Oh, Those Dastardly Appraisals!

Hello all!  Here’s just a quick note to clarify a couple of things that can be confusing when selling your house.

Credit: woodlandsappraiser.com

Most folks don’t really think about how important an appraisal is when getting ready to list their house.  It’s common for sellers to fall asleep dreaming of their property being so popular that a bidding war breaks out, and the winner overpays by even more than the property was listed for.  This is actually a common occurrence in some places in the country, but there are pitfalls to having that situation.  Let me explain why.

If your winning buyer is making his purchase of your home contingent on his obtaining a mortgage loan, this scenario may run you into trouble because his lender will require an appraisal of the house –after all, no bank will lend you more money than the home is worth.  If your sales price is higher than the home appraises for, the buyer will be responsible for paying the difference between the sales price and the amount he can secure for his mortgage loan.  If you accepted his offer because it was the highest offer, and he suddenly cannot secure the loan because the appraisal was lower than the sales price, the entire deal could fall apart — leaving you with time wasted, at the very least.

You may remember the Franconia property I mentioned a while back…well, we are delighted to say that we got it under contract in just 26 days, and are marching confidently toward an October 15th settlement date.  This is the market’s way of telling us that we priced the property right from the start, especially since it appraised for the sales price.

Have a great week, and I hope this post makes the process just a little easier to understand!

Open House Alert: Who Do You Know Who Is Looking In Franconia?

Hi all, I just wanted to take a quick second to make you aware of an open house that’s coming up tomorrow (Sunday, August 23, 2015) from 1-4pm. This place is really a little gem in Alexandria — right off of Franconia and Beulah. It’s less than a mile to both the Franconia Springfield Metro stop and the Landmark mall, it’s minutes from the Mixing Bowl, giving you quick and easy access to all of our major highways.

6543 China Grove Ct, Alexandria, VA 22310

It’s a 3 bed, 2 bath, 2 half-bath townhouse, but not just ANY townhouse. It’s an end unit, and it’s got everything you could ask for as far as updates and appliances. Stainless everything, not one but TWO refrigerators (there’s one in the finished downstairs as well), upgraded front-load washer and dryer, granite countertops, a separate dining and living room, hardwood floors, genuine Oak staircase, crown moulding, downstairs fireplace…the list goes on and on. And it opens up from the finished downstairs into a beautiful, fenced backyard with a large deck on it. You are backed up to woods, also — no nosy neighbors creeping on your privacy. This place is beautiful!

Cozy Living Room!

Charming Large Backyard!

You’ve got to see this place! The price just dropped and at $399,999, I anticipate this property will go quickly. Come out and join us from 1-4 to see a gorgeous house on a gorgeous summer afternoon…plus, you don’t want to miss my wife’s s’mores bites — graham cracker, marshmallow and chocolate all in one little bite…makes the fat kid in me go crazy! Realtors, check out listing FX8719264 for full details. Thanks for showing it, and I’ll see you there!

Save Some Moolah: Protect Your “Nest” Egg

Here at The Hardman Team Realty, you may think we are all dependable, old-school professionals, sticking to stiff, old-school professional ways.  That would be true during business hours, but in our off-time, we are into all kinds of cool stuff.  When you’re a first-time homebuyer, there are all kinds of things to worry about while the contract is being executed.  But once you sit down at the settlement table, what’s the best part of walking out with the keys to your new house?  Making it your own!

Out With The Old…

I just did a post on simple home security, if that’s something you’ll need to update or upgrade.  Check it out here, and feel free to leave comments, likes or shares on Facebook!  (Also, I am in no way paid to endorse or criticize a product, these are my own honest opinions.)

Today, however, I want to help you get started on the right foot, right out of the gate.  You just moved into your home, and are now paying a mortgage.  Every dollar counts, right?  Lets save you some money!

Let’s face it: Ultility costs aren’t getting any lower.  So one of the first things we decided to do once we got some paint on the walls was upgrade our thermostat to a Nest Thermostat.  Let me tell you, it has already paid off.

