Back in 2015 I helped one of my very favorite people Tiana purchase a home in Cully on a large lot with her then wife. Back then, the market was competitive, but not so competitive that a buyer with only a small down payment couldn’t get a house on the first offer they wrote. Two and a half years ago life circumstances changed and Tiana and her ex-wife broke up and I helped them sell the house. At that time in late 2019, the market had pretty much flat-lined, and when we sold that house, it did take a few weeks to go pending. Ever since then, Tiana has talked about getting back in the market to buy another home.

And then in January of this year, Tiana and her now partner Mallory hit the “go” button and were ready to start shopping. Which is pretty much exactly the same time everyone else in Portland decided they needed to buy a house. Within only 5% down and not having the ability to make up a gap in case the appraised value came in lower then the purchase price, Tiana got caught in theloop of writing offer after offer after offer. Each offer she wrote was easily $25k-$60k over asking, and every single time, she was either outbid or someone else had better terms. And then on the 7th try, we found a home in Brentwood Darlington that was perfect in just about every way. It was super cute, mid-century ranch  with 3 bedrooms, a large kitchen, sunny windows and a huge yard. And like every other house she wrote on, this one also had multiple offers. But this time, Tiana’s lender, the one and only Jennifer Leon at Umpqua Bank who I work with all the time, happened to also be chummy with the listing agent. Jennifer called the listing agent and expounded on just how wonderful a person Tiana is, and how much both Jennifer and myself have invested in seeing Tiana become a homeowner. And it worked!!! The sellers decided to sell to Tiana even though there was a couple of offers that were higher and presumably had better terms.

The inspection turned up a few issues that need addressing, and because of the multiple offers the sellers were understandably not willing to give my buyer a credit or do any repairs, but all of the issues are fixable. And then the piece we had all been dreading came to pass. The house appraised for $27k under purchase price. Big ouch. Tiana did have some funds to make up a tiny portion of the difference, but not enough to even get close to the purchase price. We submitted a reconsideration of value and the appraiser did come up a bit, so between what the appraiser came up with and the small amount of additional down payment Tiana was able to bring in, the sellers agreed to sell to Tiana at a price still under the agreed upon purchase price.

When the listing agent let Tiana, myself and Jennifer know that the sellers were ok moving forward at the lower price, all three of us were in tears. Happy tears. And all was well in the world at that moment.