Good Deal or Not? “Nantucket in the city” edition

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by Prince Of Petworth November 19, 2010 at 1:00 pm 27 Comments

This home is located at 1702 Lamont St, NW:

The flier says:

“”Nantucket in the city” – stunning, elegant 1909 Georgian-style home filled w/ original details. Gracious reception hallw with paneled staircase, bay-front living room, formal dining room, extra-large table-space kitchen, 5 bedrooms + den, 2 upgraded baths, sophisticated 3rd floor master suite with wet bar, 2 rear porches, full basement, CAC, period mantels, huge skylight, walk to everything.”

You can find more info here and photos here.

They had me at “sophisticated 3rd floor master suite with wet bar”…

What do you guys think? $879,000 sound reasonable for this 5 bed/2 bath?

rosenrosen

“I once knew a man from nantucket, you know the stories about him are greatly exaggerated.” – Homer
Blue

How the hell does this qualify as ‘Nantucket in the city’? Because of all the hideous floral? I don’t get it.
Eric

Thats a good deal
Anonymous

Good deal – TWO places to buy paint within a block!
Kev29

Looks like a Cracker Barrel

(OK, that was a bit harsh)
Kalorini

The dining room made me gag, the kitchen looks like TGIFridays, and the bathrooms need work. I like the built-in bookcases and location though.

Eh 50/50.
- Anonymous
  
  I saw this property yesterday. The kitchen actually looks a lot better in person.
JYW

I like unique #1 and the pink walls. What a find.
anan

Def needs a make over but the fundamentals are there and its huge. I’d say good deal. Looks like it lacks parking. It would prob be 100k more with 2 car parking and a little deeper lot.
- park
  
  You don’t really need parking here. It would be nice, but not an essential. I lived one block down a few years ago and got by just fine w street parking.
  - fl
    
    I don’t think it is so much about whether you can get by, as it is that anyone willing to spend nearly a million on a home is going to want a place to park their luxury suv.
    - El
      
      Luxury SUV? Seriously? This is in my price range (admitedly the upper limit) and I have no problem with street parking for the old Hyundai that my partner and I share. Don’t make stupid assumptions about the potential buyers just because you can’t afford something like this. Chances are they’re ordinary people with ordinary white collar incomes.
- Anonymous
  
  The owner leases a space off the street. I had no trouble finding street parking when I went to see it, though.
Anon

Not sure how this is nantucket-y. Maybe because it looks like an eccentric grandmother recently died and the hipper grandkids redid a very large closet and only visit there in the summers so it seems pretty shabby. That must be the reason…
IHOP

Too far from the new Walmarts.
WDC

In late 2005, we looked at a place on Park Road which was very, very similar to this. The only major difference was that it didn’t have an eat-in kitchen– just the dining room. The landscaping was better, and it included parking. It was listed around $750-775k, and stayed on the market for weeks (though not months). Man, those weeks were agonizing for me, as I frantically scratched lottery tickets, hoping for a big win before someone else bought my dream house.

Sooo… if the market is supposedly so much worse now than it was in ’05, why is a similar house in the same neighborhood still a good deal at $100k more?
- photodork
  
  I think some would argue that in DC the housing market is not “so much worse” than in ’05.
  - WDC
    
    Yes, I would be one of those making that argument. Yet I hear it all the time.
  - Anonymous
    
    Definitely true. In the desirable neighborhoods prices keep going up because demand’s not slowing down anytime soon. As long as people keep flocking to DC for jobs, or fleeing from the nearby suburbs as commute times keep getting longer, prices will not decrease.
- anan
  
  Also Columbia Heights. Which is the closest metro to this house. Has undergone a complete transformation from 2005. Part of my buying in MTP was that while MTP didn’t have a whole lot going on. CH had some better food option in Petes, Commonwealth, The Heights. and other shopping ammenities. None of which were there in 2005.
- Anon
  
  I’d say Park Road while now OK had a bad reputation for a long time, worse than Lamont.
  This is a good deal. Not for me, but for somebody
anon.

I like this house.
Perhaps not all the decorating decision but this is a very nice house.
I especially like and have always liked a split stair, i.e. the stairs that come down to a landing and splits either into the kitchen or the front hall.
Did anyone else notice the fake arch in the DR with the floor to top of arch mirror?
I wonder what that is for. Just to make it look bigger?
- Anonymous
  
  It’s nice. Definitely looks better in person than in the photos. The house is huge! I will agree that it could use some better decorating, but those are minor updates. It was fun to tour because the owners have such quirky tastes (including an enormous collection of juicers– that’s what you see all over the kitchen walls!).
Steve

I should probably save this for the “rant” part of “raves or rants” but one of my pet peeves is when spendy houses (i.e. those over $600K) use the crappy MRIS slideshow. Surely they can afford to run a nice slideshow with decent photos?

In terms of this house – nice bones, but boy did the owners junk it up. It’s one of those instances where it might have listed higher if it had been empty. However, all said it’s probably a reasonable price given the size/location.
- KAT
  
  I wouldn’t say qualify it as “spendy”. Pretty average price for a rowhouse in a not-horrible neighborhood in DC.
Anonymous

its all about the location, but then again, completely redone victorians sell for not a lot more than this, the party house on 18th and kenyon was on sale for 899-950k or something.. that house was really well renovated and has a 2 car garage, and i am sure it had more than 2 bathrooms.
- Anonymous
  
  Yes, it’s a nice house but I wouldn’t pay that much for Mt. Pleasant. I’d rather sacrifice some space and live closer in.

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