DC’s Best and Worst Suburbs

Narrowing down DC’s best and worst suburbs for families can be very subjective – for the most part. Most people with families would say the same 10 suburbs, give or take. Then narrowing to 5 might result in a good old-fashioned debate. Everyone would have a different top 5 based on their own priorities and preferences. But what about the worst suburbs? 

I’ll tie up the best areas with a Melissa-invented tagline. When I get to the worst areas, I’ll mostly be doing some apologizing to anyone who actually lives there.

Arlington, VA

Known for: Walkability, schools, proximity to DC.

Standout Neighborhoods: Can I say all of them? If I must narrow it down, then worthy mentions are Clarendon, Lyon Village, Cherrydale, Bluemont, Westover, Yorktown, Barcroft, Shirlington.

Why it’s great: If I wanted to leave DC and I could get my husband to live in Virginia, Arlington is where I would go. Great public schools, housing stock that’s a mix of charming new craftsman homes and older bungalow homes and easy commutes to everywhere. Plus, and this could be just my sense, but you have real people here. There isn’t a feeling of pretension among the residents. Everyone is friendly and they always seem to want to chat. Of course, that could be because I’m there with clients and they are curious about the potential new neighbors. But I’ve never had an off-putting experience here. People just feel .. real.

Arlington is expensive, but home values here increase every year – especially near metro stops. The retail and restaurant choices are excellent. You have a variety of options all over Arlington and won’t feel the need to go into DC for restaurant choices. Every grocery store is here as well – the usual Giant and Safeway choices along with Trader Joes, Whole Foods and Harris Teeter.

Arlington County also boasts this cool fact – anyone in the county is within a 10-minute walk to a park. The recreation center programs are fantastic with class and sports offerings for all ages. Some of the rec centers have fitness rooms and classes that rival area gyms at a fraction of the price. 

You pay for convenience in Arlington, but you get convenience in Arlington.

Vienna, VA

Known for: Yard space, trails, schools and a community vibe.

Why it’s great: Vienna is one of the most sought-after areas in Fairfax County. The W&OD trail access is something people love, along with the real small-town downtown. The number of restaurants and the quality of the food served in Vienna is enough to ensure you won’t be making the trek to other areas of Northern Virginia or DC. There’s fine dining, Italian, Asian Fusion, French plus a whole host of casual places like Taco Bamba and Foster’s Grille.

The Vienna schools are excellent. There are 12 parks in the town as well. Vienna hosts a ton of family-friendly festivals and concerts that run year-round.  Chillin on Church is a monthly block party that runs from June to September. There are Fourth of July fireworks, Oktoberfest, a Halloween Parade, Holiday Stroll, a Kids on the Green summer series of events, Memorial Day Celebration and a Farmer’s Market. ViVa Vienna is a music and craft festival.

Vienna is the suburb people grow into—and stay in. Your future self will thank you.

Bethesda, MD

Known for: Schools, established neighborhoods, long-term value.

Standout Neighborhoods: All of them. The variety in lifestyle runs the gamut here. If you want to live close to downtown where the shops and restaurants are, it’s pricier but possible. If you prefer to live in the suburbs, that is also possible. There are also parts of Bethesda on the western edge that feel more green, leafy and private. 

Why it’s great: Bethesda doesn’t have a huge employment center. You will find much more business on the Virginia side of the river. But there is enough nearby that make it a viable option for those who work at nearby employers like NIH, Marriott or Discovery Channel in Silver Spring. The walkability is a huge draw as are the big, leafy lots. Lots of residents here also commute downtown, as it’s a pretty easy ride on the redline.

Parents tend to break Bethesda down into the high schools. For some reason I cannot comprehend, people think Walt Whitman is the best of the three high schools in Bethesda. The other two high schools are Bethesda Chevy Chase (BCC) and Walter Johnson. I encourage you, no, I BEG you to look at the annual Bethesda Magazine where they publish the college outcomes each year. Be careful of the groupthink, the other high schools fare just as well if not better in getting students who go to the top schools.

There is also a lot of money here. You will find the public-school families, and the private school families. It’s been our experience that the private school families travel in different circles than public. But, because the public schools are as good as they are, you also see families with kids who leave private school and go back to public for high school.

Bethesda is Maryland’s answer to Arlington, but less urban and with a bunch more of the Jones’ trying to keep up with each other.

Falls Church City, VA

Known for: Small-town feel with urban access.

Why it’s great: Falls Church City has its own government and therefore, its own school system. It is tight-knit and has a walkable downtown and charming homes. Because of these factors, this is like Mayberry but on steroids because of the money here. Lots of well into the six-figure salaries and real estate bidding wars. In fact, if the world came crashing down, this is the last place in the DMV where there would still be bidding wars. 

You may be wondering why it didn’t rank higher – and that’s due to affordability. I could have and would have easily ranked this ahead of Bethesda, but, the prices here are through the roof and that’s because the schools are considered the best in the area. 

Falls Church City is one of the smallest municipalities in Virginia, with a Hallmark movie set vibe and a bustling family-friendly downtown.

Chevy Chase, MD

Known for: Charm, prestige, proximity to NW DC and lots of money.

Why it’s great: Chevy Chase is divided into Villages, which run like their own little towns. The villages all have their own governing boards. To give you an example of how they operate, Village revenue is made up from half income taxes, 25% property tax and 25% speeding enforcement.

People go to Chevy Chase to escape DC, but still have the convenience to the city amenities. Chevy Chase is residential with retail along the major corridor of Wisconsin Ave. The streets are lined with trees, the public schools are good but you will likely find a lot of residents here have the money to go private. There’s lots of old money aesthetics here. While you will see the teardowns, the village centers are the ones who do the approvals on the building and if they don’t like your design then it doesn’t get that stamp of approval!

Chevy Chase is very classy with a variety of residents who appreciate charm, beauty and being close to but not inside of DC.

DC’s Worst Suburbs

Oxon Hill, MD

Why it’s on the list: Even with National Harbor, it hasn’t taken off the way many hoped. Commuting is tough.
Melissa’s take: Apologies if you love it here or if you live here, but getting to Oxon Hill takes me an entire tank of gas to make my way through the gridlock of 695 and 295. 

Capitol Heights, MD

Why it’s tricky: It’s just over the DC line, adjacent to one of the most dangerous areas of DC. So, it’s not like you cross state lines and things improve.

Melissa’s take: Did you miss the part where I said it’s just over the DC line, adjacent to one of the most dangerous areas of DC?

Laurel, MD

Why it’s on the list: Long commute, inconsistent school ratings, limited housing appreciation.

Melissa’s take: Apologies again if you love it here or you live here, but people get tempted by the price point. Laurel is a tough area. You have to see it to understand. It’s gritty, commercial and generally too chaotic with little upside. I’ve had a lot of people contact me who want to move out of Laurel, but suspiciously, no one ever calls to say they want to move into Laurel.

Manassas, VA

Why it’s tough: Traffic is brutal. Schools and amenities are hit or miss. Pricing is affordable, but growth is limited. 

Melissa’s take: Apologies if you love it here or you live here. You might save on the house, but try getting to 66 to commute anywhere. By the time you get there, you will have been in the car long enough to want to turn around and go home.

Huntington (in Alexandria, Fairfax County)

Why it’s tough: It’s a very transient area.

Melissa’s take: The day I went to Huntington to get video footage of the seedy motel-row, people were beeping their cars at me. I was on the phone with Michael, and I said, “Oh good lord, people think I’m a hooker who escaped from one of these motel rooms!” 

“Best” means different things depending on your phase of life, commute tolerance, and school priorities. But if you’re moving up and want peace of mind and equity growth, stick with the tried-and-true over the overly trendy. Just don’t go too far in the direction of “up and coming.” Sometimes neighborhoods labeled as “up and coming” have infrastructure that will never allow the change needed for to revitalize and gentrify the neighborhood. And when people’s safety is in the mix, all bets are off when it comes to equity-building.

