Pick Me! Choose Me! Love Me! And When They Don’t - 04/30/10 12:26 PM
In early 2009, I got a very nice call from someone wanting to see Rosedale Cottage, a lovely historic property that I had listed in Cleveland Park.  He found me on Trulia and asked me if I could also show him some other properties in that neighborhood and in Georgetown.    I was to keep it under $3,000,000.  I can do that!I Googled him, he looked pretty impressive, and when he came to town it was with an appointment with me to see some pretty fabulous houses.But when he got here, he explained he and his wife were planning to move to … (3 comments)

My Little Technology Meltdown - 04/29/10 10:48 PM
Before I got my Mac, I thought that all Mac users were insufferably smug.  Now I have Macs, and I am insufferably smug.
For the last several years, my Macs have worked flawlessly - until last night.
I was in the last stages of getting a contract ratified, and the listing agent had sent me the contract that needed only to be printed out, initialed by the buyers and then scanned and emailed back to the the listing agent.  And I am set up for all of that. 
As the cute young couple buying their first place together was driving across … (2 comments)

Wordless Wednesday: Bath Time - 04/29/10 10:07 PM
OK, OK, I was planning to post these yesterday, and I almost gave up after a bunch of proxy errors that I know will be fixed by the end of this week.  So I'm trying again.  In a few minutes, I will take a deep breath and try to get these posted so you can all see how cute Mr. Snowball is giving his mother a little bath.



So, here goes!
 
… (3 comments)

Communicating: Don't Put All Your Eggs In The Technology Basket - 04/27/10 10:01 PM
At our office meeting today, our broker, Donna Evers, was going over our office sales figures - which were pretty amazing.  Then we began to share our stories of what went into many of those transactions.
Which ones were multiple offers?  What other challenges did we overcome to bring it all together.  And one of the stories had a very strong message, especially for some of the younger agents in the office.
Once of my colleagues, and one of Evers' top agents (in more ways than one) does a huge amount of business.  And she does it the old-fashioned way.  No … (26 comments)

Todd, You Rascal! - 04/27/10 08:01 AM
This morning I woke up and sat down to see if the new magic server on Active Rain was indeed working, and there is was.
Blog Buddy Todd Clark had just passed the 1,000,000 mark!
I first "met" Todd at Pimlico Raceway in Baltimore.  I was out there with my mother and sister chereing our horses on and drinking Black Eyed Susans, the official beverage of Pimlico.  And my cell phone rang with an unfamiliar number. 
Since I wasn't yet loopy, I answered and got Todd on the other end.  I think I mentioned him in a post and he was … (31 comments)

Curb Appeal: It's Not Just Your Curb That's Important - 04/26/10 09:06 PM
Sunday, I showed a beautiful home.  There wasn't a single weed in the green lawn.  There were beautiful flowers in bloom, and everything about the place said "Buy me!"  And as we went through the house itself, that message was reinforced by tasteful decor, wonderful space, and lots of sunny space.  Then there was the back yard, with deck, patio with fire pit, hot tub and two-car garage.  Would this be "The One" for my buyers?
But. 
Yeah, there was a but.  Like the elephant in the beautifully staged living room.
Just across the street there was, well, Dogpatch.
There were … (29 comments)

New Servers Coming Online Monday Night, April 26th, (Site Will be down from 11pm-3am) - 04/26/10 02:48 PM
Now this is just wonderful news!  Could this really be our last day of multiple goofy messages?  Pretty cool stuff, and thanks for the heads up so that if I am blogging at four in the morning I won't go wacko.
Via Bob Stewart - ActiveRain (ActiveRain):
We will be bringing the new servers completely online Monday night, April 26th. This will include four hours where the site will be down. Starting at 11pm Pacific Time and running through 3am Pacific Time you will not be able to access ActiveRain.
After that, things should be functioning MUCH better. We really appreciate the patience … (18 comments)

