Tell me about the Real Estate Market

The most common question any Realtor is going to get asked is, "How is the real estate market?" This is a tough question to answer and some Realtors will take the easy way out and tell people it is interesting or that they would be surprised. The real answer should always be the truth, but it is not an easy truth to get to.

There is no overall market for real estate. The market is going to vary drastically from state to state, county to county, and even subdivision to subdivision. Look at the difference in the market for single family homes in Foxfield and Greenbriar. These two subdivisions are basically right across route 50 from each other and both in the 22033 zip code.

At Least I got My Car Washed

Last night are 8:30 PM I got a call from the Weichert Lead Network telling me I was about to get a call from a lead. I was convinced I had my phone on vacation and wouldn't be available to take the Weichert Lead Network calls but I guess somewhere along the line of deciding to put my phone on vacation and putting it on vacation I forgot.

When I got the person on the line I scrambled to pull up the listing they had looked at that had caused them to call in in the first place. In talking with them this felt like a good one. Much better than the other lead network calls I had gotten where the person is either under a fake name or it is a message for me to call them and they never answer the phone.

Northern Virginia Amenities: Wegmans

My personal home is surrounded by grocery stores. Within a small radius there is a Giant, Safeway, Whole Foods, Harris Teeter, and best of all a Wegmans. Wegmans is a combination of all the previously listed grocery stores where it carrier a wide variety of the standard grocery's and then has a large section for take out dining, organic products, and international products. It is hard to find a much better shopping experience than the one at Wegmans.

When Wegmans first moved into Norther Virginia people weren't sure what to make of it. It had the appearance of your standard issue gourmet grocery store that would cost too much and end up being a place only people concerned about the Jones' would shop. The standard issue groceries at Wegmans are priced at a competitive rate with the other stores in the area and there is a larger selection of nearly everything.

Lessons from the Other Life

I live so many lives at times it becomes unclear whether I am even a real person anymore. My main focus in my private non-work life is the pursuit of baseball. This hobby has taken me to many interesting and wonderful places, but the greatest journeys it is taken me on are the ones within my own mind.

Yesterday while driving to a friend's house to record an episode of our Nats based podcast I got a call off of some handouts I had given out earlier in the day. It is the same type of info that I put out on here with market analysis and a few interesting items about the area. I had them out in a few neighborhoods and haven't really gotten any feedback positive or negative about them.

Ghost Stories of Northern Virginia: Bunny Man Bridge

I still remember the first time I ever heard this story. It was on the day in drivers' ed. when we had to learn to drive on country roads. Northern Virginia is an interesting area, because there are urban, suburban, and rural settings so close together, and it was important to learn how to drive on all types of roads. While driving down Colchester Road in Clifton the instruct told us to stop just before an old dilapidated bridge.

When we asked why we had stopped he told us he had a story we had to hear. As legend would have it a nearby asylum was closed and while the inmates were being transferred their bus crashed. Of the escaped patients only one was never found. Or was never found until skinned rabbit carcasses started to be found hanging from trees in the woods of Clifton.

Northern Virginia Market Update

Another 20th of the month has come and gone and that means it is time for the RBI market update for the previous month. Watch this video and enjoy its useful information and then call me with any questions or for further information.





I learn something new in real estate everyday
so you don't have to
David Huzzard
www.SuperNoVaRealty.com

Open Sunday, March 25 1:00-4:00 PM

Bradley Acres Market Activity

In the last couple post I have written about Bradley Acres and now it is time to examine it further and see what the market activity looks like in that subdivision. First though I would like to say that I really like not just the homes in Bradley Acres but the location as well. It is not what can be called off the beaten path, but it feels like it. After passing the Fairfax Towne Center on West Ox Road it feels like entering the country.

While that part of Fairfax County has a private feel to it it is still close to everything. Bradley Acres is located near Frying Pan Park and between Reston Town Center and Fair Oaks Mall. Bradley Acres is a neighborhood that feels the way a neighborhood should. It has sidewalks and front yards but is still located in a private area that benefits from being off of a major road that can quickly take a person to either Reston or Fairfax.

Previewing Review 3/20/2012

Another Tuesday means it is time for more previewing and as I have an Open House again this weekend the previewing becomes part of my preparation for that. My Open House is in the subdivision of Greenbriar lies between Middle Ridge Road and Stringfellow Road off of route 50. The Greenbriar Shopping Center is one of the best in Northern Virginia featuring not just the standard grocery store, but a Total Wine, Dogfish Head, PetCo, Bone Fish, and Buffalo Wing Factory as well.

Greenbriar is a planned community built up during the late sixties and early seventies featuring a few types of homes. The one I will be sitting open is a Rambler. A Rambler is good for people that don't want to have to deal with steps but still want a nice sized home for a good price and in a great location. The house I will be holding open is located at 4127 Point Hollow Lane in Fairfax Virginia. It is 1,950 sq. ft. with four bedrooms and two baths. One of the best features of the home is its wide open living room/dining room that is located at the back of the house directly off of the kitchen.

Previewing Review 3/15/12

There is a lot of work that goes into holding an Open House. Most of it is done behind the scenes and is something that very few people are going to realize was even done. Today was just such an occurrence as I previewed all the competition in the zip code for the property I will be holding open this Sunday from 1:00-4:00 at 12136 Folkstone Dr in Oak Hill, Va. 

Most of the properties that had been on the market in the Folkstone subdivision have gone under contract and there is only the one I am holding open and one other that are currently active. I made certain to see the other one as it is $150,000.00 less, claims to have an additional bedroom, and nearly 1000 additional sq. ft. I have to admit I am not the best at eyeballing square footage but I have to say the house I am holding open looks larger and the additional bedroom was an in-law suite they had converted the garage into. It doesn't look like more sq. ft. but that doesn't mean it isn't.

Ghost Stories of Northern Virginia: Walney Road

Northern Virginia is a place filled with history. Being so close to the capital of the United States and part of one the first states will do that, and as a place filled with history there are plenty of ghost stories. There are your run of the mill Civil War ghost stories like seeing Civil War soldiers crossing a bridge near Bull Run battlefield, but then there are the real interesting ones. Take for instance this one out of Chantilly, Virginia.

Down route 50 right before the exit to 28 lies Walney Road. It is an unassuming road like man that will be found in Northern Virginia. It has an Anita's on the corner and leads down to an industrial park, but it wasn't always part of a built up area. There was a time before Chantilly was built up that Walney road didn't lead to the Dulles Expo center and wasn't even paved.

Open Sunday, March 18 1:00-4:00 PM

One Section Over

If you have ever been to a sporting event and had the misfortune to buy tickets along a pricing line but in the higher price then you know what I am talking about. When you first get to your seats you are kind of excited because they are good seats close to the field and on an aisle, but on the other side of the aisle is someone with a view that is three feet different and who paid $10 less. As the game goes on you start to wonder why no one told you not to buy these tickets or how you ended up one section over from less expensive seats.

One section over from Fairfax County is Prince William county, and along the dividing line it is no different. The average price difference for comparable single family homes can be anywhere from $100,000-$200,000. Now this difference makes perfect sense if you live in the parts of Fairfax county that are much closer to the district or in desirable areas like Reston, but imagine living right along the county line in a place like Lorton.

A Humble Servant: A Brief History of the Realtor

The client agent relationship that binds a Realtor to a client traces its origins back to the master/servant relationship of feudal England. The Realtor fills the roll of the servant and owing certain duties to the master in the relationship who is the client. Think of other agent relationships and it is much the same. If a football players wants to play on the west coast even though an east coast team is offering more money then the final decision is that of the client's.

When a Realtor signs a contract to work with a buyer or a seller they are signing on to be that person's servant. They then owe them the duties of care, obedience, loyalty, disclosure, accounting, and confidentiality. If a Realtor is working with a buyer and has signed nothing then not only do they not owe the buyer these duties they in fact owe them to the seller. This alone should make buyers want to have a signed agreement with a Realtor that makes it clear who the agent works for.

Reston Condos

Today's goal in real estate was to view condos in Reston around the same price range as the condos I viewed in Fairfax the other day. The stylistic differences between a condo in Reston and a condo in Fairfax are interesting to note. All of the units seen today where open and let in a lot of light. There was a nice private feel to all of the condos, and most had a view of some type of nature.

The first two units seen today were located in the Villaridge subdivision near the South Lakes shopping center. The first unit was a first floor 990 sq. ft. unit with two bedrooms and one bath. It had an interesting floor plan with a fireplace dividing the living room from what could be used as the dining room and the kitchen in the rear near the master bedroom. The second bedroom looked to have been used as a sitting area as the doors had been removed. This did open things up and if a young couple or a single person moved in they could use it in the same way.

Previewing Review 3/6/12

Pardon this for being short but today was an ambitious day of previewing. I just got done looking at thirteen properties in five subdivisions. One doesn't realize how much seeing homes can tire out the human body until they do it for a living. The constant up the steps down the steps has to be somewhat good for the heart though.

The first property I saw was in the Virginia Run subdivision. I can offer breakdowns of every subdivision in Northern Virginia and will do it when an offer is ready to be made or when the search has zeroed in on an area, but with so many properties to sum up I will just say this was your standard late-80's new American traditional home. It had an updated kitchen with solid surface countertops and modern appliances. It also had a nice office off of the master bedroom and a few other nice features.

You're a Client not a Customer

Yesterday while driving home from a networking meeting I heard a commercial for a certain online real estate company. The commercial did everything but blatantly lie to people. It danced very close to the edge of truth. The main way they got around telling people the truth was vocabulary.

There are a lot of words that mean one thing by dictionary definition, but mean something different when involved in a particular field of industry. For Realtors the word customer is one of those very important words that means something very different. For a Realtor a customer is pretty much the entire world. It is anyone we have the possibility of discussing real estate with. If you are reading this right now you are a customer.

Free Home Buyers Seminar

Now is a Good Time to Invest in Condos in 22033

As many of you might know the new tax assessments came out this week and depending on your situation and location this is either good news or bad news. For me it is partially good news and partially bad news. The assessed value of my condo dropped once again, which I have to say confuses me. That is good news because it means my taxes go down. I can't move one way or another right now so I am really only going to feel the positive effects of this for a bit.

But this does bring out the glaring weakness of tax assessments. Mostly where are they getting their data? Is it from the MRIS or is it just a low paid worker throwing darts at a board. From my check of the MRIS and knowledge of market activity in the 22033 zip code I have to say it is the latter.

I am not a Vampire

I struggled for a few minutes to come up with the title for this post until I remembered it was a blog and supposed to be fun. The point of blogging is to deliver good information in a fun and interesting manner. I am not trying to write ad pieces or text books here, but I still want my readers to be informed.

The idea for the title stems back to what happened to me while doing follow up on an open house. The person had requested information on the age of the AC. I gave them that information and explained to them all the things I could do for them as their agent. All they told me was that they weren't interested in that house. That is fine with me as I wasn't the listing agent for that house and would happily show them others. Of course I have heard nothing since from them.

Previewing Review 2/28/12

Every time I see this floor plan I like it but this is the third time I have seen it and this time at a different price point. Location is the driving force behind the price of a home, but I do find it interesting that I have seen basically the same home three different times in the last month and this time the price point was much higher.

The question though becomes is this location any better. The last time I saw the home I was off of Braddock Rd. in Burke and the time before that I was in Vienna. Now of the three locations I would expect Vienna to be the highest but it wasn't. This time I was in Fairfax off of 29 in a neighborhood where the average sold price over the last calender year was $481,313.00.

Bonus Previewing

Thursday afternoon at the office found me with a lot of time and not much to do and whenever there isn't much to do, or I have finished everything I did have to do, it is time to make something to do. I headed just down the street for some bonus previewing for the week in the Poplar Estates and Poplar Tree Estates subdivision. As there isn't much difference in the types of houses in the subdivisions I am deciding to analyze them as one.

In total there are five active listings and two under contract which gives the subdivision a market absorption rate of 2.5 and of the six that sold in the past three months the average sold price was $517,775.00. Those properties stayed on the market for an average of 104 days and received 95.67% of list price.

