GDoN Revisited by Hipchickindc

In real life, hipchickindc is actually the not-so-hip Suzanne Des Marais, an associate broker with Urban Pace. Voted one of the best real estate agents in DC by the Washington City Paper Readers’ Choice Poll in 2009, Suzanne is currently Chair of the DC Public Policy Committee for the Greater Capital Area Association of REALTORS® and is President Elect of the Washington, DC Association of REALTORS®. She lives (and sells a lot of houses) in Bloomingdale, but works all over DC, with everyone from first time buyers to highly regarded developers.

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: 1235 W St NW

Original List Price: $974,900.

List Price at Contract: $949,000.

List Date: 10/05/2009

Days on Market: 68

Settled Sales Price: $920,000.

Settlement Date: 05/17/2010

Seller Subsidy: $2500.

Bank Owned?: No

Type Of Financing: Conventional

Original GDoN is: here.

Listings for both the shell (a year ago) and recent sale are: here. Pics can be seen once you open the link to the listing (click on the main pic to scroll).

The DC Spring real estate market was a frenzy encouraged along by historically low mortgage interest rates and buyers eligible for the Federal Home Buyer Tax Credit. While the tax credit played an important role in motivating first time homebuyers, what about higher priced homes? As we saw from last week’s Good Deal or Not Revisited (GDoN-R), houses in price ranges not likely to be affected by the tax credit are moving along quite nicely. Today’s GDoN-R is another example of a property in an expensive price range.

This property is a complete renovation of what was, until quite recently, a dilapidated run down shell of a building. It was purchased with cash for $395,000. in May 2009 by a member of the Koutromanos family, who has been renovating DC real estate for many years. The comments in the recent listing indicate that the house was stripped down to the brick walls and is otherwise completely new construction.