Meet the Highmont Home Team

Hello, we’re Graham & Krista Blundell, the husband and wife team behind Highmont Home. We’ve been renovating houses for a living since 2012. We founded Highmont Home on the idea that… what if we offered our knowledge and experience in real estate, design and renovation to help homeowners achieve similar successes? How can we help you?

Our Journey To Highmont Home

It all started at breakfast one Saturday morning in late 2011, we were looking out our dining room window at our neighbor’s house for sale in Montclair, a 4 bed/1 bath fixer upper that had been sitting on the market for six months. We agreed, whoever buys that house could renovate it into a 5 bed/2 bath, resell it and make a small fortune. Then we looked at each other and said “Wait, why don’t we do that?!”. We had been talking about investing in real estate since we met. With Graham’s investor savvy and Krista’s designer eye, we thought we could make a great team. Was it finally time to do this thing?! (This is the part where we owe a BIG THANK YOU to our family for investing in us in those early years, we could not have gotten up and running without your support.)

Since then, we have been successfully renovating houses for resale in the Montclair, South Orange and Millburn areas to name a few. It’s been a rollercoaster. Along the way, we sold our first home, bought our first investment property, had Baby #2, gained wonderful business partners, purchased a few more multifamilies and moved houses three more times. Early on, Graham became a licensed NJ Realtor® so we could buy and sell our own properties. In 2016, Krista quit her corporate day job and opened her own design, staging and renovation consulting firm, Clear Space Home, working for homeowners and other investors. Everything was going along well and then along came 2020 which gave us time to refocus and ask… what if we combined forces and offered our knowledge and experience in real estate, design and renovation to help homeowners achieve similar successes? And thus, Highmont Home was founded. The “Mont” in Highmont reflects our deep connection to Montclair (think Claremont Ave, Edgemont Park, the Wellmont Theater) and the "High” represents two things, a high return on investment and our favorite street in town, Highland Ave.

P.S. We had no idea when we moved from Brooklyn to Montclair in 2007 that we’d end up in real estate and living in our 4th house here. We have a unique perspective as we have lived in all parts of town from main roads to quiet side streets in midtown, south end and uptown and in all sizes and styles of houses. We have two energetic and creative daughters and a small but mighty rescue dog. You’re likely to find the family hanging out at any one of Montclair’s amazing parks, restaurants or ice cream shops.

Be sure to check out our recent portfolio and a couple of great mentions in the press including the New York Times. Let us know if have you found a potential rehab project and want an experienced partner.