By Alyssa Isenstein Krueger, January 18, 2021
Seven years ago I helped some of my favorite buyers ever, Hanna and Kylan, buy their first home in Foster Powell. From the moment I started working with them, I fell in love with them- they are so on it and we spent so much time laughing together. Not long after they bought that home, they had their first kid. Two and a half years later in the summer of 2016, Hanna was pregnant with their 2nd kiddo and with new adventures out of state awaiting them, I helped them sell their first home. A couple of years ago, they moved back to Portland, and Kylan started working in Tualatin. Not wanting to spend hours in traffic every day commuting, they rented an apartment within walking distance from Kylan’s job in Tualatin. A couple of years of living in an apartment with 2 rambunctious boys and 2 dogs was starting to wear on them, especially as the pandemic raged on and everyone is home all the time.
This past summer Hanna contacted me because they were considering buying another home, this time in Tualatin. We talked for a really long time catching up and talking about what their next move would look like. I gave her the name of a great lender and off they went. I primarily only work in the City of Portland, but I loved working with Hanna and Kylan twice in the past, so for fantastic clients like these folks, I’ll go just about anywhere I’m licensed for the chance to work with them again. Four months later, Hanna contacted me because they were more ready then ever to make the move. Given how low low low the inventory is everywhere, when it came time to actually look at something in the area they wanted to live in, there was literally one home on the market in their price range in the tight circle of where they wanted to live. I met Hanna the next day while her boys stayed in the car. Kylan was working and wasn’t able to meet us to see the house. It was a well kept end unit townhouse that backed up to wetlands so the back view was lovely and wooded and the house was the perfect size and location. Offers were being reviewed the next day, so after sleeping on it, they decided they really did want to buy it. When wrote up the offer, they were originally going to just offer list price, but with at least one other offer on the table, I advised them if they just nudged their offer up by just a few thousand, they would have a better chance of having their offer accepted. They took my advice and later that day had their offer accepted. Kylan didn’t see the home until the home inspection, but I knew that Kylan trusted Hanna so it was quite the relief when after seeing the home in person at the home inspection, Kylan was super excited. Thankfully the sellers had the home pre-inspected and made plans to address everything biggish on the inspection report, including replacing the furnace which still worked, but was on the older side. One month and two kids later, for the second time in 7 years, I got to hand over new keys to one of my favorite families!
Alyssa Isenstein Krueger
Broker | OR
She/Her
I am living the dream. Working as a real estate broker in my home town brings this native Portland gal joy beyond measure.
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I took the round-about-road towards this career. After graduating from Sarah Lawrence College in NY two decades ago with a degree in liberal arts/creative writing, I returned to my hometown of PDX and got a job in a legendary record store of days gone by, worked as a music and culture writer for Portland’s oldest weekly publication while pursuing a graduate degree in Urban and Regional Planning at Portland State University. Armed with my masters degree, I moved into the realm of affordable housing, community development, and urban planning, and then rounded the corner with a long stay in arts management then back around the bend when I got my real estate license and went to work for a non-profit housing builder at the cusp of the market crash in 2007.
In the time between that market crash and the ensuing madness, I’ve stayed on top of the market like a dog guarding a bone. Using a magical combination of experience, instinct, and market data, I know what homes are worth, I know how to write a terrific offer, and I know how to help a seller market a home and receive and accept a great offer.
Mutual trust and tender relationship building is the basis and foundation of my real estate practice. I use my skills as an active listener, creative solution finder and ace negotiator to get my clients the best price on a home, win the multiple offer roulette, and have as smooth and easy transaction as possible. Timely and responsive communication is the most important aspect of building trust and I don’t take that part lightly. I am a stickler for details and nothing pleases me more than guiding a client through the home buying or selling process (and sometimes both at the same time). My role is one of advocate, advisor, partner, transaction organizer, and counselor. I am a partner broker with Portland Housing Center and relish the opportunity to work with eager first time home buyers.
I have a knack for seeing the potential in almost any home and love to help clients see past what is and help them envision what can be. I have a decade of first-hand experience renovating and caressing my bungalow in Ladd’s Addition and had the honor of having my own home featured in a story in the Oregonian’s Homes and Gardens section. I can feel the love for any and almost all homes, but my heart goes all aflutter when entering a museum quality time capsule house -- the solid mid-century ones with the original pink or green tiled bathrooms, those charming early 1900’s farmhouses with the original kitchen cabinets and fir countertops, the cozy bungalows with the built-ins still intact.
When I’m not working with clients, you’ll find me hanging with my two boys, Kalman and Saul, and my husband Robert, a Fine Art Conservator with his own business, Cascadia Art Conservation Center. Retired racing greyhounds have been my constant companions since 1997, and our family includes Peanut the greyhound, Pinto the South Korean Italian greyhound, our 2 cats Spaghetti and Will, and our chickens, Rosie, Lil' Peck, Penelope and Nugget.
I am an obsessive gardener/plant fiend and love that we live in a climate where I can grow eucalyptus trees (I have 3 in my yard including a couple I started from seed) alongside blueberry bushes (6 in my yard). Given some free time, you’ll find me junking at an estate sale, dreaming of high brow junk, low brow art, making things, sewing, reading and dreaming of tropical locales.
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- T: 503-724-6933
- PDXHappyHouse@gmail.com