I hope this walk through my version of DC’s best and worst suburbs was informative. If you want to chat about your specific situation, I’m a call / text / email away. 

7 Houses You Should Never Buy

I’ve bought and currently own a lot of homes. Between my personal experience and what I see every day showing homes to clients and doing home inspections, I’ve got a list for you of seven homes you should never buy. Stick with me because I have tips for how to mitigate the problem or how to spot some of these house types. It is not always immediately obvious. It’s not all bad news here. I’m going to let you in on a secret near the end: One gem of a home that if you find it, you should absolutely buy it. It’s totally contradictory from a lot of advice you may hear. Along the way, I’m also going to throw water on what other real estate “experts” warn about when they say to never buy old homes.

A House with an Insurance Loss

Homeowner’s Insurance is a huge deal right now. Have you happened to notice this crazy weather we’ve had in the past decade? Well so has your insurer. Insurance companies have been paying out unbelievable claims for damage from all the various natural disasters we have experienced. Couple that with rampant insurance fraud and the problem is catastrophic.

Insurers decided to get proactive instead of reactive. There are companies that will drop you if your roof is over a certain age. Even if it doesn’t leak, they may not renew your policy. This means you either have to find other insurance that will take you, which of course will cost more, or you have to replace a roof that may have some life left to it. Fifteen years for a regular asphalt shingle roof is about the cutoff where some insurers say “Get a new roof, or get a new insurance company.”

If a loss was ever paid on a home, most insurers won’t touch it. There are homes which may be in perfect condition, maybe even rebuilt after damage like a fire or flood, and still – they won’t be insurable.

If you think you can forego insurance and you have a mortgage, guess again. Your mortgage company won’t let you. They will buy you a policy and make you pay for it via your mortgage payment.

Some states like Florida are in such a crisis that people are either selling and leaving the state or having to go with the insurance company of last resort, offered by the state. However, those companies are usually cost-prohibitive.

Hot Tip: How do you know if a house had a claim paid? Much like a credit report, the insurance industry has the CLUE Report. This report can be pulled to find out what claims have been paid out on a home to any previous owner at any point in time. Our contracts here used to require that the buyer secure homeowner’s insurance within 7 days of closing. Now they state that you have to secure insurance within 7 days of ratification – which is when all parties sign and agree to the offer.

Flips

I’m tired of people calling these flippers “Developers.” Developers actually develop property. They develop land, add value, work out issues with jurisdictions and utility companies, and negotiate with contractors, city or county reviewers and other interested parties in the community. I’m married to one, and the complexity of his job is nothing like what house flippers do.

There are good flippers. They are the ones who will take a house “down to the studs” and re-do everything to include all plumbing and electrical systems. I’ve been in so many flips in DC that when I find a house that’s flipped poorly, it screams it loudly. Flippers put lipstick on a pig, stage it elegantly and hope you don’t notice.

Hot tips coming at you: How can you tell if it’s a crappy flip? Flooring is new but uneven? Problem. I’ve said this line 100 times but if the backsplash is crooked that’s not a problem but it’s a problem. Anything new that was touched and re-done should be perfect. Straight, level, in perfect condition. Not crooked, not uneven, not done with cheap materials.

Another way to tell – Are there permits? Most jurisdictions have a way to look up permits online. See what’s been pulled and if they are final and closed. Also, not all jurisdictions operate equally. There are a couple counties in the DC Area where permits mean nothing. Contractors either don’t get them and there’s no repercussions or the government is so lazy that they don’t stop illegal construction or enforce standards.

When you buy a home, there should be receipts from tradespeople that the seller should provide. Their crew will have handled the general renovation to the house – demolition, drywall, painting and potentially structural issues. Specific items like the roof, plumbing, electrical, heating and cooling systems should have been completed by those tradespeople. There should be receipts and warranties that will convey to you.

1980’s Construction

There are a few time periods of construction I hate. The 80’s are my #1 time-period to avoid. My parents owned two different condos built in the early to mid 1980’s. I currently own two condos built in the early to mid 1980’s. Three of these 4 condos between my parents and I have a similar story that goes like this: Developer built the condo building, ran out of money, cut corners at the end. Forty years later people are still dealing with fallout. Water intrusion and spalling are the two most common issues we’ve experienced.

Why did this happen? I went on a witch hunt to figure it out. In 1981, the Economic Recovery Act was passed which made real estate into a great tax shelter for people. A lot of foreign investors came to purchase property in the U.S. Money supply grew, and lending was going wild for banks. In 1986, tax reform eliminated the tax shelters. Even though someone shut the music off, the party kept going. Banks kept lending. Savings and Loans crashed, rents began to fall, and the money spicket was cut off.

Most everything that was built was thrown up quickly so they could keep moving and make money on the next project.

My parents sold their two properties. I still own my two 1980’s, legwarmer, rubiks cube specials. One is a problem. The other has been managed well and seemed to be okay but we’ve got a meeting this week to discuss a “special assessment.”

Remember Surfside – the Champlain Towers Collapse in Miami? 1981. That’s all you need to know. Your hot tip on this issue is this – There’s almost no way around it. Early to mid 1980’s construction should mostly be avoided.

A Rundown Rental House

Poor house. It’s not its fault that the owner is a slumlord. Much like an Enterprise Rental Car, lots of abuse is doled out to rental homes. And owners tend to not keep the homes in peak condition. We have what I call a “group house” next door. The owner is never around, and she rents the house to four unsuspecting young professionals. She turned her garage into a bedroom to get more rent and her contractor, if you could call him that, just lay plywood across some beams. Water was pouring into the garage under the floor until it finally flooded. Then came the mold.

We unfortunately share a chimney with this b*tch. The liner needed to be replaced and she refused to do it. So we had to pay. I don’t expect she will ever reimburse us because she sucks. I hope she sells it soon but I expect that she won’t as long as she can milk the money out if it while doing minimal repairs.

If you find a great house that was a rental and you want to buy it – great! But get all the home inspections possible and be prepared to negotiate hard for the major systems and big ticket items.

Hot Tip: One of the telltale signs a house is a rental? All the bedroom doors have locks on them.

Houses with Deferred Maintenance

Did you know I’m psychic? I can tell you right now what homes in any market are going to have the most deferred maintenance. The ones built between 2000-2010. Most of these homes still have the original everything. It seems like the owners decide to sell instead of replacing things. And because we’re 15-25 years out from the build date, I can guarantee you that everything is going to fail at one time. After houses cycle that period of time, owners tend to replace things as required. So a house built in 1995 for example, has probably already had a roof replaced and a new HVAC.

One or two things needing repair or replacement is to be expected. But all the Big Ticket Items – Roof, Plumbing, Electrical, Heating, Air, Water Heater. Don’t do it. I always say, “Don’t make YOUR problem, MY problem.”

You may not know that everything needs repair until you do a home inspection. But believe me, and here’s your hot tip – spending a few hundred dollars on a home inspection and walking away is cheaper than spending a few hundred thousand for a house that needs new “everything.”

Wet Basement

If a house currently has or has ever had water in the basement, you are pretty much guaranteed that it will always be a problem. You will hear all kinds of reasons but all I can say is that no matter how much regrading of the outside, how many sump pumps are installed, how much waterproofing has happened, don’t buy it.

Hot Tip: How will you know if a house has a wet basement? Look for the dehumidifier in the basement. Look in the closets, and in the garage. You’ll find it. It’s always there somewhere.

