Bluebird Starter to Limestone Legacy

How many houses are you going to sell in your life? Make them count:
Leveraging great design to achieve a stature of architecture you never thought possible.

A listing in Rare Form Move Up Q & A

We met Barry and Jordan three years ago: fresh off their engagement, desiring a home for the price of rent, with a minimal down payment. The resulting housing stock in this category is nearing extinction in South Mpls.

At our first Purveyors greeting, it was clear that these two were determined to operate within the constraints of their infant careers and starter salaries.

Barry and Jordan’s story is about determination, and working with what you have. While 95% of their peers were renting luxury apartment buildings across Minneapolis, J&B were determined to make the most of their situation and dive into a walkable starter house near Lake Nokomis.

Thus the Bluebird starter was acquired, stretching the budget to 220k in order to land her Minnehaha walkability.

Three years later, the idea of the move-up entered their minds as the desire for a more inspiring daily space was evident.

B&J gathered three broker price opinions from “area experts” in and around Nokomis: resulting in listing price of 270-275K. After a couple weeks of delayed voicemail response (a medium of communication no longer identified by our broker as a valid form of communicating🤣), enter listing in Rare Form.

Following the initial walk through, where stark and bold statements were proclaimed about the home’s weaknesses, J&B agreed to our proposal to iron out all of Bluebirds wrinkles. Deidre Webster was measuring the kitchen and bath a week later.

Admitting your spaces shortcomings is the first step to recovery with Rare Form.

The kitchen was a cramped bunker, widening the galley opening & adding eastern exposure changed the game inside.

The “owner of record” equity executed by our trades and captained by Deidre (Design in Rare Form) resulted in a higher payoff than forecasted which afforded their Tangletown legacy tudor, which provides a more fitting canvas for the perseverance of these two.

Jordan & Barry’s tenacity, drive, and trust catapulted them clear of the “kid-stuff” and squarely onto a stately block in Tangletown: an altitude of home previously unattainable under the strategy of corporate listing brokerages.

Bluebird of Minnehaha-2016

Limestone Legacy Of Tangletown- 2020

Q: The Bluebird was full of wrinkles: Kitchen and Bath dark & drab, paint scheme lacked continuity, this created a hefty design to sell process that you guys ultimately flourished at the task of executing. What feedback from listing in Rare Form would you share with other aspiring “owners of record” especially its pains, & gains?

Barry: Trust the process. The money invested will always be worth it, even when you go over the budget originally set. The work you do yourselves is worth it - and enjoy it while you do it, because it really pays off in the end.

Jordan: The best part about listing in Rare Form was that there’s only one decision (and you’ve already made it): it’s time to sell and find a better house. While it does mean you have to partially execute a remodel and put in the work, it’s temporary and to see it completed after you put your blood, sweat, and tears into it, is such a rewarding feeling at the end.

Q: Buying bluebird when you were broke kids starting out post college, how did you settle on selecting your starter home:

Barry was done paying rent and was ready to buy a house, knowing that it was a worthwhile investment- Jordan had to be convinced. But after looking at a lot of homes online and narrowing down the neighborhoods we wanted to live in, we knew we were ready to buy when we talked with Steve. The first house we walked through with Steve was the bluebird and it checked off all of our starter home requirements and while it wasn’t perfect, we saw the potential that it had. When we walked in, Jordan thought it was the one. And not just the one, but a forever home. We’ve learned a lot since then! 

Checking shelf heights and deciding on sconce or under-counters, Jordan became quite the operator.

DIY painting to pad the budget, knocking this out early set the tone for the road ahead.

Q: What advice you would give first timers?

Don’t get stuck on the little things! While we jumped at the first house that we could see ourselves in, it was largely because we were focused on bigger picture items on our list and knew that some of the smaller details could be added over time - or that we would find them in another house down the road. At the end of the day, houses are like people and need to be cared for in full, making sure the little things and the big things are taken care of so the preservation can continue.

And redo your hardwood floors before you move in, because the dust is impossible to clean off everything once you’ve already moved in.

Q: What did you learn owning your first house that you want to share with aspiring Purveyors?

Every house will have things come up - doesn’t matter if it’s a brand new house or one that’s 90 years old. But what we discovered is that it was a lot more fun investing money into a home that had lived a lot of lives and just needed owners that would care for it when things came up (read: desperately buying a new furnace when it was 20 below out). We learned about the work that we enjoyed doing around the house and what we would prefer only doing every so often. At the end of the day, we knew that the work we were putting in was adding to the house’s story.

Q: Did you ever think you would end up owning a stately Tangletown Tudor? How did you make that happen?

No. Going into the home buying process, we didn’t even consider Tangletown because most of the houses we had seen for sale in the neighborhood were way over our budget. Even when we looked at the listing of this house, we weren’t sure that it was the right fit for us. But as we drove into the neighborhood and walked into the house, we saw the character that we loved so much (that didn’t exist in so many other homes we had walked through) and smart investments we could make that would make the house our own. Not only did we end up with more square footage than we had in our starter home, but we also ended up inheriting a home with incredible history and bones ready for more life.

Israel strips the built-ins down to their original finish.

The painted millwork is in the process of restoration - the off-white on white buried beauty underneath a hospital aesthetic.

Original pink tile bathroom screams for a Design in Rare Form wallpaper special…

Congrats to Jordan & Barry on their legacy move-up, we can’t wait to watch this home’s evolution over the coming years in the hands of its newest stewards.