like bandits! On the additional plus side, it certainly improved our property values!

Does the spectacular sunset (or sunrise?) happen every day? For that money, I want it all!

quote:

Originally posted by CHAS:
I like to look, but I don't want to leave my place.
Many factors will compel me to leave, but it will not be easy.

We are just looking!!! Look away!

quote:

Originally posted by CHAS:
I like to look, but I don't want to leave my place.
Many factors will compel me to leave, but it will not be easy.

chas, tell us more about where you live now. what do you love so much about it? and what will compel you to leave?

Here's a house we looked at today in Missoula.

It is half the size of the house we are in now. The lot is 1/3 of what we had at our old Missoula house. But. It is the neighborhood we've always wanted to live in there.

Mr. Pique said he likes the look of it, so I asked our agent to send us the docs on it.

She did, but she also said the house has had back to back showings for two days, offers are due by 5 pm tomorrow, and they already have three offers. Which means it will go way over asking.

So at dinner tonight I asked Mr. Pique if he wants to live in Missoula badly enough that he'd be happy to live in a significantly less nice place than what we have now. He said, no, he wants a nice old farm house on 25 acres (we've seen a bunch of these in Virginia for what we'd have to spend on this place, and quite a few in the Berkshires with less land than that, but still plenty of acreage--and a stream).

So sucks when the rest of the world discovers your happy place. About the only consolation is that we are in the same market and probably have more equity in this house we are in now than what we paid for it four years ago (with 5% down). So maybe we can still find something nicer in Missoula. Will get a market analysis on our current house.

I just don't know if I can leave the West.

https://www.zillow.com/homedet...-59802/3142476_zpid/

Just today my late (of COVID) neighbor's home closed after a flipper held it for 11 months.

We attended the open house with the family and were horrified..all the old charm stripped, horrible bad DYI quality finishes (vinyl floor strips don't meet the trim? Mold for all to see..daylight can be seen in door frames..UGH).

I dare anyone to hang a hanger in any of the closets. Space was stolen from them and no rods installed...You cannot hang anything in them now.

Sold today for full price of $595K (should have been much closer to to $400)..buyer financed 100% plus closing costs...

Oh..and landscaping not included!!

You can see this lovely old gem as it was in the movie "The Tender Bar" on Prime..the mailbox scene is filmed in front of it..(And my little house in the background across the street!).

Dick's Family Home

Here's a house i just love the looks of in the Berkshires

https://www.zillow.com/homedet...01257/56815752_zpid/