How we met...

most people find a house the old fashioned way...they look through listings online.  They hire a real-estate agent.  Find something you like. Then you go to take a look in-person.  Maybe make an offer.

Not this guy. [not exactly]

I first saw the house on Q St NW on RedFin in late October 2009.  There was no photo of the inside [or outside for that matter] and it was listed as "for sale by owner."  A quick Google Maps Street view search showed an intriguing red brick exterior...a mid-sized Victorian.  nice.  but it looked like it had been abandoned or at least in crappy shape at best.  The price told the story really [about half the cost of the neighboring homes]  but, in my seemingly endless home search, and countless disappointments along the way, checking out this place couldn't do me any more harm.

So I decided to add the listing to my next trip out with my agent, Cam, but since the owner didn't have an agent, he was a little bit impossible to track down.  No email or active telephone # with his online listing either. Hmmmmm...Did they really want to sell this place?

So I had an idea.  My girlfriend Jenny is a big fan of looking up info on the DC Real Estate Tax site. [its actually very informative]  and I looked up the place to see what I could find out.

it had the owners name...and I could see that he was a little behind on his taxes.  but who knows if this is really a lead.  so I put on my super sleuth hat and followed the trail.

I went to one of those peoplefinder.com-type sites and typed in the name.  It located a man who lived in DC that seemed to match the info on the homeowner.  for $1 i could get his home number.  I've spent more on a roll at the craps table.  so i went for it.

a man picked up the phone.  I told him who I was and why i was calling.

he said "would you like to see the place this saturday?"

[TO BE CONTINUED....]