Quick Sale
This weekend a house near me got under contract, despite the price. Honestly, I thought $599K was too much, considering a house on the same block with a similar layout, but with a basement and a somewhat functional gas fireplace sold for about $150K less. Others who'd seen the interior of the higher priced home had said it was in move in condition and done very nicely. I saw the inside and admittedly couldn't play the IKEA/Home Depot game, but I swear one of the interior paint colors was the same as my dining room's. Ralph Lauren,
Stony Mountain, NA15.
Well I gather the Real Estate market in the circle of Truxton, is healthy. That or someone really wants to live on our street. Maybe I'll go with the second theory as Sunday was nice out, which meant the cute 5 and under set were out riding their bikes and razors. "Hey look, if you had kids they'd be playing with these kids by now." And the people with dogs chatting with the neighbors doing things in their yards. For a while it was the best advertisement. A living brochure. A clean block (cleaned earlier that day by a neighbor) with happy children, a diverse (age & race) set of friendly looking adults being all frigging neighborly, smiling, laughing. That's worth about $150K right there.
So putting your house on the market anytime soon? Somehow pick the nicest day for an open house and during the open house, convince your neighbors to make your block look like it's fricking Sesame Street. Guaranteed sale.
Labels: houses, real estate
ex-Shiloh Property under some renovation
PoP reports
here, with a hopeful picture that work is being done on this former Shiloh Baptist property. If I have the address right (1600 8th St NW?) the property was sold 12/30/2009, so if the new owner is starting now, three months later, the future is lookin' good.
Labels: development, real estate
Taxes
Let's get personal at first, then we'll get real.
In my general tradition I have finished my personal federal and DC taxes in the last week of February. I sort of did my federal taxes during the blizzard of 2010, but as always, there are forms and papers that trickle in the mail reminding me of donations and income I've completely forgotten about. But once you've done your federal taxes you can
file your DC individual taxes on-line, for free. To do so you will need your federal Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) you entered on your 2008 DC tax return (form D-40EZ, line 3 or form D-40, line 3). If you didn't file last year in DC then you can't use the on-line feature. A quick review of my taxes (I used H&R Block's software) shows that I could have donated more to charity, and put more in my retirement plan.
My biggest tax break came from real estate. I paid somewhere around 11K or 13K in mortgage interest, which knocked about 2K off in personal taxes. Maybe I can use that savings to make up for the noticeable jump in real estate taxes levied by the District.
If you haven't got your assessment, be prepared. You know that 10% cap? Yeah, forget about it. There's now a minimum tax floor, 40% of the assessed value of the home. Not even the senior citizens' are safe. I noticed they're getting hit with the same floor, so not so great news for granny. But on the plus side, it does make some problem houses have an incentive to sell.
My own feelings about it are mixed. I liked having a lower tax rate because I bought before the RE boom but at the same time the low tax was like a pair of golden shackles. The tax was a great incentive not to even think of moving. But as certain things in my life change, and I can anticipate that my housing needs may change, making the tax difference from one house to another a minor factor, frees me up to ponder living elsewhere, even if that elsewhere is down the block or off in PG.
Labels: real estate, taxes
And for a millyeon dollas this can be yours
Fooling around on Redfin I spotted a few houses east of Logan Circle going for $1 million and up. What is this
Southern California?
First is a penthouse
condo on R Street near Logan for $1.05 mil. It comes with parking and a condo fee.
Next is,
1114 P St NW, going for 1.15 mil and on the market for over 200 days, plus a month. I gather the $71K gross rental income justifies the price, for the three unit property.
There are a few more million plus places hugging the Logan Circle, but priced above them is closer to me, is
1400 5th St NW, for S1.399 mil. I gather that the idea that one could turn the three unit building into 5 units is justification for the price. However, there is no parking, it isn't next to any amenities and more work will have to go into it, as "potential" means "gut job".
Lastly, topping off at 1.45 mil is
1120 Rhode Island Ave, NW. A single family home boasting of a lot of original features. The city thinks it's worth 1.298 million, so the taxes are about $11K a year.
Labels: real estate
Death, taxes and the assessment cap
Once again I was poking around seeing what my assessed value was, not that it matters. Those of us who bought our homes before houses were too expensive, have these lovely golden handcuffs in the combo dish of the
Assessment Cap Credit, and the
Homestead Deduction. That means that people who have been in their homes a long time (and bothered to get the homestead deduction) pay a couple or several hundred dollars a year in property taxes, as opposed to newer folks who pay a thousand to several thousands a year. I say the combo of those tax credits are golden handcuffs because the low tax, is a great incentive to not move. It is a good program, in that it encourages neighborhood stability. It allows long term owners to stay in their homes despite the rise in home prices around them. Provided they bothered to get the homestead deduction in the first place. There are neighbors who I know are living in their homes but don't have the homestead deduction and are paying the full price in taxes and aren't protected by the 10% cap.
I was poking around on the Tax Office's
real estate assessment database because a few months back I got a visit (wasn't home so I called him) from the tax assessor who wanted to know if I made changes. I did, but it seems none of them really matter tax wise. Curiously, being what it is I checked out the assessments of other properties in the area. What owners are taxed at varies, depending on if they are residents or landlords, when they bought, if they are senior citizens or
low income, etc. But then I'd see an exceptionally low taxable assessment value in the 10K-20K range, for a small number of owners who bought in the aughts. Not complaining, just observing.
What I will complain about are the dead people paying low property taxes. Mainly because said dead persons are getting the
Senior Citizen Homestead Deduction, which means they are paying super low taxes, which is fine if you're old and typically on a fixed income. However, grammy dies and the kids continue to pay the low tax. This is fine for the first couple of years after a death because of probate and clearing up the estate, which I understand is no easy task. However after say 3 years, the new owners (widow/widower or kids) need to be listed and taxed appropriately. Flipping around on the database there are still a few dead people in the hood paying taxes, according to the
Social Security Death Index, which the Office of Tax and Revenue doesn't seem to bother to check.
Labels: real estate, taxes
Sibling Rivalry & Slumlording All In One
I've been debating about if I should post this bit of family business on the blog. Everyso often I might mention my sister and my nieces, one of whom is my blog icon. But so I'm not explaining the story over and over, as I have forgotten who I've told and when and how much, I'm going to try here.
Shaw has a fair amount of subsidized housing, it is the thing that keeps the neighborhood economically diverse, which is good. However, I don't believe subsidized housing is a good long term solution for individual families. At least not my family. It's fine for seniors, as we do need to care for our elderly, but for young families with developing children, no. Not long term. My sister and her husband and her daughters (my nieces) live in subsidized housing in Florida, and finally G-d has provided the means for me to get them out of there.
My sister's family live in a run down apartment complex. Earlier this year the local paper announced that the conditions were so bad that HUD was going to revoke federal funding for that and another complex. From my own visits I observed poorly maintained parking lots with tons of pot holes, and a blue tarp covering the roof that had been there for a while.
Also going on is the Real Estate troubles which have hit Florida really hard. Poking around on-line I discovered a house near my mother's house for $7,500. Yes, $7,500 for a stick structure and a little plot of land. But the stick structure needed lots of work and in inquiring about it I hooked up with a Realtor. Bob, the Realtor worked with my Mom and my sister and found us a foreclosure that was clean and in almost move in condition for well under $40K. However, I've had to destroy all my savings and investments to make it happen. So there is some good in the foreclosure crisis.
So once I get some minor repairs done (some leaks, a hole in the wall, etc), figure out how to hook up the utilities, and get her to sign the lease, I will be my sister's landlord. She and the family will move to a working/middle class and diverse neighborhood. And if she can manage not to stiff me for the rent (taxes & insurance mainly), she will be able to buy the house at a discounted price after a number of years. Which is fair since she's in charge of all the maintenance. This moves my nieces out of an area of concentrated poverty and into an environment where they can be free to run in their own yard. The yard also give my BIL a place to garden.
This is not charity, it's taking care of family and an opportunity to live out my beliefs. As a society we should take care of the least fortunate, but we should also encourage them to become strong and independent so they on an individual level can help others as well. I see independence as freedom, and everyone should be free.
I want to thank my roommate whose help has been invaluable as she drove me to the inconvenient bank and the other places I needed to get to. And I need to thank my supervisor, who let me leave work with a moment's notice to deal with this.
So I'm going to put the blog in sleep mode while I take care of my new house, so the comments are in moderated mode. I'll be back to the blog in a week or so.
Labels: housing, real estate
Housing Dirt
Yesterday I was looking at my rear kitchen wall which has some fairly new and widening cracks (ah the joys of home ownership). Because of some funky fencing, part of my wall is on my neighbor's side of the fence. So I went over to his place and took a look at the part of the wall I couldn't see from my side of the fence. While I was over on his side chatting with him I did mention some of the dirt some of the other neighbors were saying about the construction quality of his place. From what I can remember the guys said that the contractor didn't make the foundation for the addition deep enough and the addition violated the 60-40 rule.
I'm glad I mentioned it as I felt bad about warning/ telling him early on as a buyer. But really how do you which people are actually going to buy the house?
And yesterday I got an email asking about a house, that is up for sale. The email wanted to know about the neighborhood and the street and so on, but the description of the house was close enough to a house I know that more than likely has some serious structural issues. So let me say if you're thinking of buying a house on the 100-200 block of Q Street, check the roof structure. If you or your home inspector can't see the roof joists, don't buy unless you are prepared to replace the whole roof.
Labels: houses, real estate
Carter G Woodson, and a broke agency
Yesterday was a nice activity filled day. Did some gardening in the morning. In the afternoon got some dancing in at the Afro-American Civil War Memorial as part of
DCLX. Lastly there was a meetup with Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton and some other local bloggers. My hearing is bad because of the background noise at the coffee shop I didn't make out all that she said.
A topic of interest was the National Park Service and parks. Park-parks, with open space and stuff. However I asked about the NPS and the Carter G. Woodson house on 9th St. The short answer was the NPS did well enough to get the money to buy the Woodson house and the adjoining houses. They don't have any money to do anything else.
Labels: government, real estate
Death and Taxes
I was going to write up properties getting the Homestead or Senior Citizen Homestead deduction with owners names that are listed in the Social Security Death Index, but that was too much work. I didn't get past 3 northern Truxton block before I got bored.
Instead I'm going to complain about the Senior Citizen Homestead deduction, two dead people and their real estate taxes. I don't get it. One dead person, who has been dead for over 5 years, but who has been dutifully paying their real estate taxes is charged less than my aunt (alive) receiving the same deduction. Both properties have the same square footage, the dead person's house doesn't have AC. Auntie does have AC, one less bedroom and has a bigger yard. However, according to the City, Auntie's house is worth $100K less than the dead person and the difference in taxable assessment is $80K. Even though being dead is worse, Auntie is blind and suffering from dementia.
I said two dead people, one is our dead tax payer. The other is my late Uncle R, husband to blind Auntie.
They are pictured here back when they were young. Sometime in the 1950s they bought a house in SE DC, and lived there. In the 1990s Uncle R died. Currently Auntie is listed as the owner and it is a logical assumption that previously the house was in Uncle R.'s name, if not both their names. Did that transfer or change in name bump up the taxable amount? Even thought my aunt has been living in the house for nearly 1/2 a century? As far as I can tell dead person in Truxton was there from the 1940s or sometime after the 1930 census.
I can't see why my demented blind widowed aunt pays more in real estate taxes than a dead person for a house worth less.
Labels: real estate, taxes
Real Estate TMI
Georgetown Metropolitan
said it best, "sort of creepy". The site is called
Block Shopper. On one level it is good to know how many hands a property that's up for sale went through since 2001. However, when it
gets down to Technology Engineer Bob Brown sells Dupont Circle house for $899,088, that's too much information. Seriously, too much.
Also (I just noticed) they STOLE, STOLE, as in not attributing or crediting, my Flickr pix. A few weeks ago I got on the case about this with the owner of one 4th Street house who used my picture of his house (and the neighboring houses) to advertise it as a rental. Hey-zeus Christie people, I don't want money but I do want to be asked or acknowledged. Yes, someone's getting a terse email.
Labels: real estate
Property Values
Well like many people I got my tax bill and my assessment. It seems that, according to the city, my house will be worth almost $10K less in 2010, compared to 2009. Oh well.
I'm not too concerned as it is not a jump but a shuffle. When I bought the house, several years ago, I've seen the city assessment of the value jump $50-$100K each year. This might be the first sign that the peak is over. It doesn't however slow the 10% increase cap, which I noticed continues to go up. I bought the house before prices in the neighborhood shot up, and it is that lower value the cap was based on. That lower value has gone up about 10%.
Looking at my neighbors assessments, and really who doesn't look at the neighbor's assessments, the increases and decreases have been minimal on my block. Minimal as in a couple hundred dollars, $1K max, if any change.
Oh for anyone planning to fight their assessment, note that the city is placing a greater value on the land, not the house (aka improvements). So it won't matter too much if the house next door is nicer. For some odd reason your land is worth $200K and your house is worth $100K. Same with the badly maintained rental up the street. See for yourself at the
DC Assessment database.
Labels: real estate, taxes
DC will auction off nuisance properties
Their own properties that is.
You've complained about them. I've complained about them. DC owned properties that do nothing but harbor rats and trash. Well it looks like they are on the auction block (HT:
Bloomingdale Blog)
Let me point out two Shaw
properties on the auction block, 1713 New Jersey Ave. NW and 1504 6th St. NW. Most of the properties are in NE, and Columbia Heights. They all look like shells. But some of them are huge looking mansions, shells of mansions but huge. They'd probably make some well endowed non-profit a nice home.
Labels: houses, real estate
214 P St NW
Broken windows, bad paint, weedy yard, just a lot of ugly. According to the DC tax database
this vacant house is a class 3 exeception, so it is paying regular taxes, and not the vacant house rate. The owner is Steward Investments in Clinton, MD and they came to possess it in 2006 for 419K.
I am not going to quibble about that value, as the
house next door is up for sale for $750K.
Labels: houses, real estate
This Could Be Yours For $199K
Looking on Redfin there are a few places in NW DC that can be had for less than $200K.
