Recently, I was getting my hair cut, listening to a story my hair stylist had been telling me for a couple years: she LOVES her neighborhood. She owns a home with her husband that is a bit small, but they can’t imagine leaving the area and felt priced out. On this day, she was even talking about consulting an architect to build a second level onto their single story house.
Just three days later, my hair whisperer called to say they were on their way to an open house, “to check it out”. It was love at first step. The 117 year old home had original leaded glass, wood floors, remodeled bathrooms and kitchen, and a front porch with roses creeping over the railing. I looked through the listing details and spoke with the listing agent to determine what offer terms would be meaningful to the sellers. I also put together a report of recently sold comparable homes to determine price, and worked with my buyers’ lender to be sure we were putting together a plan to succeed. My buyers weren’t the only ones who loved the house: by Sunday afternoon there was an offer deadline, and we ultimately competed against three other offers.
Less than 36 hours after the open house, I made a phone call a bit past my own bedtime to share the good news that the offer had been accepted! With a short timeline to closing, we got to work on inspections–which are no joke with a vintage house–and spent the week meeting with additional specialists and obtaining assessments and estimates.
I had the good fortune to be working with my skilled colleague Kim Parmon as the listing agent on this home purchase. It’s gratifying as an agent to work with someone equally skilled and committed on the other side. This helped us quickly find solutions that satisfied both the buyers and the sellers. In addition, our team at Root Mortgage and First American Title went the extra mile to bring everything together, including overcoming last minute challenges.
Today, exactly four weeks after my hair cut, we closed on their ‘dream house’. On this rainy fall evening, my buyers unlocked the door for the first time to begin a new era in the neighborhood they love, with the bigger, character-filled home they didn’t think was within reach.
Congratulations, Makayla and Chancelor!!
Listen to this: when I first owned a home, Portland summers were cooler and I didn’t have air conditioning- I kept windows open at night. One early evening, I was laying on my bed reading, hearing the faint sound of breeze in the trees, and maybe a distant cricket, when I heard a noise like an air compressor. I thought, “WHO is using an air compressor at this time of night?” and went to my window to look out. There, between my house and the neighbors was a newly installed central air conditioning unit. The horror. It was directly below my bedroom window, next to the neighbor’s house which was only about 10 feet from my house. My right to quiet enjoyment was suddenly feeling uncertain.
