Take a look at how your competition changes as the weather starts to warm up.

As you can see in most of the zip codes that make up Woodbridge VA the inventory climbs steadily during the spring months.  This means your home needs to stand out to be noticed.  This could mean a slightly lower price point, higher incentives to snag a buyer and certainly means your home needs to outshine your competition in terms of condition. 

Winter buyers are serious buyers.  If you are thinking of delaying to put your Woodbridge VA home on the market give Cindy Jones and CJ Realty Group a call at 703-346-2213 to discuss your options.  Let’s beat the competition to the punch in 2012. 

In case you were wondering how the HAP program originally got funding here is the history:  The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 allocated $555 million and the National Defense Authorization Act of 2010 authorized an additional $300 million for the Expanded Homeowners Assistance Program (HAP).

Per the report released by the IG office, as of February 23, 2011 the program had paid 4,825 applicants a total of $725.5 million, but had a backlog of 4,897 eligible applicants.  It doesn’t take much to do the math and see that the program will run out of money before all eligible service members will be able to settle on their homes unless additional funding is provided.

The  IG report on DoD HAP provides details on the issues that were found with the program and is open for comments until January 23, 2012.  If you are military service member eligible for DoD HAP benefits or has been denied benefits you should read the report and make comments on your experience with the program.

If you are eligible for DoD HAP benefits and own a home in the Northern Virginia area give me a call at 703-346-2213.   With the time it takes to process files you shouldn’t wait until Spring to get your home on the market.

For example looking for updated data on recent sales in the Northern Virginia area it seemed to me the sales figures in the neighborhood weren’t correct. Sure enough when I looked at the details of the sales the data entry error was obvious. A $120,000 seller subsidy instead of $12,000. Since the sales price of the house was only $400,000 it isn’t likely a lender would approve a subsidy of 1/3 of the sales price.

According to a CMA report run on the neighborhood the average seller subsidy in 2010 was $15,600. However if I adjust for the $100,000 mistake, the average seller subsidy is $9,222. That’s a significant difference for both sellers and buyers to consider. Now think about how this one data entry error is compounded by multiple agents publishing marketing reports and CMA’s based on the incorrect data.

Curious as to how many other data entry errors I might uncover in the “seller subsidy” data field it was time to run additional reports of local neighborhoods. Here are just a few I found in popular Northern Virginia neighborhoods:

Now I can’t guarantee that every report I publish or send will be 100% error free. However, our Northern Virginia MLS does allow us to create custom searches which can help us catch some of these anomalies before we publish a report. In my opinion this is a step which at least will catch the most obvious errors and keep our reports closer to accurate.

If you are a seller make sure you ask the agent you are talking to if they have taken the extra step to review the data on the CMA you are reading.  Same for buyers.  Mistakes happen, we are all human.  Buying or selling a home isn’t penny candy and you need a little peace of mind before you sign on the dotted line.

OH and don’t forget our MLS sales data is pulled by a number of third party sources for reports. If they are also tracking seller subsidy and net sales prices each error begins to add up. Can you imagine if you are checking Zillow and see you gave a buyer over $9 Million dollars to buy your home. Pick me up off the floor!

After touring the home in the  Lake Ridge neighborhood in Prince William County with them and suggesting a few staging ideas, we sat down to discuss the comps. Of course the shock of what the home might be worth and what they would like to be able to sell the house for was a bitter pill to swallow.  Since it was the height of the summer market my suggestion was to price the home at $250,000. Follow up emails and calls went unanswered, a sure sign the listing was going to go to another agent.

As expected the home popped up in the MLS a few weeks later priced at over $40,000 more than my recommended price. The first month passed and the first price reduction came. Month 2 and the second price reduction and Month 3 brought the 3rd price reduction. At the end of 90 days the home was still above my recommended price. With a new agent came a new price. Another month passed and another price reduction brought the house to $250,000. After 120 days the status changed to Under Contract.

