GDoN Revisited by Hipchickindc

In real life, hipchickindc is licensed as a real estate broker in the District of Columbia and Virginia, and as a real estate salesperson in Maryland. Unless specifically noted, neither she nor the company that she is affiliated with represented any of the parties or were directly involved in the transaction reported below. Unless otherwise noted, the source of information is Metropolitan Regional Information Systems (MRIS), which is the local multiple listing system. Information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

Featured Property: 529 Newton Pl NW

Original List Price: $189,000.

List Price at Contract: $189,000.

List Date: 12/03/2008

Days on Market: 59

Settled Sales Price: $165,000.

Settlement Date: 03/09/2009

Seller Subsidy: 0

Bank Owned?: YES

Type Of Financing: CASH

Recent Purchase and Re-Sale?: It’s complicated. See comments below.*

Original GDoN Post is: Here

Recent Listing:  Here. Continues after the jump.

Something crazy happens in DC just after the freak March snow storm and around the sightings of daffodils. Spring Real Estate Market. Personally, I haven’t been able to sit down since about last Thursday, in that I’ve been in back-to-back client appointments and a couple of settlements. I know it’s not just me because I talk to a lot of other agents. Somebody even told me today that they saw an actual escalation clause over the weekend, which is so totally retro 2004 real estate market.

I worked on two offers this past week. One was on a property that my clients and I have been watching, carefully, for several weeks, trying to negotiate what we honestly thought was current market price. Someone swooped in and outbid us. The other is one of several offers in on a foreclosed property. We wrote quite a bit above list price, and have no idea if we even place near the top yet.

Anywho, as I may have mentioned last week, when I check on which of the ‘Good Deal or Not’ (GDoN) properties have settled, I now have several to pick from. I decided to go with something in the lower end of the pricing scale this week, although note that the spendy ones seem to be selling at a good clip. From this point, I’ll try to alternate among price ranges each week.

The comments from the original GDoN post ran along the predictable lines of “sketchy block” vs. “Hey, some people actually live over here”. Others commented on the small size. The quality of the previous renovation was called into question.

The buyer paid $165,000. in cash for it, so it was likely an investor purchase. Given the size of the property, even if it was trashed from the previous rehab, smaller size means less in overall construction costs. I’m curious to see if it ends up being tenanted or if it pops back on the market in a couple of months as a newly rehabbed listing.

*I thought the recent sales history was interesting:

1. 8/31/2005 purchased by Investor for $100,000. per tax record

2. 09/28/2005 MRIS shows settled sale of $250,000. 3 days on market. Listed as “Needs Everything”

3. 10/06/2005 tax record shows purchase by non-absentee owner for $307,402.

4. 02/2006-10/2006 listed in MRIS for $389,000. as “Spectacular Renovation”. Withdrawn/No sale.

5. 05/2006-10/2006 concurrently listed in MRIS by a different brokerage company than above for $379,000. by owner/agent. Withdrawn/No sale.

6. 12/2006-09/2007 listed in MRIS by owner/agent for $338,900. Withdrawn/no sale.

7. 04/2008-08/2008 listed in MRIS by owner/agent as short sale for $264,900. Withdrawn/No sale.

8. 08/2008-11/2008 listed in MRIS by agent other than owner for $198,900. Owner is still listed but sad note states “Bank Foreclosed”. Withdrawn/no sale.

9. 12/2008-03/2009 Listed by a completely different agent as foreclosure listing. This is the current sale reported above.