Reston Dirt
Staging on Steroids…
June 10th, 2009 Categories: Alexandria Dirt, Arlington Dirt, Falls Church Dirt, McLean Dirt, Northern Virginia Home Selling, Reston Dirt
Yesterday I decided to hit a few broker’s open houses. Tuesdays are big days in the Northern Virginia – Washington DC Area where real estate agents have opportunities to tour homes for a variety of reasons – some people go to preview potential homes for clients - it’s a time saving way to see a bunch of homes at once without making appointments. Others go to support their fellow agents – show their face, sometimes it’s to network, 
say hello to an old friend. Some go for the food – the food can range from simple deli sandwiches to ornate catered events. (My favorites are the ones with Mother’s Macaroons which is a fabulous Arlington Bakery and they make the most amazing finger desserts!!) Others go in hopes of winning prizes – yes, I said prizes! Anything from a cash pull (where everyone wins something) to a gift certificate to maybe even an iPod!
OK, but I digress - yesterday I went in the home of a listing agent who had many many letters after her name to represent all of the designations she’s earned. One happened to be the Accredited Staging Professional (OR ASP) designation. Now, I think staging a home is really important IF THE HOME CAN BENEFIT FROM IT.
Have you ever had a friend (or maybe your home is like this) that every time you walk into their home it looks perfect? Just the right accessory, just the right colors, just the right candle? Not too much? Not too little? But JUST RIGHT? That’s what staging is supposed to accomplish. A “put-together” just right look!
So, back to my story, yesterday I walked into this house and this particular staging professional went WAYYYYYY overboard. There were throw blankets EVERYWHERE – and I mean EVERYWHERE - sometimes 2 and 3 in the same room, artfully “tossed” over the arm of a chaise or a sofa… There were books and towels tied up with rafia and silk flowers arranged throughout the house as well - there was even a silk flower arrangement in the “his” side of the closet – and it wasn’t even attractive – c’mon! That’s not believable!!! The kicker was the cup of tea that sat on the end table by the chaise with the artfully thrown blanket with plenty of fringed pillows as well, I might add - the cup was full of that brown plastic stuff that looks like liquid, but it’s not – the wrapper from the tea bag was torn off and set aside and it was on top of a book… I had to feel the “water” in the teacup to see if it was real or not – UGH - I left there thinking “staging gone bad”
So, what’s my advice? Look around! Get the honest opinion of your agent and your friends – there are many levels to “staging” – sometimes stagers can come in and work with what you have - re-arrange a few things, pull out some great nuggets that you have tucked away and put away some things that might not be working to their full potential. Staging is great – when used for the right project in the right way. But when it’s not right on – it just looks silly – TRUST ME!
Feel free to call today to discuss listing your home and I’d be happy to tell you whether or not your home could benefit from staging.
Happy Wednesday
Jennifer
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Listen UP Sellers - Prepare Your Home for 3 Sales… read on…
March 12th, 2009 Categories: Alexandria Dirt, Arlington Dirt, Falls Church Dirt, McLean Dirt, Northern Virginia Home Selling, Northern Virginia Real Estate Dirt, Reston Dirt
Yes, I said 3 – THREE – When you’re contemplating selling your home in this market, you may feel that it’s an uphill battle - and for most, it is! The 
hardest hurdle (and single most important thing) is to price your home correctly. Remove emotions as best you can; don’t place extra value on your hand printed wall paper or your custom bathroom fixtures. Chances are the next buyer may not even notice those things, or they may be so personal that rather than placing extra value on them, the next buyer is factoring in money to REMOVE them! Then look at the comparable listings – and comparable solds - with your agent. Look as objectively as possible at the positive features of your home (think big here: location, curb appeal, updates, garage, etc..) as well as the negative aspects (small bedrooms, 1 fewer bath than most of your comparables, street parking, etc…). Remove all of the minutiae of custom this or custom that… look at the big picture.
So I’m sure you’re wondering why, after all this, you have to sell your home 3 times…
First you have to SELL YOUR HOME TO REALTORS – this is why we host broker’s open houses on Tuesdays - to give Realtors a chance to walk through your home and get a good look – they may not have a client for it, but they may talk it up at their office, or even write a blog post about it!
