Blog
Navigating the 2021 Bidding Wars
June 28, 2021
It started early this year, and so far, there is no letup. Ugh! Recently, I listed a pretty house in my neighborhood. Within five minutes of going live, my iPhone started to dance around my desk. And over the next few days, people were lined up waiting to get in. ...
Continue ReadingWill “Open Concept” Become the Next Avocado Green and Harvest Gold for Kitchens?
When my parents moved to the Washington area sometime around 1970, their newly build house had the latest in the fashion of the day – a kitchen theme with avocado green and harvest gold in the appliances and wallpaper. It was about as chic and trendy as one could get, until ...
Continue ReadingHardwood Floors? Really?
A lot of the condominiums for sale in the District are in buildings erected after 1940 that have wood parquet floors. And when they go on the market, the sellers have often buried the parquet under new floors that look like wood. And in some newly constructed and renovated houses and ...
Continue ReadingThe Graying of Washington Neighborhoods
The Graying of Washington Neighborhoods My own house is typical of many Washington row houses built around 1915. It’s boxy with a front porch across the facade, and it’s built of bricks that are a sort of German dark mustard yellow. During the several decades I’ve lived here, I’ve been ...
Continue ReadingEscalator Clauses: Risky Business When Buying a House or Condo
OK, I have nothing against escalators, at least not the ones that get you from Ladies Handbags to Housewares at Bloomingdales. But when you are planning a strategy that will win a bidding war, so called “escalator clauses” are tool that’s a necessary evil to win your next home. In ...
Continue ReadingHow Much Is Your Home Worth?
If you want to find out the value of your automobile, there is an app for that. Just pull up Kelley Blue Book’s web site, and you can get a very close estimate of what the value is for any model in any condition, whether you plan to trade it in ...
Continue Reading
