Sometimes things are just meant to be… and serendipity really does happen with good outcomes!
This is how it happened for me and my client, Colleen.
It started the weekend before the coronavirus pandemic changed life as we knew it. My husband and I visited an exhibit at the University of Minnesota about the woman who brought modernist architecture to Minnesota… Elizabeth Scheu Close… a life in modern architecture.
That same evening I got a message from Colleen. She said she had moved to the Twin Cities a year and a half ago to take her dream job, and after following my weekly email newsletter since the day she landed she was ready to buy a house.
She said she contacted me because she decided that what she wanted was a vintage MCM home ideally designed by a known architect, preferably a woman, and she knew I was one of the best Realtors in town, especially for MCM architecture. She was excited at the prospect of being able to afford something here, which she could only dream about when she lived in San Francisco!
You usually have to be very patient and tenacious to secure a vintage mid-century-modern home, and with the overall shortage of homes available to purchase right now, we were prepared for a lengthy search. We decided to get together and get started.
I knew that one of the first homes designed by Elizabeth Close in University Grove (in 1953, the same year she and her husband, Winston Close, designed and built their own home in University Grove) had been on the market but was sold subject to inspection. When I checked on it for current status I found it was still available for showings.
I scheduled a visit the next day.
Colleen immediately fell in love with it but we didn’t think about it seriously because it was already under contract… and Colleen didn’t fit the University Grove restrictions for UMN faculty and staff buyers only for the first 90 days. We ended our outing knowing an Elizabeth Close designed home would be highly desirable!
That evening I was preparing to give my feedback from the showing when I got a call from the listing agent. The buyers were backing out and she wondered if my client was interested… even the 90-day University Grove restrictions were coming to an end!
To make a long story short, Colleen was thrilled! She made an offer and they came to an agreement… navigating inspections, obtaining University approval and closing on the home of her dreams throughout the coronavirus stay-at-home order.
I will always remember this serendipitous journey to buying a dream home as the ‘Coronavirus Special’!
If you don’t already know University Grove, you need to know about it if you are a lover of mid-century-modern homes. You can learn more about this unique treasure trove of homes in this post about a couple who purchased a home here at the beginning of this year… Buying a Mid-Century-Modern house in University Grove
The map below is the University Grove section of the Docomomo US Minnesota Modern Registry Map which documents the wide array of buildings, sites, and neighborhoods of the modern movement in the state of Minnesota. Each marker documents a building from the modernist movement, and there is no community in the Twin Cities with a higher concentration of mid-century-moderns than University Grove. It is a tiny neighborhood in Falcon Heights, just south of Larpenteur and west of Cleveland Avenue and the St. Paul campus of the University of Minnesota.
Colleen’s house is the one with the white ‘halo’ around it on the map above from the Minnesota Modern Registry. Stars on the map indicate especially noteworthy buildings, and you can see what an auspicious corner she is on… with views of other Close designs from her kitchen, and an outstanding Ralph Rapson home across from her front door.
Contact us if you would like help finding your own mid-century-modern dream home!
Learn more about Elizabeth Close in “Elizabeth Scheu Close: A Life in Modern Architecture”, the new book by Jane King Hession that gives an in-depth account of the life and career of Minnesota’s first modern architect.
Sharlene Hensrud, RE/MAX Results Mid-Century-Modern Specialist shensrud@homemsp.com
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