Sitcom Aborted, Failure to Launch (Part 2)

Now where was I?

In the early 1990s when I first started working for the prestigious non-profit (hence force known as the PNP) 14th street was the red light district. There was still a strip club and an adult peep show down by Franklin Square. I had a view of dayshift prostitutes plying their wares outside my office window (seriously!) and you never went north of Thomas Circle, unless you were dying for some Popeye's fried chicken, then you took your chances. There was even a chinese restaurant ironically named "The Good Ho".

Sometime after 2000 it all changed. I think it was that day when we all woke up and found a Whole Foods and two luxury apartment buildings had magically appeared on the 1400 block of P Street, Northwest. Suddenly all those abandoned car dealerships and warehouses became ripe for gentrification.

So one late spring day in 2004 I decided to take my lunch and go check out the Whole Foods and the new revitalized 14th Street. After grabbing a chicken flauta from the prepared foods section I went for a stroll, passing an old car dealership with a sales center on the first floor (I think it's now a bank). Since I was a kid I loved shopping for real estate, never missing a chance to check out model units, so true to form sauntered in, thinking I could take a tour. Yeah, they were no where near ready, but this being the beginning of the real estate bubble, they were almost sold out. AND THEY WERE LOFTS! DC never had lofts..........

There was one 1BR, Den unit left. This was my 3-5 off suit. They wanted $300K. I did the math. Having recently had an appraisal to get rid of PMI, I knew what my current condo was worth and with the equity I had accumulated, I knew I could make the mortgage payments on that loft easy. I was ready to call. I was ready to see the flop. Then the pot-bully arrived.......in the form of the earnest money deposit.

They wanted a check for 5% of the purchase price. And the kicker? They weren't expecting to deliver units for 18-24 months. So let me get this straight, I asked. "You want me to give you 15 THOUSAND DOLLARS to hold on to for up to 2 years to secure a loft, sight unseen?"

I folded.

Bad idea.

In retrospect, given my recent appraisal, I could have opened a home equity line of credit for the amount they wanted and easily make the monthly payments. But I could have never foreseen what would happen in the market. By the time I realized my mistake, the unit was sold.

Even worse, by the time those units were actually delivered my condo had appreciated so much that it was worth almost what I would have paid for the loft. I could have swapped my current condo (20 miles outside the city) for a loft in the heart of the new Northwest and ended up with a mortgage that was only slightly larger than my current mortgage. We're talking a monthly payment of $800 plus condo fees for a 1BR, Den in Logan. I folded and the flop completed my straight and all I can say is "What was I thinking?"

Sitcom aborted, failure to launch, because I'm a timid poker player.

Never again............


P.S. Those lofts are now reselling for $500K.

Repeat: What was I thinking?