New Kitchen? Is it worth the money to remodel before selling?

It is hard to imagine that we still are short of "decent listings" in Montgomery County. The number of pending homes sales has been down for the past two months. In part this is due to the season and in my opinion to nervousness over the recent government budget battle. However, in spite of this there are still not many good homes out there to show to my purchaser clients. I find the market is a little strange in that some houses are selling amazingly fast while a number of homes are sitting on the market with relatively few people going to see them. The reason? Well, I think there has been some fundamental changes in the tastes of the general buying public over the course of the past decade that has an impact on the housing market. One reason is due to the recent banking crisis. Buyers have grown more cautious and selective in the past few years and are looking very carefully at the condition of a home before rushing into a purchase. They are looking for long term value and this generally translates into carefully selecting a home that has lots of recent upgrades. Buyers do not want to take on an expensive mortgage in addition to buying a home that will need additional money poured into it over the next few years to update kitchens, baths and mechanical systems. In addition, I really think that the newer generation of buyers are just not into buying homes that need fixing up. It just seems that younger buyers seem to have better things to do than spend a lot of time working on their homes.

If I had to pick one major problem area with a home not selling my first choice would be that dated kitchen  Old baths and mechanical systems are important too but the kitchen is where it all starts. My reasoning is simple.  If three decades of showing homes have taught me one thing, it is that ninety per cent of the time when a prospective buyer first enter a home, they head straight for the kitchen. Yep, they do not look at the furnace, or the water pipes or for that matter the roof, they go look at the kitchen. So, if the kitchen has old Formica counter tops or a worn vinyl floor then you as the seller are going to lose a lot of buyers right from the get go. Lets face it, nobody wants your old Amanda Radar Range these days. To put it bluntly, buyers want to see new, modern kitchens. And if your kitchen is dated then you are not dealing from strength when looking to market your home. If somebody does turn out to be interested in your home then they are going to start figuring up how much it will cost them to upgrade the kitchen with the intention of offering less. This will translate into both a longer time for your on the market and a much lower selling price. So yes, I would say that it is a smart thing to consider putting some money into your kitchen before putting your home on the market. If you would like me to come by and help you evaluate your home prior to listing it just contact me and I will be glad to come and give you home a look.

It is important to note that most sellers do not need to gut and renovate their kitchens to make them look significantly better. On a much more modest scale, the addition of new counter tops and fixtures or some new appliances and a few new handles and knobs on the cabinets will do the trick It does not necessarily have to be expensive to get your kitchen looking nicer. Here is a great video from Lowe's Youtube site that shows you how you can upgrade your kitchen without busting the budget.

The Butterfly Effect in Silver Spring. Reflection on the impact of one man's death.

Most everybody has heard of "the house" located in the Woodside neighborhood of Silver Spring. Certainly everybody who practices real estate in Silver Spring is aware of it. When I first got married my wife and I lived in the North Woodside neighborhood, near Snider's supermarket. We loved the area. At the time, the Hecht Company and JC Penny were still located in downtown Silver Spring and it was a nice walk from our house. Woodside is a great place to live and Woodside Park features some of the most upscale homes to be found in close-in Silver Spring. But then there is "the house." A home unfortunate to have two totally unrelated murders take place inside of it. The two crime took place about a decade apart and the victims were on both occasions the owners of the home. As a Realtor I followed the eventual resale of the home out of a morbid professional curiosity more than anything else. You can imagine that a home where two brutal crimes took place is not going to be an easy sell.The last murder occurred in 2010 and the home eventually went to foreclosure and  was totally renovated. It now has new owners. They actually went and changed the street number of the home in an attempt to erase the stigma and bad mojo associated with the home.

I am a bit ashamed to to say that my thoughts were more with the home than the people that the tragedies affected. That changed today when I heard an excellent but sad report on NPR about Brian Betts, the last owner of the home and an up and coming school principal in the District of Columbia. Here is a link to the audio podcast of the story of Brian Betts and Shaw Middle School as reported by NPR. I hope that you will find time to listen to it.

