Doug Francis | Real Estate

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The following is an archive of my articles about builders, strategies, home inspections, financing, painting, staging, tips, and skills. Start reading and you can search the archive anytime.

Should We Refinance the Mortgage?

By Doug Francis

Refi Commitment Letter

I don't usually ask for your comments right in the first sentence, but I have been talking to many clients, friends and neighbors about refinancing their home mortgage these days. And the stories have been fascinating especially since fixed rates are near 4.0% or less. When I originally wrote the post about Virginia's recordation tax exeption Continue Reading

Filed Under: Blog, Refinance Tagged With: McLean, mortgage, Refinancing, Vienna Virginia

Fire Safety at Home

By Doug Francis

As I sat reading The Washington Post with my fresh cup of coffee about a dozen years ago, I came across an article about a townhouse fire in Falls Church VA on Dominion Way. It had been the evening before, and I thought about the fact that some of my real estate clients lived on Dominion Way. "Jeepers, I wonder if they saw the fire?" I Continue Reading

Filed Under: Blog, Living Here Tagged With: 22101, 22180, 22182, Falls Church Virginia, town house, Vienna Virginia, Washington Post

House Hunting Fiction?

By Doug Francis

Frreman House along W & OD Bike Trail Vienna VA

I have joked for years with home buyer clients about watching too many episodes of HGTV's House Hunters, and that our home search isn't going to include a film crew (read an actual client comment). Most of them recall an episode or two, or how they seem to look at three homes and buy one of them paying market price. Well I almost fell over Continue Reading

Filed Under: Blog, Featured Posts, Home Buyer Tips Tagged With: buyer agent, doug francis, House Hunter, Northern Virginia, Washington Post

Walking4Dads | 2010 National Memory Walk

By Doug Francis

2010 National Memeory Walk small logo

AN UPDATE: Thank you for all of your support. The walk was fantastic and there were over 2,000 participants. Our little team, Walking4Dads, raised over $2,600 as of 10/8/2010. You can still donate until November 30th to help reach the Alzheimer's Association goal. They are now 50% there! Original post On Saturday October 2nd, 2010 at Continue Reading

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: doug francis, Nationals Park, Vienna Virginia

Vienna Real Estate is a Top Location

By Doug Francis

Freeman House on Church Street in Vienna Virginia

As Northern Virginia continues to become a center for corporations to move their headquarters, relocating employees are confronted with the decision of where to live. The list of concerns includes housing prices, types of homes available, commuting time to work, access to the Metro system, proximity to shopping and recreation, schools, friends and Continue Reading

Filed Under: Blog, Home Buyer Tips, Living Here Tagged With: 22180, 22181, 22182, home buyer, real estate, Vienna Virginia, Vienna VA Real Estate, vienna va real estate agent

Replace those brass-toned light fixtures!

By Doug Francis

Home sellers need to take a close look at the light fixtures in their homes when they are preparing to go on the market. Those brass-tone or gold-tone fixtures that the builder put in the hallways, bathrooms and walk-in closets were probably the cheapest things he could find. Home lighting is very important and can't be overlooked. Those Continue Reading

Filed Under: Blog, Home Seller Tips Tagged With: Home Seller Tips, real estate, technology, Vienna Virginia

Another Short Sale Road Block

By Doug Francis

Yes, even in swanky Vienna, VA there are real estate short-sales. As the process has been allowed to pickle over the last few years, banks have come up with strategies to streamline the process. That sounds like good news but I still have to advise home buyers that these are tricky transactions that will require patience and some hard work. I Continue Reading

Filed Under: Blog, Home Buyer Tips Tagged With: buyer agent, short-sale, Vienna Virginia

Not just another real estate search site

By Doug Francis

As I was doing some dougfrancis.com performance maintenance over the summer, I started reading through some of the older blog posts deep inside this blog. Part of my effort was to clean up issues that Google Webmaster Tools told me were causing Crawl errors... but, anyway, it forced me to read through some of my older blog posts. This little Continue Reading

Filed Under: Blog, Video Blogs Tagged With: 22180, Home Seller Tips, real estate, Vienna Virginia

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“Doug nailed it! Within days, we had three offers, one of which not only met, but far exceeded all of our goals.”
– R. Pollard

“He truly was a partner integrating us unto the community and made it easy for us to take advantage of all Vienna has to offer.”
– A. D’Eredita

“We are so thankful we found Doug to guide us through the complex home selling and buying processes!”
– Scott and Jennie

About Doug Francis

I am a Realtor with TTR Sotheby's International Realty® just outside Washington D.C. in Northern Virginia. I'm licensed in Virginia with a focus on Vienna, VA real estate since 1991.

That deep knowledge is valuable, especially in today's fast-paced market where advice is critical. Although many of my clients are personally referred, I am available to help you too and am accepting new clients right now.

Feel free to contact me at 703-304-6827 or email me at doug@dougfrancis.com anytime!

Thank you for electing me to the Vienna Town Council!

Doug Francis was elected to the Vienna Town Council

Doug Francis is a Vienna Town Councilmember

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Contact

Doug: (703) 304-6827

TTR Sotheby's International Realty
6723 Whittier Avenue McLean, VA 22101

Office: 703-319-3344

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Vienna Real Estate Guide

Note from Legal…

My clients deserve my undivided loyalty and priority scheduling. Therefore, I exclusively serve buyers and sellers with whom I have signed representation agreements.

Click to check out my past sales!

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