It is an interesting neighborhood with a good variety in style of home. Having been in a number of the homes I can point to similarities in the floor plans, but they are different enough that no two homes were exactly alike. The best floor plan was one of the ones in Poplar Estates. It had a large master bedroom suite with two large walk in closets and a large master bedroom.

Aside from having a large master bedroom the second, third, and fourth bedrooms were larger than average and they all had big closets. The main level was just as nice with a sitting room to one side of the entrance and the dining room on the right. The sitting room had glass doors that opened to the family room which sat next to a fully upgraded kitchen. In total the taxable living area for the home is 2,622 sq. ft. and it does have a finished basement.

All of the homes previewed in that neighborhood were nice but that is the one that stood out. There was one for sale as well on the same court and it had a unique floor plan with an open entrance with cathedral ceilings and a step down from the dining room into the family room. I liked the unique floor plan and how open and inviting the home felt when it was entered. I am someone who likes uniqueness in a property especially in a designed neighborhood and this floor plan really stood out.

Both the Poplar Estates and Poplar Tree Estates subdivisions would be a good place to show homes to someone looking in the Chantilly area in the mid-500's to mid-600's price range. There were advantages to all the homes seen on Thursday and now I am better armed to discuss that area with potential buyers.

I learn something new in real estate everyday
so you don't have to
David Huzzard
www.SuperNoVaRealty.com

What's Going on in my Zip Code

Previewing Review 2/21/12

The best way to learn something new is to see something new and previewing homes is the best way to do that. Today I ventured out to the land of Reston. I remember back in High School when the Reston Town Center was first starting to become a place people wanted to go, and Reston felt like some foreign world that needed to be explored. Now Reston is one of the main attraction of Northern Virginia.

Everyone wants to eat out at the Clyde's or Morton's in Reston Town Center after a long day of playing in the Water Mine at Lake Fairfax before heading to the Perils of the Lost Jungle for some night time mini-golf. Reston has become one of the places to be in Northern Virginia and as such it is very important that I am constantly working to stay familiar with the area.

A Different World a Few Miles South

Living in Fairfax County I end up working mostly in Fairfax County, but as my slogan is, "I learn something new in real estate everyday so you don't have to." I figure those I want referrals from need to be well informed or at least be able to prove to people that I do my homework. Today I went to work on learning about my sister's subdivision.

The first thing I noticed when I pulled up the active listings is that there were a lot. In most subdivisions in Fairfax county it is good luck to find more than two active listings. In just this one subdivision in Stafford county there are 20 active listings. That is the close to an amount that could be found in some zip codes further north.

Pictures Lie

A picture might be worth a thousand words but in the real estate industry they can be near worthless. Pictures of a property are nice to see and do a good job of giving a basic idea of what it is like, but they don't tell everything. Pictures can be manipulated in a variety of ways. Anyone that has engaged in online dating knows this.

I know how this works as I have looked at pictures and then gone to a property to then return home to review the pictures again. I have seen where they have angled the picture ever so slightly to leave out certain defects in a wall or to not show an old light fixture. I have seen a property that had no backyard and there wasn't a picture online that showed this. These are all things that can only be learned by visiting a property.

What Buyers Want

Spend any time with a buyer and it is very clear what they are looking at. The most important category for anything is price. It is a lot easier for a person to convince themselves to purchase something if it is easier to afford. The next criteria that is most important for a buyer is location. People want to be where they feel comfortable and in an area they like. The third and final aspect a buyer will judge a property on is style and condition. One buyer might not mind doing a little fix-up work while another loathes the idea.

The issue of price is the most important and most obvious factor on which all home buying searches are based. Most people are going to look at all ranges of what they can afford to start out with but then start to settle more towards one price point as they find out which one gives them the value they are looking for. This isn't just important for buyers but for sellers as well. When listing a property it is important to understand the buyers mindset and set your property into a price range in which it can compete with the other properties on the market.

Previewing Review 2/14/12

In preparation for an open house this weekend in Burke I felt it would be important to explore a bit of my old stomping grounds and see some of the houses that are currently on the market. It was interesting looking at the houses in that area as I passed by a few neighborhoods where friends of mine grew up. I even ended up in a home that had the exact floor plan of one of my friend's parents home.

