They paid $259,000 for a South Philly rowhouse with vibes and an ‘eagles nest’ | How I Bought This House
After spotting the house on Instagram, the couple moved quickly to secure a mid-century home they didn't want to renovate.
The buyers: Katherine Rumble, 38, public engagement manager; Benjamin Rumble, 39, graphic designer
The house: a 960-square-foot-home near South Philly’s Marconi Plaza with three bedrooms and one bathroom, built in 1957
The price: listed for $259,000; purchased for $259,000
The agent: Sue Liedke, Compass
The ask: Katherine and Benjamin Rumble were looking to leave Nashville. They wanted a city that was affordable, walkable, and had decent public transit. “Philadelphia was pretty much the only option,” said Katherine. After falling in love with South Philly, they moved in 2023 and rented a place in Point Breeze.
Two years later, they started searching for their forever home. Their wish list was specific: proximity to the Broad Street Line, central air, office space for both of them, and ideally a home that hadn’t been gutted, flipped, and turned “millennial gray.”
“We did not want to live in a doctor’s office,” Katherine said. “We wanted to live in a place that felt warm and welcoming like your grandma’s house.”
The search: The couple already had a habit of checking Zillow regularly, but the listing that caught their attention came through Instagram.
They had long followed the account of Sue Liedke, a Philadelphia real estate agent who highlights vintage homes across the city. “We were obsessed with her account,” Katherine said. When Liedke posted a house near Oregon Station, they reached out.
The home checked many boxes. It was close to the Broad Street Line and near Marconi Plaza, which was a major plus for the couple, who have two dogs. It also had central air and enough space for both of them to work from home.
The appeal: They went to see the house immediately and loved it. “It had vibes,” Benjamin said. “The basement looked like people had been watching Eagles games down there since 1974.”
Upstairs, there were original wood doors, wood trim, and wallpaper that appeared decades old. The bathroom featured seafoam-green and pink tile and a skylight.
“We loved everything already in it,” Benjamin said. “I thought I wanted to buy a house so I could paint the walls. Then we bought this house and realized we didn’t want to change anything.”
At the front of the house was a small screened-in room sometimes referred to as a Florida room, a term Katherine rejected immediately. “I said, ‘We’re not calling anything Florida in this house,’” she recalled. They renamed it “the eagles’ nest.”
For all its charm, the house did still have its drawbacks. There was only one bathroom, and the kitchen was tiny. But “it had so many of the things we wanted that it felt worth it,” Katherine said.
The deal: The house had been on the market for only a few days when they saw it. The listing price was $259,000, and it was being sold as-is, meaning the seller was not required to pay for any issues uncovered during the inspection. “It was a risk,” Katherine said.
They offered the full asking price and requested a $5,500 seller’s assist to help cover closing costs. The seller agreed and even repaired a plumbing issue that came up during the inspection, despite selling the house as-is. In the end, the appraisal came in $5,000 above the asking price, which reassured the couple that the deal made financial sense.
The money: The couple put down 5%, or $12,590.
The money came from a second retirement account Katherine opened several years earlier. “It wasn’t really making any money,” she said. She decided cashing it out to buy a home was a better investment.
After the seller credit and deposit adjustments, the couple needed $24,225 in cash to close. They used almost all their personal savings to cover the remaining costs. They are rebuilding their nest egg from $2,000.
One thing boosting their savings is their low mortgage payment. They purchased mortgage points, an upfront fee paid at closing that lowers your interest rate, to get their monthly payment below $2,000. “That was our big goal,” Katherine said. “It’s a miracle.”
The move: To save money, the couple moved themselves. They couldn’t get a full-sized truck down their narrow street, so they rented a U-Haul van and shuttled their belongings back and forth across four weekends. They also had to get rid a lot of their existing furniture, requiring extra trips to 2A Thrift and Philly AIDS Thrift. “It was harder moving 10 minutes down the road in South Philly than it was moving from Nashville to Philadelphia three years ago,” Katherine said.
Any reservations? One thing the couple wasn’t prepared to deal with was a private neighborhood sewer line. It connects all the houses on the block before linking up with the main public sewer line. The couple both grew up in parts of the country where individual houses connect directly to the main sewer line. After moving in, neighbors explained the history of the sewer line. It hasn’t caused any major issues yet, but if something goes wrong, the neighbors will have to pay for the repairs together.
Life after close: The house has influenced their interior design choices. Because it was built in the 1950s, the couple has tried to source furniture from the 1960s and 1970s.
They regularly browse thrift stores, Facebook Marketplace, and vintage shops such as Thunderbird Salvage and Jinxed.
“We’re trying to find things that fit the character of the house,” Katherine said. “It takes time to find the things you want. But it’s really exciting when you do.”
It also helped that the previous owner let them keep some furniture, including, said Benjamin, “a really rad set of couches.”