 It got me thinking about one of my favorite childhood stories, Ray Bradbury's " A Sound of Thunder." Where a man is taken back in time to on a guided dinosaur hunt but accidentally changes the course of the future world when he steps on a butterfly that he was not supposed to step on. Thus the chaos theory called the Butterfly Effect.

After hearing this sad tale of a crime committed on one man and the eventual impact it had not just on him and his family but on an entire school and the community that relied on him, the plight of the house really does not seem as significant to me any more. I am glad the home has new owners and they did get a good deal on it. Time will erode the memory of the events that took place within the home. But Shaw Middle School and Brian Betts are gone forever. What a crime that is.

Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and his letter to Mrs. Bixby

Once in a while a blogger has the right to digress.

I see a lot of mention of Abraham Lincoln's sublime Gettysburg Address in the news and on Facebook today (Nov. 19th) on the 150th anniversary of his speech. It has to be one of the greatest public speeches of all time and certainly is a landmark in our on American History. I myself get so much out of reading his speech and have read it many times. I am reprinting it here today so that you can read it. Bear in mind that there is no exact historical version of the text and there are only drafts and post speech written copies that all vary a bit. The following version is from the Hay copy which is owned by the Library of Congress.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met here on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but can never forget what they did here.

It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they have, thus far, so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

It is a moving document to read. In addition I think it is a good idea to post Mr. Lincoln's letter to Mrs. Bixby that he wrote to her after being informed by the war department that she had lost all five of  her sons on the field of battle while fighting for the Union cause. Perhaps I am a bit jaded but if I heard this sort of language today from a politician I would not give it much credit. But when Lincoln wrote of the "alter of freedom" I feel like he really meant and believed in what he was saying.

Executive Mansion, Washington, November 21, 1864.

Mrs. Bixby, Boston, Massachusetts:
  DEAR MADAM: I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.

Yours very sincerely and respectfully,

Abraham Lincoln

Bus Rapid Transit is slowly making it's way to Silver Spring

I hear a lot of back and forth talk today about the future of Bus Rapid Transit lines in Montgomery county. Planning for these lines along major commuter arteries in the county have been in the works for a few years now and I really am a big proponent of the idea. However, there is a lot of resistance to the BRT and many residents are concerned about it's impact on their communities.

For me this is a "no brainer." Traffic congestion is getting worse in the region and the one thing that everybody can agree on is that the traffic issue is not going to get better. The county will continue to grow and that means more commutes to work every day by it's residents. I think there is a lot of uncertainty about what a BRT system is and how it works. Well, I found this really nice video that shows  BRT systems all over the world. It is very well done and can give you an idea of  how they work and how they look. Check it out. BRT systems are very nice, cost efficient and are sure to enhance the communities that they pass through-especially those communities that are not already on a metro line. 

There are two givens with this region that cannot be ignored. One, is that the density of the population is going to increase and there is no close-in neighborhood that will be immune from the pressures that this brings on. Your community can't close the door on higher density development and we homeowners must brace for the changes. The second given, and I think this is good news, is that there is a direct correlation between excellent transportation facilities and home values. For the average homeowner in the Silver Spring area, the BRT system is going to be a good thing.

Five cheap Washington, DC things that you can do in five days. Day five: Brookside Gardens Annual Garden of Lights

This photo of Brookside Gardens is courtesy of TripAdvisor

I know that this one is not technically in Washington, DC but I am going to mention it because it is too nice to miss. Brookside Gardens is located in Silver Spring, MD (Wheaton, to be exact) and aside from a being a  very nice "free" place to visit at all times of the year, features it's annual Garden of Lights this time of year. The event  runs from November 29th of this year through January 5th of 2014 with closings for for a few days around Christmas and New Years. We have pretty much gone every year since it began and it just get's better (and more crowded) each year. Last year I even took an unplanned dip into the pond but that is another story for another blog post.

