By Andy Meeks, February 22, 2018
By Andy Meeks, February 22, 2018
There are many parallels between buying a new home and starting a new life together: the need for teamwork, patience, courage, vision, optimism, elbow grease and a big investment of time and love. College sweethearts Becca and Chris have all of these attributes, and I’m so excited for them and the new adventures that 2018 brings to their lives.
While most people would be wary to buy a house in the months prior to their wedding, Becca and Chris aren’t most people. Becca is a hospitality professional and sales manager for a downtown hotel and Chris is a lawyer for a local environmental non-profit. These two have great organization skills, are open-minded and flexible, and they know what they want. They complement each other really well and it’s been fun watching them work together as a team.
Becca and Chris are also prime examples of model first-time home buyers. By the time they reached out to me in the first week of the year, they were already pre-approved for a mortgage, knew clearly their home search parameters, and were ready to cast a wide net to find just the right place. Thanks to their attention to detail and solid planning, they’ll be making their final wedding preparations from their awesome new Foster-Powell ranch.
Their new house is poised perfectly between the diverse businesses, restaurants and easy transportation options of SE Foster and 82nd Avenue – the Avenue of the Roses. It’s also a short walk to either the sprawling green expanse of Lents Park, Walker Stadium and the Portland Pickles or the towering Douglas firs and community center and pool at Mt. Scott Park. Their dogs, Fred and Joon, will love the enclosed backyard and the big front windows that look out across the lawn.
Foster-Powell, Mt. Scott-Arleta, Brentwood-Darlington and Lents comprise one of the sweet spots in the market for the combination of affordability, proximity, neighborhood amenities and future appreciation, and the majority of our search was focused in these neighborhoods.
We quickly generated potential matches, and spent the sunny second Saturday of the year looking at their first cut of homes. We even made an offer that next day (but so did twenty-one other potential buyers). However, that was just a temporary setback for Becca and Chris, who were undaunted, and we continued the search from St. Johns to Milwaukie, and to at least a dozen other potential homes. Just one week later, after an array of different properties, possibilities and potential repair projects, they were the winning bidders for this bright, south-facing, corner lot charmer.
The backyard patio and covered deck will be the perfect place to sip cold drinks on a warm summer evening, and the new woodstove and new furnace will team up to provide super cozy warmth throughout the drizzly chills of Portland’s winter months. And it sure doesn’t hurt that the bathroom features a his and hers vanity – something every married couple can surely agree upon.
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Our homes are at the center of our lives, and the good things we do in the world every day begin there. My singular focus is to help my clients achieve their real estate goals efficiently and effectively, so they can remain focused on the important stuff. Let me know how I can help you!