I went to a couple of the community feedback meetings and the message from the parents in the room sends an overwhelming message, “Please don’t move us. And if you do, grandfather the kids that are already there.” The Board has asked for input on 3 options and will vote on May 9^th, with implementation to begin in 2014.

Do these changes affect your housing value? In some cases, yes.  To some buyers the school district is an important consideration. There are differences between the high school programs that make one school a better fit for a family than another. I have had clients prefer to be in one district because they preferred the IB (International Baccalaureate) program and other choosing another school because it offers AP (Advanced Placement) classes. If you are looking to by a house before May 9, the day the School Board will vote on boundary changes, than it would be best to be familiar with the 3 options the school board is considering and how it may affect your purchase if schools are an important factor in your decision.

Option A

This option will reassign part of Fairfax Villa Elementary attendance area from Fairfax HS to Woodson HS.  Fairfax Villa would become a split feeder. In addition, it will reassign part of Greenbriar West Elementary to Chantilly, eliminating Greenbriar as a split feeder. This option would affect 224 students starting in 2014/15.

Option A Map

Option B

This option would reassign a larger part of Fairfax Villa Elementary attendance area from Fairfax HS to Woodson HS. Fairfax Villa would still be a split feeder. A portion of the Oak View attendance area would be reassigned from Woodson to Robinson.  Oak View would remain a split feeder. Part of Marshall Road Elementary attendance area would move from Oakton HS to Falls Church HS. Marshall Road Elementary would become a triple feeder. This option would affect 367 students starting in 2014/15.

Option B Map

Option C

This option reassigns part of Waples Mill Elementary from Fairfax to Oakton.  It will also  reassign part of Greenbriar West Elementary to Chantilly, eliminating Greenbriar West as a split feeder. Part of Fairfax Villa attendance area would move from Fairfax HS to Woodson HS. Fairfax Villa would become a split feeder. It reassigns part of the Oak View attendance area from Woodson to Robinson. Oak View would remain a split feeder.  Part of Marshall Road Elementary attendance area would move from Oakton HS to Falls Church HS.  Marshall Road would stay a split feeder. This option affects 456 students beginning in 2014/15.

Option C Map

In all of these options the AAP (advanced academic placement) of the kids moved would change as well.

Before you sign a contract, know the school situation with the house you are going to buy. It could affect the value of your investment.

So what do you do in this type of market? Here are some tips:

1. Be Fast. Once you have figured out what you can afford and what your are looking for in a house, act quickly when THAT house comes on the market. Don’t wait for competing offers to pile up for the seller of the house. This means signing up for alerts for the kind of house you are looking for and making time in your schedule to see them when a good one comes on.  It also means doing the things you need to do ahead of time to be ready to write an offer:  getting pre-approved, being familiar with the standard contract, knowing which contingencies are important to you, and knowing when you are willing to close on a property.

2. Be Flexible.  The more flexible you can be with the terms of your offer, the more flexible most sellers are with the price.  Can you bend your dates to what the seller needs?  Can you close quickly if the house is vacant and the seller is paying for an empty house?  Can you do your home inspection more quickly?  Make sure you take the time to figure out what the seller needs and to consider your ability to give that to the seller.

3. Look Off-Market.  Who is about to sell there house that hasn’t put it on the market yet?  If you or your agent can locate these houses, you’ll have a chance to be the only bidder on a house.  Many people would love to sell there house if they didn’t have to go through all of the hassle involved in putting it on the market.  Can you or your agent find these people?

4.  Don’t Overreact.  Be aware that the market favors sellers at this point, but keep your head:  get your inspections done and negotiate the best price you can.

Home Buyers:

Coffee Shop Meeting: 

Photo by LearningLark on Flickr

30-45 minutes talking over a cup of coffee (or tea if you meet with Tiffany ). We talk about what to expect in the home-buying process, going through a little notebook we’ve made up that shows what services you can expect from us and important things like what money you will need at different stages of the process, and how long things take. We also spend a lot of time asking you questions about what you are trying to accomplish in buying a home. We want to know both what type of home you want to live in, and how we can help make the home purchase meet longer-term goals in your life. This is important, because our job is not just to find you a house, but to help you find the right house at the right price and terms to meet your goals.

Video Conference: We can also do this same type of meeting over a video conference. We have the same goals for the meeting, but can’t buy you a cup of coffee. We can meet later to look at houses, or work with you if you are trying to buy a house before you physically move to the area.

Start by Seeing houses: While we would love to sit down and talk, we realize there are some people who know just what they want, who have been looking at listings and houses on their own for months, and just want to go see a house they are interested in. We are happy to meet you to see houses. While you are looking, we’ll be asking you questions to see how we can help you meet your goals.

Home Sellers:

If you are selling your home we like to meet you at your house so you can show us your house.  These meetings typically last about an hour.  We first ask you to give us a tour of your house, then sit down with you and explain the process of selling your house.  We discuss what you need to do to prepare for your sale, what to expect when your house is on the market, and what we plan to do to get the house sold.  We will ask you specific questions about the timing you are hoping for in the sale and tailor our advice to your goals.

