Partners Matter: Atlas Realty

Over a year ago we held an Open House at a historic renovation we had completed in the Museum District on Patterson Avenue renovation.

Darren Brown of Atlas Realty just happened to be walking by and what he saw inside the house inspired him to reach out to us and resulted in one of the most unique renovation projects we have completed to date.

The house that started it all

Atlas Realty is a full-service real estate firm that specializes in renovation properties and projects. They often do their own construction on renovations and have even completed some truly amazing new construction projects in the past year. Despite their own capabilities to do their own construction, what Darren saw in our historic renovation made him want to put our heads together and see what could come out of a collaborative project.

While the RIC and Atlas aesthetics were similar, Atlas has a much more modern take on their properties, particularly their new construction. Our background in historic homes means we are often working with salvaging original elements and characteristics of 100+ year old homes while still infusing modern amenities and style into our renovations. While many might see these two approaches as at odds, both Atlas and RIC saw it as a way to complement each other’s talents.

Atlas secured a renovation property on North Belmont Avenue - a perfect location to showcase our historic-property-meets-modern-aesthetic plans. The house was on the market “as-is” and while it wasn’t a complete gut project, it did need a lot of updating and work.

We got right to work on the water damage - repairing the plumbing, ripping out the existing kitchen and bathrooms, tearing down walls to make larger rooms and making an unfinished basement livable space. We also carefully picked high-end, modern finishes that both we and Atlas knew would speak to the buyers in this market. Meanwhile they worked on hand-selecting the perfect furniture and pieces to use for staging for our Open House.

Having the collaborative atmosphere pushed both teams to make decisions we might not have been brave enough to try on our own. One example is the exposed steel beam we left in the kitchen. Many realtors would have had us box it in and cover it up, but the folks at Atlas could see the modern, industrial influence it could have on the space and encouraged us to keep it.

When the construction, design and staging were complete, the home’s first open house had a line out the door. Within two weeks the house had sold at 97% of asking price. We have no doubt that this is because of the outcomes that came from collaborating, rather than competing with, another amazing Richmond-based company.

We’re looking forward to more collaborative projects with Atlas in the future, so stay tuned and follow us and Atlas on Instagram (@ricdesignbuild & @atlasrealtygroup) and Facebook for more information on renovations, open houses and available properties.