That Sweet New Listing...and why are they selling NOW?

14 years ago, (I remember because I was pregnant with Emma at the time), I sold this sweet house to some dear clients; dear now, as we've done business together for 14 years, back then it was our first transaction together.  They paid $98,600 for what was then a bit of a fixer in an okay to not so good neighborhood.

My clients are extremely hardworking people, doing most all of the fix up themselves; evenings and weekends after their fulltime jobs and while raising two lovely girls.  Oh yes, and between tenants of course.  Over the years they have added hardwood floors, remodeled the kitchen and bath, recrafted all of the period woodwork and much more.

In time, these folks bought more rental properties and switched their focus a bit to duplexes that were built as duplexes (not conversions with odd floor plans), in nicer neighborhoods.  As many landlords find, these duplexes are easier to manage and bring a higher level of tenant.  So my clients have decided to sell, and exchange this house into a duplex.  The exchange is a tax slight of hand, where by they'll defer paying any taxes on their financial gain from this sale, as long as they put all their proceeds from this sale into their new purchase.

These folks are selling now, in what some think of as a "bad" market for two main reasons.  1) Though the house is seen as having lost value in the years since 2005, the plexes we'll be looking at have also decreased in value, so the market adjustement can be seen as a wash.  2) Since these folks bought 14 years ago, and did not load up this property with debt, they have reasonable equity with which to move into a more preferrable type of project. 

Currently the house is listed at $229,900.  It is located at 705 NE 72nd Avenue.  Oh yes, and the neighborhood as improved alot in those 14 years.  A typical Victorian, the bedrooms are small, but there are three of them, plus a nice parlor, living room and dining room.  Because the basement is really more of a cellar, the laundry is on the main floor; so nice NOT to take one's clothes to the dirtiest part of the house to clean them.  The gleaming hardwood floors are a treat as houses of this vintage weren't  built with hardwoods and these are new, so even houses built in the 1920's and 1930' wouldn't have floors in this good of shape.  The forced air gas powered heat, gas hotwater and gas cooking are crowd pleasers too.  To view the virtual tour, click here.

The house will be held open on Sunday, June 26th from 1:00 - 3:00 pm.  If you'd like to see it before then, give me a call at 503-312-8038.  A few photos are below: