By Alyssa Isenstein Krueger, May 25, 2021
My buyer Alison got in touch with me over 3 years ago after she was referred to me by her close friends, who are old clients of mine. Alison thought she wanted to purchase a condo at a complex in the Brooklyn neighborhood because she had a friend who lived there, and the idea of easy maintenance seemed appealing to her at the time. For what turned out to be a blessing in disguise, none of those units came on the market while she was looking. She then decided to go to grad school and put her house hunt on hold while she went through school and figured out the next phase of her life.
We kept in touch as she made her way through grad school, and then last month, she called me because the house directly behind her best friends house- the same friends who referred her to me, who she had been podding with throughout Covid, had just come on the market. They were able to see it and Alison called me from the house to let me know about it, and that she was interested in purchasing it. She just finished grad school and was about to start a new job at the same organization she had been working at for years, and was finally in a more stable situation where buying a house made sense. I made an appointment and met her the next day at the house- and it was cute as could be. A granny ranch with the vintage pink bathroom and the vintage kitchen complete with pink stove still intact. The house had an almost identical layout to her friends house behind this one, so walking into it felt very familiar. The house was an estate and a little rough around the edges, but we could tell it wouldn’t take much to get it cleaned up and ready to go by getting the wood floors refinished, painting the rooms, removing or painting over some unfortunate 1970’s fake wood paneling and deep cleaning the kitchen, basement and bathroom.
Alison had been on the path to becoming a home owner for over 3 years and now that she was finally ready, and the perfect house presented itself to her, the reality of actually writing an offer on a house was an internal hump she needed to process. The seller had a couple of offers and the deadline was approaching. Alison decided to jump in and we wrote up a great offer 10% over list. Thankfully the sellers accepted her offer and off to inspections we went. Her friends behind this house had already planned where the gate between their backyards was going to go and thankfully her friends are super handy and could help out with minor repairs. The inspection went much better then I thought it would, with the exception of a complicated sewer situation involving a blockage near where the sewer line for the house met the City lateral and it involved a ton of pooling in the line. I was able to negotiate a credit for that repair- though it took almost the entire transaction to sort it all out. And less then five weeks after she called me, I had the distinct pleasure of handing her 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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