Wow! What's This Facebook Birthday Thing? - 04/24/10 01:31 PM
Starting on Wednesday, they started showing up on my wall on Facebook - birthday greetings by the hundreds!
They came from my brother, Bob, in Korea.
They came from blog buddies all over the country.
They came from cousins.
There was even one from my sweet godmother in Ellicott City!
And as I read them, I started to wonder how all of these people managed to remember - especially since I have yet to figure out how to get Facebook's birthday pixie how to remind me when I have friends and family about to celebrate one. 
If any of you have … (28 comments)

Friday's Fotos: My Neighbor In Rock Creek Park - 04/23/10 11:16 PM

I met this guy at the riding stables in Rock Creek Park, which sort of runs through the entire city, from Georgetown up to Gaithersburg, MD.  He literally came right up and kissed the camera.  Luckily, he didn't get any horse goobers on my camera lens. I was especially take with the whiskers on that big old nose!
… (26 comments)

Wordless Wednesday: Tulip Time - 04/21/10 07:07 PM

This is another in my Paris nostalgia series!  I was going through a bunch of the photos I took on that trip, and now I really have to get back there soon!  There were growing in the Luxembourg Gardens.   And I was thinking how much fun it would be to have a job as a gardener there!
… (47 comments)

Making the Electronic Magic Work - 04/20/10 11:03 PM
I got an email tonight from some favorite buyers that they wanted to make an offer on a cute house we saw yesterday.  Could I write up the papers and email them?
OK, we've been through this drill often enough that they know the purchase agreement more than some real estate agents.  So they know where to sign and initial.  
So I sat down at my trusty Mac and whoa!  ZipFormMacConnect refused to load!  
Well, for just such emergencies, I have a little Sony Vaio.  So I fired it up, went to Zipformsonline.com and voila!  I had it done … (29 comments)

Things Really Do Happen For A Reason - 04/19/10 07:39 PM
Sometime last September, I wrote an offer for a couple on a pretty nice townhouse in Arlington.  In the winter, you could see a tiny little patch of the Potomac River through bare branches, and while it was pretty nice, it also needed some work.  OH, and the place was, we thought, dramatically over priced. 
And over the ensuing months, counters and counter counters and counter counter counters going back and forth.  Finally, we  narrowed the gap between asking price and offering price from $137,500 to a mere $20,000.  Then, after missing out on a couple of other places, my buyers  … (37 comments)

Speechless Sunday - April In Paris - 04/18/10 09:48 PM

I took this a year ago today on an amazing spring day in front of  L'Opera in Paris.  Today, as I was listening to the news, I thought about how great it would have been if the Icelandic volcano had erupted in time to strand me there!  Of course, the sky would not have been this clear.  But I wouldn't have cared.  It was Paris!
… (28 comments)

Friday's Fotos: Azalea Time in Washington - 04/16/10 09:41 PM

This week, Washington, DC changed her costume, putting away the cherries, red buds and dogwoods.  It's now time to wear some azaleas, and they last pretty much through May.  There are, like people, early and late bloomers, and they come in an amazing variety of colors.  I took this shot with my I-Phone while walking Willie the Labradoodle.
 
… (25 comments)

Wordless Wednesday - Oops Maybe Thursday? - 04/15/10 10:52 PM
It's been a long, nasty week.  But it started to get a lot better when I got home and found and found this!

My dear friend and next door neighbor, Barb, replaced a poor dead thing of mums from last fall.  After a day of a couple of temporary disappointments, it was wonderful to come home to these blooms.

 
© 2009 Patricia Kennedy. Unless otherwise noted, the content, both written and in pictures, is the property of Patricia Kennedy . If you would like to use this image, please  email me (housepat@mac.com) with your request. I'll almost certainly … (28 comments)

Once On Twitter, Always WHERE? - 04/15/10 03:19 PM
We've heard it time and again: "Once on the Internet, always on the Internet." 
These are wise words I've heard at pretty much every single workshop I've attended on social networking. 
So when my favorite news source, Morning Edition, had a little item on the Library of Congress' decision to archive all gazillion Tweets from the earliest to forever, I was pretty stunned.
I mean, sure, it's possible to do that, but why would they want to?
I've spent a lot of the last couple of days doing my taxes.  There are a lot of things that the Federal Government does … (20 comments)