This is one. It will more than likely need work. However, it may be one of those things you can fix up while living rough. Sort of a bachelor project or something for a super handy couple.
Yet, it is interesting to see the number "1" in front of the numbers for some abodes again. Haven't seen that number starting housing prices since 2003. Don't be fooled by the 4 bedroom 3 bath claim. Houses on that side of the street are small and are usually 2 bedroom and at the most 2 bathrooms.
Labels: houses, real estate
General Real Estate post
Hey I remember that doey eyed look. That's the look of a young first time homebuyer. I used to have that look.
Meltdown, schmeltdown people are still buying in the hood if today's encounter with a young woman and her Realtor was anything to gauge anything by. The pair were walking up and down the block pointing at houses, I assume, after they looked at the one house on my side of the street that is still on the market. I was outside puttering in the yard, and we chatted for a bit. Normally I'd talk up the neighborhood a bit more, but the house they were looking at has a family renting, with one really good kid in it. If Ms. Doe Eye or anyone else were to buy it, I'm sure the family could find equal and suitable housing, but moving is such a pain.
I believe the market is slow but not dead, as the house with the loud and out there residents disappeared from the real estate listings, I gather it is under contract. We'll see in a month or so. I suspect another house on the block being fixed up will hit the market in a month or two, and maybe it might sell in the next 9 or 10 months. Maybe. Though it maybe wrong to judge a place that's on 2/3rds done, I don't think it would be a quick sell manly due to proportions and the aesthetic. IT and I took a quick peak at the place while workmen were still working. I think it reveals too much of a suburban Maryland aesthetic trying to shoehorn itself into a small DC rowhouse. The house was around 1,000 sf with 2.5 bathrooms. If you have a 1,000 sf house I think you may understand the problem of a 2.5 bathroom house. I have a 1,000 sf house and just 1.5 (would be 1.75 or 2 if I had $5,000 fall into my lap). One of the bedroom bathrooms was tiny and hard for IT to turn around in. IT is a thin man. The bedroom for this tiny bath was also quite small and maybe, just maybe could have a double bed and nothing else. More than likely it could have a twin and a dresser/ desk, or just be an office. Anyway it's still not finished, and it will be interesting to see if the builder will do anything to make it easy to imagine the space as something besides cramped.
Labels: housing, real estate
Buy a church for your new home
This place has been on the market for a while and I do wish I could find a non MRIS picture, but
1641 4th St NW is up for sale. According to a
1957 study of NorthWest 1 churches, it served as a house church. That's sort of like a storefront church, but instead of a store, worshipers used a house. Up until last year or two years ago, a small sign reading "Faith Temple" was near the door of this house.
A few years ago, I swear there were more of these little house churches around the hood. I remember years ago walking around 1st and Bates and hearing a woman preaching, well saying words loudly in a rhythm similar to preaching. That's gone now. There is a house church on the corner of 3rd and P. The building looks nice and seems to be well kept every time I pass by. I do have a pciture of that.
The Redfin ad for 1641 4th St, the former Faith Temple, says it has the original wood floors and looking at the pictures it looks like it has a lot of original stuff. I can see how the layout can serve a small number of people.
Now that I think of it, I have attended an Eastern Orthodox service in a converted rowhouse in Columbia Heights. While there I was paying more attention to the fact they had chairs, than the normal, non-churchy windows. Depending on the size of the congregation, a house can work for worship purposes and neighbors like it if worship does not require drums, electric bass and amps.
Labels: churches, neighborhood history, real estate
People check to see if you paid your taxes
I was glancing at the
2008 Tax Sale Properties and I noticed some familiar names on the list and so, not to name names, please check. Some of the amounts are small, like a few hundred dollars small, which leads me to believe that your mortgage company didn't adjust for the taxes. So check. Seriously. Check.
Why was I looking? I was looking to see what empty lots were listed. I want a garden. More realisticly, I want to fantasize about getting an empty lot via a tax sale and turing it into a garden.
Labels: real estate, taxes
Pluleeeze buy this and open my fantasy French Restaurant
Just hitting Redfin today is
1700 New Jersey Avenue for 1.2 million. It can be a restaurant, with an apartment above and outdoor seating.
So if you happen to have a million, please, please, please, please, pretty, pretty please with sugar on top buy this and open my fantasy French bistro. That or my fantasy tandoori carry out. Or a fantasy wine bar. And since we're talking about my fantasies, throw in my fantasy trophy husband while we're at it.
Yes, the picture is old, but I don't want to anger the MRIS gods.
Please buy it and open something nice. I beg you.
Labels: business, real estate
Fun with Redfin: Houses Under $200K
Seven years ago, when I started looking for a place to buy, the RE market was starting its roller coaster ride up to crazy. In the "better" neighborhoods houses didn't stay on the market very long and there were bidding wars. I was looking for fee-simple places under $125K, which was hard but not impossible. The third house I looked at, was way less than $125K and on a street I liked, so I bought it.
