I often get emails from people who are thinking about relocating to Vienna Virginia, where I live and work, asking me questions like what is available in certain price ranges. They also ask about long-term value or eventually converting to an investment property. It is easy to understand these questions after looking at homes on Continue Reading
Your Earnest Money Deposit
Understanding the importance of the Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) in a real estate offer is always an interesting conversation with home buyers. How much should it be? Where does the money go? Essentially the EMD is money that gets deposited into an Escrow Account if your real estate offer is accepted, or gets "ratified" by both parties. In Continue Reading
A Pothole for Virginia Home Buyers
Every year I get involved in a few real estate transactions where the agent on the other side of the transaction is doing "limited" work. It is perfectly legal to be a Limited-Services Agent in Virginia, but home buyers should understand what this means for their buyer agent... at least from my perspective. When I started as a real estate Continue Reading
The New Home Timeline
A new home builder in Vienna asked me recently when he should expect home buyers to decide to buy his spec homes. My answer was, "as soon as you get the HardiPlank siding up, metal roof on the porch, and front door on." Based on my experience with new home buyers in this niche market, they want to see a spec about 80% done before they'll decide Continue Reading
About all those Realtor forms…
Believe it or not, a lot of Realtor forms were updated on July 1, 2012 to comply with updated rules and regulations approved in April by the General Assembly of Virginia. Yes, Richmond. You know, where the laws are made for the Commonwealth of Virginia. As a consumer protection, real estate agents are required to have a license and report to the Continue Reading
Afraid of Delaying your Closing?
Real estate sales involve a dozen or so people who can easily derail the process. Your objective, when you are buying a home, is to avoid being that weak link that may be delaying closing and adding additional stress. I like to categorize one role of a buyer's agent as a transaction manager helping you stay on track. In 2012, the delayed Continue Reading
The Final Walk Through Inspection
Having a final walk through prior to going to settlement on a house is customary in Northern Virginia real estate, and I recommend that clients do this once the seller has moved all their stuff out of the house. Basically, the objective is to make sure that the house is in the same condition as when you agreed to buy it, that anything included in Continue Reading
Was it Real Estate Stats Day?
As I read Corey Hart's blog post about Phoenix real estate values and the wacky statistical report posted on Trulia, I started to hear news reports just released about the Washington DC regional real estate market. To dig a little deeper, I looked at a subscription service called RBI which is produced by a division of MRIS. They generate better Continue Reading
Where is my House Survey?
Twice in the past month I have sat with clients at closing and they asked, "where is the house survey?" The house location survey is an accurate drawing of the property that will show the corners, fences, driveway, house, shed, deck, or patio and include some very important measurements. Your lender doesn't require it In my twenty one years as Continue Reading
Getting a Closing Costs Credit?
It isn't unusual for a home buyer to ask the seller, in their written offer, to give a specific dollar credit at closing to pay some of the buyer's closing costs. And with mortgage folks favoring 20% down payments then that credit can really help with the other typical closing expenses. Does your offer? Offering to pay some of the buyer's Continue Reading
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- …
- 18
- Next Page »