Brokers' Opens - With Lunch? - 04/13/10 08:10 PM
On Tuesdays, Realtors® all over Washington, DC hit the streets to see new listings.  There are usually about a hundred places to choose from, and there are several criteria I use:
I try to see as many upper brackets places as I can.  They're harder to preview during the week. I want to see the houses that I might have buyers for in whatever price range. Then I add opens being held by buddies. At some point, I look for an Open where they're serving lunch.  I mean, we get hungry out on the streets.  If we're lucky, there will be … (40 comments)

Taxes: GRRRRR! - 04/12/10 09:33 PM
I don't mind paying taxes as much as I mind doing taxes.  And each year, whether I do them myself or pay someone to prepare them for me, it's a major pain.
The tax code is incredibly complicated, and I guess that's the nature of the beast.  Still, I feel strongly that it shouldn't be this complicated.
But wait!  The last time they "simplified" the tax structure, real estate agents got totally screwed.  Bye bye investment tax credits, which I remember helped to lower my taxes when I was a new agent.  Then they got rid of income averaging, something that … (34 comments)

Me And Bank of the Universe - 04/11/10 11:22 PM
I am a compulsive early mortgage payer.  And still, last week I got a bone chilling letter in the mail from the gigantic bank that holds my mortgage.  It told me basically that I was on their deadbeat list - my mortgage was a late.  If I didn't pay up, they would begin foreclosure.
Whoa Nelly!
I immediately checked my records that showed my payments were totally current.  There they were, right on the bank's own web site. 
There was no way to talk to anyone on the phone.  I gave up after about an hour in voicemail hell.  So I … (31 comments)

Speechless Sunday: The Lincoln Memorial - 04/11/10 10:56 AM
Speechless Sunday:  The Lincoln  Memorial

I took this one with my I-Phone crossing Memorial Bridge.  Oh, and from the passenger's seat of the car! 
© 2009 Patricia Kennedy. Unless otherwise noted, the content, both written and in pictures, is the property of Patricia Kennedy . If you would like to use this image, please  email me (housepat@mac.com) with your request. I'll almost certainly say yes, and ask only that you provide a link back to my original content as well as an acknowledgment.  The same thing applies to any other material you see posted here on Active Rain or on … (21 comments)

The Cat Came Back! - 04/10/10 10:39 PM
Some time this morning, I realized that Mr. Snowball, my white blue-eyed indoor cat, was nowhere to be found. 
I searched the attic, the closets, the basement, his favorite laundry pile, under the furniture. 
No Mr. Snowball. 
He's only been out of the house a couple of times during his life, and both times I grabbed him and got him back in.  And I started to realize that he must have gotten out sometime yesterday and had a big adventure, staying out all night catting around. And I could only hope that he would live to tell the tale.  I live … (32 comments)

Luxury Real Estate In Washington, DC: 1st Quarter of 2010 - 04/09/10 10:11 PM
Luxury Real Estate In Washington, DC: 1st Quarter of 2010
Like most world capitals, Washington, DC has many amazing homes.  Right now, there are 247 residential properties on the market with a price tag of over $1 million dollars. And during the 1st quarter of this year, there were 71 shown as having sold on the MRIS multiple listing service.  And here are the top five of those sales, in reverse order:
5.  2431 Kalorama Road NW - $3,325,333:  This stone colonial was listed for $3,595,000 and was being sold in "as is" condition to settle an estate.  It was on … (19 comments)

Friday's Fotos: Pat's Perennials - 04/09/10 04:03 PM

It's not about my purple thumb.  It's about not enough time to sell real estate, blog and garden!  In spite of my lack of talent in the gardening department, these fellows come up every year.  They thrive on too much snow, not enough rain, and neglect.    Of course, my next door neighbors do not appreciate them one bit.  Oh, well!
© 2009 Patricia Kennedy. Unless otherwise noted, the content, both written and in pictures, is the property of Patricia Kennedy . If you would like to use this image, please  email me (housepat@mac.com) with your request. I'll almost certainly say … (23 comments)

