Renovation Business Grew Out Of Family Tragedy

LAURA DUKES
The Frederick News-Post

FREDERICK, Md. (AP) -- The home-flipping and restoration group, Murphy Properties, did not come from its owners watching a lot of HGTV.

Susan "Sue" Murphy and her husband Don lost their daughter Jessica in a 1999 car crash. They experienced another void when their son left for college two years later.

"We were left empty-nested before we were supposed to be," Sue said. "Don and I needed something to put our energy into."

Sue was a former Realtor and said several of her family members had experience with both construction and real estate. Sue and her sister-in-law, Lisa -- married to Don's identical twin, Doug -- initially had the idea to renovate houses and use them as rentals. They started doing this in 2001.

"We were all kind of a mess, so there's something about swinging a sledge hammer that's very satisfying," Sue said of grieving over her daughter.

Their first house was across from the fairgrounds in Frederick. They then renovated three others in the Frederick area that are now rental properties.

The women look for old houses that other companies wouldn't want to take on, Sue said. These houses may have structural and mold issues.

"We do a total gut," she said.

In 2006, they had the idea to start selling the houses once they're renovated. Since then they have sold six and they are currently working on their seventh.

"You're getting a 150-year-old house that's brand new basically," Sue said.

"But still keeping some of the old charm," Lisa added.

The oldest house they renovated was 180 years old and the youngest was 100.

The house they are currently restoring is a 1,900 square-foot home in Burkittsville. All the others were row-houses in downtown Frederick. Sue said they typically look for a brick exterior, decent ceiling height and off-street parking. Everything else, they can work with.

One of their houses was featured in a 2010 episode of the HGTV show "House Hunters."

They renovate one house a year, doing all of the work themselves except for heating, cooling, electrical, plumbing and roof work. Lisa and Sue do their work during weekdays, and their husbands lend a hand during evenings and weekends.

A typical day for the women might involve demolition, design or working with tile. Their signature is to put a brick archway somewhere in the houses.

"We lift a lot of stuff, but we're smart about how we do it," Sue said. "And we do yoga to make sure our bodies don't get too twisted out of shape."

When it comes time to sell the homes, Sue and Lisa said they have a strong relationship with Craig Russell with Frederick County Bank, who knows that they have a successful sales formula.

This formula is centered on "not being greedy," Sue said. She added that this mentality got them through the recent recession.

"We don't try to make a killing," she said. "We make a little bit of money and we're satisfied with that."

They bought the Burkittsville house for $45,000, are putting about $160,000 in it and hope to sell it for close to $300,000. The painted brick, white house was built in 1834, with an addition put on in 1910.

The women average seven to eight months on each project. They expect the Burkittsville house to be completed in November, and they will have spent seven months rehabilitating the historic home. The women keep some of the profit from each house sold to put aside as a down payment for their next project house.

They buy their supplies from a combination of big box and local stores. They also use some salvaged items from ReStore. Homes that once had rotting floors will have gleaming new ceramic tile, stainless steel appliances, granite countertops and multiple gas-log fireplaces when the women are finished.

So far, the houses have all sold within a few weeks, Sue said.

"It's kind of a unique product," she said.

That's not to say that doing the renovations has always been easy. They have dealt with flooded basements and rain coming through a leaking roof. Once, a floor even caved in.

"Every project seems to have one day where we're like `Why did we do this?"' Sue said.

Nonetheless, she said her job doesn't even feel like work.

"I get to come do what I want to do all day and spend it with my best friend," Sue said.

(Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)