Stupid Yard

Finally, don’t buy a home where the backyard goes uphill, so the low-end is close to the house. Here’s something you can always count on with water. Water comes downhill to look for the lowest spot to land. That will be right against the foundation of your house. And if that’s not bad enough, you won’t be able to go outside for weeks after rain or snow, because there will be a mushy moat right outside your backdoor.

What’s the good news? And what should you not listen to other real estate advisors about?

They all love to say don’t buy “Old Homes.” They are all clearly using the same AI to write their video scripts. People who say to not buy old homes don’t understand old homes. Houses will never be built like they used to. I live in a 1930’s home and I love it. Yes, the plumbing and electric has been updated. Yes, we had to add central air conditioning and remove an oil tank to convert to gas. But it’s all brick which is impossible to find on new homes now. Brick insulates unbelievably well. We have original wood floors and gorgeous trim that thankfully no one painted white.

Old houses are amazing. The structure and the “bones” as they say have stood the test of time. Yes it can be very sexy to buy a new home, but the charm and solid construction, use of real hardwood floors and brick, radiator heat – I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Finally, I promised to tell you the one home type you should buy as soon as you walk into it?

It’s the home people always call the “grandma home.” The curtains, carpet, and furniture with plastic covers on it are usually the giveaway. There’s been no renovations since it was built in the 50’s or 60’s. This is the house you want. It’s solid, built well and hasn’t been destroyed by a parade of various owners with bad renovations over the years. You have a fresh canvas on which to make your new home into your own.

7 Disastrous Mistakes Homebuyers Make

1 – Not Researching the Location

You know what they say about Location, Location, Location? It will never fail as great real estate advice, yet, this is always one of the mistakes homebuyers make.

Research the location but you also need to spend time there. Eat in the restaurants in the neighborhood. Drive through the streets at various times of day and night. Are there kids running around during the day when they should be in school? Are there things that happen at night that don’t seem innocent?

Check the school scores and how many students live in-boundary if that’s provided – even if you don’t plan to have kids or your kids are grown. Good school scores and high in-boundary attendance indicate that people who live in the neighborhood have made more than just a financial investment there.

I made this mistake with the first condo I purchased when I was in my 20’s. I didn’t drive through the neighborhood at various times. I was so excited to find something in my budget that I neglected to notice several things that severely impacted my quality of life. First, I didn’t calculate the commute time to work. I spent a lot of time in traffic and that was when I was working full time for a Real Estate Developer and in Grad School also full time, spending time in traffic was not a luxury I had to spare.

Second mistake? I didn’t notice that the community was filled with a bunch of nasty old women. My first night in the condo I was warned that I better not have any parties. It was all downhill from there. Third mistake? Schools were abysmal. That didn’t directly impact me as I was in my 20’s and didn’t have kids (the good old days) but there were a lot of problems at the high school and that spilled over to our shopping center. Thankfully, I sold that condo but I drove through there a couple months ago and even the Giant Grocery Store closed. Unreal.

2 – Skipping Home Inspection

First let me say this and yell it from the back of the room: No one has skipped a home inspection on my watch. Well. One person did but they were engineers. Regardless, skipping a home inspection is one of the mistakes homebuyers make that will come back to haunt them.

Every single house, to include new construction, has things that need to be adjusted, fixed, repaired. In the crazy heyday of real estate, many people would do “pre-inspections” which was essentially a home inspection prior to the offer being submitted. This way you could waive the inspection as part of your offer but not be in the dark about the home’s condition. This also used to mean that there could be a dozen other people doing the pre-inspection, so it was always a disaster because you knew only one of those people was getting the house. You tried to be polite to the other buyers but really you wanted to claw their eyes out.

Skipping a home inspection can have catastrophic consequences. I could go through all the worst-case scenarios, but you know what they are. Leaking roofs, basement floods, structural issues, decades old water heaters or A/C units, failing boilers, rodents.

Just don’t do it. Always get a thorough home inspection.

3 – Not Checking Permit Status

There’s no way to really find out what percentage of home repairs are unpermitted, but I would bet it’s a lot. Probably at least 50%.

Locally, you can easily check for permits in most jurisdictions in the DC Area. There are lots of “flips,” where the permits are non-existent. There are some places like DC and Prince George’s County, Maryland, where they have been historically lax at enforcing permits.

I recently purchased property in Florida. The first thing the title attorney did was inform me there was an open permit on the property that he managed to get closed within the day. Impressive. I don’t even know what it was for, but it was interesting that they actually checked for that. It’s not something that is done here in DC. I do it for clients and will flag anything for the home inspector, but with so much information available online, this is important to do. When the market turns into a seller’s market, a lot of unpermitted garbage gets sold to unsuspecting buyers. And that will usually come back around as a problem.

4 – Not Buying Sooner

This is one of those mistakes homebuyers make that they don’t realize until they put on their hindsight glasses. The best time to buy is always five years ago. In Washington DC, we’ve experienced a consistent seller’s market for the past few decades. There is always strong demand here, and there are always people moving here and people leaving. The trick though, is that people who leave often have plans to return, and they hold on to their homes. This leaves less homes for sale for others who arrive in town hoping to buy.

This past year has been one of the slowest in terms of sales, however, median prices are still up 6% over last year. This was what was so surprising as each month ended and the stats came out, all we heard was how bad the market was, how slow sales were and yet, prices continued to rise.

This doesn’t apply to all markets because there have been some serious slowdowns in other parts of the country. If you live somewhere and don’t have the country’s largest employer, who has set up camp in your town, the Federal Government, the reality may be different. But if you zoom out and look at purchasing a home now versus five years ago, in almost all cases the average and median prices are higher now.

5 – Not Hiring the Right Agent

Next on the list of mistakes homebuyers make is hiring the wrong agent. You may have heard of a little lawsuit the Department of Justice filed against the National Association of Realtors. Prior to the NAR Settlement, only 17 states and Washington DC required Buyer Representation Agreements. The settlement was really directed at those 33 states where the premise of who represented the buyer and who paid the buyer was anything but transparent.

I understand the rest of the country is experiencing a lot of turmoil over this, the settlement changed very little for us locally. Buyer representation was always standard in Virginia, Maryland and DC and it is still a hugely critical part of the process.

There’s lots of chatter though over whether a Buyer’s Agent is necessary. I can’t speak for all Buyer’s Agents, but I can speak for myself. What is it that makes me valuable? First, let’s talk about what can happen if you hire the wrong agent.

Someone contacted me recently. He was watching my videos much like you are now. He purchased a condo from a flipper who renovated the whole building. He said they were having a lot of issues in the condo. I looked the condo up in MLS and saw two things. First, he purchased with an agent who works for a discount brokerage model. Second, I had shown a couple condos in this building to a client while they were all for sale. It felt very cheaply done and the floor felt unstable. I noted this to my client at the time, and we moved on.

Discount brokerage models can work for some buyers and sellers. But here’s the issue. You don’t know what you don’t know until it’s too late. Discount brokerages make money by working on volume. They have to close a certain number of homes “or else.” This means, you’re just telling them what you want to do and they may not offer up a solid opinion. They are more order-takers and less “advisors.” In fact, you may not even tour with a knowledgeable agent. You may be touring with an inexperienced assistant. Because they work on volume, once you sign with them, they will move on to the next client and turn you over to hourly administrative employees.

I asked if his agent was helping him navigate the process and he said no. This, unfortunately, is what happens to so many buyers when they don’t get the right people on their team. They are abandoned when they really need help.

I’m not a door opener. Finding the house is the easy part. You can do that online and you know it. My job is to navigate the process to get you TO and BEYOND closing. Almost 90% of agents don’t even sit down to explain the buying process to their clients. It takes an hour. If they can’t tell you what’s coming in a clear and understandable manner, are you even in good hands?

