Anna Matsunaga Team Mometnum, Keller Williams Realty Tacoma,
www.teammomentumrealestate.com 253 353 2662.
Yesterday I showed a home that was well with in walking distance of my own home and wrote an offer on it. In doing so and sharing more with the buyer, who had been using my listing finder service on our team website www.teammomentumrealestate.com ,I reaffirmed much of what I like about being in Fern Hill.
Our first home was here in Fern Hill and we purchased if with out me being a realtor, in fact with out a realtor. ( and the problems that went along with that are a whole other story) We lived in that home from 1994 to 2004. While we lived there we watched the neighborhood change and we were a part of the change which felt really good.
In that first house we at once point had a drug house on one side or the other of us. When we saw things that could say for sure this was what was going on, we like the other long term residents of our little dead end called the poiice. We had not chosen Fern Hill for the good neighborhood, we had chosen it becasue we could not afford to buy on the North End where we were renting at the time. I remember looking at a home there on the North End and remembering that it was listed for ONE HUNDRED TWENTY FIVE THOUSAND dollars! Wow that seemed like alot and I was sure right then we would not be living there....
Our credit was poor at the time and we had been on the verge really of bankruptsy for years but we also knew that our rent money was doing nothing for us. But we also knew we could not qualify for a loan. Then my father ran into a family friend that I had not seen in well over 10 years, he now lived in Tacoma, but had been transferred to Portland and needed to sell his house. He carried a contract for us for 4 yeasrs. We made every payment and in the end refinanced and bought him out. We only chose Fern Hill at that time since his house was there and we could make hte payments.
Over the 10 years we lived in that house the neighborhood was more and more bought out by new home owners and it improved. I also loved how close it was to everything, the grocery store, the post office ,the library, the parks ( lots of them) the bank, home improvement stores, restaurants and lots more. The neighborhood had a laid back quality that we liked. Lots of people had dogs and walked them by our house. Lots of kids. We felt at home....except we were growing out of our home....
Then I became a Realtor(r) and we still needed a new home since we now were living in under 800 sf with 4 dogs, by now 2 kids and my new business as Realtor(r).....so we began shopping, and wouldn't you know we stayed in Fern Hill and we purchased a home exactly one mile away. This time because we wanted to be here. True, we still love the North End, and we still found it out of our price range, but there were plenty of other choices and we still ended up chosing this house here. I am glad we did, I like it here.
Where we ended up is near a housing project built in 2003, we know our neighbors and in most cases really like them. We are still close to everything and yes I love to pick my neighbors.
