Our house sold.

Four days after we put in on the market.

While we were in Nebraska, saying goodbye to Grandma one last time. (Side note: there is no better use of both time and money than being with family when it’s time to say goodbye. Thanks, Dad, for making it possible.)

Before I even got to share it on Facebook, asking my friends if they wanted to buy my house.

We got a full-price offer.

Ashley said that one of her coworkers had a similar situation. They listed their house for X, got a full-price offer within 24 hours, thought that maybe they’d priced the house too low, rejected that offer, then let their house sit on the market for a few weeks before lowering the price.

We… didn’t do that.

We listed our house at $499,000 (which, for those of you reading this from outside the metro area, is, yes, holy smokes a lot of money for this little house), and the offer we got had a letter included with it, that was basically written by us two years ago.

They’re a young couple, used to live in a condo in the neighborhood, now live in a different spot, but have always wanted to come back.

We’re in the inspection process, now, and it’s clear we made the right choice.

It’s different selling a house to a couple.

When we sold our old house a couple years ago to get back to Sellwood, we sold to an investment company who wanted to squeeze us for every last penny they could. They went back and forth on everything, asked for the moon, and made us (Brent) miserable in the meantime.

Companies forget that there are people involved in these transactions.

We’d nearly forgotten, too… we steeled ourselves for the inspection. Waited for Andi to call us and tell us, “Hey, so the buyers want this 105+ year old house to basically be a brand new house and it’s not so you have a lot of work to do.”

The call, when it came, was more like, “they’d like a couple things fixed, but they’re happy to take credit so they can do the repairs after they’ve moved in, and they’d like a home warranty that you can just buy.”

She paused.

We paused.

“That’s it?” we asked.

“That’s it,” she replied.

The buyers are psyched to get into Sellwood, and they don’t want to wait. They’re working with a lender that moves very quickly, so we’re moving on April 19.

Which is almost a short enough window to count on my fingers and toes!

We’re making the most out of our remaining time here, though.

How we’re making the most of our last few weeks in Portland

• We saw Hamilton. It was every bit as good as you’ve heard, and the only thing I can recall in recent memory that has lived up to (nay, exceeded) the hype. Listen to the soundtrack if you can’t go.
• We had brunch at Expatriate on Hamilton day. It’s a bar, so no kids allowed.
• Separately, I had brunch at Screen Door with Amy. That’s a restaurant with a two-hour waiting line on the weekends. We went on a Wednesday.
• We had an amazing lunch at Afuri.
• We’re doing our very best to hang out with as many of our friends as possible. I’m having lunch with Monica at Pok Pok, Brent’s having dinner with Tony at Han Oak, we’re hopefully going to go to Kachka when my family comes to town so we can use our extremely generous gift certificate Mary and Eric bought us… I’m happy to say we’re going to leave after having our fill.
• We’re going to sell or donate as much of our furniture that no longer serves us as we possibly can. The movers charge by the pound, so only necessary items are coming with us.
• Work is taking a backseat for now, because work will always be there, but I won’t always be in Portland.

Anyone want to come over for some creamed corn and chipotles in adobo?