I work at times well after everyone else is in bed. I work when I’m on vacation with my family. I work on holidays when no one else in the world is working. And I’ll be working for you, with no retainer, and no guarantee of payment. If you don’t close, I don’t get paid – not even $1.00. Only when you close on a house is that commission paid. I work for a specific amount and, lawsuit or no lawsuit, not much has changed here. We are seeing that in most cases the seller still covers the commission.

A commission isn’t paid for opening a door or emailing a link to a house. You aren’t just paying for the time spent – you are paying for risk mitigation, time and money saved, the expertise and executing the protections they put in place for you. This is the kind of agent you must hire.

Choose wisely, my friends. This is ground zero of mistakes homebuyers make. Interview agents. Don’t just hire your friend who sold three houses over the past five years. Don’t be the agent I talked to the other day who said, “My phone’s not on from 9-5 because I’m at work.” What work?

Ask for specific examples of how they saved a client from a mistake, how they navigate the process, and what they will do for you.

6 – Thinking New Construction is Best

For some buyers, the idea of new construction is very appealing. You’re not buying someone else’s house and having to deal with the choices they made. Those model homes are designed to sing to people’s hearts. So it comes as a surprise to many that it’s often one of the mistakes homebuyers make to think new is best.

You should know that buying from a builder is not like a normal transaction. They have their own contracts that protect them fully and do nothing to protect you as the buyer. They also won’t negotiate on anything. They offer what seems like a huge closing cost credit but it’s wrapped in with you using their preferred lender and title company. Sometimes they own the lender and title company.

You also pay a premium. Builders have to squeeze a profit out of the house they are selling and they won’t sell unless they achieve that profit. If they are publicly traded on the Stock Exchange, good luck. They won’t budge an inch. You won’t have equity in this house for several years, so if you are planning to sell in a few years, this is not the way to go. You would be better off financially buying a home that needs work and fixing it up to secure your best chance to come out ahead, financially.

7 – Choosing the Wrong Lender

Another of the mistakes homebuyers make is choosing the wrong lender. I work with several excellent and well-vetted lenders. I don’t refer you to someone who is going to screw things up or who gives me kickbacks which is illegal. Sometimes people want to use a lender from their hometown several states away and while you can do this, know that not having a local lender can really impact your chances of getting a house. There’s a huge learning curve getting buyers to understand the local market, if the lender has to also figure out the nuances of getting a home it can really impede the process.

Pros and Cons of Living in Maryland

Are you trying to decide where to live in the Washington DC Area? The pros and cons of living in Maryland is always a popular topic! We’re going to talk about everything I love about Maryland – except for two things.

1. Green Space

Maryland is excellent at preserving green space and trees. There is rarely a development that wasn’t thought-out well. Each jurisdiction responsible for approvals gives serious consideration to every single tree on a property when there is a development application. They use something called “tree banks.” What are those? The counties all have “master plans” that guide the development rights and standards. Within that plan there are requirements on the number of acres of trees and green space, and allowable approaches when dealing with existing trees.

When someone submits an application to develop a piece of property or change the use, the county in question has to consider this for approval. If the location would be served well by more homes instead of less, then the approval may be granted and developer allowed to remove more trees than allowed by the zoning. To compensate, they may be required to purchase from a tree bank – which is another area in the county that will never be developed. This keeps the overall proportions of development to green space within the original design intention (that “master plan”) of the county.

Some counties in the country will want to save all the trees at any cost, others will not. Maryland tends to lean on the side of saving the trees – even when multiple 3rd party arborists testify that they are dead.

2. Location

The location of Maryland is amazing for both its proximity locally to everything you need but also in the country. Depending on where you live, you will have the choice of two international airports – Baltimore and Dulles in Northern Virginia, and then Reagan National in Arlington for domestic flights.

The location is also great for taking advantage of weekend getaways. Day trips to Baltimore, Frederick or Annapolis are all a lot of fun. You can get to the mountains in less than 2 hours, the beach in 2 hours, and on a good day you can get to New York in 4 hours by car or bus, but definitely by train. It’s also easy to get to Philadelphia or Hershey Park in Hershey, PA for a quick weekend trip.

3. Diversity

When clients contact me asking about diversity and inclusion for their family, I can count on so many locations in Maryland to be a place they will feel at home. Montgomery County is the main area I service in Maryland and there is such a diversity in so many capacities – not just backgrounds. Yes, people can come from all over the world and find their place to call home in Maryland. But there is also a diverse array of lifestyles.

If you want to live in an urban or city environment, you can find that in Maryland. If you want more rural, you can find that too. And some communities are even progressive such as places like Takoma Park where you can vote in local elections at 16 years old.

4. Crabs, I Mean – Food (but I really mean crabs)

When I lived in Rockville, I would sit at Tower Oaks Lodge every weekend inhaling their crab artichoke dip. If you like crab, there is no better place to be on the east coast than Maryland. If you’re a crab-purist, and you don’t like your crab mixed with artichokes and cheese, you can find many crab houses where you can hammer away at fresh crabs and pull your own meat. It’s an art, and I can teach you! If you have a shellfish allergy, I’m sorry. But there is so much more here in the way of ethnic foods. We benefit tremendously from such a diverse population in the metro area with so many restaurants and ethnic grocery stores.

There are so many different food choices that you would have trouble hitting them all without gaining a few dozen pounds. French, Italian, Lebanese, Ethiopian, Middle Eastern, Greek, Asian, Farm to Table, Cuban, Mexican, Brazilian – the list goes on and on as does the eating!

5. Climate

Depending how you feel about the weather, climate could appear on either side of the pros and cons of living in Maryland. I feel it’s thankfully quite mild here in the DC Area. We have four seasons. Actually, locals say that we have 12 seasons. They are: Winter, Fool’s Spring, Second Winter, Spring of Deception, Third Winter, The Pollening, Actual Spring, Summer, Hell’s Front Porch, False Fall, Second Summer, Actual Fall.

Seasons like Actual Spring? That lasts for about 45 minutes so enjoy it.

Expect to wear shorts for June, July, August and September. Hats and gloves in December, January and February. Our winters are usually not too bad, we don’t often get weather below 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Summers can get to 100 but it usually tops out in the 90’s. If you live north toward Frederick or north of I-70, you may actually have snow when it’s 15 degrees warmer further south. I lived northwest of Baltimore and would routinely arrive at work in Columbia, 20 minutes away, with snow on my car and everyone else thought I was lying until they went to the window and looked.

6. Education

The school systems for the kiddos are top notch. Montgomery County Schools are progressive and very highly sought after. There’s a lot of school choice as well, and different consortia where you have options to go to different high schools within a region.

There are several top high schools in the country that are located in Montgomery County, but when Bethesda Magazine puts out their annual college issue, the results are staggering. Students at the many of the county high schools are very successful well when it comes to college applications. There is no one “top” high school here like people may say, there are close to a dozen in the county that rank extremely well.

7. Recreation

The outdoor recreation in Maryland is so unbelievable. It’s easy to hop on the various trails like the Capital Crescent Trail which goes from Bethesda to Georgetown in DC or all the trails along the Potomac River or through Rock Creek Park if you want to get close to nature. Maryland is very pedestrian friendly, and you will notice that on any road you drive. You can also take advantage of the many recreation centers where they offer all kinds of classes from fitness, dance, art & crafts, martial arts – there are a ton of choices.

People who move here from the west coast and more progressive areas tend to really like Maryland and everything it has to offer. Don’t forget that I promised you a couple things I don’t love, so let’s do that next.

Cons of Living in Maryland’s Suburbs of Washington DC

Traffic & Drivers

Because Maryland home prices have trended slightly lower than neighboring Virginia, and Maryland has a lot more of the “close-in” affordable areas, there are more commuters heading back to Maryland after work. If you drive, you will be in this traffic. The metro also doesn’t go as far into Maryland as it does on the Virginia side, so this creates the perfect storm for flows of traffic.

