When we were looking at that last batch of houses, a realtor asked us the standard questions, and I gave him my business card. He wanted to know our range and I said we might go up to a certain amount. He said he would do a search for us (like we can't do that for ourselves.) I didn't think much of it.
On Wednesday he sent me an e-mail with links to two houses, both of them 50K above the amount we said we'd go up to. I wrote him back saying basically that I was discouraged that all he could show us was two houses above our price range and it makes me think maybe we can't buy something after all (OK maybe I was messing with him a little.)
So, he writes back saying basically that it's never been a better time to buy, interest rates are low, and prices might start zooming up again. Gee, haven't heard that one in a while.
Pretty typical interaction with a realtor. What struck me about it this time, is that it reminds me of this blog I've been reading: Umair Haque. Aside from the fact that brooding, irascible economists with foreign names are in right now, his description of various business models reminds me that realtors are a very "1.0" business model. As Haque might say, they are all about extracting value from consumers, not offering value. Their business model is based around the MLS and having exclusive access to it. I really hope that Haque is right, that business models about creating artificial scarcity, extracting value and protecting the interests of gatekeepers are on their way out. Nowhere in my interaction with this realtor does he offer me any value. Not even to simply state, even if it were a lie, that he'd like to help me get the best house for my money. He does something that I can do better myself - an internet search for a house. He tries to bump me up into another price range, then resorts to fear (prices might go up) to motivate me.
In Haque's most recent post he talks about Microsoft/Fox's new business proposition to take content off Google and put it on Bing. It's a great example of the concept. Where in the Microsoft/Fox plan is there anything to do with doing something better or competing based on creating a better product? More telling, like the realtor, it doesn't even occur to them that they should offer this or that anyone would want it.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
It has been a while.
Things have been fairly uninspiring on the housing front, we haven't looked at anything in a while. I've been a little chagrined about the tax credit and tax credit extension that passed. We don't qualify for it under the old or the new criteria, so I feel that we are in a situation where people are being subsidized to bid against us. I'll make an uninspired analogy for anyone who doesn't think that is a big deal. Picture the Cash for Clunkers program, and for whatever reason you didn't qualify. Would you buy a car while people are rushing to the dealer to get their Cash for Clunkers or would you just wait for the program to be over? We'll be seeing some goosed numbers for the next few months due to demand being pulled forward by the credit, then it will sputter out at some point, because only so much demand can be pulled forward. I suppose only then will it be politically safe to pull the program.
Maybe we shouldn't be so pessimistic, because we are starting to see listings that seem somewhat reasonable, it's just that we have to go into the next pricing tier to do that. We aren't crazy about paying 350 to live in an iffy neighborhood, but now we are seeing things in the 500 range in prestigious zip codes. Are they real or just another mirage? We haven't bothered to waste anyone's time on this yet. But we have a little more cash coming in than we thought and we think we might be willing to move into that pricing tier if we truly like what we can get.
At any rate, we've decided we're going to put in our notice to end our lease by the end of this year. This will let us move out by February or else go month to month (for a yucky fee.) At that point we will either be looking for a rental or looking to buy. That much we are committed to.
1713 Mark Lane, Rockville MD 20852
We went to see some more open houses this weekend. In spite of my aforementioned slightly increasing optimism, these choices were quite uninspiring. This house is listed at $545. We live quite near that street, so we are familiar with the neighborhood. In essence, this is the type of house we like, a somewhat roomy brick "midcentry" "rambler" (whatever). The issue here is that this house is unrenovated and features older bathrooms and kitchen. We're pretty flexible with these but we want to feel that the price reflects them. With a formica kitchen counter and older vinyl floor, in addition to ugly bathroom tile (red/pink/black) this is even past the point where we might live with it for a while until we get around to fixing something up. The listing has been on the market for a while and I suspect that the DOM currently listed doesn't reflect the true time it has been on the market, it has probably had a listing expire before. The comments say that they are planning to fix it up and they have reduced the price.
My husband still gets irritated when he sees houses at a high price that he thinks are just plain crappy houses. As I've said before, I've mostly put that aside and I'm no longer feeling offended by listings. I imagine that this owner is probably overleveraged or in some similar bad spot. They just may be making the best of things by trying to list at this high price, and they have a right to try. I'd estimate (I haven't looked at the comps, just guessing) that they could reduce the price by an amount similar to a year's holding cost and move the house very quickly. Maybe that isn't an option for them.
6100 Stonehenge Place, Rockville MD 20852
We passed the sign for this on Montrose Avenue, and decided to stop by. We're not all that interested in a townhouse but I've always wanted to see what these particular townhouses look like inside. It was very elegant. The ceilings are high, the living room is roomy, and then there is a kitchen that opens up to a family area. The house backs to woods (and the new Montrose Parkway) and has pretty picture windows. The upstairs bedrooms are nice and roomy, the laundry is upstairs, and the master bath is lovely. It has a big soaking tub which is situated so that you could soak in there and look out at the woods. There is also a glass-enclosed shower which my husband likes. None of this modern unenclosed shower thingamabob for us. First of all, my husband would manage to wet down the entire bathroom, no, make that the entire second floor, if he didn't have an enclosed shower. Plus, the unenclosed shower thing seems like it would be drafty to me.
Personally I am not a fan of tubs with jets. I picture the jets being too hard to clean and filled with bodily detritus from the previous occupants. I know I'm not the only one weird enough to have these thoughts. I'm sure my husband would dismiss this as neurotic and a jetted tub wouldn't be a dealbreaker for me.
Another detail I noticed was that the upstairs landing was broad and wide, this gives everything a good feel.
There's no way in hell we'd pay anything resembling the list price, 685, for a townhouse. But if for whatever reason you're going to spend a lot of money on a townhouse, I guess this would be a decent one to buy. It is roomy, light filled and elegant, with no notable defects.
10611 Nash Place, Kensington MD 20895
We saw this place as we were driving around looking for another open house that was advertised on Drumm street in Kensington. This house has a very spacious eat-in kitchen (with formica) and a nice front room with fireplace. It is decorated somewhat like one of those "Victorian Teacups and BricaBrac" magazines. The master bedroom for this house is prohibitively tiny. Also the room entranceways and the stairway to the basement are way too low, my husband hit his head. This house is not for tall people. The basement has a walkout family room and a laundry room. The doorway from the laundry room was so narrow that my husband literally could not fit through it. We would have to full-body grease him up with some kind of lubricant to get him to do the laundry.
We never made it to the place on Drumm, just seeing where it was situated (close to crappy Wheaton plaza shopping center) and how narrow the streets are back there made us not want to bother.
We reflected that wide swaths of Montgomery county just aren't that great. A lot of these neighborhoods back here are just plain iffy. Yet a decent house is usually over 400K. Yadda yadda, you've heard it here before.
11720 College View Drive, Silver Spring MD 20902
This house was a perfect example of a listing that looks great in the pictures but not so great in real life. The house is pretty small and feels small. The living room is just miniscule. I didn't get a good look at the bedrooms since some doors were shut and others propped open in order to maintain some kind of complex cat configuration, like, some cats were allowed in some rooms and not others, maybe there were two cats that didn't get along and had to be separated, or something. I didn't look at the basement as it was carpeted and I am pretty allergic to cats, so it wasn't worth the risk.
