Told who Hager and his fiancee are, Sandau wasn't overly impressed -- he works in the entertainment business and has a client list that he says includes "many" celebrities -- but delighted nonetheless.
"I thoroughly enjoyed the house," said Sandau, who moved here from Beverly Hills and now lives in Cockeysville. "I enjoyed being down there. There's a real sort of heartbeat in that neighborhood. Their ability to walk to restaurants and bars will make it wonderful for them."
If you take away the presidential link, the newlyweds would be just another couple of young professionals who have chosen the neighborhood for their first house. Close to the stadiums, nightlife and, increasingly, trendy boutiques, it has a younger vibe than nearby Federal Hill, and with more remnants of a less gentrified, Formstone-clad past.
Neighbors say the circa-1880 red brick rowhouse with a wood-framed storefront window is believed to have been a dry cleaners and a candy shop in previous incarnations. It's spacious, by rowhouse standards, at nearly 2,000 square feet, and has -- a peek through the first-floor windows reveals -- exposed brick walls, a fireplace and hardwood floors.
But the prime piece of this real estate is in back -- an attached garage.
"I would say that when it snows," Sandau said, "they will smile with glee every time they pull into it."
Perhaps in part because of the guaranteed space in a neighborhood where parking is at a premium, the house generated a lot of buyer interest despite an otherwise down market, Sandau said. In fact, Sandau said he had two other buyers ready to buy if Hager changed his mind.
"I would move in yesterday," said neighbor Jen Kearney, who pronounced the house in "fantastic shape." She was tickled to learn who had bought the house, welcoming them -- and whatever fringe benefits they bring.
"I'll love having her security," Kearney said of the Secret Service detail that guards members of the president's family.
Kearney, a nurse at Hopkins Hospital's organ transplant unit, said the neighborhood is stable, with a mix of longtime residents and more recent arrivals such as herself, a six-year veteran.
In a city where people often define themselves by their neighborhood, the couple's pick is an intriguing one. You would imagine the scions of such monied families (Hager's father is a former lieutenant governor of Virginia and from a prominent Richmond lineage) would have been drawn to a pricier, more protected neighborhood, say one of those loft condos in Inner Harbor East. Instead, they opted for the kind of Baltimore neighborhood you might see in a Barry Levinson movie, say Tin Men.
