Feeling Nosy about DC? MD? VA?

Ok, I know you're probably not planning on moving this very second, but here's this week's list of interesting-looking listings that have just come on the market. Mind you, they may not actually be my personal listings --- just intriguing properties I've come across this week.

Feeling nosy about the District of Columbia?
Feeling nosy about Virginia?
Feeling nosy about Maryland?

If you know someone who might be interested in this list, please forward it on to him or her. And if there's a listing that you're curious about yourself, just let me know ... and I'll show it to you ... just for the hell of it ... no obligation ... *I promise*. Really. (One of the perks of being the friend of a real estate agent ought to be that you get to freely snoop around other peoples' homes!)

Long and Foster Goes Green

I am pleased to see that our broker, Long and Foster has "gone green" with a new corporate Green Statement, here:

Feeling Nosy about DC? MD? VA?

Ok, I know you're probably not planning on moving this very second, but here's this week's list of interesting-looking listings that have just come on the market. Mind you, they may not actually be my personal listings --- just intriguing properties I've come across this week.

Feeling nosy about the District of Columbia?
Feeling nosy about Virginia?
Feeling nosy about Maryland?

If you know someone who might be interested in this list, please forward it on to him or her. And if there's a listing that you're curious about yourself, just let me know ... and I'll show it to you ... just for the hell of it ... no obligation ... *I promise*. Really. (One of the perks of being the friend of a real estate agent ought to be that you get to freely snoop around other peoples' homes!)

DC Tour of Solar Homes and Buildings

With all the news of doom and gloom surrounding the financial and housing markets, it is nice to know that there is a "bright spot" -- solar power! You heard right, solar paneled homes and commercial buildings have become very sophisticated. Many of the homes and buildings using the latest in solar technology are right here in DC and you can see them yourselves this weekend.

Over 50 homes in the DC, Maryland and Virginia area will be open on Saturday and Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm. Learn more about the tour at http://www.solartour.org/.

Feeling Nosy about DC? MD? VA?

Ok, I know you're probably not planning on moving this very second, but here's this week's list of interesting-looking listings that have just come on the market. Mind you, they may not actually be my personal listings --- just intriguing properties I've come across this week.

Feeling nosy about the District of Columbia?
Feeling nosy about Virginia?
Feeling nosy about Maryland?

If you know someone who might be interested in this list, please forward it on to him or her. And if there's a listing that you're curious about yourself, just let me know ... and I'll show it to you ... just for the hell of it ... no obligation ... *I promise*. Really. (One of the perks of being the friend of a real estate agent ought to be that you get to freely snoop around other peoples' homes!)

First Fall Weekend in DC!

It is the first full fall weekend in Washington DC and there are so many great activities! So, nothing about real estate on the blog this week, instead I am going to suggest a few great activities for the weekend, such as:

Bike DC 2008
On Saturday morning I will be taking my bike down to Penn Ave for a great car-free bike ride around DC called Bike DC 2008. It is not too late to register, check it out at www.BikeDC.net.



National Book Festival 2008
After the bike ride we are heading down to the National Mall for the National Book Festival. An idea that First Lady Laura Bush brought about starting back in 2001. Learn more about the festival at www.loc.gov/bookfest.



Barracks Row Oktoberfest
After listening to a few authors we plan to head up the Hill to 8th Street SE (the street where out office is located) at Eastern Market and visit the Barracks Row Oktoberfest. Learn more about it at www.barracksrow.org/Ocktoberfest08.htm. While you are down there, be sure to check out my friend Leah's kitchen store "Hill's Kitchen" on the 700 block of D Street SE, learn more here: www.hillskitchen.com.



Crafty Bastards Arts & Crafts Festival
On Sunday, we plan to head up to the Marie Reed Learning Center at 18th and Wyoming Streets NW for the Washington City Paper's Crafty Bastards Arts and Crafts Festival. Learn more at www.washingtoncitypaper.com/craftybastards.



St. Sophia Greek Festival
While we are in upper NW we will probably swing by the St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral for their annual Greek Festival. Learn more at www.saintsophiawashington.org/involved/festival.php. Be sure to get some spanakopita!

Enjoy this first full weekend of fall in DC!

Feeling Nosy about DC? MD? VA?

Ok, I know you're probably not planning on moving this very second, but here's this week's list of interesting-looking listings that have just come on the market. Mind you, they may not actually be my personal listings --- just intriguing properties I've come across this week.

Feeling nosy about the District of Columbia?
Feeling nosy about Virginia?
Feeling nosy about Maryland?

If you know someone who might be interested in this list, please forward it on to him or her. And if there's a listing that you're curious about yourself, just let me know ... and I'll show it to you ... just for the hell of it ... no obligation ... *I promise*. Really. (One of the perks of being the friend of a real estate agent ought to be that you get to freely snoop around other peoples' homes!)