I’m not a rocket scientist but when I suggest a list price it is based on market conditions, your neighborhood and the condition of your home.  It isn’t about any emotions you may have tied to your home and it isn’t about testing the Northern Virginia market to see if it might sell for more. It’s about giving you an honest evaluation of your home based on all of the information available. For this family they lost the quick sale they said they were hoping for. They spent 4 months keeping their house in showing condition and more importantly they continued to make mortgage payments whittling away at their goal to maximize the amount of money they could take away from the sale.

Every month your home sits on the market is another mortgage payment and a reduction on what you hoped to be able to take away from your home sale. If you end up making 4 or 5 additional mortgage payments on your home the amount of your take-away quickly diminishes. For this couple we are talking about 5 extra payments to get to settlement at a cost close to $10,000. How would they have used that $10,000 had they listed their home at $250,000 at the beginning of the summer? It’s question only they can answer.

If you are thinking of listing your Northern Virginia home for sale consider all of the factors that go into getting a home sold. An agent can do the best job in the world marketing your home but it is a rare buyer in today’s market who will pay more than the market says the home is worth. The cost of over-pricing your home is real. If you are thinking of listing your Northern Virginia home for sale give Cindy Jones and CJ Realty Group a call at 703-346-2213. Let’s talk about the current market conditions and how to price your home to sell.

Bathrooms are hard to photograph.  Generally they are small but I learned a trick from a professional photographer years ago.  Kneel down to take a photo of the vanity.  That way you don’t catch your own picture in the mirror AND you don’t get the annoying white dot in the middle of the photo from the flash bouncing off the mirror.

If you are a For Sale by Owner (FSBO) you may also want to remember if you are going to take photos that include you in them, don’t do as this person did  “Topless Woman Adds To Listing Photo“  PLEASE OPEN WITH CAUTION YES THERE IS A TOPLESS PERSON IN THE PHOTO.

When you interview agents to list your home ask them whether they own a camera with a wide angle lens and understand basic photo editing software.  If not then ask them if they know a professional photographer who will be taking photos of your home.

Bathroom Photo from my SOLD listing in Heron Bend in Manassas VA.

Though a VA Compromise sale is similar to a short sale, the lender can file a claim with VA for the difference between the proceeds and the payoff amount, after the transaction closes.  This makes it easier for them to approve the sale since the loan is guaranteed by the VA.  Fortunately the lender had a negotiator specifically assigned to work with military families and the new buyer was also using a VA loan from the same lender.

After putting together the package of information required by the lender, the home in the River Oaks neighborhood in Prince William County went on the market.  The property generated multiple offers and was under contract in 10 days.  It took a bit of prodding with the lender but after getting connected to their VA loan servicer specialist the process smoothed out and the property settled in August 2011.

Though it is never easy to have to deal with the loss of value of a home fortunately for active duty military, veterans and qualifying spouses with a VA loan there is an option.  If you are a military family in Northern Virginia and are upside down on your mortgage give Cindy Jones and CJ Realty Group a call at 703-346-2213 to talk about your options.  We have a proven record of success with DoD HAP sales and VA Compromise sales.  Let’s talk and see how we can help you make your transition to a new duty station a smooth one.

There have been thousands of articles written on the value of photos in helping entice buyers to your home. Making sure your home has curb appeal with a well tended yard helps bring a buyer up the sidewalk to the front door. Once inside finding a home where at minimum the dirty dishes are out of the sink and everyday clutter out of sight is essential. So what does it say to a buyer when you don’t even want an exterior photo of your home on the Internet?

We all understand privacy concerns but withholding an exterior photo of your home from the MLS isn’t protecting your privacy. Your address is front and center for a buyer to see. With today’s Internet technology all a buyer or their agent needs to do is head to their favorite on-line mapping tool and enter your address. They can zoom to street level and in many major metropolitan areas they can see the front, side and rear of your home without leaving the comfort of their living room. All you have done by no allowing your agent to take exterior photos is raise the question “what is wrong with this house?”

As an agent explaining the value of both exterior and interior photos to your clients should be one of the first things you do during a listing appointment. There is plenty of data to support why photos are key in helping sell a home. No photo per seller is hurting your client and impacting your bottom line as well.

No photo per seller…no way.

