She put in an offer on a ‘granny special’ in South Philly before her partner set foot inside | How I Bought This House
Two restaurant workers initially focused on newly renovated houses only.
The buyer: Joanna Jaeger, 32, general manager at Bart’s Bagels.
The house: A 894-square-foot rowhouse with two bedrooms and 1½ baths built in 1920 in Lower Moyamensing.
The price: Listed for $236,900; purchased for $233,000.
The agent: Martha Lutz, OCF Realty.
The ask: Joanna Jaeger and her boyfriend, Adrian Schraufnagel, were tired of their one-bedroom in West Philly and fed up with renting in general. When their landlord announced a $200 rent increase in 2022, they notified him they would be moving out in 90 days.
The clock was ticking to find a new home.
They wanted a move-in ready place that wouldn’t immediately require expensive repairs. And after renting in West Philly for six years, they were eager to move across the river, to be closer to restaurants and more public transit. They also wanted to live within walking distance of a dog park.
With a ceiling of $250,000, they hoped to find something closer to $230,000.
The search: Jaeger enlisted a friend and coworker to be her real estate agent. They visited a series of newly renovated houses because Jaeger thought they would require the fewest repairs after move-in. She put in an offer on one but didn’t get it. She was becoming increasingly panicked.
“I was like, ‘Oh my god, we’re running out of time!’” Jaeger recalled.
Then, in April she saw an intriguing house on Zillow. It was a “granny special,” she said, featuring wall-to-wall purple shag carpeting and an upstairs bathroom paneled in dark wood with a ’70s floral motif around the sink. When she visited, there was a framed portrait of Frank Sinatra on the basement wall.
“It felt so cozy,” Jaeger said. “You could tell whoever lived there took a lot of pride in the house.”
Though she had been looking at recently flipped houses, she especially liked the old-school South Philly features, including the awning out front and the amber-colored textured glass in the vestibule.
The house was walking distance to Marconi Plaza and close to the bus and the Broad Street Line.
The deal: Jaeger told Schraufnagel that because of their tight deadline, he wouldn’t get to see the house in person before she put in an offer. He trusted her.
“He usually follows the vision that I propose,” she said.
She put in an offer for $233,000, an amount slightly under asking that her agent still deemed “respectful.” The sellers accepted the next day.
An inspection found the house in good condition. The main issues were an electrical system with cloth insulation — a feature in many older homes that would make an electrical panel upgrade more expensive — and basement tiles likely made from asbestos. They were already painted over by the previous owners.
“We’ve never tested it because we don’t really want to know,” Jaeger said.
The money: A friend advised Jaeger not to buy a house with a boyfriend, and Schraufnagel’s credit score would have negatively impacted their interest rate.
So Jaeger decided to buy the house herself. She qualified for a first-time homebuyer loan for $11,650 through Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency and was able to negotiate a $2,500 seller assist after the inspection. The closing costs on the house were $13,364.
Though she had saved up $15,000 to put toward the house, she ended up withdrawing only $9,214 from her savings for a $10,000 down payment.
Schraufnagel contributes to the monthly payments, though the deed is in Jaeger’s name. With a 5.625% interest rate, the couple’s monthly payments are $1,274, plus $121 per month for mortgage insurance.
The move: Jaeger closed on the home in early June 2022, and she and Schraufnagel moved in the day before their West Philly lease ended.
They rented a U-Haul for large items and packed smaller ones into Jaeger’s Prius. A new neighbor saw them unloading boxes and offered to help, a sign of the close-knit community they were joining.
“They are still very fabulous neighbors,” Jaeger said.
When Jaeger’s parents visited for the first time, her dad suggested replacing the dated bathroom. “This bathroom is why we bought the house!” she told him.
Life after close: Jaeger and Schraufnagel ripped up the purple carpets from the first floor, the bedrooms, and the hallways themselves, and Jaeger’s mother contributed $10,000 to install new vinyl plank floors. But the work wasn’t done by the time they moved in, so they had to camp out in a corner of the living room for two days.
The house has already been a site of major life changes. Jaeger and Schraufnagel married in 2023 and welcomed their first child, June, last year.
“If we hadn’t bought our house, we probably would have decided not to have a kid,” Jaeger said. “Moving into our house gave me a big sense of grounded-ness.”
The house still has its quirks: The bedrooms are connected by a closet, so if both closets are open, there’s a passageway between them. And sometimes Jaeger and Schraufnagel will come across something like mismatched molding that was clearly done by an amateur in a DIY spirit.
Even so, they don’t plan to move any time soon.
“We’re gonna own this house forever,” Jaeger said, “and probably live in this house forever.”
Did you recently buy a home in the Philadelphia area or South Jersey? Share the story of how you did it. Email Inquirer real estate reporters at properties@inquirer.com.
How I Bought This House