Confessions of a Subprime Lender

Every day I deal with the ramifications of the subprime lending crisis. I meet great people who could have put 5% down and would have made great buyers but unfortunately in today's climate cannot afford to put the nearly 10-15% down lenders now require. That is why I was fascinated to learn of a new book by Richard Bitner's entitled "Confessions of a Subprime Lender."

The National Association of Realtors has a book review section where I found a great review of the book. I am thinking I might want to pick this one up. Click Here to read the book review.

Feeling Nosy about DC? MD? VA?

Ok, I know you're probably not planning on moving this very second, but here's this week's list of interesting-looking listings that have just come on the market. Mind you, they may not actually be my personal listings --- just intriguing properties I've come across this week.

Feeling nosy about the District of Columbia?
Feeling nosy about Virginia?
Feeling nosy about Maryland?

If you know someone who might be interested in this list, please forward it on to him or her. And if there's a listing that you're curious about yourself, just let me know ... and I'll show it to you ... just for the hell of it ... no obligation ... *I promise*. Really. (One of the perks of being the friend of a real estate agent ought to be that you get to freely snoop around other peoples' homes!)

Another Huge Auction Coming

As many of you know, in the early spring I attended the Real Estate Disposition Corporation's (REDC) house auction at the Washington Convention Center. There were over 9,000 bidders and I was able to snag 2 investment properties for my own investment group which we turned into successful rental properties. I wanted to let everyone know that REDC is coming back to town for yet another auction. The coming auction is on October 4th and 5th and will again be at the Washington Convention Center. It looks like they have about 450 houses to auction off, with most of them in Northern Virginia.

Looks like there is some good stuff in DC as well, in fact I notice there are big auction signs at the corner of 8th and K Streets NE in SOFLO (South of Florida Avenue). The exact address is 800 K Street NE, it's the big green monster on the corner that backs to West Virginia Avenue, NE. This house has been on the market a while. I have not shown it, but our Buyer Specialist Charlynne has and she tells me that it needs some serious TLC but that the bones are there.



Another one that caught my eye was 300 Oklahoma Avenue NE #201 over in Kingman Park/Hill East neighborhood. They have a starting bid on that OK Ave condo at 49K, not bad, I think you could cover rent on that if you got it under 100K easily.

For more information, be sure to see their website with all the auction listings at www.USHomeAuction.com. You will find auctions all over the country, the link to the DC listings are further down the page. Good luck, and if you want to know more about my auction experience feel free to call me at 202-369-9821 or email me at Michael@RealAstute.com

Feeling Nosy about DC? MD? VA?

Ok, I know you're probably not planning on moving this very second, but here's this week's list of interesting-looking listings that have just come on the market. Mind you, they may not actually be my personal listings --- just intriguing properties I've come across this week.

Feeling nosy about the District of Columbia?
Feeling nosy about Virginia?
Feeling nosy about Maryland?

If you know someone who might be interested in this list, please forward it on to him or her. And if there's a listing that you're curious about yourself, just let me know ... and I'll show it to you ... just for the hell of it ... no obligation ... *I promise*. Really. (One of the perks of being the friend of a real estate agent ought to be that you get to freely snoop around other peoples' homes!)

DC Annual Tax Sale Approaches

The District of Columbia has announced their annual tax sale to being on September 17th. As many of you know, I have sucessfuly purchased property at past tax sales and would be more than happy to advise folks on how the tax sale process works. Feel free to contact me at 202-369-9821 or Michael@RealAstute.com for assistance.

You can find a list of the properties being offered at the tax sale at the District's website at http://www.dc.gov/. Here is some additional information from the http://www.dc.gov/ website about the sale:

District Properties With Unpaid Taxes to be Sold at Public Auction Beginning September 17 (Washington, DC) - The District of Columbia Office of Tax and Revenue (OTR) announced today that it is advertising for sale at public auction more than 3400 commercial and residential real property tax liens, for which property taxes for the 2007 tax year are unpaid. The sale runs 8:30 am to noon and 1 pm to 4 pm September 17-19, at the Government Printing Office, 732 North Capitol Street, NW, 8th Floor, Washington, DC 20401.

Bidder registration for the sale is mandatory and begins on Friday, September 12, and continues until the final day of the sale. To register, prospective bidders must make a deposit of at least 20 percent of their total bid and a $150 Tax Sale fee will be added to each property at the time of the sale. Purchasers are also required to complete Form FR-500, Combined Business Tax Registration Application, prior to registering. The form can be found at OTR’s website at http://www.taxpayerservicecenter.com/ under “Tax Forms/Publications.”

