5 Things I Love About 10703 Lexington Street

I love the details, the unexpected, the unique elements of houses I am selling. Here are the 5 Things I Love about my new listing at 10703 Lexington Street, Kensington, Maryland.

1. I love that the front door is a vibrant color both inside and out. This makes the house stand out from the crowd and gives it personality and whimsy.

 2. In addition to abundant kitchen cabinets with a custom glaze, I love the use of the end space for cookbook storage and display.

3. While so many Colonial houses in our real estate market in Montgomery County, Maryland (not to mention Washington, DC, and Prince George's County, Maryland), have typical brass chandeliers in the dining room, I love that this homeowner added a modern flair of a crystal chandelier without being too trendy or gaudy.

4. Taking advantage of an 8 foot by 5 foot nook on the upper level landing, I love how these sellers tucked in a desk and bookcase, even using an applique decoration and a clear desk chair, to create a workable home office space.

5. While I truly love many aspects of this home, and I had a difficult time finding only 5 things to highlight in this post, I do love how they landscaped the gardens to create a lush, peaceful environment.

These types of details and carefully planned touches make a house into a home.

5 Things I Love About McEnearney Associates

Before I became a Realtor, I thought that the brokerage you chose was only where you stopped in occasionally to pick up mail and drop off transactional paperwork. Not so! With each transaction and after countless business meetings, I appreciate more each day how important the brokerage is to a real estate agent's success.  I am fortunate to be affiliated with a terrific local brokerage, McEnearney Associates. Here are the Top 5 things I love about working here, in the DC office.

1. McEnearney is LOCAL.  Our firm covers the greater Washington Metro area, the DMV, including offices in Old Town Alexandria (where the firm began), Arlington, McLean, DC, Kensington, Middleburg, Leesburg, and Bryce Mountain resort. Our agents and our brokers know this area and our markets. This allows us to really focus our efforts on what we know best.

2. McEnearney is a MID-SIZED FIRM. No one office is too big that the agents don't know each other.  Even across offices, there are many friendly, familiar faces. The firm is not so large that we are merely satellite branches in a broad empire. We have strong technology support and innovation, policies and procedures, and just the right level of support for business development and sales and rental transactions without needing to adhere to the bureaucracy of a much larger enterprise. That said, we're also not so small that there is no infrastructure or support staff.

3. McEnearney is FAMILY OWNED and operated. John McEnearney started our firm in 1980 with the goal to be the best. His family values of trust, empowerment, and support are strong and make each agent feel like their efforts are appreciated and that we help make the whole better because of the parts.

4. McEnearney has SUPERIOR AGENT SUPPORT. Our office team is professional, friendly, dedicated, creative, supportive, and hard working. They find ways to help each agent be successful as well as to make our office a pleasant, rewarding place to work. I gain insights and inspiration from their experiences and input and I am a more successful agent because of our team in the office.

5. McEnearney has a GLOBAL LUXURY AFFILIATION. While we focus our sales efforts in our local market, as indicated above, we have a strong affiliation with the Leading Real Estate Companies of the World and in particular, our clients benefit from the Luxury Portfolio brand for high end properties. This global luxury marketing reach could be crucial for certain sellers. And my ability to easily make introductions to other real estate professionals across the world helps me better serve my clients as well as friends and family who live or want to live elsewhere.

Our tag line supports all of these ideas: Built Around You. When you are selecting your Realtor, whether buying, selling, or leasing, ask them about where they work and see if the pride of brokerage affiliation goes beyond just being the biggest (or if they've even thought about it much at all).

5 Things I Love About My New Listing at 3315 Pendleton Drive

My newest listing is a contemporary house located just one mile from the Wheaton Metro Station on the Red Line and all the shopping near there. It is also around the corner from Wheaton-Claridge Park and just a short drive from Wheaton Regional Park. My prep team and I have been working hard to bring this home to market today, so I wanted to share the 5 Things I Love most about it.

1. The impressive brick fireplace, which is a dominant architectural feature of the property. In researching the history of the house and its Hammond Hill neighborhood, I discovered that the brick was reclaimed from older homes in Alexandria, Virginia, during construction.

2. The original wood cabinets. There is something comforting and warm about their patina, and they just go with the house.

3. The yard, with its size (9,176 sq ft), its privacy, and its peacefulness.  While prepping this property for sale, I discovered a Star Magnolia tree, Forsythia, Eastern Red Bud, Hemlocks, Pines, and Cedars.

4. The vaulted ceilings. Design in 1950 by architect Charles M. Goodman, famous for his design of the original National Airport terminal in Washington, DC, along with many other residential developments, every room in this cool mid-century modern home features angles and volume.

5. The windows, walls and walls of windows. This home is flooded with natural light and one feels connected to nature from the inside. It is a cheerful house.

I hope whoever buys it loves this home as much as I do. I am holding public open houses on Saturday, April 26, 2014, 2:00-4:00 p.m. and Sunday, April 27, 2014, 1:00-4:00 p.m.  Please come to tour this home in person and learn more about its history and potential.

5 Things I Love About My New Listing

Today I am starting a new series called "5 Things".  I will feature five things that I love about some real estate topic, in this case my wonderful new listing in College Park, Maryland.  These 5 attributes of this particular home illustrate how small touches in a home can add to its overall appeal and how sellers can help prospective buyers feel "at home" as they tour through a house, even during their first visit. Also, these details are difficult to cover in a one page property brochure or the 400 characters we are given in the listing remarks section of our multiple listing service, so I wanted to share even more about this house in other creative ways.

1. On the left, I call this the Perfect Pantry. By adding simple white contact paper as part of their house sale preparation checklist, this pantry shines as tidy, useful, pleasant and convenient storage in the kitchen. For homes of this size and price point, this pantry is a gem.

2. On the right, just off the kitchen along the stairs to the basement, is even more storage. I adore built-ins and so do today's buyers! The previous owners added shelves to the old back door when they built an addition, and this extends handy space, too. Bonus: no perilous reaching; there's a landing right in front of these shelves.

3. Staying in the kitchen for another favorite thing, this 5 burner, stainless steel, gas range is as gorgeous in person as it is in this picture. Although the LeCreuset French oven does not convey with the house, of course all the appliances do. Upgraded kitchen appliances make such a huge difference to buyers today (call it an HGTV influence) and this beauty is joined in the kitchen by a French door refrigerator, a stainless steel dishwasher and the over-the-stove built in microwave (peeking in at the very top of my photo).

4. The crown molding and trimmed doorways in the dining room nicely frame the passages to kitchen and living room. They also give a polished, upgraded, lovely feel to the home.
 
5. An enclosed porch off the back of the house really does extend the living space since this one has outdoor carpeting, three full walls of glass windows with screens, lighting and a ceiling fan. This is a very pleasant spot to sit and relax and even dine, as there is room for a cafe table and chairs.

To summarize the 5 Things I Love About My New Listing:
1. Pantry
2. Built In Shelves
3. 5 Burner Range
4. Crown Molding
5. Enclosed Porch
 
Although I have not posted in a while, I think about blog topics constantly and have quite a few stored for the near future.  So stay tuned and be sure to follow or subscribe to my blog so you don't miss any useful and fun topics.