Second you have to actually SELL YOUR HOME TO POTENTIAL BUYERS - now this is the most obvious! You want them to walk in and imagine their lives in your home. Remember, it won’t be your home for much longer, but you want them to imagine their lives there and see the value.
Last you have to SELL IT TO THE APPRAISER – yes, the APPRAISER! This is primarily my job as the agent, but assuming we did the steps discussed in the first paragraph and actually priced off of valid comparables, we should be able to sail through appraisal process – but it is an often overlooked step that is as important as any of the others.
So, take the time to price and prepare your home up front for the best possible outcome and I’d be willing to bet the rest will fall into place!
Call me to discuss further – I’m EXCELLENT with the 3–sale approach with every base covered!
Happy Thursday
Jennifer
Serving all of your real estate needs in Arlington, McLean and the entire Northern Virginia Region!
Contact me today for a free home valuation or buyer counseling session! And remember, spring is RIGHT around the corner!
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So it’s really a buyer’s market….. right?
February 12th, 2009 Categories: Alexandria Dirt, Arlington Dirt, Falls Church Dirt, Market Stats, McLean Dirt, Northern Virginia Home Buying, Northern Virginia Home Selling, Northern Virginia Real Estate Dirt, Reston Dirt
Last night I met with some new clients who were delightful (you know who you are if you’re reading this!)… a topic came up that comes up a lot and I felt was worthy of discussion today – The media is ALL over the idea that it’s a buyer’s market - but what I’d like to remind you is that real estate is local, it’s really hyper-local. What does that mean?
First, we need to define what IS a buyer’s market? The economic definition of a buyers market reads like this:
A buyer’s market is a market for a good where prices are falling and there are more parties interested in selling than buying.
OK – that makes sense. But how does it translate to real estate? Typically we look at absorption rates – or simply put, how long will it take to sell through our current inventory of homes. I found another definition which generally follows what I’ve always heard which is this:
A seller’s market is defined by absorption rates of 1–4 months
A normal market is defined by absorption rates of 5–6 months
A buyer’s market is defined by absorption rates of 7+ months
One very important factor to keep in mind is that numbers can swing wildly month by month because you are looking at 1 month in a bubble. I’m sure a learned economist might take exception to the quick and dirty, back of the napkin numbers we’re looking at here, but nonetheless I was fascinated by what I found.
So, when I sat down this morning to pull together some facts and figures to share, before I even got started, I figured I’d find that in the closer in markets where things haven’t been in a nose-dive decline, that I’d find lower rates and in markets that are saturated with inventory, I’d find that buyer’s market conditions really exist. Take a look at the chart below. I had ordered it loosely by geography - distance from the city.
At first glance I was surprised to see the LOWEST absorption rates in Manassas - now I don’t do a whole lot of business out in Prince William County – most of my business is done in the closer in areas of Arlington, Alexandria, Falls Church and the like… I was a little surprised by McLean’s super high rate of 16+ months of inventory, but then, it all made sense. Look at the chart below, re-ordered by average list price in that city.
Interesting, huh? With the ONE exception of Falls Church, it lines up EXACTLY with average selling prices. What this tells me is that in areas with reasonable prices, properties are selling – at a very good pace in most cases. This ALSO tells me that with a few exceptions, our metro area is largely within the “normal” ranges – it’s what I’ve been saying, but here are the numbers to show for it.
The other interesting thing I found while researching this morning is that it really doesn’t matter what you label things (e.g., market conditions, outside factors, etc…) - what matters are 3 things:
1) low asking prices
2) acceptable interest rates and
3) large inventories
So there you have it – as a buyer, please don’t think you are driving the boat - that you can get whatever you want and then some from today’s sellers. Likewise, as a seller, recognize a good deal when one comes along. Work with the buyers and their agent, be flexible and realistic. Hey, it sounds like I just described a “normal” market.
Give me a call if you’d like to discuss further – it’s truly a fascinating study.
Happy Thursday
Jennifer
Serving all of your real estate needs in Arlington, McLean and the entire Northern Virginia Region!
Contact me today for a free home valuation or buyer counseling session! And remember, spring is RIGHT around the corner!
