Off-market home sales are rare, but Portland’s 1918 Arlington Heights mansion secretly sells for $2.5 million

Since the low level of homes on the market favors sellers, some Portland area buyers are searching beyond widely advertised listings to expand their choices. They’re asking their real estate agent to knock on the doors of desirable homes that aren’t for sale and to swing back through expired listings to find hidden opportunities.

For the right price, an owner might sign away the deed.

There are also properties for sale that are never seen in the multiple listing system or real estate databases.

For confidentiality and privacy reasons, the owners don’t want it publicized that they’re interested in making a deal. Instead, real estate agents and brokers whisper about their discreet “pocket listings,” in which they have an exclusive right to sell the property.

Savvy Portland home shoppers often check Redfin, Zillow and other online real estate marketplaces for homes that go back on sale after an offer falls through and for residential properties that were taken off the market, for various reasons.

Properties can be removed from the market because the contract with the listing agent expired without an offer being accepted, or the owners no longer want to continue to have potential buyers tour their home, especially during the coronavirus pandemic, or they changed their minds.

With so few homes for sale, people fearful they will not find another place to live decide to stay put.

But reluctant owners may be warming up to the idea of moving. Although still close to rock bottom, the level of houses and condos for sale ticked up slightly, measured as one month of inventory in August, according to the latest Regional Multiple Listing Service (RMLS) report.

Still, a longstanding housing shortage and an anemic level of unsold homes in the Portland area keep sellers in control and prices rising.

Off-market sales are rare, but they can benefit both parties while frustrating people who didn’t know they could have made an offer.

Here are three recent sales of significant properties that didn’t have a For Sale sign on the lawn.

A Colonial Revival-style house in Southwest Portland’s Arlington Heights secretly sold for $2.5 million in August. Clients of Braden Fridell of Cascade Sotheby’s International Realty purchased the property from owners who had lived there for 23 years.

The three-level house was listed for sale at $2,390,000 in April 2020, at the start of Oregon’s stay-at-home orders. The listing was removed after eight weeks.

A year later, Fridell initiated an offer by sending a handwritten letter to the owners, explaining his clients’ interest and financial qualifications.

“The timing was perfect,” he said. “The owners wanted to put it back on the market.”

Fridell represented the buyers while the sellers hired an attorney to review the documents.

With inventory low, Fridell said real estate professionals know where to look to find the right property to please a client. “We will knock on doors or send personalized letters,” he said.

The unlisted property is a historic gem. The house with a classic porte-cochere was designed by architect John Virginius Bennes and built in 1918 for financier Abraham “Abe” Tichner.

Members of the Tichner family expanded the house in 1931 and continued to live there until 1959.

Subsequent owners retained original features such as varnished mahogany woodwork and a curvilinear staircase, allowing the well-preserved home to earn a spot on the National Register of Historic Places.

A 1916 Colonial Revival-style mansion in Portland’s Irvington Historic District quietly changed hands in late July for $3,225,000.

The John and Ellen Bowman House has few peers, according to architectural historians who called it one of the grandest residential designs by prolific architect Ellis F. Lawrence when it earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places.

The property, six city lots occupying the block of Northeast Knott Street between Northeast 17th and 18th avenues, was included in the Association of Realtors listing for only two days before it was recorded as sold.

By the time of the listing, however, a deal was already in the works, an agreement between neighbors that was facilitated by William (”Billy”) Grippo of Windermere Realty Trust.

Listing a spoken-for property with RMLS establishes it as a comparable sale, which is used to appraise similar properties. Read more

A buyer might be more interested in the land than the home. That was the case when a quarter-acre lot in Southwest Portland’s Montclair neighborhood was sold for $880,000 under the radar in December. Nine months later, the owner had Oregon’s only Alcoa Care-free Home bulldozed to make room for new construction.

The 1957 house with transparent walls and sliding glass doors was out of the ordinary, even in an era renowned for breaking the rules. It was one of only 24 built by Alcoa across the country to showcase the versatility of aluminum.

Preservation groups typically monitor listings to reach out to sellers in the hope they find a new owner willing to protect the historic features. In this case, preservationists never had a chance. Read more

— Janet Eastman | 503-294-4072

jeastman@oregonian.com | @janeteastman

More on the Portland and Oregon real estate market:

• Portland-area home buyers face $525,000 median price; more first-time owners rely on down payment funds from family

• Home Swap service lets owners buy a new house first, then sell their old one

• These hot Portland homes sold for way over the asking price: One owner pockets $605,000 more than expected

• What’s the benefit of pricing a home at less than fair value? Bidding wars. The tale of twin townhouses

• ‘Really Tan Portland Ken’ puts glass mansion up for sale at $9,495,000

• The top five Portland-area zip codes savvy home shoppers are targeting might surprise you