A Smart DC MD Real Estate Team to guide you home
I have a friend who lives in the apartments across from BCC High School. The last time I was there I was blown away by the view of the school- especially as the sun was setting. Last night I remembered to bring my camera along. I think the resulting photo is rather spectacular! You can see the Mormon Temple in the distance.
When I was a kid “The Beverly Hillbillies” was a really big deal. It was on the air for seven years and led the ratings for two of them. By the time I got around to seeing it, it was on the afternoon rotation (hardly prime time). It was a pretty goofy show, with plenty of canned laughter.
One of the characters, Elly May Clampett, the curvaceous daughter of Jed Clampett, was as famous for her pitching arm as she was for her love of water. She was a big fan of the swimming hole, the ce-ment pond, and the rather dishy pool in the back of their grand Beverly Hills mansion. Let’s just say that she was a water enthusiast.
And so, without further ado, here’s your link to swimming holes across the United States. It’s a great site full of interesting information about, well, swimming holes, hot springs and spots close to major highways (for a road trip dip!). Natural lakes or quarries are to be found all around the US. I’ve been to Beaver Dam near Baltimore. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen people on a spinning log (they weren’t too good, either). It had a great rope swing that scared the hell out of me when my own kids were on it. I’ve heard that it has closed down, or severely curtailed it’s offerings. Let’s hope the same can’t be said of your local spot.
Summer is upon us. Make Elly May proud and take a dip!
We’ve got a new listing in town, and it’s a Sears Kit House… a Vallonia.. perhaps. “1928 Sears Bungalow” proclaimed the listing description. I was a little puzzled when I first spied it on the MLS because it appeared to be brick, and I’ve only ever seen Vallonias with wood siding. Lo and behold, when I got a closer look, I discovered that the “brick” was, in fact, fake brick– more like asphalt siding. Sears actually sold brick veneer, then called “face brick” since the 1910s. It’s also possible the surface was added later and that, as a national kit house expert likes to say, “some siding salesman had his way with it.”
Still, the charm of the house was able to shine through. The distinctive exterior posts have endured, along with some original windows and doors, and the interior remains pretty true to the catalog drawings. Things started to fall apart when I pulled out the old tape measure. Room sizes were off an inch here, a foot there. And while I could explain away the dip in the rear roof to an addition, the second double window at the front should have been my first clue. I am vexed.
According to the public record, this house was built in 1928. Back in the day all 12,000 pieces of the Vallonia (give or take) could be had for $2,071. As always, options were available for improvement (heat, electricity). An addition has been put on the back of the house, and they modified the stairway to the 2nd floor and basement somewhere along the way. I didn’t come across any grease pencil marks or identifying stamps on the exposed beams, though there was some writing on one of them… it appeared to be stained. And if I had my guess at what it said (upside down, of course) it would be: 651 FALLIED. What the heck does that mean? Might this be the kit house equivalent of “Rosebud”? We may never know.
This lovely house resides in Brookmont– one of the prettier riverside communities in Bethesda and home to a lot of kayak enthusiasts. Erich Cabe of Coldwell Banker is the listing agent. This Sears Catalog House/Sears knock-off boasts views of the Potomac (if you can see through all of the trees!). It’s got 2 bedrooms and a full bath on the main floor (like the original) and 3 bedrooms and a half bath on the second floor. The basement is walk-out, and has a few finished rooms, but needs a little more work. Also to be found: pretty hardwood floors, original trim work in most rooms, and a couple of decks. Available for $849,000.
As always, let us know if you would like help authenticating your mail-order home or if you like to live in an authentic kit house (or a close copy)! We would be happy to help you find one.
(September 2017 update: After the discovery of a Sears & Roebuck mortgage for the original construction, we are now 100% certain that the house is indeed the real deal! You can see pictures of other authenticated Vallonias in the DC area here.)
When I first started out in real estate, I remember tagging along with a seasoned agent on our Tuesday Tour. During the course of our ride, I heard about one of her clients who had found the perfect house… absolutely perfect… but for the neighbors next door. Turned out the neighboring house was home to their daughter’s ex-boyfriend (so they discovered after they fell in love with it). The daughter nixed the purchase. So continued the search.
As a buyer, you have to walk the walk. Or, in layman’s terms, get out and about in your possible new neighborhood and get the lay of the land. The time to do this is before you write an offer, or at least before all of your contingencies expire.
It’s your golden opportunity to see how long it takes to walk to metro. Or find the nearest park. Is it an uphill walk to the bus stop? Will you need to hop in your car to get to your nearest Starbucks? Or grab a gallon of milk? Try to be there during the times that you will be coming and going from work. Do the neighbors talk to each other? Are the streets backed up with traffic? Is there a place where people gather to let their dogs play? Is there a daycare center near by? Does your daughter’s ex live next door? Or, your ex?!
Most importantly, you should talk to the neighbors. See if there is anything going on in the neighborhood that is contentious (i.e., new middle school or hospital expansion) or controversial. Ask if there are any nut jobs on your “new” block. I had one client move into their new home only to find that there was a really troubled teen just 3-doors away. Eventually the kid moved, but for a couple of years he lurked. Another client moved onto a block only to discover that it was the preferred short-cut for overflow traffic heading north on 355 at rush hour. You don’t get that sort of info on a single Sunday open house.
On the flip side, I once heard of a crafty buyer paying some bums to hang outside a Dupont Circle Sunday open house in order to scare off the competition. Can you imagine! Again, a single Sunday shouldn’t be the criteria upon which you base your house-buying decision. Invest a little of your time and hang out… as much as you can.