As always when I look in an area I want to know what is going on in the market. So, now that I am back in front of a computer I can look up and see that the market absorption rate for the 22015 zip code is 1.14 and for the homes that sold in the last three months were on the market for an average of 68 days and got 96.93% of list price. That makes Burke a fairly healthy market.

Northern Virginia Amenities: Baseball, Burgers, and Beer

One of the things I have found as a Realtor is we have to sometime convince people that we are human. I was trying to ask a question the other day in my condo community while wearing my real estate name tag and it was tough going. The person kept asking me if my client was a tenant or an owner, and it took me about five minutes to make them understand I was talking about my personal dwelling.

At times I am the bad guy. I am the person that overhears your conversation in a restaurant and walks up to you, I am the solicitor hanging market info on your door, and I am the person who cold calls you when all you want to do is relax. I am a person too though and have been on the other side of the equation.

Thoughts After an Open House

My first and main thought is that today was cold and windy and I am lucky I didn't lose any signs. The wind made it seriously cold outside and after I was done picking up those signs I am sure I looked like a tomato. The next thought stems from something I mentioned yesterday.

The house I sat open happens to fall within the 22033 zip code I wrote about yesterday, and the happenings in the market in that subdivision can show how even a zip code can be too large a sample size when trying to asses what is happening in your market. The market absorption rate in Foxfield is an even 2.0 with eight active listings and four under contract.

What's Going on in the Market

At Super NoVa Realty I cover a lot of different areas, but like many people I am going to start by focusing on where I live. I currently reside in the 22033 zip code of Fairfax County. It is a good place to live. I am close to Fair Oaks Mall, Wegmans, two movie theaters, a couple Five Guys, and lots of other interesting entertainment options.

The market around here is like most markets in Northern Virginia. Inventory is low. Combine this with low interest rates and a truly interesting market has been created. It is called a sellers market because of the 1.28 market absorption rate, but with the prices still down from the 2006 height and interest rates near an all time low it is working like a buyers market.

Mining Fair Ridge

Most real estate professionals call it farming. I am not fond of that term and prefer to make up my own. Farming is cultivating something from scratch. Plowing the land, planting a seed, taking care of it why it grows, and finally harvesting it. That would be more true of a real estate professional if they move a family from an apartment building into a townhouse and then follow them their entire lives moving them from family home to empty nest home and then to retirement home.

Going after an already existing area is more like mining. The people and the homes are already there. All the agent needs to do is the hard work to let them know that we exist and to stay current in their minds when they do decide the time is right for them to move.

Previewing Review 2/7/12

This weeks tour of homes took us to the Eastern Herndon and Oakton areas of Fairfax County. The first house we visited was a listing of a fellow agent in this office. They are having some difficulty with pricing from their clients and wanted other agents' thoughts. The outside of the home is gorgeous and has massive curb appeal. The inside of the house past the foyer has issues though.

The seller did very little work and almost all the walls are damaged, need minor spackling and nail remove, and need to be cleaned. When listing a house is listed with an agent it is a partnership and both parties need to work together to get as much out of the transaction as possible. If a home is not only improperly but also not in show condition then it will end up sitting on the market for far too long.

Condo Fees can Effect your Purchase Power

I have to admit from the start that I live in a condo and I have been in and out of a good number of condos in the last few weeks. I like condos and a lot of my clients like condos. It is convenient to own a condo. There is no lawn to mow, roof to take care of, gutters to clean, leaves to pick up in the fall, a driveway to shovel in the winter, or a house to paint. There is a lot of upkeep that comes with owning a home and condo owners only have to do the inside half of it.

There is a downside to all of this or a payoff if you want to think of it that way. All the benefits of owning a condo come with a price and that is normally somewhere between $200-$450 a month. Monthly condo fees are the dues people pay every month in order to not have to worry about a lot of the maintenance that comes with home ownership.

NoVa Amenities: Frying Pan Park

On a quiet morning one spring my wife and I were trying to think of something to do together. Out the window the sun and green grass teased us with its inviting nature. We decided that we would take advantage of the lovely  day. We made some sandwiches, leashed up the dogs, and headed out to Frying Pan Park.

