Leslie Kunkin remembers how the kitchen, staircase and hallways looked months ago inside 180 Union St. in Montclair, New Jersey. Long story short, the house was in "disrepair," she said.
"It was so special," she said. "You could see what the house had been and what it could be."
But that was before a North Jersey home flipper bought the property and spent more than $1.4 million renovating it. Kunkin said the renovations were more than just a fresh coat of paint.
"He spent the last eight months gutting and restoring this house," Kunkin of West of Hudson Real Estate told Homes.com in an interview. "He configured the bedrooms, so every bedroom has its own bathroom. He moved the kitchen around so it could have a proper mud room. He did a gorgeous job."
The renovations — complete with a new roof, rebuilt two-car garage and circular driveway — are finished and Kunkin is now selling the home for $3.69 million. Neighbors and potential buyers have noticed the makeover, she said.
"They love everything about the bedrooms and the layout of the family room," said Kunkin, the home's listing agent. "But what they really like is the front porch, which is stunning. There's something really special about it. People stop at the front porch. You can imagine yourself sitting there for days."
Built in 1890, the three-story home has six bedrooms and seven-and-a-half bathrooms on a 0.79-acre lot. Inside it has two fireplaces and a basement with a home theater.
A home with history
Kunkin said a married couple has owned the house since 1978 and raised their children there. The husband died a while ago, leaving the property to his wife, who couldn’t keep up with maintenance as she aged.
The home sits in Montclair's Estate Section neighborhood, a 283-acre area known for historic homes that cost north of $1 million. Mansions in Estate Section typically range in styles from Colonial, Queen Anne and Victorian.
For the buyer, owning this property in Essex County means the new owner would be paying the nation's highest effective property tax rate. For the seller, the home being priced at $3.69 million means paying New Jersey's newly enacted mansion tax — which, in this case, would equate to 3.5% of the final purchase price.
The home flipper knows that's coming, Kunkin said. Still, he bought the property roughly 12 months ago and "he really went all out on this one," she added.