We moved from Arizona to Oregon in 2006 and since then we have been renting a house trying to figure out if we really wanted to stay in Oregon or not. Well on April 11th 2011 that decision was made for us!! We have been renting on a monthly basis for about two years now, when our rental company called and told us the lady who's house we have been renting lost her job out of state and wants to move back into her house. They gave us 60 days to vacate.
Keep in mind it is spring, Sam and I work at high school which means graduation is coming up. For me especially this means complete madness!! So we decided we would not rent again (especially with two dogs) so that meant we would be buying a house instead. By April 15th we found a house and had an accepted offer, we close and move-in on May 26th. So needless to say we work FAST!!
Between April 11th and April 15th we looked at about 30 houses....a majority of which were short sales or foreclosures, most of these houses were stripped of their innards (including the copper wiring/piping in the bathrooms) and in need of repairs. Both Sam and I wanted a 'fixer-upper' but the requirement was that it was something we could live in and work as we had time and money. Our list of 'must haves': good location/schools, larger than a traditional 'starter home', fireplace, walk in master closet, 3 bedrooms/2 baths, and not a short sale....we needed to be in by June 16th at the LATEST (and did I mention our high school graduation is June 10th and the last day of school is June 16th??? So that means it's going to be CRAZY between now and then!!). Other than the small list of 'must haves' we had no idea what we were looking for in a house....we just figured once it felt right it would be right!!
We found a house at a bargain price which is in a GREAT neighborhood with great schools, and it more or less filled all our 'must haves'. Most of the homes in this neighborhood go for around $280,000 and we got our house for half that. It was originally a foreclosure but is now bank owned. It has been vacant since Oct 2010 so the bank was looking to move ASAP on this house.