Basically they take a portion of the grounds and decorate the foliage and surrounding area with an amazing display of colorful holiday lights. Typically entrance to Brookside Gardens does not cost anything, however, they do charge admission for the Garden of Lights. You pay by the vehicle ($20) for a car so it pays to load up the ole sedan with as many friends and family members as you can stomach as there is no extra charge. As long as it is only one vehicle you are good to go. The images here speak for themselves so dress warm, take a thermos of cider and go have a great evening.

Some nights it can get a bit crowded. Best time to go is on a weeknight and if you go early,  say right after sunset, you won't have problem.

Brookside Gardens is a great place to go anytime of the year. Any time of year there is just lovely and they always have something special going on such as the Wings of Fancy butterfly exhibit in the spring and summer months. Brookside is well worth the visit and should be on your list of places to take family and visitors when they come from out of town. But the Garden of Lights is the "place to be" for the next six weeks or so and would be the perfect outdoor event to get on your holiday calendar.

Five cheap Washington DC things that you can do in five days. Day four: The Washington Navy Yard and Museum

It is unfortunate that the Washington Navy Yard has been in the news so much lately Until the recent tragedy on the grounds, very few people in the region knew much about it. I think it is important to write about it now because this is one of my all time favorite places in DC and people need to know about it and go see it. I can't remember how many times I have been to the National Museum of the US Navy in my life. Located on the grounds of the The Washington Navy Yard which in itself if a historical treasure dating back to the War of 1812, I remember my dad first taking my brothers and  me down there when were were little kids. I have been back many times. It is a great place to take nieces and nephews as well as out of town visitors.

I have to admit, I just have always loved ships and things naval and this is the place for me to get my fix. I love the fact that admission is free and the museum is located in one of the old Navy Yard workshops complete with overhead cranes on rail tracks. In spite of the military theme, you will find it to be a great place to take kids because there are things there that they encourage them to climb on. How many museums do you know of that allow that? It is a very intimate place but has wonderful stuff to see. And, like so many of my favorite Washington, DC sites the Navy Yard Museum is under-visited. I can't think of a time that I have been there when there were more than a dozen or so other visitors.  Best thing there for me is the ship models, which feature amazing detail and can be quite large. Kids will like the para scope room where they can use actual submarine scopes to scan the surrounding shipyard for enemy vessel. There is an outdoor park with lots of odd knickknacks and an old 1950s destroyer (USS Barry) tied up at the dock for the public to tour.

For most of my life, Southeast Washington was considered a pretty hairy and dangerous part of town. However, all of a sudden it is the place to be in DC. With the new Nationals Park baseball stadium and the Anacostia River Walk Trail, the area is changing rapidly and offers plenty of great places to see and eat. Adults will need a valid drivers license to get pass the front gate of the Navy Yard and don't be surprised if they search your car trunk. However that is a small price to pay to get into this gem of a place.

Five Cheap Washington DC things that you can do in five days. Day three: The National Building Museum

For my wife's birthday a few years ago I took her down to see the beautiful National Building Museum. Old timers in DC know it as the Old Pension Building. The building was designed by Montgomery C. Meigs who hailed from my native state of Georgia and is one of my favorite unsung heroes of the American Civil War.

Built before modern artificial ventilation, the building was designed to maximize air circulation: all offices not only had exterior windows, but also opened onto the court, which was designed to admit cool air at ground level and exhaust hot air at the roof. Made of brick and tile, the stairs were designed for the limitations of disabled and aging veterans, having a gradual ascent with low steps. In addition, each step slanted slightly from back to front to allow easy drainage: a flight could be washed easily by pouring water from the top. wikipedia

Admission to the building is "free" but there are always some special exhibits that you might want to see and they will charge a few bucks admission for those. Or don't see any special exhibits. Frankly, just a trip to see the grand lobby of the building and to walk around the interior will make your day. The building constructed in 1887 is all brick, and the massive Greek style columns in the open interior court are worth the trip alone. The museum is located between G and F streets, just a short walk from the Judiciary Square Metro Station.

