The Best Deal of the Year: The Architect's Three-Bedroom

• December 16th 2010

by UrbanTurf Staff

Deal of the Week is one of our more popular features here at UrbanTurf, and also one that arouses the most debate for the fairly obvious reason that a deal to one person is not necessarily a bargain to someone else. For this reason, picking a Deal of the Year is not the easiest of tasks.

However, of the many homes that we wrote about over the past 12 months, this year’s choice was widely thought of as a great deal by readers, agents and particularly potential buyers who, from the way they went after the home, one would think it was the only property on the market in the city.

In March, a three-bedroom row house on Gales Street about a block from the H Street Corridor that was entirely rebuilt by the architect/owner hit the market. The main floor is wide open and sweeps from the living room into the dining area and then to a new kitchen and a back deck, giving the first level the feel of a loft. The second level has two bedrooms, each with their own full bathroom and the third floor is essentially a large master suite with a walk-in closet and a deck that buyers were quite taken with from what we heard. The property also has off-street parking in the rear.

At 1,797 square feet, the price per square foot for the listing was $272, which along with the layout and renovations, resulted in a flood of interest from buyers that recognized the bargain.

“We loved the modern layout, and the open feel to the house,” Tom Bridge, who publishes the We Love DC blog, told UrbanTurf. “Mostly, though, it was the roof deck that had us absolutely in love with that place. What a beautiful feature, and what an amazing idea to do on a small row house in DC.”

Bridge realized that there would be competition, but how just how much wasn’t clear until he submitted an offer. Seven offers were ultimately submitted and because of the competition, the winning bid ended up being approximately $26,000 above the asking price.

While Bridge came to find another house to buy, like a lost love, he still thinks about what he might’ve missed out on.

“The Gales Street house had the only thing that makes me wonder what could’ve happened.”

• Address: 1524 Gales Street NE (map)
• Original Listing Price: $449,500
• Final Sale Price: $489,500 (with a $14,500 seller subsidy, so the final sales price was really $475,000).
• Beds: Three
• Baths: 3.5

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/deal_of_the_year_the_architects_three-bedroom/2774.