finding home / 27 Finding Home Working with Mark Slade BY ELLEN DONKER D ana Cavanaugh had a men- tal list of her three favorite homes in Maplewood. It’s not that she had plans to move. She was just admiring from afar. But when she noticed a for sale sign at the home on Prospect Street, she immediately looked it up on her computer. Dana says, “I’ve always loved this house. I would drive by it all the time and was taken by the front door.” Since she wasn’t able to go to the open house she asked a friend to take a look. The verdict was, lots of wallpaper, worn carpeting, outdated kitchen, and big, as in seven bedrooms. Still curious, Dana contacted listing agent Mark Slade for the price and a walk-through. It didn’t disappoint. The house had all the features that she and husband Brendan had wanted to add to their home on Rutgers Street: a pantry, mudroom, first floor bedroom for her mother, garage, bedrooms for each of the three children and room for Brendan’s parents, who often visited for extended stays. Sadly, it was out of their price range. Some weeks later, Slade called Dana to tell her that the price had been re- duced. Fi- nancially, the house was in reach. The only prob- lem was that Brendan had no interest in moving. After some cajol- ing, he agreed to take a look and was in- stantly sold. Just to be safe, Brendan asked Mar- vin Clawson, of Clawson Architects, to walk through the house. He had con- sulted with them on their present home and knew everything they were looking for. Brendan says, “He told us, ‘You’d be silly not to buy it. It has everything you want.’” Working with Slade, the Ca- vanaughs submitted an offer that was accepted by the sellers. Bren- dan says, “Mark was instrumental in making it all happen. We were interested, it was just what num- ber could make it work.” Dana adds, “He was really great about managing both sides because he was the buying agent and the sell- ing agent at the same time.” And then he became the selling agent for their Rutgers Street home, too, and gave the Cavanaughs a punch list of changes to make before putting their house on the market. They followed them to a T, all in three weeks. Some were easy but others, like completely renovating a bathroom and painting the entire house, took more effort. Dana says, “Mark helped guide us in the whole process. If we had done it on our own, it would’ve taken several months.” These changes and professional staging were well worth the effort as the house sold on the first week- end above asking price. Looking back, Brendan says, “I was always blown away by Mark's transparency and his guidance, his honesty, all the pressure he was under." Dana concurs. “He worked really hard to make you feel like you were the only client he had at the time.” As the moving date approached, the sellers of the Prospect Street house needed extra time, to which the Cavanaughs agreed. Finding themselves without a home during the month of August, they visited Dana’s mother at the shore and Brendan’s parents in Hilton Head, SC, and ended with a vacation in the Poconos. They’ve now been in the house for eighteen months and updated it to function for their family. Dana loves the location because as the director of Prospect Preschool, she can walk to school, hauling her supplies in a little blue wagon. The Cavanaughs seem almost surprised that they ended up in such a large place. Dana says, “We bought the house so that our family could be here with us. It’s truly a multi-generational house.” She adds, “On Rutgers, I never felt settled because we always had things to tweak.“ Brendan follows up, “It really feels like fate because sometimes you pull up here and you think, wow, it’s kind of crazy that I live here. We feel like guardians of the house for the next 30 years. We’re not moving again!” The Cavanaugh family: Back - Declan, Maggie, and Conor. Front - Brendan, Dana, and Dana's mom, Sarah. Mark Slade was the selling and buying agent of the Prospect Street house as well as the selling agent for the Cava- naughs' Rutgers Street home. The Cavanaughs are enjoying their new "multi- generational" home on Prospect Street.