Walter Lee could have bought a new home. However, he decided instead to go back in time.

Lee invested his money and his sweat into a home at the corner of Pearl and Maple streets in downtown Jeffersonville. It took 11 years for Lee to turn the home, built in 1924, from disrepair to a showcase. He recently won a Champion of Downtown Award given out by the Jeffersonville Main Street organization for his efforts.

While his budget allowed for a modern home, Lee’s heart pointed him in a different direction.

“Older homes have a lot of character and are well built,” said Lee, who moved to Jeffersonville from Louisville. “They are not out of a cookie-cutter mold. But it’s a trade off. There are a lot of inconveniences. It takes a long time to do the work and there are a lot of challenges.”

Lee is not alone when it comes to accepting the challenges that come with purchasing an older home and refurbishing it. In Floyd County there is a Web site devoted to older and historic properties for sale — www.historicnewalbany.com — that not only lists the price, but also a history and description of the property.

“People are looking at the listings on the Web,” said Greg Sekula, director of the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana Southern Regional Office located in Jeffersonville. “I think we are starting to pull some people from Louisville.”

Lee was one of those people.



LEARNING TO RESTORE

When Ted Fulmore moved back to the area in 2001, he looked for property along Frankfort Avenue and the Cresent Hill areas in Louisville. He wound up purchasing a home on Cedar Bough in old New Albany.

“I found this house on Cedar Bough and feel like I have a lot more house for the money,” he said. “Older homes always appeal to me. They have so much more character.”

But, like Lee, he found out older homes also require a lot of work and patience.

He decided to take the existing vinyl siding off of his house and restore the wood siding. The front of his home is now complete. He said he still has to finish the rear.

“It’s been a lot of work and I have done a lot of it myself,” he said. “I have gone all the way down to the original wood to restore it. It’s very time consuming. You couldn’t afford to pay someone to do all the work.”

Lee also had to learn everything he could about plaster and how to restore wood floors.

“It was the first time I had ever done that kind of work,” Lee, who writes computer software, said. “If I needed to learn how to do something I just went to the library and got a book on it.”

Fulmore said it’s important that his home is located in a historic district which means homeowners have to follow certain guidelines when renovating or adding on to their home.

“It helps protect your property, especially after you put so much work into it,” he said.



GROUP PROJECT

The Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana is dedicated to not only saving historic homes, but also restore property that has been forgotten or ignored. The group is also a cheerleader for restoration work.

Historic Landmarks is a non-profit preservation organization which assists property owners and non-profits who are interested in preserving historic properties.

Sekula said his group works closely with organizations like Develop New Albany and focus on downtowns and older neighborhoods.

“We try to explain to folks why rehabilitating pays and why it’s better for the economy and more beneficial to the community,” Sekula said. “The money and work stays in the community. You usually get local plumbers, local electricians and local contractors. With new construction they might be coming in from all over. It doesn’t have as much local benefit on the economy as preserving an older home does.”

Sekula said once people start seeing neighbors work and restore their homes, they will be motivated to do the same.

“It’s a trickle down effect. An adjoining property owner might be encouraged by the work being done on a neighboring home and might start keeping better care of their property,” he said. “It might encourage them.”

Sekula’s group focuses most of its attention on saving historic property. In New Albany, the group has been instrumental in saving the Cardinal Ritter home along Oak Street and the Brown-McCulloch House — built around 1875 — at 1605 E. Spring St. which is listed for $69,900. The exterior has already been renovated but the interior needs a complete makeover.

“We hope to find a buyer to complete the project,” Sekula said. “It’s been a little tough. It’s in a historic district and it’s very visible so it was important to save that home.”

While Lee said Sekula’s organization is “great,” he said there are not enough groups to help people look for older property. Unlike New Albany, he said there are no Web sites or services dedicated to helping potential home buyers in Jeffersonville.

“[Sekula’s] organization looks for the bigger projects,” he said.



VALUE AND THE MARKET

Ed Clere, president of Dragonfly Realty, said older homes have a niche in the real estate market.

He said the Brown-McCulloch House in New Albany has already appeared in This Old House and Victorian Homes magazines. He said those publications appeal to a certain group interested in restoring and purchasing older homes.

However, despite its appeal, the historic home is stuck in the 2007 economy.

“It’s a victim of a slow real estate market,” Clere said.

While real estate sales have slowed, Clere said older homes are becoming more popular — and not just for investors looking to renovate and rent them out. He said more people, like Fulmore and Lee, are buying older homes to restore and to live in.

“Right now older homes are still a bargain,” he said. “But that won’t always be the case. I think a trend going on in New Albany right now is people turning to owner-occupying property instead of people buying property and turning it into a four-plex and renting it out. Back in the 1970s people were buying these older homes to rent out. That is not the case anymore.”