This was another amateur re-do. I think if one is renovating for resale value, one should consult...someone on what finishings to select. This kitchen had dark-stained cabinets which in my view just looked crappy with the lighter-stained floors. I also didn't like the stone they had picked for the counters. However, my husband thought it was fine, and he would have the final say on the kitchen. My husband also thought the kitchen would be big enough, but I think he was mistaken about that. I don't think all of our stuff would fit into it.
There was some very odd slate stuff in the hallway by the bedrooms with track lighting on the ceiling. I thought it looked ridiculous, but again, my husband kind of liked it. My husband once wanted to buy an area rug which in my opinion, looked like one of Bill Cosby's sweaters circa "The Cosby Show".
We had plenty of time to keep looking, and in fact I had offered to drive to one of our more preferred areas to look around, but my husband didn't want to see any more, and this is after watching HGTV on our new bigass TV all week. He opted to go to Target and to get his car washed. It is that time of year where in certain parts of Rockville, flocks of crows and starlings roost in trees and festoon cars parked below with crap. Maybe it is a good time of year to look for a home, since if you buy in the spring and then find out after Halloween that you live in one of these birdcrap zones, you'd be pretty unhappy.
Maybe we shouldn't be so pessimistic, because we are starting to see listings that seem somewhat reasonable, it's just that we have to go into the next pricing tier to do that. We aren't crazy about paying 350 to live in an iffy neighborhood, but now we are seeing things in the 500 range in prestigious zip codes. Are they real or just another mirage? We haven't bothered to waste anyone's time on this yet. But we have a little more cash coming in than we thought and we think we might be willing to move into that pricing tier if we truly like what we can get.
At any rate, we've decided we're going to put in our notice to end our lease by the end of this year. This will let us move out by February or else go month to month (for a yucky fee.) At that point we will either be looking for a rental or looking to buy. That much we are committed to.
1713 Mark Lane, Rockville MD 20852
We went to see some more open houses this weekend. In spite of my aforementioned slightly increasing optimism, these choices were quite uninspiring. This house is listed at $545. We live quite near that street, so we are familiar with the neighborhood. In essence, this is the type of house we like, a somewhat roomy brick "midcentry" "rambler" (whatever). The issue here is that this house is unrenovated and features older bathrooms and kitchen. We're pretty flexible with these but we want to feel that the price reflects them. With a formica kitchen counter and older vinyl floor, in addition to ugly bathroom tile (red/pink/black) this is even past the point where we might live with it for a while until we get around to fixing something up. The listing has been on the market for a while and I suspect that the DOM currently listed doesn't reflect the true time it has been on the market, it has probably had a listing expire before. The comments say that they are planning to fix it up and they have reduced the price.
My husband still gets irritated when he sees houses at a high price that he thinks are just plain crappy houses. As I've said before, I've mostly put that aside and I'm no longer feeling offended by listings. I imagine that this owner is probably overleveraged or in some similar bad spot. They just may be making the best of things by trying to list at this high price, and they have a right to try. I'd estimate (I haven't looked at the comps, just guessing) that they could reduce the price by an amount similar to a year's holding cost and move the house very quickly. Maybe that isn't an option for them.
6100 Stonehenge Place, Rockville MD 20852
We passed the sign for this on Montrose Avenue, and decided to stop by. We're not all that interested in a townhouse but I've always wanted to see what these particular townhouses look like inside. It was very elegant. The ceilings are high, the living room is roomy, and then there is a kitchen that opens up to a family area. The house backs to woods (and the new Montrose Parkway) and has pretty picture windows. The upstairs bedrooms are nice and roomy, the laundry is upstairs, and the master bath is lovely. It has a big soaking tub which is situated so that you could soak in there and look out at the woods. There is also a glass-enclosed shower which my husband likes. None of this modern unenclosed shower thingamabob for us. First of all, my husband would manage to wet down the entire bathroom, no, make that the entire second floor, if he didn't have an enclosed shower. Plus, the unenclosed shower thing seems like it would be drafty to me.
Personally I am not a fan of tubs with jets. I picture the jets being too hard to clean and filled with bodily detritus from the previous occupants. I know I'm not the only one weird enough to have these thoughts. I'm sure my husband would dismiss this as neurotic and a jetted tub wouldn't be a dealbreaker for me.
Another detail I noticed was that the upstairs landing was broad and wide, this gives everything a good feel.
There's no way in hell we'd pay anything resembling the list price, 685, for a townhouse. But if for whatever reason you're going to spend a lot of money on a townhouse, I guess this would be a decent one to buy. It is roomy, light filled and elegant, with no notable defects.
10611 Nash Place, Kensington MD 20895
We saw this place as we were driving around looking for another open house that was advertised on Drumm street in Kensington. This house has a very spacious eat-in kitchen (with formica) and a nice front room with fireplace. It is decorated somewhat like one of those "Victorian Teacups and BricaBrac" magazines. The master bedroom for this house is prohibitively tiny. Also the room entranceways and the stairway to the basement are way too low, my husband hit his head. This house is not for tall people. The basement has a walkout family room and a laundry room. The doorway from the laundry room was so narrow that my husband literally could not fit through it. We would have to full-body grease him up with some kind of lubricant to get him to do the laundry.
We never made it to the place on Drumm, just seeing where it was situated (close to crappy Wheaton plaza shopping center) and how narrow the streets are back there made us not want to bother.
We reflected that wide swaths of Montgomery county just aren't that great. A lot of these neighborhoods back here are just plain iffy. Yet a decent house is usually over 400K. Yadda yadda, you've heard it here before.
11720 College View Drive, Silver Spring MD 20902
This house was a perfect example of a listing that looks great in the pictures but not so great in real life. The house is pretty small and feels small. The living room is just miniscule. I didn't get a good look at the bedrooms since some doors were shut and others propped open in order to maintain some kind of complex cat configuration, like, some cats were allowed in some rooms and not others, maybe there were two cats that didn't get along and had to be separated, or something. I didn't look at the basement as it was carpeted and I am pretty allergic to cats, so it wasn't worth the risk.
This was another amateur re-do. I think if one is renovating for resale value, one should consult...someone on what finishings to select. This kitchen had dark-stained cabinets which in my view just looked crappy with the lighter-stained floors. I also didn't like the stone they had picked for the counters. However, my husband thought it was fine, and he would have the final say on the kitchen. My husband also thought the kitchen would be big enough, but I think he was mistaken about that. I don't think all of our stuff would fit into it.
There was some very odd slate stuff in the hallway by the bedrooms with track lighting on the ceiling. I thought it looked ridiculous, but again, my husband kind of liked it. My husband once wanted to buy an area rug which in my opinion, looked like one of Bill Cosby's sweaters circa "The Cosby Show".
We had plenty of time to keep looking, and in fact I had offered to drive to one of our more preferred areas to look around, but my husband didn't want to see any more, and this is after watching HGTV on our new bigass TV all week. He opted to go to Target and to get his car washed. It is that time of year where in certain parts of Rockville, flocks of crows and starlings roost in trees and festoon cars parked below with crap. Maybe it is a good time of year to look for a home, since if you buy in the spring and then find out after Halloween that you live in one of these birdcrap zones, you'd be pretty unhappy.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Real Estate Intervention!
