Most homebuyers start the process anxious, excited, nervous, and some are downright terrified. It’s natural. A home is the largest and most expensive purchase that most people will make in a lifetime. It can either turn out to be a comple...
There are many reasons why it may be time to sell your home. You may need more space to make room for a growing family or you need to downsize after your kids leave the nest. Whatever your motivations, you want to make sure that you’re ti...
There are two ways to think about remodeling projects that will boost your home’s value; you can get one or two major remodels done or opt for a bunch of small fixes. Depending on your budget and your timetable, one approach may be better...
"Zestimate." It's a four-letter-word in most real estate offices. Bring up a Zestimate to an agent at an open house and you might get a polite nod from the agent, but on the inside he's probably weeping, gnashing his teeth, and cursing ...
Has Dupont Circle gotten to big for its britches? According to a recent report, this long popular neighborhood lies in a zip code among the lowest priced in DC, yet this year we're seeing a drop in sales. What gives, Dupont?
There are a ...
You may have heard that Amazon is looking to build another full-sized campus on this side of the country and DC is in the running. The city has proposed four sites for the large-scale project to include a location in Anacostia, one in NoMa,...
*Images Courtesy of Urban Turf
The moment inches nearer when we will join the rest of the world in taking advantage of the technology that is high-speed train travel. The Maryland Department of Transportation has just completed an environmen...
*Courtesy of Washington City Paper
As District neighborhoods gain visibility in the real estate marketplace, often a distinct new name for the area emerges. In many cases, it seems to occur when a lesser-known neighborhood wants to be recogn...
Everything old is new again. You didn't think millennials invented tiny homes, did you? One-bedroom rowhouses are few and far between in the District, but they are often some of the oldest homes still standing. A one-bedroom in Logan Circle...
The Boring Company's Elon Musk got a bit ahead of himself when he announced that he would be able to move forward with the high-speed commuter solution he's been working on. On July 20th, Musk Tweeted (above) that he had received "verbal [g...
It's a bit strange to be reporting that there is an 11-bedroom rowhome on the market in Petworth for just under $700,000, but here we are. With some of the highest rents in the country, District homes are leased as group houses all the time...
Michelle Crymes, SE DC's Fort Dupont Park Buyer who closed in September 2017. Michelle actually purchased one of Koki's recent flips. Send Koki an email if you are interested in investing on any future flip opportunities.
Life in DC: I am an...
It is still a seller's market in the District and hungry buyers are hedging their bets with cash. Nearly one in five properties sold this year were paid for in cash. That's 19 percent of the 7,758 homes sold in DC since January. In many m...
When you come to me looking for a home, I'm going to give you a list of every property that might fit your needs, both Long and Foster listings and those with another broker. But there's one type of listing I can't necessarily show you: a...
Shown here in 1931, the year that owner Mary Foote Henderson died, Henderson Castle stood at the corner of 16th Street and Florida Avenue Northwest. Click photo to see what it looks like now and click here to learn more about this estate's ...
For those of you who have never purchased a home before, the term "interest rate" can sometimes make your eyes glaze over. Not to worry! I'm here to explain what this portion of your monthly mortgage payment actually means.
Your mortgage...
We don't discuss it much, but the District's real estate market is really quite different from the rest of the country's. When I travel, I notice Realtors' ads boasting that they have sold a home in a sought-after neighborhood in "just 45 d...
Under Construction in 1960 when this photo was taken, St. John's Episcopal Church now makes its home at the corner of 16th and H Streets NW. The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) founded in 1955...
In light of the recent passage of the GOP tax bill, area residents were scrambling to pre-pay their 2018 property taxes before the end of the year. The new law will cap the amount of state and local taxes that an individual can deduct at $1...
Transportation innovators like Uber and Lyft have changed the game when it comes to how we move about this oddly-designed city. Some of us remember a time when taxis were the only available option and the fare was determined by how many map...
This photo of the C&O (that's Chesapeake and Ohio) Canal in Georgetown was taken on a walk in December of 1956. There are big plans to turn the area into large pedestrian mall. Click photo to see how to get there to take your own stroll!