A tidbit of good news – so far, Maryland has not imposed any toll lanes. There is an HOV overpass lane on 270 you can use to get to 270 and flyover the traffic below in the interchange, but lots of people cheat so this doesn’t always save a lot of time.

Now a tidbit of bad news. Well, it’s more than a tidbit. Maryland drivers are some of the worst I’ve seen in this country. I talk about it all the time. People move here and think I was joking then they say, “Nope, you were right, they are truly bad drivers.” I can’t explain it, I can only repeat it incessantly because defensive driving takes on a whole new meaning in Maryland.

Cost of Living

It’s expensive in Maryland. Some slight good news – there is more housing affordability on the Maryland side close to the beltway than you could ever find on the Virginia side. You can get homes in Silver Spring in the $600,000’s. It’s virtually impossible to find a single-family home in the $600,000’s on the Virginia side until you’re pretty far from the beltway. This is definitely not the case in Maryland. But that doesn’t mean life is cheaper on this side of the Potomac!

Maryland has a state income tax similar to Virginia. It’s not a flat tax, you move up in brackets, but it caps out where Virginia does – 5.75%. There’s one huge difference though. The Maryland counties impose income taxes as well. In most cases, this adds another 3% or more to the income tax you will owe. Virginia does not have income tax at the county level.

That sums up the pros and cons of living in Maryland. I hope this gave you all the details you need to consider in your move to the Crab State (it’s not really called the crab state.) If you are ready to crack some crab shells, my contact info is coming next!

DC Rowhome

If you aren’t familiar with housing in older cities like DC or Baltimore, the term “rowhome” may be new to you. Since the rowhome is a prevalent style of home in Washington DC, we’re going to not only discuss what you need to know about them but also take you inside one!

Harry Wardman is credited as the builder of many rowhomes throughout NW DC. The original rowhome was designed in the 1800’s and the first rowhomes were built on the 900 block of Longfellow Street. Wardman went on to develop throughout DC and is responsible for thousands of rowhomes in the city. There are iconic DC styles of homes throughout the city. Each neighborhood has its own clusters of styles depending on when the home was built and what the style was at that time.

Michael and Melissa both live in rowhomes in the city. Melissa’s home was built in 1932, and she found the newspaper advertisement for it. Michael’s home was built in 1915 and he also found his house advertised in the newspaper by the original builder.  Michael’s was initially listed as a rental home along with the four other rowhomes next to him for a whopping $17.50 per month!

“These handsome new solid brick homes incorporate every comfort and labor-saving device known to our age. Outstanding among the many modern features are Chamberlain metal weatherstrips, copper screens, beautifully finished recreation rooms, colored tile baths with the new Chromard fixtures, cedar lined closets having mirror doors, colonial brass bracket lights, paneled wallpaper, double oak floors, French doors leading from reception halls to kitchens, 2 built in book-cases in the living rooms, new McDougall kitchen unit with standard double drainboard sink, choice of Westinghouse or Electrolux refrigeration, cement front porches, screened double rear porches, built-in garages have overhead doors. We urge your immediate inspection as 2 homes in this original group of 6 were sold before completion.”

For 8 rooms and 2 baths the price was $9550 in 1932. Here we are 92 years later and we still have the same real estate speculation where homes sell before construction is complete.

How is a DC Rowhome different from a townhome?

They aren’t different in living style, but rowhome is a term that pre-dates the “homeowner’s association” coming into existence. Generally, anything post 1960 is called a townhome. Townhomes are part of communities where you share amenities or street maintenance plus green space. You will pay a monthly amount of a few hundred dollars for that shared maintenance. Rowhomes do not have anything mandated, though you do see some neighbors share in maintenance for common areas they may be lucky to enjoy.

What Should You Know About Rowhome Living?

• You may have a shared chimney, and you’ll need to have a relatively amicable relationship with that neighbor as you will share the maintenance. Or you can be like Melissa’s neighbor who lets them replace the liner and then dodges them every time she sees them.
• Brick work needs to be repointed in full about every 50-75 years. Masons recommend doing it all at once. In Melissa’s condo building we do it in pieces because it’s so expensive, but water constantly finds other ways to infiltrate the building. It is vital to repoint brick when needed to maintain the structural integrity of your rowhome.
• Your home could be affected by the homes that are attached to yours. Rowhomes operate more like one large house – the neighbor’s plumbing backup could overflow into your basement. This is less likely to happen in a townhome which are built to function more independently of each other.
• There is a difference between settlement and structural Issues. Generally rowhomes will not be entirely level, but this isn’t direct evidence of a structural issue. If the floors are sloped one way or the other, that is usually settlement. If they are sloped so the center of the home is the lowest point, that could be a structural issue or if you see large stair ladder style cracks in the walls. When a window or a door is difficult to open, that also could be a sign that there is something structural going on with the home.
• Not all framing and walls are square, so symmetry can be difficult sometimes when completing upgrades like tile unless you gut the entire rowhome – to include some wall studs/framing.
• Even with new windows and doors, the internal temperature can still be difficult to maintain.
• Insulation in most of the old homes isn’t great unless someone installed good insulation before a major overhaul of the home.
• Rowhomes have stood the test of time and are very sound.  That’s what we love about old homes.
• Get a boundary line survey when you close on your home. These homes are very old and you need to know what easements are granted on your property that could affect things such as your alley access.

What Updates Should be Complete?

• Central HVAC can be added without removing the awesome radiator heat. Many people remove the radiators because they take up room and aren’t very attractive but they make really great coverings for them that can help your room look nice. FUN FACT: There is a company that actually manufactures fun styles of radiator covers that come in many colors.
• Heavy-up the electrical. The original homes were not outfitted with the electrical capacity to handle central air conditioning.
• Upgrade sewer line & main water line (You can find this information on DC’s Lead Service Line – Water Service Information site)
• Lead pipes should have been replaced
• Asbestos boilers should be removed
• Asbestos tile needs to be removed by a licensed contractor or covered.
• Brick repointing may need to be completed.
• Check the DC Permit System (SCOUT) to see if any structural work completed on the home and what permits have been pulled. Often there is significant work done to homes without the proper licenses and permits.
• Also check the seller disclosures for any evidence of structural work having been completed.
• If the home has a crawl space, a vapor barrier should be installed.
• Ensure a sump pump and french drains have been installed.
• Check the age and condition of the roof and ensure it’s been repaired / replaced in a timely manner so there is no leaking in the attic space above your top floor.

What Do We Love About Rowhomes?

The Federal and Victorian architectural features are endless. Vestibules, exposed brick, wood trim which hopefully hasn’t been painted, tall ceilings, turrets, curved walls, large windows and transom windows.

If you’re lucky, the following may still exist in your home having survived decades of renovations – antique hardware and lighting, stained glass, pocket doors, ornate newel posts and stairway handrails, and ornate fireplace mantels.

Should You Have a Buyers Agent in DC

Big news these past couple of weeks for any Buyers Agent in DC. Plaintiffs won a class action suit against the National Association of Realtors plus several real estate brokerages. Sellers may not pay buyer agent commissions anymore and everyone is FREAKING OUT! What will happen to buyers? What will happen to the buyer’s agent?

First, let me say I grew up in Connecticut on the NY border. Connecticut, New York and New Jersey are some of the states where it was customary the buyer paid the commission and once the buyer found a house, an attorney stepped in to do the negotiation. It is not like that in DC, Maryland or Virginia. Real Estate Attorneys work in the background – they pull title, prepare the legal documents and conduct closing. They are not involved in negotiation and they do not represent the buyer or the seller. They represent the transaction.

So what is everyone saying out there? Let’s take a look!