Our electric bill this past month was under a hundred bucks for the first time all year.  Granted, it’s Spring and the windows are open and keeping things comfortable, but the Nest learns when you’re home and not home, and keeps track of when you adjust it, and to what temperature.  Not only that, most thermostats are set to either hot or cold, and that’s it:  If it gets warm during the day, you have to manually switch the thermostat over to “air condition” in order to get cold air.  With the Nest, you can set a specific temperature range you want your house to stay between, and it manages the heater and air conditioner appropriately (pretty handy for days like now, when you need A/C during the day and heat at night).

Easy Installation!

It was easy to install, with the website even giving you the ability to do a compatibility check before you disconnect your old thermostat.    And the plate where the wires plug in in a simple affair, where you plug and play with the wires you have.  It’s hard to see in the photo, but they even included a little bubble level so you’d know you were installing it plumb with the ground.  It makes the wall (and the house) look that much more handsome, in my opinion.

We are also planning on getting a pair of the Nest Protect, the CO/smoke detector that Nest offers.  They aren’t cheap (about $100 each is the best price I’ve seen) but there’s a lot of built-in logic to them.  The smoke detectors talk to each other and to the thermostat, and this is beneficial in ways you might not have thought of.  First of all, the most likely cause of a carbon monoxide (or CO) leak in your house is your furnace, if it is gas-burning.  Well, when the Nest Protect senses CO, it tells the Nest Thermostat to shut off the furnace.  Duh, right?  Why hasn’t someone thought of this sooner?  Also, if it senses fire, it will shut off the A/C or heater, so as not to spread the smoke any further through your house.  (FACEPALM) I am so behind the curve.

…In With The New!

Anyway, we are happy with our Nest, and get comments on it from our guests all the time.  It shuts its display off when you aren’t near it to save electricity, and you can program it to come on when you walk by it.  Lights up nicely when you use it, gets out of your way when it’s on autopilot.  We love this thing, and think it’s well worth the money.  It’s already on its way to paying itself off.  Good luck with yours, and cheers!

Don’t forget — If you know someone who can use my help buying or selling their home, don’t hesitate to give me a call 630.306.3537 to introduce us.  Thanks!

Shut The Front Door!

So you may have become aware lately of certain parts of your home.  For example, the first thing we did when when my wife and I moved in was change the locks.  I don’t know about you, but I’m the type of guy who lies awake at night wondering about the weak spots in my home security net — constantly wondering, “If a burglar was to break in, where would he start?  And how much early warning would I get if it happened?”

Old Lock On The Left, New Lock On The Right

I feel we’ve been quite well-prepared because of a few solutions that aren’t for everybody (namely, weapons within reach of my pillow, and a big, hyper-sensitive dog with a huge bark), but I figured the easiest and simplest way to boost security was to pick a set of the best deadbolts money can buy.  After much homework, we settled on the Medeco Residential Single Cylinder Deadbolt.  (By the way, the “single” part of the “single cylinder” just means that it’s got a key on the outside and a twist knob on the inside.  If it was a “double cylinder,” it would require a key on both the outside and inside to actuate the lock.)  Here’s more of what I’ve learned.

This deadbolt is the leader because its core cannot be drilled out by some schlep with a common hand drill and some bits from the Home Depot.  It’s also designed to resist common picking.  It’s made of beefy, super-hardened metal.  The lock itself weighs nearly five pounds, and the keys are some no-nonsense keys.  Seriously — each key is inscribed with a serial number, and you have to be on the buyer/owner-approved LIST before a locksmith will allow you to get copies made.  It’s also a lock that is far more difficult to pick than a regular KwikSet or other common BigBoxStore special.  I first came across Medeco locks when I worked on private jets.  If it’s good enough to protect a $60 million aircraft, it’s good enough for all of the priceless things I put in my house.

And Get A Load Of These KEYS!

