Rare Form's 2014 Rookies of the Year.

Mackenzie and Liz are true brand advocates.  Buyers with no real, prior knowledge of making a sound investment in real estate.   Their journey through three lost offers lead them to eventual glory: a 1929 Minnehaha Parkway Mediterranean two story, creek facing and neighboring a brick colonial pending at 625,000!  The Young's deserved every ounce of this victory after enduring three painful evenings of bitter defeat. Similar to many buyers in the younger generation, Mackenzie and Liz were initially drawn to Rare Form, for our brand differences, primarily our focus on classic homes without a corporate sales quota.   "We saw your sign on Bryant, went to your website and loved the direction of your brand, it seemed to fit our personalities."  Mackenzie stated as we sipped some terrific Michigan hops at Muddy Waters in LynLake in early December.

The Young's wound up in MPLS via Liz's doctoral studies in Psychology at the U.  Proximity to bus-lines was paramount to the purchase criteria.  The opening discussion was wide open, they desired a historically significant building, single family or duplex.

The spring panic came early; losing back-to-back multiple offers on Bryant in East Harriet awakened Mackenzie and Liz to the big time competitive nature of South Minneapolis real estate.  The first one was the most difficult, as it possessed box beam ceilings and built-ins galore.  Nestled on the Piccolo corner, the home was and is by all senses of the word, a starter home.

Photos of the first two losses are below.   Bryant offered a starter price point, one that is very difficult to purchase within, as demand for sub-300 homes is cutthroat.

Several lessons were learned, resulting in a level of intuition that many buyers never possess at any age.  After each crushing loss, we hit the streets the following day.  The palette was left wide open regarding locations and type of property, skipping from a three story duplex to a clay tiled creekside is not a common ability of most buyers.

To be 'YOUNG' again, the flexibility and pure openness to making a sound investment is why Mackenzie and Liz ended up with such a heroic first investment.

The Lyndale duplex below was the most crushing of the defeats - with 26 years of owner occupied updates, this building was an investors dream.   The pros and cons were immense, so, our offer strategy was thrown off by the building having no garage.

Jennifer Jorgensen of J.Jorgensen joined this tour as she too has become obsessed with The Duplex Manifesto.Perched in the upper loft of the Duplex, we discussed offer strategy on the property.   A difficult consult for me as my sense of the negotiation was to pull back because of the lack of garage.  It's very limiting to set up a luxury rental property without parking for german automobiles.  

The contents are blurred out, however, a major player in our offer strategy on Minnehaha was to deliver a letter to the original owner, that laid out the intentions of our purchase agreement and the advent that the home will be cherished and cared for, for decades to come.  This was particularly important to the seller who grew up in the home, and acquired it from her parents in the early 90's.

Our offer was the strongest of the four submitted, key components being a strong earnest check, clean financial terms,  and closing on the sellers watch.   Working with Gary Brown at Inspection Solutions, we completed a pre-purchase walk through that allowed us to cover the major components of the inspection:  foundation/structure, roof, HVAC, plumbing & electrical.  Completing these items on the onset, allowed the offer to be contingency free, releasing the seller of inspection anxiety, and landing the Young's parkway views for their first home!Gary Brown at Inspection Solutions provides an incredible asset to our clients, charting the roadmap to turning your home into a flawlessly maintained structure.   Gary spent 25 years building structures in Los Angeles, he brings the practical knowledge necessary to give our clients the edge needed to grow their real estate wealth.   A first look into the closet for the coming decades.   The home is badly smoke damaged, requiring special primer coats to all surfaces and an immediate clearing of carpets and hardwood refinishing.Real estate on the parkway has priceless value in our opinion, the feeling of urban lakeshore ensues when you soak in the front lawn.  Our third parkway sale in the past year, we plan on urging several Marathon parties for the years to come.   The smallest sink you have seen in Minnesota, very NYC sized, the main floor powder hosts this character rich fixture.