Tag: gay REALTOR® portland

0% Down Success Story!

Posted on by Living Room Realty

There are lots of great programs out there to help buyers become home owners with a variety of down payment options.  A lender colleague of mine sent me a couple who were using the 0% down program.  It’s a great tool for people who can clearly make a mortgage payment but don’t have a huge savings, so basically MOST people.  The hard part in the Portland market is that you’re competing with multiple offers who usually have large down payments.  The reason why it puts the buyer at a disadvantage is because there are several components to an offer that make it strong.  There’s price, down payment, earnest money deposit, inspection period, closing costs, etc….

From a seller’s perspective, a 0% down payment means that the bank is 100% responsible for the loan if the buyers should stop making their payments.  In a real estate deal, when it’s time for the appraisal they will be looking hard at the house to make sure there’s nothing that might put the bank at risk for taking on 100% of the loan.  What that can translate to is the seller having to make repairs in order for the buyer to get their loan.  Most often a seller will go with not just the highest price but the strongest down payment because it puts them at less of risk.

All that said, it’s a challenge to find a house without multiple offers.  These clients were very specific about what they wanted.  It had to be a 3 bedroom in Kenton or Portsmouth.  We looked at all the old inventory to see if there were any overlooked gems but there wasn’t too much sitting there.  It didn’t take long before a house popped up directly across from my old house in Kenton where my kids live half the time with their other mom.  I happened to know the seller because he was my neighbor for 10 years.  The buyers loved the house and location so we wasted no time getting our offer in.  Miraculously, they accepted it the same day.

The rest was smooth sailing because the hardest part was finding the right house and finding a seller who was willing to work with us.  I thought this process might take months but we were able to find it in a matter of weeks.  Now we have some awesome new queer neighbors and kids across the street.  Congrats Jean and Sarah!!!  Come borrow eggs or butter anytime!

This Saturday at 7am, Sesame Street Town Hall on Racism!

Posted on by Living Room Realty

Our hearts are so heavy right now and I’ve been thinking a lot about how to talk to my kids about racism.  I’m excited to see what Sesame Street does with this.  Tune in this Saturday at 7am.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/06/02/us/cnn-sesame-street-standing-up-to-racism/index.html

Hometown Homo Gets a Homo of Her Owno!!!!

Posted on by Living Room Realty

This client needs no introduction.  Adrienne Graf is a born and raised Portlander with deep ties to the queer community, a champion for victims of sexual assault, and a loud as fuck renter’s advocate.  Not someone you’d want to get into a Facebook tangle with about renter’s rights because she will eat you alive.  She herself never thought she’d one day be a home owner in her town because of impossible prices for first time buyers.

Her brother is a mortgage broker and they had this idea that maybe she could borrow off her retirement account for her down payment.  Seemed legit so she started looking.  She sent me a house that had just come back on the market in St. Johns.  It was an adorable little 3 bedroom ranch and from what the listing agent told me, the previous buyer before us just got cold feet.  We checked it out and it was love.  I couldn’t really find anything wrong with it other than the electrical panel and a slightly older furnace. We were up against one other offer (so surprising with all the LIFT buyers) so we had to come up in price a few thousand but we got it!

Inspections went great and all was moving along until we found out that she was unable to borrow from that retirement account.  The deal was dead in the water until her brother, Thomas, being the saint that he is, decided he was going to loan her the down payment because he really wanted her to have this opportunity at home ownership and that’s what family should do.  It was one of the kindest acts of love I’ve seen in this business.

We negotiated a new panel and a tune-up for the furnace and Adrienne is now the proud owner of her perfect little witch cabin.  This was the best way to start off the new year and set the tone for what’s to come.  Congrats, paisan!  We did it!  Special thanks to Thomas Graf, the real hero here.

Firehouse Row – Living History

Posted on by Bonnie Roseman

Brendan and Mary landed a piece of the past!