It was actually fairly easy to install, honestly.  The lock and throw fit correctly the first time, though I did have to widen the hole in the door to accommodate the oversized core.  They even provided an easy-to-use template that makes it difficult to goof up.  Of if you don’t know anyone who is half-way mechanically inclined, you can always get a locksmith to install it for you.  (I recommend getting the lock(s) from Amazon, by the way…our local locksmith told me the lock retails in his shop for over a hundred bucks more than I paid to have it shipped to my house.)

Kwikset and Schlage make products that hit a similar price point, and newer locks are even beginning to incorporate Bluetooth to sense when your phone is near for automatic operation.  They have met with limited approval from UL, from what I understand.  I’m a bit old-school, I guess…I don’t need lights or automation on the very devices I expect to withstand exterior attacks, I need a device to stand up to the abuse it’s designed to encounter.  And the thick, almost-oversized key has gone a long way toward my own peace of mind when I lock the doors and leave the house.

If you are looking to beef up security for (comparatively) not a lot of moolah, this will help do the job!

Thanks for reading!

New Year, New Loan Requirements!

Hello!  The new year is upon us, and I wanted to touch base with you — there are so many new things happening in real estate that many of last year’s presumptions are no longer correct.  For example:  Still think lenders require ten, or even twenty percent down?  Think again!

It has been the better part of a year since my wife and I began looking for our first home.  We offered on a couple of them last year, but nothing panned out.   We have finally found one that we really like, got our offer accepted, and we’re working through executing the contract right now.

I’ve known all along that there are three types of loans (Conventional, FHA, and VA), and because I am not a US military veteran, a VA (or zero-down) loan was out for us.  My lender let us know that we could probably qualify for a conventional loan with just five percent down, but we opted to go with an FHA loan, which requires only 3.5% as a down payment.

For both conventional and FHA loans, primary mortgage insurance (PMI) is required when the loan-to-value (or LTV) ratio of the mortgage is greater than 80%.  This means that PMI is required until you pay enough to have 20% equity in the home.  Well, as of last Thursday, FHA has said that it will drop the PMI rate requirement from 1.35% of the loan’s value to 0.85%.  According to my lender, this is going to save us nearly $140 a month on our total mortgage payment — an extra $1,680 per year in our pockets. What luck!

Since this is our first home together (a nice town home in Falls Church), we are below the maximum $625,500 property value limit for an FHA loan in Fairfax County.  We are anticipating the possibility of having to bump our closing date because FHA expects a glut of people to cancel their current loan applications and apply for new ones to take advantage of the lower PMI rate for their clients.  Heck, if the timing hadn’t been so lucky, I would’ve too.  If you are in this position, please be patient with the process.

Also, we locked our interest rate at 3.25% APR for a 30 year fixed — almost free money for a home.  Interest rates are down again, and lenders are trying to make homes more affordable as the economy sees a return to relative normalcy.  If this makes you take another look at whether or not you are ready to buy a home, PLEASE give me a call at 630.306.3537, or email me at jeff.grana@gmail.com.  I will put you in touch with one of the best lenders I’ve met in the industry (if you haven’t contacted one already), and I can even put dream listings in your email box on a regular basis.  You’ll get access to listings weeks earlier than you’ll find them on Zillow or Trulia.

Have a great week, and we will talk again soon!

Jeff Grana, Realtor with The Hardman Team Realty

Interest Rates Are Rising! What Does That Even Mean?

Our inventory here in Fairfax County has remained steady for the last little while…February numbers aren’t quite out yet, but January stayed about the same as December did.  Click here for a link to the graphs.  But the bigger story here is the rise in interest rates over the past few months…take a look at the difference from 3.5% (where rates were six months ago) to 4.5% (where they are now):

3.5%

4.5%

   Since the average “Sold” price of a home in our county was $491,144 last month (down 2.41% from last year at this time), I picked a nice, round number  to illustrate the difference between the rates.  With a  mortgage of $495K, you will 3.5% on the left — a monthly payment of $2,738.40 — and on the right, you’ll notice it has jumped to $3,023.72.  That’s only one percent on your loan payment, yet payments on the same house have jumped by $285.32 each month.  Basically, an it will cost you another $3,423.84 per year to live in your house — and that’s assuming fair credit and zero down payment.  

