A home in Vienna, Virginia | Doug Francis via Flickr

For many folks, as the clock strikes 2012, careful plans to sell their home or to buy one go into action. Setting new goals is an important way of improving your life and making each new year more meaningful than the last. Our lives are short and knowing that you are personally responsible for the life you lead right now (this instant) can be an awakening. Owning a home can be an important pillar of that plan.

A 2012 real estate resolution?

If you have made a real estate resolution for 2012 then here are some of my top tips for both sellers and buyers.

Top 5 home seller tips:

• Minimize – Even if you live in a grand mansion, you want your home to appear as spacious as possible. Some common themes include removing a chair from the living room, clearing off the kitchen counters, or taking 30% of your clothes out of every closet.
• Paint – A fresh coat of paint can really transform a room at a very low cost. Instead of the white that we used to recommend, using a classic color that is in style will appeal to today’s picky home buyer.
• Flooring – Nothing will turn off a buyer faster than flooring that’s in poor condition. Most hardwood floors can be refinished or super-cleaned (even 50 year old hardwoods). Carpets can be swapped out in a day. And vinyl floors cab be replaced.
• Landscaping – Home buyers started to assess your home as they pull up, so you want to make sure your yard, plantings, driveway and front door are looking their best. Handles, door knockers, doorbells and front a mat all set the stage for what they see next.
• Appliances – Home buyers look closely at kitchens, and seeing an old range, fridge or dishwasher can be a deal breaker. Laundry machines, hot water heaters and AC units are systems that are factored in when making a decision to buy one home over another.

Top 5 Home Buyer Tips

• Price Range – Your mortgage lender will pre-approve you for a maximum price range, but it is up to you to decide how much you really want to spend.
• Long-term Needs – Buying or selling a house is expensive, so it is essential to consider what your situation will be like in five years. Will you have children, be retiring from your job, or relocating out of the area? Any of these factors need to be calculated into making your home selection today.
• Quick Decisions – Being able to make decisions quickly can especially help you in the active Northern Virginia real estate market. Get to know the sales contract and the process for putting in an offer quickly when you find a home that fits your needs.
• Flexibility – Your willingness to compromise will help you be successful. For example, buyers looking at Vienna VA homes often make a compromise on smaller homes because of pricing and commuting times.
• Teamwork - This process will easily involved fifteen important people who are all working on deadlines, and each can easily disrupt the flow of the process. Online home searching is the easy part of the process. You should view your real estate agent as the project manager helping you understand your options, meet deadlines, be a resource and ultimately achieve your goal of buying a home.

If you have made a resolution for 2012 to buy or sell a home in Vienna, VA or virtually most of Northern Virginia, you can start be meeting me here on my blog and then having me over to see your home to see what it is worth, or to meet to discuss your plans to buy a home and how I can help achieve your goals. Send me an email at doug@DougFrancis.com and I will follow up from there.

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Okay, we got a problem!

Although every home buyer wants a home inspection, there really isn’t any set criteria to help them know what to expect.

If you are a home buyer, an inspection typically takes place after a contract has been accepted or ratified by you and the seller. There will be a set contingency period when you will hire a professional home inspector to make a visual inspection of the major systems in the house. It is an example of home-schooling because most buyers learn more in three hours than they ever would otherwise.

Your home inspector should provide you with a complete, written report of the systems that he was able to get a look at. It should note how old appliances are, give you an idea on the condition of the home, and make recommendations for repairs or future replacements. Remember, a home inspection can’t possibly catch everything, but keep in mind that you are hiring a “trained eye” who looks critically at homes every day.

I always recommend a couple of good inspectors, but you can easily Google local home inspectors or look on Angie’s List or Yelp. Online reviews are good but you’ll need to contact them and ask a very specific question.

Skipping the photos is a risky shortcut

My easy tip for home buyers: ask your potential inspector if his report will  include digital photos?

It is going to be essential for Northern Virginia home buyers to have thorough reports that provide good documentation including digital photos in their home inspection reports. In my opinion, the new NVAR Regional Sales Contract is going to put greater emphasis on home inspections.

Even if you aren’t working with me, please make sure your home inspector uses a digital camera.

If you are just starting the process of finding a home to buy then check out my Home Buyer Tips , or you send me an e-mail at doug@dougfrancis.com to discuss your plans.

Good home, cheap!

