Cross Country move to PDX, ADVICE, PLEASE?! (Portland, Gresham: real estate, apartments)

[BeBe Blazfemi]

Hi, I'm new to this forum and thought I'd find some helpful info here, and have, but I still have things to ask. Sorry in advance for how long this will be....

My husband and I are moving to Portland at the end of August. We're driving cross-country in an RV- us, and our six cats! (I'm sure it'll be on youtube. )

We've checked out various neighborhood info and he had a trip, (only a day and a half,) out there in March or April and knows we'll really like it, but we've got some "special" circumstances...

For one thing, we have 6 cats. This has never been a problem before, not even when we were still fostering at the old place we lived and had 9 at one point. (We didn't PLAN on having 6, either, it just happened that some of the fosters just seemed so happy with us, and a couple had been abused, that we couldn't bear making them move again.)
We've lived in 5 places, (apts.or rented condo units,) with the six we have now and have had no trouble despite that most of the leases had a two cat limit. I've got them very well trained, and am with them all day since I no longer work, (a long story,) so there's never any litterbox problems since not only is it electric self-scooping, but I scoop in between and we clean it daily.

What I want to know is are there some areas or maybe specific buildings that are MORE pet friendly than others? I've seen a couple that mention "compatibility screening," (what the heck is THAT,anyway?!) like The Essex, so those places are automatically out. We have good references and have always gotten our pet deposits back.

Anyway, so we're hoping to get a place in Downtown, with hardwood, (or at least, non-carpeted,) floors, we'd also like to have a place on a floor higher than the third floor with a balcony-they love this, and the size of the unit isn't as important, (as you might think with this many cats, they sleep most of the time and as long as they have a good view, that's all they care about!) as the LAYOUT, because it needs to have some area where the litter box can be out of site, like a laundry room or utility room in which it will fit. The latter is where it is in our 605 sq ft. unit in which we currently live.

I have noticed what seems like a trend where the older, restored "vintage" apts. seem to be MORE picky about pets than do the brand new condo/apt. buildings, and frankly, we'd prefer a new building- that way, we wouldn't have any of our cats getting a whiff of a former cat-resident's "accidents," which they can still smell no matter WHAT people do- it will remain in the floor boards or cement, etc....unless they used what I found to be the ONE thing that works- a necessity that came about while we still were fostering cats, which is- septic tank enzymes! More specifically, one called "Zep" that is a blue liquid, but there are other kinds as well, and in powder form- I use that in the container that our electric box scoops into and it cuts the smell until it's full and we empty it, and it starts biodegrading the "deposits" they leave, too!

So as far as neighborhoods, I really want to live in Downtown in a high rise- haven't lived above the 3rd floor anywhere yet, and even though I live in a much bigger city now, we live in the oldest part of it, right near the Delaware River, (I also still want to be close to the river, but I don't HAVE to have as close a view of it as I have here,) where nearly all of the buildings are 300 or so year old walk-ups, mixed with have a dozen or so new condo high rises, which is what my building is, but I have a view of a parking lot and the side of a building and the river if I look in that direction...
I want a VIEW of the busy streets and other tall buildings and the tops of trees and in a perfect world, of either Mt. Hood or Mt. St. Helens!

Basically,
1- Size doesn't matter, well, not TOO much smaller than 600 sq ft.- we could live in 500 sq feet, maybe smaller as long as it has an area to hide the litter box, even a big bathroom.
2- Downtown, 1st choice, above the 3rd floor
3- A view, not of the neighboring building's wall, but of the streets, trees, other tall buildings, and/or the river, etc., though preferably facing east-ish.
3.1- A BALCONY or big, operable window with screens and some type of window blinds/shades/etc.
4- A NEWER building would be preferred, but not so new that they don't have the "bugs" worked out of it yet, had THOSE kinds of problems here!
5- The "greener," the better
6- NOT in the burbs or in a particularly "child-friendly" area, e.g. not right next to a playground or a school, unless it fits ALL other criteria!
7- NOISE- the great thing about newer/GREEN buildings these days is INSULATION, from noise INSIDE and OUTSIDE as well as UV protection in many cases.
8- If not DOWNTOWN, either VERY close, <1 mile to DOWNTOWN as well as within a 4 block radius of groceries, pharmacy, COFFEE, etc.
9- NOT near noisy bars or the "club district" if there is one- that's where we are now...and we have the privilege of watching/hearing screaming, singing, dancing and on at least half a dozen occasions, GUNSHOTS within a 1 block radius, of our building, all of which can and often do happen anytime after midnight, and "Old City" Philadelphia is about the third most expensive neighborhood, (though that will likely change soon as a result of the shootings and murders in the past 3 years,) and it's also the center of the country's "most historic square mile!"
10- REALLY PET FRIENDLY!!

I have a TON of other kinds of questions, but I hope someone can help us with ANY, SOME or ALL of this one!
Thanks in advance!
~B

[philwithbeard]

Hmmmm,

- quiet
- New Construction
- High rise, above 3rd floor?
- downtown, or very close in
- very pet friendly
- sounds maybe can afford upscale living
- don't care for "family friendly"

Eh, why not....

