10 / matters magazine / hearth & home 2019 Maplewood Makeover The Home Revivalists restore local home for modern living BY ELLEN DONKER The living room in this Hoffman Street home gets a welcome facelift. Some photos have been virtually staged/enhanced. I t’s nice when a good story gets noticed. That’s what happened when Anne, a former dance studio owner, read about Marisa and Scott Friedmann in New Jersey Monthly. She saw that the couple fixes up homes and thought they’d be perfect for helping with her two properties, a 1923 home on Hoffman Street and a dance studio on Maplewood Avenue in Maplewood. She contacted the Friedmanns and explained that she wanted them to buy both properties and work their magic: give the home a new beginning for a family who would enjoy it just as she had in her younger days, and refresh the dance studio. As soon as the couple toured the properties, they were sold. Marisa recalls, “I think that was a com- forting thing for her when she met us that she knew we would take care of her.” Adds Scott, an experi- enced house flipper and negotiator, “For the first time ever, I didn’t bargain. I just wanted to do right by the buyer.” And that they did. Although the Friedmanns have been flipping houses full-time for several years, Scott got his start 15 years ago. One of his friends was buying up prop- erties in Charleston, and Scott paid close attention, trying it himself at the age of 25. With one success under his belt, he began invest- ing in one house flip every year, scouring the news- paper and online listings for opportunities, all while working a demanding job as a management consul- tant for Ernst & Young, and later for Accenture. He says, “My favorite part of the day was always going online, checking out the listings, trying to figure out what a good deal [was].” Meanwhile, Marisa had a dynamic career in New York’s corporate fashion world but balancing family