If you are lucky enough to be able to buy a home, I’m sure you are looking for an incredible deal. There hasn’t been a week recently when someone hasn’t mentioned making a lowball offer and how I can help them get a steal deal.

Typical tips are to look for homes that have been on the market for a few months, don’t get emotional, to be ready to walk away from an unresponsive seller, and to make sure your written offer looks professional.

I have seen home buyers make lowball offers on my client’s homes, had their agent call me to tell me the price is too high (usually unsubstantiated), and then get pissed when my seller client told them  “no”. There have been a ton of rookie mistakes, so here are some tips to help put together a better lowball offer.

Are you ready for some insider secrets?

• Make your offer “as-is” – One concern that home sellers have is that the home buyer or home inspector will ask for a bunch of repairs be made prior to closingto the house. Realistically, most homes have issues, so look closely at the house before making your lowball offer taking note of to the overall condition as a key factor. Your offer taking the home “as-is” will give you a strategic negotiating advantage.

• Close on the sale quickly – Home sellers are hoping to get the equity or cash out of the house. If you can go to closing in two weeks then many sellers may jump at your lowball offer. Time is a valuable commodity, and if you possibly let the seller stay in the home for a period after closing then it becomes more appealing.

• Eliminate the Appraisal Contingency – You already know if you can get this home at your price then it’s a deal. Crossing out the need for an appraisal will really raise the bar and increase your chance of acceptance. Appraisals can be an item many sellers are having to sweat out since most media outlets have them believing all appraisals are coming in low.

• Pay Cash – Have you ever heard the expression that “cash is king”? The fact that you don’t need a mortgage is very attractive when making lowball offers because, as we all know, banks often cause delays.  I know one builder who writes up offers as “cash” on Vienna Virginia tear downs but then signs a mortgage at the closing table.

It is very important that you know what a good deal is on the house you hope to buy. An offer considered lowball is sometimes only 10% off the asking price depending on your market. And if your first offer is rejected, then consider making an improved one. You should be doing your research in advance and have the ability to evaluate a home quickly.

It may be like playing poker

One risk that you should be aware of when you make a lowball offer needs to be discussed up front: The home seller could be so insulted with your lowball offer that she may refuse to ever sell her house to you, even if you come back with a 100% offer. I have seen it happen, so don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Related articles

• Personal Finance Daily: Lowball-offer errors home buyers make (marketwatch.com)
• 5 Reasons People Want a House in Vienna (dougfrancis.com)

Image via Wikipedia

There isn’t anything worse than waiting for an answer.

Yes or No. Come on man, just let me know!

The tip that I give my Northern Virginia real estate clients is to respond to any type of offer quickly, and to take every one seriously. Speed is very powerful when negotiating.

In real estate, a quick response is powerful

If that answer is too vague and you need just a little more structure, then maybe these guidelines will help:

• in by 10:00 a.m then respond by noon
• in by 1:00 p.m. then respond by 5:00 p.m.
• in after 6:00 p.m. then waiting until 9:00 a.m. is okay (you can sleep on it)
• Communicate if there is a delay… and stick to that time frame

Problems happen when an offer comes in and then one party doesn’t respond back in a reasonable amount of time. In the Cold War days, it was acceptable to be a slow responder like if you were behind the Iron Curtain or if you were on the QE2 sailing to Sydney.

Here is the warning: When the submitting party has to wait,  festering begins. Are they “shopping my offer?” they ask. Are they using it to “leverage some other offer?” they ask. “Did they even get our offer?” they ask. Recently, clients negotiating on a house in Vienna broke off negotiations because the seller was dragging his feet and they, justifiably, were insulted.

Today it is just too easy to respond quickly using secure digital signatures on any laptop or iPad. A few years ago I started to use DocuSign after a client couldn’t fax his paperwork to me from Austin. This service alone has helped my clients respond quickly in competitive situations, and it actually comes across as much more professional considering so many companies have adopted digital signatures too.

DocuSign uses e-mail to secure your signature and “the cloud” to merge the completed document then delivering it back to me. Even if you are in your office in McLean, it is so easy that you will be able to respond instantly.

Remember, respond to real estate offers quickly for the best results.

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Yes, graded 1 to 10

Are home buyers obsessed with school ratings on real estate web sites?

In 2011 they are!

Most real estate sites now have data on local schools and show ratings from 1-10 on the overall performance (test results) and then give summaries and some parent comments on actual experiences. Take a look at the FranklyMLS site links or Redfin pages for information from GreatSchools.org (which does seem to have plenty of advertising).

