Historic Homes / Districts & What To Know | REI | Real Estate | Freedom Vlog | EP. 72

Hi, guys. Welcome back to another Freedom vlog. I am Caitlin, the marketing coordinator here at the Freedom Real Estate Group family of companies. And today I am with Jen. She is our rehab coordinator for Bulldog Renovations. And today we are going to be talking about historic homes and kind of some of the ins and outs maybe you can expect when rehabbing a historic home. You want to get into that at.

All a little bit? Sure, sure. So I think that the timing is good because we just came from attending an architectural design review board meeting in Hamilton because we own an historic property on Dayton street there, which is a whole historic district.

Okay.

So this is kind of like fresh, you know, fresh stuff for me.

Right.

But I guess what I would say overall is plan to spend probably more time and more money than you would for a regular rehab, just because there are some extras that go into owning an historic property. And, you know, Caitlin and I talked before about how do you even know it's a historic property? And I know that there are registries. There's an Ohio registry. I think there's registries for each city or municipality or county. So those might be things to check if you even suspect that you might have a historic property. And sometimes you should know. I mean, when you go down Dayton street in Hamilton, it does say the historic Dayton street district. So maybe that should set off an alarm. But I think we found out about that one at closing. I think that because we bought that from the next door neighbor, and obviously she is in a historic neighborhood as well, that her. Her property is, or his property. And I think that's how we first found out. And then, at least in Hamilton, they were really good about reaching out to us. The. The board and the staff for that board was right there saying, this is an historic property. So, you know, if you're going to do this or you're going to do that, just know that, you know, you need to just kind of go through us and consult us, and there's things that we're going to need and we're going to want to guide and help you with.

Yeah, that was one of the things that I found while doing my research is expect a longer period of time for rehab, because you have to go. You have to get some things approved, especially when it comes to exterior work. That way they can preserve the history of the home and the area as much as possible. So I'm glad you brought that up. And then as well as what makes historic home, you know, there are some features, as you said, the sign when you pull into the neighborhood or the area, if you will, but also things like the architecture of the home, some things as simple as the horse, or any historic relevance, like if a. There was a person living there or it was a. Like a homestead in a previous war or something like that. Those things as well. And like you said, you can look it up very easily and find out if it is on or if it is registered as a historic home or property.

Yep. And they do. They are very concerned, I would say, chiefly with, as you said, the exterior and keeping that aesthetic. You know, there's phrases like. Like for. Like where if you want to replace something, you are going to have to get not only a permit, but you might have to have approval. So sometimes that approval can come in the form of an administrative approval where you submit your plans. I need to do this and this and this. In our case, with this house on Dayton street in Hamilton, it really all comes down to the gutters. So they would like us to keep the existing box gutters. Now, sometimes there are good reasons for keeping the original materials, but sometimes it's hard because over the years, obviously materials have evolved and we have much better materials now than we did a hundred years ago. So when it comes to things like gutters and especially windows, it's a bit of a struggle. But all I can say is go in being transparent. Yes. Don't try to pull something off or. Or sneak under the radar, because especially in some of these smaller towns, it's not going to work. They have people who live nearby who see what's going on and are going to call you out on it.

Yeah.

And then you're going to wind up with a bigger expense, so.

Because they'll fine you for it.

Yes.

Especially if you don't get it approved. And like you said, there's actually a committee for it. And especially, like you said, in the neighborhoods, a lot of them happen to live in that neighborhood, so. And a lot of them, you know, typically they buy these homes out of whether their love for architecture or history or something. So they very much want to preserve that. So definitely, like you said, be transparent and get it approved. I know things what I might think is small, but it's like paint colors. They are certain paint colors are only approved, so. So definitely be transparent and make sure that you are going through the correct process of getting it, of getting everything approved.

Right. And like I said before, budget more money and more time. If you don't get this stuff approved administratively, you're looking at attending a meeting. And usually these boards have meetings once A month, once every three weeks. You have to get on the agenda. You have to sometimes be approved several weeks in advance to even attend the meeting. So, you know, planning ahead of time is really going to help you and going back to your paint color, you know, example. So we have another property in Dayton that, again, we did not know was in a historic place or is an actual historic. I think it's in a historic place, and that is a little bit easier than if you have an actual historic, like, historic landmark, I think is the. The most difficult to deal with because to change anything that is a really big deal. But if it's in a historic district, then there's a little bit more leeway. But at 14 Cambridge in Dayton, we usually paint all of our front doors red. That's just kind of our signature trademark. And because of the district, they asked us not to do that. They said leave it black or paint it brown. And they are very, you know, very conscious of trying to keep all of the original stuff and just repairing it or restoring it like the best we can. So, you know that. Yeah. And the city of Dayton was very easy to work with in terms of that property. Someone met us out at the property who knew, you know, enough of the lay of the land to advise us on what we could and couldn't do and kind of what they wanted fixed and not, you know, either restored or repaired or replaced. So, yeah, they're very helpful. I would say. You're. If you're unsure of anything, your first contact should be with the city or the municipality. You know, just call down to call downtown or call the government office. I mean, you know, again, budget time. Because sometimes it takes them a while to get back to you, but they usually want to be helpful.

Yeah, absolutely. Agreed. All right, well, I think that's a good stopping point for the vlog. Today we will be going more into this on the podcast and kind of some tips or future advice for the buying process and, you know, kind of what to look for and some other things as well as some fun facts here in the Dayton area. Some local pretty big historic places. So I'm excited to get into that. We always like to end these with.

Invest smart and live happy.

Thanks, guys.

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