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Vintage Bungalow Renovation in Historic 5th Ward

This soon to be lovely, bungalow located in the rapidly gentrifying neighborhood of 5th Ward has come a long way in a short period of time. This home was literally sinking into the ground, had holes in the roof and literally was on the verge of imploding.

We knew this property had tons of potential and it was our mission to bring it back to life!

This property was purchased as a teardown and our first goal was to identify what could be salvaged from it. We then had to figure out what the new layout of this home would be as it was functionally obsolete and needed to be rethought and redesigned!

Just a hair under 800 square feet, there is not much space in this home so we had to be very strategic in how we laid the new floor plan out to ensure that it flows well and suits the way people live today!

In the upcoming days we will keep you posted on this gem as it gets closer to completion!

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Househacking Airbnb Design Build Project

House-Hacking Airbnb Design Build Project

This started out as an old bungalow that was being marketed as a tear down property on the MLS when we came across it, but as a premise Houston Vintage Homes DOES NOT tear down old homes! So for us, it was all about envisioning the next chapter in this 100 year old bungalows life…

After conversing with the homes new owner it was evident we would make this one super neat Urban Bungalow that was also ideally suited for Airbnb. The vision for this home involves bringing it up to today’s standards with all the bells & whistles associated with today’s modern home with many of the traditional lines and features that made these homes great when they were originally built 100 years ago!

Some Neat Tech Goodies…

The technology package we have planned for this home is second to none and I can honestly say I doubt there will be any home in the area with some of the features this home will have! I can’t go into details but features like automated HVAC, Whole Home stereo, surveillance & security system are the START of things! Lots of fun to be had here!

In addition to the updates we have designed this home to maximize it’s earning potential via Airbnb and other short term rental platforms! In fact, Houston is Airbnb’s largest market in the US and is rapidly growing, so we wanted to ensure the homes new owner could take full advantage of this opportunity.

Double or Triple Your ROI via Airbnb!

This isn’t our first foray into Airbnb themed units, as we have developed quite a strong level of expertise in renovating & designing Airbnb properties for investors looking to earn better than average returns with their investment properties. 

After paying all expenses (principal, interest, taxes, insurance, repair allowance & property mgmt fees) most investors are happy netting $250 to $300 or more per month on a single family home that may be a 3 bedrooms 2 bath home! Same home rented via Airbnb with the addition of cleaning fee’s may bring in as $600 to $900 per month, same home, more expenses for maids but way more profit! There are people locally netting $1,000 per month and more with properly Airbnb optimized properties!

We have completed and are currently designing several projects that incorporate Airbnb into their design and/or are going to be used solely for short term rentals. This space has exploded in growth and size over the last 2-3 years and is on pace to change the entire landscape of short term housing as we know it. At Houston Vintage Homes we are excited to be at the forefront of the space from a renovation and new construction perspective and bringing awareness to more investors as a potential avenue for profit in their investing efforts.

Community Impact with Airbnb

An added benefit to inner city communities that we have found is that by enhancing these older properties with the right updates and an Airbnb friendly design, we can now help more people afford to live in areas undergoing gentrification! It’s a WIN-WIN solution for the property owner, the community, Airbnb and the city overall as they receive a hotel tax!

If you are interested in learning more about how you can leverage our expertise to execute a similar Airbnb project or urban in-fill development feel free to shoot an email to Tyron@HoustonVintageHomes.com with details of your project.

Stay tuned for more updates on this Urban Bungalow!

 

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Affordable Housing Duplex Almost Complete near the Med Center!

It’s with great excitement we approach the completion of our Affordable Housing duplex located minutes away from the largest medical complex in the world, The Medical Center. For some amazing news about the expansion of the Med Ctr check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OntO7kdIy50&t=27s

This $5 billion dollar research campus is just one of the MANY reasons more families are moving into the Sunnyside, South Union area of inner city as home values rise and the area continues its rapid transformation!

The duplex features (2) full sized 3 bedroom 2 bath units that are well appointed and stylish yet affordable! It’s common with most developments in areas that are gentrifying that the current residents are displaced as they can’t afford the newly constructed housing stock in the area. It is with great pride that we structured this project to ensure as many people as possible could afford to live in this community.

These units each feature ceramic tile floors throughout the entire home, granite counters and custom Shaker cabinets! Unlike many affordable housing projects where sub-standard or lower quality finishes are used, we have appointed our units to truly feel like home and be a place of comfort and respite for it’s inhabitants and we believe strongly that this development embodies that.

In the coming weeks we will post updated photos of both the interior and exterior so stay tune!

 

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New Orleans inspired Bungalow almost complete in 3rd Ward…

Urban Bungalow in 3rd Ward is this close to being DONE!

You wouldn’t believe the condition of this home and how it looked when I first saw it a few months ago…

In fact, this home was in such bad condition the owners couldn’t believe we planned on renovating this home and making it awesome again! Truth be told, I believe the reason they sold this home to us was because our vision was to make this home great again and an asset to this rapidly gentrifying area where most homes like this are being torn down.