Me And My Red Bud - 04/09/10 11:00 AM
Here in Washington, DC, the natives seem to have a thing for cherry trees.  And, yes, I do love them.  But my real major true love, at least for trees, is the red bud tree in my front yard.
During my first spring here, a neighbor took me on a flowering bush and tree tour of Washington early in the spring bloom season.  That year, the early bloomers were the red buds and the forsythia.  I'd never even seen a red bud before, and I was enchanted.
For my last 0-year birthday, a good friend and colleague gave me a little … (20 comments)

Playing it Forward: An Elevator Ride In Whole Foods - 04/08/10 05:20 PM
Yesterday was a long and not terribly pleasant day.  A contract that should have gotten ratified didn't, and I worked until pretty late showing property. 
So after I dropped of my buyers, I dragged myself to the Georgetown Whole Foods to try to find something I could eat on the Skinny Bitch Diet that needed absolutely no cooking.  Then I got in the longest, slowest line and paid for my groceries, and got onto the elevator with a quite handsome fellow with a bag of groceries in one hand and a bag of dog food in the other.
"Oh, rats!" I … (31 comments)

Wordless Wednesday: Why Washington DC Has Such A Robust Spring Real Estate Market - 04/07/10 10:44 PM

Almost every house I've shown this week has had a view something like this out one or more windows.  I took this photo with my I-Phone looking out the window of a house in Glover Park.  These trees are just amazing, and they dress up the city - not to mention our listings!
© 2009 Patricia Kennedy. Unless otherwise noted, the content, both written and in pictures, is the property of Patricia Kennedy . If you would like to use this image, please  email me (housepat@mac.com) with your request. I'll almost certainly say yes, and ask only that you provide … (32 comments)

Speechless Sunday: The Tidal Basin - 04/04/10 11:01 PM

I took this out my car window, and no!  I wasn't driving!  These trees are just amazing.  This week, Washington is dressed to the nines, and this is the kind of scene I can imagine Auguste Renoir painting on a huge canvas. 
These trees are around the Tidal Basin, and when they are in full blossom, walking around them is almost a religious experience.
© 2009 Patricia Kennedy. Unless otherwise noted, the content, both written and in pictures, is the property of Patricia Kennedy . If you would like to use this image, please  email me (housepat@mac.com) with your request. … (34 comments)

Washington's Other Cherry Trees: Kenwood - 04/03/10 12:29 AM
Every spring, tourists pour in from all over the world to see Washington's famous cherry trees downtown at the Tidal Basin. But Washington locals, who are mostly way too Type-A to deal with the intense traffic jams downtown, often choose to head out to Kenwood to see beautiful trees. Stately new homes began to sprout up on this former tobacco farm back in the 1920's, and at that time the original developers planted over a thousand cherry trees along every street.  And today, both the stately homes and the breathtaking cherry trees have matured to make Kenwood one of Washington's most … (22 comments)

Friday's Foto: - 04/02/10 10:13 PM

I met this fellow in Kenwood, one of the Washington area's poshest neighborhoods!  What I didn't get in my picture was two women in a  purple Smart Car who were admiring him as I drove up.  It's hard to imagine this type of lawn art isn't dealt with in the neighborhood covenants!
© 2009 Patricia Kennedy. Unless otherwise noted, the content, both written and in pictures, is the property of Patricia Kennedy . If you would like to use this image, please  email me (housepat@mac.com) with your request. I'll almost certainly say yes, and ask only that you provide a … (31 comments)

 
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Patricia Kennedy

Washington, DC

More about me…

Evers & Company Realtors

Address: 4400 Jenifer Street NW, Washington, DC , 20015

Office Phone: (202) 364-1700

Cell Phone: (202) 549-5167

Email Me

Pat Kennedy -- author of The Irreverent Guide to Real Estate -- gives you a look at life on the streets as a real estate broker in our nation's capital. And her blog is peppered with great advice combined with humor!


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