November 13, 2008
The Week in Real Estate: Rental Madness for Obama Inauguration
This is the first installment of a new weekly real estate column from Mark Wellborn of UrbanTurf, a local blog and newsletter that covers the residential real estate scene in D.C., MD, and VA.
A few weeks before the Democratic National Convention came to Denver this past summer, an email popped up in my inbox from an industrious friend in the Colorado city.
“I am going to get $3,000 for my place for the week,” the elated friend wrote from Denver. “That is going to pay my rent for about five months.”
Not long after getting this email, a few journalist friends who were heading out to cover the convention marveled at how much their respective employers were willing to shell out for accommodations for the week. For a three-bedroom home, rates were upwards of $10,000 for the week.
As people begin to make their preparations to come to D.C. for what is hyped to be one of the most heavily attended presidential inaugurations ever, similarly high-priced rentals are showing up on Craigslist. I decided to look into what is out there and how much people are willing to pay.
A one-bedroom on the top floor of the Cairo building near 16th and Q Streets is available for the week for $7,000, almost three times the monthly rent for that area. The unit is furnished, has a roof deck and, according to the ad, the owner is “using the money to do volunteer work overseas, and willing to consider other reasonable offers.”Read the whole story here.There are also options if you are heading to DC with a group, but some are prohibitively expensive. A five-bedroom, 5.5-bath mansion is available for the week in the Colony Hill neighborhood next to Georgetown. The home boasts an “expansive entertaining space and a large private garden,” and is fittingly owned by a White House physician from the Clinton administration. The price tag for the week: $25,000.
Where Can You Buy a Loft in D.C.?
The modern definition of the loft was born in New York City. From the luxury apartment versions in Tribeca that fetch upwards of $10 million to the industrial factory spaces deep in Brooklyn that rent for $1,500 a month, they are an institution in the Big Apple. D.C.’s loft selection is smaller and far different than New York’s, but there are still quite a few options if you are in the market.
The Best Open Houses Around D.C. this Weekend
UrbanTurf's three open house picks for this coming weekend include a two-bedroom penthouse in Kalorama that is in the former Chinese Embassy, a three-bedroom rowhouse in Capitol Hill that has been very well maintained, and a cottage in Bethesda that is priced well below market rate.
-Mark Wellborn
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I, too, was thinking about renting out my place for the inauguration, but I couldn't get past the idea of strangers using my towels and sleeping in my bed. It's one thing for me to meet some random stranger in a bar and bring them home and bang them than it is for some stranger to pay me $800 bucks a night to sleep in my bed. I gotz to haz mi priorities.
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Finally, you have an excuse to delouse your futon and kill all the rats in your crawlspace.
"Charming, cozy English basement for rent innaugural weekend. Just minutes from the parade route."
[If you run like you've just eaten three chili cheese dogs and a Sportshake chaser.]
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I remember during the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake people were trying to rent their houses out for thousands of dollars a week. The end result, a few nibbles and a lot of broken dreams.
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Yawn. This is hardly a timely mention of this "news". This story has been covered umpteenth times by virtually every other local news source. I laughed at the guy I saw on NBC4 hoping to rent his filthy, empty condo in NE for $10,000. Good luck with that one buddy. I recently moved into a nice, albeit small, apartment in Georgetown. Perhaps I should try renting. I’m just not crazy about the idea of having strangers in my bed and shower. I would, on second thought, trade the use of my place for an Inaugural Ball ticket!
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You have to love the properties that have been on the market for months, yet somehow are ‘Priced to Sell’ .. party like its 2005.
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Oh sad hype... any chance to make us feel wanted I suppose. I ask that you please continue to pander because I like the warm feeling of delusion that my shit hole is in hot demand by people from other places for one day every 125 years.
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I'm reporting all apartment renters to their landlords/buildings for illegal subletting.
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Hmmm, for $800-$1,000 a night, I'd sleep on my sofa and the out-of-town inaugural partyers are welcome to my bedroom and as many towels as they care to use. Everyone has his price.
