Are Andresen

Buying a home Category

Pocket listings return in hot housing market

CNN ran a story today about the return of the pocket listings in hot housing markets. With the market being as hot as it is in Northern Virginia buyer agents use all the tricks they know to find properties not listed in the MRIS.

I wrote a story about pocket listings last year ( Does A Pocket Listing Line Your Pocket ) and why they are almost always a bad idea for sellers:

A typical seller will be put at a monetary disadvantage by not exposing the home to as many purchasers as possible from the start. By the law of supply and a demand, a pocket listing would on average sell for less than one that was available for all to see and make an offer on. In my view a general pocket listing policy by a real estate brokerage a-la “we only allow in-brokerage sales of our listings the first 7 days” is unethical. The problem is when it is the listing brokerage that pushes for the pocket listing for their own gain – a pocket listing initiated by a client (for whatever reason) I don’t really see any issue with. 

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Cool Contemporary in Reston! (pending)

We just listed a great contemporary townhome in Reston for sale. This is not your typical narrow and dark townhome – this one has large windows throughout and an open floor plan that lets in a lot of light.

With 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths the home is a lot larger than it looks from the outside with over 2,000 sq/ft of total space. There are two yards, one landscaped front yard off the rec room and one rear yard off the living room.

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What is this Buyer Agreement thing?

If you are used to calling up an agent at random to see a home you found online you now have to jump through one extra hoop.  Unless you are calling up the listing agent directly you are now required in most instances to have a written agreement for another real estate agent to show you a home. Prior to July 2012 it wasn’t so – you could call up an agent and ask to see a home – and in many cases that agent would be ok with taking you to a home hoping that you would use him/her to make an offer if you liked the home. Read the rest of this entry »

Prices Flat at the Fountains at McLean in Tysons Corner

Tysons Corner is bustling these days with the completed HOT Lane, Silver Line metro nearing completion and the Tysons West and Walmart. Many new communities will now be within walking distance to the metro for the first time – Fountains at McLean is one of them.

The number of sales in 2012 were slightly up from 2011 at the Fountains at McLean. Read the rest of this entry »

Woodburn Village Prices and Rents Going Up!

There was an ok level of activity in Woodburn Village in 2012 with 22 sales. Last year there were a total of 28 sales - hence a little bit less sales volume.

A great piece of news is that the number of distressed sales keep going down. In 2009, only 23% of the sales were normal sales, in 2010 33%, in 2011 57% of the sales were normal and this year about 70% are regular sales. That is great news for the owners and the community – and prices do seem to have started going up! Read the rest of this entry »

Are Fairfax County Foreclosures and Short-Sales Disappearing?

The market in Fairfax County Virginia is doing great in 2012. The number of transactions are down slightly for 2012 keeping inventory low in most areas. The prices have held up well and increased some in many areas thanks to low interest rates and good employment opportunities.

A lot of the attention in real estate has been towards distressed sales the last few years. While foreclosures and short-sales never really ruined the market in Fairfax County, some local areas did see values decimated by distressed sales after the 2006 real estate crash. Read the rest of this entry »

Gates of McLean for Sale – prices are going up!

The sales prices at the Gates of McLean continued their upward trend in 2012. With the new Silver Line McLean Metro stop scheduled for completion in December 2013 the community desirability is great and the community remains very popular with homeowners and investors. One of our 1 bedroom listings at the Gates of McLean had 6 offers – almost all above asking price and 5 out of 6 were by investors. It ended up selling for above the asking price. It is clear that people believe there will be price and rent appreciation in the Tysons Corner area with all the new development (apart from the metro station.) Read the rest of this entry »

FHA Loans Getting More Expensive!

As part of a broad effort to strengthen the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund (MMI Fund), FHA Commissioner Carol Galante announced a series of changes to be issued this week that will allow the agency to better manage risk and further strengthen the health of the MMI Fund.

“These are essential and appropriate measures to manage and protect FHA’s single-family insurance programs” said Galante. “In addition to protecting the MMI Fund, these changes will encourage the return of private capital to the housing market, and make sure FHA remains a vital source of affordable and sustainable mortgage financing for future generations of American homebuyers.” Read the rest of this entry »

Buy a home with financing from mom and dad!

According to the National Association of Realtors 9 percent of home buyers received a loan from a friend or

relative in 2010. By borrowing money from parents, both parents and children may end up with a good deal. The

parents may get a better return on their investment and the child may get a similar or better interest rate as well as lower closing cost.

One downside to “parent financing” is that the parent is taking a risk – the child may loose his or her job and be unable to pay on the loan. The parent may feel hesitant to foreclose on their own children (and maybe grandchildren.) It may therefore be wise for parents to apply the same criteria as a bank would when qualifying their child for the loan. Also, loan documents should be prepared and recorded spelling out the terms and conditions of the loan. Read the rest of this entry »

New Tysons Corner Transportation Taxes

To pay for the extensive walkability upgrades planned in Tysons Corner the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted to create a special Transportation Service District last week. It is estimated the new tax will generate $250 million for area improvements over the next 40 years.

As of now, the tax rate is set to take effect in January 2014 and will apply to both residential and commercial property. It has been estimated that the rate may be 6 to 8 cents per $100 assessed value. The tax district will only be for owners of residential and commercial property in the Tysons Corner area (presume the 22102 and 22182 zipcodes.)

There is opposition to the tax, especially from residential residents that believe that either a) all county residents should pay as the improvements will benefit more than just the residents, or b) Residential properties should be exempt.

Fairfax County seems sympathetic to excluding residential from the new tax as the share of revenue that would be generated from residential properties would be small. State law may prohibit such differential treatment of residential vs commercial so a special bill has been proposed that may make an exception in this case.

To me it seems fair to exclude residential homeowners in this case – the commercial landowners will benefit the greatest from the improvements in the heavily developed areas of Tysons Corner. The majority of residential areas in Tysons will see little direct benefit.

Looking to purchase in Tysons Corner? Contact us!