Living in Vienna Virginia, my personal experience has been with Fairfax Schools but some of my clients have had children go to Arlington Schools, Falls Church City Schools and Alexandria City Schools with really great results.

If you really want to do your “due diligence” on a particular school so that you can be truly confident that you are buying a home in the best possible neighborhood, then please use these ratings as guides and then check out the school yourself. Fairfax Schools all have web sites now (as every school must have these days) so go and check them out. Investigate the PTA link which probably has after school info or planned events for the year.

Here are my home buyer tips regarding schools:

• Check out the individual school web sites
• Drive by the schools and look at the buildings and location,
• Give a call to the office, and then set up an appointment with the Principal (only 15 minutes)
• Look at PTA activities and events planned on their web site (if they have one)
• Pick out two or three schools and then focus your home search on those communities

So plan to do a little more work than just requiring that the school must have an 8 or above rating because your experience will only be as good as your involvement in your child’s experience.

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Donating Blood at Inova Woodburn Center

The easiest way for you to become part of the Northern Virginia community is to become a regular blood donor. Yes, you can “give back” by spending about an hour of your time in one of the blood donor centers that are set up across the area.

The need: Over 200 units a day

Here are the locations in Northern Virginia (6/2011):

• CentreMed – in Centreville on Route 28
• Woodburn Medical Park – in Fairfax next to Fairfax Hospital
• Dulles Town Center – Sterling
• Inova Mount Vernon Hospital – Alexandria
• Inova Alexandria Hospital – (currently closed due to onsite construction 6/11)

You will also see the Blood Mobile at locations like the Vienna VA Community Center, Tysons Corner and the Reston Town Center.

According to the Inova Blood Donor Services web site, the Washington D.C. area needs over 200 units of whole blood a day to help save lives. And recent studies show that only 37% of the U.S. population is eligible to donate, and of that amount only 5% donate blood on a regular basis.

Only about 5% donate blood regularly

Take a look at the chart and see where your blood type lines up. It is time to make a commitment to help the community and maybe save the life someone you will never meet. Thanks!

Blood Donor Eligibility Requirements

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Local real estate charts and graphs...

One of the most important benefits an experienced real estate agent brings to the table is the ability to recommend an “asking price” to a home seller. Unlike cars, each home is totally unique depending on condition, how it sits on the lot,  location, and many other important factors.

Has the Northern Virginia real estate market stabilized?

The important place to start determining the value of your home is looking at some cold hard facts. Seeing what your neighbor sold their home for can give you some insight when getting a feel for prices. Here is the place to start and providing you with this information just got easier with some new technology that I discovered recently at a conference in Chicago. Now I can send you a report anytime that will show you recently sold homes, active listings and a series of charts and graphs for you to take a look at with a simple e-mail. Get a report now (click here)

I look at this as an excellent starting point for anyone looking to put their home on the market for sale, and then when we meet the time can be spent discussing the value of your home versus the current competition. Determining your home’s value may be very different when comparing McLean to Vienna or Oakton.

My real estate agent “insider tip”

The data is out there!

If you are a seller then you need to know an insider’s tip before you get started. Just a few years ago, I started to meet with home buyers who brought reams of paper to our first meeting which was a big change from the 1990′s. Today’s home buyers have totally tapped into the mountains of home sale data that is available on the Internet feeling confident that it is giving them the “inside edge” when it comes to negotiating.

I have written many articles on how to get your home ready to sell that gives my clients a way to leverage that exposure, get their asking prices or very close to it, and sell it without too much wasted time. Sorry but  there are “for-sale sites” out there that make this look a little too easy and costing sellers time and money!

Don’t you deserve real sales advice?

After spending time recently helping clients get their home ready for the market, I have actually felt the “comps” were too old and that their homes were worth more than the “facts” were telling them. The end results were sales at the higher price point that also appraised without any issues.

Start now with you own neighborhood real estate sales report

If you have any questions please give me a call or send me an e-mail. Often, with a meeting in your home,  I can help refine the pricing data that these reports generate and then put together a plan to sell your home for the most amount possible against the competition.The best contact number is 703-304-6827 or e-mail me at doug@dougfrancis.com .

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Yes, the "First Showing" is Online

When a home buyer decides to look at a home again, agents will call this a “second showing”. Sometimes a third or fourth showing might be needed before a home buyer makes the decision to write up an offer, but it is important for you (Mr./Ms. Home Seller) to understand the new “first showing” concept.

