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Looking for a house in Cleveland Park or Woodley
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Anonymous
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We are having the hardest time finding a house in either Cleveland Park or Woodley. We've tried MLS and our agent for about 6 months to no avail. So I figured I post our criteria here and see if maybe someone knows of something.
We would like to find a 4 (or more) bedroom house. We want to be between Connecticut and 34th Street, not further north than Rodman. Walking proximity to Connecticut Avenue is extremely important. Ideally the house would be completely done, but we could re-do a bathroom or two and maybe a kitchen, if the price was not toward the top of our budget. We would love to stay under $1.5MM, but would go to $2MM for the right house. Anyone? |
Anonymous
| We have a contract on a house in a desirable neighborhood. Not Cleveland or Woodley Park, but comparable. I've lived in both neighborhoods in the past, and, in fact, I lived in a house that perfectly fit your description. My advice is to find someone you know who lives in the neighborhood. If you don't have good friends there, ask around at work, school, church, etc., and then have them keep an eye out for you. We found a house we love in a great location, but it never went on the market. The owners had just mentioned to neighbors that they might be interested in selling, and they got two offers, just by word of mouth. There are usually some people around who would sell, if given an offer, but who don't want to mess with putting their house on the market. |
Anonymous
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On the other side of Connecticut, but might be what you are looking for
http://homes.longandfoster.com/Real-Estate/PropertyDetails.aspx?mlsCompanyID=2&mlsNumber=DC7652187 |
Anonymous
| My advice would be just to wait. Right now seems to be a terrible time to be looking for a house in most good neighborhoods in DC: the number of houses on the market is way down, so it's hard to find what you want, and when something good does come up, other buyers go nuts and start doing crazy things (e.g., waiving inspection contingencies). But there's no way this will last. |
Anonymous
OP here. I appreciate the help, but really staying in the geographic bounds is one of only two absolute requirements that we have. |
Anonymous
| Do you know people in this neighborhood? Stuff there goes up off market all the time and you need to know people to get in. Or, have an agent who is with a brokerage that deals in that area exclusively. For example, if you are trying to buy into say, Georgetown, Washington Fine Properties has a corner on the market there. They have listings that are not public, but only advertised with WFP. So if you have an agent in WFP, you will have access to more properties in Georgetown than the average joe. Ridiculous, I know, but that is how it goes sometimes. Who is your agent? Maybe you should contact someone at WFP because they do have a number of Cleveland Park properties. Good luck! |
Anonymous
Buying that way is a great way to overpay. People will be happy to sell you a $1.5 million house to you for $1.8 million before it goes on the market, but they're not going to sell it to you for a fair market price. |
Anonymous
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19:42 makes a good point, but at OP's budget, and the length of time she has been looking, she may need to be willing to pay 1.9 million for a house that is worth 1.7 million. Also, many of these houses will NEVER go on the real market, so she is just locked out of her limited desired neighborhood until someone decides to sell the conventional way.
Also, many of these houses do not actually go for more than a fair market price. For the true off market stuff, the sellers will make more since the agents are cut out, so they don't lose the 100k that would go to both agents. So, they are often willing to take a fair price. OP can't lose a thing by inquiring. |
Anonymous
Dumb. Most would consider this a great location in Woodley Park. |
Anonymous
| Dumb for you maybe. But let's assume they know what's best for them. And, at the very least, they know more about themselves than you know about them. |
Anonymous
Isn't the "fair market price" by definition, what people are willing to pay? If these houses are being sold without ever being listed, then they are clearly in demand, and the price will reflect it. Houses in these types of neighborhoods are not cookie cutter row houses or condos. While the law of economics apply, the list of true "substitutes" is much smaller, and you can't just take the per square foot cost of the townhouse that sold down the road and multiply by square footage. Also, as noted above, the price is often lower if you don't have to pay the 6% realtor's fee. Also, putting your house on the market is a royal pain. I recently sold my house, and would have given someone a deal just to have not had to go through all that. |
Anonymous
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Hurry, hurry. Real Estate never goes down. DC is immune from everything. Oh wait, in the early 90s it all fell 25-30%.
Yes, including the "in" neighborhoods in NW DC. I only mention this here because if the OP was part of the population that doesn't need to take out a mortgage, and so can validly claim price direction doesn't matter, it is hard to imagine they'd be posting here. A 4 bedroom need = children. Children need schools, it's DC, so someday they'll be likely pushed to thinking of privates. Does OP really have the kind of $$ to support this? Maybe yes, but do think carefully about this. |
Anonymous
OP here. Technically we don't need to take out a mortgage (we could liquidate accounts, sell some investments), but it is our plan to take one out. And, we have a 7 bedroom house in DC now, in what is personally my favorite DC neighborhood, but the quantity of children and families in the neighborhood isn't what we want, so we want to move. Walking distance to the public elementary, without crossing major streets, is a factor. We plan to send our children to public school; it is something we value greatly (and yes we could afford private). |
Anonymous
Anonymous
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I think I might see the problem:
4 bedrooms Cleveland Park historic district totally renovated 1.5 million But they are out there. There was one that just sold on Rowland Place (4 bed, petitenotmassive, renovated). There was a huge one on Newark, the best street, that finally closed for 1.7 but was first listed at 2M. A couple on Macomb, with one being a lot nicer than the other but both renovated. Given the price drops on all of these, and time on market, I don't think they were insider secrets. |