The Koitz Group's Blog: All Categories

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 urban sights -- sometimes using environmentally friendly materials.

Schwartzman highlighted 22 West, a DC luxury condominium in West End (just to the east of Georgetown), where some residents were to face "a weathered metal roof" that was the top of a local gas…

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 Realtors (SAR) domain theft and consequent link pillaging.

John talks about the Sarasota Association of Realtors (SAR) developing their own website called Time2BuySarasota.com – even though they were aware of John’s own TRADEMARKED site, www.BuySarasota.com. 

Time2 Get Real,…

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 since my last cross-country voyage -- and it probably would’ve been sooner if it weren’t for the REW Summit (thanks a lot, Morgan!)....but more about The Summit in a bit :-)

The San Francisco contingent is made up of college buddies whom I’ve known for 10 years now.  I…

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 referred to it in its first three months."  It seems almost too simple to be true, but here's what they're doing in the City of Brotherly Love. They have mandated a system whereby borrowers, lenders and a representative of the courts meet to propose and implement (if…

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 truly come from a study of smaller micro-markets).  While in the Southern part of 20815 (areas close to Bethesda and the upper Northwest Washington DC line) most houses will break into seven figures, as you travel further north in the zip code, you'll begin to…

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 Bethesda/Chevy Chase area, so none of the streets named was new to me.  And I agree that all are “great to live on.”  But I also know of others in the area that I think are equally impressive, so I thought it might be fun to add to this list.  

So, in no particular order, here…

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 go to Rockville to pay your taxes in person, you can use your Discover Card and get the advantages of their cash back offer.”

Being the cynic in the group, I mentioned that there would probably be a fee imposed on using the card to pay your taxes.  “It’s $10,” she…

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 estate agents should be forced to buy, sell and move every few years just to remind them of how stressful and tiring it can be!!).  We were fortunate enough to work with lovely buyers and a very professional and delightful buyers’ agent.  The day of settlement, the buyers…