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!)

Brookland House and Garden Tour 2008

As many of you know, my wife and I live in NE DC's Brookland neighborhood and we love it! Brookland is on the Red Line, just 2 stops north of Union Station and is adjacent to Catholic University.

This Sunday, June 1st, the Greater Brookland Garden Club is hosting the annual Brookland House and Garden Tour from Noon to 5 pm. If you haven't been to Brookland, here is your chance. While you are here check the amazing gardens at the Franciscan Monastery. I live in the 1500 block of Lawrence Street, NE and happen to think it is the most beautiful block in Brookland!

Click Here to learn more about the Brookland House and Garden Tour. Hope to see you Sunday!

As always, if you are interested in real estate in Brookland or anywhere else in the DC, Maryland or Northern Virginia area, please feel free to contact me, Michael Dillon, at Michael@RealAstute.com or on my cell at 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!)

Hill East News and Another REDC Auction!

Great news for Capitol Hill East announced last week:

May 14, 2008

Fenty Announces Solicitation for Master Developer for Hill East

50-Acre Waterfront Site is the Last Major Waterfront Opportunity on Anacostia River

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty on Wednesday announced the District has issued a Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI) to attract a master developer to transform the former D.C. General Hospital campus and 50 acres of land into a new waterfront neighborhood that will be a national model for green building and sustainable development.

“Hill East is the last major piece of the District’s ambitious Anacostia Waterfront Initiative,” said Mayor Fenty. “This is an incredible opportunity to reconnect the Capitol Hill neighborhoods to the Anacostia River.”

The RFEI builds upon years of community-based planning, including the Hill East Master Plan that was approved by the D.C. Council in 2002. The site could accommodate up to 5 million square feet of residential, commercial and mixed-use buildings including new primary care health facilities and neighborhood-serving retail. Hill East Waterfront offers an opportunity to become a model for sustainable urban development. The U.S. Green Building Council selected this site as a LEED neighborhood development area and current designs for stormwater management already incorporate best practices for low-impact development.

Under the stewardship of the former Anacostia Waterfront Corporation and now the District’s Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, the District has already begun to redevelop the Hill East site. The District completed work on an interim plaza this month, which will ultimately become a village square above the Stadium-Armory Metrorail station. Design work for the extension of Massachusetts Avenue is 90 percent complete. The historic Anne Archbold Hall will be preserved and incorporated into the project. Stabilization work will begin this year.

Several national and international development firms expressed interest in responding to the solicitation after it was promoted at an Urban Land Institute Green Conference in North Carolina in April. Given the scale and complexity of the project, the District expects the redevelopment timeline will likely span at least 10 years.

Hill East is one of three major redevelopment sites that comprise the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative – a 20 year plan to reconnect the District’s residents and neighborhoods to the Anacostia River. Taken together with the Southwest Waterfront project and the redevelopment of Poplar Point, the three projects represent more than 12 million square feet of development potential.

The RFEI is available at http://www.hilleastwaterfrontdc.com/

Also, Real Estate Disposition Corporation (REDC) has announced another huge auction for the DC, Maryland and Virginia areas. As many of you know, I bought 2 properties at the last REDC Auction in DC and I have tenants in one and I am almost finished renovating another. I am more than happy to chat with folks about the process and my experience buying auction properties.

You can see the entire auction inventory by visiting REDC's website at: http://www.ushomeauction.com/.

As always, you can reach me, Michael Dillon, at Michael@RealAstute.com or on my cell at 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!)

Luxury Foreclosures

Luxury Foreclosures

For sale: Spacious home outfitted with six bedrooms, 5 1/2 baths, granite countertops, stainless-steel kitchen appliances, a three-car garage, exercise room and wet bar -- all for $875,000 in the Red Cedar West subdivision of Leesburg where houses once sold for $1-million-plus. The foreclosure signs have been showing up in more afflluent neighborhoods, and you could take advantage!

To read the entire article by Kendra Marr Click 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!)

Steps in Financing a Home, From Qualification to Lock

Home buyers sometimes get into trouble because they don't understand the steps involved in financing their purchases. These steps are qualification, preapproval, approval and lock. To read more about these important steps, click here to read the full article in The Washington Post, written by Jack Guttentag.

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me!
Michael
(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!)

Montgomery County Foreclosure Bus Tour

This Saturday, May 3rd from 9 am to 3 pm, Long and Foster is offering their first ever "Foreclosure Bus Tour" around Montgomery County.

My favorite home inspector Richard Rashke of US Inspect is going to be the on-bus inspection expert.

If you would like to attend the bus tour, please let me know ASAP at Michael@RealAstute.com or by calling me at 202-369-9821.

Read more about the tour in the official press release here:
LONG & FOSTER FORECLOSURE BUS TOUR MAY 3

Silver Spring, MD (April 23, 2008) – Long & Foster’s Downtown Silver Spring Office is leading a series of foreclosure bus tours with the first tour scheduled for Saturday, May 3, at 9:00am to 3:00 pm. The tour will focus primarily on single family homes in Montgomery County, Maryland.

The tour will begin and end at the Long & Foster office at 8701 Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring. The office is just 3 blocks from the Silver Spring/Red Line Metro station, and there is plenty of free parking close at hand. Future tours will focus on Prince Georges County and the District of Columbia.

