Pat Kennedy - Your Washington, DC Real Estate Connection

Posh Washington:  Georgetown Market Update

For many decades, Georgetown has been a favorite Washington neighborhood for many of the politicians, journalists, lawyers, and all the other charachters who make life in this city so interesting.   So when I meet new buyers who are relocating here to DC, this historic place is often at the top of their list.

Houses in Georgetown come in all shapes, sizes and price points.  Right now, they range from a low of $644,900 for a little 2-bedroom near the old C&O Canal to a high of $39,500,000 for a magnificent 9-bedroom mansion on a 3.5 acre estate.  Of course, it’s the rich choices in between that will be of interest to most buyers. 

Currently, there are 67 homes to choose from.  You may click here for a complete list, most with virtual tours, of homes that are now on the market.

During the first six months of this year, Georgetown bucked the national trends.  In most parts of the country, more houses are selling for less money.  In Georgetown, there were fewer sales with higher average and median sales prices.

                               2008                2009   
Number Sold               54                    49
Average List Price   $1,621,544     $1,733,714
Average Sold Price  $1,553,575     $1,610,552
Median List Price    $1,395,000     $1,395,000
Median Sold Price   $1,300,000     $1,312,000

This is one more example of how, in real estate, everything is local!

If you are interested in getting more information about this historic Washington neighborhood, call me at 202-549-5167 or drop me an email at housepat@mac.com.

When friends and colleagues ask this question, this is a great post to show them!

Since I first put together my "Bucket List", learning to ride a horse was close to the top of the list.  I've been riding lots of time, but somehow whenever I did, the horse was in charge.  So I recently started to check out stables, and, like many home buyers, I started my search on line.

The Woodland Horse Center in Silver Spring, Maryland caught my eye with the offer of a free riding lesson every Sunday at 1:00 pm.  So I played hooky from real estate and showed up at horse school.

The whole thing was pure fun.  I loved Ernie, the horse I rode.  And Karen Parker, the instructor who worked with me, was able to communicate clearly what I needed to do to stay on the horse.  I'd never been on an English saddle before, so there was no horn to hold onto!

They didn't do a hard sell, and they did do a great introduction to their programs.

They offer lessons for beginners, like me, and for serious riders into dressage.  You can board horses there, and they also have programs where you can lease a horse instead of buying one.

And of course, the tack shop was the most fun of all!  I saw lots of great wardrobe additions - the cute little hats helmets, jodhpurs that were much cooler than my jeans, riding boots and little jackets with gold buttons and velvet collars - like the stuff they wear at the Olympics.

But I'm getting ahead of myself!  My goal is to be able to hop on a horse and let him know where I want to go.  And I want to be able to make the request so he'll decide to do it.  Hmmm...  This is a communication skill that could cross over into both business and personal relationships.

I have some fond memories of the old Watergate Hotel, notably the second most romantic dinner of my entire life at Jean-Louis’ Restaurant.  So a few years ago when this Washington landmark was about to become condominiums, I did sort of think about what it might be like to live there.

But the condos never happened.  They had the location, location, and location thing down.  It was the timing, timing and timing issue that gave the developers fits.

The Watergate Hotel was a favorite of world-renowned musicians coming to perform at Kennedy Center and lobbyists coming to perform before Congress.  If you were a diplomat with business at the State Department, it was a convenient place to stay.  By the time the hotel closed, it had gotten a little bit thin at the elbows.  But in it’s heyday, it had a bunch of stars from some of the world's most serious guide books

While several bidders had signed up for the auction, nobody showed them the money.  

The Watergate is not exactly a Grande Dame in need of a face lift.  She’s not quite old enough to be a Grande Dame.  But I do hope somebody somewhere buys this middle-aged lady and treats her well!

One thing that has always made me feel a little pit in my stomach is anticipating a home inspection with an inspector I don’t know.  It may even be worse than anticipating one with an inspector I do know who is a little goofy.

Today’s inspection is on a really old Victorian house, built somewhere around 1914.  And I have to say, it appears that Jack Reilly, the inspector my buyers selected, is very much an old house guy!   He’s an inspector who also has a lot of knowledge about architectural history, and he knows exactly what to look for.

What a relief!

In this area, a lot of the inspectors don’t really get old houses.   They may be faulous with mid-century tract houses in the suburbs or new construction.  But here in DC, we have a lot of turn-of-the-century homes.  And we are not even sure which century.  !942 is considered to be new construction!

Jack, thank heavens, was not one of the inspectors we city types fear.  He could spot the location of a fireplace that got covered up.   And he knew it was coal burning.  He could tell that the spider cracks at the side of the house didn’t mean it was falling down, but needed attention..  And, he’s a huge fan of Victorians.

And for an old guy (OK, he’s about my age) he was pretty techedi out.  Not only is there the normal stuff – moisture meters, gas sniffer, etc.  Most impressive, Jack used a video camera throughout the inspection, and he’ll supply a DVD to the clients.  This is great because one of the buyers is out of town, and now he’ll be able to see first hand what happened. 

Another thing I really like is that he does find a lot of stuff that’s going to need attention, and he is really good at explaining it without making the buyer want to hop the next flight to Kansas.  It's what I call a good house-side manner.

The man is a house whisperer!

Now, I really think that Jack needs to join Active Rain.  Maybe he could even find a really cute mascot to be Nutsy's pal!

If you want to see something really adorable, click the link - and you'll feel totally compelled to cast a vote for the beautiful Isabelle!

Last week, I got a call from some clients who were on vacation.  They were going to be back Saturday evening and had a house they wanted to see on Sunday morning.  OK, I can do that!

