Condo at Tewkesbury & 14th Almost Finished!

I just spoke with the Bradford group representing BlueSky who mentioned their upcoming development, the Tewkesbury Condominium would be coming up in the spring. Its a great building to keep your eye on as supply dwindles and demand increases.

For more information contact Jesse Kaye with the BuildingDC.com team and Prudential Carruthers Realtors at 202-64-AGENT.

The Visio Condo has One of my Favorite Units

What I can't understand is why one of Robertson Development's units at the Visio has been on the market for so long. Their units, at the rear of the building, has fantastic 22'+ ceilings, loft style windows, a lofted second bedroom and a wonderful kitchen for entertaining. Robertson's creativity really impressed me by his use of wood 2"x4" ends as the floor, laid vertically and then stained. What a building. If I'm not mistaken, the units been on for nearly a year.

The address is 2109 10th St NW, unit 102, priced at $799,000.

If I wanted to spend nearly $1 million in the U street area, PN wouldn't even come close to the finish work at this beautiful unit.

For more information contact Jesse Kaye offering Real Estate in Washington DC and Prudential Carruthers Realtors at 202-684-8144.

We Just Sold Out at the Ventura in Logan Circle

Who would believe that we just sold out all five units at the Ventura Condominium in Logan Circle in the worst market in history? If you are considering selling, we would love the opportunity to show you what our team can do for you!

For more information contact Jesse Kaye offering Real Estate Services in Washington DC and Prudential Carruthers Realtors at 202-684-8144.

The Erie in Adams Morgan

This month DBLee Development will be selling their eight unit condominium in the heart of Adams Morgan on Champlain Street. The Erie features both one and two bedroom units, starting in the $500's for the one's and $1 million's for the two's. There will be four penthouse units with outdoor space. What makes this building so unique is not the features, design, detail oriented development, but rather the quality of construction DB Lee is known for. The building, while only required to be built with wood, has been constucted out of cement and steel, a far better and more accomodating material for the discerning buyer. The building reminds me a bit of Brook Rose's Iridium Condominium in Adams Morgan DCat 1306 Penn. For more information Washington DC Real Estate

Who Said the Market was bad? Sold in 4 Days

Marty Hosking listed a fantastic Condominium near Dupont Circle just over a week ago. Within four days not only was there an offer but the unit but the owner accepted the offer the same day.

The spectacular unit featured:

• 3 bedrooms
• 3 bathrooms
• 2 levels
• imported marble kitchen
• gas cooking w/2 ovens (Advantium)
• stainless appliances
• walnut hardwood flooring
• grand space/lighting for art
• gas fireplace
• custom spa master bath w/rain shower head and steam shower
• spiral staircase
• exposed brick

A great new building coming in Adams Morgan

This past week I had the pleasure of touring the Coronado Condominiums in Adams Morgan/Kalorama. The 28 unit building is sure to please the area, as supply diminishes and from what I can tell, demand is picking up. The Coronado sits at 1840 Vernon St NW, just a stones throw from the bar scene and from Dupont Circle. Novo Development originally started working on the project in late 2007 and as of this spring, should have a model up and ready within weeks. I have more information on HomeTryst.com at our Washington DC Development Database

You'll Love our Building!

Signs of the market are everywhere. I am not talking about economic indicators or several old men sitting around a table on T.V. Sunday morning talking about what they think. I am talking about the little indicators I see every day.

I deal with building developers and potential buyers every day. I hear both sides of the argument; DC is too expensive to buy in, DC isn’t making me money on my development so on and so forth. I also see plenty of people buying homes and plenty of buildings filled to capacity.

One thing I dislike is when a developer or agent tells me how great a building is and how they have buyers lined up to purchase. Please don’t tell me one thing and let me see another. The picture above doesn’t say a building is great, it says a developer is desperate to move units.

Do you know of any other signals that you look for to see if a building is popular or having difficulty moving units? I always say customers are the smartest consumers and have the best tricks for seeing value. What’s yours?

Who Can Escape this Foreclosure Nightmare?

I read a ton, my car is littered with books and papers, my desktop is a cornucopia of saved online articles and my phone is a constant feed of RSS alerts. I don’t think you can tell everything about the market but you can get a good sense of trends by the stories that are being put out there.

I ran across a story the other day about stars who can’t afford their homes anymore. Ed McMahon is a prime example of some of the stranger stories I run across. Apparently the 85 year old star is close to a million dollars delinquent on a home he owns in Beverly Hills.

Originally listed at 7.6 million, the property is now on the market for 6.5 million, and isn’t moving. Does this mean that the economy has crashed or that that the world is about to end? No, it just means that everybody gets bad advice every now and then.

At the height of building boom everyone said the same thing, “buy today, sell tomorrow, HUGE profits!” Who wouldn’t want to do that, the rich are no exception. Who wouldn’t take the advice from a realtor that said you could flip a house in two months and make a nice pocket of change?

What is the real issue here? It isn’t that homes are overpriced or that the market has completely collapsed, it is that people haven’t managed their expectations when it comes to property sales. The responsibility lays in the agent to work with the client, not tell the client what they want to hear.

The agent should be your trusted advisor when it comes to purchasing. An agent should provide you with all relevant information and give you the best council possible. If your agent is telling you something you don’t like, simply don’t dismiss there council, listen to what they say and trust them as the expert. If your agent is telling you something that sounds too good to be true, chances are it is.

Have you worked with an agent that sold you milk and honey, who told you what you wanted to hear? Have you worked with an agent who told you the facts even though it might lose him or her a sale? What do you look for in an agent?

DC Cleans Up Eckington?

Driving around today I ran into menagerie of DC city workers cleaning up the building at 1831 2nd Street in Eckington. The building is a massive brick finished classic built in 1929 and is controlled by the DC government. I have had my eyes on this building for some time because of its size, location, and neglect.

Stopping to talk to a few of the city workers I found out that they received an order to secure the building and clean up the yard. Being the curious type, I decided to have run an associate run a title search on the property and I found out some interesting things.

The building, now controlled by the city and rumored to be in the middle of a lawsuit, sits on three individual lots all with leans on them. The assessed value by the city is drastically lower than the actual value of the building and annual tax on the building is just under $12,000 a year.

I enjoy the city taking a moment out its day to fix the broken windows and replacing them with brown painted wooden panels. If you had a chance to develop this property what would you do? How would you use this amazing building to improve the community?

Is Student Housing the Solution to Your Investment Property?

I was watching a video over at Realty Times the other day and I ran across a video that really sparked my interest. The video talked about searching out student housing properties as a way to get through the real estate market slump.

Work and living in DC this video of course interested me considering all the universities we have. I started thinking about the pros to leasing to college students.

1: Short term Lease

Most of the students will be looking for a one year lease at best. This means the property can quickly be turned into a sale property if needed without too much difficulty.

2: Secondary Income Support

Most of your renters will be backed by the finances of their parents. This means the fear of renting to limited income parties can be avoided because their income is backed by their parents.

3: Referrals

Just like any industry the best way to build new business is through referrals. Students are often your best referrals come from your previous residents.

4: Empty Buildings are Expensive Buildings

With laws changing and cost on the rise empty buildings can cost you in tax penalties and fines.

5: Renters can Turn Into Buyers

With the turnaround in this industry it is impossible to turn away a potential contact. Renters can turn into buyers just as quickly as you can turn a property around.

I am certainly looking at the bright side of leasing to college students. I figure it is easy to point out the negative but in this market finding the best possible solution to marketing your unit.

Have you leased out an investment property to students? Do you have any horror stories or experiences you would like to share? Let me know.