Charging Station outside Petco in Vienna

Over the weekend when I took my dog into the new Petco in Vienna, VA to browse for some new puppy toys, we literally walked right into my first encounter with a car charging station.

I have probably walked by this little power station a dozen times without noticing it, but I am sure that anyone living in Vienna or passing through in an electric car might want to know it is now there.

Where is “there” you ask?

This charging station is located at 225 Maple Avenue East, Vienna, VA 22180 – got that programmed in yet? The service is provided by 350Green and there are instructions on a display screen so you can provide payment.

This handy power station must have been installed when they renovated this building last year, which now has the Petco and a Walgreen’s. My reliable source at Petco told me that he has seen a few Chevy “Volts” and Nissan “Leafs” charging up recently.

It appears that 350Green is building out the infrastructure to providing electric vehicle charging stations.  I also stumpled upon an iPhone App for locating charging stations wherever you are on the road named CarStations.

Related articles

• Pa. Turnpike to get electric car charging stations (mysanantonio.com)
• Charging stations on I-5 due by spring (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Town of Vienna VA Vehicle Tax? (dougfrancis.com)
• Is Your Rambler Obsolete? (dougfrancis.com)
• So your Vienna home still hasn’t sold… (dougfrancis.com)

What a people reading here?

It is always interesting to read back through the old blog stats… okay, it is a little geeky.

Like you, I have read through many blogs about home buying and selling from real estate agents all over the country. Some I like, but most others need some style help. When I started this blog, I really wanted to put my experiences down because they share common experiences that many people are experiencing  in a real estate transactions from Vienna Virginia to San Diego California. And, in 2011, a good number of clients met me online before we met face to face.

Let’s see what they were reading

That’s a good problem for a real estate agent!

At this pint you are seeing the new version as I am rolling it out a getting to look, and feel just the way I wanted. Part of this week I have been changing some things so it may have not been working properly. SORRY!. It has been running in the “Test Drive” mode and the time has come to merge into traffic.

Please, wish me luck!

You may be surprised to know that this little blog really has helped people just like you answer some real estate questions, and get to know me.

Although the geeky tech stuff sounds cool, I understand that the success has come through writing about the real estate business from my perspective in a way that helps you. If I can get it to load faster then I am going to be really happy because it drives me crazy when I have to wait for any site to load.

If a couple things aren’t working, sorry, I’m working on it!

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.

Related articles

• Are School Ratings part of your Home Search? (dougfrancis.com)
• 5 Reasons People Want a House in Vienna (dougfrancis.com)

Of course there are plenty of SM gurus out there who are preaching a very different answer to my question, but I really don’t think they have any idea what it takes to sell a home or the tools that I see actual home buyers using every day. People aren’t hanging on every Tweet mentioning their local real estate market (okay, maybe Realtors are) but Northern Virginia buyers Bob and Mary Beth certainly aren’t.

Bob and Mary Beth are putting in their criteria (see below) and are waiting for an e-mail alert with snappy pics.

Promoting you’re on Facebook or Twitter has become, I dare say, …cliché.

Using Twitter is only one pillar of Social Media strategy

So what will sell your Eudora colonial in that cute suburban cul-de-sac to Bob and MB? The old-fashioned truth is that your home needs to be in excellent condition and priced right. Vienna VA home buyers are looking at online photos of your home on sites such as Homesdatabase, Trulia, Redfin or Zillow only after they have received an e-mailed “alert” from the site. Often on their iPhones during a meeting at work.

And if your house passes that test only then will they show up for an in-person tour.

They aren’t searching for Tweets at #ViennaVARealEstate

Last year I “liked” a Facebook page for a real estate brokerage on Nantucket after stumbling across a post, but the result was a wave of  Facebook spam of hot new listings every thirty minutes. These were people who did not “get” what social media can do for their cause, but were viewing it as a free advertising opportunity to crush the competition. They were missing the point of it all and I promptly “un-liked” them.

About 600 million people, including myself, have found Facebook to be an opportunity to have fun with people from many parts in our lives. I haven’t lived in Vienna my whole life so to reconnect with old friends from Boston or Providence makes me understand that the world is a much smaller place, and that my life is actually pretty normal. (Okay, normal is subjective)

To properly sell your home, get it ready for the market, have great photos online, tell your friends that you are moving, and then the “social internet” will spread the word about your home being on the market. Using Facebook to tell your friends that you are moving to Florida will create the natural conversation about your Vienna house being on the market for sale. The concept here is very different than that of the realty firm on Nantucket… because you are leveraging your social network to help sell your home.

Believe it or not, your friends will be rooting for you to get your home sold.

For more real estate strategies, read my blog some more or send me an e-mail.

Related articles

• Vienna Railroad Fight (markerhunter.wordpress.com)
• Town of Vienna VA Vehicle Tax? (dougfrancis.com)
• Another Vienna VA Real Estate Blogger? (dougfrancis.com)

My blog didn’t happen overnight!

