Let’s talk about vintage/retro kitchens. Personally, I love them and can’t get enough when details like original tile backsplashes, countertops, and cabinets and hardware are still intact 50-100 years later. Very few things make me sadder in the housing world when someone takes a perfectly functional and sweet vintage kitchen and tears it all out. I’m good with re-inventing vintage kitchens or taking vintage kitchens and figuring out ways to work in a dishwasher or modern fridge when a key original feature has been worked into the design. I’m lucky that so many of my buyers and sellers also appreciate mainly intact vintage kitchens, and over the last 16 years I’ve helped folks buy and sell homes with too many to count vintage kitchens. Here’s a smattering of my favorites. Most are from the last few years, but a few are oldies but goodies.
Back in 2011 I met one of my very favorite buyers ever, Mel. She worked with the Portland Housing Center and had $9,000 to from a matched savings account through Portland Housing Center. She used that $9,000 for a 5% downpayment on an oh so very vintage 760 sf 1920’s bungalow in Arbor Lodge that she bought for $180,000.
My buyer Theo wins the award for the single most expensive repair I have negotiated for a buyer. Theo was a first time buyer who was referred to me by a past client of mine who they work with. We met up on a chilly fall evening to talk about what they were looking for in a house and get the process started. Within a couple of days, Theo had their pre-approval letter in hand and we were ready to go. I sent them all of the available homes within the geographic boundaries, price range and features they were looking for. The list wasn’t very long and out of all of them, only 2 houses piqued their interest. We went to see one in NE, and that was a no-go. The second house we saw was bright blue 1920’s bungalow in the Brooklyn neighborhood. It had been on the market for about a month and had one sale fail. The home was lovely with a gigantic newly remodeled kitchen and a large upstairs bedroom with room to add a bathroom. The basement was decent enough with lots of windows and good ceiling height- a great candidate for future finishing. Theo slept on it and the next morning let me know they wanted to write on it. We put together a great offer and boom- got it accepted.
Sarah and Tariq contacted me in early August after being referred to me by one of my favorite lenders. They used to live in Portland, and had moved to Los Angeles for work, and were now being transferred back to Portland. They were moving to Portland in mid-November, so they came to Portland in mid-October to find a home. Before they arrived, we had a flurry of emails back and forth narrowing down homes they wanted to see. They seemed to really hone in on mid-centuries and when we came up with our list of homes to see over the next few days, the majority were mid-centuries. They arrived on a Thursday evening, and we hit the ground running on Friday morning. We saw around 12 houses together over the next couple of days, and they saw even more homes on their own visiting open houses.
My buyers Annie and Ben were referred to me by one of the great lenders at Portland Housing Center. They were first time home buyers and during our meeting when we met to discuss their plan and get a feel to see if we would be a good fit to work together, we talked about the ideal house for them. They had a really clear idea of exactly what they were looking for and where they wanted to buy. Ben works in Vancouver and Annie works on the inner east side so their ideal house would be in North Portland in Kenton or near I-5. They also wanted something with vintage charm- preferably mid-century, and in good shape that would be easy to maintain. They also wanted a yard and their budget was $400k tops. They were still interviewing agents when a couple of days after we met, I got an email from my wonderful colleague Martin Cross here at Living Room with info on an open house a great listing of his in Kenton was having the next day. On paper that house seemed to meet all the criteria that Annie and Ben had, so I forwarded the email along to them. They responded that indeed, the house looked like it was great and they could tell I had a really good sense of what they were looking for, and that sealed the deal for us working together.
If there is one part of the Portland market that’s not hot right now, it’s condos downtown and in the Pearl District. The Covid buying frenzy really focused on detached single family homes with yards. Communal living where you have to walk into an enclosed building and then take an elevator to your front door was the exact opposite of what the majority of buyers have wanted over the last year and a half. So for those folks who DO want to own a condo in the Pearl, the neighborhood is a pool full of fat oysters where buyers can take a while to look around be picky about what type of unit they want.
Congratulations to my clients Rachael and Zak who just closed on closed on this blue mod skinny in Portsmouth! From the outside it appears to have a similar interior layout as the other 1,000 skinnies, but what sets this one apart is the nearly 20 foot tall ceilings in the living room. The design on this house has the 3 bedrooms upstairs, but the living room is opened up so that the upstairs hallway overlooks the living room. Because of this design, the light in this house is incredible. Rachael and Zak knew they wanted a house that didn’t need any work and had at least a small private yard, and this house is all that and more.
