Four years ago I helped my client Matteo purchase his first home in Portland in Rose City Park after he recently moved to Portland from New Orleans. As an artist and stylist, he has a habit of buying and renovating homes, using his house as a palette for his talents. After four years living in his Rose City Park home, he was ready for a larger home with adequate studio space and further east to be closer to his job as a paintings teacher. He loves mid-centuries and we spent a few months looking at possibilities. He came so close to putting an offer on a home with a pool in Ventura Park, but decided at the last minute that he was basically buying a pool that came with a house, rather than the other way around.
A house that had been sitting on the market for a couple weeks in Cherry Park caught Matteo’s eye. For those who don’t know, Cherry Park is a small area of pristine mid-century homes in the Hazelwood neighborhood in SE Portland. The house was not staged and the kitchen and bathrooms were horribly outdated- pink carpet in the bathroom is never anyone’s cup of tea. It was also mid August when the market seemed to go to sleep this year. We went to see it and Matteo fell in love. It was super bright and had a gigantic window overlooking the large back yard. The tandem garage had been converted into living space and was absolutely perfect for becoming a painting studio. The house reminded him of the house he grew up in so he at once felt he was in familiar and homey surroundings. Not having it staged was a mistake on the sellers part, but lucky for us. And as what almost always happens when a good sleeper house gets discovered, another buyer saw it right after we did and put in an offer. We wrote an offer for just a few thousand over asking, and the sellers accepted it right away. The home was an estate and the sellers had the house pre-inspected and made all necessary repairs before putting it on the market, so the inspection was clear and easy and the lender gave him an appraisal waiver as well and was able to close the transaction in 3.5 weeks.
Knowing what Matteo did to his Rose City Park home, I can only imagine how fabulous this house will be once he begins its transformation.