I have realized that you can't have a Maryland real estate blog without talking about this show. I had weaned myself from HGTV addiction so I was not aware of this new offering right away. The first time I saw it, they were dealing with a house in A*****n, so I was very reluctant to blog about it, and subconsciously I think that prevented me from watching it again even though I loved the idea. There is a definite theme here as the homeowner in A**ing**on was insisting that his house should be worth more because it DIDN'T have a finished basement. You watch the seller rationalize wanting tens of thousands more for their home than other homes that are in the same area which are bigger with more features. You want to just smack the person, because they are actually saying that they should be donated a bunch of money for no reason whatsoever. However the sellers do not admit this because there is elaborate rationalization going on. They start telling themeslves things like, since some people don't want a (basement, fireplace, etc,) they should be offered more money for having a house that is absent this feature. Kind of like when you are shopping in the supermarket and you realize that carbs are bad for you so you're willing to pay ten bucks for a box of cereal with nothing in it. I do that all the time.
On Sunday evening, Mike Aubrey was featured in Nottingham, MD, which is near the White Marsh mall north of Baltimore. This is an area that was heavily built up just in the past ten years. It seems to be a reasonably priced suburb with lots of new townhouses. I think the traffic going into Baltimore from there is bad since there is a lot of construction going on I-95 in that area and the population has exploded.
This family had bought the house for 128K around 10 years ago and now owed over 200K. They wanted nearly 250K for their house, although the highest recent comp was a house with the same floor plan, better carpets and flooring, a walk-out basement and a fireplace for 209. Rationalizations ensued and eventually the homeowner was reduced to saying in a thick Baltimore accent that "I can't leave money on the table, it's not in my nature." I think what he meant was that he can't leave imaginary, fantasy money on the table, but same difference. What happened in the end was that they were not able to sell and their contingent contract on another house fell through.
My only observation is that Mike could ask the homeowners how they intend to provide their buyer with financing since a bank won't do it. But that might be a little harsh for these sellers who are only very gradually coming to terms with their self-entitled delusions.
My hope is that this show will bring the idea of the deluded seller into popular consciousness so that when people see that they are expecting a higher price for something to magically happen simply because they own it they might start to think "uh oh maybe I am being like one of those chuckleheads on Real Estate Intervention!"
On Sunday evening, Mike Aubrey was featured in Nottingham, MD, which is near the White Marsh mall north of Baltimore. This is an area that was heavily built up just in the past ten years. It seems to be a reasonably priced suburb with lots of new townhouses. I think the traffic going into Baltimore from there is bad since there is a lot of construction going on I-95 in that area and the population has exploded.
This family had bought the house for 128K around 10 years ago and now owed over 200K. They wanted nearly 250K for their house, although the highest recent comp was a house with the same floor plan, better carpets and flooring, a walk-out basement and a fireplace for 209. Rationalizations ensued and eventually the homeowner was reduced to saying in a thick Baltimore accent that "I can't leave money on the table, it's not in my nature." I think what he meant was that he can't leave imaginary, fantasy money on the table, but same difference. What happened in the end was that they were not able to sell and their contingent contract on another house fell through.
My only observation is that Mike could ask the homeowners how they intend to provide their buyer with financing since a bank won't do it. But that might be a little harsh for these sellers who are only very gradually coming to terms with their self-entitled delusions.
My hope is that this show will bring the idea of the deluded seller into popular consciousness so that when people see that they are expecting a higher price for something to magically happen simply because they own it they might start to think "uh oh maybe I am being like one of those chuckleheads on Real Estate Intervention!"
Sunday, August 23, 2009
1914 Ventura Ave, 20902
11603 Gilsan Street, 20902
612 Kenbrook Street, 20902
512 Dennis Ave, 20901
508 Dennis Ave, 20901
The first open house we went to, Ventura Ave, we stumbled on after failing to find the open houses listed for 12100 Berry Street and 11508 Alma Street. I don’t know if Trulia had it wrong or what, but these houses didn’t have a sign indicating an open house and there didn’t seem to be any activity at the house when we went by. I went back and checked whether these listings were one of the oxymoronic “open” “by appointment” variety, but they weren’t. As we were driving around looking for Berry Street, we observed that the neighborhood was really crappy. The asking price for Berry Street is 330, which seems too high. We remarked that pricing is still way off if you figure prices that the person with the income to buy that house in a conservative financing environment would be educated with a higher income, yet that person is expected to buy a house in a neighborhood that is obviously a very run-down blue collar area. Do we really expect that every single neighborhood in Montgomery County is going to experience a major demographic shift? I doubt it. However at this point in time 330 appears to be almost rock bottom so people will still make out like bandits if they can sell one of these for that price. The price point at least gets some people looking at the house if not making offers. Who knows, I don’t check out the comps on these houses so I don’t know how realistic they are.
We saw signs for 1914 Ventura so we stopped by. This area seems nicer than the area that Berry Street is in, though I didn’t get the feeling its respectability was rock-solid. The asking price for the Ventura house is 440. Maybe it was our imagination but husband and I felt as though the realtor seemed abashed at this. Indeed, it probably was our imagination. This house has an addition on the back which is over a 2 car garage. The yard is huge and sunny. The addition really makes the house and you can see that in the listing photos. The basement has a lot of space, it smelled slightly musty, but not pathologically so. You could get a lot of use out of it as is, depending on how you feel about basements. My husband likes them. The kitchen was old and needed to be remodeled, but did have the separation thing that my husband likes (non-open layout preventing the entire house from smelling like blackened salmon and Brussels sprouts.) I felt that I would want to remodel such a kitchen right away but my husband felt he could live with it.
We drove on and passed the Alma street house, but did not stop for aforementioned reasons.
We then started heading south on Arcola avenue towards the house on Kenbrook drive. Along the way we noticed signs leading to the house on Gilsan street, so we followed them to see if there were anything interesting. Gilsan street is a FSBO and the couple who owned it were at home to show us the house, which was pretty remarkable. The first thing we looked at was the yard, since one of the owners (I’ll call him Mr. Gilsan) was eager to show it to us. Mr. Gilsan has fig trees and a herb garden, and according to my husband he seems to know what he’s doing. The yard is landscaped to not have grass, which is just A-OK with my husband.
The interior is mostly renovated and it’s a great example of these mid-century houses common to this area. The living room is elevated with skylights and a fireplace. It has a perfect mid-century chic vibe to it. The kitchen was totally redone by Mr. Gilsan and is a fully-func tional kosher kitchen, with two dishwashers and other extra appliances. The cabinets were tall and went to the ceiling. There were huge slide-out pantry drawers, basically an incredible amount of storage. I’m not one to go nuts over granite countertops but these were a particularly attractive stone. This was by far the best kitchen we’ve seen or will expect to see. Like the other rooms on the main floor, it had high ceilings and skylights.
The house had three bedrooms and 2 bathrooms upstairs. Like a lot of do-it-yourself renovations, it has some oddities that you probably wouldn’t see in a professional renovation. One thing I noticed was that the wood floors were mismatched through the house. That might not bother some people.