As a basic principle of economics, the relationship between supply and demand dictates price in a free market economy and in no area is it more relevant than real estate. We you call me to list your home, in order to find the best price, we...
You may have read a few years ago that $2 million is the new $1 million when it comes to the DC luxury real estate market. As property values rise, a million dollars just can't buy what it used to. According to DC's Office of Revenue Analys...
Everyone is buzzing about where Amazon will locate HQ2, it's new, second campus outside of Seattle. Whichever city wins the bid is promised a huge influx of Amazon employees so it had better have the infrastructure to accommodate the growth...
Now home to the Lofts at Columbia Heights, Girard's Delicatessen was a neighborhood fixture seen here in 1954. Click on the photo to see what it looks like now!
The Minim House is a 212-square-foot home that won the Washingtonian Award of Excellence at the American Institute of Architects' Washingtonian Awards back in 2015. The environmentally-friendly, tiny home uses solar panels and a rainwater t...
It doesn't matter if you prefer Adams Morgan, Capitol Hill, or Glover Park. Tiny homes are all the rage and they're popping up all over DC. Each of these affordable condos is a studio that comes in just under 330 square feet:
Property Addres...
If you've ever made your way to Adams Morgan on a Friday or Saturday night, you've probably seen pedestrians darting through heavy traffic and cars trying to navigate around taxis, Ubers, and Lyfts stopped to pick up or drop off passengers....
After a couple was ordered to pay $1.3 million to the owners of 19 properties whose newly renovated homes posed a safety hazard, the DC Council proposed a bill to help homeowners whose properties have been affected by shoddy renovation jobs...
If you're a frequent reader of this newsletter, you might remember hearing about months of supply or contract ratio and how they can affect competition in the real estate market. If you're like most people I know, it went in one ear and out...
The Pierce School Lofts located at 1375 Maryland Ave Northeast are finally on the market for individual sale. Fully renovated in 2005, the units were offered for rent while the owners resided in the 9,500 square-foot penthouse. Equipped wit...
The YWCA seen here in 1950 was named after Phillis Wheatley, noted to be the first professional black, female poet in America. Click here to see what it looks like now!
A home inspection can be one of the most important (and potentially, daunting) things that a homebuyer takes on. If it's your first time around, the inspection process can be a great way to get to know your new home and the systems in it. W...
If you're looking to sell and not going to put off buying a home, here are some quick tips on how to spruce your home up before putting it on the market:
Keep the lawn edged, cut, and watered regularly.
Trim hedges, weed lawns and flowe...
The Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act was enacted in the District of Columbia to give tenants the right of first refusal for the purchase of the property that they occupy. The original intent was to help protect renters in multi-unit build...
In March of 1959, the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural history unveiled the African bush elephant that graces the building's rotunda. Click here to navigate to the museum!
The District's unique real estate marketplace can make finding a starter home more difficult for some people than in other places in the country. A starter home for our purposes is defined as a home that costs less than $560,000 (well above...
Elon Musk's The Boring Company has released a preliminary route for the Hyperloop that is planned to whisk travelers from Washington to Baltimore in about 15 minutes. They anticipate the construction to take one to two years to complete which m...
While it's important to have and use credit to keep your credit score in good shape, you have to also make sure you're on top of your open lines of credit. With all of the transactions and bills we pay online these days, it's easy to lose track...
A condo in Georgetown sold in February for a whopping $8 million making it the most expensive second sale of a condo in the district. With Potomac River views overlooking Arlington, the 6,100 square-foot luxury condo located in the Ritz-Car...
On Tuesday, April 10th, the DC Council passed a bill that would exempt single-family homes from TOPA (Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act) provisions. Originally, the law was designed to protect tenants from being displaced by landlords who plan...
According to Wikipedia, "A woonerf (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈʋoːnɛrf]) is a living street, as originally implemented in the Netherlands and in Flanders. Techniques include shared space, traffic calming, and low speed limits." Why do you care ...