To set up one these appointments you can email me at jeff@ourfairfax.com or call  703-585-5663.

If you found this post interesting or informational, you can subscribe to future posts by RSS or Email.

Written by Jeff Royce of Frankly Real Estate, Inc. Fairfax, VA,  703-585-5663

Metro being built at Tysons Corner by wfyurasko on Flickr

If you are looking to invest in Northern Virginia Real Estate, where should you invest?  You should find a place that will rise faster in price than the market as a whole.  This normally means you need to find a place where some good news is going to hit, that is not already priced into the market.  Some say you should buy a house when you see a new Starbucks open in the area.  I like areas in the western part of Fairfax County that are within walking distance of the planned Silver Line Metro stops.  Phase I of the the Silver Line is all but built and will open late in 2013.  Phase II of the Silver Line is expected to open in 2016.  Phase I is more of a sure bet so people buying homes for themselves that need a Metro are already buying around  these stations.

Because prices of houses next to Metro stations are higher than comparable houses not near a station, houses near Phase I stops already have much of that benefit (but maybe not all) priced into them.  That is much less true of houses around Phase II stops.  If somebody is moving to the area and needs to use the Metro, they are not going to be able to live in a house for 4 years without it.   For an investor, those are four years where the value of the investment will be climbing faster than the market as a whole.

Below are some links to help you identify houses that are within one mile of Silver Line Metro stops.  I’ve divided them into Phase I and Phase II stops.  Note that Phase I stops are under construction right now and Phase II stops are expected to be built.  It seems like a sure thing at this point, but it is not as sure as something already under construction.  The links below are to current houses for sale within one mile (as a crow flies) of each of the metro stops.  These are geographic searches that do not rely on listing agents putting information in the listing about being near a metro.  The links automatically update themselves each day, but sometimes will break.  If you see a broken link, please email me at jeff@ourfairfax.com so I can correct it.

House for Sale Near Silver Line Phase I Stops (opening in 2013):

Tysons East Metro
Tysons Central 123 Metro
Tysons Central 7 Metro
Tysons West Metro
Wiehle Avenue Metro

House for Sale Near Silver Line Phase II Stops (these are expected to open in 2016):

Reston Parkway Metro
Herndon-Monroe Metro
Route 28 Metro
Dulles Airport Metro (no link here. There is no housing within 1 mile of this stop.  It’s all airport land.)
Route 606 Metro(linked, but may be empty.  There is very little housing within 1 mile of this stop.  This is retail/office/farm land.)
Route 772 Metro

If you are interested in locating housing near existing metro stops in Virginia, check out my older post with similar links to all existing metro stops.

If you found this post interesting or informational, you can subscribe to future posts by RSS or Email.

Written by Jeff Royce of Frankly Real Estate, Inc. Fairfax, VA,  703-585-5663

1. SCOUT: Scout changes the screen on your device as you drive, constantly updating both your location and the house search based on your location. You can always see the houses for sale around you within a given radius that you can set just by zooming in or out on the map. All the prices are shown, and you can see pictures and more information on a house by tapping

The DRAW feature on the Realtor.com App

on its icon on the map. Make sure you have a passenger doing the reading; you can’t use this and drive at the same time.

2. DRAW: Draw lets you draw on a map with your finger to set the boundaries of your search.  So you can draw the areas near a lake or along a trail, near a park, or in a specific part of town.  You can draw a radius of any size around your place of work.   After drawing on the map, you can add other criteria, like the number of bedrooms you need or a certain size or age of home.   You get instant results and can dig deep into information about specific homes.

3.  AGENT COMMUNICATION:  You can chat with your agent right in the app about the houses you see.  This is an easy way to ask your agent for more information about a house, or to set up a time to see a house.  Your agent can also suggest houses to you through the app so communication can flow both ways.  If your agent is using the app, simply go to setting, and enter your agent’s email address.  If you are looking for a house in Northern Virginia, I’d love to connect to you through the app.  Just add jeff@ourfairfax.com in the agent field.

The Realtor.com app is available for iPad, iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone 7.  Go to the Download Page for all the versions.

If you found this post interesting or informational, you can subscribe to future posts by RSS or Email. Written by Jeff Royce of Frankly Real Estate, Inc. Fairfax, VA,  703-585-5663

The Lender:  Much of yours and your agent’s interests are aligned when choosing a lender.  Many buyers seek the best interest rate when choosing a lender, which is obviously important.  Your agent will be much more focused on the reliability of the lender:  Can this lender come through with the money on the day of closing?  While many buyers think that all lenders will come through, agents know from difficult experiences that this is simply NOT true.  Long delays are not uncommon and put the home buyer in a position where they can’t following through on the contract they signed.  They are in DEFAULT.  If you use the lender your agent recommends, this will happen much less often.  Understand that a lender getting just your loan that messes it up, doesn’t keep commitments, or simply can’t make the loan happen loses your business.  The lender that works regularly with your agent would lose a whole stream of business if they didn’t follow through.  In other words, you will be a top priority with a lender your agent works with regularly, and a lower priority with one you meet on your own.