Victorian in SE Portland
A Portland original

At the corner of SE Harrison and 7th Avenue a number of Victorian era homes have been carefully preserved. Originally built in 1893 as rental homes, shortly after East Portland was annexed by the booming City of Portland. One of the renters, Lee G. Holden, designed the adjacent fire station (circa 1913) and these houses were often home to firefighters who worked at Engine No. 23 and their families. The firehouse itself later made history as Oregon’s first medical cannabis dispensary and now their bud tenders offer medical and recreational weed.  They have maintained the original facade and some of the other architectural features of the old station. Commonly called Firehouse Row, the official name of this little enclave of Queen Anne lovely ladies, added to the National Historic Registry in 1989, is The George P. Lent Investment Properties. George, who was born in Portland in 1852 to the eponymous Lents family, of the Lents neighborhood, built the now famed homes.

Then and Now

When Brendan and Mary described their wish list for a first home of their own, this beauty with its turret, colored glass and other historic architectural details came right to mind. It was love at first sight. Navigating a VA loan, with all the extra requirements regarding property conditions, on an 1893 historic home, was a bit of a battle. Also, the home was being used as a short term rental, further complicating inspections and repairs, because we had to schedule all of our appointments around guest bookings. In the end we got it all successfully squared away.

Gracing the walls of the Airbnb, the sellers had some very old mounted photos of the house and neighborhood on display. As a wonderful gesture they left them for Brendan and Mary to enjoy. A very sweet gift! The block is still intact, providing a rare site of old, old Portland housing.

On their project list is repainting the exterior. Mary and Brendan contacted Bob Buckner, famed color expert of The Painted Ladies Revisited and other works on Victorian homes and he coded photos of the house to guide them through how to get the paint job just right. I cannot wait to see it!

References: Multnomah Pioneer Obituaries, Wikipedia, Placeandsee.com, https://www.cannablissandco.com/firestation-23-portland-or

Not a Murderer!

Posted on by Living Room Realty

I got a strange text from someone on a Sunday afternoon saying they were looking for a REALTOR® that was responsive and flexible with their time, was that me?  I said yes and they asked me to meet them at this vacant house the next morning.  I was a more than a little creeped out by their tone but I looked them up on Facebook and saw we had one mutual friend so I agreed to meet.  I told my business partner  the address and that if she didn’t hear from me by 10:30am to call the police.  Luckily, she was exactly what her profile picture looked like and not a murderer but you can never be too careful in my line of work.  I’ve seen and heard of some crazy shit!

She had gone to the open house that Sunday with friends and loved it but when we walked through it together and I pointed out the amount of work it needed she decided to pass.  I was relieved because it looked like a nightmare deal.  Hours later she called again and wanted to make an offer so I wrote it up.  The agent on the other end is an agent I’ve had several deals with and we have a good rapport.  We acknowledged off the bat that getting this house to finance and the amount of repairs needed would be very tricky, but we both committed to gather all the bids and do all the legwork to keep it alive.

This house might be the roughest one yet.  The only inspections we got lucky on were sewer and radon but the rest were enough to make a buyer run far away.  This particular buyer had been looking in her price range for close to a year and was using a first-time buyer program that was expiring so we had to make this work if possible.  We got bids on bids on bids and just asked for the world.  We knew we wouldn’t get it all but we knew what we needed to have to stay in the deal.Over several days of back and forth nail biting negotiations we got what we needed to make it work.

This year has been the year of really tough deals.  As the market is shifting, buyers have some negotiating power again.  It’s a good time to try to buy if you are on the edge of thinking you may have to rent forever.  Let me get you there.

This Family Caught the House Bug.

Posted on by Living Room Realty

Amy and Luis were along for the ride last month when Amy’s sister Kara bought her house.  Two weeks after that house closed, Luis texted me with a house he wanted to see for a rental.  The idea was to either buy a house that Amy and Kara’s parents can move into, or just a house they can hold onto for a long term investment.  We hung out for an hour at a really beat up bungalow.  It had been a rental forever and the tenants had a weed operation in the basement.  The location was cool, but the house needed a minimum of $100k to bring it back to life.

As we were standing by our cars talking about the offer we were going to write, I mentioned that I’d really like to see them buy a mid-century instead of an old bungalow for an investment.  Even if it were a grandma ranch, the bones would be a lot more solid and it would likely only need cosmetics.  I had a house on my radar that I was meaning to check out for myself so I showed them photos of it online.  Ten minutes later we were there.

