Northern VA Home Finders Advice Podcast

What if you didn’t communicate with your spouse? Or how about your boss? Or how about anyone important in your life? Your life probably wouldn’t go as well, and the same is true in real estate. Let me tell you a quick story about what I mean. I had a closing recently that was rife with miscommunication. I wasn’t getting any communication from the buyer I was representing or the local immigration attorney who was handling the closing. The buyer’s lender wasn’t returning my calls and I wasn’t hearing anything from the closing/immigration attorney, either. Once I called that attorney, it became very clear to me that she wasn’t used to doing real estate closings and didn’t know much about them. As it turned out, she was joint-venturing with a title company located in Richmond, who I then had to call. The seller was also using a different settlement company that I had to get in contact with. In essence, I was the one doing all the communication and making sure everyone else was communication with each other. You need to do the same thing with your real estate purchase and make sure the settlement people—who are incredibly important to your transaction—are in communication with each other. “Communication is incredibly important in a real estate transaction.” For example, if there’s a split settlement where the seller is using a different settlement company than you, you need to make sure they’re talking to each other and talking to your agent. Everybody in every department that’s involved in your transaction should be in communication with each other so you can know things like what your closing costs will be and whether title is coming through every step of the way. If you have any questions about how to keep everyone in your real estate transaction in communication with each other or you’re thinking of buying or selling a home in our Northern Virginia market, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I’d love to help you.

There are thousands of people on my website, www.northernvahomefinder.com, where you can find many different houses, set favorites, and narrow down the things you’re looking for in a home. However, I notice that a lot of people using this search site aren’t entirely serious about buying yet. For many, you’ve gotten to know me over time. Despite the valuable information my team and I are sending out, we’ve found that 93% of the phone calls we make go unanswered by people using our website. This is all simply because people sometimes don’t feel ready to move forward. In any real estate transaction, you have to feel ready. It’s not about when I’m ready- it’s about when you are. But, I’d like to propose something to you: get serious sooner. Right now is a great time to buy a home and I’d love to help. My team and I have so many resources for you to use as you move forward with the search for your next home. I’d be happy to put you in touch with a great lender who will counsel you. Rather than damaging your credit, they will help you over the long term. “The only way for you to get the house you want is for you to get serious about doing so.” The only way for you to get the house you want is for you to get serious about doing so. So, next time I call, don’t be afraid to pick up! If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon!

You might be surprised to find out that in the Fredericksburg-Stafford, Virginia area, there are 148 foreclosed homes and over 320 homes in pre-foreclosure on the market. Also, about 2,200 families’ homes mortgages are 60 to 90 days late. This is especially startling since we’re following a fairly nice market run up from the last crash we had in 2010 or 2011. Even still, 15% to 20% of homes in our local market are worth less than the amount owed on the mortgages. I’ve personally worked with and helped hundreds of people across Northern Virginia to overcome just these kind of situations. These people needed to sell, but owed more than their homes were currently worth. This kind of circumstance is called a short sale. “I am here to help.” If this is a situation in which you and your family have found yourselves, don’t worry. I am here to help. I want to lift the weight from your shoulders and give you a better understanding of how to correct the problem at hand. Give me a call or send me an email if you have any questions.

As you might expect, buyers in today’s market want the best. Desirable, ready-to-buy homes are selling quickly. This seems obvious. Why wouldn’t you look for the best home out there? The trouble is that when everyone wants the best, it can make the best hard to find. With pristine homes moving off the market just days after listing, sometimes it can feel like you never had a chance to get your offer in and seal the deal on your dream home. Today, I’m here to offer you a solution called “The Dream Home Finder Program.” What we do is compile a secret list of awesome homes that were withdrawn or expired from the market. We contact those homes’ sellers with a letter and use our own methods to get those homes back and ready to sell for buyers like you. “You must be a ready, willing, and able buyer.” The condition is that if you’re looking for your dream home and want us to help, you must be a ready, willing, and able buyer. With how quickly dream homes sell, being ready, willing, and able to buy one will be the key to your success. In order to be a ready, willing, and able buyer, you must already have done your pre-qualification, have your mortgage money lined up, and you must be “Sure Thing” by the time you make your move. We’d love for you to get in touch with us. Let us help you to pre-qualify and become a ready, willing, and able buyer so we can find you your perfect dream home. If you want more information or have any other questions give us a call or send us an email, soon. We look forward to hearing from you.

