On the market: A brick Colonial in the Graduate Hospital area for $525,000

The house was “a vanilla box” when he bought it in 2013, and the surrounding neighborhood was sparsely populated, but Ben Soifer had faith in both.

And as he and his wife, Samantha Singer, a special-education teacher, prepare to move to Villanova for the schools there, Soifer says his wagers have both paid off.

“I didn’t want a fixer-upper. I wanted a clean slate I knew I could really make something out of,” says Soifer, a home repair contractor by trade.

So he added a first-floor powder room, pantry and coat closet; refinished the entire basement with a large storage space and cedar closets, and added wainscoting in the kitchen and a laundry room.

But perhaps the crowning achievement was a two-level roof deck, giving the highest observation point in the immediate neighborhood.

Although he grew up in Wynnewood and Broomall, Soifer had liked the city from his bachelor days and before.

The three-bedroom, 1½-bath house on a quiet, tree-lined street in Southwest Center City has a first-floor living room with nine-foot ceilings; freshly finished maple wood floors; custom built-in shelving; and a herringbone-paneled wall.

The kitchen is newly updated with espresso cabinets, stainless steel appliances, and ample countertops.

There is a limestone-paver patio outside the kitchen with a bench and built-in planter boxes.

On the second floor are three bedrooms and full bath and a deck off one of the bedrooms.

The entire home, which has 1,312 square feet of living space, has LED lighting and smart thermostat/smoke detector switches.

The home’s tax abatement runs until October 2023.

Eventually, when their two children (including one on the way) are grown, Singer and Soifer plan to return to the city.

The house is listed by Jennie Cheyne of Keller Williams Devon-Wayne for $525,000.