Blog Stories It's Kismet

It’s Kismet

By Alyssa Starelli, July 11, 2018

It’s one of the first hot days of May and I’m wandering around Portland Nursery with an obnoxious wagon nipping at my heels, as you do when the impetus to plant vegetables rears its ugly head. It’s a Sunday so the place is packed and I’m wearing a visor (must protect vampire eyes) so I’m not really paying attention nor can I see much,  but I look up and standing in front of me (also looking a bit overwhelmed) is my old scooter buddy and client, Morgan.

I’m not surprised to see Morgan there, he has a background in horticulture and actually designed my back yard. We chat about plants and I glean some free plant advice (sneaky, I know).  Per usual, the convo morphs into talking about their house which I sold them a handful of years ago, and how in the near-ish future, they’re gonna need a bigger one, but not quite yet.  We say our adieus, I drag my selections to the cashier and think to myself, “well that was a nice run-in.”

Fast forward about a day and a half:
I get a call from Morgan and Emily saying there’s a house directly behind them for sale, it’s been on the market for a long time but running into me got them thinking!! (YAY, for thinking I say!!)

They realized it would make a good long-term investment, could be used as an office since they both work from home (Emily’s current office is under-ground, yikes!) or a quiet get-away, maybe even “his and hers” houses? (Haha, just kidding) . But most importantly, it would be a great place for their parents to stay for long snowbird visits to visit grand-daughter Lu, until they’re ready to move into it to “age-in-place”.  Either way, E &M would be doubling their estate and creating the Sapp Family Compound!  Bring on the sister-wives! (joke).

So we wrote, negotiated, inspected and appraised and even showed the house to visiting parents (who loved the choice) and voila, the Sapp Shangri-la is up and running.  Glad I ran into you, Morgan!!

[PHOTO CREDIT: I’d like to give photo credit to budding photographer Lura, who at age 5 snapped this shot of her parents at the new house for me.]

Alyssa Starelli

Broker | OR

She/Her

A Portland native, Alyssa started her real estate career in the chaotic market of 2005, and quickly realized she reveled in matching particular clients with their perfect home, no matter how unusual...
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  • T: 503-888-1362
  • F: 503-961-8224
  • alyssa@livingroomre.com

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