What can I say about this home buying experience…well for starters, Danny (my buyer) is one of the most hard working professionals I know. He pioneered his own company (owner of the graphic design company Harlo Interactive) AND somehow had the time and desire to find a house that needed some love. When he told me he was looking for a fixer upper, we sat and looked at his Pintrest page and let me tell you…this guy has AMAZING taste and I was so very inspired to find him a house that would be the perfect pallet for his vision. He wanted to find something to restore, keeping the period details that makes Portland property special, while modernizing it in all the right ways…specifically his vision for kitchen/bathroom spaces really impressed me.
So, off we went on the house hunt and we came across a house on SE Peacock lane (the Christmas light street in Laurelhurst)! This house has been on and off the market for YEARS and of course we knew we were in for somewhat of an ‘interesting process’ given the history and the fact that there is a swimming pool in the back that had been converted into a garden..this brings new meaning to the coin phrase in real estate ”Bring your hammer”…I suppose in this case it should be…”bring your shovel”.
This may go without saying, but Danny will be converting this to a nice back yard/patio space. Bye bye swimming pool/garden. It was cute in its own quirky way. (We had a lot of fun playing around for this photo shoot….what a guy! Don’t take life too seriously folks, it’s just SO much more fun it you don’t.)
I’ll say this…staying calm, understanding, and flexible are key to any tricky transaction. Sometimes that is lost on people (on the other side) and it’s still our job to find a way to remain level headed and keep our attention on the MACRO, not the Micro.
Danny’s easy going attitude and impenetrable faith that things would work out seriously made this transaction possible. I even received calls from colleagues asking me HOW I was able to sell this house…I told them ”I’ll call you when it’s actually closed and let you know”. With some luck we did it! We closed on the ‘house that couldn’t be sold’. This house needs some love for sure, and Danny has his work cut out for him but he also got a GREAT deal on a piece of Portland architecture, in an awesome neighborhood. I can’t WAIT to see what he does to the place.
Congratulations Danny!