Are these H St. NE / Capitol Hill houses priced appropriately?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even though the person living in the basement almost certainly is living there illegally if there's no C of O, good luck getting them to leave thanks to DC's ridiculous tenant protections. No wonder this house is sitting.

Taking back the unit for the owner's own use is one of the legally permitted reasons for ending a month-to-month lease, as is ending the lease because you will stop renting the space entirely. So the buyer probably wouldn't have any difficulty ending their lease, but it would take several months of lead time.

Although, if the only issue preventing a CofO is splitting the utilities, I could also imagine a buyer just planning to do the work in order to make the unit legal.

It's interesting that rental units used to be seen as an asset regardless of whether the unit was legal, and basement rentals without a CofO were much more common. Now the neighborhood is wealthy enough that it seems like the juice isn't worth the squeeze, and even legal rental units don't add much of a price premium.

[Anonymous]

Gosh that seems extremely cheap for such a pretty house in that location. I'm a lawyer with L/T experience in DC. Wonder if I should swoop in. Happy to keep a good tenant but I know how to get rid of the bad ones without paying $30K of lawyer fees.

[Anonymous]

2br / 1.5ba for $839k. I can't tell if this place is really cramped and dated or has cool features because the shabby chic furnishings overpower all the pictures. I kind of think we're beyond the heights of the pandemic when 2br flips were selling for $800k+, and this one clearly hasn't been renovated in a while. Curious about what you all think.

https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/1423-S-Carolina-Ave-SE-20003/home/9917615

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:2br / 1.5ba for $839k. I can't tell if this place is really cramped and dated or has cool features because the shabby chic furnishings overpower all the pictures. I kind of think we're beyond the heights of the pandemic when 2br flips were selling for $800k+, and this one clearly hasn't been renovated in a while. Curious about what you all think.

https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/1423-S-Carolina-Ave-SE-20003/home/9917615

“Shabby chic” is putting it kindly, but it’s clear that the house hasn’t been staged (or even de cluttered), so I won’t make fun of how someone lives.

The house itself…yeah, that’s pretty cramped. It’s clearly not a flip, but it’s not priced as pre-flip, either. And while I don’t think everything that’s dated needs updating just for the sake of updates, that kitchen isn’t in great condition. The cabinets look to be in really bad shape. The outdoor space is great, and I do like the kind of funky downstairs layout, but the spiral staircase will turn a lot of people away. The location is fine, but not worth a full Capitol Hill premium. IMO, the right price for a 1,200sf row house in this condition starts with a 7.

I was amused at, “The home needs some TLC but is perfectly livable,” in the (way too long) description. Just what I’ve been looking for: “perfectly livable.”

[Anonymous]

Cheap and getting cheaper every week. What’s wrong with it?

https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/1226-Wylie-St-NE-20002/home/9909819

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2br / 1.5ba for $839k. I can't tell if this place is really cramped and dated or has cool features because the shabby chic furnishings overpower all the pictures. I kind of think we're beyond the heights of the pandemic when 2br flips were selling for $800k+, and this one clearly hasn't been renovated in a while. Curious about what you all think.

https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/1423-S-Carolina-Ave-SE-20003/home/9917615

“Shabby chic” is putting it kindly, but it’s clear that the house hasn’t been staged (or even de cluttered), so I won’t make fun of how someone lives.

The house itself…yeah, that’s pretty cramped. It’s clearly not a flip, but it’s not priced as pre-flip, either. And while I don’t think everything that’s dated needs updating just for the sake of updates, that kitchen isn’t in great condition. The cabinets look to be in really bad shape. The outdoor space is great, and I do like the kind of funky downstairs layout, but the spiral staircase will turn a lot of people away. The location is fine, but not worth a full Capitol Hill premium. IMO, the right price for a 1,200sf row house in this condition starts with a 7.

I was amused at, “The home needs some TLC but is perfectly livable,” in the (way too long) description. Just what I’ve been looking for: “perfectly livable.”

I actually really like this house. updating the kitchen with new cabinets would be cheap. the layout gives a fair amount of space for 2 people or a family with one kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cheap and getting cheaper every week. What’s wrong with it?

https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/1226-Wylie-St-NE-20002/home/9909819

Good question. It's really tiny, especially for a 2BR. But $589k doesn't seem too out of line for a condo alternative near (too near?) H street.

It was sold on Oct. 1 at $570,000 without being listed, then turned around and relisted for $610,000 on Oct. 14. Tax records show "REDFINNOW BORROWER LLC" as the current owner. So it looks like Redfin bought it and is discovering that they may have overpaid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cheap and getting cheaper every week. What’s wrong with it?

https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/1226-Wylie-St-NE-20002/home/9909819

It opens right onto the very narrow sidewalk. Too many randos walking across your doorstep all day and night. That paltry little tree will become problematic as it grows. I also wonder if there's some weird ownership / estate / transfer issue going on with it being listed for sale immediately after a first sale. Other than that, it looks like a cute condo alternative that would require minimal maintenance (no yard, etc).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Emerald is finally pending after 70 days!

https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/1335-Emerald-St-NE-20002/home/9912879

Closed for $690,000. That is *quite* the discount from the listing price of $800k, and lower than I figured even a burned out shell would go for on this block. I feel like we deserve to know what was wrong with this house. I know someone here knows who bought it ... get them to spill the beans.

