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: 610 Upshur St NW

Original List Price: $375,000.

List Price at Contract: $285,000.

List Date: 03/19/2009

Days on Market: 142

Settled Sales Price: $267,200.

Settlement Date:  10/16/2009

Seller Subsidy:  $10,700.

Bank Owned?: No

Type Of Financing: FHA with loan amount of $296,726.  The property was not in condition that would meet criteria for a regular FHA loan.  This was likely a 203 streamline product.

Original GDoN Post is:   Here.

Recent Listing is:  Here. Sorry. No extra pics.

Good Deal or Not (GDoN) commenters were at a disadvantage on this one in that there were no interior photos posted with the listing. I visited this property with buyer clients back in the Spring when it was newly listed. The property had been owned by an organization called, “Anchor Mental Health” and may have been a group home. It had been cleaned out prior to listing, but definitely was in need of updating. The property is a detached brick home and, as Jamie mentioned in the GDoN comments, it is wedge shaped. Anybody who has looked at lots of houses in Petworth is used to seeing about two or three variations upon the basic porch front rowhouse floor plan, so in relation, the layout of this property is a bit unique. If I recall correctly, the staircase was straight and central, with a rectangular dining room on one side of the stairs and a rectangular living room on the other side and the kitchen along the back. There are four bedrooms on the second level. Continues after the jump.

It took several price reductions for this house to find the right buyer. I mentioned above that the loan amount was higher than the purchase price, which indicates a particular kind of FHA loan. Among the reasons that FHA loans had been out of favor during the competitive boom years were the property condition criteria that FHA appraisers must identify as part of the loan process. An example of a property condition requirement for a regular FHA loan is that the property may not have any areas of peeling paint, whether interior or exterior. Now that the market is more balanced (in contrast to the strong sellers’ market a few years ago), and that many of the previously available low down payment options are no longer available, we are seeing a resurgence in the use of FHA loan products. In cases where a property condition is not acceptable for a regular FHA deal, there are two FHA loan options that allow a purchaser to borrow additional money to complete repairs.