Buyers Don’t Need to Pay a Buyers Agent in DC, They Can Just Hire Attorneys!

DC is an attorney-heavy town. There are people here who say “Find the house online and hire an attorney to handle the paperwork and closing.” I have great respect for attorneys. I was raised by one. But when it comes to expediting a process and getting it done, this may not be their forte. In New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, contracts can take 90 days to close. In the DC area we close in less than 30.

If you hired an attorney, you will pay hourly for them to write a contract. Any buyers agent in DC will use form contracts that are written to be equally fair to both parties. If a listing agent received two offers – one on the standard contract documents they are used to seeing from buyer’s agents and one with newly written language from your attorney, what will the agent do? Advise their client to have an attorney review your contract. The seller won’t want to incur a cost just to have someone interpret your contract. You may have a better offer, but still lose the house.

The other day on the crazy mom message board, someone posted that they bought a condo instead of a townhome and they didn’t understand there was a difference. They actually bought a townhome-condo which do exist and are a different type of ownership than a fee-simple townhome where you own the land beneath you.

There were two alleged attorneys on the thread commenting that there’s virtually no difference between a condo and a townhome. I don’t know where they got their degree, but they need to remove Legal Zoom from their bookmarks. This is horribly incorrect information to tell someone that a condo and a townhome are virtually the same. I can’t believe a real attorney is espousing this.

I Don’t Care, I’ll Hire an Attorney For the Contract Because Agents Aren’t Worth it.

Could an attorney do the contract and negotiation part? Yes, they are more than capable of it.

But will they hold your hand through inspection and financing? Do they know how lenders work? Or the right amount of days for each contingency? Maybe, but probably not. Realtors who live and breathe this every day know exactly how to navigate the process so you don’t lose time or worse – lose your deposit and lose the house.

Sales is not a one size fits all situation. When things don’t go as planned, and they never do, Realtors get creative in figuring out how to get you what you want while protecting you and protecting your deposit.

Attorneys typically work in an office. But that isn’t how real estate works. It’s a physical job that requires showing up. It’s time in the car, it’s late nights on the phone, it’s being available even when your kid is first learning to walk or ride a bike or swim and missing it because a client needed something. There’s no retainer being held or hours billed for any of this by the way.

It’s also an emotional job. Real Estate is very personal for many people. Even when they think it won’t be, buying a home is never an “all business” process. Attorneys are great at fighting to get their way and use a “just the facts ma’am” approach. Their goal is to win. This process needs someone to come at it from a collaborative place so everyone gets what they want.

I Found the House on my Own, What Do I Need an Agent For?

Thank you internet. It’s brought information right to the palm of everyone’s hand. Many people will find their house online. When clients think they found “the house,” they decide to buy with emotion but back it up with logic. They unconsciously block out the negatives if they even notice them at all.

This is why your agent must see the home with you. As a full-time buyers agent in DC, I want to be there for all of it. Full-Time, astute agents tour so many houses that they can spot fatal flaws during even the quickest tour. I can tell when a crooked floor is just an old house settling and when it’s a structural issue. Gremlin in the basement? We’ll point that out! A great agent will prevent you from wasting time and money writing an offer on a problem house and help you focus on the homes that won’t require costly repairs.

Finding the home (and finding a great buyer’s agent in DC) is just the tip of the iceberg in the home buying process.

What Process? What Do You Actually Do?

I can tell you what I do as a Buyers Agent in DC. But, I want to tell you about some other poeple I recently learned about –  homebuyers who felt the process wasn’t transparent.

They purchased a “newly renovated” home that needed extensive costly repairs after they closed. While they were more upset at the listing agent, who they thought was not forthcoming about the condition of the home, they also revealed that their Buyers Agent in DC didn’t join them for the home inspection. Their agent also didn’t attend the final walk through. She actually told them to walk through on their own and they would see them at closing. The buyers had no idea what to look for.

Had their agent told them to put the utilities in their name the day of closing, to check the appliances, to run water and make sure gas was getting to the stove and burners, or shown up and done this with them like they are supposed to, the buyers may not have closed on a home in mid-winter and lived for ten days without heat. They said they wished there was a one pager which they could have referred to and asked why this process isn’t streamlined.

I said, “We all run our own businesses. Some of us are good at it and some of us are not. If you take your car to 10 mechanics, you will have 10 different experiences and lists of repairs needed. It’s the same with agents. We don’t all do things the same way.”

I felt awful for those buyers. An agent cannot phone it in. This is not a virtual job. They cannot be too busy to show up when they are supposed to show up. Being at a home inspection is non-negotiable. In 14 years I’ve missed 2 home inspections and I always sent a trusted agent in my place. I am also at every walk through so I can ensure that everything is still in working order. If something broke or was damaged at any point in time during the contract period, it is the seller’s responsibility to fix. As a buyer’s agent, it’s my job to protect you on this. I have held up closing when these things have happened.

The agent’s job is to protect their buyer clients, to work for their best interests, to advocate for them at all points during the process. With this commission lawsuit happening now, the agents who aren’t worth it are going to be gone. There are predictions that the number of agents currently at 1.4 million will be less than 1 million by this time next year. Ciao! Adios!

My Friend Bought Without an Agent and She Said She Could Walk Me Through It

Your friend would be practicing real estate without a license. That aside, have they bought or sold 10 houses in the last year in the same market where you want to buy? Most people don’t know what they don’t know. They may think it went okay, but then when I ask questions I find out they really got taken advantage of by the seller.

Give me Examples of What You, as a Buyers Agent in DC, Do For Clients

Are we worth it? Depends who you hire. We can only speak for ourselves. So let’s talk about what we do for our clients

• Explain the entire process so you know what to expect.

• Review each part of the process in real time as you reach that milestone

• Strategize how to get the house you want for the least amount of money and concessions while beating the competition.

• Protect your interests from offer to closing

• Provide research and opinions on pricing strategy to ensure you don’t overpay

• Offer lender and inspector recommendations who are trustworthy, client-first professionals who are a mirror of our own business ethics.

• Advise clients when to “shop around” with lenders before locking the interest rate and applying for their mortgage loan.

• Attend home inspection and advise on the priority of repair requests to the seller.

• Negotiate for repairs

• Order moving package so clients can get started on packing.

• Provide information on which utilities need to be set up and send email with links to start service.

• Confirm appraisal report is on time and value is at or above contract price

• Renegotiate with seller on appraisal and/or challenge appraisal with lender if necessary

• Advise client how to “save contract” in the event of a low appraisal

• Ensure deposit is never at risk by monitoring and following up with all contingency dates

• Confirm any pending permits on the home are closed out
• Review Condominium or Homeowner’s Association Documents for red flags

How Did Agents Get Such a Bad Name?

I find myself on the other side of transactions where I wonder how this person gets clients or how they haven’t been sued. I also sit on the review committee for cases brought to the local Realtor Association when there’s a Code of Ethics Violation. These hearings blow my mind.

You want an agent who is all – in, who is completely invested in their business, works at it full-time, or in most cases more than full-time. There are indeed sloppy businesses being run out there. There are agents who have other gigs and this is just one of them. There are agents who get their license solely to sell Aunt Mary’s house. There are agents who let their licenses expire and continue to sell and no one notices. There are agents who lie during negotiations or don’t negotiate in good faith. There’s no real bar to entry in real estate, but there should be.

Getting a real estate license is the easy part. Staying in the industry, being successful in real estate and having a good name and reputation is not. Thankfully, it’s not easy to be an incompetent buyers agent in DC because you will quickly be weeded out. Or rewarded with no clients.

Can We Fix This?

In 2015, the National Association of Realtors put out a “Danger” report, stating what was wrong with the industry. A couple quotes regarding the main findings:

The real estate industry is saddled with a large number of part-time, untrained, unethical and/or incompetent agents. This knowledge gap threatens the credibility of the industry.