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Um, I hate to get all jurisprudential up in this piece, but what happens when you RENT your apartment in DC (as I'm sure most will, by memorializing the arrangement orally or with the written aid of the back of a cocktail napkin)?
You leave on a Friday, come back on a Monday, and lo and behold, your new TENANT is standing there all talking about how he doesn't like the heat, is withholding rent and certainly isn't giving up his leasehold. And he wants to know whether you registered as a landlord with the DCRA because they aren't going to be happy with the state of the bathtub and roaches when he complains on Monday.
Or perhaps he just wants to know your full name and insurance co. because he fell down in said tub and is now suing you for $850K? Your homeowners insurance does cover that right?
Should I keep going? Because I can.
Oh, and about the room at the Cairo? Nice touch--very coumbaya--almost justifies the gouging. Although statements like this always leave me guessing--does this involve building schools in Haiti or similar work? Because I'd feel better about that than a program designed to help out the repressed denizens of Bangkok's Pat Pong district out with THEIR rent, in somehwat more of a quid pro quo arrangement.
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Um, I hate to get all jurisprudential up in this piece, but what happens when you RENT your apartment in DC (as I'm sure most will, by memorializing the arrangement orally or with the written aid of the back of a cocktail napkin)?
Good point, but what about those of us who have for some reason or another actually registered as landlords with DCRA and have done all the legal mumbo-jumbo you need to do to rent legally in the District?
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Good point, but what about those of us who have for some reason or another actually registered as landlords with DCRA and have done all the legal mumbo-jumbo you need to do to rent legally in the District?
Well, shoot, I guess you're in the clear, right-assuming you have room to rent? And God Bless American Capitalism!!!
But there are probably a lot of folks who haven't thought this completely out. Probably 99% will get away with no problems--get the quick cash and on with life. But do you want to risk being a 1%-er? I don't. Too many variables. At a bare minimum, I'd want to have a frank discussion with my insurance agent, although dealing with the DC bureaucracy might be just as much of a cause of heartache as a massive personal injury lawsuit. Who knows? Not me.
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@ hillrat: I actually read the DC might lift rental restrictions due to the shortage of hotel rooms:
http://www.myfoxdc.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=7849101&version=5&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=1.1.1
I've got a new-ish 1 BR in Logan, so I'm sort of daydreaming about renting it. But besides the liability issues (good point), I'd be worried about the homeowner's association. Those people can be real bastards, and I am pretty sure condo bylaws prohibit this sort of thing.
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@Roo
I am astonished. Absolutely astonished. I would never have dreamed they'd entertain doing something like this.
Well then. Scratch 800 lb. bureaucratic gorilla off list.
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I was SO on this story WAY before anyone else, with my comment to a DCist post from a couple months ago. I think IMGoph and I were going to start a website called "sleep on my couch", until we discovered one already existed...
Anyway, I STILL have a very comfortable couch available, and that bowl of cheerios is STILL included. But act fast!
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jen209: we're going to have to try a little harder since the "sleep on my couch" idea is already taken.
i'm willing to start up "sleep in the vacant commercial space on the ground floor under my apartment."
it's a huge space (could probably sleep about 100 if everyone brought sleeping bags). renting the port-a-johns and setting them up here in bloomingdale without anyone noticing...that might be hard to pull off.
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Too bad puptentonmyroofhentai.com is already a porn domain.
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TX2DC: perhaps the reason for the less-than-timely mention is because the post is mostly an excuse to plug the UrbanTurf website of the author, and he needed something to throw in there to make it seem less self-serving?
And this right after the fawning review of Slumdog Millionaire that DCist ran right before announcing their new sponsor, Slumdog Millionaire. I feel like someone at DCist needs to go take a refresher course in conflict of interest.
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Just notice the flag was at half mast..What are you trying to say DCIST?!..
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It looks like www.rentaroomdc.com is offereing some nice places to stay in the DC area for the inauguration. Maybe celebrity options.