Comfort, Space & Smart Updates

What does a starter home look like in Beverly, MA? It looks like three bedrooms upstairs and a beautifully renovated full bath. A large, updated kitchen with enough room for dance parties without turning into a mosh pit, a dining room for dinners that don't happen on the couch, and a living room where everyone can land at the end of the day. It looks like hardwood floors underfoot throughout the first floor, central air upstairs when summer gets sticky, and a first-floor half bath with laundry because no one wants to do laundry in the basement.

Outside, it looks like a flat, grassy, fully fenced backyard ready for a future dog, a garden, summer cookouts, or all of the above. There's a storage shed for the things you don't want to store in the basement and a long driveway providing tandem off-street parking.

22 Myrtle Street isn't trying to be more house than you need. Instead, it gives you the things that can be surprisingly hard to find in a Beverly starter home, with many of the projects you'd rather not spend your first years of ownership tackling, already completed. Your to-do list can be more about finally picking your own paint colors, garden plans and where the couch goes and less about flooring, bathroom renovations and keeping cool in August.

And then there's Beverly right outside your door. Add beaches, parks and the commuter rail into Boston, and so much of what makes Beverly Beverly is within a mile of home. Morning coffee at Kid Dream. Dinner at one of Beverly's award-winning restaurants. Breweries where the community gathers, live music, local shops, summer concerts, festivals, parades and nights when you head downtown without needing a big plan.Downtown is just 0.5 mile away, The Depot commuter rail station is 0.8 mile, and the beach is 0.9 mile.

It's a place to stop renting, unpack the boxes, hang your pictures, let the dog out the back door, and start making it yours. This is what getting your foot in the door in Beverly can look like.