The Home Inspector:  Much of yours and your agent’s interests are NOT aligned when it comes to home inspectors.  You hire a home inspector to stop you from buying the wrong home.  Your agent is interested in getting the house to closing.  It makes sense for you to go out and find your own inspector.  Over the years I have had home inspectors let me know that they won’t “kill my deal.”  Well.  If the house has something major wrong with it, that’s exactly his job.  Note:  There are agents out there, including myself, that would rather see a contract die at the home inspection than go to closing when a faulty house is involved.  If you have an agent that thinks that way, it’s fine to take their recommendation.  If you have a hard-selling, get-the-deal-done kind of agent, get your own inspector.

The Title Company:  Home buyers only notice title companies when they mess up.  There are a few out there that bring something special to the table, but for the most part they simply need to do the little things right to bring the closing paperwork together.  I would take my agent’s recommendation on title companies simply because agent’s know who handles everything smoothly.

A Note on Appraisers:  Appraisers have received the most flack of any real estate service provider the last several years.  At one time, appraisers received the bulk of their business from certain loan officers at certain lenders.  Many felt there was pressure on them not to “kill the deal” unless the price being paid was way out of line.  These days, neither the buyer, agent, nor even the loan officer takes part in choosing the appraiser.  There have been systems put in place at banks and other lenders to assign appraisers randomly to certain cases.  There are rules against loan officers even talking to appraisers.  So you won’t be choosing your appraiser.

Always remember that you are in charge of your home buying process.  Your agent is getting paid to work for you.  You can hire the lender, home inspector and title company of your choice.  If your agent is giving you good advice take it.  If not, always feel free to make your own decisions.

If you found this post interesting or informational, you can subscribe to future posts by RSS or Email.

Written by Jeff Royce of Frankly Real Estate, Inc. Fairfax, VA,  703-585-5663

Photo by juhansonin on Flickr

The temptation to buy a house sight-unseen through Skype is strong these days for people who live far from where they want to buy a house.  You can save the time and money involved in traveling to see a house before you purchase it.   You can avoid taking wasted trips for houses you don’t want to buy.  And in a market like we have in Northern Virginia these days you can actually get in on a great house before it flies off the market.

There is a BIG downside, however:  You could spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a house you don’t like.  To some people, this is a large enough downside that they will fly in to town multiple times if necessary.  Some people would never buy a house sight unseen.  I understand.

If you are going to buy a house from a distance, always do the following:

• Have your agent take a detailed video of the house for you, pointing out both good points and bad.
• Have your agent take detailed pictures of the house (think 200 photos).
• Use Skype or another live video call to ask your agent questions about the house, while they are in the house. (Note:  Ask about smells)
• Have them walk around the neighborhood also.
• Have a friend or relative go with your agent to see the house; they know you better than your agent does.
• Have your agent do research on the value of the house, the tendencies of the listing agent, and on the seller.
• Do your own research also, focusing on what people are saying about the area, schools, crime, etc.
• Make the contract contingent on a Home Inspection, and fly in for the home inspection.

The last point is the most important.  If you totally mess up and buy the wrong house, the home inspection will save you.   Make sure your contract is written so you can still walk away at the point of the inspection (this is standard here in Fairfax County and throughout the Washington D.C. area).  If the house isn’t right, you can walk away at this point.  It will cost you a flight and the cost of the inspection, but it is far cheaper than buying the wrong house.

If you found this post interesting or informational, you can subscribe to future posts by RSS or Email.

Written by Jeff Royce of Frankly Real Estate, Inc. Fairfax, VA,  703-585-5663

Priced in the neighborhood. In order for a flip to be a good deal for you it needs to be priced similarly to the others around it. It can’t be the same size as all the other houses and $50,000 over everything in the neighborhood. It will have a difficult time appraising and it will have a hard time holding that value when you go to sell.It is better for you if they purchased the house way under value and brought it up to the same value as the other houses around it.

Do your research. Find the sellers on the internet. Find out what you can about the company. Search the homes already sold and find out if they have done this in the past. There are lots of contractors trying their hand at flipping a house, so you may not find anything. You might find that they have more Better Business Bureau complaints than you are comfortable with.

Make sure they have pulled the proper building permits. Permits are for your protection. The county or city will come in and make sure they have done the work the properly. For most remodeling projects contractors will need, remodeling, electrical and plumbing permits. Permits are sometimes posted at the house. You should check the county or city website where you can search by address and find the permits and inspections.

Have a home inspection. Flips always look shiny and new, but you need to look at what is underneath. How is the roof? Do they have enough electrical power to support the house? How about the heating system and air conditioning? Don’t skip the home inspection!

Flips can be a great option for the buyer who would like to  move into a home with very little to do. To find the right one takes a little extra homework, but is worth the effort.

Elementary School Map

Middle School Map

High School Map