Welcome

Thank you for checking out HousePat.com. This is a new website for me, and it’s a work in progress, with the goal of creating a place where you can come for information and advice for living in Washington, DC

Washington is our nation’s capital, a place people around the country see on the news every night. There are monuments to presidents, war heroes, and other people who made a huge difference. And it is also a city of neighborhoods with their own unique homes, many with a history. It’s where I work as a matchmaker, putting people and homes together.

So I’ll be adding information on neighborhoods, condo developments, architecture. And I’m putting together links for what you need to know about the amenities that different parts of the city offer, how to find great schools, and navigating the area’s public transportation.

And if you need a Realtor to help you form and realize your vision for how and where you want to live, I hope you’ll contact me for help.

For Sellers: here is a good place to start for help in turning the place you live into buyer bait!

For Buyers: start here for the information you’ll need to create a vision for your new place, and get it without doing anything crazy.



Latest News

The Graying of Washington Neighborhoods

June 28, 2021

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 ...

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Escalator 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 ...

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How 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 ...

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What You See Is What You Get?  Not Necessarily in Real Estate Listings Online.

This week, I have an old friend flying into town to look at houses, and the inventory is tight. Even so, when I signed onto our multiple listing service, I found a lot of places that looked like possible fits, at least that’s how they looked in the photos. But ...

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You Snooze, You Lose – But the Early Bird May Not Get the Worm!

No doubt about it.  We are in a really goofy real estate market in the Washington, DC area.  And if you want to move, finding the perfect house is a whole lot easier than buying the perfect house.  And buyers who haven’t been in the market for a while are finding the current ground rules ...

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Why We’re Probably Not In a “Housing Bubble”

Whenever we get into a housing market where most sales are the result of bidding wars that lead to what often seem like crazy high prices, we start getting whispers that it can’t last – that it’s like a giant Double Bubble waiting to burst all over your face and ...

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