Professional, hard-working agents across the country increasingly understand that the ‘not-so-good’ agents are bringing the entire industry down. Yet there are no meaningful educational initiatives on the table to raise the national bar.

They’ve known for 8 years that there is a problem but they haven’t done much to fix it. They can’t stop people from getting licensed because that’s up to the state licensing boards. But they can do more to protect the profession by raising requirements to gain board membership and carry the Realtor designation.

Are the part-time, untrained, incompetent agents bringing the real estate industry down? You tell me. I currently have five buyers under contract on homes. Two of the five listing agents have an expired license. One of them is part-time, brand new, trying their hand at flipping houses. This is literally the trifecta of a huge problem.

Raise fees. Make it cost-prohibitive and education-heavy to be a Realtor. As a buyers agent in DC, I believe that is how we can get this fixed. In the meantime, I’ll continue working my ass off for you.

The TRUTH About Buying New Construction Homes

Buyers generally seem to feel that buying new construction is an easy alternative to buying an existing home. This used to be true. There were days where if you wanted a new construction home, you went to one of several builders in the area and purchased a home in a subdivision. In the 90’s and 2000’s, people moved farther out to chase affordability buying new construction. Then the 2008 bubble happened, and as people started realigning priorities, there was a shift to want to be closer to the city. Citing quality of life, i.e. less time in the car, people started moving back.

Then the market got better! And then there was Covid! And then people started moving all over the darn place. Regardless, the landscape of new construction and what that entails has changed drastically over the past 20-30 years in the DC Metro Area.

What you will find are mini communities with 4-5 houses clustered together in what developers call “infill” lots. You won’t see communities with 50-100 homes until you get much further from the city.

That said, there are a couple different markets in which you can purchase a new construction home.

Subdivisions in the Suburbs

When you think of new construction, if you are thinking tract houses and subdivisions, you’re going to have to look further from the city. In fact, there is very little of this type of community ITB, or inside the beltway.  If you want to be in a subdivision, you can start with the New Homes Guide. They maintain lists of all the communities where new homes are being built. These are big builders who want economies of scale, so they look for places where they can build hundreds of homes, not just a dozen.

You will have amenities – club house pool, etc.in MD and VA, rarely in DC. I worked for two national builders in the DC Area, and what I can say here is you are not going to get a custom product, nor will you have a ton of flexibility. But you will get a quality product for the most part – depending on who the subcontractors are at the time you buy.

If I’m Buying New Construction in a Subdivision, Should I Bring My Agent?

Yes, you can bring your agent with you to these communities. You should have an agent who is familiar with working with these large regional or national builders. Why? Because they can tell you the traps when buying new construction. Builders don’t make a ton of money on the base house, they really make their money with exorbitant markups on options and upgrades. Some are worth it, some are not.

Smaller Communities

When you think of buying new construction, if you cringe at the idea of something cookie-cutter, there are a host of local builders in the area who build anywhere from a few to a hundred homes a year. There are dozens of these types of builders who have made a very good living and business here doing this type of work.

You will find custom builders who do 3-4 homes a year, and there are larger builders who build 20-100 a year. These builders typically work off plans they own and are what you may call semi-custom. You can make some changes to their plans but usually nothing structural aside from an optional sunroom or bump-out. Because of their small size, these communities will not have amenities.

These homes are typically in more established residential areas where there may have been a parcel of land that had been overlooked, or a Developer who was able to work out an agreement with the jurisdiction granting approval for development. Sometimes there are pieces of land where 10 developers have attempted to get approved but they all fail, and it’s the 11th developer who makes it happen. I know because I’m married to one such magician. The man is honest and charming, and people just believe in him.

If I’m Buying New Construction in a Smaller Community, Should I Bring My Agent?

Yes, you can bring your agent with you and usually the builder pays the commission or some portion of it. Smaller builders are generally more flexible with you and view you as a client, not just a customer who can “take it or leave it” when it comes to their product.

Teardowns

If neither of these options sound appealing to you because you want to be really close to a long-standing retail and commercial area, buying a Teardown is another way to buy a new home. Teardowns are wildly popular here. Someone – either you or a builder, buys an old house that’s either in need of so much work or has an obsolete floor plan for today’s buyer. They tear it down and build a new house on the lot.

Things to Know:

Finding the house on your own can be a full time job. This is why builders make a really great profit when they purchase the home and then rebuild a new home on the lot. This isn’t something you can find publicly listed, it typically entails door to door visits, phone calls, and lots of personal conversations with people to find a home.

Buying New Construction in DC

You won’t see many teardowns in DC though they do exist. Often the homes are renovated in a “down to the studs” fashion. For some reason it’s become common to call these people “Developers” but I take issue with this. They aren’t developing anything. My smarty pants husband is a true developer. He brings in utilities, fights for zoning, has to improve other amenities in the neighborhoods, kisses the adjacent neighbor’s asses who, even though they don’t own it, thought that field outside their living room window would stay empty forever – all for the right to develop a community of lots which then get sold to a builder.

What you see here are builders at best, flippers at worst. Flipping has a negative connotation here, mostly due to the fact that the whole permit process is as much of a trainwreck as Britney Spears’ now-deleted Instagram.

Buying New Construction in Maryland and Virginia

The classic subdivision has moved further out. Most of Montgomery County on the Maryland side, and Arlington, Alexandria and Fairfax on the Virginia side are already developed. You won’t find much of the 100+ home subdivision but there are many opportunities for teardowns and some other opportunities for smaller two to maybe 10 home communities. If you want land, space, and community amenities like pools and clubhouses, then you’re likely going to Frederick County Maryland and out to Loudoun and Prince William County in Virginia.

Housing Market Update

On April 20, 2022 I published a video that I sensed change was coming to the housing market. There was hardly a news item out there aside from the podcast I quoted with Ivy Zelman, one of the most followed, and most respected housing analysts who predicted the market crash in 2008. Zelman had a lot of statistics both back then and right now about why things aren’t going to continue at the same pace. I sensed change was coming, and her podcast interview was the one source at that time I could quote to back me up.

I can’t tell you what it was. I’m not a genius, but I know people. I could tell by what buyers were saying. Buyers are the first to know when a sellers-market is shifting. Sellers are the last to know. The rest of us are in the middle, just waiting for the decision-making parties on either side to make their move. Or not.

The analysts and the media wait for statistics to come out so they can have “proof” for their story. Statistics are great. I love statistics. In college I wasn’t an A student, but I remember the day my crazy advanced statistics teacher walked in the room after our first test. He wrote this on the board. These were the test results.

The class hot guy asked if there would be a curve.

NO BRAD, THERE IS NO CURVE! Brad wanted to know why, and all 5 foot 2 inches of Professor Morty Feinstein pointed at the 100%.

As I said, I love statistics so I knew those odds weren’t good for me, and I must have been one of the 27 failures. I got my test and was shocked. I wasn’t one of the A’s or B’s, nor did I fail. I was the 100%. Why am I telling you this? Because this is why my friend called me Melissa Morty Terzis our junior year of college. And also, because I feel like I can say with good authority: Statistics don’t tell you the whole story when you’re dealing with real estate.

Statistics are a science. You can slice and dice statistics in many different ways. And statistics are only fool-proof when you are analyzing something that performs and acts like a science. The housing market is not guided by science and logic. There’s another huge piece: consumer sentiment.

Some consumer sentiment is a result from analysis of statistics by those consumers. But some consumer sentiment just results from what people need or feel will happen.