If you’re thinking about selling your home soon, it’s important to know that the market is heating up and properties are moving quickly. Buyers are finding homes online, and here at the Northern Virginia Home Finder Team, we have an exclusive new technique that nobody else here in town is using. The technique we’re talking about is the ability to get our clients’ homes on the first page of search results on Google. Studies have shown that when a video thumbnail is on the first page of search results on Google, people will click on it 87% of the time. We are able to create these videos with up to 50 different search terms and within a matter of moments, we can ensure that your property shows up on the first page of results when any of those terms are used. “We ensure properties show up on the first page of results.” In addition to that, we also have a 4.5% listing, where we only take 1.5% for our commission after having to pay 3% to the buyer side (it’s unavoidable). We can do phenomenal marketing for you at a much lower price than our competitors, and that includes getting you on page one of Google. If you have any questions or you’re looking to list your home and get top dollar, give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you.

The spring market is upon us, which means the nice weather is here and so are the buyers.   There are a lot of houses out there that are disappearing from the market within a day to a week. We’re running into multiple offer situations frequently, so if you’re a buyer, don’t wait to act. Get your pre-approval done and get ready to find your house. Don’t be afraid to be obsessive about it, either. Our website, www.northernvahomefinder.com, is accurate and up to date on all current listings. If you’d pick up the phone and give us a call, we’d love to help you find the house you want that way too. Remember that we’re not limited to what’s presented on the MLS; we also pursue expired and ‘For Sale By Owner’ listings. Everything on the MLS is algorithmic. We’ve been expecting a slight increase in interest rates, which did happen. However, interest rates around the world are negative, so a lot of that international capital is sloshing into the U.S. market. My personal forecast is that interest rates aren’t going up very much this year. There have been other forecasts predicting them to rise as high as 5%, but I don’t think that will happen. I think we’ll see very stable interest rates which will result in a phenomenal market. There’s an important reason I use the word ‘algorithmic’ when describing our market. It’s because everybody looks on Google these days, including buyers. If you’re a seller, you need to get your home on the first page of Google. “Everybody looks on Google these days, including buyers.” I can help you accomplish this with a method that involves creating 50 unique Youtube videos of your home. In a matter of moments, this will land your home on Google’s first page. Buyers are searching all over every search site out there, and they’re being extremely aggressive about finding a home. We want to put yours right in front of them. We also offer a report called the ‘Seller Blueprint’ that tells you everything you need to know about selling a house. All you have to do is ask for it, and we’ll get it into your hands. If you have any other questions about our market, please don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to helping you.

With all the new construction happening lately in our area, I’ve received a lot of calls from clients asking about it. There are two questions they ask the most that I want to answer today. The first is, “Can I negotiate the price of a new construction home when I’m working with the builder or their representative?” The answer is no. Why? “Builders typically won’t negotiate with you.” Let’s say there’s a development where 50 homes will be built. The prices of those homes are set on the margin. Out of those 50 homes, let’s say three or four sold recently for $350,000 and you now want to negotiate with the builder to get your home for $340,000. That will affect the value of the homes that have already sold in the sense that if a few more sold at that level, those prices are down. Remember—appraisers always look at recently sold comparable homes. The builder doesn’t have a big enough margin to risk having their appraisals come in low. That’s why they’ll typically refuse to negotiate the price of the home. Instead of negotiating the price, you should (or have your agent) negotiate options. The second question people ask is, “Is it advantageous for me as a buyer to go in without an agent and get a lower price?” Again, the answer is no. The builder won’t lower the price of the house for the same reasons relating to the appraisal that I answered in the first question. Aside from that, out of the same 50 homes, they’ve already built in that 75% to 90% of them will be sold by people represented by agents. With a resale home (particularly a For Sale By Owner home), you might be able to get a price reduction because there’s no agent involved. If you have any questions about this topic, feel free to get in touch with me. I’ve also collected the top three floor plans from all of our local builders and would be glad to share them with you. I look forward to hearing from you!

