Looking through listings for historic homes is both exciting and painful for me. I LOVE architecture, history, and the story an old home tells. So I love looking through listings for clients, love touring old homes, love talking about old houses...researching and dreaming of a proper restoration.
Unfortunately, so many of the historic homes that are listed have been butchered over the years. Breaks my heart! Beautiful, timeless, architectural features have been removed or changed in order to accommodate a more contemporary feature that will, very likely, be out of fashion in a decade.
I'm also slightly heartbroken by the listings themselves. These are 100+ year old homes with a million stories to tell and so much character to show. Yet, often, the listing doesn't tell any of that story. No one bothered to do an hours worth of research about the history of that home, it's owners, who built it, and who's modified it over the years. Frequently there are very few pictures and none of the photography is professional. Snapping off 10 shabby pics with your phone just doesn't do justice to what a stately old home can offer.
Fellow Realtors: Please take the time to do justice by these old homes! They may not be the most expensive or most popular house you sell every year but, they've been there watching the world go by for more than a century. You can afford to put 2 extra hours of work and an extra $200 in to a listing that will represent it's time well!
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