The Deal of the Year: The Beautiful Foreclosure

• December 20, 2011
• 2 Comments

by Shilpi Paul

146 U Street NW

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.

And usually, UrbanTurf’s top bargain of the year comes from one of the many Deal of the Weeks that we have featured in the past 12 months. This year, however, a foreclosure that garnered our attention back in late September for This Week’s Find stood out from the competition.

Living Room

The term “foreclosure” usually conjures up images of distressed buildings that are lucky to find a buyer. So when UrbanTurf saw this bank-owned home in LeDroit Park, we were struck. The four-bedroom row house needed some minor work, like base molding and appliances, but had been renovated extensively by a previous owner and had a new kitchen, bathroom and a finished basement. At $499,000, it was priced well below comparable homes in the area.

In fact, the listing was priced so low (comps ran closer to $550,000-$600,000) that it caught the attention of some commenters. “Will be gone SO QUICK,” said one commenter. “Low ball listing attempting to spark a bidding war,” said another.

The commenters were right. The house actually ended up being not quite the deal that was advertised after all; it went under contract within a week and sold in late November for $553,146. To many, however, that would still be a bargain.

More details and photos below.

• Address: 146 U Street NW (map)
• Listing Price: $499,000
• Sales Price: $553,146
• Bedrooms: Four
• Bathrooms: 3.5
• Square Footage: 1,696

Previous Best Of 2011 entries:

• Best Real Estate Idea (If It Works): Popularise
• Best Real Estate Amenity of 2011: Bathroom Pencil Sharpener
• The Best Listing of the Year For Mere Mortals
• Best (or Worst) New Neighborhood Moniker: Silicon Hill
• Best (And Most Ridiculous) Real Estate Rumor of 2011: R. Kelly Apartment Hunting on Capitol Hill
• The Best Listing of the Year For Well-Paid Lobbyists

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/the_best_deal_of_the_year_the_beautiful_foreclosure/4797

2 Comments

1. Cynical Dude said at 10:36 am on Tuesday December 20, 2011:

   So the deal of the year was a foreclosure that looked nice, but lacked basic elements like insulation in the roof, and yet sparked a bidding war and sold within a few days at 11% over asking?  If that was really the best deal of the year, then DC is a horrible market for buyers.  Why not just write about that instead?

1. DC Joe said at 3:35 am on Wednesday January 4, 2012:

   If $550,000 for a row house in Bloomingdale is the deal of the year then, as cynical Dude says, DC sucks for buyers.

Join the discussion