Salem is a city full of homes that need attention, whether by renovation or demolition, it makes no difference to Sherman Odom. Either would be an improvement in Salem’s real estate market, according to Odom.

In May 2020, semi-retired local businessman Sherman Odom compiled a list of 95 homes in need of improvement throughout the community. For many houses on the list, the only possible improvement would be to demolish them. However, some of the houses identified in Odom’s list are old dwellings that could be occupied again.

Odom stopped by the office of The Salem News a few weeks ago to share that he knows a young man who worked fixing homes in Salem, Noah Wills.

“He does a really good job,” Odom said. “He’s fixing a lot of houses that I wanted to tear down.”

“It’s kind of a running joke between us,” Wills said when The Salem News contacted him to see what kind of work he was doing.

Wills has been very busy between July 2020 and January 2022. He has had 25 homes in various project phases all around Salem. Some are purchased, some purchased and partially refurbished, and some purchased, refurbished and sold to new owners.

Wills said he thinks Salem is a community to invest in. However, this goes against much of the advice Wills received before coming to town. Wills told The Salem News that several real estate investors told him not to invest in Salem.

“They said I would lose money,” Wills said. “But I think Salem has a lot of potential.”

“Besides,” Wills shrugged. “I like going against the grain and doing things that other people think are impossible. It’s like playing chess to me, you have to think about what your next third move will be.

Wills is originally from St. James. He graduated from high school there in 2011. Soon after, he joined the US Marine Corps. He served for five years. Wills attributes his success in part to the personal discipline he digested while serving.

After leaving the military, Wills worked in different jobs that he didn’t like very much.

“I also did photography full time for two years,” he said.

Wills planned to move his photography business to Virginia, but after falling ill after a trip to New York, Wills decided it didn’t make much sense to him anymore, so he set his sights on his hometown of St. James where he bought the first house he flipped.

“I bought it, moved there, and fixed it in about three weeks,” Wills said.

“Unfortunately, it took months to sell. So that was a bit of a setback.

It was then that Wills focused on Salem, seeing that there were plenty of abandoned homes that he believed had potential. Wills believes that not only can he make a living doing this kind of work, but the work he does will also improve Salem’s neighborhoods because people will be able to find better homes. It will also increase the value of neighboring properties.

Wills said he wants to see more home ownership in town.

“A lot of the houses I buy and fix were rental properties at one time or another and the renters weren’t proud owners,” he said. And in some cases, owners were unable to meet the demands of their aging properties.

“It’s kind of interesting that when I walk in and start fixing up an old house, the neighbors often remember the projects they need around their own properties,” Wills says.

He believes that the work he does generally enhances the face of the streets where his properties are located.

Wills said he believed pride in ownership and pride in community would go a long way to improving the city as a whole.

Wills does not do the work himself. He acts as a landlord and project manager of sorts, but he leaves the work to contractors, an arrangement that allows him to continue to redo more and more homes around Salem.