A Few Changes

It's been a while since my last post and I apologize for that. I guess I don't handle stress too well.

I had a great time looking at various properties while I was in Oregon but there were some things happening that kind of stressed me a bit. I think I mentioned that we didn't meet with the Oregon realtor until Tuesday. Originally I had contacted her a week earlier to let her know I was planning on coming up but that week "wasn't good" for her, so I postponed my trip until the following week.

When Vicki and I got up to my sister in law's house on Sunday I contacted the realtor and she said she wasn't able to meet us until Tuesday because she had some things to do on Monday. This was after she knew we were going to be there. Needless to say I was a little disappointed. But we didn't waste Monday. We went to Florence, did some shopping, had a little lunch, and took some time out to shoot a few photos.

On Tuesday we went to the realtor's office at 10 am and we went over my list of properties that I mentioned I wanted to see. I had mentioned that the list was incomplete because I had failed to make copies of some of the properties. When I tried to go back to make copies of some of the properties for my trip I discovered that the links were only good for 2 weeks and I didn't know at that time how to find them again. I'm not sure if the realtor missed this comment of mine or if she chose to ignore it or what, but we just went over what I had at the time.

We ended up splitting the properties into several groups, according to location, from furthest from the office to the closest, and one or two we were able to disregard altogether because the property had restrictions (like CC&R's) that I was not willing to deal with.

We took some time off at that point so she could look on the map at where the properties were and Vicki and I went to get some lunch. She was just about done when we got back and then she asked what kind of car I was driving, as she had a small Saturn.

I answered somewhat incredulously that I had a Hyundai Sonata, which is about the same size as her Saturn. That's about all I said because I wasn't going to offer to drive. I always thought that realtors are supposed to take you around in their vehicles, after all, that is what they get paid for. Am I wrong?

So anyway we piled into her car after she cleared some space from the seats. We had planned on seeing about five properties so off we went towards the first one. It was about 100 acres listed at $399,00, at the upper end of our price range. But I wanted to see it because it was a large property and perhaps there was something we could negotiate over since the home was about 90 years old!

Off we went and on and on we drove. Hmmm. Something didn't seem right so eventually we turned around and headed back. We saw the road we were supposed to turn on and went the right way. We found the drive but it was locked up with a chain and padlock. The realtor said she had called ahead but as of that point had not received a call back. The property was fairly wooded from that point in the road so we really couldn't see much. So that trip was pretty much a bust.

We headed off for the next property, about 80 acres with a mobile home. It was deja vu. We went too far, had to back track, and finally found the place. I find it amazing how the on-line pictures make a place look way better than it actually is in person. I guess that's what they are supposed to do though... that is, suck a person in? When we finally found that particular property we found it was a shared drive with about five other properties. There was a guy in a truck parked there and he didn't know the property we were looking for. He told us he was a renter and had just moved in about a month ago. In the dirt in the back of his truck was written "four more days until bow hunting opens". Oh boy.

Anyhow, the barn in the picture was really cool, but we couldn't even look in the mobile home as it was locked and somehow we couldn't get in. I couldn't see much of the rest of the property because it was very overgrown and there was no way to get through. I unfortunately left my machete at home (just kidding, but only just a little).

The next property we went to was a 91 acre property, long and thin. The realtor said she had called prior and had not received a call back by the time we got there. She tried once more and actually got a hold of the listing agent while we were in the driveway. He called the owner and we were able to have a real look-see finally.

Once again, the house showed much better in the photos than it did in real life. I have to say the house was ok, but nothing special. It was obvious that one or both owners were heavy smokers. If we ended up with this one then we'd have to replace the carpet and repaint the walls just to get rid of the awful cigarette smoke smell. The special was the property.

Since the listing agent was unable to be there the owner took Vicki and me out to explore the property. Our agent stayed at the house with the owner's wife. We piled into his four wheel drive truck and he took us across the year round creek behind the house to the main section of the property. (There was no bridge.)

Now that was a lot of fun! We went up a slight slope to a flat area , then again up a hill to a flat area and so on to the end of the property. According to the owner the property was approximately 1,000' wide and about 1 mile deep. It was about 1/2 fairly clear (some tall weeds and blackberries) and 1/2 densely forested. There was a spring and another small marshy area. The front part of the property was a flat approximate 10 acres with a couple of older outbuildings along with the house.

As we were coming back down the hill the owner told us he had one more thing to show us. He took us to a side portion and we got out and followed him into a grove of trees. He showed us some small headstones from a grave yard on the property. We could barely make out the dates: 1840! I thought that was the best part of the whole property.

At that point it was almost 7pm so we drove back to the office and made arrangements to meet the next day.

...more tomorrow...