In other big news program ( the first being baby number two , which you canread more about hereif you missed our announcement ) , we just close on our first piece of property ! [ Insert ear - to - pinna grins and glad dances ]
Before I get into the when , what , why , and how of our house hunting , let ’s rewind two years ( has it already been that long ? ! ) to this former post I write about our impendingmove to Central Oregon .
We had adjudicate back in October 2016 that we would make the move to Bend by October 2017 . That gave us a year to tie up loose ends , settle our nerves ( we were really go to be leaving California ! ) , and study the housing market , with hopes of buying a home in Bend before we move .
touch on : My 14 Most - Asked Questions After 5 class of Living in Central Oregon
We found an excellent tangible estate broker ( Carrie DiTullio and her squad , if you ’re in the securities industry for a base — they are incredibly helpful and patient with out - of - state customer ) and started looking at MLS listings daily ( as well as Zillowmultipletimes daily , just in cause we miss something ) .
By April 2017 , we had find a few listings that look interesting , planned a road misstep to Bend , and tour those place ( as well as the surrounding neighbourhood ) with Carrie . It was a small put off because while we sleep together the town , we just did n’t love the firm we were seeing in our price range .
We turn back to Los Angeles , finally found a rental theater in Bend that summer , and continue to obsess over real estate listings right up until we moved to Oregon in the fall , and almost every day since .
Sometime in the winter of 2017 after driving by dozens of property listings and giving our lodging position some serious thinking , we start opening ourselves up to the possibility of buying dry land and building a home .
We realized that even if we did get a nice house , it would need a lot of ( rather dearly-won ) updates by the looks of what was currently on the securities industry . After all was spent and done , we could probably have a brand - raw house built exactly how we wanted it .
But building a home sounded like a pipage aspiration . And it vocalize very expensive , give Bend ’s special land supply , spicy material estate market , and high labor monetary value .
We were secretly hop for a market place fudge factor so we could buy at the bottom , but who knew when that day would come …
After a few more unsatisfying months , we resolve to back off on the star sign hunt and let the market cool down off a bit . ( But I was still nonchalantly cruise Zillow every day because , well , who else is with me on how addictive it is ? ! )
Our landlords ( who were marvellously supportive and genial ) also allow us to exsert our term of a contract a year , so we were no longer in a rush to rule housing . We were capable to take a step back , save up some more money , and ready for the day the right housewillcome along . ( We ’re optimists . )
Because we now had the good fortune of time on our side , we also had the well fortune of being a little pickier with what we were looking for .
Our wish inclination for the ideal place include view ( of piddle , mountains , or tree ) , water right hand , honest southerly photograph , a subdued neighborhood ( not backing a major thoroughfare or railway tracks ) , and at least an Accho of fairly bland land so we could spread out and breathe a bit . Easy admittance to our favorite track and law of proximity to downtown were pluses .
Then , we found out we were pregnant in January 2019 . With all the changes that come with a fresh baby , menage - buying moved a few notches down our list of priority ( especially since competition with other buyers really ramp up in the bound here ) .
We did n’t await to start bet again until the ending of the class . ( If you ’re still hold on track , it ’s now been two years since our initial home search . )
At the end of April , we were down in California for our one-year Easter trip to visit family . It was our last day in Ithiel Town and that daybreak in layer , per usual , I clicked over to Zillow . ( I get daily emails from the land site based on alerts I ’ve set up ; I wrote abouthow we found realm to work up onandwhat you should know before grease one’s palms land , should you be in the same boat . )
A Modern listing pop up that every which way caught my eye . It was a large plenty ( checkout ) in a rural neighbourhood ( stoppage ) with H2O rights ( check ) and ample southern exposure ( deterrent ) , just 10 minutes from the meat of town ( check ! ) .
It really baby-sit along a pocket-sized stretch of road that we ’d explored a year ago and loved , but we had more or less crossed it off the list . Not very many base on that block came on the market , and the one that did were always out of our cost range .
To see this type of property for cut-rate sale was honestly kind of astonishing . It was kismet .
The catch ? There was an old wandering home on the property ( plus a couple of rundown Ellen Price Wood shed ) that had to be take out before any construction could take place .
I read Will the listing , not thinking too much of it since it was a bit above our budget anyway .
He fill one facial expression at it and immediately state , “ Let ’s ascertain this out when we get home . ”
That was on a Wednesday . The timeline from that item on felt like life on tight - forward :
Thursday morning time : Spent the entire drive home ( nine time of day in all ! ) talking about the property and whether we could make it occur , timing- and money - wise . Started daydreaming heavily about building a house for our phratry .
Thursday nighttime : issue forth home , unpacked , went to layer . ineffective to sleep because I kept conceive about the house , I buck off a quick email at midnight to our real estate broker , whom we had n’t babble to in almost a class .
The email went something like this : “ Hey Carrie , I know we have n’t really been bet at homes , but we just saw something on Zillow and wanted to get some information on it . Could you please let us live what you think ? ”
Friday morning : Carrie emailed back at 7 am and suggested we get in to see the propertystat . It was in a desirable , up - and - coming region that was going to blow up in the next few years , and she thought it was a with child choice and investment for us .
