By Kim Parmon, January 13, 2022
It’s not often people get to hold a piece of local history, but Marisol & Jacob have just found their opportunity. Marisol is a young woman of color who invests in real estate in the Portland area. Imagine her surprise when the beautiful home she just purchased was originally purchased by Betty Fegan-Smith. Who is that you’re probably wondering? Much like Marisol, Fegan-Smith was a black real estate investor. She began slowly building her real estate portfolio in Portland in the 1950s when very few families of color could afford to purchase homes.
Her love of real estate started from a young age when she reimagined and remodeled her mother’s bathroom after her mother’s friend came to their house to brag about their new bathroom. Fegan-Smith was determined to give her mother a beautiful bathroom and spent her college fund to give her the bathroom of her dreams. She oversaw the project from start to finish, and this is where her love for homes began to bloom.
After marrying her husband in 1948, Fegan-Smith moved to Portland where she used her strong business acumen (attributed to her father), to help local organizations such as Albina Art Center, as a way of establishing herself.
In the late ‘60s, her passion and entrepreneurial spirit brought her an opportunity to co-own the first black retail store in Portland, Mr. B and the Cinnamon Tree. Seeing the low-cost property in the area, she began purchasing, remodeling, and building her rental portfolio, but her entrepreneurship didn’t stop there. 
Following in the footsteps of her sister, she opened and successfully operated a childcare center, Jeanette Fegan School of Early Learning, watching generations of children grow up in NE Portland.
While not purchasing the Smith family’s original home, Marisol & Jacob know they have some big shoes to fill to live up to a community legend. To honor Fegan-Smith’s legacy and memory, they plan to place a plaque on the home in honor of her once some remodeling of their own is finished.
Kim Parmon
Principal Broker | Earth Advantage Certified | OR
She/Her
Kim Parmon Principal Broker Lead Listing Agent Earth Advantage Certified | OR kim@livingroomre.com Oregon is the fifth state that Kim has called home in her life, and this one is sticking! After moving multiple times in her childhood, Kim fully understands how empowering homeownership and having roots is...
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