My buyer Clayton was referred to me by some of my favorite past clients ever, so I knew he was going to be great to work with. His ideal home would be in North Portland where he has lived for a long time as a renter, and would have the space and bedroom count to be able to comfortably rent out a room or two to roommates. He lost out on 2 houses, but they were not the best houses for him anyway. And when a great 4 bedroom house (2 beds on the main floor and 2 beds upstairs) came on the market he went to the open house and met the listing agent who was super impressed by how kind Clayton is and how through of a job he did looking at the house (he even went into the crawl space!). He loved the house and we wrote up an offer, and thanks to his letter and the listing agent explaining to her seller how awesome Clayton is, the seller wanted to sell to Clayton, but with another offer on the table that was over $100,000 over list price, the seller went with the crazy high offer.
Sarah and Craig were referred to me by a dear longtime client. They just had a baby and were ready to buy a house to settle into and raise their kid in. When we first spoke this past spring, they had not yet spoken with a lender and didn’t really have an idea of how much they could qualify for. I gave them some names of great lenders I work with including the Portland Housing Center. After meeting with Portland Housing Center’s loan officer, they found out they qualified for a $15k grant if they bought something in the City of Portland, so that sealed the deal for them on which lender to use.
I have the best neighbors ever in Ladd’s Addition. We moved into our home 17 years ago, and had our first kid 11 years ago. Within 5 years of us moving in, most of our block turned over from old and aging folks to younger families with small kids. At one point, there were seven families with kids all within a five year range from youngest to oldest on our block. Our kids have grown up together, played together, laughed together, had block parties together, cried together and all the in-betweens. When they were younger, in the ages 4-8ish range, they would spend summer days moving back and forth between houses as a roving gang. Us parents never worried because we knew the kids were at someone’s house on the block. Only 2 families have moved over the last 10 years, and one didn’t move far. Throughout this whole time, the adults on our block have spent countless hours over the years doing impromptu happy hours, block parties and backyard hang outs.
I couldn’t be more excited for my very dear longtime clients Emily and Ben. They outgrew their vintage cream puff bungalow in Foster Powell that I helped them purchase 7 years ago, and despite the horrors of the current market, they were able to sell their very much loved home and get under contract and close on an even better and bigger house that hit nearly every single one of their check-list items before they have to be out of their bungalow.
One of my favorite parts of my job is helping families come together to live in the same town. About 7 years ago I helped one of my very favorite clients R & P buy their home in the Woodstock neighborhood. Then last summer R’s sister and brother-in-law moved to Portland from the Bay Area and I helped R’s sister D and her husband G buy their first Portland home in Irvington. The plan all along is for the whole family to live in Portland, so a couple of months ago R and D’s parents sold their long-time home in Ohio to join their daughters here in Portland, and I was lucky enough to get to work with them and help them buy a home in Bethany. Now the whole family is here!
Congratulations to my buyer Brooke on beating out 10 other offers to snag this perfect home in the Richmond neighborhood. Brooke found me because her sister’s kids attend the same school as my kids in SE Portland, and they were looking for an agent familiar with the area. Brooke is from Seattle and recently went through a divorce and sold her longtime home in Seattle with the intention of moving to Portland to be closer to her sister. Brooke has a daughter that has some disabilities and is mobility challenged, so the home she knew she wanted to purchase would ideally be near her sister, and have the right set-up for her daughter to be able to get around on the ground floor, and have a flat backyard. We spent a good 2+ months on the hunt, which meant nearly every weekend for 2 months Brooke drove down to Portland from Seattle to check out houses. She wrote offers on 3 homes and while it was brutal to go through rejection after rejection, in the end it was all good because like most buyers, the best house was the last house we saw and she wrote on.
Congratulations to my sellers on scoring a great buyer for their swoon-worthy vintage bungalow in Foster Powell!
My buyer Alison got in touch with me over 3 years ago after she was referred to me by her close friends, who are old clients of mine. Alison thought she wanted to purchase a condo at a complex in the Brooklyn neighborhood because she had a friend who lived there, and the idea of easy maintenance seemed appealing to her at the time. For what turned out to be a blessing in disguise, none of those units came on the market while she was looking. She then decided to go to grad school and put her house hunt on hold while she went through school and figured out the next phase of her life.
My clients Jake and Greg purchased a blah mid-century rancher in St. Johns in 2017. Over the last four years they worked tirelessly to turn the bland into beautiful. While they loved their home, they really wanted a larger mid-century with a basement and in their dream world, they would be able to move in inner-SE Portland. The first time I visited their St. Johns home I was totally wowed by their home and what they had done to it. Like a lot of would be sellers who want to buy a move-up home in Portland, their biggest obstacle was the uncertainty that goes along with putting a house on the market without knowing where you are going to move. They ran all the numbers with their lender, and to get the kind of house they wanted, they realized that they would have to sell their home first before they could buy. In years past, this would have been the type of situation where getting a contingent offer accepted would have been the path. But it’s 2021 and contingent offers are just not a thing with the incredible demand. We looked at a couple of houses that came on the market, but those homes were receiving multiple offers and with the need to write a continent offer, they knew they had no chance.
