Calvert Hills

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The one on Amhurst really broke my heart. All the charm & personality went out the door when I saw the basement with the mold and water everywhere. To make matters worse, the one basement wall was ready to cave in! Kitchen was like something out of the home of Ward & June Cleaver. To compound matters, the listing was priced way high for Calvert Hills. Maybe if it was in University Park it might have been priced a bit closer to actual value. Then I heard thru the grapevine that the garage had settled & cracked to the point that you couldn't even park a car in it. Whoever came up with that price must have been smoking some premo stuff! Mabye the RE Agent didn't get his facts in order before posting this property?

That's too bad because the house looks adorable in the pics. I live in UP and thought the house was a little over priced. They could probably get that price if they did the major repairs. A friend of mine bought a house in College Heights Estates for almost 200k less than the original list price because it had major foundation issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The one on Amhurst really broke my heart. All the charm & personality went out the door when I saw the basement with the mold and water everywhere. To make matters worse, the one basement wall was ready to cave in! Kitchen was like something out of the home of Ward & June Cleaver. To compound matters, the listing was priced way high for Calvert Hills. Maybe if it was in University Park it might have been priced a bit closer to actual value. Then I heard thru the grapevine that the garage had settled & cracked to the point that you couldn't even park a car in it. Whoever came up with that price must have been smoking some premo stuff! Mabye the RE Agent didn't get his facts in order before posting this property?

No the agent Jean exclusively sells in Hyattsville, UP and CH. It seems but for those issues the house would have sold. If that home were in UP the price would have been in the 6xx. She has another listing that cannot sell in CH because of it's a wreck.

It appears that many of the houses in CH are in terrible shape. The owners are very old and did not upkeep their homes which is a shame. Homes in UP turn over more and are in better shape.

Jean's listings always seem a little high to me, but I guess if they sell at that listed price, they aren't too high.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The one on Amhurst really broke my heart. All the charm & personality went out the door when I saw the basement with the mold and water everywhere. To make matters worse, the one basement wall was ready to cave in! Kitchen was like something out of the home of Ward & June Cleaver. To compound matters, the listing was priced way high for Calvert Hills. Maybe if it was in University Park it might have been priced a bit closer to actual value. Then I heard thru the grapevine that the garage had settled & cracked to the point that you couldn't even park a car in it. Whoever came up with that price must have been smoking some premo stuff! Mabye the RE Agent didn't get his facts in order before posting this property?

No the agent Jean exclusively sells in Hyattsville, UP and CH. It seems but for those issues the house would have sold. If that home were in UP the price would have been in the 6xx. She has another listing that cannot sell in CH because of it's a wreck.

It appears that many of the houses in CH are in terrible shape. The owners are very old and did not upkeep their homes which is a shame. Homes in UP turn over more and are in better shape.

Jean's listings always seem a little high to me, but I guess if they sell at that listed price, they aren't too high.

She prices things very aggressively. But she often gets very close to asking or above so i guess she knows better than us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The one on Amhurst really broke my heart. All the charm & personality went out the door when I saw the basement with the mold and water everywhere. To make matters worse, the one basement wall was ready to cave in! Kitchen was like something out of the home of Ward & June Cleaver. To compound matters, the listing was priced way high for Calvert Hills. Maybe if it was in University Park it might have been priced a bit closer to actual value. Then I heard thru the grapevine that the garage had settled & cracked to the point that you couldn't even park a car in it. Whoever came up with that price must have been smoking some premo stuff! Mabye the RE Agent didn't get his facts in order before posting this property?

That's too bad because the house looks adorable in the pics. I live in UP and thought the house was a little over priced. They could probably get that price if they did the major repairs. A friend of mine bought a house in College Heights Estates for almost 200k less than the original list price because it had major foundation issues.

Was it a brown house?

[Anonymous]

Well it's under contract again. Let's see if this one sticks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The one on Amhurst really broke my heart. All the charm & personality went out the door when I saw the basement with the mold and water everywhere. To make matters worse, the one basement wall was ready to cave in! Kitchen was like something out of the home of Ward & June Cleaver. To compound matters, the listing was priced way high for Calvert Hills. Maybe if it was in University Park it might have been priced a bit closer to actual value. Then I heard thru the grapevine that the garage had settled & cracked to the point that you couldn't even park a car in it. Whoever came up with that price must have been smoking some premo stuff! Mabye the RE Agent didn't get his facts in order before posting this property?

That's too bad because the house looks adorable in the pics. I live in UP and thought the house was a little over priced. They could probably get that price if they did the major repairs. A friend of mine bought a house in College Heights Estates for almost 200k less than the original list price because it had major foundation issues.

Was it a brown house?

No

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The one on Amhurst really broke my heart. All the charm & personality went out the door when I saw the basement with the mold and water everywhere. To make matters worse, the one basement wall was ready to cave in! Kitchen was like something out of the home of Ward & June Cleaver. To compound matters, the listing was priced way high for Calvert Hills. Maybe if it was in University Park it might have been priced a bit closer to actual value. Then I heard thru the grapevine that the garage had settled & cracked to the point that you couldn't even park a car in it. Whoever came up with that price must have been smoking some premo stuff! Mabye the RE Agent didn't get his facts in order before posting this property?

No the agent Jean exclusively sells in Hyattsville, UP and CH. It seems but for those issues the house would have sold. If that home were in UP the price would have been in the 6xx. She has another listing that cannot sell in CH because of it's a wreck.