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What Criteria DO Your or Should You Use when Evaluating a Real Estate Professional?
January 28th, 2009 Categories: Alexandria Dirt, Arlington Dirt, Falls Church Dirt, First Time Buyers Club, McLean Dirt, Real Estate 101, Reston Dirt
There are probably a hundred different reasons to give for selecting (and maybe fewer for having an on-going relationship with) your real estate professional. Some seem very rational and reasonable and quantitative, others a little more intangible, qualitative and difficult to define. I’ve been thinking about this for some time and here are my thoughts, at least looking from 10,000 feet:
Things you SHOULD look for:
Friendliness
You might think this shouldn’t exactly be at the top of the list – but I will tell you that friendliness goes a long way. I was recently successful in a multiple contract short sale situation because I was friendly with the listing agent. People WANT to work with people they like – so choose someone friendly - know that they won’t offend someone or rub them the wrong way and most of the time, it will work in your favor!
Availability – Accessibility — Responsiveness
This is really important… is your prospective agent full time? Are they managing a client load that doesn’t allow for them to make time for you? Do they cancel? Are they late? How easy are they to reach via whatever means of contact you’re comfortable with? Do they text? Do they email? How quickly do they return calls and/or emails? Are their priorities straight?
Experience
This is a tough one – I believe even inexperienced agents can do a good job - after all, we were ALL inexperienced at some point in time. But you need to judge for yourself how their experience level matches with your expectations. Are they experienced in the neighborhood that you’re interested in, but not well versed outside of it? Are they great at understanding the contract but don’t have the “systems” down to manage your transaction seamlessly and painlessly? And when contemplating the brand new agent - do they know what they don’t know? Do they know when to say “I don’t know but I’ll find out for you” and/or when they need to bring in an expert to assist? That’s what you need to gain a comfort level with.
Trust
By this I mean many things but mostly how your relationship develops with 
your agent. Sometimes your agent will need to tell you tough things – you’d rather they were honest with you but sometimes it’s difficult to separate the message from the messenger. Sometimes it’s a discussion about the pricing of your home. Sometimes it’s about the market conditions that help determine an offer price. Sometimes it’s their advice about one property over another from an investment perspective. At the end of the day, the decisions and choices are yours, but you’ve hired a professional to assist in the process – heed the advice which you should be able to do if you have that trust.
What’s NOT so important?
How many “For Sale” signs have their name on it in the neighborhood that interests you?
Why should this be important? It suggests that only the agents who have signs there are knowledgeable of the neighborhood – it doesn’t always work that way. Don’t get me wrong, I love a sign call as much as the next girl, but you have to be sure all of the other factors are in place too!
Just because your boss used him, doesn’t mean he’s right for you…
OK, I’m braced for all the flack I’ll get for that statement – again, don’t get me wrong, I love a referral as much as the next girl, but it’s not always a good fit. I try hard to earn every piece of business I get whether it’s a referral, a reader of my blog, a past client, a sign call, someone I meet at an open house, etc… But at the end of the day, all of the factors I mentioned above need to be there…
How many clients they’ve helped in the past…
While this does tie into experience, as I stated above, it’s not the be-all and end-all in determining if they’re right for you.
So the bottom line is… decide what factors are important to you, do a little research, ask some questions and then, go with your gut. It usually doesn’t let you down. I’m always available to chat if you’d like!
Happy (icy) Wednesday!
Jennifer
Serving all of your real estate needs in Arlington, McLean and the entire Northern Virginia Region!
Contact me today for a free home valuation or buyer counseling session! And remember, spring is RIGHT around the corner!
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Will I Know it When I See It?
January 14th, 2009 Categories: Alexandria Dirt, Arlington Dirt, Falls Church Dirt, First Time Buyers Club, McLean Dirt, Northern Virginia Real Estate Dirt, Reston Dirt
I get asked that question a lot from buyers, especially first time buyers, as we begin and move through the house hunting process. Unfortunately, there’s no easy answer, no magic bullet to help sort that out. It’s one part analysis and one part gut feel…
I usually tell them that I’ve had clients that looked at 3 houses and bought one of the 3. I’ve also had clients that I’ve shown 50 houses to and they decided to take a break from looking only to end up renting indefinitely. Who’s to say what’s right or wrong?