There is a fully functional downstairs apartment. We’d use such a thing for extra storage, maybe for a freezer chest or extra pantry space, not that you’d need it. It had a large main room and an attractive room that could have been used as a bedroom, with another fireplace. Mr. and Mrs. Gilsan showed us the house very eagerly. Some people probably wouldn’t want to interact with an owner during a sale, but is that necessarily a good thing? I doubt that Mr. and Mrs. Gilsan would be getting any negative feedback on their house because they are, well, just adorable. No way would I ever have the heart to tell them that 595 is way beyond what we’d want to pay for that house. So there may be a lesson in that, if you are doing a FSBO, get help with the pricing because you won’t know if you make a mistake, at least if you are a nice, eager older couple that nobody would ever want to offend. Of course maybe they are willing to hold out for their price and don’t care how long it takes. Their business entirely, I suppose. If the house had been priced attractively we probably would have bought the darn thing then and there. Such were the charms of the Gilsans and their house.
We then went to 612 Kenbrook, which is in the same general neighborhood as the Gilsans, offers a similar square footage and is priced at 349,956. Once again a mid-century split-level. This house has a lovely sunroom. It isn’t as updated as the previous house but it is still move-in condtion. This house seemed to have a good vibe. The agent was very enthusiastic, saying, “You like this house, you buy it. This is the price, we can negotiate” almost as though she thought I had 350,000 dollars in my purse right at that moment. I thought it was cute but this kind of thing mightily irritates my husband. I’ve watched some overly enthusiastic salespeople lose out on moving 500 dollars worth of le Creuset or the like just by annoying the crap out of this guy. It always amazes me that they can’t seem to read a customer to see that they are obviously getting irritated at the pestering. It seems to be a newer phenomenon. Maybe I used to look less prosperous or something, but I remember the days you could go to the mall without having salespeople practically grabbing your ankle and crying as you walk down the store aisles.
We then headed south towards 512 Dennis in 20901. Viewed from the street it almost looks like a double-wide, but when you step in you see that there’s much more to it. I actually kind of like that. I shouldn’t compare it to a trailer because it is mostly brick. Just the dimensions of the part you see from the street are similar. This is another mid-century house featuring skylights and that mid-century chic feel. Yes, even I am calling it “mid-century” now instead of “the ‘50s and ‘60s.” I resisted but at some point gave in. This house has laminate flooring and a totally open kitchen on the first floor. The kitchen is actually kind of dated with formica counters and older appliances, but you might not even notice with the overall vibe of the house. For me it would be too open and too close to the living room, the whole deal is even smaller than what we have in our apartment. Still, the white-painted exposed brick with the cathedral ceilings looks great. The first floor has three carpeted bedrooms that are well-situated to get lots of light. 1 and ½ baths. A narrow spiral staircase leads to the lower level, which has a bedroom and a spa bath (albeit with dated tile.) There is a very light room with a stone floor which leads to…the pool! I don’t know if this was intentional, but I reflected that it’s smart to be marketing this property in August. I wanted to jump in the pool right then and there. Even though it probably needed a coat of paint. My husband said this house will probably sell very quickly.
We then mosied over to 508 Dennis, but didn’t hang around because it SMELLED OMG FUNKY. My husband thought it was just a paint smell, but I think it smelled much worse than paint. I wanted to leave immediately. Can’t say much else about this house as it’s all a blur.
Footnote: looked up the Gilsan house, it was assessed for 443 in 2009, highest comp in the area is 450. Poor Mr. and Mrs. Gilsan! I hope they didn't leverage themselves up during the boom. Even if I wanted to pay their price, it would not be possible to get financing.
11603 Gilsan Street, 20902
612 Kenbrook Street, 20902
512 Dennis Ave, 20901
508 Dennis Ave, 20901
The first open house we went to, Ventura Ave, we stumbled on after failing to find the open houses listed for 12100 Berry Street and 11508 Alma Street. I don’t know if Trulia had it wrong or what, but these houses didn’t have a sign indicating an open house and there didn’t seem to be any activity at the house when we went by. I went back and checked whether these listings were one of the oxymoronic “open” “by appointment” variety, but they weren’t. As we were driving around looking for Berry Street, we observed that the neighborhood was really crappy. The asking price for Berry Street is 330, which seems too high. We remarked that pricing is still way off if you figure prices that the person with the income to buy that house in a conservative financing environment would be educated with a higher income, yet that person is expected to buy a house in a neighborhood that is obviously a very run-down blue collar area. Do we really expect that every single neighborhood in Montgomery County is going to experience a major demographic shift? I doubt it. However at this point in time 330 appears to be almost rock bottom so people will still make out like bandits if they can sell one of these for that price. The price point at least gets some people looking at the house if not making offers. Who knows, I don’t check out the comps on these houses so I don’t know how realistic they are.
We saw signs for 1914 Ventura so we stopped by. This area seems nicer than the area that Berry Street is in, though I didn’t get the feeling its respectability was rock-solid. The asking price for the Ventura house is 440. Maybe it was our imagination but husband and I felt as though the realtor seemed abashed at this. Indeed, it probably was our imagination. This house has an addition on the back which is over a 2 car garage. The yard is huge and sunny. The addition really makes the house and you can see that in the listing photos. The basement has a lot of space, it smelled slightly musty, but not pathologically so. You could get a lot of use out of it as is, depending on how you feel about basements. My husband likes them. The kitchen was old and needed to be remodeled, but did have the separation thing that my husband likes (non-open layout preventing the entire house from smelling like blackened salmon and Brussels sprouts.) I felt that I would want to remodel such a kitchen right away but my husband felt he could live with it.
We drove on and passed the Alma street house, but did not stop for aforementioned reasons.
We then started heading south on Arcola avenue towards the house on Kenbrook drive. Along the way we noticed signs leading to the house on Gilsan street, so we followed them to see if there were anything interesting. Gilsan street is a FSBO and the couple who owned it were at home to show us the house, which was pretty remarkable. The first thing we looked at was the yard, since one of the owners (I’ll call him Mr. Gilsan) was eager to show it to us. Mr. Gilsan has fig trees and a herb garden, and according to my husband he seems to know what he’s doing. The yard is landscaped to not have grass, which is just A-OK with my husband.
The interior is mostly renovated and it’s a great example of these mid-century houses common to this area. The living room is elevated with skylights and a fireplace. It has a perfect mid-century chic vibe to it. The kitchen was totally redone by Mr. Gilsan and is a fully-func tional kosher kitchen, with two dishwashers and other extra appliances. The cabinets were tall and went to the ceiling. There were huge slide-out pantry drawers, basically an incredible amount of storage. I’m not one to go nuts over granite countertops but these were a particularly attractive stone. This was by far the best kitchen we’ve seen or will expect to see. Like the other rooms on the main floor, it had high ceilings and skylights.
The house had three bedrooms and 2 bathrooms upstairs. Like a lot of do-it-yourself renovations, it has some oddities that you probably wouldn’t see in a professional renovation. One thing I noticed was that the wood floors were mismatched through the house. That might not bother some people.
