I have written about the tear down phenomenon in Vienna VA before in the blog post Is your Home Worth More Dead or Alive? This time I thought I would survey 3 main streets in Vienna to gauge the penetration of teardowns on those roads. It seems like “every” home is being torn down. But […]
During the last week of January, I was fortunate enough to be in Florida playing baseball while Northern Virginia shoveled out from under 2+ feet of snow. While on the field one day, I looked up and saw a drone hovering overhead filming our warm ups. It got me thinking about the whole drone phenomenon. […]
Post housing crisis, mortgage underwriting is thorough, overbearing and at times non-nonsensical. Some say it borders on harassment. Gone are the days of “liar loans” and no doc loans and good riddance. However, while underwriters continue to scour every inch of your financial past, lenders are again offering 100% financing and other programs where a […]
Recently I was showing a property to first time buyers who fell in love with the home. They wanted to write a contract and told me the terms. Now, I had never met them before so we never had a pre-buying meeting where I go through the basics of buying a home. In the kitchen […]
At my listing appointments, I encounter sellers who take two different approaches to setting prices. One says, “Let’s price at market, create activity and get the job done.” The other says, “Let’s start high. Everyone wants to negotiate and we can always come down. Maybe someone will pay our price. No way to know unless […]
It is a trick question. I had better be the winner as I have one advantage over all of value based formulas used by the big 3. I have seen the inside of the house. Often, really too often, folks tell me, ” but Zillow says….” I could counter that Trulia says it is worth […]
There are many decisions you need to make when buying a piece of real estate. Some are obvious – price, settlement date, inspection clauses, loan type etc. How to take title is one decision people often do not think about but should as it can have a huge impact on your future financial well being […]
The Truth in Lending RESPA Integrated Disclosures (TRID or TILA-RESPA) is changing the lending landscape and how settlements are conducted. In fact we will no longer have settlements but more on that later. Like most construction projects, the original launch date has been pushed back. The changes were scheduled to take effect August 1 but […]
I have been helping buyers and sellers in Northern Virginia for over 25 years. During that time, I have seen many crazy twists and turns in real estate transactions. Still, I have not seen everything. There is always some new angle that I have not encountered but most “surprises” I see coming and make sure […]
Many people want to invest in real estate but find that they can’t do so in their home market. Either the cash flows are not there or the property is too expensive. Here in Northern Virginia, the average price point is in the in the mid 500s and selections below $200,000 are very limited. With […]
