Team Green PDX gets cozy with several Portland residents about home buying. Our second interviewee is Lisa Bush, MBA, a Human Services Specialist III with the State of Oregon. Lisa currently owns in the beautiful Scappoose-ish area and has a passion for social justice and poochies (she even fosters pups in need of homes!).
Q: What is appealing to you about owning your own place?
A: My last landlord was horrible and the place was a dive. I made it a cute dive but it was a dive none-the-less. When they evicted me so the landlord’s mother could move in I felt powerless. What I wanted was a place to call my own that no one could pull the rug out from under. It gave me a sense of security.
Q: What is scary about it?
A: Lots of things. Since I bought it the value has dropped and may never get back up to where it was and the upkeep is expensive and never ending. That being said I wouldn’t trade it for renting again.
Q: What is your ultimate dream home?
A: Log cabin prow fronted A-frame in the woods overlooking a lake, river or the beach.
Q: What did you buy for your first house? (Photos please!)
A: I bought a tidy little three bedroom ranch on the typical 5,000 square foot city lot. It wasn’t what it looked like that appealed to me, it was what I could see it would look like when I was done with it. I replaced all the windows, removed a sliding glass door and put in wooden French doors, ripped up the carpets to reveal the hardwood floors, replaced kitchen flooring and painted the entire interior.
My second and present home was a totally different process. I wanted out of the city and looked at every available property from Linton to Deer Island. Then one look at my corner lot, up against the forest, totally finished house was all it took. When I walked in the front door, the living/kitchen/dining room were all open and looked out through 9 feet of windows onto the back deck. The only thing I did to make it mine was paint the kitchen/dining room avocado instead of school bus yellow.
Q: Do you feel adequately educated on the process or were you at the time?
A: I had been a mortgage loan officer in the past so I was fully aware of the process. The first time there were realtors involved and the second was a “for sale by owner.” Both processes have their place in the giant scheme of things.
Q: Advice on renting/ buying for your lil’ brothers and sisters (those coming up behind you)?
A: Make a list of your must haves, would like to haves, and absolutely cannot have and then enlist all of your resources (friends, realtors, internet searches) to make sure you see everything there is to chose from.
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| One of Lisa's ADORABLE foster kids (sorry, he has already been adopted folks!) |
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