Colonial Village Homes for Sale

Marcie Sandalow Homes For Sale , , , ,

Colonial Village is a picturesque DC community located at the northern “tip” of the town. Nestled against Rock Creek Park it’s known for its nice old houses and big green trees. In 2017 there were 22 sales ranging from $550,000 for a 3BR/3FB split-level in need of a complete “gut” to an elegant Tudor at $1,615,000. The median sales price was $925,000.

As of March 1, 2018 there are 3 active listings ranging from $849,000 to $1,550,000.  Two properties are currently under contract. And so far in 2018 there have been 2 settled sales. 

To see a roster of Colonial Village homes currently for sale (along with those in neighboring Shepherd Park) and to find out why we’re so fond of this abundantly verdant neighborhood, scroll down in the box below:

Distinctive Chevy Chase Dutch Colonial

Marcie Sandalow Homes For Sale , , , ,

Offered at $995,000, Sold for $1,090,000 Multiple Offers

7208 Ridgewood Avenue, Chevy Chase, MD 20815

Charm abounds in this handsome home located within short distance of downtown Bethesda, Chevy Chase Elementary School, and much more. Walkscore estimates a 17-minute walk to Bethesda Metro station. 

The house has a large living room with windows to the front and backyards, a small home office and a cozy den/music room. An updated kitchen overlooks the garden and the deck. And the dining room has two large windows with two exposures, basking it in sunshine. The second story features a master bedroom with its own full bath and walk-in closet. Two more bedrooms and a hall bath round out the second level.  The unfinished walkout basement is loaded with custom shelving. Outside you’ll find a large deck with extra-wide stairs, a deep backyard, a driveway for 2+ cars and a well-tended garden which explodes with color in the springtime. 

There is something really special about this house.  It just feels good!

Nestled into a large 7,500 s.f. lot, the home is nicely sized as-is or perfect for a future expansion.  Extra high ceilings (9’2″) on the first floor give the rooms some glamour and the little details like the classic wall panels in the living room just add to the romance. For more photos go to Bit.ly/7208-Ridgewood

For more information, please get in touch!

Marcie Sandalow 301-758-4894 or Marcie@Compass.com

Catarina Bannier 202-487-7177 or Catarina@Compass.com

Urban Lifestyle With Suburban Benefits

Catarina Bannier Homes For Sale , , , , , ,
4518 Chestnut St Bethesda

4518 Chestnut StSOLD for $1,385,000

Presenting our newest listing, open this Sunday from 1-4 pm: 4518 Chestnut Street sits on a quiet green side street near Lynbrook Park. Yet it’s also half-way between the Bethesda and NIH Metro stations and walkable to any kind of shop, restaurant or grocery store you might dream of. 6 bedrooms, 5 full baths and a half bath on 4,600 s.f. and 4 bright levels – that’s a lot of space! And did we mention the great open kitchen and that to-die-for party backyard?
Click here for the virtual tour or check out the full listing below. And come see us on Sunday to check it out or chat!

“A Pleasing Perspective From Every Angle”

Catarina Bannier Kit Houses , , , , ,
Sears “Elmhurst” in Alexandria, VA

The “Elmhurst” was one of Sears Roebuck’s more unusual kit house models. For one thing, the Elmhurst’s asymmetrical and rather intricate floorplan and Tudor styling don’t give away its mail-order kit origins too easily. It’s also richer in detail than many other Sears homes of that size. And for the DC area, it has the amazing advantage that it truly fit in with the brick- and Tudor-loving taste of the 1930s here. You can see the historic ad copy below.

There are 3 known Elmhursts in the metro area: one in DC’s Forest Hills, one in Silver Spring, MD, and one in Alexandria, VA. The latter – a beautifully kept and renovated specimen – is on the market for $1,195,000 right now, and will have an open house from 2-4 pm this coming Sunday. It’s been on the market through the holidays, and we’re surprised it hasn’t sold yet. We thought it was really worth seeing–check out the photos!–, and was definitely adapted beautifully to a 21st-century lifestyle. Let us know if you need to get in on another day.