Property owners with unpaid taxes have until the date of the auction to pay any taxes due and avoid having their properties sold. To pay or inquire about the status of a delinquent property, call the OTR Customer Service Center at (202) 727-4TAX (4829) or visit the Customer Service Walk-In Center at 941 North Capitol Street, NE, on the 1st floor.

Last year, 2,082 liens were sold, and a total of $6.7 million in delinquent tax revenue was collected.

Feeling Nosy about DC? MD? VA?

Ok, I know you're probably not planning on moving this very second, but here's this week's list of interesting-looking listings that have just come on the market. Mind you, they may not actually be my personal listings --- just intriguing properties I've come across this week.

Feeling nosy about the District of Columbia?
Feeling nosy about Virginia?
Feeling nosy about Maryland?

If you know someone who might be interested in this list, please forward it on to him or her. And if there's a listing that you're curious about yourself, just let me know ... and I'll show it to you ... just for the hell of it ... no obligation ... *I promise*. Really. (One of the perks of being the friend of a real estate agent ought to be that you get to freely snoop around other peoples' homes!)

Walk Score

Very often when buyers are trying to figure out if they can live without a car I suggest going to the neighborhood and walking around, seeing what is available on foot. Additionally, for folks without cars sometime I will suggest taking the metro to look at houses/condos with them, that way we get a good feel for the walkability of the neighborhood.

The task of deciding if a neighborhood/address is walkable has become much easier with the invention of the website http://www.walkscore.com/. Here you can simply type in the address of your home or office and it will rate the walkability for you and detail all the relevant commercial and transportation options near a given location.

A great new resource for folks thinking of going car free! Again, check it out at http://www.walkscore.com/. As always, for all your real estate needs feel free to contact me at Michael@RealAstute.com or 202-369-9821.

Feeling Nosy about DC? MD? VA?

Ok, I know you're probably not planning on moving this very second, but here's this week's list of interesting-looking listings that have just come on the market. Mind you, they may not actually be my personal listings --- just intriguing properties I've come across this week.

Feeling nosy about the District of Columbia?
Feeling nosy about Virginia?
Feeling nosy about Maryland?

If you know someone who might be interested in this list, please forward it on to him or her. And if there's a listing that you're curious about yourself, just let me know ... and I'll show it to you ... just for the hell of it ... no obligation ... *I promise*. Really. (One of the perks of being the friend of a real estate agent ought to be that you get to freely snoop around other peoples' homes!)

Next Hot Spots!?!?

The Washington Business Journal publishes a quarterly magazine about real estate that they call OnSite. Last week the latest OnSite arrived in the mail with a great piece on “The Next Big Hot Spots” in the DC area. It is a great article, and it highlights a few areas that I have recently been intrigued by which I plan to blog about for the next few weeks. As a Realtor I am also always trying to pick where the next hot spots will be, just ask my wife because she is the one who has to ride around with me and listen to me go on and on about future development, which she loves!

The article mentions “Hill East”, which is the 67 acre site known as Reservation 13 consisting of the old DC General Hospital several other support building for the city. In late spring the city sent out an RFP for this site, here is an initial sketch the city has on their website:



I was thrilled to see the mention of Hill East in the article; I have long been telling clients that eventually they will extend the footprint of the Hill all the way down to the Anacostia River, which will really give Hill residents the opportunity to enjoy the river. The Anacostia River has improved over the years, but it has a long way to go, you can learn more at the Anacostia Watershed Restoration Partnership’s website at http://www.anacostia.net, or at the Anacostia Watershed Society at http://www.anacostiaws.org.

Finally, I got a lot of feedback from last week’s blog post about my client and friend who had her bike removed from the Union Station bike rack because it was deemed too ugly. As I shared last week, she wrote a letter to the editor at the Washington Post which they published. Here is a picture of the controversial bike:



I personally don’t think it looks that bad! In an exciting twist, NBC 4 picked up the story, and you can see the piece here. This is a great story and I am hoping that Union Station will get enough heat that they will buy my friend a new lock!

That is all for now. As always, if you need help buying or selling please do not hesitate to drop me a line at 202-369-9821 or Michael@RealAstute.com.

Feeling Nosy about DC? MD? VA?

Ok, I know you're probably not planning on moving this very second, but here's this week's list of interesting-looking listings that have just come on the market. Mind you, they may not actually be my personal listings --- just intriguing properties I've come across this week.

Feeling nosy about the District of Columbia?
Feeling nosy about Virginia?
Feeling nosy about Maryland?

If you know someone who might be interested in this list, please forward it on to him or her. And if there's a listing that you're curious about yourself, just let me know ... and I'll show it to you ... just for the hell of it ... no obligation ... *I promise*. Really. (One of the perks of being the friend of a real estate agent ought to be that you get to freely snoop around other peoples' homes!)