There was a time when real estate agents would ask their clients to describe what they were looking for in a house. Okay, we still ask those questions because we know that everyone isn’t looking for the same exact home to buy. The idea is to get an idea of their style, hot button items or total turn offs. People can typically describe their turn offs without hesitating, but divulging their “likes” to their agent is a challenge. It really isn’t until people see things that they can form a clear picture.

These are the Vienna homes we want to see!

Today’s Home Buyers are totally different because they have already seen most of the houses in the area while sitting in their current home drinking coffee (or tea). Checking out homes online is the new national pastime taking place wherever people can surf the Internet.

Today’s first showing of a house is taking place online, and homes with poor photos suffer and those listings with few or no photos get totally ignored by the majority of the active buyers. So if you are one of today’s home sellers, then know that the buyers who are walking in your door are on their second showing.

My strategy for selling a home in Northern Virginia takes into account what I hear from buyers currently active in the market. If they all were screaming for videos rather than easily skimmed photos then I would probably take videos.

But really, would you sit through a 15 minute video tour? Let me know your thoughts on that…

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The cherry blossoms are soft pink

One of the nice things about living in Northern Virginia is the arrival of springtime. And for the last 100 years, that means the arrival of the Yoshino Cherry blossoms.

The National Cherry Blossom Festival takes place in Washington DC where cherry trees seem to be all over. But the most spectacular site is at the Jefferson Memorial overlooking the Tidal Basin. It is a wonderful place to walk during the two week peak bloom period with spectacular views including the Washington Monument in the background.

Although we plan to go annually, somehow my family doesn’t always make it down… although it is an easy fifteen minute drive from Vienna, VA where we live. It typically takes a house guest to drag us down to appreciate what is right in our back yard.

The history is that President Taft’s wife, Helen, planted the first two Yoshino Cherry trees in 1912 with the wife of the Japanese Ambassador. There were close to 3,000 trees planted and some of the originals still survive today.

U. S. Park Police

Needless to say, the U.S. Park Police keep a very tight lid on traffic as thousands of people arrive daily to take in the sight. If you go early enough, then you may be able to snag one of the few street parking spots. Otherwise, take the Metro to the Smithsonian Station and walk over. You may want to walk over to the FDR Memorial while you are here.

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Image via Wikipedia

Did you enter a specific school into your search criteria and still missed that hot new listing last weekend? Aren’t those “search sites” supposed to make it easy for the consumer you?

So, last weekend I was checking the MRIS database and noticed a Vienna VA real estate listing that didn’t have any schools identified. Since I keep an eye out for my clients, I immediately recognized that it fed into a specific elementary school that some clients really wanted… but there haven’t been any houses available. (really)

Adding school info is optional

To make a long story short, we met up and took a look on Sunday. On Monday we met to put together an offer and beat another offer that also came in on Monday (not on price but an “X-factor“).

Back to the school issue.

Public School information is added by the listing agent in our MLS (MRIS)… only if they choose to. Surprised? Well if you were the seller and knew that the elementary school was highly sought after, then wouldn’t you insist that your real estate agent leverage that fact. Isn’t that why they have SOL tests? Don’t those test scores help increase property values, if you are a buyer?

But my train of thought was interrupted when a Twitter friend responded to my tweet for input yesterday, and tweeted back that she rarely adds school information because, where she works in Fredericksburg VA, they change the boundaries almost every year. Well, there goes my theory about the SOL tests!

Her reasoning is simple: if the school boundaries are changed then the buyers may be upset because their home is no longer in the Harvard ES district. Well then, I guess that I can understand her point because I wouldn’t want that buyer’s lawyer calling me up either.

Another Twitter friend, Jeremy Hart, tweeted back that his MLS in Blacksburg VA requires members to enter the public school information for each house. Well, that make sense to me too.

Home buyers need to do school research themselves

• What County School System is the home in?
• For example, Google “Fairfax County Public School Boundaries”.
• At the school system web site, enter the property address.
• Contact the school if there is a question about changes.

So what are Northern Virginia real estate agents supposed to do? Maybe just list the price, items that convey, add some photos and hope everyone will figure it all out on their own. But what does a real estate agent do about that client who insists on adding “walking distance to Harvard ES” to the listing?

Easy… add a disclaimer: “Information provided is believed to be accurate…”

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