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A couple of confessions – my last tweet reads “Figuring out what I want to be for Halloween...any ideas?.” Not a bad one, though any one of my “friends” (although per photo to right) it's exceedingly clear I chose not to accept any good advice. (unfortunately, I'm not the police officer -- and no, that is not a real police officer!) Still Twitter ComFounded I’m still trying to figure out all the angles on Twitter. I was cajoled into opening account by one of my good friends but, l... Read Full Post

Guess what? It’s official -- Washington DC is becoming a beacon of “progression“. From its recent designation of "Widgetville USA", to an innovative "Urban Green" movement, you might as well call us the "Austin of the East.” Urban Green? Washington Post staff writer, Paul Schwartzman, covered this topic thoroughly in an interesting article on September 6th . Titled "In the Prettified City, Urban Grime Gives Rise to Green", he discussed the pros and "cons" of "concealing" unattractive ... Read Full Post

A Sarasota Association of Realtors - SARjacking Update So (SAR) - a.k.a. "Screw Area Realtors" - has not only hijacked Marc Rasmussen’s former website; now they are redirecting HIS links to their own site, thus giving them the benefit of Marc’s thousands of hours of work. Sarasota Association of Realtors (SAR) Hypocrisy Please read this recent post from John Allen – it’s a note-worthy piece that may give a little more insight into the motivations of The Sarasota Association of Realtor... Read Full Post

I’m going out to San Francisco for Halloween to visit some of my best friends. Although many of my close friends are still scattered around the country, from the DC area, to Boston, to Chicago, to Portland, there is an ever-growing contingent migrating back to the Bay Area. So while I’m excited to dress up as a vampire while eating as much sourdough as I can manage, I’m more excited to be doing this in the company of some of the people I care about most dearly. It’s been a few months ... Read Full Post

Recent proposals by members of the current administration, as well as by both candidates for President, seem to focus on "buying" our way out of foreclosures. But, an article in the New York Times on Sunday, September 28th, caught my attention because it talked about a way to "broker" our way out of this mess. In this article, it is reported that the city of Philadelphia has come up with a program that "has averted the sale of almost 80 percent of the (mortgage foreclosure) properties referre... Read Full Post

Chevy Chase Maryland Homes Summer Market Report This sales report centers on data from Chevy Chase Maryland in zip code 20815. I have to Classify location because Chevy Chase extends into Washington DC. I'll tackle Chevy Chase DC in the near future for anybody who's curious. But for today, we'll stick inside the district line! Chevy Chase Maryland homes and real estate is hard analyze statistically because of the large disparity in housing prices. (The most accurate assessments of the markets... Read Full Post

I love Bethesda Magazine…I think they do a great job of highlighting local issues and I find myself reading most issues cover-to-cover. The September/October edition had an article called “10 Great Streets To Live On”, which probably needs no explanation – but, just in case, it identified “10 Bethesda/Chevy Chase-area streets that have a unique identity and a strong sense of community.” As a real estate agent, I have knowledge of most (if not all) of the streets in the greater Bet... Read Full Post

Could it be that you can pay your Montgomery County Maryland property taxes and get cash back? Evidently, the answer is yes. First of all, I’d like to give credit where credit is due. I was at a settlement last week with another Long and Foster real estate agent and, when the settlement attorney, finished with the discussion about property taxes, she turned to both buyers (her clients) and sellers (my clients) and said, “Do either of you have a Discover Card? Because, if you do and if you... Read Full Post

Everyone who has ever sold a house has a story about something that went wrong just as the moving trucks were pulling up. There’s the hot water heater that chose that day to burst or the garage door spring that broke overnight, or the power failure that shut down all the banks or the snowstorm that kept the movers away…the list is probably endless. But I think I discovered a new one and the (easy) solution is worth sharing. As many of you know, I sold my own residence this summer (real es... Read Full Post

The Bethesda Luxury Home Summer Sales Report This market report draws on data from every area in Bethesda. Normally I'd take data from a much smaller geogrphical pool (mircro-markets) because, as I've pointed out in previous posts about micro-niches, you can’t talk about the "Washington DC area market", or the "DC Metropolitan market", or the "Bethesda MD real estate" market or, or even the Downtown Bethesda market. Instead, you have to analyze prices on almost a almost a block-by-block bas... Read Full Post