Back in 2015 I helped one of my very favorite people Tiana purchase a home in Cully on a large lot with her then wife. Back then, the market was competitive, but not so competitive that a buyer with only a small down payment couldn’t get a house on the first offer they wrote. Two and a half years ago life circumstances changed and Tiana and her ex-wife broke up and I helped them sell the house. At that time in late 2019, the market had pretty much flat-lined, and when we sold that house, it did take a few weeks to go pending. Ever since then, Tiana has talked about getting back in the market to buy another home.
This cocktail ready 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom mid-century in St. Johns was listed at $470,000. After 4 days on the market my sellers received 5 above asking offers all with great terms, and the home just sold for $575,000.
Some friends of mine purchased their first home, a sturdy 1910 bungalow right off Alberta street nearly 20 years ago. Seven years ago and 2 kids later, they outgrew their Alberta house and I helped them purchase a larger home in NE where they still live. They loved their Alberta house, and even though they had moved out, they weren’t ready to part ways, so they held onto it as a rental. They have had a great run of tenants and their current tenant has been there for over a year. My sellers have talked about selling the house over the years, but were also quite happy to keep it as a rental. And then almost on a whim, my sellers purchased a dream property on the Washington side of the Gorge as a vacation property. They weren’t sure they really wanted to own 3 homes, and with the market as on fire as it is, now seemed like a great time to consider selling their rental.
My buyers Alexandra and Ray are first time home buyers and just scored on a great ranch house in Fo-Wo section of Woodstock- between Foster and Woodstock. They were fantastic to work with because they knew what they wanted and they were prepared to jump head first into this nutball of our early 2021 market where there is 1 house for every 20 buyers. After walking into what would become their house, the first thing they said was- we could be friends with this seller. The seller had quite the display of rocks, gems and minerals and before we got very far into the house, my buyers were ooohhhing and ahhhhing over the sellers collection- admiring and even naming some of the rocks. Once we got past the rocks we explored the house, a mid-century 900 sf with 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom on an oversized lot graced by a front yard tree with a trunk the size of a truck. I could tel as we walked around that this was “the one” for them. They are also woodworkers and one of their strong wants was a home that had a great space to build stuff in, and this house has a newer oversized garage/ shop that is perfect for woodworking.
Dave used to live across the street from me until about 2 or 3 years ago (who can keep track of time these days?) when he and his partner divorced and he moved into an apartment a few blocks away. His oldest kid and my oldest kid have been besties since before they could walk or talk, and it was Dave and his 2 kids who we had our last out of our family bubble non-socially distanced get together with on March 14th, 2020 at my older son’s 10th birthday party. When we parted ways that day, we didn’t know when we would be able to get together again in such a carefree way because the following day we all went under lockdown. And nearly a whole entire year later, we are still waiting for that day.
My sister Jamie moved from our hometown of Portland to New York City to pursue a career in visual arts in 1999, before Y2K, before 9/11, and during the last year of the Clinton era. Along the way she met my now brother-in-law Paul, bought a townhouse in Brooklyn during the height of the recession for a rock bottom price, had my now 8 year old niece and adopted the sweetest little mutt who they named Zucchini- an homage to our childhood dog Squash. For the past 21+ years Jamie, and then Jamie and family, have spent extended amounts of time in Portland, usually at least a couple of months over the summer. They had vague plans of moving to Portland “some day” but no super motivating factor to do the hard work of packing up, figuring out where to live in Portland, and all that goes along with moving across the country. Then 2020 came and like millions of other folks, they re-evaluated where they lived, and the motivation to live closer to family (us) and to get out of the suffocating humdrum of life in New York during the pandemic became stronger with each passing month. We had fantasies of them buying a house in my neighborhood, Ladd’s Addition, and being walking distance from each other so our kids could easily go back and forth between houses.
Seven years ago I helped some of my favorite buyers ever, Hanna and Kylan, buy their first home in Foster Powell. From the moment I started working with them, I fell in love with them- they are so on it and we spent so much time laughing together. Not long after they bought that home, they had their first kid. Two and a half years later in the summer of 2016, Hanna was pregnant with their 2nd kiddo and with new adventures out of state awaiting them, I helped them sell their first home. A couple of years ago, they moved back to Portland, and Kylan started working in Tualatin. Not wanting to spend hours in traffic every day commuting, they rented an apartment within walking distance from Kylan’s job in Tualatin. A couple of years of living in an apartment with 2 rambunctious boys and 2 dogs was starting to wear on them, especially as the pandemic raged on and everyone is home all the time.
