Michael Olsakowski is a REALTOR with Home.Heart.Community. at Keller Williams Real Estate. He has lived in Manayunk for ten years, and he was buying, fixing and renting his own places well before he ever sold one for anybody else.
Before real estate I worked for the Department of Defense, procuring the Meal, Ready to Eat contract for the United States military. Not the most obvious background for this, I know.
What got me here was a pretty simple itch. I always wanted to improve wherever I was living. Back when I was renting a place of my own I would do small projects between work calls, and those projects kept turning into real value in the property. When I finally bought my own place I did the same thing while renting rooms to roommates. The money I saved went back into the house, and the house paid me back again when I went to rent it out.
I got into this business to help other people see that a small move can end up being a much bigger deal for their life than it looks like at the time. Outside of work I am mostly focused on building something that gives back over time, whether that is time or money.
I did not know how to do any of it when I started. Not the renovations, not the financing, none of it. So if you are sitting there feeling like everybody else got a manual you never received, that is normal and it is not a reason to wait.
Where I am most useful is the gap between what a house is and what it could be. I have done the work myself, so when we walk through something that needs help I can tell you roughly what it costs, what it adds, and what is not worth touching. That matters whether you are buying your first place or trying to sell one and buy the next in the same breath.
I live in Manayunk and have for ten years. The hills, the parking, the way one block runs completely different from the next one over, I deal with all of it the same as you would.
I represented the buyer and the seller on this one. The sellers were moving into a retirement home and the buyers came in with a construction loan so they could renovate the place after settlement. Two very different sets of needs landing on the same closing table.
My sellers had already bought their next house and wanted somebody local to handle this one. They also had twins on the way, so I ran the whole thing from A to Z and kept it off their plate.
Manayunk first, then out through Northwest Philadelphia and over to the near Main Line.
He works best with first-time buyers, people selling and buying at the same time in a competitive market, and investors.
This goes straight to him, not to the general inbox. Even if you are just thinking out loud.
Or reach him directly at (973) 525-7179
molsakowski@kw.com