If you’re thinking about selling your home this spring, it’s a good idea to get pre-inspection for a few reasons. If you get a pre-inspection done, you can advertise your home as certified pre-owned. That will give you a leg up in the market in a few areas. In terms of marketability, presenting your home as having already been inspected will give buyers a lot more confidence. When buyers see that a home has already been inspected, they assume that home is in pristine condition and has been beautifully maintained, which means your home will fly off the market pretty quickly. Another advantage to listing your home as certified pre-owned is the negotiability it brings to the table. The buyer’s agent will be in a more compromised position in terms of negotiating repairs and corrections to the home because you will have already made them. That will save you quite a bit of money. “If you want to be really ambitious, you can throw in a home warranty.” If you want to be really ambitious, you can throw in a home warranty. That will make you a very attractive seller. Speaking of sellers, I have a report available that I call the “Seller’s Blueprint,” which addresses the notion of selling a certified pre-owned home. It shows what specifically is involved in a home inspection in terms of the structural integrity and maintenance of a home. If you’d like a copy of the “Seller’s Blueprint,” or if you have any other questions, feel free to text, call, or email me. I’m always happy to help!

Websites like Zillow, Redfin, Trulia, and Realtor.com are popular among people looking for their next home. Since most homebuyers search online before ever hiring an agent, the search function is a really big deal. However, I want to invite you to use our site to search for homes because it actually has accurate data. Our site is hooked up to our local MLS system and the data is much more accurate because it’s updated every five minutes or so. You’ll find that with sites like Zillow, five of the 10 homes you want to go see may already be under contract. Why? Homes are flying off the shelf right now. In fact, I’ve recently listed homes that have sold in a single day. Homes sell very quickly if they’re pristine and priced properly. Since they sell so fast, there’s a lot of turnover in the MLS, so other sites like Zillow can’t keep up. “When there’s a lot of turnover in the market, Zillow can’t keep up.” We also field a lot of questions about Zillow’s Zestimates, which are automated, algorithmic estimations of a home’s value. The National Association of Realtor’s value estimation (Realtor’s property resource, or RPR for short) is algorithmic as well, and we find that they are very accurate and getting even better. The results of these automated value models should be adjusted for location, neighborhood, condition, and amenities, which can cause a variation in price. We can help you with all those adjustments when it comes to valuing a home. Since inventory is tight in the northern Virginia market, another kind of website we’ve been using to find homes for our buyers who are obsessed with getting that perfect home is FSBO (for sale by owner) sites, as well as expired listings. On the selling side of things, we’ve also got a new algorithmic methodology that will get your home on page one of Google for up to 50 search terms. If you have any questions about using websites and their algorithms for buying or selling a home, give me a call or send me an email. I’d be happy to help.

With interest rates going up, now is the opportune time to buy a home and lock in your mortgage financing. By doing that, you insure against the higher rates that will come as the year goes on. As a buyer, you want to be as close to a “sure thing” as possible. Here’s how you can do that. You become a sure thing as a buyer when you lock in that interest rate and fully document your mortgage financing. You’ll have to give your lender some financial documentation to make this happen, including your tax returns and recent paychecks. If you make it through that, you will have a fully approved loan, subject only to an appraisal. This puts you in an extremely strong position when buying. There are always closing costs involved with a mortgage. Fortunately, four out of every five of our transactions are closing with the seller offering up to 3% of the purchase price for closing costs. Sellers are actually paying buyers to buy their home. The entire mortgage market is hugely institutionalized and has changed like night and day. These days, the folks doing the most lending are typically local or regional companies that specialize in mortgages. These are called mortgage bankers. If you’re doing a standard loan like a FHA, USDA, or VA, the lenders are typically going to sell that loan to another entity, usually a big bank. “You can line up any type of financing you want.” You can line up any type of financing that works for you in this market right now. I’d love to introduce you to our affiliate company, First Heritage Mortgage, if you’re thinking about buying. They can assist you in every way possible. Even if you’re not quite ready to buy or your credit isn’t where it needs to be yet, we can help get you on the right track. If you have any other questions for us, don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you.

