Hansel and Gretel House to be sold

Known by some as the Hansel and Gretel House, a stunningly restored Cotswold Cottage Revival home in the F.Q. Story Historic District of Phoenix will go up for sale on Thursday, March 16. The list price for the 1,975sf home will be $675,000.

The home at 1134 West Culver Street, near Downtown Phoenix, has been the focus of much media attention over the years. Built by early-Phoenix developer Frank B. Wallace as a residence for his own family, it was heralded in the pages of the Arizona Republic at the time of its completion in January of 1931.

Among the features cited by the Republic were the home's unique Cotswold Cottage architecture, its rounded roof, and the rock-walled garden with goldfish pond on the east side of the property. All of these features have been faithfully restored, along with the rest of the home.

More recently, the Cool Homes feature in the Arizona Republic cited the home for its painstaking restoration, effected by current owners Jim and Luz Marina Aten. The Atens bought the property in 2002 and, with the help of 27 different contractors, expended over 10,000 hours to return the long-neglected home to its former glory.

The Cool Homes features caught the attention of Channel 12 News, which did a story on the home.

This Republic's coverage also drew the attention of HGTV's Generation Renovation program, which featured the home last fall. This program is to be rebroadcast on March 24th at 7pm MST on Cox Cable channel 41.

The home is being marketed for sale by BloodhoundRealty.com, a Phoenix real estate brokerage. The firm's marketing strategy - including direct promotion to thousands of neighboring homes and a web site featuring hundreds of photos of the home before, during and after restoration - is designed to capitalize on the HGTV rebroadcast.

BloodhoundRealty.com will host an Open House of this unique home on Sunday, March 19, from 12 noon to 4pm.

CONTACT: Greg Swann, BloodhoundRealty.com, 602-740-7532
Web Site: http://www.1134westculverst.com/
Past Media References: http://www.1134westculverst.com/ScrapbookItems/
HGTV: http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/shows_hgren/0,,HGTV_19116,00.html

Distinguishing restoration from renovation

The work Jim and Luz Marina Aten undertook on their Cotswold Cottage Revival home at 1134 West Culver Street was a true restoration, not a renovation.

What's the difference?

In almost all cases, the Aten's used the original materials to refurbish the home, not newly manufactured items designed to look old. Where most historic homes are renovated, only a very few are truly restored.

The cabinets don't look like the originals, they are the originals, refinished but whole. The windows don't look like the originals, they are the originals, painstakingly restored.

The roof is brand new, but it is a new Cedar shake roof devised to replicate the original roof of the home, which had been shingled-over again and again over the years.

Even the floorplan has been restored to reflect its original logic, after having been betrayed over the years.

The kitchen has been perfected: Original cabinetry and countertops with all new stainless steel appliances.

The overall effect is an amazing historical authenticity that sacrifices none of the comforts of modernity.

CONTACT: Jim Aten, 602-252-7701

Home to benefit from unique marketing strategy

The custom web site BloodhoundRealty.com built for 1134 West Culver Street contains over 85 megabytes of data - and it's still growing. The site features over 125 internal web pages, not counting external links, and features over 500 photographs of the home.

The brokerage deploys a very active style of promotion. Beginning with a central idea for a home, it builds an elaborate custom web site, then produces full-color printed materials to promote the home and its web site to thousands of neighboring homes.

"We know that the most likely buyers for historic homes are the neighbors or people in their warm networks," says Realtor Cathleen Collins, "so we make sure everyone in the neighborhood is involved."

The brokerage hosts the best-attended Open Houses in the city, drawing as many as 100 showing parties to its events.

This basic strategy was extended for this home to include promotional appeals to the major media, first because it has attracted so much media attention in the past, and second because it is such a unique architectural specimen.

CONTACT: Cathleen Collins, BloodhoundRealty.com, 602-369-9275