Hampden’s Most Expensive House: Giant Flip Asks $400K – More Than Triple The Sold Price

Hot House: 3250 Keswick Road, Baltimore, 21211

New renovation of three-story Hampden rowhouse, circa 1900, brick with composite roof, on Wyman Park. Three bedrooms, three full, one half bath over 1,746 square feet with front porch, walk-out back deck, and separate basement entrance. Open plan main floor with exposed brick walls, living/dining area, kitchen with industrial shelving, granite counters, stainless appliances. Large master bedroom suite with separate closet room and luxury ensuite bath with red, barn-style sliding door. Two further bedrooms, upstairs sitting room and laundry. Custom French barn door in the kitchen leads to covered rear parking pad. $399,000  

What: A house flip in Hampden that is so on- trend it’s almost laughable. Black painted doors and window trim, check. All white interiors, check. Distressed looking “industrial” flooring, check. Sliding interior “barn” doors, check.  This house got everything right, which is presumably why they are asking an eyebrow-raising price for a Hampden row house. That said, it looks great, and Pete Belden at Belmore Properties LLC is just hopping —  a little more aggressively than most — on the bandwagon.  Last year Realty Trac listed Baltimore’s 21211 zip code (median age, 36) as  America’s ninth best place to flip a house, with an average of 120 percent return on investment.  In this case, the aesthetic is “high-end shelter magazine,” and if the materials are not absolutely top of the line, they give a good impression of it. From the lighting to the hardware, this house has all the trappings of a profitable city flip. A lot of eager investors will be watching to see what it does.

Where: On Keswick Road, south of the Avenue, at the corner of 33rd Street —  a fairly busy intersection, with a 7-11 on the far side. Directly across Keswick is a children’s playground and a grassy open space that is the western edge of Wyman Park. From here, you have access to all 33 acres of Wyman Dell, some of it wooded and very popular with dog owners. Both Johns Hopkins University and the Johns Hopkins operations facility at the Rotunda are less than a mile away from here.  There are three art galleries within 100 yards, and just next door is the Little Shop Of Hardware, a reassuringly authentic computer-repair store. Behind the house, you can follow the newly chic artery of Chestnut Avenue past groovy restaurants, upscale tattoo parlors, pasta emporiums and cool design stores into the beating heart of Hampden.

Why: Someday soon, when Hampden is completely gentrified, people won’t believe you got this place for $400K.

Why Not: Too stubborn to buy someone else’s flip. Rather do it yourself.

NB: Parking pad backs onto a very narrow alley, and is almost impossible to use. You’ll be parking on 33rd Street.