There’s always this writer voice going on in the back of my head. Thing is I am not an author by trade, I’m a Realtor. I could spend days, months or years writing my own guide to Portland but it’s already been done and it’s been done better than my version could ever hoped to become. To that end, I am excited to announce our partnership with First Books® and their Newcomer’s Handbook® for Moving to and Living in Portland, Copyright 2007, 2008, First Books® by Bryan Geon. We’ve partnered to use of some of their neighborhood copy in hope that our websites provide better content than we could have created on our own.

Discovering First Books® was great timing for us. When I first came up with this idea, we were talking with another publisher on the east coast. Our talks were stalled when I first found the Newcomer’s Handbook®. Not only are the based in southwest Portland, they also have some great relocation material available for preparing your entire family to move.

This partnership is a key piece to what will be an ongoing feature on our website: neighborhood tours. We’re going starting in Northwest and will build out from there. We’re in the process of shooting a professional video that will highlight the flavor of Northwest Portland. I’ve already released the first two neighborhood photo tours of the King’s Height/Hillside neighborhood and the Pearl District. As the sun allows, I’ll continue to shoot more neighborhoods and build new tours. Nob Hill and the Alphabet District is our first complete tour with a photo tour, Newcomer’s text and a dedicated search module for the area.