2100 19th St. NW, #402

Original Listing Price: $355,000 (Dec. 14, 2007)
Closing Price: $315,000 (March 28, 2008)
Slash Rate: 11 percent
Square Footage: 650

This two bedroom co-op is “City living at its best!” with “SPECTACULAR SWEEPING VIEWS” of D.C. Well, one thing’s indisputable: the location’s great. The unit is lodged in the quiet residential zone between Dupont Circle, U Street, and Adams Morgan. The now owners went to buyers agent John Sullivan, of Bethesda-based Buyer’s Edge agency, with their eyes already on this prize. They’d seen the unit while attending an open house for another co-op property in the building. All Sullivan had to do was negotiate the deal—and the timing was looking good. “One factor was that it was an estate sale. They were just wanting to finish the process,” he says. The listing price had already dropped twice. “In this market, you jump at anything that comes. If you have a qualified buyer, the listing agent should be advising his client to work with them.” Sullivan tabulated what he thought the unit should cost. Some of the other recent sales in the building were north of $350,000, with at least one over $400,000. (“I just can’t imagine that someone paid that much money for it,” he says, but it was up on the top floor.) But the kitchen and the flooring need renovation in 402. The previous owner had lived there for decades, with very few substantial changes over that time, Sullivan believes. He and his clients put in an offer for $305,000. The owners came back asking for $320,000, and they settled on a price in between.

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