Do you ever get one of those laugh out loud, cause you to snort moments when you open an offer on a listing?  It happened to me recently and even better it sent my clients into fits of laughter as well.  The reason?  An offer $100,000 below list price.  Now the owners could have been insulted but I warned them up front when I called them that I had news that would make their day.  Not in the way they were expected but it would indeed make their day.

Setting the stage can make the difference between a %$#& reaction and a good chuckle.  In this case the response was obvious. Northern Virginia and the entire DC Metro area is one of the parts of the country where the real estate market is up in price. In fact in many cases homes are receiving multiple offers. So when one arrives that is so far off the market all you can do is smile, laugh and move on.

This the laughter you heard as we sent the offer to the shredder.

Before the internet took over this claim had a good deal of merit. The brokerage with the listings was likely the company that would produce the buyer for the property as well. However when the internet and Internet Data Exchange (IDX) made every MLS listings available on Realtor.com, Trulia, Zillow, all brokers sites and individual agent websites, the idea that one brokerage had more leverage over another to produce a buyer went out the window.

Over the last few months I’ve been checking the Northern Virginia MLS to see if by virtue of size or advertising muscle do the bigger brokerages produce more buyers for their own listings. In 108 transactions in March only 12% of the homes were a single brokerage transaction and the size of the brokerage didn’t matter. They ranged from small independents to the big franchise companies.

As an interesting note out of the 8 dual agent transactions (one agent handling both the listing and sale) half of them had zero days on the market. This always makes me wonder if the seller might have been short changed by the home not getting a chance on the open market.

What does this mean if you are thinking of listing your Northern Virginia home? With 88% of homes sold (in this sampling) by cooperating brokers it means the agent you hire should have a record of working well with other agents in the area.  If an agent tells you in an interview, bigger is more likely to get your home sold ask them to show you the numbers.  How many single agency transactions their company has completed in your neighborhood in the last few months.   Will the numbers support their claim?

I’d like to start with dispelling one of the myths of Northern Virginia real estate.  There is NO such thing as a “discount” real estate broker.  There it’s been said out-loud.  For an agent or brokerage to say they are offering you a “discount” means there is something known as a “standard” commission. Nothing can be further from the truth. In fact there have been court cases with huge financial implications for agents or brokerages that violate the Sherman Antitrust Act by price fixing commissions. With the understanding that there is no such thing as a “standard” commission let’s take a look at some of your options.

Fixed Rate aka Flat Fee Brokers-charge you a low price to list your home in the MLS.   Some say if you list with them your house will be on all of the major on-line real estate websites.  Guess what?   As soon as your home is listed in the MLS by any agent it will be on most sites by virtue of something known as IDX.   Do they offer enhanced listings on any of those websites?  Not all Flat Fee Brokers are the same, so you need to check what is included in their fee. Will you have any assistance with forms, lockboxes, contract negotiations or photos for your listings?   Some charge an additional fee for each item and each time you need to change your listing could cause the cash register to ring.

Full service “Discount” Brokers-the ones who advertise we will list your house for 4.5%.   No problem here EXCEPT there are agents who may list your house for 4%.   You need to dig and make sure what full service really means AND then look at the past MLS listings for the agent. How do their listings look on-line, how many homes have they sold, how well have they negotiated for their sellers and are they a full time agent, are just a few of the questions you should ask.

Then finally there is the fee for service model.  This model is a bit harder for many sellers to understand.  Partly because there are fewer than 1% of agents in the US who are Accredited Consultants in Real Estate (ACRE) so the model is not discussed often.  If you are familiar with a consulting model, where you pay for only the services you need as you need them, then this way to sell your home will make sense to you.  It also isn’t for everyone but if you are considering using a flat fee broker but are worried about negotiating a contract and making sure you are fully protected, then it might be worth a discussion.

You have a variety of ways to maximize your bottom line when selling your Northern Virginia home.  The choice is yours as to which one makes the most sense for you.  Don’t be lured strictly by the word “discount” and think that you are saving money.  Price your home correctly for today’s market, make sure it is marketed on-line (where 90% of the buyer’s are looking), is fully available to show and you will be the seller with the SOLD sign in your yard.