In September 2019, Emlen Fischer and Ayla Christman saw a listing for a 1966 modernist home with a roof that crumpled low over the earth in Palo Alto, Calif., and were intrigued.
As renters, they never expected to buy a home in the tech-centric city. “You don’t get all that much for the money,” said Mr. Fischer, 43, an executive at Factorial Energy, a battery startup. But, “I had a bit of a Trulia addiction,” he added, noting that he kept an eye on the real estate market anyway.
“We were just looking at houses recreationally, on Saturdays or Sundays,” explained Ms. Christman, 41, an interiors photographer. “We’d take our kids, and they’d run through the houses and hide in closets. It was all just for curiosity’s sake.”
When they visited this particular house, however, they didn’t even make it down the driveway before everything changed. “Ayla and I saw the roof line, looked at each other, and we were like ‘Oh my gosh, we’re going to have to buy this place,’” Mr. Fischer said.