This was a fun one! Last year, I had the pleasure of working with a repeat client, who just happened to own Long Beach’s oldest wood-built house. He has owned it for many years, but not at this location…

Back up to 2016. I got a referral to a gentleman who was looking for a vacant lot in a specific neighborhood, for use as a community garden, and eventually, to put a historic home on. We got started on the project.

I went onto Google Earth, and found half a dozen empty lots in the historic neighborhood he was interested in. Now, unlike a home, you can’t knock on the door of a vacant lot, or send mail to that address… so I dug into the owners’ information, and sent personal notes to the owners. Most of them went unanswered, but hey, it was worth a try.

A couple weeks later, I got a call asking “Is this guy for real?” We went over the details, negotiated an offer, and we purchased the vacant lot. The buyer indeed built a community garden, which served the neighborhood for a few years.

In the meantime, the buyer was making big plans for a large building project on a piece of land he owned in downtown Long Beach. On this land, among other things, was the Parsonage House. The oldest wooden house in Long Beach, which has a ton of history around it, involving some of the founders of this region in the late 19th century. Plans were made, and as a condition of the sale for the large building project (271 units), it was required that the historic house was preserved, moved, and upgraded to modern codes… no small feat!

That was finally completed in 2023, and I was honored to be included in the project once again, as the listing agent for this amazing historic home. It was a huge success for all parties, and the new owners love the home. We even got some press about it, as linked below.

https://lbpost.com/news/a-house-older-than-the-city-moves-to-start-a-new-life-in-drake-park-willmore-historic-district/

It’s always an honor to help people get great offers and successful sales for their homes that I list, but this one was particularly cool to work on.