Steps to follow to make the process a little easier:
1) Get your financial homework done ahead of time. If you know what you are qualified for and you KNOW what you are comfortable with, you will not have to wonder and shift gears as far as price range goes, mid way through the process. Of course there are exceptions - if you begin looking when interest rates are at 6% and there are significant drops, as I’ve written about before it can have a tremendous affect on your purchase power and it’s definitely worth re-visiting. Otherwise, do that homework first and STICK TO YOUR COMFORT ZONE!
2) Have a good list of what you do and don’t want – I would highly 
recommend AGAINST making anything firm. I was once told by a couple that they didn’t want to look at cape cod style homes because they felt the upstairs wouldn’t be large enough for the husband. Well, you can see where this is headed - they ended up purchasing a cape cod that had a great addition on the back that enabled them to have a nice master closet and bath with PLENTY of head room, storage, etc… But back to my point, have some general ideas of what you want and what you don’t – if you have any showstoppers (Cannot live in a particular school district, cannot live with steps, etc…) it’s a good idea to note those too.
3) PATIENCE – some weeks there will be MANY homes to look at and others, slim pickins… Just be patient. When you see something that you can mentally begin moving into, that’s a good first sign that we’re onto something. That’s when it’s time to analyze how the space would work with your lifestyle, the commute, the longevity (how long could you live in that house if you had to? – e.g., there’s no point buying a “cuter” 3–bedroom house than the 3–bedroom one you already have if you’re outgrowing it – right?).
4) Gut Feel - this is the hardest. But if you can imagine your life in this home, imagine being excited to come home every day, imagine inviting your friends over for a party or for dinner or just to hang out; if you can see your furniture here, or what color you’d like to paint the walls or where your dog will sleep - these are all good solid indicators that you might have just found your new home.
It’s a fun process - call me today to get started!
Happy Wednesday!
Jennifer
Serving all of your real estate needs in Arlington, McLean and the entire Northern Virginia Region!
Contact me today for a free home valuation or buyer counseling session! And remember, spring is RIGHT around the corner!
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Northern Virginia Welcomes SentriLock Lockboxes - why is this good?
January 9th, 2009 Categories: Alexandria Dirt, Arlington Dirt, Falls Church Dirt, Local News, McLean Dirt, Northern Virginia Real Estate Dirt, Reston Dirt
Hello all!!
During the month of January, Northern Virginia real estate agents will be trading in ALL of our old lockboxes and upgrading to the NEW, FANTASTIC, AMAZING SentriLock system. These are super cool, easy to use new boxes that have great benefits to us and sellers. As for buyers, they don’t really care what kind of box you have just as long as you can get them into the house! LOL
These boxes are HUGE – but they have all sorts of great features that our old boxes didn’t have. To highlight a few:
1) Owners have a “Do Not Disturb” code – as a seller, have you ever worried when you step into the shower that you might find buyers in your bedroom when you step out? Well, never to worry again - you have a code that you can enter right into the lockbox that will allow you complete privacy whenever you need it.
2) Much better tracking to allow us to know who’s been inside your home
3) If you’re a condo owner, you should know the key compartment is SO large that no longer will prospective buyers’ agents have to deal with jammed boxes – there’s plenty of room for keys, fobs, card keys, etc…
4) We will be able to issue one day codes for contractors or appraisers to access the home.
5) Smart Card access - this is really just a better system for us as agents – easier to update, no battery life issues, etc… It’s a much more sophisticated system and that translates to better features all around.
So, look for these new lockboxes and think of them as a sign of the future.
Happy Friday - hope you had a great and productive week!
Jennifer
Serving all of your real estate needs in Arlington, McLean and the entire Northern Virginia Region!
Contact me today for a free home valuation or buyer counseling session! And remember, spring is RIGHT around the corner!
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It’s 2009 - And our thoughts turn to….
