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An 82-year-old woman has filed a lawsuit asking a jury to block the sale of her beloved Northeast Portland house, claiming a real-estate agent tricked her into signing papers to sell her home in one of the city's hippest neighborhoods.

Josephine Gantt has lived in the 1922 Alberta Arts District bungalow for the past 47 years and had no immediate plans to move when, in fall 2014, she asked RE/MAX agent Erin Renwick about the value of her home, according to the lawsuit filed last week in Multnomah County Circuit Court. Gantt asked because she was curious and told Renwick repeatedly that she wasn't ready to sell and had nowhere to go, the suit states.

Over the following year, the lawsuit states, Renwick befriended Gantt through repeated phone calls and gifts of flowers and pie, and continued to pressure her to list her home. The suit claims that Renwick then found an out-of-state buyer and got Gantt -- who has poor eyesight -- to sign a stack of papers agreeing to the sale.

"Mrs. Gantt had come to rely on Erin Renwick as a confidant and would share with her challenges she was having in her life," the lawsuit states. "She trusted Erin Renwick and never imagined she would defraud her."

Moments after learning she'd unwittingly signed papers to sell her home, Gantt begged Renwick to tear them up, the suit states, but Renwick refused. The real estate agent then left without leaving Gantt copies of the papers -- and later that day the buyer Renwick had lined up https://www.linkedin.com/in/deangraziosiinc