Home Virginia mansion featuring chic garden room sells for $725k over asking price
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Virginia mansion featuring chic garden room sells for $725k over asking price

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(© Hanoi Photography – stock.adobe.com)

A Richmond, Virginia home sold for $750,000 over asking price last month, the highest in the region. The sale happens during a hot seller’s market as demand for housing skyrockets. Among the many attributes of the mansion, a garden room highlights a trend during the pandemic boom.

Closing the sale

The 5,500-square-foot colonial-style house located at 4702 Rolfe Road reached a sale price of $2.75 million. Originally, the house was appraised for $1.99 million but surged in value because of the housing demand. The house was listed on July 7th and closed on July 23rd and spent only 16 days on the market. The house was put under a buying agreement on July 15th, the same day in which showings began.

Agent Rebecca Winters with Shaheen, Ruth, Martin & Fonville real estate sold the property and had the listing agreement. She represented Jason and Gina Bass, the previous owners of the home. Jason Bass is currently a director with Harris Williams investment bank.

John Martin of SRMF represented buyers Alexandra and Whitson Huffman, according to city property records. Whitson Huffman is currently an executive at Innsbrook-based real estate investment firm Capital Square.

A look inside the most expensive Virginia mansion

The brick cladded mansion features 16 rooms distributed between two levels. The first floor has a bedroom with an attached bathroom (en suite), spacious kitchen with a custom-built skylight, and a wet bar. The kitchen also features marble countertops and white wood detailing, along with white french doors.  An office overlooks the main family room, while a laundry/mudroom provides dirt-free access.

The second level also includes a laundry room, along with four bedrooms and four complete bathrooms. In total, the house features four bedrooms, and six bathrooms with two half-bathrooms. There are four fireplaces that are both gas and wood-burning. The basement level has a recreation room with custom attached bunk beds and a bathroom.

The back of the home has a slate porch, as well as a covered side porch with brick-cladded archways. Among the most unique features of the home are a screened garden room, a design element growing in popularity.

Built in 1925, the house was remodeled and extended by Mark Franko Custom Building in 2008. The Westmoreland Place property was originally appraised at $1.64 million.

A room for a garden

The pandemic has forced many people inside as governments severely restrict outdoor gathering and public spaces. Thus, homeowners have had to find some way to make the best of spending all their time at home. One solution is a home garden room which serves as an extra space to work or socialize safely without stepping out your front door.

The garden room craze evolved from the need for extra work spaces when the entire family is at home, whether for privacy or focus. They can include desks and outlets with wifi for working, or even serving as an extra bedroom on the patio. However, many residents are adding unexpected features to these lockdown spaces.

These new features include pizza ovens, outdoor seating, jacuzzis, and canopies all lit with decorative LED lighting. Garden Room 365, a Basildon-based custom building company has seen demand for garden rooms rise. Director Mark Pannell says that “A lot of people are now investing into their outdoor spaces and utilizing them as they have the money they have saved up throughout lockdown.”

“We have had a lot of clients say that they are using the money they have saved up without going on holiday – it has also made them realize in the first lockdown how much they use their gardens.”

A garden room can greatly increase the value of a real estate property, or just give homeowners somewhere to escape. The pandemic resurgence still leaves many things uncertain, but for many residents, investing in their own homes is a smart move.

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