I grew up very blue collar in McMinnville, Oregon, where being a young queer kid didn’t come with a very welcoming sense of acceptance. Moving to Portland for college brought me a spirit of safety and community that I’d never experienced before. They say that Portland is like the biggest small town, and I feel that’s true. Running into friends and loved ones while thrifting or shopping at the Farmers’ Market brings me a real sense of connectedness and peace.

I’ve seen firsthand how a strategic purchase can make a huge difference in someone’s story. My parents scraped everything together to buy a house in foreclosure, and painstakingly renovated and updated it for our family. This was the biggest investment of their lives, and it really paid off, creating stability for me and my siblings for years to come.

Advocacy and education are front and center in my work with clients. I always say, it’s not my job to make your decision, but it is my job to do everything I can to empower you to make your own, smoothly, and with confidence. My favorite part of the job is to see an anxious client take action that will change their life, and do so smoothly and with conviction.

Clients work with me because they trust that they need an expert, and that we need to start the conversation early. I always say, real estate is like Botox, it takes a little longer to settle than you’d think.

I ask every client, “how do you like to live?” The answer to this question is the key to everything we do next, because we need to make a lifestyle match based on 80-90% of your answer. If a property doesn’t suit the way you live, it’s not the one.

By looking at, and evaluating all their options, I’m able to help clients slow it down and not make decisions under fire—once you’re in contract, you’ll have to make all kinds of decisions under legal deadlines.

My goal in consulting for my buyers is to build a structure for my clients that identifies the location, price, and condition a property must be in to fit their needs. We then take that structure and use it to tier the decision-making process - because real estate should create opportunities, not push you into a corner.

I’m also really skilled at listing prep. It’s such an emotional process, to pack up a beloved home and style it for sale. As a seller, it’s imperative that you understand the specificities of the Portland market. Always match your product to the market: we need to identify exactly who your buyer is, and what’s important to them. It comes down to listing prep styling, market knowledge, and having a game plan.

Besides real estate, the other four pillars of my personality are: cooking, gardening, tending my friendships, and helping kids. I’ve spent the last two years as a counselor for Camp Starlight, which provides a weeklong summer session for kids in the queer community and/or who have been impacted by HIV/AIDS. This has been such a formative experience for me, that I’m now on the board there. My summer work with young campers brought me to a second opportunity at Project 48, where I’ll be teaching Life Skills classes for foster kids this year. Ask me how you can support or get involved with either of these incredible organizations!

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Jacob Weigel

Oregon & Washington Broker