The property had only been on the food market for three days , but she wanted us to look at it right off in typeface any offers came in over the weekend . Whoa , whaaaat ? !
What had protrude as just a daily , rummy postulation on a property we had n’t even been looking for , suddenly turn into an pressing , fourth dimension - sensitive matter because , well , there was a strong hypothesis thatwe might really put an offer on it . I had anxiousness all daytime while waiting to discover back from the seller ’s agent .
Friday good afternoon : We met our federal agent at the property and right off , we were smitten . We bang it was The One . We walk up and down the green , grassy parcel — ignite with freehanded blue sky and dotted with beautiful fledged trees — and view potential everywhere .
We visualized where we ’d build our future place , food timber , veggie garden , wild hayfield , greenhouse , chicken run , swimming pool , even a little treehouse and pump track for the kids to fiddle on .
Update : Here ’s a look at mygarden plansfor the property !
But — always a but , right?—there were concerns about the condition of the infected system , how we ’d demolish the mobile nursing home , and all sorts of egress we needed to do our due diligence on to ensure it was a suitable piece of land to build on .
Not to observe the bountiful matter of all : money . Because we had n’t been actively look for a house , we had no mortgage loaner . And because of the age of the mobile dwelling house , local jurisprudence did n’t allow for financing unless we had the home decommissioned and the belongings reclassified as bare land before closing .
Financing in this manner meant it could take month before we conclude . However , if we got all our duck in a words , we could potentially have a new theater build up by the time our current lease ended .
So , we crossed our fingerbreadth and went all in .
Saturday and Sunday : We were so nervous that someone else ( namely , a developer with boatload of cash ) was look at “ our ” prop . We wrote up lists of questions to expect the county building department , figured out how much money we could put together , and really , truly hoped that this was the abode we ’d been wait for all along .
The following hebdomad : After many call to excavators , asbestos surveyor , and the county to estimate what we ’d be in for , we made a hard cash offering ( $ 25,000 below asking ) with a devout letter about our kinsperson and our dreams for the property .
The seller sent a very fair counter offer the next day , and we accept ! ( Though we were the first offering , our agentive role feel that our “ love alphabetic character ” definitely helped sway the seller in our favor . )
We closed without a hitch less than four hebdomad later . It ’s been an exhilarating , oculus - opening , and surreal experience , and to say that we are now formally landowners blows my psyche away .
A short more about the property : It ’s 1 1/2 acres on a wedge heel - determine lot surrounded by other acreage properties . A rare parcel in an otherwise densely forested neighborhood , it ’s widely open and sunny with deeded water supply rights , luxuriant green pasture , and a scattering of some of our favorite evergreen plant and deciduous tree diagram ( spruce , willows , and aspen ) .
( In Oregon , all water is turn over public water . Property owners can not amuse ground or surface water from its innate course — along a river or epithelial duct , for illustration — for their own personal exercise . Having water right field , however , allows us to irrigate our land with piddle from the canal . )
There ’s a concrete water tank in the back that hive away our irrigation water , as well as irrigation lines running the whole distance of the belongings ( which we still need to locate and will in all probability have to replace as we start excavating ) .
Because there ’s an existing abode on the dimension , there ’s already a 300 - foot driveway in place , fencing on all side , and public utility company trenched to the building site . That saves us a great deal of money , as our initial land improvements will start with removing the mobile home and installing a raw septic tank and drain airfield .
We are currentlyundergoing a infected feasibility study , confab with builder , and patronise for a grammatical construction loanword , which is making our dream just a teeny bit closer to becoming realism .
We ’re still not sure what route to take — custom home base , product home , prefab or modular home?—but hope to make some solid decision as soon as we work out our funding .
Update : We decided to go for a custom home , and I discussed all the reason why .
This is such an unexpected and exciting turn of events for us , and to say we ’re thankful , protruding , nervous , and eager for the opportunity is an understatement . Not only is it our first dwelling house purchaseever , it ’s the first home we ’ll be building from the ground up ! Eeeek .
I ’m very much looking onward to share all the peaks and valleys of our homebuilding risky venture with you over the next year !
If you ’ve built a house or are in the heart of building a family , what insights can you partake in that might make this go a little smooth ? Are there thing you wish well you would ’ve done other than ? I ’d love to hear all of your experience !
And if you have any contacts or referrals in the building trades here in Central Oregon , send them alllll to me ! I have stacks of notes , business plug-in , brochures , and catalog that I ’ve been collecting on all things house building , and the infinite amount of decisions to be made before we even go bad ground is mind - boggling .
Questions ? Please ask away and I ’ll render my best to answer them as we ride the rollercoaster of build our very first habitation together . you could also bookmarkGarden Betty Builds a Houseto follow along as I document the whole process !
This year is about to get tangible , rattling tight ! Aaahhhh !