Now is the best time to go because if there are no special events scheduled you are pretty much assured that there will be few other visitors around to cramp your views. However, if you can wait until next summer then the coolest thing to see is the Annual Indoor Mini Golf Course.

Five cheap Washington DC things you can do in five days. Day two: The President Woodrow Wilson House

I really don't know how I lived in Washington for all these years and missed The President Woodrow Wilson House. I really like old historic homes and try to see as many as I can. Located in the Kalorama part of DC, this is the home that President Wilson and his wife lived in after he was president until his death in 1924. His wife who was younger in age continued to live in the home until her death in 1961 when it then became a museum. The great thing about the Wilson home is that the interior is basically in the same condition that it was when he died in 1924. I really liked the fact that you can see how a 1920s style home looked and worked on a day to day basis.  In addition many of the Wilson's personal effects such as their clothing and photos are still in the home for the public to see. Wilson apparently loved modern gadgets and my favorite things in the tour was the primitive intercom system that he had installed in the home.

It costs ten bucks for a tours of the home. (About the cost of a burger in the downtown area.) I recommend that you check it out. The house is a great example of the Georgian Revival Style and the Kalorama area is a fun place to walk as there are an amazing number of fine homes in the neighborhood for you to gawk at. If you want to see what homes are selling for in Kalorama Heights you can visit my website

Five cheap Washington DC things you can do in five days. Day one: The National Cathedral

We took my niece and grandniece down to the Washington National Zoo two weeks ago. Although my niece loved the zoo, she told me that the most amazing thing about the zoo is that admission is free. She is from Austin Texas and the nearest zoo in San Antonio costs money to get into. That got me thinking about Washington versus other cities. We really have a unique city in that so many great tourist sites are free to see, or cost very little. Here are a few of my favorites. The first that comes to mind is the National Cathedral.

When I was a kid, they were actually still building the cathedral. My mom used to take us downtown to see the stone work that they were preparing to place on the walls and spires under construction. In addition when you visit we visited  the cathedral there were all sorts mysterious passages and staircases that are closed to the general public. I can't imagine many ten year old kids who would not fantasize about climbing up those narrow stone spiral staircases? Well, it turns out you can. For my birthday a few years back my wife took me on a special guided tour of the cathedral that allows you to see all sorts of magical places.  Best part was that we went on a weekday in the winter (always the best time to go see things) and we were the only ones on the guided tour given by two very elderly and knowledgeable docents. Our tour included plenty of fun nooks and crannies such as a trip onto the roof (made of lead, you know) where we could gaze on unseen gargoyles and panoramic vistas of DC, and a trip to the attic vaults to see some of the "brick and mortar" bones of the cathedral.

Two of the many gargoyles on the cathedral. The creature to the right is from the move "Alien."





There are a number of specialty tours of the National Cathedral that you can take as well, such as a climb up the massive bell tower. Our tour was called "Behind the Scenes" and took about 90 minutes to complete. Fee for the tour was $15 and was well worth it.

Geothermal Energy for Heating and Cooling Your Home

We had a neighbor in Hillandale recently install a new geothermal heating and cooling system and that got me interested in looking into this new alternate energy source. In this area a typical home uses over 50% of its total annual energy cost for heating, cooling and hot water.  A geothermal system can save you a significant amount of money over time. Up to $100 a month. The issue is  time. Installing a geothermal system is not cheap so you would have to be in your home a number of years for it to pay off. However, a money saving environmentally friendly system can both add to the value of  your home and help sell your home faster if you put it on the market. So, aside from the monthly savings there can be other unseen financial advantages to having a geothermal system installed. The systems are pretty reliable, and in this area you can expect to have a very low maintenance system for years to come. In fact most new or rebuilt Montgomery County schools now have geothermal systems in place. Both Key Middle and Cresthaven Elementary Schools in my neighborhood have been totally rebuilt and have modern geothermal systems. Here is a nice short video that I found on the web that explains the two types of geothermal systems.

