Real Estate

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.

Address: 1507 Caroline St NW

3 Bedrooms, 1 Bath, Unfinished Basement, Offstreet Parking

List Price at Contract: $649,000.

Original List Price: $789,000.

Actual Sale Price: $600,000.

Settlement Date: 14 January 2009

Days on Market: 75

This home was originally featured as a Good Deal of Not? (GDoN) back when it was listed at it’s high of $789,000 (which can be seen here. Not surprisingly, the PoP reader commentary thought the price for the small house was quite high. Apparently the Seller was motivated and did a smart one shot heavy duty 6 figure price reduction a little more than a month into the listing. It took about three weeks from the price reduction to get to contract. (In all fairness, the reduction happened a little before Thanksgiving, which may have slowed the process).

So, was it a good deal? Comps can be seen here, including the listing for this home (scroll through to see). Note nearly identical 1518 Caroline St NW, which settled in April for $500,000. I suspect that 1507 Caroline St NW, the subject property, was in livable condition but in need of updating, while 1518 Caroline St NW sounds like it needed a lot of work (and it settled with a $150,000. rehab loan).

The property had last sold back in 2001 for $400,000, back when it was painted white. Update from last week after the jump. (more…)

Thanks to a reader for sending. Via Realtor.org:

“The nation’s capital leapfrogged London this year as the world’s best city for real estate investment. With the federal government on a path to grow bigger and increase spending, the new programs will need offices and its employees will need homes.

Here is the list of the world’s 10 best place for real estate buys:

* Washington, DC
* London
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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: 1901 19^th St NW #301 and #401

With a sexy location and a condo fee of $525. per month, these 897 square foot 2 bedroom 1 bath condos elicited spirited debate as a PoP Good Deal or Not (GDoN) back on the 23rd of October 2008. To see the original discussion, click here.

Alas, what has become of them?

Neither has gone to settlement yet, but Unit 301 is under contract with a pending settlement date of 31 January 2009 (which is actually a Saturday, so we’ll assume the 30th or the following Monday). We won’t know what the final sales price is until settlement, but the list price at contract was $500,000. As evident in the pictures, which can be seen by clicking the link then clicking the filmstrip icon at the top left, this unit was nicely updated. According to the comments back in October, a contract had fallen through, and the current contract was ratified on 15 December 2008. The total time period on market, including the previous under contract time period, was 110 days.

These units were on the same tier, so presumably were the same floor plan. Typically, a higher level floor garners a bit of a premium in pricing, however, the additional walkup may have cancelled out the upper floor benefit somewhat and the pictures indicate that the kitchen had late 1980’s melamine cabinets. At last look it was priced at $499,900. It may have hurt that it was originally priced at $519,900. Comments indicate that Unit 401 was rented as of 01/15/2009 and withdrawn from the market. The listing can be seen here. Pics are best viewed by clicking the camera icon at top left.

Other 2 bedroom comps in the immediate area can be seen here.