Fast forward, the roller coaster has gone up, and now it is heading down. Playing around with
Redfin I decided to see what was out there and lo and behold prices that start with a '1' are back. Just not a lot of them.
There are a bunch of under $175K condos over in the Petworth and Fort Totten area, if we want to limit this to NW DC. Bump the search up to $200K and a house will appear in Columbia Heights.
Expand the under $175K search to NE DC and more houses do appear in Frozen Tropics' Trinidad.
The point is that the affordable house I believe is coming back. Right now it's a handyman special or a about to be foreclosed condo. It's not luxury for cheap but something to start with.
Labels: housing, real estate
Real Estate Agents Back on Crack
I swear some Real Estate Agents are on crack. And it has been a while since I've written that phrase. I was going to ponder the minor mistakes of location listing, like listing a house that is clearly in the TC as being in Eckington. But then I spotted a LeDroit Park house listed for over 4 million dollars. 1-2-3-4 Million! Yes, it
has a huge lot, and 8 bedrooms, but great googgly-mooggly.
The days of houses in the hood selling in a matter of a few days gone. Gone with the $400,000 mortgages, no down payment loans given to unemployed. Gone, hopefully, is the army the get rich quick flippers and hysterical buyers descending on the next new thing.
We were the next new thing. The hot hip neighborhood. We were like the bright newly graduated student, full of potential and promise. In the 7 years I've been here we have come a long way, but there is still a ways to go. Still more untapped potential and promise. But it's not going to be released any time soon with the fury and near mindless abandon we experienced, until we are once again rediscovered.
Until then lets continue to add value, real value, to those who live here now. Let us improve our homes, not for some faceless unknown buyer, but for ourselves. Let us fight for usable parks and recreational facilities. Let us encourage businesses and non-profits we will actually patronize and support with our dollars and our time and our hearts, not just to heighten our property values or to have something to mention on the MLS as an amenity, but to improve our quality of life.
Labels: real estate
NW TC houses 4Sale
Mrs. Gibb's house is no longer popping up on Redfin so that leaves me to gather that it is under contract. I hope that goes well. The house next to hers (yellow house in picture), 1628 3rd Street, is up for sale for the sweetheart price of $284,900, I wonder what's wrong with it? It's advertising itself as a 3 bedroom 1 bath "bayfront Victorian showing age and in need of a redo. Classic floorplan, everything painted, but orig mantels, 2 sets of pocket doors in place."
The two 4th St NW houses that were on the market, then went off the market, are back on. This time it says that the renters were given right of first refusal. Now even though the renters can't and don't want to buy the houses, it's nice (and legally required) to be asked. The prices for the rentals, still high, and I've been told about some 'issues' with one of the houses, that would need to be addressed. Knock the price down by $30- $50K as they will both eventually need work.
There is another house in the hood that I really want sold. Ok, not just sold, fixed up but owner occupied. But what can I do as a 3rd party? I'm seriously thinking of making up fliers to try to get that damned house sold, as it is becoming a nuisance.
Labels: houses, real estate
DC is 1st time homebuyer friendly
Well, not in terms of prices, but programs. So in order to do something useful with my
$50 Manolo housing rant, let me tell you of why I know DC is a great place to be a first time homeowner.
$
5000 Tax Credit (
pdf form)
OK, five grand is just a drop in the bucket, but I found the refund I got back for the two years after I bought my home (I didn't pay enough in taxes to collect it in one lump sum), helpful. Besides every penny counts.
Below Market Rate Loans From The
Housing Finance AgencyI was working with a councillor from the now defunct non-profit who steered me over to the DC Housing Finance office over on Florida Avenue. At the time they were offering 30 year mortgages at a rate so low, it was almost like an interest free loan. They were offering
something lately but the 5.6% rate with 2 points was only good till Dec 15, 2007. The process was not without its headaches. I thought the woman administering my paperwork was slow and a bit mean. But in the end I got the loan, which will be forever called the 1st mortgage that will not be touched.
Tax AbatementMy housing councilor and my Realtor pushed the tax abatement, which in those early years made my house payment affordable. If you're low-moderate income, you'd probably qualify. I was making what I'll call a starter salary in my profession, so I wasn't poor, but I wasn't completely economically stable either, and the year before I made half of squat. So I qualified, with about $10K between me and the cutoff.
