WHO IS JAMIE FENNER?
The Quick Version
Jamie Fenner has 17 years of remodeling, repair, and property management experience in Portland. That's real life, school of hard knocks experience. He has been an Oregon Certified Home Inspector since 2005. Jamie has inspected hundreds of homes for a long list of satisfied clients and he'd love to inspect your prospective home.
The Long Version
Jamie Fenner graduated from the University of Virginia in 1986 with a degree in Finance. He wore a suit everyday and worked in Corporate finance for almost 3 years at the Bank of Boston in Boston, Connecticut and Chicago. Life was good, but Jamie wasn't quite ready for a lifetime of banking. In 1989 he handed in his resignation and spent the next two years in various various pursuits including working on a wooden schooner The Appledore that sailed back and forth between Camden, Maine and Key West Florida.
In Early 1991 Jamie loaded all his worldly possessions into his trusty 1980 Chevy Citation ("The first Chevy of the 80s") and drove cross country to arrive in Portland, Oregon. That summer Jamie bought his first fixer home in NorthEast Portland for (first time buyers look away) $29,000. He loaded a toolbox with garage sale tools, checked out every Sunset "how to" book from the library, and embarked on his new life in home repair and rejuvenation.
This was the hands-on school of hard-knocks where Jamie learned by doing. More fixer projects followed and soon Jamie had a pickup truck full of tools and a head full of experience, especially on Portland's vintage architecture. Jamie still owns several of those former-fixer properties as rentals, and each is like a laboratory where he is able to evaluate the results of his work or, sometimes just as importantly, his lack of work. This long-term exposure to multiple properties and their maintenance issues is unique among inspectors and gives Jamie a real advantage in understanding what is a significant issue and what is simply a common condition without serious near term consequences.
In 2005 Jamie moved into home inspections. He knew the business from repairing, remodeling, and maintaining Portland homes for 14 years, and he loved talking with people about their houses. It was time to share his knowledge and experience in exchange for money instead of beer.
Jamie lives in NE Portland with his wife and two kids and he'd love to ride his bike to your inspection if he could just get that 24' ladder in the basket.