UrbanLand Company

If you buy a condo from this development agency, please: be cautious, ask questions, and hire an inspector to measure/​inspect some of the points I’ve listed below. Our first purchase in Washington was a renovated condo with this company, and we felt like a couple of naïve children after learning about how we had been duped:
1. Upon move-​in to the beautiful building, we all realized that the quality of the materials did not match the attractive appearance. The day after we moved in, we were shocked. We could hear neighbors on both sides and downstairs through the walls and floor. And all residents reported on the listserv that they could hear water… toilets… pipes… garbage disposals… and voices through floors and ceilings. Currently the contracting company has agreed to finish sound-​proofing the structure, but this is taking a LOT of time and energy. Our building manager said that whoever made this decision to include minimal insulation was aware that it was insufficient and was not up to code. He said that lack of insulation (i.e. cutting corners) is the biggest complaint in new or renovated buildings in Washington.
2. This company assigned an incompetent building manager to our building who did nothing… NOTHING. In fact, I don’t think we ever met him in person. After the association fired the building manager, we found that he had let our building insurance lapse for months, which cost us a lot later when we had to buy a new policy.
3. The company allowed for the sale of the community/​storage space to one of the buyers on a contingency before the condo building became an association. So as you can imagine, we were shocked several months later to discover that one of the residents had actually purchased what we thought was an area for public space. Totally unethical!
4. After we submitted a brief punch list and made the offer, we returned the day before we closed on the unit to find that of the half dozen items, NOTHING had been done. While they did these things later, we were irked. In fact, as we discovered later, many little things had been left unfinished: for example, the water pipe that drains the HVAC system in each unit was never fastened down. A neighbor’s became detached, and the water dripped down into the 2^nd floor neighbor’s ceiling, causing major damage. The contracting company (hired by UrbanLand), who was responsible for these details, put my neighbors’ pipes in place… but did not do the same for everyone in the building despite our suggestion to prevent future disaster.
If you trust your realtor, talk to him or her before you buy. And talk to other people who have purchased homes that were constructed by this development company. We hope that the examples above will open someone’s eyes to what may not be evident at first glance.

To begin with, STAY AWAY!!!
I am from the D. C area and own many properties in the metro area from investment to personal properties and have dealt with many real estate agents, which all have been fairly good to work with since I am the client making the purchase. My experience working with UrbanLand Company was atrocious, specifically dealing with the broker Gerard DiRuggiero. He was difficult to work with and incredible rude. To sum it up, he tries to bully you into purchasing property and does not care how much money you are about to spend. Beware, if you have to deal with him as he does not show respect to his clients. His terrible attitude and behavior is an insult to the Real Estate community. I would recommend to never purchase property through their agency. I would rather give the commission to a brokerage firm who shows more respect.

The point of contact Girard is incredibly short and difficult to communicate with, which is surprising for someone in the sales business. I am glad I had my own buyer’s agent but have had to communicate with him as he represented the developer as the seller’s agent. If you can avoid working with him, you probably should.