My clients Elizabeth and Tom contacted me in early October. They were getting all their ducks in a row to start the home buying process within the first 6 months of 2021. After we spoke, Elizabeth got in touch with a great lender and it was after she spoke with the lender that they realized they were actually a lot closer to making home ownership a reality then they had anticipated. Once pre-approved, they realized that with rates below 3%, buying a home sooner then later to take advantage of the low low low rates was within their reach. Besides staying within their budget, location was the most important feature, and they knew they wanted to be as close-in as possible, preferably west of 82nd and within walking distance of places you would want to walk to and near transit so once the pandemic ends Elizabeth could easily get downtown to her job at Mercy Corps.
My clients Laura and Umar contacted me in mid-October because they had just been approved to purchase a home at 
Nowhere in Portland proper on the east side is competition for what few decent homes are on the market fiercest then in N/NE Portland, and in particular Kenton, Overlook and Arbor Lodge and Concordia. Any decent home listed under $500k WILL get multiple offers. Going into the house hunting search, I warned my buyers Josie and Brandon of what to expect if they wanted to buy a house in those parts of town. First weekend we went out looking they found a house that was full of charm and had a great location. After seeing it, they went home, slept on it and decided to put in an offer. It was an a cute house but had an awkward layout, so they were only willing to offer so much. And unsurprisingly, they lost out on that house. And then a couple of weeks later another sweet vintage home in Concordia came on the market that checked most of the boxes. After we saw that one, they went home, slept on it and decided to put in an offer. And same story on this one- they were not willing to pay as high as it was going to go, so they lost out on that one.
About 5 years ago I helped my clients Tim and Elizabeth purchase their first home in the Cully neighborhood. It was an older home on a nice sized lot with a lot of old house quirks. Earlier this year in the year (though it feels like it was 10 years ago) they contacted me because a new co-housing development was about to break ground right in the heart of the Cully neighborhood called Cully Green. Built by Orange Splot, who is well known for their green building, use of whimsical features and lots of real wood in their buildings, Cully Green is a community of 23 homes- 22 newly built townhomes and 1 home from the 1920’s that is original to the space. Tim and Elizabeth heard about this new community and had gone to a couple of meetings to learn more, and realized this was going to be exactly the kind of community that they wanted to be a part of. Featuring a community building, gardens, and even a sauna- some of the highlights of physical features of living in a co-housing situation along with the opportunity to build a new community from the ground up was super appealing to them. The buildings in the development are built around several courtyards with large covered front porches designed to invite neighbors to pull up a chair and chat. We wrote up an offer on a yet to be built unit in early March,and at the time we wrote up the offer, the expected completion date was around January/February of 2021.
Five years ago I helped my clients purchase this great 3-bedroom home in Cully at 6001 NE Milton St.. Earlier this year my clients contacted me because they love the Cully neighborhood and were super intrigued by a new co-housing development being built by Orange Splot, called Cully Green. After doing their research they decided that they wanted to sell their home and buy a new home at Cully Green. And then the pandemic happened. But thankfully by the time they were ready to sell their home, we had figured out all the protocols for handling sales. We listed the home, got a great offer, and they just closed on selling this one. Next week- on to buying the new house in Cully Green!
Houses with the sunburst pattern in the siding over the front porch are special and this Irvington home with the sunniest of siding is no exception. My buyers recently moved up to Portland to be closer to family and after a couple of months of looking for the ONE, they found it here. Because it’s a special house, of course it had 3 great offers. My buyers were the first to write on the house, and when it came time for the sellers to choose which offer they would accept, thankfully being first offer in was a big point in our column. Congratulations to my buyers on getting the first and only house they wrote on!
I helped my buyers Brooke-Lynn and Ivan sell their classic mid-century in Rose City Park back in March. They loved their old 2 bed 1 bath home, but were ready for something bigger and in closer-in NE Portland. When they sold their home they had multiple offers and were able to get a buyer who gave them 2 months of rent-back. Once late May came around, they still had not secured their next dream home, so off they went to stay at friends houses, then AirBnB’s.
