Deal of the Week: Investors, Proceed With Caution

• April 9, 2012
• 8 Comments

by UrbanTurf Staff

2034 1st Street NW

For those investors who may be interested in this installment of Deal of the Week, UrbanTurf’s advice is proceed with caution.

The listing is a Bloomingdale row home on 1st Street NW, which is part of an estate sale and needs to be completely rehabbed. In fact, the warning above comes from the listing description which notes that interested parties should bring a flashlight and “watch your steps!!!!” an indication that the interior is not very safe for people to walk around in. What’s more is that only cash offers are being entertained, a stipulation that basically limits the buyer pool just to investors.

Despite the warnings and restrictions above, the sizable property and its location make it a good deal for the right buyer, and based on the demand for properties like this in the District, we suspect a bidding war will likely ensue. To give a sense of the home’s return-on-investment potential, a five-bedroom property a little farther north on 1st Street sold for about $680,000 late last summer.

More details below.

• Full Listing: 2034 1st Street NW (map)
• Price: $325,000
• Bedrooms: Five
• Bathrooms: Three
• Year Built: 1906
• Listing Agent: Juan Umanzor, Long & Foster

Update: The listing description said that offers would be presented on April 12, but it appears that there is already a sale pending on this home.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/deal_of_the_week_investors_proceed_with_caution/5392

8 Comments

1. IMGoph said at 9:33 pm on Monday April 9, 2012:
   It would be interesting to know about the family that lived here. I'm sure there are interesting stories about their lives out there, somewhere.

1. Carol said at 9:55 pm on Monday April 9, 2012:
   Such amazing possibilities with this place. I hope the buyer is careful when restoring it.

1. Rob said at 10:55 pm on Monday April 9, 2012:
   I agree with Carol: I hope the buyer puts some care into restoring the house. Unfortunately, based on everything I've seen lately in Bloomingdale, the buyer will probably just rip out everything inside, re-do it with a cheap, bland interior, and then put it back on the market as a quick flip, rather than preserving or restoring any of the interior details. But one can always hope that whoever buys this house will be different.

1. Bloomingdale Rez said at 12:31 pm on Tuesday April 10, 2012:
   The house is already under contract. Considering the price, there may not be anything left for the buyer to restore/preserve.

1. neq said at 5:27 pm on Tuesday April 10, 2012:
   imgoph, just like pretty much every single house in the city. is there something about this house that intrigues you more than others?

1. DC buyer said at 6:25 pm on Friday April 13, 2012:
   The house will go for more than 400k. With all the necessary repairs, there will not be much profit, if any, left for a flipper. I suspect it will be bought by one with the intention to hold for longer term. Actually, I come to the conclusion that nowadays most shells in good location will go to home buyers as the prices are just not there for profit. Probably a good thing though.

1. DC Buyer said at 3:52 am on Tuesday April 17, 2012:
   MONA--I don't know how familiar you are with development process but your estimate is pretty much nonsense. This one is not small--but not super large either. Remember, when you convert a sfh to condos, you lose 8-10% of the square footage because condos only count inner space. Particularly, it has a partial fourth floor, slightly less than 7 feet ceiling height in the basement, rear exterior wall near collapse, all MEP needs to be replaced--how much do you think the construction will cost? Even if you hire subs directly, the cost will be more than 200k. Talking about condos, how can you expect a lower unit with 6'10'' sell for much? Then you'll need digging/underpinning--then another 100-150k will be added. Interest expense? Conversion tax (5% of the sale price)? Property tax? Architectural fees? Permits? Condo documents? You are just ignorant or intentionally misleading people here.

1. mona said at 8:25 pm on Monday April 16, 2012:
   As is common in this neighborhood, they will take this house and split in two and make 2 condo's. The houses on 1st st are very large and when in good shape can be very impressive homes. 325k is way cheap considering that on that same street a builder took a similar house and turned into to condos and sold both condos with a cummulative price of > 1 million. So DC Buyer is way wrong on not much left for profit,Bloomingdale is a hot area and things are flying off the market. Believe it or not, people were actually living in this house less then 6 months ago