By
Jordan Pandy
New
Every time Jordan publishes a story, you’ll get an alert straight to your inbox!
By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider’s
Terms of Service and
Privacy Policy.
Follow Jordan Pandy
Updated 2026-01-28T14:25:01.222Z
- A Washington, DC developer was forced to build a skinny home six feet wide at its narrowest point.
- Zoning laws made it hard to build any bigger on the 0.02-acre property, the listing agent said.
- The narrow home was listed for $799,900 in July 2023, but eventually sold for $484,000.
A house in Washington, DC, that's only 10 feet wide at its widest point sold for $484,000, a nearly 40% discount from its original price.
The one-bedroom, one-bathroom home first hit that market at $799,900 after a real estate developer made do with what he had.
The listing agent Jennifer Young told Business Insider in 2024 that zoning laws changed shortly after the developer purchased the lot, so a new floorplan was necessary.
"It literally came down to sometimes a centimeter of getting the exact measurements right to both comply with DC zoning and build a really nice home that was functional," Young told Business Insider in 2024.
Nady Samnang, the developer, bought the property in 2021 for $200,000, according to the Zillow listing, and was tasked with figuring out how to build a narrow home on a driveway in between two alleys. He told The Washington Post that the design went through many iterations and took nearly seven months to get approved by the city's permit office.
"I wanted to quit so many times," he told the Post.
Young said the home received a lot of interest throughout the area and beyond.
"It's one of the most-viewed homes on Zillow that I've ever seen in my career," Young said. "We do have quite a bit of looky-loos, but we have a lot of first-time buyers looking and investors — people that want to Airbnb it or rent it to college kids."
But after a disappointing showing on the market, the price began to fall. It dropped to $625,000 after a year on the market, and was most recently listed for $499,000. The 600-square-foot home even was listed as a rental in between those price drops, advertising $2,900 a month and then $2,500 a month for rent, according to Zillow.
Eventually, the home sold to someone who intends to use it as a primary residence, buying agent Stephen Gabauer told Business Insider. It still remains one of the more unique properties he's worked on.
"I hadn't seen a single-family home that size in Washington, DC ever," Gabauer said. "Especially not in a narrow alleyway."
Nady Samnang and his brother Dean purchased the 700-square-foot lot at the beginning of 2021 with plans to build a four-story home.
According to Zillow, they purchased the lot for $200,000.
They were originally going to build a four-story house at double the width, but DC zoning restrictions changed shortly after they bought the land.
"They changed zoning right after he bought it so they were kind of screwed and they either were going to scrap a deal or try to build a tiny home," Young said in 2024.
Construction was difficult with such a narrow space, so the materials had to be brought in by hand.
"There's a road, but big work trucks can't come through and it's a very tight space to work in," Young said.
Although the house is 6 feet wide at its narrowest point, it still has several amenities that you'd find in any modern home.
It even has a fenced patio big enough for an intimate seating area.
Bringing materials in was not the only challenge. Samnang also had to get creative when finding space for basics inside.
Samnang told the Post that the powder room under the stairs was an "extreme challenge" because of a DC code that requires toilets and sinks to be at least 15 inches apart. He had to opt for a skinny sink to fit.
While the property attracted interest from Airbnb hosts and investors looking to rent it out, the buyer intends to use it as a primary residence.
Gabauer said that by the time he brought his client, the price was already far below the original asking price, but they still negotiated.
"The seller was motivated and ready to sell, but we negotiated even further," he said.
While the property itself is a bit quirky, the sale was anything but, according to Gabauer.
"It was a relatively smooth process," he said. "We had a home inspection and negotiated some repairs — pretty standard, honestly."