January 5th, 2009 Categories: Alexandria Dirt, Arlington Dirt, Falls Church Dirt, McLean Dirt, Northern Virginia Home Selling, Northern Virginia Real Estate Dirt, Reston Dirt
selling our homes…. Yes, it’s true. As we move through the fall and into the holiday season, some people have already planned a spring home sale. After all, our spring selling season begins in about 5 weeks! I’ve already gotten calls from past clients and a few inquiries from new prospects who are planning a spring sale and purchase of a new home.
Really, it’s not too early, folks. This is a perfect time to begin the process of cleaning, purging, storing, tidying, etc… so it’s not such an overwhelming process once it is broken down into tiny tasks!
There are some great preliminary tools you can use to see what’s going on in your neighborhood. One of them is right here on my webiste. You can put your address into the sidebar where it says “MLS Market Snapshot” and a report will be generated JUST FOR YOU with local sales and other statistics such as days on market, etc… it’s a cool tool you can start with. It also runs an automatic update every 30 days or so.
Obviously your next move would be to give me a call to get a real pulse on the market - what’s going on? what can you expect? what sorts of things do you need to do in order to get the most out of your home sale? what type of marketing is important? etc…
Depending on who you listen to, we expect 2009 to be a vibrant real estate market. As you know from my recent posts, homes continue to sell, with those that are properly priced still moving rather quickly - certainly inside of 30 days.
So if you are one of those individuals, couples or families contemplating a move in 2009, I would welcome the opportunity to earn your business.
Happy Monday
Jennifer
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Happy New Year - Goodbye 2008, HELLO 2009!!!
December 31st, 2008 Categories: Alexandria Dirt, Arlington Dirt, Falls Church Dirt, McLean Dirt, Reston Dirt
I just want to wish all my readers, friends, clients and colleagues a very Happy New Year!
Have a safe night (I’ll be playing Wii on my couch) and let’s all look forward to an amazing 2009!
Best
Jennifer
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7 Helpful Hints for Selling Your Home in the Winter
December 10th, 2008 Categories: Alexandria Dirt, Arlington Dirt, Falls Church Dirt, McLean Dirt, Northern Virginia Home Selling, Northern Virginia Real Estate Dirt, Reston Dirt
Being a seller this time of the year is a lot different. It’s DARK early, it’s 
COLD, it’s SNOWY or ICY, it’s DREARY… c’mon, who would choose this time of year to sell? Well, let’s see if we can accomplish a few things - 1) Let’s create a welcoming environment to get your house sold and 2) Let’s see about turning negatives into positives.
So here we go
WINTER HOME SELLING TIP #1
Keep the heat on. If you have zoned heating, or usually keep a part of your home closed off to save on heating bills, I would strongly urge you to re-consider. You don’t want a buyer to be hurried off before they’re done looking because of the chill in your home. Also, if you usually keep a part closed off, or the vents closed, don’t do that now! You don’t want a prospective buyer to think there’s a problem with your heating system. No amount of savings is worth missing your buyer.
WINTER HOME SELLING TIP #2
Keep your outdoor spaces free of snow and ice. Look at the photo below (provided by google images)
![Snowhome2[1]](http://www.thearlingtondirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/snowhome21-small.jpg)
As an agent, when I approach this home to show it to my buyers, I CAN’T EVEN GET UP THE FRONT WALK!!! c’mon - make it easy to show, make it SAFE for you and any liability you may face from someone slipping on your front walk or your deck… Keep your shovel and some Ice Melt handy and clear off those outdoor spaces…
WINTER HOME SELLING TIP #3
Turn your lights on. Now I know this isn’t always practical when you leave your home in the morning to know if someone will be showing it or not; but come up with a basic set of lights that will welcome any prospective buyer and help them find their way through your warm and well-lit home. The more the better.
WINTER HOME SELLING TIP #4
Keep rugs by the doors for your lookers to wipe their feet. You may have a sign by the front door to please remove their shoes - but what if they want to walk out on the deck, or in the backyard, or around the house. To protect your floors/carpets AND as a courtesy, pick up a few inexpensive rugs at Target and make it EASY for that buyer to look around!
WINTER HOME SELLING TIP #5
Think about warm holiday/winter scents: gingerbread, pine, mulled cider spices, etc… Perhaps you could use a small bowl of potpourri or a small scented candle to introduce these scents. Don’t overwhelm someone, but they can add to the ambiance you’ve already created with the lights and warmth.
