For over the past two years I have been searching for a historic home that I could buy at a low price and restore it back to it's Golden Age. I searched the east and west sides of Savannah's Victorian District. Myself and some investors found our property on February 13, 2008 and quickly put it under contract for just under $210,000. Why did we chose 212 W. 36th Street?
First of all, the area is very active in restoration, which means a nice future return in equity. Also the streets are brick and lined with beautiful Live Oak trees that provide a canopy, eastward to the the Bull Street Library. The most important reason was, the Savannah College of Art & Design, SCAD, invested in the abandoned Richard Arnold Building.
History proves that when SCAD restores a building, adding to it's campus that is strung throughout the city, property values increase. Neighbors and buyers see this as a great opportunity, as we did. If this is something you are interested in I can help you.
Our property for the past 30 years has been used as quadraplex, so our work will be cut out for us to restore it to a single family dwelling. We closed on the property on April 1. Some of my friends that have done this type of thing came over, drank some champagne and toured the house, they all agreed that is a 'diamond in the rough.'
Over the past two weeks I have been organizing the demolition which is to begin on April 5, but I wanted to make it fun, so I have invited many of my friends to tour the house, knock down some walls and knock down some cocktails. This could be the first demolition party in Savannah, it will be a great experience.
After the close, I changed , the locks, rolled up part of the chain link fence and waited for the dumpster. My guess we are going to fill it at least three times. Yesterday, I was able to meet some neighbors who did the same restoration to their homes, they were ecstatic that another home on West 36th Street was going to be restored. They offered to help in many ways. I then started to clear some items from the house and the back yard and launched them into the "Green Monster," I am not a Red Sox fan by the way!
So over the next couple of months you can follow our progress from my blog page through videos, photos and commentary. If there is anyone out there that would like to find a house like this, please contact me I WILL FIND IT.
David
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