The abatement is a five year period of not paying real estate taxes. The money I saved, allowed for an emergency fix-crap fund. It seems that I could have extended the abatement if I hadn't made $400 over the cutoff amount. So in year 6 I got hit with the full assessed amount, which was a lot, as the assessed value was 4x as much as it was when I bought it. I just got my tax bill and I praised G-d. My taxes have readjusted so it reflects what I would have been paying had I not taken the abatement. So I wasn't punished for taking that deal. I can't find an earlier post I made about how the RE tax system rewards long-term homeonwers who stay put AND take the Homestead Exemption. Long and short of it is, people who have owned their homes for a number of years (basically prior to the Real Estate boom) tend to pay less taxes than their neighbors who bought recently IF (big if) they have the Homestead Exemption.
There are other programs for 1st time homebuyer available to DC residents like the HPAP, but I didn't use those, so I cannot testify to their goodness or badness. Also I think there were some real estate transaction costs that were dismissed because of my status, but I'm fuzzy on that. And there is a caveat to the loan (and/or maybe another program), in that if I sold my house within 10 years of purchase I'd have to pay the city back some of the benefits.
DC looked like a better deal when I was first looking because it has various programs like I mentioned above, that I could not find for Maryland or Virginia.
Labels: housing, real estate, taxes
Mrs. Gibbs house up for sale
I blog this with a bit of sadness, because I'm not sure about the details. I met Mrs. Gibbs at the G2 bus stop. She is a small elderly slender woman and last I spoke with her she was caring for her husband in the home they've lived in since the post war period. Their house was filled with a life long and well lived. Logic tells me that time has caught up with them and so the house is up for sale.
1626 3rd St NW is being advertised as an "inherited home priced to sell." I knew the Gibbs had children who lived out in the burbs, and I gather they have no interest in moving back into the city to live in the family home. $350K is an excellent price. If they include "stuff" in the house, that is a steal. The interior is large, it faces the quiet side of the Northwest Co-op, its right on the Georgetown/Howard bus line, and it has a rear yard big enough for a minivan. Please don't let it go to an investor, but rather someone who wants to live here. The interior is well preserved and loved (well from what I could tell sitting in the living room), seriously, if you have an interest in trying to preserve interiors, buy this house, you will not regret it.
Labels: houses, real estate
Info Government May Provide
During one of the usual weekend calls I have with my mother, my mom was complaining once again about her property tax. Without getting too detailed, my parents divorced but Dad's name is still on the land, and thus, Mom says her homestead exemption is not as great as it could be. So the other day I wandered over to her Florida county
tax assessor's website, which is embarrassingly amateur looking, to see exactly how Mom's getting taxed.
I wasn't expecting much, maybe just an assessment pulled out of thin air. What I got blew me away. I got the usual, the assessor's idea of property worth, the homestead exemption, the tax, and a general description of the property. In addition, there were links to vital records like my parent's divorce judgement. Clicking around, for other properties, there were links to PDF copies of
death certificates (with SS#s blacked out),
quit claims, certified titles, maps, tax deeds, and building permits issued if the documents were produced in the last 10 or so years. The public information about things relating to property was linked right on the assessor's page.
This made me wonder, could larger cities have the same sort of traditionally public information (deaths, divorces,
permits, quit claims) available on line? Links to permits would be exceedingly useful. Not even the copy of a building permit, but just even the building permit number, date issued, would be very helpful. Right now I can only find permits issued in the last few months.
But I realize this is only a dream because it would mean different agencies actually working together to serve the citizenry.
___
Additional: I just dug deeper with the example permit, it shows the
inspection. I would kill for this depth of detail with permits issued in the city. No more trying to read tiny writing on a stair of a rickty house.
Labels: city services, government, real estate
1st & Q.
55 Q Street NW is up for sale but I was not entirely sure this was the same house. Why? Because the photo being shown on ZipRealty is a crappy magneta colored ugly thing from 2003. I'm encountering a lot of bad re-used photos on Ziprealty. Redfin is better. Anyway this house on the corner is going for 1/2 a milllllion dallahs, $500K.
It is a two unit building, a trend I noticed with some of the turn of the century homes that were built as investment properties. The rental units are bringing in $1340 & $1215 a month, $2555 in total. You'd need a big down payment to get the rentals to cover the price of the mortgage. People you wonder why renters get kicked out? Because their rent don't cover the mortgage and taxes.
Sorta on the other side of the street is
1537 1st St NW at the much cheaper price of $299K. And, it has parking.
Labels: houses, real estate
34 Q St NW 4Sale
I'm not sure which house is 34 Q. Actually, I've been flipping through my flickr collection and trying to match up houses for sale, and I really need to take more pictures.... and do a better job of taking the addresses.
From the description, I am guessing it is a short sale as the bank has to approve the price. But what you get for your $305,000 is a 10 bedroom 3 bath, 3500 sq ft vacant building with taxes high enough to make you cry if you keep it vacant. The price is a significant reduction from the $550K it started off as back in July of 2007. And the seller is taking a big hit as it was purchased in 2006 for $685K. *wince*
Labels: houses, real estate
1225 1st St NW for sale
Okay last house for sale of the day. I will post no more till, maybe Friday or next week. Red house is for sale. Red, not vacant house, is on the market for $599,900. It is a two unit building with a paying tenant in one unit. The other unit I guess could go to the new owner or be rented out as well. But honestly, I rather have owner occupiers. Not that there is anything wrong with renters. Sometimes renters become owners.