Remember the saga of 1335 Emerald? A real estate agent bought it, flipped it, and re-listed it three months later for just shy of a million. Do you think the cheap cosmetic upgrades are worth the $300k markup? I'm impressed they were able to shove in another bathroom in such a short amount of time, hopefully in a manner that won't cause leaks or other plumbing headaches.

https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/1335-Emerald-St-NE-20002/home/9912879

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Emerald is finally pending after 70 days!

https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/1335-Emerald-St-NE-20002/home/9912879

Closed for $690,000. That is *quite* the discount from the listing price of $800k, and lower than I figured even a burned out shell would go for on this block. I feel like we deserve to know what was wrong with this house. I know someone here knows who bought it ... get them to spill the beans.

Remember the saga of 1335 Emerald? A real estate agent bought it, flipped it, and re-listed it three months later for just shy of a million. Do you think the cheap cosmetic upgrades are worth the $300k markup? I'm impressed they were able to shove in another bathroom in such a short amount of time, hopefully in a manner that won't cause leaks or other plumbing headaches.

https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/1335-Emerald-St-NE-20002/home/9912879

There are so many better ways to spend $1 million on a house, including in this neighborhood. Anyone who drops that much on 1300 square feet, only two actual bedrooms (the listing even seems to admit that the third bedroom is too small to merit such consideration), no off-street parking on a tough block to park and no comfortable Metro walkability is delusional.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another of the little rowhouses on Pickford Place just went on the market. Seems to be priced comparably to the others that have sold recently, but $823K for 1,200 sf is steep.

https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/623-Pickford-Pl-NE-20002/home/9902534

We lived in one of those Pickford houses years ago, with 2 (pretty small) bedrooms and 1.5 baths. This has 3 bedrooms and 2 full baths. That is a squeeze.

There are new photos in the listing that give a (slightly) better sense of the layout. I still get the sense that it's extremely cramped.

The Pickford house still is on the market, with no price reduction (yet).

Wow, all of these went pending/contingent since this post except for the Pickford house, which continues to sit with no price reduction.

The Pickford house has had some tragic updates. It will cost a lot of money to renovate. For that size and price, people want turnkey.

This finally went contingent last week after one price drop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cheap and getting cheaper every week. What’s wrong with it?

https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/1226-Wylie-St-NE-20002/home/9909819

It opens right onto the very narrow sidewalk. Too many randos walking across your doorstep all day and night. That paltry little tree will become problematic as it grows. I also wonder if there's some weird ownership / estate / transfer issue going on with it being listed for sale immediately after a first sale. Other than that, it looks like a cute condo alternative that would require minimal maintenance (no yard, etc).

Sale history on this one is weird? According to Redfin, it sold on October 1st for 570k. Of this year. And then was listed 13 days later for 610k? Is this a recordation error or did someone have a serious case of buyers remorse? If they are really trying to unload it this quickly, then that explains both the markup (they are trying to recoup their closing costs) and why it's sitting (no way would I pay 20-40k over what a house had sold for just a month or two prior).

Seems like a situation where your best option is to lease it out for a few years and then re-list. Even if rent doesn't cover your mortgage, you stand a much better chance of recovering your costs and maybe even turning a small profit if you lease it. And you can get around the issue of having to evict a tenant before selling by moving in yourself for a few months prior to selling. You can always evict a tenant to live in a SFH yourself, provided you follow rules for notice and are a decent landlord.

But this is the fastest turnaround I've seen on a resale, which is saying a lot in this neighborhood which has a lot of surprisingly quick resales due to the naturally transient nature of a lot of DC residents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cheap and getting cheaper every week. What’s wrong with it?

https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/1226-Wylie-St-NE-20002/home/9909819

It opens right onto the very narrow sidewalk. Too many randos walking across your doorstep all day and night. That paltry little tree will become problematic as it grows. I also wonder if there's some weird ownership / estate / transfer issue going on with it being listed for sale immediately after a first sale. Other than that, it looks like a cute condo alternative that would require minimal maintenance (no yard, etc).

Sale history on this one is weird? According to Redfin, it sold on October 1st for 570k. Of this year. And then was listed 13 days later for 610k? Is this a recordation error or did someone have a serious case of buyers remorse? If they are really trying to unload it this quickly, then that explains both the markup (they are trying to recoup their closing costs) and why it's sitting (no way would I pay 20-40k over what a house had sold for just a month or two prior).

Seems like a situation where your best option is to lease it out for a few years and then re-list. Even if rent doesn't cover your mortgage, you stand a much better chance of recovering your costs and maybe even turning a small profit if you lease it. And you can get around the issue of having to evict a tenant before selling by moving in yourself for a few months prior to selling. You can always evict a tenant to live in a SFH yourself, provided you follow rules for notice and are a decent landlord.

But this is the fastest turnaround I've seen on a resale, which is saying a lot in this neighborhood which has a lot of surprisingly quick resales due to the naturally transient nature of a lot of DC residents.

I posted about this above:

Tax records show "REDFINNOW BORROWER LLC" as the current owner. So it looks like Redfin bought it and is discovering that they may have overpaid.

[Anonymous]

How about this condo in-bounds for Brent? It's been for sale since last November and no bites... why?

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/628-S-Carolina-Ave-SE-5C-Washington-DC-20003/183133098_zpid/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How about this condo in-bounds for Brent? It's been for sale since last November and no bites... why?

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/628-S-Carolina-Ave-SE-5C-Washington-DC-20003/183133098_zpid/

I’ve always loved that development but that place is very, very expensive for what you get. You can get a beautiful 3- or 4-bedroom house in bounds for good Hill schools for that price. And you won’t feel like your bedroom ceiling is closing in on you.