Burnt Mills Hills, the best kept secret in Silver Spring

I am amazed at how the market has recovered in Chevy Chase and Bethesda. It is getting very frustrating to find suitable homes for my clients in this area. And, when a nice home comes up on the market, it seems like there are already a number of folks waiting in line with offers. Many of them above the asking price.

That brings us to the beautiful neighborhood of Burnt Mills Hills. This small community (about sixty homes) located near Lockwood Drive and New Hampshire Ave offers up what I consider the best luxury home values in the close-in Metro area. Consisting of mostly older homes built just before and after World War II the community features quality homes build on broad expansive lots with lots of trees and privacy. It is the large lots that get me. Similar homes are just impossible to find elsewhere without traveling further out.

A number of homes in the neighborhood were designed by John Nutter, a local architect of some renown who at 101 years of age still lives in Burnt Mills Hills in the home he designed for himself. Fourteen of the homes in Burnt Mills Hills are Mr Nutter's designs.

The problem with Burnt Mills Hills is that there are very few listings ever on the market at any time. Currently there are no homes for sale there and only two homes have sold in all of 2013 so far. The first one is on Jarboe Ave. and it sold for $960,000 in October

And the second home sold back in the summer of 2013. It was on Burnt Mills Ave and sold for only $799,000 which seemed like a very good price to me. 

If you are getting frustrated with the lack of good homes and skyrocketing values in Bethesda and Chevy Chase then I suggest you take a look at some of the great neighborhoods such as Burnt Mills Hills that are located along the New Hampshire Ave corridor in Silver Spring. For a list of homes currently on the Market in this area you can go here. 

FDA Growth Benefits Surrounding Communities.

It has been a couple of years since I last posted about the Food and Drug Administration White Oak Campus. When I last reported the total work force at the FDA was just pushing past the 5,000 workers mark. Actually, in the past two years this number has not changed much. However, there is still major construction going on and the scheduled completion of a few new buildings should give the facility a boost in it's worker population. By 2017 the projection number of workers should exceed 8,000 employees. After that there is no real projected growth for beyond 2017 as the campus will be pretty much built out. However I would not be surprised to see more buildings and space open up with the passage of time as that seems to be the norm for all government facilities.

Originally there was a lot of griping and resistance to the FDA coming to White Oak but it seems that most objections have faded away and the local communities have not only accepted the new facility but embrace it as well. Hillandale, my own community, which abuts the campus is a good example. I really think the stabilizing real estate market in Hillandale owes a lot to the growth of the campus.  To be sure, our road traffic is a little worse but the FDA has brought a lot of good paying jobs to the area and we have seen a number of FDA employees purchase homes in Hillandale, not to mention some of the other surrounding neighborhoods such as Burnt Mills Hills, and Burnt Mills. We have also seen our local Key Middle School and Cresthaven Elementary School reconstructed as modern, state of the art facilities. We waited a long time in Hillandale for this to happen but the FDA campus seems to have helped move this process along. When my wife and I first moved to this area, I jokingly referred to the New Hampshire Ave. corridor between the White Oak  and Hillandale Shopping Center's as  "dining's death valley." There were just so few options for decent dining out. Nowadays it is different with both shopping centers offering a broad choice excellent places to eat.

With the arrival of the FDA my community is really shaping up to be a great place to live and work. And as any Realtor will tell you. The neighborhoods around the FDA campus offers up some of the best home values in close-in Montgomery County. Click on this Hillandale link if you want to see what is on the market in Hillandale and the rest of the 20903 zip code. And if you are curious about the value of your own home you can go here to get an estimate of your home's worth in today's market.