There is a fully functional downstairs apartment. We’d use such a thing for extra storage, maybe for a freezer chest or extra pantry space, not that you’d need it. It had a large main room and an attractive room that could have been used as a bedroom, with another fireplace. Mr. and Mrs. Gilsan showed us the house very eagerly. Some people probably wouldn’t want to interact with an owner during a sale, but is that necessarily a good thing? I doubt that Mr. and Mrs. Gilsan would be getting any negative feedback on their house because they are, well, just adorable. No way would I ever have the heart to tell them that 595 is way beyond what we’d want to pay for that house. So there may be a lesson in that, if you are doing a FSBO, get help with the pricing because you won’t know if you make a mistake, at least if you are a nice, eager older couple that nobody would ever want to offend. Of course maybe they are willing to hold out for their price and don’t care how long it takes. Their business entirely, I suppose. If the house had been priced attractively we probably would have bought the darn thing then and there. Such were the charms of the Gilsans and their house.
We then went to 612 Kenbrook, which is in the same general neighborhood as the Gilsans, offers a similar square footage and is priced at 349,956. Once again a mid-century split-level. This house has a lovely sunroom. It isn’t as updated as the previous house but it is still move-in condtion. This house seemed to have a good vibe. The agent was very enthusiastic, saying, “You like this house, you buy it. This is the price, we can negotiate” almost as though she thought I had 350,000 dollars in my purse right at that moment. I thought it was cute but this kind of thing mightily irritates my husband. I’ve watched some overly enthusiastic salespeople lose out on moving 500 dollars worth of le Creuset or the like just by annoying the crap out of this guy. It always amazes me that they can’t seem to read a customer to see that they are obviously getting irritated at the pestering. It seems to be a newer phenomenon. Maybe I used to look less prosperous or something, but I remember the days you could go to the mall without having salespeople practically grabbing your ankle and crying as you walk down the store aisles.
We then headed south towards 512 Dennis in 20901. Viewed from the street it almost looks like a double-wide, but when you step in you see that there’s much more to it. I actually kind of like that. I shouldn’t compare it to a trailer because it is mostly brick. Just the dimensions of the part you see from the street are similar. This is another mid-century house featuring skylights and that mid-century chic feel. Yes, even I am calling it “mid-century” now instead of “the ‘50s and ‘60s.” I resisted but at some point gave in. This house has laminate flooring and a totally open kitchen on the first floor. The kitchen is actually kind of dated with formica counters and older appliances, but you might not even notice with the overall vibe of the house. For me it would be too open and too close to the living room, the whole deal is even smaller than what we have in our apartment. Still, the white-painted exposed brick with the cathedral ceilings looks great. The first floor has three carpeted bedrooms that are well-situated to get lots of light. 1 and ½ baths. A narrow spiral staircase leads to the lower level, which has a bedroom and a spa bath (albeit with dated tile.) There is a very light room with a stone floor which leads to…the pool! I don’t know if this was intentional, but I reflected that it’s smart to be marketing this property in August. I wanted to jump in the pool right then and there. Even though it probably needed a coat of paint. My husband said this house will probably sell very quickly.
We then mosied over to 508 Dennis, but didn’t hang around because it SMELLED OMG FUNKY. My husband thought it was just a paint smell, but I think it smelled much worse than paint. I wanted to leave immediately. Can’t say much else about this house as it’s all a blur.
Footnote: looked up the Gilsan house, it was assessed for 443 in 2009, highest comp in the area is 450. Poor Mr. and Mrs. Gilsan! I hope they didn't leverage themselves up during the boom. Even if I wanted to pay their price, it would not be possible to get financing.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Sunday July 26th
414 Eisner, 20901
9604 Avenel, 20903
9517 Woodstock, 20910
5000 Druid Drive, 20895
The first open house we saw today was 414 Eisner Street, 20901. This was a split level with three bedrooms and two baths. The neighborhood seemed a lot nicer than I thought it would be just from looking on the map.
This house has a terraced, multi-level deck in the back. There is also a grassy area where kids or dogs could play. The kitchen was pretty decent, with Silestone counters, though my husband thought it was too small and noted the lack of a hood over the range. I’m a huge fan of Silestone.
The bedrooms seemed a bit small, in fact the third bedroom seems to be more of a nursery or an office size. Overall this house gives a very nice impression. We liked it, but thought the 399 pricetag was too steep for us. It’s more than I would be willing to invest in that area. When I complain about prices, there are two levels of complaint. One is that overall prices are too high. The other level is when I feel a house is mispriced for today’s market. Some of the houses I saw today had prices that I would not be willing to pay, but I recognize that someone will probably pay that price and the house will sell. In the case of this house I feel that 399 is not only too high compared to historical values, but also that they will not be getting the 399 in today’s market. I suppose a pithy way to say it would be: there are prices that I will not pay and then there are prices that I suspect nobody will pay.
The second house we saw was 9604 Avenel Road, 20903. I keep seeing listings in that immediate area that look nice in the pictures, so I wanted to check out the area. My husband thought that there was no way it could be a decent area, but I think you really have to see for yourself, it seems like things can change from block to block. This house is right off of 650 immediately south of the beltway. For some reason I thought I could continue south on 193 and hit 650, but when we got down to Piney Branch, I realized that it would take me out of the way of the house I wanted to see. My husband pointed out that if we lived here, we could get a tattoo any time we felt like it. Ho ho ho.
The neighborhood of 9604 Avenel was not awful. Many houses are well-kept but the neighborhood is barely hanging on to respectability. The house directly across from 9604 Avenel had an extra car bumper laying in the driveway and another car parked directly on the front lawn. There’s an issue with parking in the neighborhood, most houses don’t have a driveway and people park on both sides of the street.
This house was nicely renovated. Well, I would say that in the sense that overall it had a good effect though my husband pointed out some crappy spots in the flooring and baseboards, it obviously was not a professional job. I really liked the kitchen, in fact I would hold it up as almost my ideal kitchen. It was newly renovated, had a huge refrigerator, and could be closed off to the rest of the house. This “open kitchen” stuff is not for us. My husband says that no “real cook” wants an open kitchen. Who knows, maybe there are some real cooks that enjoy having their whole house smell like blackened salmon, or sautéed onions. But for the way we live there is absolutely no point to an open kitchen. Actually, "real cooks" aside, I think the open kitchen thing is for people with small kids that they want to keep an eye on, or for people who do a lot of informal entertaining. The kitchen was not huge but it was big enough for anything my husband would want to do in there. This is a typical size for the ranch houses we've been looking at lately and was similar to the kitchen I liked last week. I do the cleaning so I don’t need my husband messing up some huge “country kitchen” type of thing.
The upstairs part of the house had everything you’d need, three bedrooms with decent closets, a small room off the kitchen that could be used as a dining room/pantry type of thing, a coat closet and a fireplace. There was oddness about the enclosed porch in the front, which seemed like it would make a better storage area than porch. My husband loved the downstairs. There is a big family room area, tons of storage, a nice bathroom, and three separate rooms that could be used as storage, or a study, or whatever.
The owner is an agent, he bought the house as a foreclosure and fixed it up. We wished him the best of luck. I think that what this guy is doing is adding value and helping clear the market. It’s also helping the neighborhood. The asking price is 319 which probably reflects a reasonable profit from the foreclosure price and renovation costs but nothing too spectacular. I think this house will move fast and someone will really enjoy it.
