The 9 Silly Things Sabotaging Your Home Sale

Avoid making these nine silly mistakes when you sell and your home will look amazing.

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Today I have a list of nine silly things that can sabotage your home sale. Are you doing any of these?

1. Visible cords. Mounted flat screen televisions sometimes have cords hanging behind them. When the television is flushed and you cannot see the cords, your home will show much better. 

2. Unkempt yards. Always have your yard properly maintained. 

3. A dingy front door. Since it is the first thing that potential buyers see when they walk up, make sure that your front door is clean and freshly painted. 

4. Pets. You may want to send your animals to stay with someone, or at least crate them, while you are showing your home. Either way, you must keep them away and address potential odors they may have left in your home. 

5. Cobwebs. Knock out all the old cobwebs and clean any filters. This shows that you are properly maintaining your home. 

Since it is the first thing that potential buyers see when they walk up, make sure that your door is clean and freshly painted.

6. Furniture arrangement. Use your furniture the right way and stage it properly. We are really good at helping with this. 

7. Junk drawers. When you are showing your house, a lot of people will be looking into your drawers and cabinets. Make sure that they are clean and tidy. 

8. Closets. Clean and organize your closets and having nothing on the floors. This makes them look big, which is important because people care a lot about closet space. 

9. Countertops. Remove the clutter from your countertops to make it fresh and open. This makes a kitchen seem a lot bigger.

If you have any additional questions about this or are interested in buying or selling, please feel free to reach out to me. I look forward to speaking with you soon.

4 Factors That Add the Most Value to Your Home

If you plan on selling your home in the near future, here are the four biggest factors that can add value to it.

Buying in Northern Virginia?  Get a Full Home Search Here

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If you plan on selling your home in the next couple years, what can you do to build equity in it? There are four factors that contribute the most when it comes to adding value to your home.

The first factor is the condition of your kitchen and bathrooms. If these two areas are outdated, most buyers nowadays won’t want to put in the work to update them. They want to see newer kitchens and bathrooms. I just recently remodeled my kitchen, and I think it added some great value to my house. 

The second factor is whether you can add square footage to the home. Coming from an appraisal standpoint, adding square footage is one of the best things you can do. That’s what appraisers look at the most. 

Pay attention to these four factors when it comes to adding value to your home.

The third factor is curb appeal. What’s the outside of the home look like? Are you getting the exterior power-washed? Does the landscaping looking good? 

The final factor is the overall condition of the house. Are there a lot of dings in the drywall? Does the paint show well? Does the staging look good? I recommend having a handyman pay a visit a couple times a year to perform the random knickknack tasks that you either don’t want to do or don’t have time to do and make sure the condition of the home stays in good shape. 

If you have any questions about this topic, use the question box at the top of this blog to shoot me a message. I’d be happy to help! 

How Long Will It Take to Sell Your House?

How long will it take your house to sell? It depends on these six factors.

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How long does it actually take to sell a house?

According to Realtor.com, the average number of days on market throughout the United States is about 65 right now. However, there are some different factors I usually tell people about that will determine this number:

Location is the biggest factor in determining how long it takes a home to sell.

1. Location: How close you are to a main street in your town or a major transportation hub like the metro system will play a huge role.
2. Price: You obviously don’t want to overprice your house because there will be a smaller buyer pool looking at it. You could also run into appraisal issues down the road.
3. Season: The market can change with the season, like if we get slammed with snow over the holidays or it gets very hot in the summer.
4. Inventory: What’s it like in your neighborhood? I’ve seen neighborhoods with no houses for sale (which is great) up to neighborhoods with so many houses for sale that I’ve had to tell sellers to wait it out a bit.
5. School districts: A lot of people go on school rating websites to see about schools in the area and how they rank.
6. Walkability: Is the house somewhere where you can walk to Starbucks or Trader Joe’s? Some neighborhoods have much better walkability than others, but some buyers also don’t care as much about this.

These are typically the factors that determine how long a home will take to sell in the northern Virginia market. If you have any questions for me or you’re thinking about buying or selling a home in the area, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I’d be glad to help.

Should You Wait Until Next Spring to List Your Home?

Should you put your home on the market this fall or wait until spring? There are five reasons why fall is actually a great time to sell your home.

Buying in Northern Virginia?  Get a Full Home Search Here

Selling in Northern Virginia? Get a Free Home Value Report Here

Should you sell your home now or wait until next spring? 

There are a few points I want to share with you about that, but I briefly want to mention this great book I am reading by John Maxwell called Leadership Promises for Every Day, which is about how to be a great leader. 

Now, should you wait until spring to sell? I would say no. There are a few reasons why fall is actually a great time to sell your home: 

1. You will face less competition now than you will in the spring. Since everyone waits for spring to list their property, there is low housing inventory during the winter. Typically in Northern Virginia, we don’t get very harsh winters, so listing your home now is actually a great way to get ahead of all the competition that will come on the market in the spring. 

2. Interest rates may rise soon. The Fed has been talking about raising interest rates in the coming months. They will meet again sometime before the end of the year to discuss just that. Now is a good time to get your home on the market because rates are so low for buyers. Any time interest rates go up, buyers’ purchasing power decreases, which ultimately limits the number of people who can afford to purchase your home. 

Homes actually sell faster in the fall and winter than they do in the spring.

3. You will capture the job transfer market by listing in the fall. People who are getting transferred need to buy a home before January 1st. In order to capture that market, you need to list now. 

