PR, sales, and marketing professional Hampton Barringer Luzak has held roles as a lifestyle reporter and producer for MSNBC. Currently active in the real estate industry, Hampton Luzak leverages her creativity to undertake interior design work and to restore historical homes before selling them.
Historic homes are monitored by the National Park Service and included in the National Register of Historic Places. Currently, there are more than 26,000 listed places. To make the list, a home must be at least 50 years old and either be connected to a significant historic event, a significant individual, or a significant historical architectural style. Properties in historical districts also qualify as historic homes. In some instances, states and municipalities can designate homes as historic.
Owning a historic home is tantamount to owning a part of history. This is why many homebuyers would like to purchase historic homes. Apart from their classic appeal, though, historical homes do present homebuyers with unique challenges, chief among them restrictions on renovations and restoration work.
State and local laws have standards for rehabilitating historic buildings. So do homeowners associations. These restrictions may prohibit homeowners from demolishing the homes, adding square-footage to them, or making modifications to their exteriors. Furthermore, structural home improvements could require approval from oversight authorities. Before buying a historic home, therefore, it is important for a person to become well-versed with the local and state regulations on rehabilitating historic homes to confirm whether the renovations they might want to make would be allowed.
It should be noted, however, that state laws are not all about prohibitions. There are also supportive laws. For instance, some states offer tax incentives for preserving or restoring historic homes. They may also grant access to low interest loans. Whichever the case, home buyers would be prudent to first go through the local and state laws to compare the regulatory advantages and disadvantages of buying a historic home.