The point I am making is that the longer you wait to buy a place, the less “place” you will be able to afford.  Do you want to be renting for another five years, or paying that same money toward a home of your own?

Well, That Was Short-Lived…

It’s just past mid-January, and the latest numbers for the market here in Fairfax County indicate something pretty different than they indicated last month:  We have dropped from roughly nine to ten weeks weeks of inventory back near the turn of the New Year, to right around 6 weeks right now.  

This is a pretty significant number here in Fairfax County, but I suppose it’s no surprise from an economic standpoint.  The Washington, DC Metro area (or “DMV,” for “DC, Maryland and Virginia”) has fully six of the nation’s 10 wealthiest counties, according to Forbes.  The environment that the DMV has afforded for educated people to find work is not just one of necessity, but one of real opportunity, with many options to find your way into upward mobility.  A map of foreclosures in Fairfax County over the past year will also illustrate (somewhat predictably) that the areas with the lowest foreclosure rates are indeed areas where the wealthiest people live.  The fact that the DMV is growing so rapidly has continued to be the greatest factor in keeping inventories here so low.  Fairfax County alone grew an average of 10,000 people per year from 2000 – 2010, according to the latest census.  That means we are at least 30,000 residents bigger just since the last information came in!

At any given point in time, at least 25% of you out there are in the process of moving, or are thinking about moving within the next six months.  If you need to find a new apartment, a new home, a new(to-you) home, I can probably help you get that taken care of.  Summer is rapidly approaching, and now is the time to get your Realtor out to your home for an expert opinion about how to help you get the most money for your home when the time comes to sell it.  If you live in Northern Virginia, I can help you personally to get this done; if you live in DC or Maryland, I have a network of trusted professionals at my fingertips.  And if you live elsewhere in the United States — it doesn’t matter where — I can help you find a Realtor that will take care of you as well as I would, if you lived here.  I know the questions to ask, the behaviors and attitudes to look for, and how to tell if someone is an expert in their market, or just faking it.  Let me know how I can help!

Don’t keep me a secret.  I am here and at your service!

Have a great week!

— J — 

Inventory Is Finally Rising!

The tides are slowly turning, homeowners.  The latest market trend numbers are in, and inventory in the Northern Virginia area is beginning to rise.  Inventory is up nearly 67% over the six weeks we maintained during the summer months, to right around ten weeks.  So what does this mean?

Well, for starters, the median sold price for homes in our area have risen about three and a half percent over this time last year, to $401,000.  Some places are still seeing 10% growth in equity as we enjoy an influx of new people to the DMV (that’s Dulles/Maryland/Virgina) area, but this is the exception rather than the rule.  New residents have kept demand high for a supply that has remained low all year.  Average days on the market is 43 days (a 12% drop from last year), and homes are closing with an average sales price of about 97% of what they originally listed for.  Click this link for more info on the NoVA area’s trends.     

It is traditionally uncommon to find an area’s inventory to rise like this in the middle of the winter months; most folks will wait until the summer time to list their home for various reasons.  It’s easier to move when it isn’t snowing or sleeting, for one.  Best to wait for the kiddies to finish out their school year before relocating them, for another.  Nevertheless, this means that homeowners who want to try to ride this current “Sellers’ Market” wave will need to move quickly.  Remember, as inventory (or “supply”) increases, buyers will have more options to choose from.  This will remove a seller’s ability to demand (and get) no closing cost assistance to the buyer, and when supply rises enough, it could eliminate the “multiple offer, gone-in-a-week” occurrences that are commonplace now.

Contact me if you would like to list your home in the Northern Virginia area; I always have time to help you and your family and friends, and I am continually grateful for the opportunity to.  The time to act is now, before a glut of new homes hits the market in the spring!

