How Much Will This Capitol Hill Condo Flip For?

I find flippers fascinating for their tastes and business sense, at least the successful ones anyway. There’s a professional flipper trying to pull off a good one on Capitol Hill.

Sweet remodel at 516 E. Thomas St. #301

This top-floor unit in the Gayle Condo on E. Thomas St. sold for $174,000 in a foreclosure auction back in mid-July. After a thorough remodel, Mead Homes Inc., a company that has bought and rehabilitated other units in the city, put the condo went right back on the market in late October for $300,000. That would be a pretty healthy gain for three months of work, even after you take out the renovation costs, taxes, and commissions.

However, just two weeks after it came onto the market, the flipper dropped the price to $289,000 and two days ago dropped it again to $284,950. Is this a case of a motivated seller or a realistic one?

Remodeled kitchen

Plenty of light and westerly views

Now no doubt, from the photos and the Redfin agent reviews, it looks like the flippers did a very good job creating a fresh and clean unit in the vintage Capitol Hill building. The kitchen, with its stainless steel appliances, tile backsplash and travertine slab countertop, is stylish and surely better than what it replaced. And the refinished oak floors and gray mantel and fireplace are nice features.

But there is no parking space and the HOA dues are on the higher side. And with similarly-sized homes in the neighborhood selling in the $180k to $250,000 range, I’m guessing the current list price is still a bit high. My guess is this unit will sell closer to $265,000. But there’s not much supply on Capitol Hill so who knows. What do you think it will go for?