A Find Worth the Wait

It took three bids, two agents and nine crystal doorknobs for Francisco and Grace Solaris to find their first home.

The couple began their risk-averse, stop-and-go search in 2006 when they moved to the Washington area from Chicago. But they were quickly dissuaded by the still-hot market and settled into a rental house in Arlington Forest.

"When we first moved from Chicago, we thought we would buy, but the prices were too steep," Francisco Solaris said.

"When the market was really hot," Grace Solaris said, "what we were finding in our price range wasn't much. There was a small handful of homes. It definitely wasn't flush with options."

Late last year, the Solarises stepped back into the market after seeing three houses in their neighborhood for sale. Making their search more complicated was Grace's affinity for the architectural details of homes from the 1920s and '30s. That narrowed their options as the couple looked for the glass knobs and solid-wood doors that appealed to them.

"I grew up in older homes," said Grace, a program specialist at the Department of Education. "I appreciate and value the quality of the materials. They are structurally sound. They have a little more character."

They met their first agent at an open house and soon put bids on two properties. They backed out of the first one, in Arlington, after a home inspection uncovered significant problems. Then they had one of four bids on a house in the Chevy Chase neighborhood in the District and were outbid by $50,000.

"That is when we got somewhat disillusioned," said Francisco, a management consultant.

But early this year, the Solarises relaunched their search. This time they felt more prepared. Francisco had researched and compared mortgage rates, and the couple had settled on working with a major bank after discovering that many of the rates advertised on the Internet weren't what they seemed.

"When you start talking to them, you saw that their rates were really not that good," Francisco said. "We kept a close eye on what was available."

They also felt more confident that they grasped how much properties were worth and were ready to bid if something caught their eye. The couple started by calling Kimberly Cestari, the agent for the Chevy Chase home they lost in the bidding war.

They told Cestari that they were interested in Arlington, Northwest Washington and Capitol Hill. Their price range, $750,000 or less, made finding a single-family or semi-detached house in Northwest difficult. "In Northwest, things in that price range go quick and are few and far between," said Cestari, an agent for Long & Foster's W.C. & A.N. Miller subsidiary. "You're getting first-time home buyers moving up from condos, so it's competitive."

Cestari decided for their first house-hunting trip that they would focus on six houses in Arlington, and she called the listing agents to get more information about the properties and make sure they were still on the market. One of the houses was a $600,000 Colonial. The exterior left Francisco cold, but Grace liked the screened-in deck and architectural details in the solid brick house. "It was built in 1937 and had been lightly used," she said.

The owners had preserved the original fixtures, including a kitchen that dates to the 1950s, Grace said. She and her husband were also impressed with the garage, high ceilings and crystal doorknobs. It was a fixer-upper, but it was what they were looking for.

After two weeks on the market and shortly before the couple saw it, the seller lowered the asking price to $569,000. The Solarises decided to pounce. But the price reduction attracted another potential buyer, so Cestari encouraged the couple to add an escalation clause to their offer of $550,000 in case the other bid was competitive. Such clauses, common during the housing boom, raise an offer by steps if there are multiple bidders.

The next day, a Sunday, the couple rushed to submit their bid. Grace, on a business trip in Boston, walked to a FedEx Kinko's a mile from her hotel at 10 p.m. to sign and fax the documents.

That Monday, the Solarises learned they had won the house for $583,675. They closed the deal three weeks later, in early March, and are in the process of moving in.

"I feel very confident that this is a good investment for us and that we'll be happy in this house," Grace said.