As we made our way out of the immediate neighborhood, a street was blocked by someone sitting in a car having a conversation with a woman standing in the street. I felt like I was in Philly again.
So, we headed back towards our rented corner of Montgomery County on the beltway, and got off at 97 just to drive around our favorite neighborhood of Forest Glen. We talked about how much we liked that particular area and we think it might be worth it to hold out for that rather than some of these edge-ish neighborhoods. While driving around we went through the EYA renovation of the Forest Glen preserve and saw an open house sign. We stopped in at 9517 Woodstock Court, 20910 and beheld our dream house. This house was moved from, I don’t know, somewhere, and renovated. The original wood moldings and trim is just amazing and the renovation is fantastic. The way the house is situated seems ideal. The style is called "four square" or so I read on the handout. It seems to be an Arts & Crafts style and the details such as light fixtures, reflects that. My husband noted that the quality of the wood in the trim and moldings was such that you probably wouldn't be able to buy it today, you'd have to reclaim it from somewhere. The lower level is all new, with a family room, wine fridge (and kegerator). I particularly loved the way the bathrooms had been done with tile reminiscent of old black and white bathroom tile. That stuff lasts forever. I asked the realtor if this was affiliated with EYA somehow and he said it was not.
As we pulled up, I immediately said “this house must be a million dollars.” My husband guessed 750, I said, seriously at least 850, and my husband then noted that it was an open house and therefore had a good chance of being mispriced, so 750 was likely too low. I should have stuck to my original estimate because this house is listed at over 1 million. As we were driving away my husband started to feel cranky about high real estate prices. I was however not in the mood to be cranky about high prices on this particular day so I didn’t join in although I share his opinion about the outrageousness.
My one criticism is that for a million bucks, I want a shorter street number than 9517. A friend of mine pointed out to me once that shorter street numbers have some ineffably more desirable quality to them. I agree. 9517 is not a great street number.
I think that house will fetch something resembling its asking price and someone will love living there. I don’t think there is room for any kind of appreciation at that price, but hey, not my problem. I reminded my husband that we could have that nice of a house if we wanted to move somewhere other than the DC region. I also said that I’d like to think that one day we could actually buy that house. By the time we buy that house it will likely cost less in real dollars, or we will be getting an even nicer house for our money. We are both hard workers and have no kids, why not?
We went down 547 and saw another sign in the neighborhood that is called “Garrett Park Estates” on the real estate listings. This is in 20895 but it feels like it should be Rockville. The open house was at 5000 Druid drive and the realtor was not particularly interested in engaging with us, which was weird but not unwelcome. This house is listed at 519. Highlight below to read the incredibly rude comment my husband made about this: ”Does it come with a sloppy blowjob?” I said, I think someone should get a blowjob just for viewing that listing, much less buying the house. This is a nicely situated rancher which is rather small. Kitchen is renovated, the rooms are small, and there is only one bathroom upstairs. The lower level is a nicely renovated family room, lots of storage and a full bath. Yawn.
The upshot of today for both of us was that the ice seems to be breaking up a little, but we’re glad we’re not really shopping right now. We are hopeful that things will be better in the spring, but not overly optimistic about that.
9604 Avenel, 20903
9517 Woodstock, 20910
5000 Druid Drive, 20895
The first open house we saw today was 414 Eisner Street, 20901. This was a split level with three bedrooms and two baths. The neighborhood seemed a lot nicer than I thought it would be just from looking on the map.
This house has a terraced, multi-level deck in the back. There is also a grassy area where kids or dogs could play. The kitchen was pretty decent, with Silestone counters, though my husband thought it was too small and noted the lack of a hood over the range. I’m a huge fan of Silestone.
The bedrooms seemed a bit small, in fact the third bedroom seems to be more of a nursery or an office size. Overall this house gives a very nice impression. We liked it, but thought the 399 pricetag was too steep for us. It’s more than I would be willing to invest in that area. When I complain about prices, there are two levels of complaint. One is that overall prices are too high. The other level is when I feel a house is mispriced for today’s market. Some of the houses I saw today had prices that I would not be willing to pay, but I recognize that someone will probably pay that price and the house will sell. In the case of this house I feel that 399 is not only too high compared to historical values, but also that they will not be getting the 399 in today’s market. I suppose a pithy way to say it would be: there are prices that I will not pay and then there are prices that I suspect nobody will pay.
The second house we saw was 9604 Avenel Road, 20903. I keep seeing listings in that immediate area that look nice in the pictures, so I wanted to check out the area. My husband thought that there was no way it could be a decent area, but I think you really have to see for yourself, it seems like things can change from block to block. This house is right off of 650 immediately south of the beltway. For some reason I thought I could continue south on 193 and hit 650, but when we got down to Piney Branch, I realized that it would take me out of the way of the house I wanted to see. My husband pointed out that if we lived here, we could get a tattoo any time we felt like it. Ho ho ho.
The neighborhood of 9604 Avenel was not awful. Many houses are well-kept but the neighborhood is barely hanging on to respectability. The house directly across from 9604 Avenel had an extra car bumper laying in the driveway and another car parked directly on the front lawn. There’s an issue with parking in the neighborhood, most houses don’t have a driveway and people park on both sides of the street.
This house was nicely renovated. Well, I would say that in the sense that overall it had a good effect though my husband pointed out some crappy spots in the flooring and baseboards, it obviously was not a professional job. I really liked the kitchen, in fact I would hold it up as almost my ideal kitchen. It was newly renovated, had a huge refrigerator, and could be closed off to the rest of the house. This “open kitchen” stuff is not for us. My husband says that no “real cook” wants an open kitchen. Who knows, maybe there are some real cooks that enjoy having their whole house smell like blackened salmon, or sautéed onions. But for the way we live there is absolutely no point to an open kitchen. Actually, "real cooks" aside, I think the open kitchen thing is for people with small kids that they want to keep an eye on, or for people who do a lot of informal entertaining. The kitchen was not huge but it was big enough for anything my husband would want to do in there. This is a typical size for the ranch houses we've been looking at lately and was similar to the kitchen I liked last week. I do the cleaning so I don’t need my husband messing up some huge “country kitchen” type of thing.
The upstairs part of the house had everything you’d need, three bedrooms with decent closets, a small room off the kitchen that could be used as a dining room/pantry type of thing, a coat closet and a fireplace. There was oddness about the enclosed porch in the front, which seemed like it would make a better storage area than porch. My husband loved the downstairs. There is a big family room area, tons of storage, a nice bathroom, and three separate rooms that could be used as storage, or a study, or whatever.
The owner is an agent, he bought the house as a foreclosure and fixed it up. We wished him the best of luck. I think that what this guy is doing is adding value and helping clear the market. It’s also helping the neighborhood. The asking price is 319 which probably reflects a reasonable profit from the foreclosure price and renovation costs but nothing too spectacular. I think this house will move fast and someone will really enjoy it.
As we made our way out of the immediate neighborhood, a street was blocked by someone sitting in a car having a conversation with a woman standing in the street. I felt like I was in Philly again.
