Just Listed: Modern Colonial in Graduate Hospital
Usually, it helps to have a pro to help you make your house attractive enough to sell, then sell it. The owner of this house, however, happens to be his own pro.
Suburban tranquility in an urban setting? The owner of this young Colonial townhouse at 1831 Montrose St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19146, says you get that plus extra room and more light too. | Photos courtesy Steven Millman
One way to save money when selling a house is to sell it yourself. But doing so carries with it some caveats.
You’ll need to promote the hell out of it, for it won’t show up on the multiple listing services or many of the real estate search engines.
And you’ll need to know how to handle a bunch of legal and financial niceties once you find a buyer.
That means that many people who decide to sell their houses themselves use agents of convenience — agents who, for a modest fee, will appear as a listing agent, allow you to list the house on the MLS, and maybe help with the paperwork.
But what if you (a) redesigned and upgraded your house after buying it and (b) know your way around the paperwork and the legal and financial niceties?
In that case, why not really sell it yourself?
Attorney Steven Millman of Cozen O’C0nnor reached that conclusion. And as a result, unless you stumbled across this modern Graduate Hospital Colonial house for sale on one of the Zillow Group’s sites, chances are that this is the first time you will have seen this house for sale.
Millman bought the house via a discount broker, Redfin, in 2018. You can see what the house he and his wife bought looked like when they bought it here on Redfin, or here on Realtor.com.
Now compare what the house looks like now to what it looked like then and I think you’ll agree the Millmans have a good eye for simple, unfussy, clean design.
Main floor
They took this simple yet solidly built nine-year-old modern Colonial and made it even more modern.
Living room
They didn’t have to do all that much, to be honest. Just replace the stock mock-Victorian lighting fixtures with more contemporary lighting, swap the color-riot Colonial Revival palette with a more urbane scheme of soft grays, light blues and browns, and find complementary furnishings, and voila! They have a very handsome house to show off.
Dining room
What led them to buy this house, Millman says, is its ability to offer suburban-style privacy in an urban setting.
Kitchen
“We were looking for a very specific floor plan — one that not only had garage parking, but also had the kitchen, living room, and a least three bedrooms on the upper floors,” he says. “We found that most Philadelphia townhomes that have a garage are only three stories tall, so either the kitchen, living room, or one of the three bedrooms is naturally on the first floor behind the garage.
Primary bedroom
Primary bedroom balcony
Primary bathroom
“In 1831 Montrose, we found the coveted floorplan that we were looking for. Being four stories tall, all of the important rooms are upstairs, off street level,” he says.
Bonus room
“Instead, behind the garage we have a great bonus room, that is technically a fourth bedroom,” says Millman. “We use it for a guest room, office, playroom, and gym. We have found this extra room to be a true luxury not commonly found in the city.”
Millman also liked the quality of construction: “The attention to detail and the craftsmanship in the home is unmatched. Someone once told us that our house has the feel of a suburban home, not the squeaky-floored, thin-walled feel that you get with so many city homes. We agree; this home has a very solid feel, and expensive materials were used throughout.”
Rear patio
And its location on a quiet mid-block lane means you get even more peace and quiet.
Reading the listing copy, it’s clear Millman did his homework when putting this house up for sale: The copy reads like a professional agent wrote it. And like a professional agent, he’s offering a full commission to buyer’s agents.
All this means you won’t have to do much homework if, like Millman, you decide that this house offers everything you’re looking for. Just give your agent a call and put them to work. Or, if you are as confident as Millman is that you can do the job yourself, call the number in the listing directly and save yourself the buyer’s agent’s commission.
THE FINE PRINT
BEDS: 4
BATHS: 2 full, 1 half
SQUARE FEET: 2,424
SALE PRICE: $824,900
OTHER STUFF: This Graduate Hospital Colonial house for sale is move-in ready, but one improvement we recommend you consider is making its ample paved patio a little-more earth-friendly. COVID-19 and reduced city revenues have led to changes in the city Water Department’s “Rain Check” program, and work on projects has been suspended for the rest of the year, but the program is still accepting applications with an eye on resuming work early next year. You can read more about this program here.
1831 Montrose St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19146 [For sale by owner via Zillow]
