By Alyssa Isenstein Krueger, August 29, 2019
Ashley and Alina were ready to buy their first home, and they knew they wanted to work with a broker from Living Room Realty. After reading through agent profiles, they decided to contact me because they liked that I’m a dog lover, have chickens and love to garden. They came into my office for a meeting and we totally clicked. And when we talked about their pretty specific housing needs, they melted my heart. Ashley’s mom is disabled and uses a wheelchair and together along with other family members, they are caretakers for Ashley’s mom. Additionally, Ashley is pregnant with their first child, so they needed to find a home that was accessible or could easily be made accessible for Ashley’s mom, and that was big enough for their growing family. Milwaukie appealed to them given it’s relative affordability and how how close to Portland some neighborhoods are, plus the bonus of easy light rail access.
I sent them the round-up of all homes in the areas they were willing to look within their price range that seemed like possible fits for them, and of those homes, 3 stood out as possibilities. The week after we met we went out looking at these 3 homes, and the first home we saw- a sharp mid-century in Ardenwald checked all the boxes and more. The home is one-level, and the front door is barely 6inches above the front walk-way, making it about as accessible as a front entrance gets. Once inside, the house was laid out in such a way that making most of the house accessible for Ashley’s mom would be pretty easy with some slight modifications. And with 4 good sized bedrooms, that meant plenty of room for Ashley and Alina, Ashley’s mom, and a nursery for the baby on the way. Like a lot of mid-century homes in Ardenwald, the lot is oversized so perfect for gardening projects, plenty of room for chickens and more than enough room for their menagerie of 3 dogs and 3 cats. And to top it off, it backs up to a hospital so should Ashley’s mom need immediate medical attention, the hospital is right there.
We went and saw the other two homes on the list, both of which were duds and didn’t hold a candle to the first house we saw, so deciding to write an offer on that first house was a no-brainer for them. The house was owned by the hospital- apparently at one point the hospital owned all of the homes at least on one side of the street and has been slowly selling them off over the years, and prior to putting the house on the market, the seller put over $50k into the house to update it, fix all of it’s issues and spiff it up for new owners. We wrote up an offer that night, and here we are, a month later and I had the pleasure and honor of handing over the keys.
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. Check Out My Reviews! I took the round-about-road towards this career...
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