GDoN Revisited by Hipchickindc – 3615 Warder St NW

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 an Associate Broker with Urban Pace. 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: 3615 Warder St NW
Legal Subdivision: Columbia Heights
Advertised Subdivision per Listing: Columbia Heights
Original List Price: $549,000.
List Price at Contract: $549,000.
List Date: 10/22/2010
Days on Market: 94
Settled Sales Price: $545,976.
Settlement Date: 02/25/2011
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. Virtual tour can be found here.

I have to admit that I was a little surprised that the Good Deal or Not (GDoN) commenters did not go all ballistic on the list price. On the contrary, marybindc started the comments with the question, “It looks like a fabulous deal, why is it so cheap? Bad block?” A little Park View bashing ensued, however, many did see value in this spacious renovated property within blocks of Metro that ultimately sold very close to the list price.

My surprise did not come from thinking bad thoughts about Park View. I tend to think of this neighborhood as a great place to bring buyers who need something affordable and are looking for an urban setting and easy access to downtown. One of the challenges of this neighborhood is that it suffers from, shall we say, a lack of strong branding. Real estate agents tend to call it Columbia Heights because it actually does fall into the legal subdivision of CH. Residents probably call it Park View. If I have to describe it to somebody, I’ll tell them “south of Petworth, east of Columbia Heights”.

Continues after the jump.

This is one of those tucked away neighborhoods, with good housing stock and a range of relatively affordable prices that actually has some active inventory. Here is a link to current active listings, pending sales, and settled sales in the area for the past six months.

For those of you who like the flipper stats, the recent investor paid $241,000. in June 2010 for a possible short sale and “renovation project started”. The prior homeowner paid a pre-renovation price of $330,000. in September 2004.