“First-time homebuyers certainly can afford a detached home in Montgomery County – they just need to know where to look,” asserts Michael McGreevy, manager of Long & Foster’s Silver Spring Downtown office. “Our tour will feature 8-10 area homes, primarily bank foreclosures, which are listed from the low $300’s.” The market is full of opportunities for all level of buyers and this bus trip will highlight just some of those. Purchasing today while the inventory is high and the interest rates are low allows buyers to build equity towards trading up in the market at a later date.

In addition to actually visiting properties available for purchase, participants will spend time with mortgage lenders, home inspectors, settlement attorneys, and other key players in the industry. “The tour will be a home-buyer’s seminar on wheels,” points out Arelis A. Pérez, an experienced Long & Foster sales associate. “Tour participants may question the industry experts as they tour the properties, and as they travel from one property to another.”

“Bank-owned properties present a unique opportunity for the informed home-buyer,” adds Debra Hinkle, another experienced Long & Foster sales associate spearheading the tour. “Some of these homes are only in need of primarily cosmetic repairs – the kind that can be performed with little or no construction renovation experience.” Bank-owned and foreclosure properties are offered strictly in “as-is” condition, so buyers should expect no repairs to be made by the seller.

###

Again, to attend the tour, just email me at Michael@RealAstute.com or call at 202-369-9821. And as always, for all your real estate needs do not hesitate to contact me at any time!

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!)

New Life for Old Firehouse!

You know that old firehouse on North Capitol Street NW that you have passed a million times when you are driving north on North Capitol, it’s on the left just after North Cap and Florida intersect. There have been rumors about redevelopment of that firehouse for years. Many of my clients have asked me about it as well, and about a year ago when I called the city about it they told me that it was being sold by the city to a developer.

Well, good news about the old firehouse. I read in last weeks Washington Business Journal that the old firehouse is being redeveloped as a 3 level restaurant. Here is an artist rendition of what the firehouse will look like when it is complete:

The firehouse is officially known as "Engine Co. 12 at 1626 North Capitol Street NW" and I drove past there earlier today and I am happy to report that dumpsters have been delivered and it appears they have begun demo of the inside.

The firehouse is in a great neighborhood known as Bloomingdale. I have been showing some amazing houses in Bloomingdale that feature the kind of architectural detail that the Hill offers, but for half the price! The Washington Post recently ran a nice piece about Bloomingdale titled "The Word is Out About Bloomingdale" which just about says it all! Click HERE to read the piece.

Of course, if you are interested in Bloomingdale, or any other part of the DC area, please don't hesitate to let me know and I am happy to show you some of the great deals that are on the market right now!

Michael
(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!)

A Showhouse is Created in Georgetown

In this week's Home and Garden Section of the Washington Post there was a great article (What We Saw at the Show House ) about the Design House recently completed in Georgetown. The house, at 3014 P St. NW, will be open Saturday through May 11. Hours are Tuesday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. Tickets are $20; more information at http://www.dcdesignhouse.com. The house will also be one of 10 open for the annual Georgetown House Tour on April 26. Tickets for this one-day tour are $45; more information at http://www.georgetownhousetour.com.

If you go, let us know what you think!

Michael
(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!)

Some Tips for Spring Cleaning

By Annie Groer
Washington Post Writer

Time To Clean

"Spring cleaning" seems such an archaic phrase, conjuring rug beating outdoors and hands-and-knees floor scrubbing indoors. How Victorian. How June Cleaver. How ugh. . . .

But every now and then, even our high-tech, 21st-century homes require more than routine (occasional?) bed making, dusting and dish washing.

Because "deep cleaning" can seem overwhelming -- think carpet shampooing, window washing, grout scrubbing -- we deconstructed the project into time-manageable chunks and scripted them around four real-life situations (with apologies for stereotyping mothers-in-law everywhere).

Then we sought experts to share their best ideas for each scenario (wash windows on a cloudy day, clean blinds with an old sock over your hand) and their favorite products (lots of credit goes to green, clean, white vinegar and baking soda).

So let's crank up the music and get to work. Cheryl Mendelson, author of the encyclopedic "Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House," assures us it will make us feel better because "order produces more order."

Interested? Read the entire Washington Post article...Time To Clean

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!)

HVAC that is "Art Cool"

This week I was at a home inspection in Chevy Chase DC. We had Jerry Kerwin from Home Air Services, Inc consult with our client on ways to improve the heating and air in the 3 level home.

To my amazement, LG Electronics is now making a large framed picture that quietly opens up and blows air.

You heard me right...a framed picture on the wall that serves as your HVAC! LG calls it "Art Cool" and I think I agree! Click here to check it out yourself

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!)

Get Rid of it Event!

Our friends at Settlement Pros are hosting a GET RID OF IT EVENT!

This is a SHRED*, TRASH**, RECYCLE*** event for things you need to get rid of... Bring them your old papers, old computers, computer monitors and junk for the dump.

Please come on April 12 from 9-12 at the Settlement Pros office at 4719 Chestnut Street, Bethesda, Maryland.

*paper OK with staples, paperclips or binder clips; no cardboard
**no paint or hazardous materials
***limited to computer hardware and computer monitors