We’ve been playing the before-and-after home comparison game a lot lately–but then, we’re seeing an awful lot of freshly renovated properties in the neighborhood, so it’s bound to come up.

Sometimes the problem with these comparisons is that there’s no real context and the new version is just plain better (albeit it much less attainable for buyers in most economic brackets).

But not so with today’s example, a brand new listing that presents essentially inverse design sensibilities from the last time it listed two years ago. Here’s 481 36th Avenue in 2020, when it was a $4.8 million one bed, one bath setup, circa 1918:

Now THAT is old school, just look at all of that warm woodwork. Can’t beat a classic like that.

Or can you? That 2020 listing specifically angled for a flip buyer, calling the house “an extraordinary opportunity to create […] a dream home.” The city issue the first building permits for the site two weeks after the sale to owner Andrew Wang.

The new listing sports radically expanded dimensions, up to more than five baths and some 3,300 square feet of space.

But it’s the aesthetic we’re most interested in. This new look is…certainly modern. Yes, you’ve got to give it that.

No doubt about it, the old house was just plain old-fashioned, and interiors like this just plain sell for more on today’s market.

But what do you, the real Richmond resident, actually think of them? Would you renovate a home like this? Or preserve the old interiors–come what may?

By the way, this new listing is looking to more than double its money at $3.68 million.

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