 

 

This message brought to you by Jeff Grana, a member of The Hardman Team at Tunell Realty, LLC.  Virginia Licensed Realtor # 0225 404546.

Follow Up!

As a licensed Realtor in the state of Virginia, I work very hard to make my clients happy with their home-buying or -selling experience.  I work to be forthright and timely with news, thoughtful with my closing gift choices, and dead-on accurate when it comes to negotiations and pricing strategy.  Over time they begin to see that I can be trusted to work in their best interest at all times, and I hope that they are so impressed with me that they would feel comfortable referring me to their friends and family.  One thing I really enjoy about being a Realtor is the ability to help family and friends with their sale or purchase.  It’s just an easy atmosphere in the car when you’re cruising down the road to look at homes, and have so much in common already that the awkward silences just don’t happen much, if at all.  

It broke my heart yesterday afternoon to find out that the second Realtor I found for an old friend of mine in Oklahoma didn’t do a very good job rounding out the deal.  (We had to fire the first one because of a lack of follow-through on their part.)  The second Realtor seemed to click with my friend pretty well at first, but once the house was under contract, my buddy told me, “It seemed pretty clear to me that it was ‘on to the next one’.”  He also thought her closing gift completely missed the mark; I don’t remember what all was included, but he was not at all interested in the Spearmint candy-cane-scented hand soap.  He told me he was frustrated because, “She didn’t do half the job I know you would have done for me.”

Here’s the thing:  He wouldn’t have volunteered this information to me if I hadn’t checked back on how his experience went.

It frustrates me that this happened because I take personal responsibility for every referral I give to somebody — and that includes anything:  Service at restaurants, veterinarians (for my fellow pet owners), Realtors, car dealers…all of those people are people I expect an exemplary level of service from, as I work hard to provide it for their referrals (read: their clients, family, and friends).  You may not be a Realtor, but the providers that you refer your family to reflect back on you, so be careful and selective when you refer someone.  Your family and friends will appreciate it, and if they did have a bad experience, they will appreciate your concern and gladly give you feedback.  Conversely, unless you follow up, you may never know that your own reputation is taking a beating because of someone else’s bad service.

Northern Virginia Metro Area Tries To Keep Up With Housing Demand

Home prices in the Northern Virginia area have continued to rise, despite the rise in interest rates and the recent government shutdown.  One by-product of the interruption in government services was that many deals fell apart because buyers couldn’t get FHA or VA financing in time to meet their deadlines, and there are many other ancillary services to a real estate deal which rely on help from the public sector to get done — many of those had to wait as well.

Out inventory here still remains stubbornly low — just shy of 9 weeks — but that is a small rise from the 6- and 7-weeks’ worth we carried all through the summer.  The DC metro area is definitely a little world all its own in that respect.  

 

My business has personally seen that there are buyers all over the place, while people tend to be staying put, and less likely to list.  Again, this area is significantly insulated from the rest of the country, and we are in the middle of the President’s last term.  We will undoubtedly see a rise in inventory in the year preceding the next election in 2016, because so many in this town are directly affiliated with one political party or another, or their line of work is beholden to the spending policies of the party in power.  

As it stands now, however, the DC Metro area is growing at a pretty fast clip, as this WashPost article will illustrate.  Supply And Demand 101 — too many buyers, not enough sellers.  Hence, low inventory levels and rising prices.  All of this is complicated by the fact that Fairfax County is seeing the construction of the Silver Line nearing completion, which will parallel the Orange Line and head out to Dulles International Airport.  The four stops at Tyson’s Corner will further bring business and commercial real estate investment, and rent and real property prices in Tyson’s will rise significantly because of it.  (For a little perspective, the blue is the Potomac River.  The central circle of rails that you see is the DC metro area with Maryland to its north and east.  The Northern Virginia metro area is shown on the west side of the map, across the river and currently served by the Yellow, Blue, Orange, and Silver Lines.  I live about a mile from the Orange Line’s Dunn Loring station.)  

 

Things are getting crazy around here!  Have a great week!