Every business changes with the times. New strategies, formulas and trends come and go. Real estate is no different. Over my 25+ plus years I’ve seen so much. Most of the change has been technology based. In 1989, I remember my broker was excited that he went out on a limb and bought a fax […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
It is very hard to determine the real culprits of the housing crisis of 2008-2010. Sure conventional lenders were making loans they should not have made. They were not thoroughly reviewing the financial strength of applicants and too often putting buyers in adjustable loans that adjusted good people right out of their homes. Add in […]
I am a numbers person. For years I kept extensive spreadsheets on the history of the Northern Virginia real estate market. I developed my own charts and graphs to show the flow of sales and inventory throughout the year, price trends and more. I simply could not find a source of sales info that presented […]
All over Northern Virginia, older homes are being torn down and replaced with million plus homes. With no more large tracts of land for new single family homes in the northern part of the county, buyers who want a brand new home close to a metro with as short a drive as possible to Washington […]