4. Statistics show that homes actually sell faster in the winter than they do in the spring.  

5. There are more serious buyers in the fall and winter. There are a lot of buyers out there during the spring, but many of them are just looking around and exploring the market. People who look at properties during the winter are very serious about purchasing a home. Think of it this way: they want to buy a home before the holidays just as much as you want to sell your home before the holidays. 

As you can see, there are many reasons why fall is actually a good reason to put your home on the market. If you have any questions about preparing your home for the market, give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you! 

6 Ways to Improve the Value of Your Northern Virginia Home

Buying in Northern Virginia?  Get a full home search here

Selling in Northern Virginia? Get a free home value report here

There are six main ways that you can add value to your current home:

1. Update the kitchen. This is one thing home buyers are always looking for. You don’t have to go crazy, but touching up the little things like new appliances and countertops can go a long way because the kitchen is the first room that most people look at.
2. Improve the landscaping and curb appeal. There are plenty of things you can do here, from trimming the bushes, to planting new trees, or hiring a company to make your lawn look nice and green.
3. Remodel any half bathrooms. Since this usually only costs anywhere from $3,000 to $5,000, it makes it one of the cheaper ways to add value to your home.
4. Remove any wood paneling or popcorn ceilings. These simply aren’t in style anymore, and buyers like to see that it’s already been taken care of so they don’t have to worry about removing it themselves.
5. Allow as much natural light in as possible. Look for new blinds and shades that can make the rooms more open and airy.
6. If the basement is unfinished, finish it! When appraisers are out doing their thing appraising property, they’re mainly looking for bedrooms, bathrooms, and finished square feet. Naturally, finishing what hasn’t been finished yet will add value to your property in their eyes.

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Appraisers are looking for bedrooms, bathrooms, and finished square feet.

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If you have any questions regarding any of this, shoot me an email or give me a call. I’d be more than happy to give you advice, even if you’re not selling your home and just want to add some value to it.

Get a Second Opinion on Your Zestimate

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Selling in Northern Virginia? Get a free home value report here

People have been asking me more and more questions about their Zillow Zestimate and what it means. They want to know what I think about it. Well, there was a recently article posted on inman.com that is quite telling. The article pointed out that when the Zillow CEO went to sell his home recently, it sold for 40% less than the home’s Zestimate. If the CEO’s value is off by that much, how much might yours be off by?

A Zestimate is an algorithm Zillow uses that is mainly based on tax records and past sales. It’s not very accurate, because they don’t know anything about your home’s upgrades, what your neighborhood is like, and the demand for homes in your area. There are a lot of different micro-markets in Northern Virginia. You need your valuation to be as accurate as possible.

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A Zestimate is just an algorithm.

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If you really want to know what your home is worth, we can come out to your property to do a no-cost, no-obligation home valuation. We’ll look at your upgrades as well as all the recent comps in the area so we can give you the most accurate home valuation possible.

If you have any questions for us, don’t hesitate to reach out by giving us a call or sending us an email. We would love to hear from you.

3 Tips for Springtime Sellers in Northern Virginia

Buying in Northern Virginia?  Get a full home search here

Selling in Northern Virginia? Get a free home value report here

Today, I’ll cover three of the best tips to sell your Northern Virginia home this spring.

• Amp up the curb appeal. Especially with mobile phones and buyers driving around neighborhoods, curb appeal has never been more crucial. Hire a professional landscaping company to freshen up your front lawn. That’s the first thing buyers see and determine whether or not they want to see the inside of your home.
• Fix it and don’t forget it. Home inspectors go through your home for about four or five hours and address any repairs. Take a tour of your home, potentially with a local handyman, and inspect for repairs. Fix them ahead of time! They’ll come up later in the home inspection.
• Market like you mean it. Because of competition, hire a professional to market your property. We know how to sell for top dollar! Don’t miss out.

If you’re thinking about buying or selling in the surrounding area, give me a call or email. I’d be happy to serve your local real estate needs and answer any questions you may have!

Can a Short Sale Benefit You?

Northern Virginia is an ideal location with an excellent variety of homes that are situated within a vibrant real estate market. If you to want to look over all the properties currently listed within the area, go here to perform a full home search, or if you're interested in seeing how much your property is worth, click here for a free home value report. For any other questions regarding your property's value or the market conditions of Northern Virginia, do not hesitate to call Chris at (703) 485-1435.

Hello everyone, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all! We want to say thanks to all of our wonderful friends and clients for making us the thirtieth ranked RE/MAX agents in Virginia! We're really proud of that and are thankful for your continued support.

Today, we're going to focus on something we get asked about a lot: short sales. What are they? How do they work? Could having one benefit you? Hang tight and we'll answer all of those questions for you.

Typically, a short sale is when someone owes less on their home than what the home is actually worth and the homeowner asks the bank to accept a lower offer for the property. They can take a long time to do, but we've done around 100 of them, so we have a great deal of experience. On the other hand, you can often get a great deal when buying a short sale property because the bank will accept a lower offer.

In short: if you're selling, a short sale is a good way to avoid foreclosure and take less of a hit to your credit score. If you're buying, you can often get a great deal on a home if it has undergone a short sale. It's just another option in the world of real estate that can benefit the parties involved.

If you have any interest in buying or selling a short sale property, don't hesitate to reach out to us. We are experts when it comes to this process and we would love to help!