Bike Sharing Has Arrived!

This week the Washington Post featured a great article about the exciting new bike sharing program in the District. I am personally quite excited to see that the city has started this program and I hope that they plan to expand it to the “non-NW” areas of the city.

I think it would be great to have it Union Station and Eastern Market at a minimum. The Capitol Hill area is already such a walking/biking friendly area. I think that the SmartBike DC program is a perfect complement to the already existing and thriving ZipCar which I enjoy using on a regular basis.

Did you know - the District now features nearly 34 miles of bike lanes around the city. In fact, just in the last few weeks they have added several miles through my Brookland neighborhood. Some of the most scenic streets in DC now have bike lanes, like East Capitol Street here on Capitol Hill. You can learn about these bike lanes at several websites, including http://bikewashington.org or http://www.waba.org.

Speaking of biking, one of my favorite clients had a wonderfully entertaining Letter to the Editor in today’s Washington Post. Apparently her bike is simply not sexy enough for Union Station standards. Enjoy her letter here:

Union Station's Chutzpah
The Washington Post Opinion Page
Thursday, August 14, 2008; A16

Like many people these days, I am concerned about the environment, and I try to do my part to reduce my environmental impact. I recycle, and my garden consists of native plants. Instead of driving from my house on Capitol Hill to my job in Silver Spring, I ride my bike to Union Station and hop on the Metro.

Unlike the bikes being rolled out in the SmartBike DC program [Metro, Aug. 13], my bike is old. I bought it used from a bike store a few years ago, and it has certainly seen better days.
But it functions just as it should, taking me from point A to point B. So imagine my shock and sadness when I got off the Metro after work Tuesday and my bike was missing from the bike rack outside Union Station.

I went to the nearest security guard to report the apparent theft, and he promptly retrieved my "stolen" bike. As it turned out, my bike had been judged to be "unsightly" by Union Station standards and had been impounded. They had cut the lock and confiscated the machine, obviously without bothering to verify whether it was abandoned or just a little beat up.

Are they serious? Is this a message the District wants to send? Is this how the nation's capital is promoting sustainability? Is the city going to confiscate old cars that function perfectly well? Are banks going to reclaim houses that show some peeling paint? Give me a break . . . and a new bike lock while you're at it.
GEORGINA ARDALAN
Washington

All this bike talk gets me thinking; maybe I could show houses on bike - that could be fun! As always, if you need help buying or selling please let me know at Michael@RealAstute.com or 202-369-9821. Happy biking! Michael

Feeling Nosy about DC? MD? VA?

Ok, I know you're probably not planning on moving this very second, but here's this week's list of interesting-looking listings that have just come on the market. Mind you, they may not actually be my personal listings --- just intriguing properties I've come across this week.

Feeling nosy about the District of Columbia?
Feeling nosy about Virginia?
Feeling nosy about Maryland?

If you know someone who might be interested in this list, please forward it on to him or her. And if there's a listing that you're curious about yourself, just let me know ... and I'll show it to you ... just for the hell of it ... no obligation ... *I promise*. Really. (One of the perks of being the friend of a real estate agent ought to be that you get to freely snoop around other peoples' homes!)

I love Flipping Out!

Who saw the season finale of “Flipping Out” on Bravo? I can’t get enough of this show. Jeff Lewis is both crazy and brilliant at the same time. Yes, his OCD tendencies are nutty and he treats his staff bizarrely, but his renovation work has a great modern and sleek aesthetic.

I think my favorite moment in the finale this week was when Jenni said that a situation was a “Cluster Foogayzee.” I can think of many moments in this biz that are absolute cluster foogayzees, I think I might start using this term. Another great moment came when Jeff had to scoop the human poop that was out back at one if his flips. There was another moment like this in season one which he makes reference to in the scene. I am guessing it’s a disgruntled, or just lazy, employee!

I had missed last week’s episode, so I watched it the hour before the finale started and I was pleased to see that Chris Keslar quit. After the guacamole incident I thought he had to quit to retain any sort of self respect. I am dying to know if Jenni and Chris Elwood are officially over. That story line made me a little sad for Jenni. It must be tough to have your personal life broadcast on TV, I am sure when she signed up she never saw this coming. I guess that is why I really enjoy this show; it is the closest to “reality” that a reality show can get.

There is a wrap up interview show on Tuesday, August 12th at 10 pm which I am hoping will answer some of my lingering questions. I sure hope that Bravo renews this show for another season, until then you can visit their website here. Oh, and I won’t be wasting my time with the second season of Million Dollar Listing, it will just make me bitter!