The bottom pic is what it looked like when I first saw the home!

Do you see why people thought we were going to tear this home down! Extensive repairs were required as you can see… The entire roof had to be rebuilt, all the siding was removed in fact the only thing that remains from the existing home was the floor joists and some of the studs in the walls! So in essence, it’s a new construction home with the character of a 100 year old home!

We expect this home to be completed within the next 2 weeks and it will hit the market most likely for around $259k! Check back with us for the Open House we will be having once this home hits the market!

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Treetop Villas – Affordable Housing Development coming to Fifth Ward!

Situated on a corner lot blocks from I-10 in the heart of 5th Ward…

The HVH team has been diligently working on the home designs for a development located in 5th Ward called Treetop Villas which will be very exciting to get started constructing!

Houston Vintage Homes was hired to source the land, develop it for multiple units, design and then construct the units! Literally a turn key development which we anticipate will be well received by the marketplace and will produce substantial returns for many years to come!

One of the main design attributes about this project was ensuring the units didn’t look like rentals. It’s quite common to see new construction rental properties that are very bland and basic in design and quite honestly they look like rental property! Our philosophy at HVH is “Our rentals don’t look like rentals!”

What we have found is that if you truly understand your market and you invest the time wisely during the design process you can actually design & build a phenomenal looking unit without breaking the budget. These units are a prime example of this design philosophy in place.

Each unit features 3 bedroom & 3 bathrooms, a 1 car garage and just over 1,100 square feet of living space! Take a look at the floorplan below…

The 1st & 2nd floor

Take a look at the exterior facade…

As we speak these units are going through the permitting process with the City of Houston and we expect to have that process complete and construction begin real soon! Stay tuned as we continue to update the blog with more information on this development.

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Duplex: We got ourselves a FRAME folks!!!


Won’t he do it!!!

The new construction process is always fun because you literally get to watch magic happen as you experience first hand an idea from your head actually manifest itself right before your very eyes!

Last year we began planning the construction of this unit and it’s exhilarating to drive up to the site and hear nails guns firing off every few seconds! Take a look at some of the in proces

2 weeks in and things are progressing along pretty good; in fact, the framers have only worked (1) full day and we were able to get the subfloor installed and framed most of the entire first floor! Not too shabby!

Do you own a vacant lot and would like to build on it but don’t know what steps to take? We can help you easily navigate the sometimes complex world of having a home or small multi family property built! You can speak directly with the owner of HVH by emailing him at Tyron@HoustonVintageHomes.com

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Beautiful Home Makeover for Momma T!

Houston Vintage Homes has been blessed to have a full schedule of new construction and major renovation projects but we commonly get requests for small remodels. Due to the size and scope of most of our projects we generally refer these requests to other contractors but in this case we had to make an exception to assist a distraught homeowner!

Our client initially hired a contractor and within a day they recognized they made a mistake in hiring and were concerned with what to do next! Having found out about HVH from Instagram, our client reached out to us and we knew we had to help them out! Take a look at the condition of the home when we arrived on the scene…

The homeowner, Momma T as she affectionately became known has lived in this home for over 20 years and really wanted to update it and modernize her home. Taking cues from her favorite colors and style we were able to craft a design that would meet all of her design objectives WITHOUT busting her budget.

In the end, we believe we hit all of the objectives dead on and to say our client LOVES her new home would be putting it mildy, take a look for yourself…

Too bad we didn’t have a chance to get better pictures before our client began using the space but we are just glad that Momma T now has an all new Living Room, updated bathroom and a place that makes her feel happy! It was fun working on this project and we look forward to one day helping you make your house a home one day!

 

 

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House Hacking New Construction Duplex Coming Soon!

We are excited to begin construction of this lovely duplex ideal for those looking to house hack or add a small multi family property to their portfolio! This home features (2) units consisting of 3 bedrooms & 2 bathrooms spaciously laid out over 1,125 square feet situated on a full size in-fill lot in a rapidly gentrifying area of Houston close the Astrodome area and Medical Center!

House-hacking is one of the savviest ways to purchase a home as it allows for others to contribute to your costs of ownership. You can live in one of your units and rent the other unit. Depending on a few key variables you could literally have enough income coming in from your rented unit to cover the entire monthly mortgage, in fact, with the proper management structure in place you could potentially have passive income coming in over and above your mortgage on a monthly basis!

YES, you read that right… You could actually purchase or build a small multi-family that would actually PAY YOU every single month from the income generated from renting your other unit(s) out.

An added kicker to the house-hacking concept is the proliferation of short term rental platforms like AirBNB and VRBO (Vacation Rental By Owner) – these sites allow you to easily rent out rooms or your entire unit on a short term basis which is substantially more profitable than having a conventional long term tenant. In fact, we’ve seen many cases where short term rentals were 3-4 times more profitable!