Labels: houses, real estate
Nother 4th St house for sale
I need to find another street to hawk.
Anyway, vacant house 1721 4th St NW (the blue-gray one) is up for sale for the lovely price of $368,000. Apparently it is all historic being a two unit investment rental building, the way the developer intended it to be back in nineteen oh something. It's also an historic mess needing some structural work done on it. Other houses on the block are assessed in the $400-500K range so you can be somewhat justified in the $100-$200K you're going to have to sink into this thing to get it suitable for human habitation. Thankfully, this is not an HD so your rehab won't be too costly or lengthy. Sadly, the backyard is just big enough for a lawn chair and a tiny toy-sized dog.
Labels: houses, real estate
More houses on sale
1620 (the tan house on the far left) and 1624 (the red painted with white trim) 4th St NW are up for sale.
1620 is a foreclosure and is the cheapest at $275,000. Now you might be thinking "Wow, $275,000 what an affordable bargain." Well I've been inside. Add $60-100K in repairs because that's what you'll need to make it decent. If you click on the full sized picture you might be able to see on the top right window, the bricks are doing something and look like they are about to pop out. Let's say there are issues the house has that aren't cosmetic. But neither are those things something that need to be addressed right now, but they need to be addressed in the next few years.
I've been inside 1624 too and I could have sworn it had AC, so I don't know why there is a window unit in the top window. It is going for $390K. It's not fancy. It's got renters in it, so it is in a livable condition, unlike 1620. It's okay looking and I'm not really sure what justifies that price. Of course it has only been on the market for 2 weeks.
Both 1620 and 1624 4th St have backyards big enough to fit a compact car in, and nothing else. Well maybe a Mini Cooper and a deck chair. Or enough of a rear yard to send the dog out back to do the doo when you're too cold or too busy to take him out.
Both also have a one story kitchen attached to the main part of the house. Three houses further down the block have expanded, replacing the one story part to a two story, adding more square footage and look quite nice from the alley. So that is a possibility, more so with 1620 because of its price and its need for repair.
Labels: houses, real estate
1631 4th ST NW for sale
I had a longer post on this but accidentally closed the window and lost it all. So a summary from what I remember: Not a foreclosure but a bank short sale. House is $415K, a down payment of 20% or 83K, would possibly make it $1,990 a month. Monthly RE taxes would be $315.00. There are renters in the house now and I have no idea of what a 3 bedroom 2 bath house rents for around these here parts to know if the house is actually a decent investment.
Labels: houses, real estate
Landlord calls it quits?
A landlord who owns two houses on my street has recently put his houses up for sale. He originally bought the houses for $80K and $139K and is now listing them for $390K and $450K. I think that is a tad too much. Not only because it'll make my assessment go up, but if anyone hasn't heard there is a slow down in the RE market. Knock off about $50K from both of them to be somewhat ok.
Both places still have renters in them. There has been some gossip/rumor on the street that these are Section 8 houses. One house's residents are pretty good, don't make a lot of noise, not a lot of traffic going in or out, no people hanging in front, in essence they fit in. The other house, well they are much, much better now as opposed to when the residents first arrived.
So the $840,000 question is if the houses sell, will they remain rentals?
Let me throw in a pitch to encourage you to buy one of these houses (when the price gets lowered to something reasonable) so you can live on my block. One, we have a wonderful little block, where if you do stuff in your yard, you will totally make friends with your neighbors. If your interests include cycling, motorcycles, gardening, construction, or your toddler/baby, you will find friends. It's not too hard to find a parking spot (but not super easy either). The lower priced house has some decent yard space, and a rear yard that, if you have no plans to grow anything back there, you could turn into a parking spot for a compact car.
Labels: houses, real estate
Death & Taxes
Everyso often, but not that often, someone mentions how property taxes are moving long term families out of gentrified areas. And then I counter with the fact there are oldtimers who aren't paying that much in property tax, so that can't be the reason. And to prove it I have about 5 or so properties I know of where the longterm owners pay a very small amount (between $180-$400 a year) in property taxes for houses assessed at over $300K.
I was looking at the Dc.gov site at the property of one such house (to prove the above point) and noticed (or more like remembered) something. The owner of the house, paying at a reduced rate, was sorta dead. This person kinda died a few years ago, but even in death, the owner gets the Real Estate taxes paid. In this case the dead pay less than $300 pa, a fair price for someone who can no longer make a living.