Page from the 1929 Sears and Roebuck catalog courtesy of Antique Home.

 

The fireplace in the the Sears “Elmhurst” in Alexandria today, after being enclosed in a new mantel …
… and as seen in the 1929 Sears catalog

The 4-digit stamp on a piece of lumber under the basement stairs proves the Elmhurst to be authentic and not a copy. The coded numbers helped put the giant kit together.

For extra fun, have a look at the Silver Spring and DC “Elmhursts” for comparison:

Authenticated Sears Elmhurst In Silver Spring, MD
Authenticated “Elmhurst” in DC

 

For my collection of historic kit houses currently for sale in the DC area, click here.

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In the following form, please tell us about your discoveries, any house history you can share, and let us know about any kit houses coming on the market:

Winter Buyer? = Smart Move

Marcie Sandalow Buyers , ,

There are a number of reasons why focusing your search in the winter months can be an excellent strategy.

1. You can save some $$. Sellers are more forgiving in the winter months. Yup, deals can be had mostly because sellers are exhausted from lingering on the market and are finally willing to bend some on their pricing. Per Zillow, those who buy a home during the peak selling months usually pay a premium of $1,500, but those who purchase homes in the off months paid $3,100 less than average.

2. Less competition. If you are moving within the same school district, or, if schools aren’t an issue, buying in the winter can do away with some of the competition. A lot of buyers time their search to the school calendar which is why the Spring market is always so busy.  Eliminate that criteria and you’ll have opportunities in every season. Lots of folks get distracted from their house hunting during the holidays, so November-January can be great months for serious buyers.

3. You are the star! Most real estate agents, mortgage brokers and settlement attorneys slow down during the holidays, meaning you will be the focus of all their attention. It’s your chance to be the only child. Embrace it!

4. Less to choose from. You would think that this is a bad thing, but some buyers are overwhelmed by all the offerings. If this is your M.O., then the winter market is for you!

If you’re in the market for a (winter) home, give us a call… we can help!

The All-American Americus

Catarina Bannier Kit Houses , , , ,
Foxhall kit house for rent
A 1925 “Americus” from Sears Roebuck currently for rent on Foxhall Rd in Washington, DC. Photo courtesy of Harding Polk and Jennifer Drews of Compass via MLS

A Sears “Americus” that’s currently available for rent in DC’s Foxhall neighborhood reminded us how popular this particular model was in the 1920s. The mail-order company described it as a “fine home that any American can be proud of and be comfortable in.” If you chose this model, you were assured to buy a house that was “dignified, substantial” and would “never go ‘out of style’.”

This must have been a convincing pitch at the time, at least in the nation’s capital. The “Americus” was the one most popular kit house model built in town; there are nearly 20 surviving specimen known in DC, and several more in the close-in suburbs.

While its design is a basic square with a hipped roof and full-width front porch, the “Americus” also has the advantage of some characteristic elements that make it easy to spot. One of the bedrooms, for instance, extends into the porch roof — an unusual feature we’ve never seen in any other home. And there are those decorative triple brackets on all the corners of the roof and porch. The brackets have sometimes fallen victim to renovations, but you can usually see that top room jotting out.

The “Americus” was more of an end-user house even here in DC, documented by the fact that most of them were purchased by the people who would live in them (and many had original mortgages from Sears Roebuck). The Foxhall house, permitted in 1925, has seen numerous updates and expansions over time, but it still retains a bunch of original details that are fun to look at. Check out the gallery for some of those, and for more pictures of “Americus” kit houses in DC, Bethesda, Kensington and Takoma Park.

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As always, if you’d like to see the rentable Americus, or any other home on the market, just give us a shout! (For my collection of historic kit houses currently for sale in the DC area, click here.) Happy Holidays!

