By Living Room Realty, December 6, 2021
JUST SOLD
1070 Kennedy St, Woodburn, OR 97071
LISTED AT: $399,000 | SOLD AT: $400,000
3 BEDROOM | 2 BATH | 1,302 SQFT
MLS# 21573099
Persistence pays off! I first met Marcus when he choose to intern at my previous brokerage. He had recently graduated college and wanted to explore some career paths for himself. He was an incredibly bright young man at the time with the world in front of him. He opted not to go into real estate, and decided to pursue a career with a finance company.
Fast forward to the fall of 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, when he approached me about finding a home for himself and his family. He was now married, and the father of a young daughter. They wanted to find a place for their family to grow and call their own, but desired to keep their budget to under $400k. We began their search in the Portland Metro area, but ran into limited inventory, questionably habitable homes, or Townhomes which had HOA amounts or special assessments that made their price point lower in order to keep they monthly payments the same as a detached home. We wrote offer after after, only to lose out over and over.
Still Marcus and his wife, Maddeighy, remained undaunted. We keep looking, slowly expanding our search out to Hillsboro and Beyond, Newberg, deep East Portland, and finally South towards Woodburn. What you got as you went out was not much better, but at least there were more options. We keep searching through the Winter, Spring, and into the Summer, when they informed me that they were expecting their 2nd child and really did need space for 4. They were due in November, so we hoped to be in contract on something before their new daughter came. They hunt progressed.
We finally came across some new homes that were under construction in the Woodburn area. Marcus works in Wilsonville, so the commute was not that bad in comparison to some of the deeper east and west areas we had looked at. There were 3 properties all under construction, all for sale, with 1 of them pending. They pounced and we wrote an offer, in the hopes that the home would be as envisioned when they were all complete. This was a leap they had to take, as there was no flooring, countertops, appliances, concrete outside, or landscaping done when we viewed it. They decided it was better than most other things they had seen, and after a few negotiations with the listing brokers on the minutiae of the sale, we were in contract.
New construction is an exercise in patience, and despite writing our closing for 45 days (we were told they thought they would be done in 30 days), nothing is ever as planned. At 45 days, we were told the final building inspection by the county still needed to be completed, and no Certificate of Occupancy would be ready, so we pushed out a week. 1 week lead to 2. 2 weeks turned into 3. We hoped no more delays would occur, and thankfully, the day before Thanksgiving we were given word that the Final Inspection had occurred, the building permit had been signed off on, and Certificate of Occupancy had been issued. The day had arrived, and despite the hope that they would have a home ready to move into before their 2nd daughter arrived, they would be now have a home for her and her sister to grow up in and call their own.
Cheers Marcus, Maddeighy and Family, I hope that you make many lovely and wonderful memories in your new home!
