Today marks the 16th of 18 sessions of Keller Williams' Ignite real estate business-building training course. I've attended all so far. My colleagues and I today are learning innovative ways to boost our service to home sellers. The class has been a comprehensive, invaluable and fun regimen of ideas, guidance and personalities. And I won a free Starbucks gift card.
Okay, if you read my last blog post – regarding real estate investing in Baltimore’s Patterson Park neighborhood – you may be wondering what features largely drive property values in that market. In other words, what features make the seemingly similar rowhouses there vary in price by $250,000 or more?
The answers are both obvious and subtle.
Location
First, the biggest factor affecting price in all real estate markets – location -- certainly is present here. In Patterson Park, the closer a property is to the park – especially on the north and east sides of the park – the more the property tends to be worth. Rowhomes on city blocks directly adjacent to the park can easily fetch $250,000 or more, while those only one or two blocks away from the park (north of Fairmount Ave., for example) quickly drop to half that amount.
Condition
As in most real estate markets, the renovated and rebuilt homes in Patterson Park garner far higher prices than the abandoned, neglected and boarded-up ones. Patterson Park homes vary widely in terms of condition. Some are complete ground-up restorations and are lovingly polished. Others resemble bombed-out hulks in near ruin. Most of the available rowhomes, however, fall somewhere in between.
Amenities
Some Patterson Park homeowners with the resources to do so have made the most of what little space they have in their traditionally smaller rowhomes. The most sought-after units feature high-end countertops, cabinets and flooring, along with premium appliances, clever storage solutions and energy-efficient HVAC systems. But because Patterson Park remains in redevelopment, most properties there still feature the kitchens, bathrooms and materials that were first installed in the 1920s through the 1960s.
Floor Plans
In Patterson Park, it’s amazing how two homes with exactly the same footprint can vary so much in terms of floor plan and usable space. This is particularly true when evaluating the second/top-floor layout of the units. As an example, last Saturday I toured three of the neighborhood’s rowhomes, each featuring two bedrooms. But the amount of usable space each home provided was drastically different.
The most unappealing second-floor layout featured a fairly large, newly renovated bathroom. But that bathroom jutted out obnoxiously into the center of the floor space, leaving one 5 ft.(!) x 10 ft. “bedroom,” a second 8 ft. x 10 ft. “master bedroom,” and a wasted 6 ft. x 7 ft. open alcove that was totally unusable, wasted space. The second home featured two larger bedrooms and a bathroom location that made more sense. And the third provided two somewhat smaller bedrooms, but in exchange for those smaller rooms, the owner received two second floor baths, each renovated with high-end materials.
Parking
With the Patterson Park neighborhood growing in popularity, the ever-present parking problem will only grow worse. That means, if at all possible, buyers interested in purchasing these rowhomes must carefully consider parking options. For example, most of the rowhomes do have on-street parking, although availability of individual spaces varies, depending on the day and time at issue. But some Patterson Park neighborhood streets offer no parking at all. That means you better have a parking space in the rear of your home, or you might have to park blocks away and carry those groceries. One of the nicest rowhomes I saw last weekend – located on N. Glover St. -- offered no parking at all, not even in the rear of the house. Perhaps in some cases a backyard could be converted to a parking space. But this option may not be available, for a number of reasons.
Basements
If you as a buyer are asked to select from two otherwise equal homes, wouldn’t you rather have the home with 33 percent more usable floor space? That’s often a choice you’re presented with when buying Patterson Park rowhomes. Because while some homes there may have roughly similar square footage on the main and upper floors, basements in Patterson Park rowhomes vary a lot.
Most basement ceilings you’ll find there run six feet or less in height, and are very hard to stand up in. But a few of the rowhomes do have “normal” ceiling heights of seven feet or more in the basement, making them much more practical to use. Higher basement ceilings also mean homeowners have the option of finishing the basement, effectively raising their usable floor space by a third. This is a real bonus when it comes time to sell.
Finally, some Patterson Park rowhomes feature finished concrete floors in the basement, while others have gravel floors or some even earth. Some lucky buyers may even find a home with in-floor basement drainage and a sump pump.
If you’d like more information on buying or selling a home in Patterson Park or any other area, contact me, Jerry Kline, at (443) 924-7418 or JerryKline@kw.com.
Buy low. Sell high. It’s the mantra of any investor.
But how does one accomplish this? Where are the opportunities?
In terms of real estate, you have to watch the trends. Where are property values rising? What are the emerging areas? Where do people really want to live?
This weekend, I spent the better part of a 60-degree(!) January afternoon in Baltimore showing property in the city’s Patterson Park neighborhood. Things are happening there.
It’s a trend I’ve witnessed first-hand in nearby Washington D.C. in recent years. In 2001, my nephew bought a run-down rowhouse on the edge of D.C’s Georgia Ave.-Petworth neighborhood. Still ravaged from the late-1960s riots that burned large swaths of the city, Petworth a decade ago epitomized urban blight: scores of boarded-up buildings, rampant crime and poverty.
But my nephew had his fingers on the pulse of the city and he saw that D.C.’s Metro subway system would turn Petworth into a coveted neighborhood. He bought his rowhouse there for $135,000 and 10 years later sold it for $580,000 – and this was AFTER the big real estate market crash of 2007. He spent nearly $250,000 improving the property, but still walked away with a profit of $200,000.
Patterson Park in Baltimore now appears ripe for such home value appreciation. Depending on condition and proximity to the park, two-bedroom, two-bathroom rowhouses, for example, can be purchased for as little as $50,000. Some interior remodeling work and an exterior facelift later, the same basic homes are currently fetching $250,000 and more.
When you tour the neighborhood, you see the transformation, house by house, block by block. Young working professionals and small families can be seen chatting on street corners, jogging and playing the in the park and tackling all sorts of handyman projects on their homes.
The historic Patterson Park area is tucked between Baltimore’s Canton neighborhood and John's Hopkins Medical Center, just east of Fells Point and Little Italy. The emerging enclave is within walking distance of a variety of the city's best restaurants, nightlife and cultural activities.
http://www.livebaltimore.com/neighborhoods/list/pattersonpark/
But the real gem of the area is the park itself, a 137-acre oasis with a boat lake (where people can fish, if they have a license), sports fields, tennis courts, playgrounds, a swimming pool and an ice skating rink. There also are several monuments and a well-known Pagoda.
During the summer and early autumn, several festivals are hosted in the park. But most important from a real estate investment perspective, the park and its surrounding environs are the center of an innovative urban renewal campaign by city and neighborhood leaders.
It’s a great place to consider investing in. If you’d like more information on current real estate investment opportunities in the Patterson Park community, please contact me at (443) 924-7418 or JerryKline@kw.com. I’d be happy to provide you with a list of available properties, including foreclosures, as well as any other financing and market data you might need.
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