Check out this gorgeous family home in Fox Point! This home features a wonderful, sun-filled open floor plan with modern details and designer touches throughout. It has a two-story entryway, wide-plank pine hardwood floors on the main level, new carpet on the upper level, and fresh paint in tasteful colors throughout. The kitchen features new stainless steel appliances accented by custom cabinetry, beautiful tile backsplash, and an awesome walk-in pantry. There’s also a wonderful breakfast bar that opens to a lovely family room with a wood-burning fireplace. The master bedroom is spacious and has vaulted ceilings and a fabulous walk-in closet. The master bathroom features a spa bath, dual vanities, and a beautifully tiled walk-in shower. This home also includes a large, bright, open walk-out basement which offers plenty of space for relaxing, watching TV, entertaining, and storage. The basement also features a bedroom and bathroom and could be converted to an in-law suite or apartment. Additionally, you’ll be able to enjoy outdoor living from a large screened-in porch and patio area which faces a beautiful fenced-in backyard lined with trees. The front porch is just as impressive as it offers plenty of space to relax and boasts charming lateral plank railings. If you’re interested in this home or have any more questions about it, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d be happy to speak with you.

The year just started, but mortgage rates have already increased slightly. We are looking at much stronger economic activity and job growth as we head into 2017. There are expectations of lower taxes as well, so there is a lot of optimism. However, rates are expected to go up even more as the year goes on. A forecast I recently saw on the U.S. News and World Report predicted that we will see an increase in rates of 0.5% to 1% this year. Currently, the average rate is 4.2%. What do these numbers mean to you? Let’s look at an example. Say you have a $300,000 mortgage. With a 4% rate, your monthly payment is $1,432. With a 4.5% rate, the payment on the same $300,000 mortgage is $1,520 per month. If rates increase up to 5%, which many are expecting, the payment on that same mortgage would go up to $1,610 per month. “It makes sense to lock in a rate now.” The question we all have is this: Will this in any way damage our housing market or cause prices to fall? Frankly, that’s very unlikely because we’re not even back to peak levels from 2007 at this point. We have a ways to go. As you can see in the 10-year growth chart in the video above, we have had solid, steady appreciation and a steady decline in inventory. At peak prices back in 2007, it might have taken a year or more to sell a home if you could sell it at all. Right now, it’s not hard to sell quickly. Given that mortgage rates are going to go up even more, it makes a lot of sense to lock in your mortgage financing now. It puts you in a very strong position when you go out to purchase. That’s the place to start. In our next video, I’ll show you how to become a “sure thing” as a buyer. Studies show that 89% of people hire an agent when they are ready to buy a home. My team and I would very much like you to consider using us as your agents in the event that you’re ready to buy or sell. Even if you just have a few quick questions, we would love to hear from you. Just give us a call or send us an email.

What are current market conditions like here in northern Virginia? As we begin 2017, we’re in a seller’s market. In fact, we’ve been in a seller’s market for some time. Our level of inventory is staying within the two to three-month range, but if a seller puts a pristine and well-maintained home on the market, it should sell in a matter of days. If the condition of the home is somewhat less than that, it should languish on the market for a little while longer. Since there is more demand than supply, prices have been climbing steadily at a modest rate for several years, and that should continue in 2017. Interest rates are also going up, as the rate for a 30-year mortgage sits at 4.1%. As you might’ve heard, the Federal Reserve has decided to raise interest rates even further, so that’s another phenomenon to keep an eye on. What does all this mean going forward? “We’re in a seller’s market, but there is opportunity for both sides of the deal.” If you’re a seller, the course is clear. Now is a great time to put your house on the market, as you should see many buyers come off the fence before interest rates rise again. Because our market is so strong overall, now is also a good time to be a buyer. There aren’t many bargains out there like there were during the crash, but if you look for a fair market value home, you should get what you need. There are also many innovative mortgage products coming out to help you with this. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to call, email, or text me with whatever’s on your mind. I’d be happy to talk with you!