Buy the "Young House Love" House

Richmond’s most famous do-it-yourselfers are putting their house on the market.

The couple behind the popular blog, Young House Love, are selling their house. Check out their "For Sale" listing here.

Sherry and John Petersik shot to fame when they began blogging about renovating their 1950’s ranch in Bon Air. Their home was featured on HGTV’s "Rate My Space" and the young couple began writing for national publications like "Better Homes & Garden’s Do It Yourself Magazine."

Now, blogging is their full time business. Add a five-month-baby into the mix and they’re ready to move.

We gave them a call to find out why.

You finally finished renovating your house. Why sell now?

We’re terrible at sitting around the house. We’re project people. We sat around for two weekends in a row and said, "We need a new project! We need a house!" We’re home-improvement-obsessed.

Also, we’re bursting at the seams. It’s been a long time coming. We do plan on expanding our family in the future.

And since we’re in the blog business, it’s good for business. It gives us something to work on.

You’ve made a name for yourselves with this house. Will it be difficult to leave?

I think it will be bittersweet. We got married in the backyard; we took our baby home to this house; we based our business on this house. I resisted the idea of selling for a really long time, until all signs starting pointing that this was the right thing to do for our family.

What are you looking for in a new house?

We’re looking for a little more space. We want something old – at least built in the 1960’s or earlier. That’s our sweet spot. And we’re definitely looking for something that needs lots of work. We love renovating old houses.

Will you stay in Richmond? Any other areas of town you’re interested in?

We’re definitely planning to stay in Richmond. We always said we could be lifers. Our family is here. We love [living in] Bon Air. The schools are great in Chesterfield. But we’re open to other things, like the Libbie & Grove area or the West End. Our focus has been looking in Bon Air and older homes that need work in the area.

How many hours of work do you think you’ve put into the house?

We’ve been here four and a half years and we’ve been working on it since the day we moved in. I couldn’t sleep the night we closed because I was so excited to pull up floors and rip out doors.

How much do you think you’ve put into the house?

We estimate that we put in around $40,000 to the house. You name it, we’ve done it. We’ve done everything from adding new windows and a new roof, to gutting and completely redoing the kitchen and bathroom. There is no surface left untouched.

Zillow.com has the house’s value priced lower than your listing price. Why do you think that is?

They don’t know what we’ve done to the house. We had an appraisal done in March 2009 [that priced it at $223,000]. We’ve replaced the roof, we replaced the windows, we partially refinished the basement and we added square footage to the house. We can show that appraisal to a buyer and I think they’ll see that the [original] house was a shadow of what it is now.

I think that’s how the blog caught on. The "before" pictures were so bad. I think it really shocked people that we saw something and were able to make it shine.

You’re doing "For Sale By Owner." How did that decision come about?

We thought, if we’re such DIY people, why stop here and hand it over to a realtor? We appreciate what a realtor does and how hard they work, but we wanted to give it a try.

How’s it going so far?

We just put the For Sale sign up last Sunday and we’ve had two showings so far. We’re not on MLS. We’re very sensitive to our privacy. [Because of the blog], everyone knows what’s in the house, so we’re sensitive [to putting our address out there.]

So far, we’ve gotten really good feedback. I think one of the two couples might come back for a second showing.

How will you feel if the new owners completely change everything that you’ve done?

I hope that they do! That’s what we preach. Our passion is to take a room and make it your own. We’d love to see this house with someone else’s style. We hope somebody puts their stamp on the house, because that’s when it feels like a home.

Do you have a time frame for selling the house?

We’re thinking if we don’t get any bites in a month or two, we’ll re-evaluate our approach [and go with a realtor]. We’re serious about moving.

Our goal is by January to hopefully be in a new house. New year, new house! But you never know how these things go.

It’s a tough time in real estate. Why did you decide to sell now?

We thought about what we had to gain and what we had to lose. We thought, yes, we could make more if we held onto it and sold it later. But we feel like interest rates have never been lower and we’ll be saving a bunch of money in the long term if we lock into a low interest rate. We could end up in a slightly larger house in a slightly better neighborhood…all on the cheap. We’re trying to focus on how much we have to gain. And since we’re looking for a fixer-upper, that helps. Those are priced to move.

How have your readers responded?

We were worried that our readers would be mad. But everybody has been so excited to see what we’ll do next. A new house is a fresh canvas. We were really surprised by the enthusiasm of our readers. When we announced it, we got 700 comments. Usually we get 100. And everybody was excited for us.

You’ve been featured in lots of national magazines and TV shows. Any current media projects in the works?

We’re doing a Christmas Gift Project for RealSimple.com. A "holiday DIY gift idea." It will be on the website.

And we’re going to be on a national TV show, but it’s top secret and we can’t make the announcement yet. We’re sworn to secrecy. But check our website in the next few days for the announcement.

If you'd like more info on the house, email John Petersik.

We'll keep you posted on what TV show you can see Young House Love next. And you can search our comprehensive MLS listings for more real estate for sale in the Richmond area and beyond.