Matt and I Did a Thing!
Guess what! The realtor and real estate developer finally bought a house!
Yep! We bought a sweet little fixer in Portola, which is probably one of San Francisco’s best kept secrets of a neighborhood!
Why this house? Before Matt even saw the home, he fell in love with the location across the street from McLaren Park. With 313 acres of park in our front yard including 6 playgrounds, pickleball courts, tennis courts, baseball fields, a 9-hole golf course with club house, AND let’s not forget the Jerry Garcia Amphitheatre, among all the other amenities, he’s beyond excited. There’s no need to guess where you’ll find Matt on Jerry Day!
And for me, well, I’ve been studying layouts of homes since I moved to San Francisco, and have visualized how my own family might live in so many of these homes. So, I could easily see the vision and opportunity past the popcorn ceiling, ugly paint colors, and questionable design choices from the previous owners. Between location, layout and budget, this house was everything we were looking for!
Why now? Even with interest rates rising everyday, we saw that property values were plunging for homes with issues. It didn’t take much to realize we had a golden opportunity to buy a good home at a lower price with less competition, AND this choice could actually lower our expenses. Yep, the mortgage to our new home is going to be cheaper than our rent, and we get to build equity into this asset. And, this was the lifecycle event that finally forced our hand into buying a home!
What about the feels? I’m all over the place! I’m living the American Dream - we’re buying a home that we get to make our own and we’re starting with a quick lipstick reno. And that is so rad! I can totally see our family living in this space and loving it!
On the other side of that feel, we’re leaving one of the coolest neighborhoods in San Francisco - the Inner Mission. I have LOVED living here where we’ve been just two and a half blocks from Matt’s sister and her family, no more than a block or two away from glorious produce markets on 24th Street, the best tamale shop in the city, the most wonderful family-friendly pizza house… and my list could go on. But to be honest, it’s not much different than how I felt when we left Russian Hill for the Mission mid-Pandemic. It’s both bittersweet and so exciting!
And so here it goes again with another adventure in a new part of the city! Stay tuned! The Before and After story and photos are coming soon!