There have been many late nights reading through real estate blogs from Phoenix, Seattle and San Diego (list to the right) to get a handle on what they were doing from a style standpoint, and a technology standpoint. There was a huge learning curve for me especially with WordPress and it became important to keep up with training while producing decent, original real estate content that people would want to read.

Will I ever finish this blog? Probably not… because it has more than just information about Vienna VA real estate

We all need a good teacher... and editor.

Thanks to Dakno Marketing’s Bobby Carroll for his teacher/editor/mentor input recently on dougfrancis.com on his Posterous blog. His company offers a very nice WordPress back-boned SwiftBlog theme package for professionals who want to get noticed on the Internet with a customizable, organized, SEO friendly site. So Bobby is someone I listen to when he makes recommendations.

I mention “content people would want to read” because my goal has been to make this real estate blog readable and informative. Recently when I was in Chicago at an Inman News Conference, I was lucky enough to meet two WordPress gurus (I’ll tell you if you ask) where we discussed the quality and organization needed to keep a reader’s attention. I try…

You have to admit that we are on information overload.

So this isn’t just another Vienna VA real estate blog regurgitating the same old statistics from MRIS thinking that “that” is blogging. Of course you can search for homes on my site or get a free real estate market report, but read through my blog and you will see that I am actually writing about topics that my clients are experiencing ( or the 4th of July fireworks ) so you can be a better real estate shopper.

Related articles

• Adding a Deadline to Your Real Estate Offer (dougfrancis.com)
• Is A School Part of Your Home Search Criteria? (dougfrancis.com)
• Keep Rain Water Draining Away (dougfrancis.com)

There is a stoplight where the W&OD Trail crosses Rt. 123 in Vienna, VA

Northern Virginia home sellers need to understand how current home buyers are searching and finding their next home. In fact, anyone preparing their home to sell can achieve a lot over the next month or two to get their house prepared for those “picky buyers” who will emerge from the “holiday season trance” come 12:01 a.m. on 1/1/11.

My recent blog post on the use of technology including QR Codes (Quick Response) and Smartphone Apps generated some interesting discussions from believers and non believers. Understanding today’s real estate consumer is a challenge because behaviors can change quickly and meeting their expectations is the key to success. And today’s home buyers are starting their searches online at home (or work) but are also doing home searches on the fly using Google driven Android phones, Apple iPhones or iPads.

Northern Virginia home buyers are using the Smartphone apps

Yes, the condo did sell for 99% of the list price to a buyer who found the property online, looked through the clear photos and then called his agent. It was his agent who put together the 26 page NVAR Sales Contract including a Home Inspection Contingency and FHA Addendum. Like I have mentioned before, finding a home is the easy part thanks to the Internet and the search apps out there, but the next step of completing the offer, inspections, appraisal, mortgage, cost estimates and final closing is where having experienced real estate agent adds value.

Here are some tips for Northern Virginia home sellers preparing for the market:

• Use the winter months to complete major projects (at least 30 days)
• Understand the importance of the online photos
• Try a home search online yourself, then load a free app on your Smartphone
• Consult with me as early as possible to develop a plan of action

Most home buyers know the drill of what works online and what isn’t. In my opinion, most Vienna VA real estate buyers aren’t sitting through poor quality YouTube videos where some Realtor is sauntering through a house making off-the-cuff comments like “these are great hardwood floors” and then “this is a great kitchen upgrade”. Or are you? I bet you will look at 30 creative photos but not a 5 minute YouTube clip… Oprah’s house is the exception.

If I was planning to sell my home then I would be paying attention, let’s talk today.

See an interesting mention at Huffington Post in “Around the Web” of this post! (yes, I think it’s cool)

Related articles

• Real Estate Apps meet the Mobile Web (dougfrancis.com)
• House Hunting Fiction? (dougfrancis.com)
• Things You Should Know Before Moving to Northern Virginia (dougfrancis.com)
• Buyer Beware: 6 Types of Sellers Who Don’t Have to Disclose Home’s Flaws (walletpop.com)

Image: Inman News

Having a real estate “app” on your Smartphone has become a great tool for house hunters. The mobile web has arrived like a storm for Northern Virginia real estate and properties need to be easily found… and mobile ready (that especially means photos, darn it).

Here is an example: Using myself as the guinea pig… a current listing is a condo in a gated community in Fairfax, VA. At the gate I placed a Realtor lockbox containing a access “fob” for the gate, plus I added a tag with an easily scan-able QR Code. Get your Smartphone right now and scan the code to the right using one of the free QR reader apps (iPhone , Google Droid, Windows 7 Mobile).

Presto! There is more information, plenty of photos, and a way to contact me if you like what you see. Maybe it is just me, but I think this is what the current crop of Northern Virginia house hunters really wants.

Getting instant real estate info on your Smartphone is perfect

Last summer while looking at some Vienna, VA Real Estate, my clients showed me their favorite real estate apps which were fast, free and really cool. They all seem to show 95% of the same information but it comes down to ease of use and how current the information is… meaning they all don’t update at the same time.

