UrbanTurf Puts Money Where Mouth Is

• August 5th 2010

by Mark Wellborn

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In case you hadn’t noticed, we do a fair amount of recommending for-sale homes here at UrbanTurf. So, who would we be if one of us at the office didn’t put our money where our mouth is, and actually buy one of the properties we’ve recommended?

On August 2nd, I closed on my first home purchase. It is a two-bedroom, two-bath condo in Logan Circle that may look familiar to readers because we featured it as a Deal of the Week about a month or so ago.

Given that the process is fairly fresh in my mind, I thought this would be a good opportunity to chronicle my buying experience, and answer questions that readers might have about the process. This will be a two-part series: this post will cover the specifics of the unit like layout, location and price; the second post will discuss the buying process, from finding the unit to closing.

There were three main reasons behind my decision to buy.

The first was the need for more space. I have been living with my girlfriend in a 500 square-foot one-bedroom apartment in Dupont Circle for the past year and a half, and it was getting cramped. The new place is 1,100 square feet, plenty of room so she doesn’t have to be in the room when ESPN is on and I can leave when Oprah shows up.

The second was the price. I have looked at hundreds (maybe thousands) of real estate listings in the DC area over the last year, and the stars all seemed to align with this unit in terms of price, space and location. More on that below.

Lastly, interest rates. Granted, they have been dropping for weeks now and may continue to do so, but a sub-4.7 percent long-term rate was just too good to pass up.

Here is a quick snapshot of the unit:

Specs: The condo is on the top floor of a four-unit converted row house in Logan Circle. The main selling point was the living room that is quite large and has high ceilings, hardwood floors, two large windows and a wood-burning fireplace. The living room is definitely what sold me, as the bedrooms are not the largest you’ll find in the neighborhood. The total interior square footage is just north of 1,100. Both the kitchen and bathrooms are in good shape, but will need to be renovated at some point in the coming years. The condo came with a parking space in the back of the house.

Location: The unit is on R Street between 13th and 14th, three blocks north of Whole Foods and three blocks south of the U Street Metro on the Green/Yellow Line.

Price: The list price for the unit was $549,900, or about $496 a square foot. I will go into greater detail about the price negotiations in the next post, but the final price was $541,500. Condo fees are about $200 a month.

In an effort to keep aspects of the transaction private, there are certain topics that will be off limits, e.g. who my agent was, who the seller was, and maybe a few other things that don’t immediately come to mind. Otherwise, fire away with questions in the comment section, and I will respond. Here are more photos of the unit:

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.production.logicbrush.com/articles/blog/urbanturf_puts_money_where_mouth_is/2347.