Lisa and Matt and their 4 year old son had been renting an apartment in Irvington and were ready to branch out and buy their own home. Their needs were pretty simple- at least 2 bedrooms, cute/vintage, reasonable condition, a yard to play and garden in and relatively close to where they had been renting in inner North/Northeast. And a basement would be the cherry on the top. We looked at a few homes and even a condo that was a condo conversion from a 1960’s complex that was similar to what they had been renting. We found a great home that met all their needs within a few days. A house that had been sitting on the market with no action for nearly 3 weeks. We wrote up a great, full priced offer, and what do you know- someone else decided that day to put in an offer as well. The house seemed to have some condition issues and the other buyers offered a 2-week close, meaning it would be nearly impossible to negotiate repairs, let alone have any repairs done, prior to closing. So when Lisa and Matt’s offer was not accepted, there was a little heartbreak which was quickly dealt with via some condolence vermouth. But then, the very next day, a cuter-then-a-cupcake circa 1940 bungalow came on the market in Piedmont. We went to see it and I could tell my buyers were in love. Given it was cute, well priced, and in a fabulous location, it did receive multiple offers and Lisa and Matt were able to beat the other offers with a super clean offer and a small escalation clause. The inspection revealed a few issues including the need for a new roof, furnace and other old house stuff that was past it’s useful life. Thankfully the sellers were great and we were able to negotiate a fair credit amount and a small price reduction to account for the work needed. And then my favorite day in the whole transaction arrived- closing and key day!
My buyers Shay and Mike contacted me in mid-April, about a month into quarantine, and a couple of weeks after my last pre-covid transaction had closed. They were living in a rental, had a 2 year old and were pregnant with their second child. Shay had just started a new job but due to Covid she had never even been into the office of her new company. They figured with the second kid on the way, now was as good a time as any to find a new home. They had just gotten pre-approved in mid-April one month into quarantine. We had no idea what the Portland market was going to do. Everything had come to a stand still in real estate and we as a collective body of real estate agents did not know how long the pause would last. Would it be for a couple of weeks? A couple of months? Forever?
Josh and Evayn were referred to me by some great past clients of mine. We met for the first time via Zoom and we talked about the current state of the market and what to expect as a home buyer looking to purchase a home in close-in North or Northeast Portland. I explained how despite the pandemic, real estate was as busy as it’s ever been with nearly every good house getting multiple offers and almost always going over asking. Having caught them up to speed on the state of the market they were prepared for the worst, or at least prepared that it might take a while before they found the perfect house and had an offer accepted. We discussed what they were hoping to find, and they mentioned that they had seen a house listed in Overlook that seemed to check all their boxes. It had just gone pending so unfortunately that was off the table as an option. Or was it?
Kat was referred to me in mid-May by a former client of mine, about two months into the pandemic. Like a lot of first time home buyers, being home all the time with roommates while also running a business had lost a lot of appeal after two months into Covid. Kat is an artist and has developed a successful business selling dice for role playing games and was looking for a cozy vintage home that also had a large enough space to move her business operations into. She also wanted to live as close-in as possible. We looked at a few houses to give her a feel for what was on the market, and nothing was close to ringing her bell. And then like magic, the perfect little 1910 bungalow with a nice front porch and porch swing on the back porch popped up in Creston-Kenilworth. It is sweet as a bell in the sunshine with high ceilings, a true to period re-done kitchen and bathroom and vintage charm galore. And the basement set up is perfect for running her business out of with an outside entrance that will allow her sweet pooch to run in and out of all day long. Like a lot of houses listed these days, it was unfortunately listed under market. In this frenzied market, even buyers with great down payments, over asking offer amounts and fantastic terms are having to write offers on multiple homes before one sticks. I had prepped Kat for this, and so we wrote up a really strong offer and then just bit our nails while we waited for the seller to review the 7 offers they received. Thankfully they did select Kat’s offer. A home run on the first hit for Kat. The sellers had done all the hard stuff so the inspection went well and a month after her offer was accepted, I got to meet Kat at the house to hand over keys.
Congratulations to Bea and David on getting the keys to their new to the home in Pleasant Valley. From start to finish their transaction was 32 days, and during this time, the world turned upside down and our planet went to war. The seller was Opendoor, which if you are unfamiliar with is an Ibuyer company that buys homes for cash off market and undervalue, and then slaps some paint and caulk on the house and puts the house back on the market at market value. I was out of town for President’s Day weekend when Bea and David decided to check out a house in Pleasant Valley that piqued their interest. Since it was an Opendoor property, they were able to let themselves in without me and what they found was a home that had parquet wood floors throughout the entire house, a tri-level layout, and decks with views for days on all levels. They were in love, so we wrote up the offer while I was still out of town, and the next day Opendoor accepted their offer. The first time I saw the house was at their inspection, and our inspector warned us that all Opendoor does is slap some lipstick on problems, and she has seen a lot of sale fails because of the poor condition of homes and Opendoor not willing to negotiate credits or repairs. Thankfully the inspection went fairly well- still a lot of work will need to be done to fix some rotted siding, roof and gutter issues and a few plumbing repairs, but overall it was one of the better Opendoor homes our inspector had inspected. Getting Opendoor to offer any credits was like trying to pull teeth out of a live tiger, but I did manage to get them a couple thousand in credit, which was better than a poke in the eye. And then right after we finished that negotiation, poof- the whole world collapsed. Thankfully my buyers were far enough into the transaction that we had everything pretty much nailed down so they were able to sign their closing docs- though I was not allowed to join them. The sale closed, and rather then me meeting them to give them their keys my buyers were able to get the keys from the lockbox at the house themselves. This was the first transaction that I can remember where I didn’t get to hand over keys or go to the signing. And like everything else in this new world, it feels strange and sad. But my buyers are thrilled and really that’s all that matters. They can focus on moving from where they are sheltering in place at their rental, to quarantining themselves in their new home.