There is a section near Downtown, and it is on the Streetcar, a light rail trolley system, ...
South Water Front, which has been labeled Condo Canyon.
These are not cheap, but several condos are up for rental. Some are large apartments (over 1200sq-ft).
The buildings are around 30 stories, some with fantastic view of Mt. Hood

Craigslist.com search Portland --> Multnomah County for: south waterfront.
several apartments available starting at about $1600.00 per month with balcony et all.

You know, I never suspected I would ever, EVER, recommend to anyone on this forum any South Waterfront place. Way over priced, and lots and lots of empty condos up for rent. But the Property Managing landlords should be cat friendly, even with your 6 cats, with a substantial pet deposit of course. Don't know if the pet deposit will be 100% refundable, probably not with 6 cats. I think most of these condos up for rent are individually owned by investors, and signed up with a property manager for dealing with tenets.

Just be extra positive car parking spaces in included in you rent agreement, and not an extra.

Phil

Good luck, and Welcome to Portland.

[BeBe Blazfemi]

Originally Posted by philwithbeard

Hmmmm,

- quiet
- New Construction
- High rise, above 3rd floor?
- downtown, or very close in
- very pet friendly
- sounds maybe can afford upscale living
- don't care for "family friendly"

Eh, why not....

There is a section near Downtown, and it is on the Streetcar, a light rail trolley system, ...
South Water Front, which has been labeled Condo Canyon.
These are not cheap, but several condos are up for rental. Some are large apartments (over 1200sq-ft).
The buildings are around 30 stories, some with fantastic view of Mt. Hood

Craigslist.com search Portland --> Multnomah County for: south waterfront.
several apartments available starting at about $1600.00 per month with balcony et all.

You know, I never suspected I would ever, EVER, recommend to anyone on this forum any South Waterfront place. Way over priced, and lots and lots of empty condos up for rent. But the Property Managing landlords should be cat friendly, even with your 6 cats, with a substantial pet deposit of course. Don't know if the pet deposit will be 100% refundable, probably not with 6 cats. I think most of these condos up for rent are individually owned by investors, and signed up with a property manager for dealing with tenets.

Just be extra positive car parking spaces in included in you rent agreement, and not an extra.

Phil

Good luck, and Welcome to Portland.

Thanks, Phil, but we're hoping we DON'T have to move into one of those places. Ideally, we want to live either in Downtown or in another neighborhood close to it OR similar...I've also had some friends mention that they think I'd like Hawthorne or Sunnyside or maybe Lloyd- and I didn't make myself clear- we don't want a big place, or more than around $1000 until my husband finds a job- we definitely want to avoid a "manufactured" neighborhood like S. Waterfront. There looks to be not a whole lot there except other condos and more construction of the same.
And, places like RIVA, run by Riverstone, have a lot of qualifiers to their "pet-friendliness." I don't necessarily expect to pay more than one month's rent in security, depending on what the landlord-tenant laws there say regarding that.
But one thing we don't have to worry about are parking spaces- we ride our bikes and public transportation, got rid of cars a few years ago, and obviously if we can do it in Philly, (where we ride in the street with traffic, not in separate bike lanes, because there are only a few streets that have them,) then we know we won't have a problem in Portland!

We're just hoping we can find a place that will rent to us given that we won't have jobs, (but we will have income, and I know there's an ordinance that says they can't discriminate based on the source of income.)

I'm also a bit concerned that the areas where the jobs are mainly located, where my husband would be applying, all seem to be in the outlying areas, which would mean he'd have to commute, something we wanted to avoid since he's been doing that for six years.

Because of that, we started considering that we might need to think about Seattle instead, though it looks like their transit could be a pain...

[philwithbeard]

OK, we can focus a bit more on your housing, then:

Did you Google: Moving to Portland ?
a couple of web sites that give a lot info about the various Portland neighborhoods, each one with a unique 'vibe'. These are hosted by Real Estate people, so don't mind the Rah-Rah.

Now, go to Google maps, and turn on the 'Terrain' feature of the wider Portland area. There is a ridge just to the west of Downtown Portland. Further west, is Beaverton and Hillsboro (don't confuse with the neighborhood of Hillsdale.) West of that ridge, is Portland's High-Tech corridor. Lots of housing options on the west side.

The "flats" (see Terrain map) on the East side of the Willamette River and south of the Columbia River, is where it was easy and cheap to build houses all during the last century. Thus they did build. Closer to the Willamette river, the older the houses.

I will be honest, your wants are more exacting than many: Unemployed, newer construction, above 3rd floor with balcony, 6 cats (trust me, almost all the rental places I know about have a 2 cat or 1 small dog limit. I don't know about all places) plus being near parks or green spaces.

If you can find something that matches your wants in Sunnyside, Lloyd, or Sullivan's Gulch, well dang it, go for it. You would be a better apartment hunter than I ever will be.

BTW: parts of Portland, the landlords don't advertise or have web sites. Their property is in such a highly desirable location, all they need do is put up a sign outside the building and the place is rented. Other places, have advertisements, web sites, price discounts, and move-in specials; usually for a reason. I still hold on to the belief that Portland's rental market is driven by supply / demand. Your wants kind of puts you out into the "high supply" of apartments locations. Like maybe out Gresham Way on the Blue MAX line past SE 100th steet. (Which is far, far away from any urban living.) This is not what you want; serious 'burb country.

Best of luck to you.

Phil