So, we headed back towards our rented corner of Montgomery County on the beltway, and got off at 97 just to drive around our favorite neighborhood of Forest Glen. We talked about how much we liked that particular area and we think it might be worth it to hold out for that rather than some of these edge-ish neighborhoods. While driving around we went through the EYA renovation of the Forest Glen preserve and saw an open house sign. We stopped in at 9517 Woodstock Court, 20910 and beheld our dream house. This house was moved from, I don’t know, somewhere, and renovated. The original wood moldings and trim is just amazing and the renovation is fantastic. The way the house is situated seems ideal. The style is called "four square" or so I read on the handout. It seems to be an Arts & Crafts style and the details such as light fixtures, reflects that. My husband noted that the quality of the wood in the trim and moldings was such that you probably wouldn't be able to buy it today, you'd have to reclaim it from somewhere. The lower level is all new, with a family room, wine fridge (and kegerator). I particularly loved the way the bathrooms had been done with tile reminiscent of old black and white bathroom tile. That stuff lasts forever. I asked the realtor if this was affiliated with EYA somehow and he said it was not.
As we pulled up, I immediately said “this house must be a million dollars.” My husband guessed 750, I said, seriously at least 850, and my husband then noted that it was an open house and therefore had a good chance of being mispriced, so 750 was likely too low. I should have stuck to my original estimate because this house is listed at over 1 million. As we were driving away my husband started to feel cranky about high real estate prices. I was however not in the mood to be cranky about high prices on this particular day so I didn’t join in although I share his opinion about the outrageousness.
My one criticism is that for a million bucks, I want a shorter street number than 9517. A friend of mine pointed out to me once that shorter street numbers have some ineffably more desirable quality to them. I agree. 9517 is not a great street number.
I think that house will fetch something resembling its asking price and someone will love living there. I don’t think there is room for any kind of appreciation at that price, but hey, not my problem. I reminded my husband that we could have that nice of a house if we wanted to move somewhere other than the DC region. I also said that I’d like to think that one day we could actually buy that house. By the time we buy that house it will likely cost less in real dollars, or we will be getting an even nicer house for our money. We are both hard workers and have no kids, why not?
We went down 547 and saw another sign in the neighborhood that is called “Garrett Park Estates” on the real estate listings. This is in 20895 but it feels like it should be Rockville. The open house was at 5000 Druid drive and the realtor was not particularly interested in engaging with us, which was weird but not unwelcome. This house is listed at 519. Highlight below to read the incredibly rude comment my husband made about this: ”Does it come with a sloppy blowjob?” I said, I think someone should get a blowjob just for viewing that listing, much less buying the house. This is a nicely situated rancher which is rather small. Kitchen is renovated, the rooms are small, and there is only one bathroom upstairs. The lower level is a nicely renovated family room, lots of storage and a full bath. Yawn.
The upshot of today for both of us was that the ice seems to be breaking up a little, but we’re glad we’re not really shopping right now. We are hopeful that things will be better in the spring, but not overly optimistic about that.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Sunday Open Houses
I went to four open houses in the following order today:
11806 Mentone 20906
12725 Hathaway 20906
10108 Brunett20910 20901
1607 Myrtle Road20910 20902
The first one I went to was kind of gross. Actually, it was mostly very nice and airy with hardwood floors and some great picture windows, but the kitchen was just gross. And the family seemed to be hiding out downstairs so I just got out of there. There was a younger couple talking to the realtor that seemed pretty serious about the house. Asking price is an even 300 which of course seems high to me.
As I was driving around I reflected on the difference between genteel shabbiness and plain old shabbiness. If I made a point to observe carefully, I could probably point out what factors make one street seem like aging hippies live there, and another street feel like a pit bull might be running around without a leash. Security doors always make me feel like I'm in a bad neighborhood. Whereas a scraggly, overgrown perennial garden just says "no HOA, hooray." 20906 seems to be mostly the latter variety of shabby, but you feel like it could easily turn into the pit bull kind of shabby. The streets are very rough which makes me think that the township (or however that works in Silver Spring) doesn't have enough money.
The house on Hathaway had some charm, but it was very small. There is a very nice addition on the back and the backyard is very appealing. The kitchen was terrible, a galley kitchen that would need new appliances. If you look it up online you can see that it has original unpainted wood molding. The realtor told me that it was a foreclosure and that they would not fix anything. Asking price is 226. Feh. The house is very close to Wheaton High School.
I headed down to 20910 and stopped by Brunett Ave. This house was very nice. The kitchen was renovated, with those tall kind of cabinets which are of no use to me because I'm short. Oddly, the appliances were old, but if I were interested in that house I probably wouldn't let that stop me. I just wonder why they didn't spring for new appliances. Typical rambler, three small bedrooms. The finished basement is pretty decent. The second bathroom is in the basement, which I always think is pretty sucky. I kind of feel that houses with a bathroom in the basement shouldn't get to claim an extra bath. There is a pretty nice deck. The yard is almost nonexistent, but some people might like that.
The realtor at that house was actually pretty cool. As we were talking we got on the subject of distressed sales (of course) and he said that he is getting the sense that the banks are starting to relent and actually get moving on short sales. He felt that the banks' attitude was to "punish" the delinquent homeowners and his take on it was that they may be coming around to realizing that they're not getting anywhere by sending that particular message. I guess the tide is just so large that there really isn't a viable strategy for banks to try to make a short sale an unattractive option for homeowners.
I stopped by the house on Myrtle simply because I was on my way back to my neighborhood (Rockville) and I saw the sign. This house had a lot of charm but of the 577 asking price just feels like a big old F you to me. I don't know if that's even normal for the neighborhood or what, it just offends me somehow. Even by today's screwed up standards, this pleasant house does not live up to what I feel the .5 million dollar range represents. But a lot of open houses seem to be like that, they often seem to be some of the most mispriced even for a bubble. The basement on Myrtle has a small kitchen and some bedrooms so it's a functional basement apartment (though I imagine not legally) The house had a good feel to it and I like the neighborhood.
I drove back towards Rockville on Forest Glen, winding through the Capitol View Park neighborhood, which definitely has the genteel type of shabbiness going on. When I got to Plyers Mill close to Connecticut, I turned right just to take a turn through that neighborhood, which seems pretty nice to me, probably totally out of the question in terms of affordability. I turned around, got on Knowles, and almost stopped at another open house just off 547. As I pulled up, I realized that the house suffered from being probably the most expensive one in the neighborhood as it was overwhelmingly huge, dwarfing the neighboring houses. Plus it was 10 of four by that time so I didn't bother.
I'm hoping prices start to get better by spring, which is when we plan to start seriously looking. I think it would be more ideal to wait until around 2012 but for various reasons that is becoming impractical for us. We are socking away a lot of cash and technically, even by traditional standards could qualify for the 577K house. But it just feels all wrong to me. I want to have low fixed costs and I'm not looking to live in a showplace (which to me, a 500K house should be) I never got anchored psychologically to bubble prices. Right now I see that there are places that are decent that are in a semi-reasonable place in terms of price, but they are in "eh" neighborhoods. How will these places be affected when all of the shadow inventory comes out of the woodwork? I can handle that we might overpay somewhat if we buy in 2010, but I don't want to be stuck in a neighborhood that I no longer like. And the amount I can handle overpaying would be in the lower tens of thousands, not another 100K. Which still seems possible at this point in spite of the good economy here in the DC region.
