Capital Homes: Pat Kennedy’s Washington, D.C., Real Estate Blog

In the District of Columbia, like many jurisdictions, condo buyers get a little extra time after their offer is accepted to look at the basic documents that cover the money stuff and the basic ground rules set down by the owners’ association they are buying into.

These papers cover

• The budget
• The rules and regulations
• The by-laws governing the association
• Information about pending litigation, fees and pending special assessments
• While not required, I recommend that buyers also request the minutes of the last several board meetings and check out the building’s web site (if they have one).

Sound like a big snore? It is.

Still, it’s really important to go over these papers before you are obligated to buy the place.

Will your hyper-active Labradoodle puppy be welcome in the complex? Can you run a small business out of your unit? Do they require carpet on top of the pretty hardwood floors? Can you install a washer/dryer in your unit? Is it OK to barbecue on the balcony? These and other questions about the ground rules of the building are found, yes in the rules and regulations section.

Will the fees go up? The answer to this question is always a resounding “YES!” Still, you want an idea of the financial health of the complex. Are any big fix-up projects on the horizon, and is there money in a reserve fund to pay for them? This information should be in the budget, but you’re more likely to get the full scoop from the recent owners’ association meeting minutes.

Is anyone suing the building, or is the building involved in litigation, either with the builder/developer or deadbeat owners who aren’t paying their fees? Some buildings have the dispute resolution thing down and have learned to work out problems without lawyers. Others resort to litigation at the drop of a hat – an expensive way to handle most day-to-day problems. In DC, the resale “statement” will answer this question.

Any condo project will have issues.

• At some point, fees will increase.
• From time to time, there will be special assessments.
• There will be problems with some owners who do not respect the rules everyone agrees to live by.

And it’s not always possible to predict what living there will be like. Still, a reasonable amount of due diligence is a really good idea.

There are lots of web sites out there promising you all kinds of help you might not need if you are buying or selling a house or condo. It might be access to a gazillion lenders or real estate agents who will cut interest rates or commissions for a crack at your business. It might be the ability to get access to listing information without speaking to some pesky real estate sales person. It might be a free estimate of your home’s value.

So you push “Continue”. Then a little screen comes up asking for your basics - your name, where you live and how to contact you. Then you’re off to this wonderul web site where you can do it yourself or save a few bucks - or maybe not.

What happens next is that the proprietor of this web site sells your information to one or more lenders and real estate agents - maybe even moving companies, interior designers - you name it. Your name gets put out there to people who make money helping other people get moved.

But does your contact information get sold to good, experienced loan officers and agents and others who will provide high-quality, professional service?

Sorry, but probably not.

The experienced professionals get most of their business from people who have done business with them already. Because the lender or agent did a superb job, every time the client hears the word “move” or “real estate”, they think of their professionals like you think of Kleenex when you’re about to sneeze.

Read the rest

I just got home from showing a bunch of houses in my favorite champagne-taste, beer-budget neighborhoods, and one of them looked amazing on the MRIS.

It was the only house in this neighborhood that actually was beer budget. It wasn’t the style my buyers were looking for, but they wanted a big lot, and this one was almost half an acre - a farmette by DC standards. So we put it on the list.

The showing instructions said no lock-box, but call the seller. And when I did, a very sweet sounding person with a sort of senior citizen voice picked up the phone. She was most gracious and said to come on by. Oh, and to please excuse the clutter.

When we arrived, she introduced herself and her very old doggy. Then there were the cats. Some were inside and others were swinging from the trees in the back yard. The attached 2-car garage had, not a car, but about 6 stinky kitty litter boxes. And every room had, yes, a whole lot of clutter.

And I felt my life fast forward a bunch of years. I have a dog. I have 2 cats (down from a high of 5 - yikes)! Sometimes, the kitty litter does get a little stinky. I have clutter, and it seems to spawn at night when I am sleeping. Is this where I am heading?

And I’m posting this thing and going down stairs to scrub down the litter box and put away the Christmas decorations.

I may need an intervention - NOW!

If you are a Washington Area consumer trying to make sense of news reports about the local real estate market, you really have to listen carefully and read between the lines.

If, for example, you are listening to a nightly news report on a national network or cable news program, you will be getting information about the country as a whole. Even the local news shows are giving information about the far flung Washington Metro area, and the numbers may have little or no bearing to the market in your own neighborhood.

Remember that old saying that all real estate is local? Today at the Evers & Company weekly office meeting, Lisa Fowler, who is the Director of the Office of Housing Policy Research at George Mason University, gave a wonderful presentation on the fine points of the Washington, DC area market for residential real estate.

Have you read recently that sales for 2007 were down by 47 percent from their high in 2004? Well, yes, in numbers of properties sold across the whole area, that’s an accurate statement. But at the same time, the average sales price has climbed from $373,000 in 2004 to $470,000 last year, or an increase of about 26 percent.

But wait! Read the rest