House Hunting In Portland: Game On

It's official, my husband has made a solid case for buying a condo sooner rather than later.  With interest rates threatening to rise and home and rent prices rising daily, it's time to get it together and take the plunge.  Several articles came out recently listing the Portland rental market as some of the fastest rising rents in the country including this story by a local artist in the Willamette Week.
Last spring we downsized our rent around $400 per month by moving to a slightly less trendy section of downtown and parking our car for free at my in-laws.  I felt very lucky to to find an apartment in a great spot that I found livable at that price and I am so thankful we made the decision to go for it.  I do worry that if we don't buy soon we will get boxed out by the other people like us that do jump out of the rental market and into ownership.  One thing is for sure, the rent is going to keep rising.
With that in mind I am going all in on the house hunt like I tend to do with any sort of fun project.  I saw my wedding binder recently and it was truly something impressive!  Haha!!  Hopefully I can execute this project flawlessly in half the time it takes most people like I did with the wedding.  I planned my ideal wedding and honeymoon in 4 months and I couldn't imagine doing that for a whole year.
We started looking about three weeks ago and I have already learned many things.  The first and most important thing is, every place I have looked at and wanted has sold in approximately one week. That tells me that there will be no sleeping on decisions, it's yes or no then proceed.  Our mortgage lender is a friend of ours and is on vacation until next week so we will get that together shortly.  After that we just have to wait for something to hit the market.  I hate waiting!!!  I have three apps cued up to alert me of anything that comes on the market in my zip codes and budget.  I feel so sad when I get up and there aren't any new places and so happy when I get an alert.  This should keep me busy or drive me crazy, at the very least I'm in the game.  The other thing that I have learned over and over again while looking is that you must stay true to the top three rules of real estate; location, location, location.  I am constantly tempted by multiple bathrooms in less desirable areas!  We already did that once and I refuse to let myself do it again!