The Apple iPhone winner for them in mobile-web real estate apps was Redfin which is a Seattle, Washington based real estate sales upstart. They felt it was excellent beating out zillow, sawbuck and franklymls. These apps were useful tools that helped them stay on top of the market.

Last week I explored the Realtor.com app for Google Droid-based phones which are quickly gaining market share. Like most apps it uses GPS to locate you, and then displays Nearby Homes for Sale, but now select the Map tab and then select Draw Mode. Using your finger, draw a circle on the map and it will show you homes in that area.

Now that real estate app feature is totally cool

Using Google satellite or bird’s-eye views can also give good insight. Another app that I like is the compass app that let’s you know exactly which direction a home faces.

Let me know your favorite or most useful mobile web / smart phone apps.

Sometimes when you add a blog post or plug in to a WordPress blog, things can get a little out of whack. You add something here or there, and then a plug in doesn’t work well or you tell yourself that you will fix it on Sunday afternoon and you hit the “Deactivate Plug In” button.

So, there was a time when I had Feedburner all set up, highly visible just like the consultants recommend. But one day and I’m not sure when, something happened and it disappeared.

Hey, my Feedburner is back, Jack!

One interesting feature of the modern blog is the RSS capability. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and allows people to subscribe to blogs they like and get the most recent post in their e-mail. You probably have subscribed to a blog related to work or a subject you are interested in (like local real estate) and get e-mails every now and again… that is an RSS feed!

To subscribe to this blog, I have added the Feedburner widget (thanks Google) that is finally going to make it easy for readers to keep up with my Northern Virginia real estate adventures. DougFrancis.com isn’t like all those other real estate agent blogs that regurgitate data and statistics from the MLS… no, no, no. My blog posts are about my day to day experiences like what I am hearing from home sellers, home buyers, mortgage guys, home inspectors, plus tips on buying or selling real estate, funny things that I come across and yes, a way to hunt for your next home through the Internet.

No regurgitation of MLS real estate data here… read, comment and learn

I invite you (even if you are a real estate agent) to subscribe to DougFrancis.com, to make it more interesting by leaving a comment or two, to ask questions and be part of the conversation.

Cheers!

See you at the Vienna VA Halloween Parade !

Related articles

• I Killed My Blog Feed. Mistake or Genius? You Decide (thejourneymom.com)
• It might be a blog hick-up, oops (dougfrancis.com)
• Can Social Media sell my Vienna home? (dougfrancis.com)

Those builder-special light fixtures have to go!

Luckily most replacement light fixtures that you will want to use in your hallways aren’t that expensive at Home Depot or Lowes, but they can really change the look and feel of your house in minutes. Okay, if you don’t know what I am talking about then take a look… is that what you have? Don’t worry, you’re not alone.

Today’s home buyers (at least in Vienna real estate circles) react positively to light fixtures that are dark bronze, silver, or are a neutral accent piece like a pendant light hanging over a kitchen island. If you see a florescent light over your kitchen island then get moving today so you can transform that area. You may not see it now but it will add some real selling “punch”. I have always believed that my role in assisting clients is to merchandise their home for a quick sale at the best price possible. I see home buyer reactions every day, and bring that experience into your home to get your home sold.

Remember, Realtors are merchandisers too!

One recent client in Vienna had a front entry foyer light fixture that was too big and hung too low. Her 1960’s colonial had a hanging lamp from a ceiling that was maybe eight feet tall (I suspect the ceilings were less) and that fixture would hit anyone over 6’1” in the head! When I recommended a replacement fixture she was actually thrilled at the suggestion, and it made a dramatic improvement to the space when it was installed.

Walk-in closets can be totally transformed with new lighting because most builders installed basic flush mounted fixtures like in your hallways. Depending on the size, look into a contemporary track lighting system to throw extra light into the furthest corners of your closet. When I mentioned it to a client last spring he was skeptical, but he was truly amazed how a $40 fixture (like this one) made his closet look bigger. Walk-in closets can be a “wow-moment” for most home buyers so this has an immediate impact. Recent studies show that today’s home buyers will put a premium on closet space so this is one space that requires your attention.

Consider upgrading the light fixture in your kitchen pantry

Home buyers will also be looking closely at your kitchen, so carefully look at the light fixtures here too. If you are lucky enough to have a kitchen pantry with a light fixture, then it may be time to upgrade. If there are under-cabinet lights then make sure all bulbs are working (a must). Some older florescent lights “hum” when they are turned on, and this will be a perfect opportunity to add some real impact to your kitchen with new light fixtures.

Sometimes fixtures can have a different size base so a little touch-up paint may be needed. Although many people do the electrical and replacement themselves, I usually suggest they call my licensed remodeling-guy Jason Mills of Envision Custom Builders to get the job done quickly. Make sure the lights are replaced before the “for sale” sign hits the yard.

If you are in the planning stages of getting your home ready to sell, send me an e-mail or call me @ 703-304-6827 to set up an appointment. I will also put together a preliminary market report on recent sales activity in your neighborhood for you to keep and review.