I checked to make sure the deceased was actually dead, and not just a figment of my sketchy memory, piled together by fragments of idle small talk. So I took the name listed as the owner, wandered over to the
Social Security Death Master Index (a very useful genealogical resource) and plugged in the name, and came up with one DC deceased match. Also checked the Washington Post obit archives to confirm the date, they want $2.50 or something like that for the whole obit, so I passed.
Now you might be wondering if I might be passing this on to the DC tax office, and the answer is no, not right now. Let me explain why. I have a strong feeling that the deceased failed to leave a will, and there more than likely is no obvious single heir to the estate (no surviving spouse, but several children & siblings). Which then probably means the family might be fighting amongst themselves about who gets what, and if the house is paid for with no mortgage, this fight can drag out for years.
As a homeowner, I do have a will, and in the event I should die before I get around to changing it, the house goes to a dear friend of mine..... I need to change my will, anyone care to recommend a good lawyer?
Labels: real estate, taxes
Vacant house
Well, because all the other cool blogs are doing it, I present to you a vacant house. It is 219 P St NW, built in 1906, currently owned by a Mr. Crespo of Dunn Loring, VA, who bought the place February 2007 for $265K. All this is on the DC.Gov website, and since the current owner has had it for less than a year, I'm going to go easy and not post the other public information.
I debated about blogging about specific vacant houses in the TC. There are a number of vacant houses in the TC, like the rest of Shaw, but not all of them are obviously vacant, and I didn't want to attract any great amount of attention to those. So I'm going with the obviously vacant, and 219 P is with it's busted windows and ratty looking yard.
As far as taxes go, it's had its woes. Currently it is assessed at $270,600, but will jump to $354,020 in 2008. looking at it's past tax bills and payments, whoever owned it previously let the tax bill get up to $8K in 2005 and 2006. There is a Clean City bill for $70.00 and a 1998 trash bill of $613.87. Hopefully the old obligations were cleared up when the property changed hands.
Labels: houses, real estate, taxes
Musing thought: DC Should stay out of Real Estate
Not even going to touch the
corruption in the Tax Office, but I wonder if a public tarring and feathering, or stocks with rotten tomatoes provided to DC citizens for throwing would be too good....
Anyway, one of the other things brought up in the BACA meeting on Monday was government seizure of property (houses) that were unabated nuisances. Someone pointed out that when the DC government then takes ownership of a property that doesn't improve matters. The theory is that the city takes over the property and some competent 3rd party, usually a socially acceptable non-profit, will take over and fix up the property (because they usually need work), sell it or grant it to some deserving family, the end.
But the theory doesn't always work. Sometimes the city just holds on to the property for-like-ever letting it rot from the inside out as vagrants or stray cats use it, occasionally coming by to mow the lawns. Or it does get into a partnership with a nonprofit, and some of them actually get to work and fix up the properties so they are fit for human habitation. And then there are others who can't get their act together and the house just sits, and rots from the inside out. Or they take their sweet molasses in winter time to fix up the property. Also there is perfectly innocent crap that just happens, like running out of money.
Just selling it off offers no promises either. Buyers could just sit on property like investors have done and continue to do.
So the next time someone comes up with the brilliant idea that the city or government should take ownership of property, know that it sounds great in theory but in years of practice, sucks.
Ye shall know them by their works, or lack thereof.
Labels: government, real estate
Funky peace house for sale
632 Q St. is up on the block for 1/2 a milllllllllon dollas ($500K). Crack. Serious crack the Realtors must be smoking.
Nothing wrong with the peace house. I call it the peace house because of the big honking peace sign that has been hanging on the outside for the past year or two. But really.
I remember thinking, seeing a bike locked to something that they really need to lock both the tires. Well parts began to disappear from the peace house bike, till one day the whole thing went away. But the thing that bugged me, long standing X-mas lights.
So enquiring minds want to know. Will the peacenixs remain in the peace house? Will they remain as renters? Will the lights come down?
Labels: houses, real estate
Realtors on CrackI've been looking at what's for sale in my section of Shaw. And I must say someone has been smoking some serious crack when they thought of the prices for some of the homes.
Let's look shall we.
MLS #:DC4805985 - 611 S St.- I pass it all the time. It is close to the metro, about one block, so yes, that counts for something. But 335K? It's a little wooden detached (it's wood, everything else is brick) with no basement. Nothing special about the house, slightly on the ugly side. I remember when it was around 100K 3 years ago.
MLS #:DC4795165 - 1254 NJ Ave. It's short, it's got a big front, it's $695K. Over half a million dollars and you're still in the hood! On a busy street... over 1/2 a mil, crazy crack.
MLS #:DC4790758 -1718 4th St- On a block I don't even like walking down in the daytime. Nearly 1/2 a mil at $485K. Yes, nice rehab, but for that price?
Serious. Crack.
Labels: houses, real estate
