A tale of two Baltimore buyers (OK, three)
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The boarded-up rowhome -- above, left -- is what Will Cocks, 28, saw when he signed a contract to buy. The prettified one that's above, right? That's what it looks like now.
The Bowie-turned-Baltimore resident is one of the people I interviewed for Sunday's housing-trends story, and I thought you all might enjoy the before-and-after comparison. (Photos taken by the new homeowner.)
Because Cocks agreed to purchase the Greenmount West home from a real estate investment company before rehab work began, he got to design "pretty much everything." And take lots of photos.
Here's a "during":
"I basically watched them build it from the framing up," said Cocks, who paid $265,000 for the home.
You can find a video here, if you're interested in seeing the interior.
Amy Lincoln MacDonald and husband Paul MacDonald, both in their 20s, also moved to Baltimore this year. Here's a photo of the home they sold in Glen Burnie for $215,000:
(Photo supplied by the MacDonalds)
And here's the 1924 bungalow they bought in Lauraville for $155,000:
(Photo above -- and below -- by Sun photographer Kenneth K. Lam)
Since they moved there in March, they've done a good bit of renovation work of their own. For instance, they turned the small kitchen into a laundry room and the bigger room next to it into the new kitchen:
They had a secret weapon in the battle to contain costs:
"My dad is a carpenter," said Amy Lincoln MacDonald, "so he did a lot of work for us."
Do you prefer the idea of buying a home that exactly suits your needs from day one, or a home that you can change to suit?
Categories: Housing market experiences
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