5. How We Got Here: Part 2

November 2021

Once our home sale was complete, we started looking for buildable lots. We had cash in the bank, and we were ready to make an offer. We got hooked up with our buyer’s agent which happened to be our seller agent’s daughter. Shoutout to Katy Ellis from the Gillott Home Team! Katy set us up with email notifications anytime a new property came on the market that fit our needs.

During the 1st month of our search, we inspected at least 6 different properties within a 30 mile radius… They were complete junk. One of the properties had unkept mobile homes all around, another site was in a wet and soggy field which required a specialized septic system, and another had someone’s driveway running right down the center of the building site. We were hopeful that the lack of good, vacant land was due to the slow winter real estate season.

December-February 2022

As the months went on, we continued getting notifications about a few properties coming onto the market. When interest piqued, Katy would reach out and get some information, and then we would hang our heads in frustration after finding some sort of issue with each piece of land. The clock was ticking, because if we were going to build in 2022, we needed to secure a property by spring in order to be dried-in before the heavy Oregon rain arrives late Fall.

March 2022

In early March, a 1.5 acre property popped up for sale. It was only 5 minutes from our rental house, so I jumped in the truck and drove over to check it out. Price was within our budget at $275K although slightly smaller than preferred. I called the county to verify that the lot was buildable and had all the appropriate approvals, then got to work on documents from the bank. The plan was to use a 2 year land loan (interest only payments) at 6.125% and then roll that into our construction loan a few months later. By 5pm that Friday, we had submitted our offer of $275K which was the asking price. On Saturday afternoon, we got the worst news… There were multiple offers on the table and we had 48 hours to come back with our best and final offer. This was our first real hope at finally having some dirt, so we talked about our strategy and decided to bump up the offer by 10K. We didn’t hear a peep for 4 whole days after re-submitting our offer. It was one of the most anxious times we have experienced in this whole process. Sadly, on the 4th day I received news that the seller had chosen another offer over ours. The reason why was not clear, but we all suspected that the other offer was all cash which wouldn’t require an appraisal. We were devastated.

6 months into the search with no luck, we thought it might be time to consider buying a home that was already built. It felt like giving up on the dream, but it was unclear if we would ever be successful in securing a piece of land. There weren't any prime buildable lots coming onto the market. And the few that fit our requirements were outside our budget.

April-June 2022

We looked at a few buildable lots and some existing single family homes. We made an $800K offer on an old farmhouse with an extra buildable tax lot and lost that deal to 1 of 10 other offers. More listings popped up but were falling short on major issues like no septic approval. We looked at an awesome house with great views, but needed too many repairs on the exterior to be worth asking price. Pass, pass, make offer & lose, pass, pass, etc.

In late June, a 4-lot subdivision was listed and the lots checked almost all of our boxes. 2.25 acres, beautiful views, septic approved, well installed, easy access to freeway, high speed internet, etc. Price was a little over our budget, but we were learning that our budget needed to be tweaked in order to align with the market. The only downsides were gravel access road, lower flow rate on the well, and the site was covered in poison oak (I am very allergic). Regardless, we decided to move forward and make a list price offer of $350K which was accepted. We later learned that part of the property was in a wetland area and would not be useable space. Also, the seller refused to pay for water testing which was a bit of a red flag.

July 2022

Talked with a potential builder who we had previously met about our project in Oct. 2021. He indicated that we were looking at about a $50K increase in the build price due to inflation.

In the middle of July, I got a Zillow notification for a new lot up for sale. I didn’t look at it because we were already under contract for another property and I was afraid I'd find something better. But when Ashley sent me the link a bit later that day, I had to open it up and take a look. This new site had a lot more to offer; better schools, no poison oak, septic/well included, and same price! We decided to make an offer on this new property and if accepted, we would dump the first one. As usual, nothing is easy… Got ourselves into another multiple offer/bidding war situation. Unfortunately, the price was already higher than we thought we could afford, so we had to stand strong. Ashley knew the seller’s agent so she reached out to indicate our desperate level of interest. I remember driving about an hour outside of Las Vegas on a work trip when I got the call that our offer was accepted, it was really hard to believe. I immediately called Ashley and we celebrated over the phone. We can’t know for sure, but it seems likely that Ashley’s contact with the agent is what sealed the deal for us.

August 2022

The property which we had under contract was in the middle of a partition process to separate from a larger property. We knew this going in, but didn't think it would be a problem, just that it would take time to finalize. That was fine with us because at this late in the summer, we wouldn't have started building right away anyhow. Offer was accepted mid July and then the waiting game began.

September-November 2022

3 months of waiting really sucked! Mid November we received the final plat drawings from the surveyor/county. I really wanted to do one last walk through of the property before we signed, just to make sure we were happy and the site hadn't been tampered with. I arrived 2 days later on a bright sunny morning and took off through the property in my mud boots. After 20 minutes of walking up and down the property lines, trying to envision our future home and how we would use the property, something didn't feel right. Ashley showed up and instantly spotted the problem. The proposed property line that we remembered from the first several visits in summer had moved down the hill by 30 feet.

This was very obvious after she pointed it out because the property owner had mowed the grass where the initial property lines were and the new lines were no longer in the mowed path.

After reviewing the drawings and talking with our agent, it was clear that the seller's surveyor had placed the final property line monuments in a different location in order to get the lot to exactly 2 acres. Somebody did not do their math correctly on the initial proposed staking.

It may not seem like a big deal, but for us it was huge. This change would have put our house down into a hole and totally lose the view which we were paying a premium for. I was also worried that the septic approval would no longer be valid because the house would encroach on the approved area. Ashley and I went back and forth several times, as heartbreaking as it was, we weren't willing to settle. I made the call to terminate the agreement and get our escrow money back.

I promise our story gets better in part 3!