Molly and her son have been renting a below market rate home owned by a non-profit in NE Portland for years. With her rent about to rise, Molly made it her mission to buy a home to provide her and her son much needed stability. Through luck, timing and meeting the right qualifications, Molly qualified for a $90k down payment assistance loan through the Portland Housing Bureau. The loan is actually a silent second, which means there are no payments made on the loan, it accrues no interest and is forgivable after a certain number of years living in the home. Concurrently, Portland Housing Center’s LIFT program was unveiled and Molly was able to snatch up one of their $20k grants. With $110k in down payment assistance, Molly was able to buy a fabulously adorable new construction home on a quiet street in the heart of the Kenton neighborhood. The 2 bed 1.5 bath was built in what was an oversized yard of a house, and though only 800 sf, this home is a great example of how to use a small footprint to create a home that lives much larger than what you would expect with a home with less than 1/2 the square feet than your average new construction home. And with the smaller footprint, it kept the cost down and created an affordable option for home ownership in the thriving Kenton area. The transaction itself was smooth as butter with an awesome listing agent, Daniel Silvey with Knipe Realty, who also happened to own the home, a fabulous lender- Jennifer Leon at Umpqua, terrific escrow officer Mariah Yee with Ticor Title and lots of help and guidance of folks at both the Portland Housing Bureau and the Portland Housing Center.
Congratulations to Sarah, Scottie and Piggers! Thanks to impeccable timing they were able to get $35k in down payment grants through the LIFT program and University of Portland’s down payment program designed to help full time employees buy their first home near the UofP. Within a week of having the LIFT reservation in hand, we found a great rancher in University Park that checked all the boxes including what we thought would be a difficult to find huge detached garage for Scottie’s blossoming contractor business. This was the week before Christmas, and knowing that the LIFT funds expired in 2 months, and that most likely they were not going to see a house that checked this many boxes in their price range anytime soon, I suggested they offer just a few hairs over asking in hopes that the seller would accept their offer prior to the weekend, and it worked! Three days before Christmas they had their offer accepted, which was just 2 days before I left town on vacation for 2 weeks. Thanks to my excellent colleague Lisa Avena at Living Room who took great care of them and handled their home inspection, I was able to enjoy my vacation knowing Sarah and Scottie were being well taken care of. The inspection turned up a few unexpected surprises in the crawl space, but having a contractor buying a house always makes me feel better when a house is going to need some work. Even though the seller (who was also the listing agent) wasn’t happy, we were able to get him to agree to fix the big stuff. And then the appraiser called out some dry rot on the garage. Grrrr. By this time we were in mid-January and the market had clearly turned a sharp corner. In the 4 weeks from when their offer was accepted to the time the appraisal came back, the market shifted strongly into a sellers market with little inventory and a ton of buyers out shopping. The seller was very aware of this, and reminded me a couple of times that he had someone waiting in the wings who wanted the house badly enough because of it’s huge garage, that this supposed buyer would have taken the property as-is. So when I told him that the appraiser had called out that the garage needed to be repaired before the lender would loan on the property, he refused to the garage repaired. This would have been the end for most buyers, but Sarah and Scottie were not daunted. Scottie knew he could take care of the issue himself in less than a day’s work, so we got the seller’s permission for Scottie to fix the issue and Scottie got to work. Between the 35k in funds, finding the right property at the exact right time, and having the literal skills and ability to fix a problem, this family of three were able to close on the perfect house for them.
With some buyers the journey towards home ownership takes a few more twists and turns then planned. My buyer Sydney had a few bumps in the road along the way, but through luck and good timing, reaped the reward of the perfect house for her.
ed in real estate back in the wonder year of 2007 when I got a job at a non-profit home builder HOST Development. My background was in community development and affordable housing, and my new job at HOST was to do community outreach and sell homes built by the non-profit builder to first time buyers who made at or below the area’s median family income. When I started working at HOST, I was eased into my job by our most fabulous office/computer/everything wrangler Holly. Holly had purchased a HOST home herself, and liked the company so much she was hired as our office manager. Fast forward a couple of years and the Great Recession hit, and being the smart and savvy person she is, Holly jumped the HOST ship when the writing was on the wall, and found a job working for the State of Oregon. I rode that ship out until the last lifeboat left in 2009, and while it was sort of traumatic to lose a salaried job in the height of the recession, the biggest gift that job gave me was the realization of how much I love working one on one with buyers and sellers.
