These are not real estate’s urban (or, for that matter, suburban) legends. Bidding wars are back.

A house on Rodman Street NW near the Woodley Park Metro sold last week with a total of seven offers on the table.

One of my colleagues was part of an offer frenzy on a little house in Bethesda. It was small and needed work, but the asking price was under $700,000, making it an instant hit with buyers.

I got really pushy about getting an offer presented and ratified on a Saturday before the Sunday Open House, and the listing agent, Ellen Silver, was inundated with calls from agents whose buyers flipped for the place at the Open.

If we had patiently waited until Monday afternoon to meet with the sellers, I am certain there would have been more offers on the table, though one can never really tell - which is the reason the sellers signed the contract on Saturday.

Another favorite buyer hesitated to sleep on two pretty fabulous places, and each was under contract by the time her alarm clock went off the next morning.

Now, this isn’t happening to every property listed for sale in the Washington area, but it is happening to houses and apartments that look good, smell good and are well-priced and in great locations.

Is this the beginning of the spring market? I sure hope so. I’m helping some sellers ready their townhouse for the market. It’s near Metro, and it will look fabulous by the time my For Sale sign goes into the ground in a couple of weeks. And like most agents, I really hate bidding wars, unless they are being waged at one of my own listings!