We were having a rough go of it, months of writing supremely strong offers on popular homes in coveted neighborhoods. It was getting down-right depressing, but we carried on vying for pole-position, looking into that misty (and wholly absent) crystal ball of mine and begging for the right combination of money and terms to magically appear from the ether. It never will. You write your strongest and best, most personable, emotionally compelling offer, send a pic of your clients and their dog, and wait to hear back. Perhaps you don’t even get to do that.
And then something clicks. A life change, a paradigm shift – a whole new set of priorities washes the old ones away. And that’s what happened for Yumi and Adam.
Standing in the foyer of a too-expensive, too-small, really cute but really unrealistic house, in the middle of the city on one of the worst and busiest and most crime-ridden roads in town, they dropped a bomb on me, “We’re pregnant. We need a bigger house, on a better street, smaller budget.” I was elated for their news and perplexed by my new mission. Better, better, less? EEK.
They broke it to me gently, “Though we’ve been looking all around, now we’re gonna have to start really focusing east of 60th, or south to Milwaukie.” My inner response (perhaps it was my outside voice too) screamed YES, YES, YES! More house, less money, quiet culdesacs, less competition, high quality homes, and more mid-century home options! Sure there’s fewer boutiques, and less coffee but can you really fit a stroller into those places anyway? I loved searching the trendy spots with them, but I too was getting annoyed at the fierce competition. This sounded like a brilliant plan of action, an “opening of criteria” as we in the industry might say.
We looked at one house. ONE. It was the one. On a corner lot on a quiet cul-de-sac nestled so far into the cheery recesses of mid-century ranch tracts that I had to use GPS to find it, every dang time! Situated near real-life amenities (Target, Home Depot, Sushi Train, & I-205) in darling Cherry Park, among other well-kept homes, where the pride of ownership is apparent. Where a child can ride his or her tricycle along miles of sidewalk, and no one parks in front of your house to get ice cream in December.
We made our offer, we were accepted. We played some hardball, I did a little problem solving, and we ended up with a fantastic first home for a very lovely family-to-be.
Oh and did I mention it has a bar? Yep, what new parent has time for hipster taverns of Alberta Street when he’s got his own (yacht-rock themed?) pub at home? Not this dad!—>
So, a big thumbs up to Adam and Yumi and their new baby …Alyssa? (hey, that name definitely works for a boy too!) I seriously enjoyed taking this path to home ownership with you! I had so much fun.. sooo much fun!
Enjoy!!
