Home sellers and buyers in Northern Virginia have felt the pain of the HVCC, the Home Valuation Code of Conduct. These new guidelines (May, 2009) dictate how real estate appraisals are conducted for all mortgage loans that will be sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Government insured loans such as FHA or Veterans Administration (VA) have not Continue Reading
Local Stories
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.
New Infill Homes in Vienna, Virginia
Infill development has been going on in Vienna real estate for a long time. But infill development typically happens in communities where vacant lots exist, and there really aren’t any vacant lots left around Vienna, Virginia. In the past decade Vienna builders have actively acquired homes built in the 1950’s to tear down, and I have been the Continue Reading
Refinancing a Virginia home has a special tax exemption…
Last week I attended a conference at George Mason University where a number of economists discussed many real estate related topics. One panelist, Dr. Frank Nothaft who is the Chief Economist of Freddie Mac, commented how mortgage rates are at almost 50 year lows and are probably going to remain low for the next 6-12 months. So if that Continue Reading
Keeping Vienna’s Northside Park free of invasive plants.
The Town of Vienna Parks and Recreation Department is seeking volunteers on Saturday, September 26th to help identify and remove invasive plants in Northside Park. As in most suburban areas across the country, non-native plants are growing out of control and impacting the natural environment for native plant species. The Northside Park Invasive Continue Reading
Closing the Capital Beltway on Friday night?
Dealing with traffic is a fact of life in Northern Virginia and there is one intersection on the Capital Beltway that is the heart of three major projects. It is the Tysons Corner interchange in McLean where I495 meets Route 123... which is the heart or nucleus of the area. The construction of the HOT lanes, Metro Silver Line, and widening of Continue Reading
Upcoming Changes to Conforming Loan Limits
UPDATE: For 2011 Conforming Loan limits for Northern Virginia, click here. Original Post: This is a post of special interest to many of us in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. I was in a NVAR Finance Forum meeting discussing the Economic Summit and Sweth started to talk about the upcoming expiration of the current $ 729,750 conforming Continue Reading
Tell me about the crime rate in Fairfax County?
Last weekend I met with an interested buyer to discuss a listing of mine, and he looked me in the eye and asked me, "how is the crime rate in the neighborhood?" I can understand his reason for asking the question because I certainly would not want to move my wife and children into a crime plagued neighborhood either. But asking a salesman who is Continue Reading
A sick home seller strategy…
This is an angle that many real estate agents have yet to discuss with their seller clients because it may sound a little harsh. Some subjects like current market activity, reductions in asking or list price, keeping the house clean, proper staging, repainting, repairing, de-cluttering, re-carpeting, curb appeal, sanitizing, lighting, scenting, Continue Reading
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