And remember, please, that what you deem important might not be such a big deal to me. It’s not that I’m insensitive, but everything is subjective. It pays to do your homework. As your agent, I’m pretty good at finding houses. But I’m not so good at sniffing out barking dogs or brash neighbors. And, even if I were, that barking dog might melt your heart some day, and the brash neighbor could turn out to be your best buddy. Life’s a gamble.
When making the largest purchase of your life, a little due diligence can pay off.
Buyer beware. There’s a tempting mortgage rate being dangled in front of your eyes, and it just might come from an e-lender (gasp!) or an out-of-town lender. Here’s why we will always advise you to opt for the local guy/gal:
My rant is done. I fear I’ve been a little snarky. No doubt, there are economies to be had by working with the big guys. But it’s served up with a side of crazy. Buyers… I’m begging you… keep it local! It will save you energy, time, possibly money, and certainly your sanity.*
*We’ve got a long list of tried and true lenders. Give us a call and we’ll happily share.
Cati and I had the pleasure of meeting Diana Kohn (President) and Lorraine Pearsall (VP for Preservation) of Historic Takoma, Inc.* Cati has been involved in the upcoming Takoma Park House & Garden Tour, having sold one of the houses on the tour (and discovering in the process that it belonged once to the daughter of Frederick Douglass!). Long story short, she was able to identify several houses on the tour as Sears Kit Houses (our specialty!), much to the delight of an owner or two. We were treated to a mini walking tour on Wednesday. It was a lovely indulgence!
Anyway, the Takoma Park House & Garden Tour is this Sunday, May 6 from 1-5 pm, rain or shine. For ticket and tour information, visit HistoricTakoma.org
There are some real beauties on the tour, ranging from old to new. Don’t miss it!
1) Housing affordability conditions are the best since NAR (National Association of Realtors) started recording such things in 1970. (The index is based on median home price, median family income and average mortgage interest rates).
*From the National Assoc of Realtors.
2) Inventory in the Washington Metro area is the lowest since the last quarter of 2005- the peak of the market. (Housing inventory is considered balanced when it is a 6-month supply. We now have a 3.2 month supply. This is sure to drive prices up, especially in the hottest areas with the most demand.)
*statistics provided by MRIS.
This is the first time I’ve written about a kit or catalog house. Cati has a few years on me with this recent obsession, and on our drives around town names of kit houses flit off her lips like old multiplication tables… it’s no longer a novelty… rather, it’s ingrained. “Oh, there’s an Alhambra. Oooo, look at that Americus. Isn’t that a Vallonia?” I have some catching up to do. She’s also very descriptive in the way she writes about these homes, having been a former journalist. I mean, how will I ever top a title like “A Sears Winona Kit House and a Gallon of Blood”? It’s just not in my make up. It’s sorta like having Springsteen be your warm up band.
But, persevere I must. Cati and I like to keep an eye out for the latest real estate listings that we think might have kit house “potential.” Some weeks the listings are a plenty; others, we really have to scrape the the bottom of the barrel. This was the case with a house we recently viewed on England Terrace in Rockville, MD. With a great deal of misplaced enthusiasm, we managed to talk ourselves into thinking that it was an original Sears “Winona.” After all, on paper it seemed to share many of the characteristics. It appeared to have roughly the same (original) footprint, it was
built during the right era, a dormer on the left side of the house appeared to be exactly where the dining room would fall, and it had this cool looking odd little door in the middle of the living room wall…once we spied that in the house photos, we were smitten.
Tires screeching, we raced out to Rockville, took a few false turns, and eventually found the house.
Almost as soon as we entered the house, we knew it was a bust. Why? The trim–where it hadn’t been replaced–was all wrong. And the dormer favored the front of the house, not the middle as in the Winona. The distances of the bedroom windows from the corners were wrong. The odd little door in the middle of the dining room wall (which we had seen in interior photos of “real” Winonas) was still in place, but the similarities stopped there. The basement entrance had been modified when the addition was put on, so there were no identifying marks near the stairs (where we’ve discovered them in the past). And a good deal of the basement had been re-built, as evidenced by the newer beams & shiny metal plates at just about every corner.
The biggest revelation, however, were the darkened original beams: roughly finished and a crude kind of wood–nothing like the high-quality lumber that was the trademark of even the simplest Sears house.
It’s possible that someone built the house based loosely on the design of a Winona he’d seen somewhere. That was done a lot in those times, that sort of “borrowing.” It’s also possible that a builder bought the kit and modified it, though in this case the building materials didn’t point that way. It could be a knock off from a competitive kit company that we just don’t know about. The possibilities are endless. All we can tell you, for sure, is that it’s not a Winona.
While the outcome was a disappointment, it got us away from our desks and computer screens, out into the brilliant blue afternoon, checking out houses, which is what we love. Next!
(Click here for an authentic, though modified, Winona in Arlington, VA)
Some might find it a little odd that we are promoting reasons to fire your agent… on our website. But, good advice is often hard to come by (and we’re full of it)!
Not all real estate relationships are a good match. Sometimes there are compelling reasons for parting ways with your agent. Here are our top 10:
So, if you’re feeling like the pained guy in the photo, for goodness sake, ditch your agent.
And if we can help answer any questions about buying or selling, or administer some friendly advice about real estate, please give us a call. We’re here to help.