The house had been on the market for two weeks at $625k.  I really think the only reason it didn’t fly off the shelf was because it came on during a holiday weekend.  The history of it was that it had been in the same family for 50 years and when the mom died recently, the daughter came up from Florida and updated all the systems.  She replaced the roof, electrical, furnace, painted, remodeled a bathroom, and added an egress to the basement family room.  It was important to her to honor her mother and the home she grew up in and get it ready for market.  It was immaculate and bright with pass-through picture windows that look out into the large landscaped back yard.  She left all the mid-century details untouched and did all the right things to make it modern.

Because this house has a full basement with egress and it’s own entrance separate from the main house, it would be very easy to convert to a duplex.  Everyone left in love and an hour later Luis called to tell me to write it up.  Because it wasn’t going to be his home and there’s less emotional attachment with a rental and there were no other offers, he offered $25k under asking.  The next day the seller accepted.

There wasn’t much to negotiate on this deal because everything had already been done.  The only tricky part was the sewer line but we were able to get the seller to replace it before closing.  The timing worked out perfectly because  Amy and Luis married last Saturday and Amy’s parents were still in town Monday when it closed to check out their potential new home.  I love these clients and I LOVE when deals go super smooth.  Congrats Amy and Luis!!!

When Not Pulling Permits Bites You in the Ass.

Posted on by Living Room Realty

 

My friends started their house hunt not thinking that they’d be able to find what they wanted in their price range close in North Portland.  We were looking everywhere from St. Johns to the 120’s.  Then this little 60’s remodeled ranch with 3/2 popped up in Kenton, the neighborhood they are currently living in.  It all seemed fortuitous that there were no other offers and ours was accepted immediately.  There was nothing glaringly obvious that would come up on inspections or so we thought.

Two big things came up on the home inspection.  The first was the newish roof must’ve been power washed at some point because many of the shingles were bald and had lost granulation.  Roof rule #1:  Never power wash a roof.

The second and giant issue the inspector discovered while crawling around the crawlspace, was that the foundation ended just before the giant master bedroom in the back of the house.  There was no way to inspect what was going on down there and that signaled alarms.  When you come across this it usually means that there was an addition at some point.  We insisted the sellers cut an access to that space to the crawl so we could have it inspected and when they opened it up there was only 4″ until you hit dirt.  Standard crawlspace code is a minimum of 18″.

This deal was looking dead.  Not only had someone built and unpermitted addition, but they hadn’t even done it up to code.  My buyers were actually ok with it being unpermitted, but they weren’t ok with the crawlspace clearance.  The only thing to do here was to find the fix and see how many thousands it would take to correct.

I called in one of the most respected foundation guys in town knowing that if I have to sell this down the line, the next buyer and agent will know the work was done by the best.  He concluded that the only fix was to dig it out to the tune of $13k.  That’s actually a lot cheaper than I thought it would be but still a lot to ask for, especially since the sellers claim to not have known about the unpermitted addition.

Many days of negotiations took place and were stressful as all hell.  We asked for the crawlspace and roof and it was pretty non-negotiable for the buyers.  The sellers countered with a tiny contribution and we continued to hold strong for the entire amount.  Things were not looking good by the 11th hour and everyone was on pins and needles.  The seller decided to let the deal die even though that meant his next purchase in Olympia would also die.  It also meant that since he now knew about this addition, he would now have to disclose it to future buyers.

Everyone was bummed and exhausted by this and probably a little relieved to be out of this relationship with the seller.  It was like dealing with an emotionally abusive ex.  But sure enough, a day later he came crawling back.  I hated even having to go back to my buyers with this again but he was willing to give them almost everything.  They were now on the fence because they had spent the whole night talking themselves out of the house and were already looking at other houses online.  After much deliberation they decided to stick with the house.

The only highlight to come out of this sale (aside from getting all the repairs) was that the house appraised $53k OVER asking price.  The buyers can feel confident that they made a solid purchase and we can all rest assured that the house will not be rotting from the ground up.  Aaaaaand, it’s finally over. Aaaaand I had a million drinks to get over this one.  zzzzzzzzzz

 

Cold Feet In Our Favor This Time!

