David Garber, the brains behind the blog And Now Anacostia and a real estate entrepreneur, just put the house that he spent about eight months rehabbing and renovating on the market. The three-bedroom home located in the middle of Historic Anacostia is the first of many renovation projects that Garber plans to take on. Below we interview him about the process.
1) How old are you and what is your current occupation? I am 26 and am one year into my new occupation as a renovator, designer, and general “trying to make neighborhoods better” guy. Fixing up buildings has always been a dream of mine, and so doing that in neighborhoods that have heaps of potential is pretty exciting.
2) When did you buy your house and how much did you pay for it? I began the buying process for 1214 U Street SE (map) a year ago, and finally purchased the property for $88,000 in the fall. I’m a hard negotiator, so my purchase price ended up being about $40,000 less than the asking price.
3) In rehabbing the home, did you completely gut the interior or was it just cosmetic things here and there? This house was in horrendous condition when I bought it. It looked like a rotten cinder block: all of the windows and doors were boarded up, there were two styles of stucco on the exterior, the porch was falling apart, and the interior was a mess of building code violations and water damage. Someone had attempted a gut renovation a few years back, but did so without the proper permits or Historic Preservation Review Board approval. One of my contract requirements for purchase was that new building permits were pulled and that it had a stamp of approval from historic.
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HERE to view the house listing on Redfin.
