GDoN Revisited by Hipchickindc – 334 8th St NE

Voted one of the best real estate agents in DC by the Washington City Paper Readers’ Choice Poll in 2009, hipchickindc aka the not-so-hip Suzanne Des Marais is the Principal Broker (DC) for Urban Pace, LLC. 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: 334 8th St NE
Legal Subdivision: Old City #1
Advertised Subdivision per Listing: Old City #1
Original List Price: $364,000.
List Price at Contract: $364,000.
List Date: 02/15/2011
Days on Market: 10
Settled Sales Price: $540,000.
Settlement Date: 03/31/2011
Seller Subsidy: $0.
Bank Owned?: No Short Sale? No
Type Of Financing: Conventional

Original Good Deal or Not post is: here

The listing can be seen: here. To see pics, open the listing link, click on the listing then scroll through from the main pic.

The subject house here was actually a secondary property on a twofer Good Deal or Not (GDoN) post. This small two bedroom home with no basement or parking, located within two blocks of Stanton Park on The Hill, was an estate sale. Commenters to the original GDoN post noted that it was essentially priced for auction. Some weren’t too complimentary of the listing agent for bringing back the 2004 bidding wars, but she did her job for the seller and drew apparently in the range of 20 offers. Ultimately, the settled sale price is 148% of the original list price. My question to readers is, what do you think it would have sold for if it had actually been priced at, say, $539,900.?

To give an idea of the market in that specific location, Here is everything within a quarter mile that is an active, pending, or settled (since 10/01/2010) listing. City wide, the average list to sale price ratio for March 2011 was 93.2%. For the zip code of 20002, it was 95.3% (including this outlier). Citywide for all houses priced under $375,000., the average list to sale ratio for March 2011 was 97.19%.

By the way, the other house on that original GDoN settled also. 803 Maryland Ave NE was originally listed for $629,000. Pricing was reduced to $599,000., which led to a settled sale at that price with a subsidy of $18,094. It was on the market for 91 days. You can see the listing and pics here. This house had a basement and a garage and was fully renovated. I’m guessing no bidding war and the purchaser was able to utilize FHA financing. Considering the subsidy, it sold for $40,906. more than the property mentioned above. Who do you think got the better deal?