Renovation Projects

Updated August 16, 2020

Recent Sales

The run-down, falling down and down on their luck — these classic houses require varying degrees of renovation, some extensive.

221 College Road

  • $250,000 (originally $300,000)
  • 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,660 square feet, 1.04 acres
  • Price/square foot: $94
  • Built in 1917
  • Listed May 27, 2021
  • Last sale: $70,000, March 2014
  • Note: Not owner-occupied

1008 Haywood Street
listing withdrawn March 4 to December 30, 2018
listing withdrawn November 5, 2019
relisted March 13, 2020 (at $189,000)
listing withdrawn July 24, 2021

  • $219,999 (originally $499,000, last listed price was $309,998)
  • 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1,604 square feet
  • Price/square foot: $137
  • Built in 1905
  • Listed November 25, 2017
  • Last sale: $65,000, November 1998
  • Neighborhood: Glenwood
  • Note: For sale by owner
    • Zillow listing says the house is 1,804 square feet; county tax records say 1,604.
    • Even reduced by almost 60 percent from the original price, it’s still priced far higher that what you would expect to pay for a house in Glenwood that needs work.

607 Summit Avenue
The Jacob W. Lindau House
contract pending June 30, 2021
no longer under contract August 4, 2021

  • $149,900
  • 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2,750 square feet
  • Price/square foot: $55
  • Built in 1900
  • Listed June 16, 2021
  • Last sale: $31,625, March 2018 (see note below)
  • Neighborhood: Dunleath Historic District
  • Note: One of the most egregiously maimed historic homes in Greensboro
    • Divided into three apartments
    • The asking price is about five times the amount the owners paid in 2018. No exterior improvements appear to have been done, and no interior pictures are included in the listing.
    • Online listings include misleading figures on the last sale. It was one of four properties sold as a package for $127,500. No individual prices were broken out. County property records show the price as $31,625, the most appropriate figure under the circumstances.
    • The original owner was Jacob W. Lindau, secretary-treasurer of the Southern Finishing & Warehouse Company at Proximity. The National Register nomination for the district describes the house as Queen Anne-Colonial Revival.
    • Photo with 2017 listing:

4007 Oak Ridge Road, Summerfield
contract pending June 5 to July 15, 2021
contract pending August 16, 2021

  • $145,000 (originally $150,000)
  • 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1,308 square feet, 5 acres
  • Price/square foot: $111
  • Built in 1938
  • Listed July 28, 2020
  • Last sale: Not identifiable in online records
  • Listing: “…a lot of potential for the right person with a keen eye, a lot of Elbow Grease and TLC.”
    • Something you don’t see everyday: “A bonus yard feature is a fire box for cooking Beets in a Steel Pot.”
    • “No septic or well records on file at Guilford Co. Environmental Health.”

7808 Jackson School Road, Browns Summit
The Ira and Hattie Herbin House

  • $85,000 (originally $100,000)
  • 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 786 square feet (per county), 3.1 acres
  • Price/square foot: $108
  • Built in 1900
  • Listed July 21, 2021
  • Last sale: $550, December 1942
  • Note: Ira Herbin Sr. (1911-1989) bought the house in 1942 and lived there until his death. He was an employee of Cone Mills’ White Oak Plant. His wife, Hattie Jane Milton Herbin (1920-2019), then owned the property until her death.
    • For much of his life, Ira was one of two unrelated men named Ira Herbin in Browns Summit. The other, Ira Russell Herbin (1898-1960), was a farmer and building contractor.

2417 Cypress Street, Greensboro

  • $70,000
  • 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 934 square feet
  • Price/square foot: $75
  • Built in 1922
  • Listed July 20, 2021
  • Last sale: $49,583, May 5, 2021
  • Neighborhood: White Oak
  • Note: The house is being sold less than three months after its last sale with no apparent work done and a mark-up of almost 50 percent.
    • Words picked up verbatim from previous listing: “The water and utilities are not on. Copper pipes were stolen.”

1513 Highland Avenue
contract pending August 14, 2021

  • $65,000 (originally $49,950)
  • 2 bedrooms, 1 1/2 bathrooms, 745 square feet
  • Price/square foot: $87
  • Built in 1935
  • Listed June 22, 2021
  • Last sale: $26,000, June 9, 2021
  • Neighborhood: Glenwood
  • Listing: “Great fixer upper opportunity”
    • “Roof will be replaced 7-10-2021, price will change after finished.” Perhaps that has happened.