Posted on by Living Room Realty

Our client Kara had only one piece of criteria in her home search that was a MUST and that was being blocks from her sister’s house and the school she teaches at.  There wasn’t a whole lot out there in Mt. Tabor in her budget until a fellow Living Room agent listed this little house.  From the outside, you can’t tell how big this house is because the hedges are like a fortress around it.  Once inside, the floor plan is open and breezy with big windows and cozy fireplace.

The selling point, besides location, was that the seller had finished out the basement into an apartment.  It wasn’t a legal apartment because it lacked an egress window but the potential to offset the mortgage was huge.  It was already plumbed, the 2nd kitchen was in place, and a full bath.  I explained the cost of adding an egress is anywhere from $2500-$4k and Kara thought it was a no-brainer.

We sent our offer in knowing there were going to be multiple offers.  For a while, it was looking like we were the front runner until a neighbor saw an opportunity to put his mom next door.  We were ultimately outbid and the neighbor won.  We were offered backup position and we took it.  I had a strong feeling this house was going to come back to us and sure enough a week and a half later I got the call.  The neighbor got cold feet because the basement wasn’t legal and backed out.  This happens so often where someone who is not in the market to buy, not educated by a realtor, impulsively decides to make an offer then immediately has buyer’s remorse.  It’s frustrating for all but it worked out my our buyer this time.  She’s stoked she’s able to have someone offset her mortgage payment in a separate living space.  Congrats, Kara!!!

Vegan Iron Chef!

Posted on by Bonnie Roseman

I am so excited to be co-sponsoring the Vegan Iron Chef Pop–Up Party!

When:

  • Saturday, June 22, 2019
  • 3:00 PM  5:00 PM

Where:

Lagunitas Community Room 237 NE Broadway St #300Portland, OR 97232

What:

Exclusive offerings will be available from an epic line-up of plant based pop-ups, plus, beverages, raffles and more!

Why:

This event is a fundraiser for the Vegan Iron Chef’s LIVE COOK-OFF & special guest beneficiary, GREEN ACRES FARM SANCTUARY in Silverton, OR.

 

For more information visit www.veganironchef.org.

Please come support the good work these folks are doing, have some amazing food, lots of fun, and remember to say hello.

🙂

Get it While It’s Hot in FoPo!!!!

Posted on by Living Room Realty

Adorable Victorian Farmhouse in hot Foster/Powell! Light and bright, this home has big sunny windows, fresh paint, and beautiful hardwood floors. Nice open floor plan, new gas fireplace, proper dining room, handsome kitchen cabinets, a breakfast nook, and all around good vibes! Has detached garage with electric, new roof, fully fenced yard, landscaping and garden. Bike score 97! It doesn’t get any cuter. Open Houses Sat+Sun 11-1.  Call me to see, 508-340-1456

Dream McMansion in Milwaukie!

Posted on by Living Room Realty

Christy and RJ were some of my first clients years ago when I started.  I sold them first house in Woodstock just around the corner from Toast.  We stayed friends over the years, they showed up with baby gifts when I had my first kid and also turned me on to the world of Portland Storage Wars.  They became solid regulars at NWIPA and loved being only 6 blocks away.  Christy started getting the itch to move closer to her job in Milwaukie and called me up when she was certain she wanted to move.  She had found her dream home on a 1/4 acre lot at the end of a dead end street.

There’s only the 2 of them so I wasn’t sure why they wanted a 5 bedroom 3 bath house, but they realized they have a tendency to take in wayward strays.  This house is HUGE.  It had been recently gutted and remodeled but I think the selling point was the party basement.  RJ pictured a pool table and Christy pictured enough room to display her mom’s furniture.  Coming from a smaller house where they had roommates for a few years, it felt like they could stretch out and breathe.  This is the home they can grow old in.

Congrats, pals!  I loved being a part of your dream home.  Off to sell the old one.

 

Best of Both Neighborhoods!!!

Posted on by Living Room Realty

Nestled between FoPo and Woodstock, you get the best of both neighborhoods! Remodeled bungalow on a corner lot with updates galore! Newer roof, panel, furnace, AC, paint, and windows. HUGE kitchen, proper dining room, master up with bath, fireplace, hardwoods, garage, and basement for storage. Yard is fully fenced with awesome southern light! Great walk score and food and shops at your fingertips. Open Houses Saturday 11-1, Sun 1-3pm.  Call me to see! 508-340-1456