Jennifer Kirby, the Luxury Agent

AFTER RENOVATION

This weeks Historic Home in St Paul is 353 Summit Avenue.

Built in 1882 for William Dean, the home "only" cost $15,000 to build. Mr. Dean was a partner for the local wholesale hardware firm, Nicols, Dean, and Gregg, and also sat on the Great Northern Railroad board of directors. Little is known about the architect. A photo exists of the home taken in 1895. Designed as a Queen Anne Victorian, it is a great example of half-timbering.

Around 1900, the home was altered beyond recognition of its original Queen Anne style. Below is a photo of what the home had looked like up until 2005.

BEFORE RENOVATION

As you can see, it looks nothing like the beautiful Queen Anne of 1882. The front gable and chimneys are the only remaining pieces visual to the eye that haven't changed.

In 2005, a very expensive renovation was begun, with the owners wanting to bring back the facade of the original home. After a complete inside/outside renovation of the main house, and an exterior renovation of the carriage house, the home recently sold for $1.7 Million with Edina Realty, and photos of the home are still available via a virtual tour. The home has over 7000 square feet, 6 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, and for one simple word, is stunning.

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I post about Twin Cities Historic Homes and Buildings on my Luxury Blog and my Historic Home blog. Check back often for new stories about historic homes in Saint Paul and Minneapolis!

Today is the first day of Spring and mother nature thought it would be funny to play a practical joke on us Minnesotans.

Now, I knew it was suppose to snow starting last night, but I really didn't believe it was going to happen. After all, it is officially Spring and all. But I had the pleasure of waking up this morning to six inches of snow...and it is still coming down. Huge flakes that look like they are on loan from Colorado.

If you move to Minnesota, expect things like this to happen. While it is beautiful to see, it can be a little disappointing when you are itching to start spring plantings. But the kids LOVE it....call it a late snow day and some time out of school.

**Note: There have been at least two more inches dropped since I took this photo**

Last evening I had the pleasure of witnessing one of the most spectacular sunsets I have seen in a long time. I had just finished an open house at my listing, when I realized how spectacular the clouds were, so I grabbed my camera and hurried outside.

I was standing on the Bluffs above the Mississippi River, on the Wisconsin side in Prescott, with the sun setting over Minnesota. There were some rain clouds to the southwest, which you can see in a few of the photos. All in all, I just had to thank God for letting me witness the splendor. How can he not exist with such beauty in the world?

This weeks showcase Historic Home in St Paul is 271 Summit Avenue.

Built in 1882, this home was commissioned by Joshua Sanders, but not as seen. The original home, from my research, was a one and a half story home that cost $5000 to build. When Sanders sold the home in 1887, the new owner, Emerson Peet, added a $7000 addition, which is the current home we see today.

Ernest Sandeen describes this home as a Tuscan Villa. The term is not widely used today for most homes of this style are lumped into the Italianate or Second Empire architectural group. Maybe because the home is simple in its design is one of the reasons it is hard to define. Not too much has changed about the home over the century of its existence. If you look closely at this photo taken in 1888, you can see that the central tower has a third story window in the roof, which has since been removed. Also, the second story porch on the left side of the home has been enclosed.

The current owners have been in the home for some time and the home is currently zoned as apartments.

...at least this is what I am finding out, and I don't understand why.

A few weeks ago I went on a listing appointment. I had already walked through the home, so I knew what needed to happen in order for the home to sell quickly. The owners asked me to be very honest about the condition of their home, and wanted me to be brutally honest. I don't sugar coat listings, so being completely upfront and blunt about their home was not a problem for me.

During the appointment, they wrote down all the things that needed to change to get top dollar for their home. Here are a few things I saw:

• the fruit wallpaper in the kitchen had to go - replacing with neutral color paint updates the home and make it look more modern
  
• the ceiling fan in the kitchen had to go - ceiling fans not only distract buyers when looking at a kitchen, they are usually ugly, and dated. No one puts ceiling fans in kitchens anymore, and buyers hate them.
  
• the carpet needed to be replaced - the new carpet they told me about over the phone was in fact 10 years old and hadn't been cleaned in 10 years
  
• the home needed to be painted inside and all child damages to walls fixed
  
• the aromatherapy scent had to go

The sellers believed their home was a certain price, in its current condition. I told them that their home would not reach that price unless they changed the things I mentioned.They were comparing their home to other homes, that no appraiser would use as comparables. While the price that I told them to list at was $10,000 below what they had hoped, they said they understood and would fix the items on the list. Before the seller left, he asked me if it would be possible to list higher. I told him he could do anything he wants, but that I would be coming back to him in a month for a price reduction.

I thought things went well, but when a week passed of no returned phone calls or emails, I knew something was up. Finally I got the call that they were hiring another real estate agent to represent them. Through sources, I found out that the husband was offended and thought I had told him his home was crap.( If memory serves me right, he told me he wanted me to be brutally honest.) I also found out that the agent walked through his home, telling him:

• his home was beautiful and not a thing needed to be changed
  
• his home was worth $10,000 more than I told him - the magic number he wanted to hear

I guess what he really wanted was for me to lie to him, and give him a lot of fluff. Sorry, but that is just not my style. See, I believe that if you really want to sell your home, then you need to do things to set your home apart from all the other junk out there. Trust me, there are so many homes on the market that are average, that buyers find it hard to choose. So the only solution is to make your home look as good as it can. Painting is one of the cheapest ways to add value to your home. Removing anything that dates your home, like tacky wallpaper, or gold colored light fixtures, is a good thing, and relatively cheap to fix, too.

There are also a lot of desperate agents out there that will tell a seller anything they want to hear, just to get the listing. These are the mediocre agents that plague our industry. They will take an overpriced listing knowing full well that in a month, they will be asking for a price reduction. My question is, if the first month of a new listing is the most crucial time of the entire listing, why would you start by overpricing it?

Buyers, and their agents, KNOW when a home is overpriced, and instead of taking a look at it, they will pass it buy. Like I said, there are just too many homes for sale in the Twin Cities to choose from, so the easiest way to eliminate homes is to throw out those that are overpriced. Bottom line, if you want to be lied to, at least admit it to yourself before the listing appointment. And if you let the agent know as well, then you may not waste their time, by having unrealistic expectations.