It appears that many of the houses in CH are in terrible shape. The owners are very old and did not upkeep their homes which is a shame. Homes in UP turn over more and are in better shape.

Jean's listings always seem a little high to me, but I guess if they sell at that listed price, they aren't too high.

She prices things very aggressively. But she often gets very close to asking or above so i guess she knows better than us.

She's not the only one. Two recent listings (not Jean's) were priced close to $100k more than they would have a year ago. The Whole Foods effect, I guess.

[Anonymous]

Why hasn't this one sold? http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/6303-Queens-Chapel-Rd_University-Park_MD_20782_M65235-53285#photo9

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why hasn't this one sold? http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/6303-Queens-Chapel-Rd_University-Park_MD_20782_M65235-53285#photo9

It's basically located on the intersection of Queens Chapel, East West Highway, and Adelphi Road. Very loud and busy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Erskine bungalow has been on and off the market for months. Somebody mentioned it needed lots of work. Anybody know what specifically needs to be done?

https://www.redfin.com/MD/College-Park/4806-Erskine-Rd-20740/home/11086690

Now it's pending again. I want to see what this sells for. I am thinking sub 300k

[Anonymous]

Can somebody explain how a concrete wall "bows" with pressure? This has got to be one of the most nonsensical things I've read here. Concrete doesn't bend. It cracks. SMH. Besides, this house has been standing for almost 100 years. If it were going to fall it would have done so decades ago. When a house's foundation has shifted you see cracks on the plaster walls and it's obvious that the house has moved out of alignment. But there is zero evidence of such cracking in that house. Just because your husband thinks he knows what he's talking about doesn't mean he actually does. And any basement that isn't ventilated and doesn't have a dehumidifier running continuously is going to get that white chalky stuff on the walls and on stuff stored down there. That happens in my totally dry and intact basement whenever we forget to air it out or turn off the dehumidifier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can somebody explain how a concrete wall "bows" with pressure? This has got to be one of the most nonsensical things I've read here. Concrete doesn't bend. It cracks. SMH. Besides, this house has been standing for almost 100 years. If it were going to fall it would have done so decades ago. When a house's foundation has shifted you see cracks on the plaster walls and it's obvious that the house has moved out of alignment. But there is zero evidence of such cracking in that house. Just because your husband thinks he knows what he's talking about doesn't mean he actually does. And any basement that isn't ventilated and doesn't have a dehumidifier running continuously is going to get that white chalky stuff on the walls and on stuff stored down there. That happens in my totally dry and intact basement whenever we forget to air it out or turn off the dehumidifier.

We are architects. We visited the property as potential buyers and we didn't stay long, so we did not observe the subject wall and its surrounding elements close enough to explain it. That said, I have seen walls in OT Alexandria that "bowed." Most are brick constructions, some covered with a layer of concrete and the others just exposed bricks, painted or not. This often happened with old constructions. In OT Alexandria, one raw house wall bowed so much passerby can see a section of the wall bended outwardly as if it was about to burst. Every time I walked by I subconsciously stayed away as far as possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can somebody explain how a concrete wall "bows" with pressure? This has got to be one of the most nonsensical things I've read here. Concrete doesn't bend. It cracks. SMH. Besides, this house has been standing for almost 100 years. If it were going to fall it would have done so decades ago. When a house's foundation has shifted you see cracks on the plaster walls and it's obvious that the house has moved out of alignment. But there is zero evidence of such cracking in that house. Just because your husband thinks he knows what he's talking about doesn't mean he actually does. And any basement that isn't ventilated and doesn't have a dehumidifier running continuously is going to get that white chalky stuff on the walls and on stuff stored down there. That happens in my totally dry and intact basement whenever we forget to air it out or turn off the dehumidifier.

Thank you for your rude criticism. I'm not stupid. Where did you get your engineering degree? The wall was a poured foundation wall, and it definitely was BOWED. If you put a long board horizontally across the wall, the bowed part was 2" out from the flat part of the wall. Can't remember if there were any cracks, but definitely bowed. The wall has surely failed. I don't know how long ago that occurred or how long it will take to give in to pressure, but definitely worth looking into more. The white chalky stuff wasn't just a dusting, it was deterioration from water penetration. The wall was crumbling. We just didn't have enough of an interest. The house just needed too much work and too many other things for us. The kitchen and bath were very outdated and it didn't have a master bathroom. Also, we really wanted to be able to put our cars into the garage and you can't do that. The yard was too small. We might have considered it in spite of those things but not for more than $500,000. We'll find something else better.

[Anonymous]

I didn't think the kitchen was that bad. It was outdated but clean and had good space. You're not really going to find new kitchens in this area.

[Anonymous]

Our buying experience was pretty smooth. The house we bought was on the market for a little bit longer than normal due to a leaky basement which we had fixed immediately after moving in. I am surprised how many people passed up a great house in a sweet location for a few updates needed for an older home that had been passed down for generations. Renovations just come with the territory for older homes. The City also does a good job of providing amenities. We love it.

+1

Not sure why people want to pay a premium for a flipper's notion of one's dream house, especially when it comes to the kitchen. You can buy a house with an outdated kitchen and renovate it to match your personal tastes and needs, and keep the extra cash that the flipper would have pocketed for yourself. What matters are the things you can't change, like location-location-location.

I do think it's important to buy from people who clearly loved their house and had the means to maintain it over the years. So long as the upgrades and maintenance were done well, you can't go wrong. Much better than buying something from a flipper that "looks" bright and shiny then 6 months later finding out that it was just a cover for shoddy work.