By Olivia Rush, October 29, 2021
By Olivia Rush, October 29, 2021
Congrats to Alli + Will, my newest friends and neighbors, on purchasing their first home in Foster-Powell!
Alli and Will were introduced to me by mutual friends who knew we would get along. After our first set of showings, we ended up at a wine bar (our friends know us well).
When Alli and Will moved to Portland from Seattle – in the middle of a pandemic – they landed in Kenton. They loved the neighborhood, but wanted to be closer to their Portland community, many of whom reside in SE.
It took a minute for Alli and Will to get on the same page. We toured our fair share of cosmetic fixers and turnkey homes, homes with ADUs and with ADU potential. We saw pre-war homes, granny ranches, and 2000s contemporaries. We zigzagged back to N and NE Portland a few times during our months of searching. There were starts and stops, check-ins and resets, and daily activity on the group text (as well as a few side texts).
A few offers were made to no avail. Then the Neapolitan house was listed. Named for its exterior paint job (pink, white, and brown), this house was a treat. 70s lava rock fireplace, kitschy built-ins, a new, fully-permitted 2nd bathroom, solar panels, earthquake retrofit, whole-house repipe, central AC, all smack dab in the middle of FoPo, blocks from the dog park. Yum!
Alli and Will were done once they saw this house. It. Had. All. The. Things. We put together a tempting offer with all the toppings, then revised with sprinkles and a cherry on top. Failure was not an option.
Lucky for us, the Seller had a sweet tooth. She chose our offer over four others. Our over-asking, as-is offer tasted even sweeter after a squeaky clean inspection report and an appraisal at $12K over the purchase price. Plus, we were able to close in 24 days…how bout them apples?
Now Alli and Will have a house, I have new neighbors, and my dog has two new pups to play with at the park. Welcome to the neighborhood, Alli and Will! Cheers to you and to the next house color scheme…I’m thinking mint chocolate chip?