Please use the form to tell us about your discoveries, about any house history you can share, or let us know about any kit houses coming on the market:

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Tax Reform for Homeowners

Marcie Sandalow Home Owners ,

Now that the House and Senate have passed their own versions of tax reform, homeowners are wondering what’s next?  There’s no reason to panic just yet because we don’t know which version will be adopted. Furthermore, the majority of mortgage interest deductions won’t be affected anyway since the majority of mortgages are under $500,000. For the higher priced areas we certainly hope that the Senate version will prevail.

Here’s a breakdown on the legislation:

Deductions Senate Version  House Version
Capital Gains Exclusion Owner must have lived in the property for 5 of the last 8 years Same
Property Taxes Deduction limited to $10,000 Same
Mortgage Interest Deductions on loans up to $1-million Deductions on loans up to $500,000
State & Local Taxes Not deductible Same
Second Home Mortgages Not deductible Same
Moving Expenses Not deductible Same
Home Equity Line of Credit Not deductible Same
Interest on Student Loans Not deductible Same

The next step is for both sides to come to an agreement on a final bill. And then that bill needs to be voted on. It’s not too late to make your voice heard. Let your congress member know what you’re thinking! Click here for an easy way to contact them.

What The Windsor Went Through

Catarina Bannier Kit Houses , ,

Before & After pictures can be exciting – there is something so positive and encouraging about the potential (or the decay, or even the misguidedness) they show. The B & A here (with MLS pictures from August and November of 2017) isn’t quite as interesting as the comparison of this one to another home. They were two incarnations of what started out as pretty much the same house.  Earlier this month, we featured a sweet little time capsule in Woodridge – a more or less completely untouched Sears “Windsor.”  Today, we’ll show you one that was just flipped. Note: the fun lies in the listing slide shows.

The “Windsor” was one of the more modest “Modern Homes” models from Sears Roebuck & Co. There are 6 known Windsors in DC, and only one of them can be found in the NW quadrant. The 1926 specimen in Chillum sold this summer pre-emptively for $315,000, and it has now reemerged fully renovated, available for a stately 649,990. The modest exterior only held on to a few of the original details, but it also belies an airy interior. Quite lovely, actually, and it definitely beats having the house torn down! Yes, we know–there’s not much left of the old little mail-order bungalow beyond its bones, but sometimes, we’ll take what we can get.

In the meantime, it remains to be seen whether the faith of the Woodridge Windsor will be any better, or perhaps worse. It went under contract after the first weekend. We’re not sure whether the buyer was an end user, a builder, or a flipper.

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As always, if you’d like to see the renovated Windsor, or any other home on the market, just give us a shout! (For my collection of historic kit houses currently for sale in the DC area, click here.)

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In the following form, please tell us about your discoveries, any house history you can share, and let us know about any kit houses coming on the market:

 

 

Relive “Early American Qualities” Today

Catarina Bannier House History ,
Colonial Village Shepherd Park homes for sale
2007 Plymouth St NW in DC’s Colonial Village neighborhood

It’s been one of my favorite streets in DC for a long time: Plymouth Street in the original part of Colonial Village, the section that gave the neighborhood its name. It’s a 1930s subdivision of about 90 homes that is surrounded by Rock Creek Park on three sides. The streets are unusually wide and have circles and park-like enclosures. All the original homes here were replicas of “Authentic Colonial Dwellings” of the period of the “Original Thirteen Colonies,” as a 1935 Washington Post advertisement explained. The insides of the homes, however, were state-of-the-art when they were built.

The house at 2007 Plymouth St NW, currently offered at $1,075,000, was one of those homes. It’s been updated and expanded since but offers an abundance of neat original details such as a total of 5 (4 original) fireplaces and beautiful library built-ins that were featured in the Evening Star’s real estate section when the home was built.

We’re holding it open today from 2 – 4 pm, so please stop by. Who do you know who is looking for a great Colonial Village home? For a current 2017 collection of Colonial Village homes (on the market or under contract) please click here.