By Living Room Realty, October 30, 2020
This is the second closing I’ve had within a week where wonderful past clients who’d moved away several years back are returning home to Portland. Flashback 6 years, I first met Joe and Brett in front of a home I was showing. They were on a reconnaissance mission to explore moving here from DC, took my card and said they’d call when the dream got real. Later that same year, they did call and in quick succession, we found them a stunning 1890 Brooklyn farmhouse. For four years, they loved their home and neighborhood but maintaining secure employment meant they found themselves uprooting and heading back to DC for Joe’s job with HUD. In April 2019 we sold their beloved farmhouse and they left Portland, vowing to return in 5-10 years.
Well, just a year and a half later, the call came this past August –Joe had the opportunity to transfer to HUD’s Portland Field Office to work on homelessness issues, housing opportunities for individuals with AIDS, and to help manage the Community Development Block Grant program. Brett was able to transfer his position with Natural Resources Conservation Service back to Portland. It was all lining up and they were leaping at the opportunity to come home!
A quick trip in September netted them the home of their dreams! Joe and Brett just closed on a 1906 Craftsman with glorious views of Mt Hood and the Willamette River in the close-in SW Homestead neighborhood. This is a sweet pocket of homes, with friendly neighbors who wouldn’t live anywhere else and properties that mark the young days of Portland, early settlers having staked their claim on the stunning natural views. As new owners, they feel doubly blessed to take on stewardship from these particular sellers who spent several decades meticulously restoring the home in a most rare and genuine manner. Shout out here to one of the sellers, historic preservationist Mark Urban, whose thoughtful remodel created this place Brett and Joe will appreciate and love for a long time…and as they shared with me, “we anticipate and hope that this will be our forever home and that we won’t have to move for many years, if ever again.”
Joe, Brett and Petey, the canine member of their family, landed in Portland last night after a long cross country drive. Welcome home, Joe and Brett–I am so happy to have you back…and delighted to know you that you will stay put for a very long time.
