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: 1731 20th St NW #9
Legal Subdivision: Old City #2
Advertised Subdivision per Listing: Dupont
Original List Price: $289,000.
List Price at Contract: $289,000.
List Date: 02/11/2011
Days on Market: 5
Settled Sales Price: $289,000.
Settlement Date: 03/30/2011
Seller Subsidy: $0.
Bank Owned?: No Short Sale? No
Type Of Financing: Since purchasing in a cooperative is not technically buying real estate, but rather buying a share in a corporation, co-op loans are an animal unto themselves. There are a small hand full of lenders who will do them. Because the financial health of the cooperative is tied together, co-ops often have their own rules regarding a minimum down payment.

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.

Buildings that are cooperatively owned are plentiful in DC, so I think it is useful to take a look at them here from time to time. I had profiled this same building in October 2010 and wrote some information about what makes a co-op different from a condo.

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“Dear PoP,

The DC Government stole our Petworth home, 929 Farragut St, just east of Georgia Ave, through a classic screwup. It was an improper sale of the deed through an improper tax sale based on completely incorrect property taxes. Now the house is boarded up and no one is living there. If it happened to us it could happen to anybody! We’d like to get the story out to other DC residents and taxpayers. Our FULLY PAID FOR $450,000. house was sold for $40,000!! I’d like to tell you the whole story.

The short version is that I got a ten times higher than normal property tax bill. When I went in person to DCRA I was told that someone had put it into the vacant tax classification. The house had been under renovation when it was misclassified. By the time I got the bill and went down there it was already rented and occupied. They didn’t know how to get it out of this classification. I went many times and called many times and was never able to get the tax classification changed even though it stayed occupied. Eventually the DC city council shortened the period of time during which you could dispute a tax bill from three years down to six months. Without notice they sold the hose for taxes!! We have been trying for the last FIVE years to get this rectified!”

I’ll be honest I normally very skeptical of claims like this but I decided to sit down with the owners because the case seemed so wild. The owners Dennis Dyer and his partner Amy Marx sat down with me last week to discuss the case. I’ll be honest again, the case is a bit complicated and while Mr. Dyer and Ms. Marx had folder after folder of affidavits and leases and other communications it still wasn’t completely clear to me. As best I can understand it seemed like the house was accidentally placed into vacant status and was sold due to unpaid tax bills.

This is likely a case for a proper investigative reporter but I’d like to throw it out to you guys – do you think it’s possible (in this specific case) that the city could have accidentally placed a home into an incorrect tax status and sold it before the owners were able to correct the problem? For those who have a lot of free time, after the jump you can find more details.

If you do think the city made a mistake – since the house has already been sold – do you think the owners will be able to recoup their losses? Has anyone else heard of a similar situation?

Ed. Note: The WBJ’s Michael Neibauer recently wrote about D.C.’s tax lien market here.

Update: DCRA also encourages people to look at the Complete Guide to Vacant Property Compliance FY 2011

After the jump you can see a detailed letter sent to the mayor and a full timeline of the incident submitted by Ms. Marx. Read More

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: 8 & 9 Snows Ct NW
Legal Subdivision: Foggy Bottom
Advertised Subdivision per Listing: Foggy Bottom
Original List Price: $419,000. & $424,900. respectively
List Price at Contract: $419,000. & $424,900. respectively
List Date: 09/18/2010 & 07/23/2010
Days on Market: 8 & 68
Settled Sales Price: $409,000. & $410,000. respectively
Settlement Date: 10/28/2010 for both
Seller Subsidy: $0. & $11,500.
Bank Owned?: No Short Sale? No
Type Of Financing: FHA & Conventional

Original GDoN is: here for 8 and here for the rental version of 9.

The Listings for both 8 & 9 can be seen: here. To see the pics, after opening the listing link, click on the main pic and scroll through using the arrows.

As some of the oldest neighborhoods in the city, and located close to the popular and practical mode of bringing
goods into the city of Washington, both Foggy Bottom and Georgetown are peppered with teeny houses that
may have once housed nineteenth century laborers. When showing these structures to twenty first century
buyers, I often wonder what some of those early inhabitants would think of the current market for their houses.

Both 8 Snows Court NW and 9 Snows Court NW were on the market simultaneously and just happened to settle
on the exact same day. Although it was suggested in Good Deal of Not (GDoN) comments that it might not
be a bad idea to buy both and make one larger home, I think it’s unlikely that we’re seeing that, only because
the agents on the buying side of each transaction were different. I suppose it’s possible that someone used two
different agents to purchase properties immediately next to each other, but I’m still going with unlikely.

Continues after the jump. Read More