Recent Blog Posts
Mixed Use Development With Affordable Housing Units Opens in D.C.
This month, a new mixed-use development opened in Southeast D.C. The Clara, named after Clara Muhammad, is located at the original site of America’s Islamic Heritage Museum, and the new building includes a permanent location for the museum on the ground floor. The ground floor of The Clara also includes retail spaces, in which… Read More »
How Will the National Association of Realtors Settlement Affect Your Plans?
Among the many symptoms of financial long COVID is that the cost of buying a house is becoming increasingly unaffordable. In fact, many people in their 30s who have been consistently employed for more than a decade, doubt that they will ever be able to afford their own home. For a brief period in… Read More »
Baltimore Sells Abandoned Houses at Rock Bottom Prices
The scarcity of affordable homeownership is a major problem in most urban areas in the United States. The problem does not always come down to lack of space, though. Even though many counties, including some in the DMV, have affordable homeownership programs where they reserve certain newly built properties for first time homebuyers who… Read More »
Should You Be Worried About the Recent Increase in Commercial Real Estate CLOs?
So much about the real estate market is unpredictable. No one who was building shared office space, roller skating rinks, and movie theaters in 2019 could have anticipated what the next year would bring. Whenever one family buys one house, they are taking a financial risk, not knowing how much the value of the… Read More »
Real Estate Transactions Run in the Family
Everyone complains that the rich get richer while the rest of us work our whole lives for little or no reward. If you have not thought about this for a while, it speaks well of your financial situation, your ability to be content with what you have, or both. It is easier to feel… Read More »
It’s Time to Make Will Attestation Parties a Thing
When you were young, friendship was beautiful and pure. The highlight of your day was riding the school bus after school, sitting next to a friend who wasn’t in any of your classes and didn’t get off the bus at the same stop as you, singing, “We Will Rock You” and laughing until you… Read More »
Don’t Forget to Write Formerly Estranged Relatives Back Into Your Will
You know you are old if, when you were a teenager, you had a poster of David Cassidy on the wall of your bedroom. Like so many child stars, Cassidy grew up to be an adult whose life has the same ups and downs as any other adult’s life does, including several marriages and… Read More »
In Praise of Trust Fund Kitties
If you want your beloved pets to benefit from your generosity after you are gone, that is your prerogative. What you do with your estate is your business. Since animals cannot be beneficiaries of a will in their own right, you will have to word your will in such a way that your pets… Read More »
Everyone Wins When Landlords Help Tenants Boost Their Credit Score
Despite the fact that home ownership is becoming unaffordable for an increasing number of people, the economics of residential rentals please no one, regardless of whether it is a mom-and-pop landlord renting out a finished basement or a large company managing a building with hundreds of units. The rent payments that landlords collect from… Read More »
What Is Legal When It Comes to Screening Prospective Tenants?
Vacancies are a landlord’s worst nightmare, so why is housing so hard to find in Washington, D.C.? Prospective tenants must demonstrate to the landlord that they will consistently be able to make rent payments; this usually means showing proof of employment and income. Sure, every landlord forms a first impression about how much or… Read More »