WINTER HOME SELLING TIP #6
If you know you’ll be having a showing at a specific time (perhaps it’s noon and you know someone will be coming by at 2pm) consider leaving on a gas fireplace - you know, one of the sealed ones. If it’s safe and for a short period, you can really add to the setting you’re creating. I would NOT recommend leaving a wood burning fire going or an un-sealed gas log situation.
WINTER HOME SELLING TIP #7
Don’t neglect the outside - there are plenty of plants that thrive throughout the winter - there are some beautiful winter cabbages and such that you can plant to keep your outside looking fresh and seasonal as much as your inside. Talk to your local nursery if you are having trouble coming up with ideas.
The most important thing to remember is that if there are buyers out there in the cold, wet, dark, dreary conditions - the likelihood is that they NEED to buy something. Make every showing count and you will be glad you did!
If you want to talk about listing your home for sale, don’t automatically put it off until spring. Call today to chat about it and we can figure it out together.
Happy Wednesday!
Jennifer
Serving all of your real estate needs in Arlington, McLean and the entire Northern Virginia Region!
Contact me today for a free home valuation or buyer counseling session! And remember, spring is RIGHT around the corner!
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Interest Rates are FALLING - What does that mean to ME?
December 9th, 2008 Categories: Alexandria Dirt, Arlington Dirt, Falls Church Dirt, McLean Dirt, Northern Virginia Real Estate Dirt, Northern Virginia Real Estate Finance, Real Estate 101, Reston Dirt
So it seems that everyone’s fixated on interest rates – even people who are not considering buying or selling real estate - it’s a popular water cooler subject, for sure! People ask me about rates all the time and the reality is 
that I rarely give a straight answer (good strategy, huh?) 
The reason I don’t answer those questions is the answer is: “it depends”
It depends on the applicant’s credit scores, the amount of down payment they have, the program they are choosing, the lender and/or investor that will purchase their loan, etc…
Having said all of that, I wanted to take you through a real scenario of what falling interest rates could mean TO YOU as a buyer.
SCENARIO:
Let’s say you want to buy a home and you spoke with a lender to get “pre-approved” a few months ago. They would have taken your salary history, debt information, run your credit scores, etc… and let’s say they qualified you to purchase a home for $400,000 and you have $80,000 to put towards a down payment making your loan for $320,000 - with me so far?
Let’s assume that a few months ago, the interest rate quoted was 6.5% – (for the sake of keeping things simple, let’s not add any sort of loan origination fee or points into the discussion, however, please remember it’s an important point to evaluate when selecting your lender). Let’s also assume that it’s a straight, fully amortized loan (not interest only).
So your payment (without adding in taxes and insurance) which includes principal and interest would come to $2,022.62.
So we chat and we go out looking for homes and perhaps you travel for a month and you get back last week and call me up to discuss resuming your search… guess what – (assumption here) now interest rates are 5.5% and your new estimated payment on that same loan is now $1,816.92.
WOW - this means a savings of just over $200/month. You’re SO EXCITED.
The other solution would be that if you were really within your comfort zone at $2,022, at TODAY’s rate, that amounts to a loan value of $356,227 - so your PURCHASE POWER has increased by over $36,000 and now you could write an offer on a property upwards of $435K and it would cost THE SAME as it would have a few short months ago… cool, huh?
What’s the downside? Well, if rates rise, it all happens in reverse - so when you were once approved for $400K, perhaps now it’s only $365K… that hurts.
Many lenders will offer what they call a “float down” option to allow you to take advantage of ONE rate drop during the time you’re waiting to go to settlement - that’s an excellent offering, if they have it.
Bottom line is ask a lot of questions and if you’re in the home buying process, pay attention. Be sure you are working with the BEST lender you can – it’s not all about the rate (although reading this article you’d think it was) but it’s also about costs and service. Do your homework and find someone who is truly interested in your positive outcome! It will be well worth your time invested up front!
Happy Tuesday!
Jennifer
Serving all of your real estate needs in Arlington, McLean and the entire Northern Virginia Region!
Contact me today for a free home valuation or buyer counseling session! And remember, spring is RIGHT around the corner!
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