Interesting reddit thread from a potential buyer ‘What do you wish you knew about owning a house in Portland‘

• Make sure you know when the roof needs to be replaced and adjust accordingly
  • Everywhere I know of is 2-layers for roofing layers. Chances are very, very high that if you want a house in Portland that’s not newer and near the outskirts, you’re going to need a full tear-off
  • If you’re buying a home with a new roof, MAKE SURE YOU ASK WHICH BRAND OF SHINGLES AND WHO INSTALLED IT. If they can’t get you that information, assume it was installed by a homeowner or their friends with the cheapest material possible.
  • Asphalt shingles are NOT sold with year statement warranties anymore. All asphalt shingles are sold with “limited lifetime” warranties now, but what that means is entirely dependent on manufacturer.
  • Shingle manufacturers that operate or sell in the PNW are required to have algae resistance in their shingles. It’s not some special premium thing that adds costs
  • Do not use/buy a house with IKO, GAF Timberline Natural Shadow, or Pabco anything shingles. These are all very low quality “new construction” shingles that, while technically having the same kind of warranty as higher end brands, are going to require 6 month maintenance and cleaning intervals and probably fail anyway. And good luck getting them covered
  • Certainteed sucks right now. 10 years ago they were good.
  • Malarkey is the best choice, Owen’s Corning is decent
  • Most shingle manufacturers have different levels or grades of quality. Owen’s Corning is Duration, GAF is Timberline HD, Malarkey is Vista, Pabco is Premier, Certainteed has Landmark Pro
• A lot of old and mostly un-remodeled houses don’t have insulation. (I can 100% attest to this. There is literally no insulation in my walls)
• Almost every house has some sort of major-ish issue that each owner will successively play hot potato with until finally it can’t be ignored any longer. Prepare yourself financially and have a plan B and C. 
• When you get your inspections done before you close, I recommend hiring different types of inspectors (eg – electrician, plumber, etc) rather than an all-in-one that checks everything. They often miss things. 
  • Don’t skip radon + sewer scope.
  • Have the utilities marked like you were going to dig. In some neighborhoods, two houses sometimes share the outgoing waste line
  • Inspect for buried old heating oil and septic tanks. It was very common for these to be present and were often left with fuel in them when the building converted to electric. Hazardous waste cleanup is very expensive.
• Make sure to understand the species, health status, and maintenance needs of the trees everywhere on your prospective property including the parking strip.
  • You’ll have to spend thousands dealing with problem trees with the city which requires you file permits and evaluations for ANY tree maintenance you do. They’re draconian and often just say you can’t do anything. Then it falls on your, or a neighbors, house. Too bad. This has happened a LOT.
  • You’ll be responsible for any sidewalk damage roots do – at your own cost.
  • Depending on the age of the house, expect to find asbestos, lead paint, or old wiring.
  • Do NOT be one of those fools who waive the home inspection to win a bidding war. Just walk away.
• Do not fall in love with a house, there’s a million of them out there. Make the decision with business acumen, not emotions. Don’t let a realtor talk you into it.
• Check the gutters and downspouts, and like someone else said, do it in the winter so you can see where the water runs. It was an easy fix, but our basement flooded once just because the downspouts were installed in a crappy way and broke during a storm
• You can be sued if your sidewalks are uneven and someone trips
• If you can, visit the house at different times of the day. Observe the neighbors – do they have a bunch of cars that never move? Do they leave their dog outside all day to bark? Talk to the neighbor to see if they’re reasonable or madmen.
• Are there any extremely invasive plants pushing up against the fence line (bamboo, blackberry, wisteria)?
• Specifically with Portland I wouldn’t buy a house with any sort of empty lot big or small next to it. Just invites tents and homeless camps.
• If you buy one of the older homes that makes Portland so lovely, it will be your new hobby. If you like spending a lot of your money and most days off on home/yard maintenance/improvement then you’re golden.
• Heat pumps are pretty good for our area but depending on how old it is, it can struggle in the winter cold snaps.
• Make sure none of the properties surrounding you have quietly been sold to a builder with plans to build an apartment building overlooking your backyard. You can do this by checking the zoning of the area. If it’s zoned “multi-family” there’s no stopping this from happening.
• A lot of the past permits and compliance issues can be looked up online at PortlandMaps for free without making any appointments.
• Some areas only get garbage picked up every two weeks. This was a surprise as we still had a baby in diapers when we moved.
• If you intend to send your kids to public school, look carefully at the middle and high school assignments not only the elementary. PPS is in a funding crisis that is going to continue for years if not decades (I vote decades). Honestly if I were buying today with young children I’d consider private school costs vs cost to buy into a “good” public school, and would not buy into PPS. 
• I wish I knew basic maintenance would be triple the cost of everywhere else I lived.
• Parking.
  • Buy a house with parking on site. In fact you should prioritize parking over an adu. I would pave a parking spot into my yard for guests and myself LONG before an adu. Street parking is a war. If you think you’re ok cause you have a lot of street parking? You’re wrong and you’ll loose it in 1-5 years no matter what. Infill and multi family housing remodels takes your street parking very fast. And if you don’t have a car and don’t think you need one. You’re gonna be wrong. It takes one broken ankle. One new baby. One trip to IKEA or a remodel project to realize you need a car.
• Observe traffic flow of street your drive way is on. It’s been was worse than we thought.
• Shade trees on the west side of the house for a cooler home during the summer. No trees on the east side of your house if in east county so they don’t fall on you.
• Every single person, I am not exaggerating, that I have known that was attempting the building of an ADU, has had to sue the city because they have made it almost impossible to build without paying thousands of dollars in fines and useless hoops to jump through. Permitting an ADU in Portland is insane.