When I checked the MRIS information and showing instructions, I recognized the listing agent' name - a fellow blogger right here on Active Rain!  And he's one I've met on several fun occasions.  The agent was none other than Long & Foster's John MacArthur!

This, and the fact that it looked like a terrific house, made me really want to sell the place.  When I met my buyers, I even had the paperwork with me, all filled out except for the price - not one of my usual moves.  And guess what?  They met me Sunday evening, signed everything, wrote a check for the earnest money, and Monday morning everything was in John's e-mail!

Of course, there was a little glitch.  There always is something after all.  He couldn't meet with the sellers until Tuesday evening, and the house is so great that it's attracted a few more offers. 

Now, I hate bidding wars.  But instead of going completely nuts, I had them clean up their offer, sent in the revisions, and had to just let go of it.

Well, OK.  I have to admit that even though I had a gut feeling it would all be fine, I did go somewhat nuts, but not nearly as nuts as I'd have gone if I was dealing with some agent I didn't know.

So last night, when my phone rang, I recognized the number as John's.  And he said the magic word:

"Yes!"

And this experience is another example of how, among colleagues, relationships really matter.  And I think the ones we build here on Active Rain are right up there with the ones we have with the agents in our own offices. 

John and his wife came to an Active Rain gathering at my house.  When a bunch of us met for lunch in Annapolis, there he was again.  And both times, he made me laugh and we had a wonderful time with our fellow bloggers. 

To me, building relationships that lead to real transactions together is what social networking is all about.  And I am going to do my darndest to exceed John's expectations.

My stomach is in a huge knot.

My favorite buyers are at the gym distracting themselves by lifting weights, and I'm going to guess that they are using the really heavy ones.

Why?  Because we have spent the past 36 hours in that awful limbo between the time the offer is presented to the listing agent without yet being presented to the sellers.  It's the time during which several other offers have come in on "their" house, and my clients had to agree to raise their price to make theirs as competitive as they could without doing something stupid.  And it's a time when we have absolutely no way to control or predict the outcome.

And all of this got me to thinking - a dangerous thing!

One surefire way to produce a lot of gratuitous stress in a real estate transaction is to leave the buyers in a state of high anxiety longer than a few hours while they wait to hear back from the sellers and their agent.   Anxiety makes them crazy.  Then it rubs off onto their agent who becomes crazy and starts to wonder

• Are there really other offers?
• Are they shopping my clients' offer?
• Is this a preview of what we can expect during the rest of the transaction?
• Will my buyers get to the point of wanting to withdraw from the whole thing?

In this case, I know and trust the listing agent, and that helps a lot.  Still, I'm having a hard time resisting the urge to go out and buy about six pints of Ben & Jerry's Heath Bar Crunch and do a binge that I will later regret.

Throughout my career, I've tried really hard to get speedy responses from my sellers.  I think it sets the tone for everything else that happens between contract acceptance and settlement, and lord only knows, these days the contract negotiations are just the beginning.

In this crazy market, I think it behooves all of us to do whatever it takes to handle the stresses that are inherent in any transactions and to eliminate stress wherever we can.  And communications is the key, especially for the listing agent to keep the buyer's agent apprised of the time line for getting an answer.

So here I sit, watching my little I-Phone.  Instead of ingesting huge quantities of Ben & Jerry's, I'm blogging.  At least that's not fattening!

This is so much worse than waiting for some guy to call!

PS:  Yippee!  They got their house!  I don't have to make a Ben & Jerry's run!  I'm still waiting for the guy to call. 

Back in the 1960's, whenever there was something important or alarming or just plain scary going on in the world, my father would always wait until the CBS Evening News came on to see what Walter Cronkite had to say about it.  And somehow, I got the message that for the real deal, I should go to Channel 9 at 7:00 pm.

It is said that Cronkite totally ruled the newsroom at CBS, and he did.

Unlike today's anchors, Cronkite wrote all of his own stuff.  And if you were a correspondent with CBS News, Cronkite, not some producer, decided whether or not your piece aired on his newscast. 

I did actually see him once back in the 1970's, and it was in a very different context.  I went up to Lime Rock with a friend who raced his old Mazda RX-7 in the showroom stock category.  And while I was up there, I caught a glimpse of, oh my!  It was Walter Cronkite in a classic looking sportscar tooling around the track!

There is so much we can all learn from this man and his approach to his profession and to life.  When he was on the air, he had more credibility than pretty much anyone else on earth.  Unlike the news professionals of today, he was not concerned with the superficial.  And he did not cut corners, either in the newsroom or on the race track. 

And while he covered some pretty sensational stories, including President Kennedy's assassination, the moon landing, the Vietnam war and Watergate, his coverage was not sensational, unlike that of today's 24-hour news cycle.

Last night was our first meeting. 

On many Friday nights, my neighbors and I get together at my neighbor, Jean's, house for a meeting of the Webster Street Cocktail Club.  But last night, we did something different, turning it into a book club.

We started off reading Christopher Buckley's memoir about losing his parents.  The book is a beautiful tribute to his eccentric parents and their marriage, and he writes about something that many baby boomers have or will soon face with their own parents.

Part of the fun was, of course, the food and the sugar-free Mohitos!  Everyone brought something, so the menu was pretty eclectic.   And I don't think that, in spite of all the healthy stuff on the table, any of us lost weight last night.

And as I looked around the room, I couldn't help but notice that most of the women there had either been my clients when they moved to the neighborhood, or had bought one of my listings!