Frying Pan Park is not as crowded or as busy as its better known counterparts in the Northern Virginia region like Burke Lake Park, but the lack of a crowd is one of its charms. When my wife and I arrived we spread out our food at a picnic table. The sun and gentle breeze tickled our skin. The heat of the day wrapped us in its warmth and comfort, and every time it threatened to become oppressive an early spring breeze would visit to offer relief.

Super NoVa Realty

I choose the name super NoVa realty for a couple of reasons. The first and most important reason is it is the area that I hope to service. I don't want to limit myself to just the county of Fairfax and sometimes venture into Arlington county or the cities of Alexandria and Falls Church. I want to help people find homes from as far south as Fredericksburg and as far west as Winchester all the way north and east to the borders of Maryland or DC.

The second reason I choose the name super NoVa realty is it described what is about to happen in real estate. With market absorption rates as low as under two months in some areas and with interest rates at record lows demand is far out pacing supply. According to the rules of supply and demand when demand is higher than supply then prices will go up.

The real estate market finds itself in an interesting situation. Trends show us that prices have begun to hold steady in most areas and it will be the real estate market that leads people out of this recession. The end is in sight and it is possible that as soon as this summer the market is going to beginning trending upwards. It is even possible that we are close to another market explosion.

If you would like to know the market absorption rate for your area or a free price trend analysis then please contact me through my main site www.SuperNoVaRealty.com .

You Don't Have to Wait to Spring to Sell

It might surprise a lot of people to know that the current market is classified as a sellers market. They might feel this way for a couple reasons. The first and most important is that the media doesn't report houses that don't burn. Meaning that good news doesn't sell. The national news is much worse than local real estate news. The prices in this area were not effected nearly as much as those in other areas of the country.

Which leads directly into the second reason someone doesn't know that this is a sellers market. It could just simply be no one has told them. Realtors are doing the best they can to inform as many people as they can reach that inventory is low and if a person lists their house now at a fair price it will go off the market quickly. In my area the average days on market is right around 40 and houses are selling for 96% of list price.

Homes Previewed Review 1/31/12

One of the key aspects of the real estate business is learning market inventory. Today I went to three 1310 sq. ft. condos and two 1428 sq. ft. with finished basement town homes in the Fair Oaks area off of route 50 in the Fair Ridge subdivision, and a 1655 sq. ft. with finished basement single family home out past Tysons on route seven.

The condos were all the same basic layout with a bathroom located next to the foyer that connects to one of the bedrooms. It has room for a small dining area but in the condos that were furnished they did away with the dining  area in order to increase the size of their living room. The second bedroom was a good size for a mast bedroom and the bathroom was the largest of any of the properties we visited. One unit had an updated kitchen with new granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances while another had a loft.

Advantages of Starting the Buying Process Early

Most buyers I have talked to in these early months have told me they want to buy but aren’t quite ready yet. They want to wait until May or June to start the buying process. With so many people having said this to me it got me thinking. Why wait?

This has been a rather mild winter and if people start their search now they can accomplish many things. First and most importantly they can beat the spring rush. If a number of people have told me they want to put off a home buying search until May or June how many of told other Realtors the same thing?

With low interest rates and low inventory something very interesting could happen this spring and summer. The market could take off. The low prices we are seeing now could quickly become a thing of the past and people will be kicking themselves for putting off a home buying search.

Scheduling an appointment with me and starting the process of buying a home doesn’t mean you will quickly find a home or that there aren’t actions that need to be taken before you are ready to buy. The best thing to do if you think you are a month or two from purchasing a home is to come in and meet with Weichert Gold Services in order to discover your purchasing power.

And if you have bad or low credit then we can help put a credit recovery program in place so that when you are ready to purchase a home there won’t be any unfortunate surprises. Starting the process now as opposed to when everyone else is starting theirs can be extremely beneficial for many reasons.

If you would like to get an early jump on the spring competition or would just like to find out your purchasing power please visit my main site and call me to set up an appointment. I am more than happy to help with any real estate needs you might have.