11806 Mentone 20906
12725 Hathaway 20906
10108 Brunett
1607 Myrtle Road
The first one I went to was kind of gross. Actually, it was mostly very nice and airy with hardwood floors and some great picture windows, but the kitchen was just gross. And the family seemed to be hiding out downstairs so I just got out of there. There was a younger couple talking to the realtor that seemed pretty serious about the house. Asking price is an even 300 which of course seems high to me.
As I was driving around I reflected on the difference between genteel shabbiness and plain old shabbiness. If I made a point to observe carefully, I could probably point out what factors make one street seem like aging hippies live there, and another street feel like a pit bull might be running around without a leash. Security doors always make me feel like I'm in a bad neighborhood. Whereas a scraggly, overgrown perennial garden just says "no HOA, hooray." 20906 seems to be mostly the latter variety of shabby, but you feel like it could easily turn into the pit bull kind of shabby. The streets are very rough which makes me think that the township (or however that works in Silver Spring) doesn't have enough money.
The house on Hathaway had some charm, but it was very small. There is a very nice addition on the back and the backyard is very appealing. The kitchen was terrible, a galley kitchen that would need new appliances. If you look it up online you can see that it has original unpainted wood molding. The realtor told me that it was a foreclosure and that they would not fix anything. Asking price is 226. Feh. The house is very close to Wheaton High School.
I headed down to 20910 and stopped by Brunett Ave. This house was very nice. The kitchen was renovated, with those tall kind of cabinets which are of no use to me because I'm short. Oddly, the appliances were old, but if I were interested in that house I probably wouldn't let that stop me. I just wonder why they didn't spring for new appliances. Typical rambler, three small bedrooms. The finished basement is pretty decent. The second bathroom is in the basement, which I always think is pretty sucky. I kind of feel that houses with a bathroom in the basement shouldn't get to claim an extra bath. There is a pretty nice deck. The yard is almost nonexistent, but some people might like that.
The realtor at that house was actually pretty cool. As we were talking we got on the subject of distressed sales (of course) and he said that he is getting the sense that the banks are starting to relent and actually get moving on short sales. He felt that the banks' attitude was to "punish" the delinquent homeowners and his take on it was that they may be coming around to realizing that they're not getting anywhere by sending that particular message. I guess the tide is just so large that there really isn't a viable strategy for banks to try to make a short sale an unattractive option for homeowners.
I stopped by the house on Myrtle simply because I was on my way back to my neighborhood (Rockville) and I saw the sign. This house had a lot of charm but of the 577 asking price just feels like a big old F you to me. I don't know if that's even normal for the neighborhood or what, it just offends me somehow. Even by today's screwed up standards, this pleasant house does not live up to what I feel the .5 million dollar range represents. But a lot of open houses seem to be like that, they often seem to be some of the most mispriced even for a bubble. The basement on Myrtle has a small kitchen and some bedrooms so it's a functional basement apartment (though I imagine not legally) The house had a good feel to it and I like the neighborhood.
I drove back towards Rockville on Forest Glen, winding through the Capitol View Park neighborhood, which definitely has the genteel type of shabbiness going on. When I got to Plyers Mill close to Connecticut, I turned right just to take a turn through that neighborhood, which seems pretty nice to me, probably totally out of the question in terms of affordability. I turned around, got on Knowles, and almost stopped at another open house just off 547. As I pulled up, I realized that the house suffered from being probably the most expensive one in the neighborhood as it was overwhelmingly huge, dwarfing the neighboring houses. Plus it was 10 of four by that time so I didn't bother.
I'm hoping prices start to get better by spring, which is when we plan to start seriously looking. I think it would be more ideal to wait until around 2012 but for various reasons that is becoming impractical for us. We are socking away a lot of cash and technically, even by traditional standards could qualify for the 577K house. But it just feels all wrong to me. I want to have low fixed costs and I'm not looking to live in a showplace (which to me, a 500K house should be) I never got anchored psychologically to bubble prices. Right now I see that there are places that are decent that are in a semi-reasonable place in terms of price, but they are in "eh" neighborhoods. How will these places be affected when all of the shadow inventory comes out of the woodwork? I can handle that we might overpay somewhat if we buy in 2010, but I don't want to be stuck in a neighborhood that I no longer like. And the amount I can handle overpaying would be in the lower tens of thousands, not another 100K. Which still seems possible at this point in spite of the good economy here in the DC region.
Friday, July 17, 2009
July 17, 2009
Some open houses this weekend in and around 20910.
http://www.zillow.com/homes/map/20910_rb/
http://www.zillow.com/homes/map/20910_rb/
Thursday, July 16, 2009
What's the deal with Kensington?
Kensington is sort of difficult to characterize. On one hand, there are some very pricey neighborhoods that seem like an extension of Chevy Chase. Then there are some other neighborhoods that seem like an extension of rural West Virginia. If you've gone looking in the area, you will know exactly what I'm talking about. I wonder how the town is run. There are the brave little rows of antique shops, and then there is the Mormon Temple. I don't know the whole story but I'm pretty sure no other jurisdiction wanted to let the LDS build such a monstrosity. The thing is officially within the bounds of Kensington. Not sure I would want to live directly in its shadow.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
8309 Piney Branch RD, 20910
MC7063366
I went to see this a while ago, in the early spring. I think I just wanted to find out what the hell the green triangular thing was. It was a sad story, it looked like the family that had been living there left in a big hurry. A child's textbook was in one of the bedrooms, along with lots of other detritus, and the whole place stank of rotting food and cat piss.
The triangular thing is a separate entrance to a tiny downstairs apartment, where I believe some stray cats are living now. The windows on the green thing are some kind of plexiglass material.
The main part of the house is typical "mid-century" one-level. The front room has a large, ugly fireplace. There is a room off to the side that looks like an enclosed porch, that is painted bright peach. The general effect from just the front rooms is that it might not be too bad if it were cleaned up and renovated.
The house has one major issue that trumps all of the ones already mentioned here: there is no driveway and nowhere to park. The house is perched on a hill with a steep walkway up to the front door. Adjacent houses have driveways but this house does not. You must park your car around the block, walk around and then up the steep front steps. There is no access from the back. I can't imagine who would buy this house, as I think that issue makes it almost unlivable in today's society.
I went to see this a while ago, in the early spring. I think I just wanted to find out what the hell the green triangular thing was. It was a sad story, it looked like the family that had been living there left in a big hurry. A child's textbook was in one of the bedrooms, along with lots of other detritus, and the whole place stank of rotting food and cat piss.
The triangular thing is a separate entrance to a tiny downstairs apartment, where I believe some stray cats are living now. The windows on the green thing are some kind of plexiglass material.
The main part of the house is typical "mid-century" one-level. The front room has a large, ugly fireplace. There is a room off to the side that looks like an enclosed porch, that is painted bright peach. The general effect from just the front rooms is that it might not be too bad if it were cleaned up and renovated.
The house has one major issue that trumps all of the ones already mentioned here: there is no driveway and nowhere to park. The house is perched on a hill with a steep walkway up to the front door. Adjacent houses have driveways but this house does not. You must park your car around the block, walk around and then up the steep front steps. There is no access from the back. I can't imagine who would buy this house, as I think that issue makes it almost unlivable in today's society.
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