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 big green brick house has always been one of my neighborhood landmarks- I remember way back when, maybe 9 or 10 years ago, when it used to be white brick. The house happens to abut the SE Living Room office, and I had long admired its presence. Given the green brick house had been on the market for nearly a year, I didn’t know what to expect when we toured the interior. The listing photos were lovely, but it’s always  hard to know if the truth matches the images. And from the exterior, it looked like the house didn’t have much in the way of a yard. Thankfully the house was just as lovely, and felt even more spacious, in person. And the house has a very private backyard retreat complete with a large pond and waterfall. The garage is prominent, but until you go inside, it’s hard to tell from the street how ginormous the garage really is- it’s wide, it’s deep and it has soaring ceilings- all the right features for turning the garage into an ADU, workshop, or both!

The transaction was smooth and after a couple of weeks of occupancy after closing, Daniel and Vinci will move 10 blocks from their current house to the big green brick house on the corner. Their family has a car-free lifestyle and have answered calls to help other folks move by bike, including our mutual friend’s recent move.  Once the green brick house sellers have moved out, expect a grand bike move at the end of the month.