It Could Almost Be Columbia

Have you been house-hunting lately? Or, like me, do you enjoy clicking on listings online and taking a virtual tour? You may have noticed how many of the houses have been updated to resemble the last five minutes of any HGTV show. Oh, the lovely finishes! The rustic sign in the dining room painted to say “home” or “peace” or “family”. The relentless devotion to “open plan” living.

If you have grown tired of the sparkling sameness of these local “reveals”, let me present you with a bit of real estate time travel, brought to my attention on Twitter.

This reminds me of house hunting in Columbia, MD. All the actually affordable homes were never updated and had these kind of finishes and appliances. The commentary is on point!

Ooh. Must check this out, I thought.

As your friendly 1970s real-estate agent, I am proud to announce that my retro neighborhood is now in VRChat Community Labs! Come see and explore homes from yesteryear as they would have looked when they were brand new!

May I present the real estate agent, @thecoopertom.

Even better, go take the tour:

Design C 2234 (It’s only two minutes and twenty seconds. You have time.)

Depending on your age, this will either bring back memories or leave you wondering, “What the heck?” at the colors and design choices. Don’t forget, these houses would have been the state of the art “reveals” in their day, had there been an HGTV back then.

So some day these 2020-ish updates - - those Fixer-Upper wannabes - - will be every bit as outdated as this virtual home tour is to us. It feels odd to say that. But experience suggests it will be so. Of course, some design trends age better than others.

I do not know the person who has created the virtual reality village, nor do I know why his online persona is a…cat? Also, I think it’s safe to say that this creative venture has absolutely no affiliation with Century 21 Real Estate. (Now rebranded as Century 21: New Milennium.)

So, what do you think? Did this retro real estate tour give you any old-time Columbia vibes? Love it? Hate it? Tell me what you think.

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