Here are a few more images of what this particular duplex will look like once completed:

Pretty neat pad right? Unfortunately this one is already SOLD however we have multiple lots available in different gentrifying areas of inner city Houston where these type of properties will thrive and mesh with the overall aesthetics of the neighborhood!

As a Design & Build firm, we are able to guide you step by step in the design, financing and building of a small multi family and alleviate most of stress, strain & struggle normally associated with building a home! If you are curious about the concept of house-hacking and want to learn more, shoot our an email to our Lead Designer & Builder at Tyron@HoustonVintageHomes.com – with details about your project and timeline.

Stay tuned for more updates on this project!

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Amazing Inner City Houston Bungalow near the Heights

100 Year Old Bungalow – Owned by the builders family since new over 100 years ago! Totally cool!

The team at Houston Vintage Homes are such nerds and weirdo’s when it comes to really neat old wood framed homes, LOL! We literally geek out and go goo-goo for Cocoa Puffs over homes like this lovely bungalow located in one of the hottest areas of inner city Houston where a ton of gentrification and new development is underway!

This home was part of an estate that included 2 city blocks of old homes built between 1917 to 1920, unfortunately this is only 1 of 2 homes currently standing as the other homes were sold and immediately demolished to make way for new townhomes! In fact, the previous owners were most delighted to work with Houston Vintage Homes because our vision was to restore and make these homes as beautiful as they were when grandpa built them over 100 years ago!

Our vision with this home includes adding about 600 square feet of living space which will encompass the brand new Master Bedroom suite & office space! But before getting into all the details of whats to come, let’s take a look at how it looked when we first saw it!

  • Front Porch
  • Side
  • Rear
  • Dining & Living
  • Dining Room
  • View into Kitchen
  • Kitchen
  • Kitchen
  • Utility Room
  • Bedroom
  • Bedroom 2
  • View into bedroom

As the pictures show considering this homes age it was in pretty condition compared to most homes we work on; in fact, this home had been occupied by the same renters for 30 YEARS! Yes, 30 whole years, they rented this home, kinda sad actually but that’s a whole ‘nother conversation! (If you don’t own a home and you’re currently renting I strongly recommend you giving us a call right away, we can help you become a homeowner!)

That said, back to design, LOL!

The vision for this bungalow involves converting the living & dining rooms into more of what we call a Great Room with vaulted ceilings and some amazing exposed beams to bring in some character and texture! The pine floors will be sanded and stained with a pickled finish, a brand new gourmet kitchen with Pro-style appliances and the utility room we’ve designed for this home is just UNREAL!

There is so much to LOVE about the design and future of this home, we can’t wait to for the official unveiling which we expect to happen the first weekend of June! It will be quite fun to see this like new 100 year old bungalow surrounded by brand new tract built patio homes, quite the juxtaposition but it’s par for the course in inner city Houston.

As the summer rapidly approaches, it’s becoming prime real estate season! If you are in the market for a vintage styled home or are wanting to design & build your own custom home you shouldn’t make any moves without consulting with the team at Houston Vintage Homes first!

 

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New Orleans Style AirBNB Bungalow: Coming Soon!

Neat Bungalow equi-distant to U of H and TSU…

For some time the team here at HVH have literally been craving a bungalow to design and renovate that has the design elements and features of this home such as…

– Huge corner lot
– 11 Foot Ceilings
– Oversized rooms
– Transom windows over the main windows
– A secondary structure

We are most EXCITED about the 11 foot ceilings… Ceilings that tall make for such dramatic spaces! But before explaining every aspect of the project take a detailed at the current condition of this property below…

  • Side view
  • Dining Room
  • Living Room
  • Bedroom #1
  • Master Bedroom
  • Secondary Structure

After reviewing those pictures you may think we’re crazy in fact, we had several people ask if we were tearing this house down, LOL! We were offended that someone would tear down a GEM like this!

Obviously this home has endured many years of deferred maintenance having been vacant about 7 years, has multiple roof leaks, half demolished rooms, all broken windows and the siding is in pretty bad shape!

All of those things we look beyond to see the potential for this home…

We see a totally renovated and updated to modern standards, New Orleans Style Bungalow with all the architectural elements and details from 100 years ago when the home was originally designed and built. We will add some of the more modern features like a Pex Mani-bloc plumbing system which will allow for efficient water use throughout the home with almost zero maintenance. A tankless water heater will ensure an endless supply of hot water for those extended showers.

A Pro-Style gourmet kitchen outfitted with custom oversized shaker style cabinets, a huge working island and one or two goodies we can’t disclose right now but believe me
when I say this will be a kitchen unlike any other!

The goal is to create a home that’s truly an experience that takes your breath away and from all early indications I believe this home will that mark spot on! As an AirBNB rental I believe it will perform quite well for many years to come. Stay tuned in the coming months as we unveil this lovely New Orleans Style Bungalow!