Southern Homes • Old Jefferson • Baton Rouge, Louisiana
There is something slightly strange about selling a house after the person who loved it has already left.
The furniture is gone. The closets are empty. The refrigerator has nothing in it. There are no shoes by the door or coffee cups in the sink to remind you that somebody built an actual life here.
But that doesn't mean the house stops needing someone to take care of it.
If anything, we've learned that vacant homes sometimes need a little more love.
And 7605 Recorder Drive was one of those houses we couldn't help but fall a little bit in love with.
First, There Was a Lot of House to Love
One of the first things we remembered about this Baton Rouge home was the lot.
Huge. Corner. Lot.
And we love a good corner lot.
There was a shop. There was room. There were mature trees. And there was a house whose owner had already started putting her own personality into it.
She had plans. She had projects. She was updating things and making the house her own.
And then life did what life does.
Her job moved her away.
Suddenly, a house that was still somewhere in the middle of her story needed to become somebody else's.
Maybe an empty house isn't really empty.
Maybe it's simply between people.
Vacant Does Not Mean Maintenance-Free
There is a misconception about vacant listings that makes us laugh a little.
Nobody lives there, so what could possibly get messy?
Louisiana would like a word.
Bugs still find their way inside. Dust still settles. Grass still grows. Leaves still blow onto porches. Tree branches continue doing whatever tree branches have decided they're going to do.
And a house that's been sitting quietly for several days can start feeling like it's been sitting quietly for several days.
That's exactly what we don't want.
It's one reason we really like taking on vacant listings that are reasonably close to us, especially when our sellers have already relocated.
We tend to fall a little bit in love with the vacant homes entrusted to us.
We sweep up the Louisiana bugs that somehow make their way inside.
We open the curtains.
We straighten things up.
We lower the AC before a summer showing so buyers don't walk into a Louisiana sauna.
When winter decides to make one of its occasional appearances, we turn on enough heat for the house to feel comfortable.
Because a vacant house should still feel like a home when a buyer walks through the door.
In the Airbnb World, We'd Call This Check-In Ready
Maybe this is where our real estate world and our hospitality world collide.
In short-term rentals, you wouldn't tell a guest:
Well, nobody has been staying there, so it should probably be fine.
Absolutely not.
You walk through before check-in. You make sure the temperature is comfortable. You look for the weird little things that happened since the last person left. You make sure the property feels ready for somebody.
We think a vacant listing deserves the same treatment.
Every showing is essentially check-in day.
And then there's Chris.
Branches touching a roof are one of his great house-maintenance pet peeves.
So when little limbs started getting a little too friendly with Recorder Drive, out came the tools.
This is the part of selling a vacant home that rarely makes it into the glossy listing presentation.
Houses don't stop being houses because their owners moved away.
Now, Can We Talk About These Countertops?
Because maintenance aside, Recorder Drive had some genuinely cool details.
First:
Wood countertops.
We love wooden countertops.
There is something warm and wonderfully imperfect about them. They don't feel like a kitchen selected from a catalog. They feel like a kitchen somebody actually wants to stand around in.
The island had wood.
And the other kitchen countertops were...
Wait for it.
CONCRETE.
So cool.
We even learned there is special cleaner for concrete countertops to help keep them looking fresh and, for lack of a more sophisticated design term, concrety.
And we're sticking with concrety.
The Room That Used to Be a Carport
Then there was one of our favorite quirky pieces of the property.
The seller had taken what was once a carport and transformed it herself into an additional hangout space and office.
It had room for a TV. It was only a couple of steps from the kitchen door. And it was exactly the kind of bonus space that makes you start mentally rearranging a house that isn't even yours.
Here's where real estate terminology gets less glamorous than design.
Additional spaces don't automatically become part of a home's counted living area simply because somebody made them adorable. Whether a converted space qualifies can depend on how it's constructed, accessed, finished and treated under the applicable measurement and appraisal standards.
But counted square footage or not, useful space is useful space.
Our seller saw potential there.
And so did the buyer.
We still wonder what they eventually did with it.
Oh, And Then There Was the Turtle
Naturally, the most technologically advanced resident of Recorder Drive was not a human being.
At our listing appointment, we met our seller's beloved pet turtle.
And attached to his shell?
An AirTag.
Because apparently even turtles have location services now.
Then It Became Someone Else's Turn
Our seller didn't leave because she stopped loving the house.
Life simply moved her somewhere else before she finished everything she imagined doing there.
That's the funny thing about houses.
We talk about them as finished products—three bedrooms, two bathrooms, this many square feet, this size lot—as though a house reaches some final version of itself.
But most don't.
One person converts the carport.
Another falls in love with the strange countertops.
Somebody plants something.
Somebody paints over it.
Somebody else walks into an unfinished idea and thinks, I know exactly what I would do here.
And that's what happened at Recorder Drive.
Our seller's chapter ended a little earlier than she expected.
But the house wasn't finished. It was simply ready for somebody else's ideas.
Southern Homes • Old Jefferson • Baton Rouge
Looking for a Home in Old Jefferson?
From Baton Rouge homes with enormous corner lots to houses with bonus spaces waiting for their next idea, we're always looking for the interesting ones.
And if you're relocating and need to sell your Baton Rouge home after you've already moved away, we understand that a vacant house still needs somebody looking after it.
Because until the next owner gets the keys, we want every showing to feel a little like check-in day.
Follow us for more homes for sale in the South.
And if you're selling a home from somewhere else, tell us about it. We'll keep an eye on the house.
Louisiana can keep an eye on the bugs.