I met Rachel and Rubin this past March. They had a matched savings account, an IDA (individual development account,) from Portland Housing Center and they were ready to buy a house. To say these two are delightful is an understatement- they are DELIGHTFUL and it’s people like these two that make my job so much fun. They are both from Portland and have lots of family in the area and knew they wanted to live near at least some of their family. They honed in on Milwaukie and SE Portland, and we set off looking at houses.
My buyers Daniel and Vinci contacted me after being exhorted (their words) by a mutual friend (and client) to contact me. They were living in my neighborhood, Hosford Abernethy, on a smallish house on a busy street and were thinking they were ready for a bigger house on a quieter street. The catch? They only wanted to live within a 15 square block area. They had been spending a large part of the summer visiting family in California, but a fixer located in their search area came on the market and they were intrigued. I had also just listed my neighbor’s house and it was getting a lot of action, so Daniel decided to fly up to Portland for an afternoon to look at these houses. In the meantime, there was another house in the neighborhood they had been keeping their eye on- a large brick house on a corner painted a bright and cheery green. This house had originally been listed nearly a year ago at a pretty far fetched price- nearly $200k more than it was currently listed at. Two weeks prior the house had a dramatic $75k price reduction putting it within reach for Daniel and Vinci. So on a sunny summer Monday three days after contacting me, Daniel flew up to Portland for a few hours. We took a grand tour of the 3 homes- all within a few blocks of each other, including the fixer, my listing and the big green big brick house. The fixer was too fixer-y, and my listing was a little too small, but the green brick house was a match.
The very best call a real estate broker can receive is a call from a buyer where they let you know they were referred to you and want to work with you and they already found a house they want to write an offer on. In real life though, it’s never quite as easy as that sounds. When my buyer Brittney called me in late April she and her family had fallen in love with a house in Brentwood Darlington they just saw at an open house and they wanted to put an offer in, but she didn’t have a broker yet. Thankfully I was available and I high tailed it over to the house to see for myself, and then right afterwards met with Brittney and her partner at a coffee shop to discuss.
Back in mid-March my buyer Valerie called me in somewhat of a panic because the new construction condo she had been in contract to purchase was a steaming pile of mess and the lender eventually pulled the plug on getting a loan for it. Turned out that the condo she had been in contract to purchase for months was part of a brand new complex and only 1 other condo out of twenty had sold since they officially went on the market 5 months prior. When there are that few sales on a new condo project, most lenders are going to deny a loan because the risk to the buyer of the whole stack of cards falling down is pretty real. If the rest of the complex winds up turning into rental apartments because the developer could not sell them as condos, it then it makes the units purchased by unfortunate buyers almost impossible to sell down the line- and that’s not a risk worth taking.
Every now and then I get to work with incredibly easy clients and I have to pinch myself because they seem too good to be true. Hanne and Andrew fall into that category. They were referred to me by a long ago client, and when we met up to talk about working together, the process of buying a home and the kind of house they were looking for for their first home purchase, their needs were simple. They loved old houses, wanted at least a couple of bedrooms and wanted to be within easy biking distance (easy for them at least) from their jobs in inner East Portland and had a realistic budget. Shortly after we met and they got their pre-approval, I sent them all listings west of 82nd that were financeable and seemed to have some potential. I can’t remember how many listings I sent them- maybe 15-20, and by the next day they sent me back their comments and questions about all of them. One in particular looked intriguing to them- an old farmhouse in the Woodstock area. The house hit the market at the end of September, right when the market flat-lined for a few months. It was now mid-February and had been on the market for five months, seemed reasonably priced where it was at, and the photos made it seem like a cute house. Of course, the question arose of- what’s wrong with it?
Back in 2011 I sold my buyer Erika and her then husband their first home- a glorious mid-century in Laurelhurst. Since then, we’ve kept in touch and about 5 years ago I worked with her parents when they purchased a dream home on the Willamette. But life has a funny way of going a different path than the one you think you are on, and Erika and her first husband had an amicable divorce. Erika has a new partner, Jake, and they have been living in Gladstone, where Jake works as a teacher. Erika’s kids school, her job and her kids Dad’s house were all in her old Laurelhurst neighborhood, and the commute was eating Erika alive. Erika touched base with me about 4 months ago as she and Jake started thinking about moving back to the Laurelhurst area. We looked at a few houses over a few months, but none were quite right.
