By Alyssa Isenstein Krueger, June 25, 2021
By Alyssa Isenstein Krueger, June 25, 2021
I couldn’t be more excited for my very dear longtime clients Emily and Ben. They outgrew their vintage cream puff bungalow in Foster Powell that I helped them purchase 7 years ago, and despite the horrors of the current market, they were able to sell their very much loved home and get under contract and close on an even better and bigger house that hit nearly every single one of their check-list items before they have to be out of their bungalow.
When we started looking, they knew they wanted to stay in SE, preferably south of Powell and their ideal home would be a south facing mid-century home with all the space they needed with a minimum of 3 bedrooms, a separate space for Emily who works from home, a space for Ben’s music studio and a dedicated area for arts, crafts and sewing. And plenty of room for growing Emily’s beloved flowers. They love mid-centuries and the more original, the better. We looked at a bunch of houses that were of course not quite right, and then we went to go see a super cool mid-century right off Mt. Tabor. We spent quite a bit of time in the house, and they were absolutely in love with it. The house had all the spaces they wanted and a fantastic layout, the yard was perfect, it had a detached studio space and rumpus room in the basement. While it was not south of Powell, at the time we left the house, they felt like they could work with the location because they loved the house so much. There were a couple of things they weren’t crazy about though- mainly that hardwood floors had been replaced with engineered wood floors, and a lot of the mid-century charm had been made a little too slick for their taste- but it was done so well that they were ok with how fancy it felt. The house was at the top of their price range, but they always felt that for the right house, they would be willing to stretch.
A day later, after sleeping on it, with tears in their eyes and hearts, they decided to go with their gut feelings and not put an offer on the house because of the 2 things that weren’t perfect- the location felt too far north for them and they would prefer a less updated and more original mid-century. It took a few days to get over that house, but they did. And then about a week later, a house came on the market south of Woodstock in Eastmoreland Heights and from the photos, it looked really similar to the mid-century house they decided not to write on. We went and saw it and realized that not only did it look like that other house, it was literally the SAME house! Same exact size, same layout on the main floor, a similar but better layout in the basement, same location of closets, and very similar yard. The Mt. Tabor house had the garage in the basement, and this house had a detached double garage which meant more living space in the basement, and with the large garage, a perfect space to turn into a music studio. And even better- this house was still much more original in terms of mid-century charm. One of the things they loved about the Mt. Tabor house was that the sellers on that house took down the wall between the dining room and kitchen for an open layout, and while this new house still had the wall intact, Emily and Ben felt like this was a house where they could take one of the things they loved about that Mt. Tabor house and do the same thing in this house- only they would get to do the kitchen exactly how they wanted.
Before we left the house after seeing it, we knew without a doubt that this was their home- no ifs, ands or buts. We went home, wrote up a fantastic offer and then waited for the weekend to run through it’s course. In the end, there were 6 offers, but we had written up such a good offer in terms of price and terms, and we were the first offer in and I shared the listing on Mt. Tabor with the listing agent to show him how much my buyers wanted this house, that the sellers accepted Emily and Ben’s offer. And to top it all off, the house had a brand new roof, new sewer line, brand spankin’ new central air conditioner, new water line, and a decommissioned oil tank with paperwork so the house is totally move-in ready. Meanwhile, the Mt. Tabor house closed and it turned out that they are spending $170,000 LESS then what Mt. Tabor version of the house sold for. This was the ultimate in finding the right house, in the right spot, at the right price.