Although there are many paths one can take on the road to becoming a remodeler, most of them don’t involve starting out as a professional athlete.
Yet this is exactly how Washington, D.C., remodeler Cem Sevin, a former soccer pro, got his start. And now, construction is just another form of sport to him. “To me, futbol is a lifestyle,” he says, using the Spanish term for what Americans call soccer. “I translate everything to futbol.”
Sevin, originally from Istanbul, spent his early years as a professional soccer player in Europe. “All Turkish boys are born as a futbol player, some continue some do not. I continued,” says Sevin. He went on to play for Turkish clubs Galatasary and Vefa, before moving on “to France, Italy, and finally the Portland Timbers until 2000 when I retired.”
Sevin says when he stopped playing, he had offers to coach for colleges in the state of Oregon, but “couldn’t make peace with an injury” that had forced him to retire. Not long after, his construction career began when he set up a business importing construction tools from Asia and reselling them in the states.
Sevin likens remodeling to playing soccer, saying “When you receive a ball on the field, the first thing you do is take a picture of the field and all the players and try to make the best decision possible. This is the same with flipping houses–when you see the house you need to be able to see what can happen with it, what it’s worth when it is finished.”
He flipped his first house in 2002 in Washington, and had fun at every stage. “I felt like I was dribbling the ball with every part of construction,” says Sevins, owner of Buffalo Company. One of his firm’s projects, A Victorian Reimagined, won a 2017 Remodeling Design Award.
Sevin mostly works on historic buildings, preferring them to ground-up work. “I love history and therefore I love working on very old houses. I do ground-ups too but have no feeling towards them, those are just a money thing.”
When he’s not remodeling or playing recreational soccer, Sevin raises race horses. He says they are “amazing animals” who love to compete just like soccer players. “Believe me or not, they know what winning is, they know where the finish line is.”
As for the World Cup which begins today? Sevin says he “would love Argentina to win” but notes Germany always has a shot.