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I am always thrilled to be able to reconnect with past clients and assist them in their life transitions.
I first helped Raine Dozier and her partner buy a house in Columbia City many years ago. At that time, Raine was working on her P.H.D. and working part-time. A few years later, she landed a good job in Bellingham at Western University, so she bought a house and moved there with her youngest daughter who was still in school.
However, Raine has always been more of a big city person and she really missed Seattle. As soon as Rye, her daughter, started her first year in college, Raine returned to Seattle and rented a place, very close to her oldest daughter, in her old stomping ground of Capitol Hill. She had to teach just two days a week in Bellingham, so it felt quite doable.
The more time she spent on the hill, the more she realized that she wanted a permanent home, so she contacted me, and we started looking at condos, as houses were way too expensive.
Her main requirement was that she be allowed to have a piano so that her daughter, who is majoring in music, could practice when she was home from university. This limited the potential places as it needed to be on the ground floor in a place that allowed a piano to be played several hours a day. Raine also needed to have some space for her daughter to stay but could only afford a one-bedroom as she was drawn to beautiful historic buildings which tend to be more expensive than newer ones.
We looked at a few places and considered putting offers on two, however one had a $2,000,000 assessment to re-pipe the whole building. That was huge and it just felt like a major risk should the assessment go way up given so many unknowns in such an old building. The other unit was on the first floor and a piano was a big no go.
Raine was resigned to the fact that it could take a long time to find the right place. However, she just happened to go into an open house close to her apartment and she fell in love with it. It was perfect as it was on the ground floor, in a beautiful old building with two good bedrooms and the piano was not a deal breaker.
The problem was that it was more money than she had wanted to spend and she was told by the agent holding it open that someone had already written an offer.
Raine called me, and I called the listing agent straight away. Luckily it was an agent I had worked with many times before, and he told me that he had received an offer with an expiration date of 11 am the next morning.
By this time, it was late in the day, and Raine had gone out to dinner. I promised him that we would have an offer before 11 am in order to compete, but I wanted to have Raine sleep on it to decide if this was the place she really wanted.
The next morning Raine said she wanted to go for it. I had prepared the paperwork the night before, so that we could act quickly. We crafted a competitive offer and Raine wrote a great letter, explaining why she loved the condo, especially as it had two bedrooms. Included was this wry comment, “Rye is a classical pianist so I anticipate some periods of underemployment.” Like many parents these days, Raine could see her daughter living with her after she graduated college.
The other offer was higher but Raine’s letter really spoke to the sellers. My proven track record with the listing agent also really helped, as the other buyer’s agent was an unknown who was very aggressive.
I am so happy that Raine finally has a permanent home for her and her daughter. And coming full circle, it turns out Rye was born on Capitol Hill, in the last house standing behind the Starbucks on Denny and Olive.
Congratulations!
