About us:

We are two married professionals in our late 30’s with our first child on the way. (wife edit:  wife is in mid-30's)  We moved to D.C. two years ago and have always owned a single family home before moving to DC.   We got lucky and found an amazing fully furnished single family home in NE DC for rent in early 2015.    I work in Capitol Hill and my wife works in NE DC so this was a perfect location and a perfect property so even though the rent was high (or so we thought at the time) we jumped at the chance.

Our lease was up in June of 2017…  after looking for a good rental for a few months at the end of 2016 I finally decided even in an overheated real estate market if we could find a place to buy that was not too insanely priced near both of our jobs we would buy instead of renting.

After having a few high maintenance older single family homes in the past we were strongly leaning toward a new townhouse because it is one less thing to worry about.  I also like the square footage and open floorplans you can get with little maintenance and low cost.

So our search criteria were as follows:

1. -          Prefer less than $550,000… flexibility up 600k or higher but only if things are perfect.
2. -          Prefer a new townhouse, condo or a newer single family house.
3. -          Prefer at least 1500 square feet.
4. -       Prefer a property that will be easy to rent out many years down the road.
5. -          Need at least 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms.   (master, guest and baby room)
6. -          Would like a decent outdoor space (deck or patio).
7. -          Commute is paramount for both of us.   Less than 30 minutes metro or drive to both of our work locations.  Walkable to a metro stop is a must have requirement.
8. -          Walkability in general  (groceries, gym, restaurants without a car)
9. -          Prefer to have a decent elementary school at least so we don’t have to go private right away.
10. -          Needs to be ready by May or June 1^st at the latest.