An area firefighter, his spouse, and their two young children are now the proud owner-occupants of this three bedroom, two bath home in Harvard, IL. This suburban community offers a more rural feel which attracts families who want to live a quieter, slower pace of life.

NCST community buyer, Black Square Midwest, acquired this vacant home through the NSI First Look program and completed more than $43,000 in renovations. Some of this rehab included painting the home’s exterior, replacing the overhead garage door, rebuilding the back deck, adding gutters and downspouts, replacing the front door and storm door, repairing the windows, and rekeying all doors. They also repaired the interior walls and ceilings, freshly painted the interior, completed numerous carpentry repairs, replaced the padding and carpeting, made plumbing and electrical repairs, serviced the furnace, installed new light fixtures, smoke detectors and C02 detectors, and they added a complete new kitchen appliance package.

“The First Look program is a great program,” said Mike Olszewski, of Black Square. “We’re able to acquire vacant homes, rehab them and return them to the much-needed affordable housing stock. We typically receive multiple offers on our homes which indicates how many homebuyers are seeking affordable, ready-to-move in homes.”

Black Square Midwest also generously contributed $5,000 in closing costs for this new owner-occupant.