Clock One: The Tax Classification
It starts when the building goes empty, not when you decide anything. A District property reclassified from Class 1A to Class 3 goes from $0.85 to $5.00 per $100 of assessed value, and to $10.00 if it is also classed blighted.
The first thing we do, before discussing price, is establish which class your property currently sits in and whether an exemption applies. Active repair under permit, an active listing for sale and pending probate are all among the recognised grounds. If one fits, we will tell you and point you at the Department of Buildings, because the exemption is frequently worth more than the difference between two offers.
Will You Tell Me About an Exemption Even If It Means I Do Not Sell?
Clock Two: The Tenant Notice
If anyone was renting any part of the property, a written notice is owed to that tenant within three calendar days of you receiving or soliciting an offer to purchase. That obligation applies even where the property is exempt from the tenant offer of sale, and it is triggered by the offer arriving rather than by you accepting one.
Which means that when we send you a figure, a clock may start. We flag it in the email rather than leaving you to discover it, and we would say the same about any other offer you receive. The statutory position is on our page covering DC vacant tax, TOPA and claims.
Does Receiving an Offer Create an Obligation Even If I Decline It?
What We Check
The property record for the assessment and the current tax classification. The Recorder of Deeds for the deed, any lien and the ownership of record. The Department of Buildings for permit history, open violations and the vacant registration position. And on the physical side, whether the building is attached and on how many sides, whether the masonry shell survived, and whether it sits within a historic district.
Most of that is public and free, which is why we tell you how to check it yourself.
The Figure
Written, with every line showing: what a finished property there is worth, what restoring or rebuilding costs with the shell credited or not, party wall protection and adjacent owner work where clearance is contemplated, carrying cost including the tax classification for the months it will run, both conveyance taxes, and margin.
What If the Figure Says Do Something Else?
Then It Is Your Call
No deadline from us, though the two clocks above continue regardless of what we do. DC settles through attorneys and title companies. What slows a file here is the combination this city specialises in: an estate that has not been opened, a tenancy position that has not been established, and a classification accruing through both.
Compare figures if you want to. The two questions on our page about how to tell local cash buyers apart sort a list quickly, and they work on us.
Things That Never Happen
No fee at any stage. No request that you clear the property, board it, apply for an exemption or make any repair first — those are our costs, and where an exemption is worth pursuing we say so rather than doing it for you. No requirement that your claim be settled. No assignment of the contract to a third party. And nothing asked of you that involves withholding a material fact from a buyer or a notice from a tenant.
Common Questions About the Process
How Long Does It Take?
Address to written figure is usually a few days. Settlement depends on title and, where the tenant law applies to the building, on a statutory timetable rather than a commercial one.
Do I Need to Be in DC?
No. Out-of-state owners are common on inherited property and remote settlement is routine.
I Have Not Decided Whether to Sell.
Then deal with the classification first. It runs whether or not you decide, and an exemption application does not commit you to anything.