Ali and Jeremy marched into their search for their first home with determination and motivation. They had realistic expectations of where we would find houses in their price range, and after recently getting married after 10 years together, they were eager to start the next phase of their lives. After we met and they got their pre-approval, they set their eyes on the prize. The first step was checking out a few homes at open houses, and then we went and looked at about 5 homes that could nicely be called dregs. While visiting each house, Jeremy would ask Ali what she liked about the house and what she didn’t. Ali is a bright side sider and she was always able to find something about each house that she liked. By the end of our tour, I had a pretty good feeling for what Ali was looking for. The fact that she was even willing to consider a couple of these homes (like the one that had cigarette burns all through the carpeted house, or the one that had two sets of front doors, but no rear or side doors, or that one with the creepy gun room in the basement), told me that her standards were pretty low. After that day I think they felt resigned to the fact that all the homes under $350k with a good sized yard for Moira and Hubble- their shepherd mix pups- and enough bedrooms and space to start a family in, would be less than ideal.
My buyer Bev moved to Portland two years ago, and at the time she moved here, she wasn’t that familiar with Portland so when she decided to buy a condo, she bought a sweet space in Gresham tucked alongside the Springwater Trail and some parks. After a year of living in Gresham, she decided that she would rather live in Portland because the drive for work, friends and everything else was getting tiresome. Last summer she contacted me after being referred by a friend. She had found a cute little 1 bedroom house on a flag lot in the Foster Powell neighborhood. She wavered on putting in an offer, and even came into my office where we sat down to write the offer. As we started to go through the paperwork, she hesitated and decided that she wasn’t ready to buy yet. Four months later she contacted me again because she was now ready to buy a house.
I met Jillian and Nick in early November when they began their house hunting adventure. As mid-century enthusiasts, they knew exactly what kind of house they wanted- open floor plan, huge picture windows, fireplace and preferably a vintage style kitchen. The only problem with having a love for that style is they are far from the only buyers out there looking for that perfect little mid-century in East Portland. About a week after we met they found what they thought was their dream home- as much as they tried not to fall in love, they did anyway and all 8 of their combined heart valves collapsed when the sellers selected another higher offer. They felt they would never get over losing that house, yet they managed to find a couple more homes that they liked enough to put offers in on. Considering all of the homes they liked were priced at or near the very top of their budget, they didn’t have a lot of wiggle room to go up in price when the multiple offer situations would kick in, so after they lost two more houses, they were heartbroken, but only in a 2-valve way each as opposed to the first house which was a 4-valve heartbreak.
Katie is my across the street neighbor, the mama of my older son’s best friend and someone who I feel ridiculously lucky to be able to call her a dear friend. We met nearly 9 years ago when my husband and I were on a walk around our neighborhood, Ladd’s Addition, with our then 2 month old packed tightly into his ergo. Katie was hanging out in her front yard with her rosy cheeked son who at almost 6 months old was sitting up and smiling and playing with dirt and grass, while our son was still a little bean who had just recently started smiling. At the time, Katie lived 2 blocks away from us in a rental house. I liked her from the moment I met her, but at the time, it felt like the age gap and development difference of 4 months between our sons seemed like a distance too far for our young sons to traverse and form a friendship. We waved and said hello as we saw each other from time to time in the neighborhood. About a year after we met her she wound up buying the house across the street from us, and by that time my son and her son had bridged the development gap and started playing together, and have been thick as thieves ever since.
In January of 2018, the longtime owner of Longfellows, the bookstore at 1401 SE Division passed away. The building is only a few blocks from Katie’s home, across the street from Abernethy Elementary where all of our kids go to school, and three blocks east of her current shop location. A few months later the building owner’s son who worked with his dad at the bookshop, closed the shop and put the building on the market. The main floor of the building is retail along Division, and upstairs is a gorgeous 3 bedroom apartment with gorgeous views of the west hills, downtown and the street below. Over the years Katie had developed a friendly bookstore-owner to bookstore-owner friendly relationship with the son, and when he decided to put the building on the market, his vision of the perfect buyer fit the exact description of Katie and her shop.
Four years ago I helped my buyers Megan and Christian purchase a home off NE Alberta. At the time they bought that house, it was a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom with an unfinished basement and attic, with the only way to access the attic through a pull down ladder from a hatch in the hallway. Over the last four years they have converted their basement into a lovely apartment and finished their attic with a master suite and added a spiral staircase for access. Christian has a construction and carpentry background and did most of the work. Being perpetual project taker-onners, they decided they were ready to purchase a second property to have as a rental, and since they excel at and enjoy sweat equity, ideally they wanted to purchase a home that had an unfinished basement that was suitable for turning into an ADU.