I always tell people about the day I worked for a homebuilder in 2007 and the phones just stopped ringing. And here we are again. The news shifted overnight. And here come the Monday morning quarterbacks, “Oh I knew this was going to happen, I’ve been saying it all along.” No, I’m sorry. I’m on many real estate message boards, Facebook groups, mastermind groups and absolutely NO ONE was saying this would end. In fact, I went toe to toe with most of my former brokerage, mostly because the agents there couldn’t understand simple math. Let’s review those posts, from April 2021.

Here’s me: “Statistics are great but they really only tell part of the story because there are things that can’t be measured in statistics like human behavior. The stats didn’t predict the last housing crash either. All we knew was ‘how did that Starbucks Barista buy a $1M house?’ What I think will happen is a compilation of people deciding they don’t want to live where they moved to, losing money on a sale, possibly walking away and like sands in the hourglass, here we go again. The massive backlash right now in people leaving the cities and urban centers to drive prices up in areas no one would touch a year ago – that is a problem. No stat will ever tell that story.”

Also me: “I respect the opinion that this isn’t a bubble but I wholeheartedly disagree. Simply citing the mortgage fraud for the last bubble isn’t the only reason we had a bubble. It was a bunch of factors that contributed. This round we have a pandemic, a massive shift in lifestyle wishes because of said pandemic, a panic rush to leave cities and move to places no one would have considered a year ago, and a whole ton of people who have gone into forbearance. When the time comes to pay, if the value isn’t there then what? It’s not going to be pretty. No one can ever really say “that was a bubble” until it’s been 6 months in the past anyway. That said, I’m discouraging clients to get into 50+ buyer bidding wars. It’s irresponsible in my opinion.”

Some of the biggest headlines this past week included this: Redfin and Compass laid off 8 and 10% of their staff already. We’re only 3 weeks in to the bad news and companies are laying off their staff. Well, a discount brokerage whose business model relies on volume and a highly leveraged brokerage that grew at a rapid pace, thanks in full to those delicious signing bonuses they paid agents to join them. I thought y’all were the disruptors. Shouldn’t you be disrupting? Or is that only in easy real estate markets?

Warren Buffet says, “When the tide goes out, we’re gonna find out whose been swimming naked.” This is how this played out last time. Let’s look at some stats though.

May 2022 vs May 2021, in DC the total dollar volume sold is down 6.5%. Median sold price is down 5%. The number of homes sold is down 11% in DC. Before you tell me it’s because of inventory, active listings are up 8%.

Arlington’s numbers for the same time period are also down. Volume sold is down 7%, median sold price is down almost 7%. The number of homes sold is just down 2% in Arlington, but the active listings are down almost 33%.

Alexandria has a different story. The total dollar volume sold is down just 3%, but the median sold price is up almost 14%. Number of homes sold is down 4%, and active listings are down 18%.

Montgomery County is tracking similar to Alexandria, with total dollar volume up 2%, median price up almost 13%. The number of homes sold is down 10%, and active listings down almost 13%.

What does this tell us? The migration out of DC and Arlington is still in play. People aren’t yet selling in droves in the suburbs, but this is coming. What doesn’t this tell us? It doesn’t tell us about the dozens and dozens of emails I’ve received from agents, announcing price reductions. Original list price vs sold price is what we need to focus on next. Assuming that sellers and their agents price based on comparable sales, and comparable sales are going down, original list price vs sales price. That’s the story we want in about a month from now.

When Is The Best Time to Buy a House?

I’m going to tell you a big secret about buying a house and it’s not about how, it’s about WHEN!

Back at Thanksgiving, we were going to Rehoboth for the weekend. The kids were standing at the door yelling at me while I was on my computer. What I knew, that they didn’t, was that it was important to finish writing this contract for a client. A few weeks later, I was standing outside at the elementary school holiday party negotiating that client’s home inspection. The reason it was important was because everyone else was also standing at the door, trying to get out of town. And I needed to get my clients this home while no one else was paying attention to real estate.

When the clients closed in January, agents were calling, asking me how I got the house locked up. My clients were smart, looking in November and December because there’s not much competition. And I knew this so I was willing to be late leaving for Thanksgiving to get them the house. In December, I struggled to sell an awesome 5 bed house, which had 2 bedrooms in the basement complete with rent permit. In January, people were calling and asking if I had anymore like it when it sold. People, timing is everything. Where the f*ck was everybody? Putting up trees and wrapping gifts I suppose.

Now we’re in spring, and there are 5, 10, 15 offers per house. You have all these bidders. You have to go out when no one else is out there. Remember, timing is everything. So what are the months when nobody is out there? It’s July (end of July,) August, November, December and a little bit of January. Also when it’s snowing and pouring rain. That’s when you have to go out there. That’s how we got our house.

Buying a house is not about getting out there when everybody else is out there and competing with 25 or 30 other bidders. It’s about timing. Timing is everything in this game. So, if you’ve been looking for a house and you’re not able to get it, and you’re sick of writing all these different offers, just cool your jets for a little bit. Summer is coming. It’s going to slow down. I guarantee you, it will slow down and then you’re going to be able to swoop in there and get a house without much competition.

Buying and Selling a House

Are you selling your house and trying to figure out how to buy a new one at the same time? Here are some facts about buying and selling a house at the same time. Check out these five things to do to make this as easy as possible.

First, let’s talk about how things worked before Covid. If you were selling in DC and buying in suburbs or somewhere else in the country, you had the golden ticket. Your house would sell fast in the city and you would have your choice in the burbs.

Covid has mixed all of this up. Right now every market is hot. My girls left their LOL Glamper van on the back porch and four squirrels submitted offers on it.

Where we used to be able to put in a Home of Choice on the sale side and a Home Sale Contingency on the buy side, now? All that is out the window. But don’t worry. I have had a bunch of clients selling houses and buying at the same time. It seems super stressful but it works.

Step 1: Prepare your house well so that you get multiple bids to get a contract fast.

Why? Wouldn’t you want it to sell slowly so you have time? No. The seller can “rent back” from a buyer for up to 60 days. This is because the lender wants the buyer to move in and start paying the mortgage. Otherwise, the buyer is classified as a landlord/investor and everything changes. They will be required to provide a higher down payment, and pay a higher interest rate.

Now that you know the seller can have an additional 60 days post-closing to “rent back,” we can review the contract period. As the seller, you should plan on being out within 60 days of closing. Once you list your home, you can ask for a long contract period as well. The buyer can put your home under contract but not close for 60 days. This would give you up to 120 days to find and close on a new home!

Look! I just found you 4 months you didn’t know you had! Feel better?

Step 2: Start a high-level hunt for the new home at the same time you are prepping your current home for sale.

You don’t need to be touring homes yet, especially if it’s in another city. But, you want to be narrowed down in location. The more narrowed down you are in location, the better.

Depending on the number of homes for sale (“inventory”) will determine how long this will take.

Another tip – If you are super honed in on location, have your agent do a mailer to try to drum up something before it hits the market. That seller may be in the same boat as you, and trying to figure out how to time their sale as well.

Step 3: Arm your Agent with All the Info Possible on your current sale.

If the agent selling your home isn’t the same one helping you buy, please introduce them to each other. They will need to chat about logistics and strategy so you aren’t checking in to Motel 6 for a few weeks between homes.

Ensure the agent helping you buy the new house can accurately make the case for your current home selling like hotcakes
This is super important so that there is no hesitancy on the part of the seller of your next home to not take your offer.

Step 4: Assess your finances. Do you have to sell?

Only you can answer this. You may want to sell, but you may not have to sell.
If you have to sell, just ensure you have a backup plan in place. Remember the bridge loan? They are back and you can get one!

Step 5 – Make sure your lender is amazing.

This isn’t the time to go with loan4u.net working from a Hotmail email address that you found online. You can’t leave anything to chance. Having a solid lender with a great reputation for GSD (getting shizz done) is going to be your secret weapon.