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

Recommended High School Boundaries

This week the Fairfax County School system published the staff recommendations for the Annandale Regional Planning Study. This is one of the final steps in a long process to involve both the community and FCPS staff in making changes to address overcrowding at Annandale High School and to adjust the elementary boundaries to accommodate the new elementary school being built in Annandale. The school Board will be asking for public comments to the proposal on July 11-12 and will vote on the recommendation at the school board meeting on July 28.

I have to admit I am surprised by the recommendations at the high school level. The School Board Staff is recommending that the area west of the Beltway attend Frost Middle School and Woodson High School. This would mean modular units at Frost to handle the extra students until more permanent space could be built at Frost in 6-7 years. It would also take the area South of Braddock Road (Bren Mar Park) and send those students to Holmes Middle School and Edison High School. Both Edison and Woodson have room for additional students and are close in proximity to these areas, so this was clearly a priority for the staff. It is surprising to me that Lake Braddock Secondary School did not get any additional students even though it has space at both the middle school and high school levels and is in close proximity. The staff must have preferred enlarging Frost, which is currently overcrowded, and keeping students that attend Wakefield Forest Elementary feeding into the same middle school than to sending them to Lake Braddock.

The elementary school being built on the Lacey site will be drawn from students attending Annandale Terrace, Beech Tree, Belvadere and Woodburn Elementary Schools. The staff has also recommended some changes that would address attendance islands at the elementary schools and is trying to lessen the split feeders.

As I learned from the previous school boundary study, the School Board will make adjustments to the staff recommendation the night of the vote. This is not set in stone, but is probably close to what the final outcome will be. For more information and a map of the boundary changes go to the Fairfax County Public School Annandale Study Staff Recommendation Site.

Photo by Flickr member D'Arcy Norman

The time has come for you to move and you are getting ready to put your home on the market. What do you need to do to make as many people as possible feel at home in your house? How do you get them to want your house over the others on the market? You know you should put in new flowers and mulch. You probably know to paint those dingy rooms and put in new light fixtures. There is cleaning, de-cluttering and organizing to be done.Here is a small list of often overlooked things that are SO worth the effort. They will have big rewards.

Make it bright! Open up all the shades, blinds and curtains to let in as much natural light as you can. Leave the lights on! Make your house as bright as possible by adding brighter light bulbs. People feel happier in brighter homes and you want them to feel like your house could be their next home.

Get rid of the evidence! Do not leave the plunger in the bathroom or Drain o under the sink. Get rid of the mouse traps. Get rid of anything that makes your house look hard to care for. If you have pets, find a temporary home for them while you are on the market. Get rid of their bowls, and litter boxes. Many people will be not be able to look past the animals or their things. Cover your tracks.

Organize your pantry. This part of the house is so important to buyers. I have had buyers not consider a house because of the pantry. Your job is to make it look like your pantry is perfect. Take out half the food and organize what is there. You want them to open the door and exclaim, “Nice pantry!”

Clean out the closets. If your closets are packed full, people will assume that your house doesn’t have enough storage space. Put it all in a suitcase and take it to your mom’s, but get it out of the closet! Then organize it. People will judge how you have cared for your home by your closet. I know it isn’t fair, but it is true. If your closet is organized people will think that you are organized, the kind who is fastidious about taking care of the heating system, cooling system and other items that are important to them.

Clean your laundry room. Dust behind the dryer. Fold all the clothes and make it look great. Just like the closets, buyers will look at your laundry room and jump to conclusions about how well you care for your house.

Last but not least, put away as many personal things as you can. You do not want buyers thinking about you, you want them to be thinking about how their things will fit in the house. Where will they put sofa? Where should the table go? When they start thinking about it as their house, not yours, you will reach your goal of selling your home.

2.  Fairfax is rich. I write that knowing many in Fairfax will bristle at the idea.  But, Fairfax has the second highest median household income in the nation at $106,785 right behind neighboring Loudoun County which sits on top of the list.

3.  Education is a priority in Fairfax. 7 Fairfax County Public Schools High Shools were named as top schools in the United States by US News.  Thomas Jefferson was ranked the #1 high school in the US, and Langley came in at #47.  Marshall and Madison were give the Silver Medal Award.  Lake Braddock, McLean, and Woodson were given Honorable Mention.  The average SAT score in Fairfax County Public Schools (09-10) was 1664, comparing favorably to the Virginia average of 1521 and the US average of 1509.  Fairfax County is also home to George Mason University, Northern Virginia Community College, and quite a few extensions of universities from around the country.

4.  Fairfax spends a LOT of time in cars. The Beltway (I-495) is the main artery of the DC area.  You’ll hear traffic reports talking about “the inner loop” and “the outer loop.”  Both of these terms refer to The Beltway.  The inner loop is simply the direction that goes clockwise around Washington and the outer loop is the direction that goes counter-clockwise around DC.   I-66 is a key road for Fairfax County residents, running straight west from DC, going through Falls Church, Vienna, Oakton, Fairfax, Fair Lakes and Centreville.  I-395 runs south from Washington, through Alexandria and Springfield then joins I-95 South at the Beltway.  High-Occupancy-Vehicle Lanes (HOV) are on parts of both 66 and 395 during designated times of the day.  66 is totally HOV-2 (two persons must be in the car) inside the beltway during rush hour (heading east in the morning, west in the evening), and has a designated lane outside the beltway that is HOV for those hours also.  I-395 has 2 center lanes, blocked off from regular traffic, that go north in the morning and south in the evening.  These lanes are HOV-3 during those hours, and open to all traffic, in one direction or the other, during non-peak times.  The Fairfax County Parkway (7100) serves as a wider loop through the county from Northwest to Southeast.  Tune in to Angie to keep up to date on how to stay out of traffic.

5.  Fairfax has International taste buds. There is a huge variety of restaurants available in Fairfax County and in Washington.  Check out Washingtonians list of the Top 100 restaurants or search to your hearts desire.  We also like the good old American hamburger.  5 Guys started here, but they have a lot of competition for the best burger in the area.

6.  Fairfax is mainly suburban, but has both urban and rural areas. The largest urban area is Tysons Corner, a major office and shopping area in Vienna and McLean.  A north to south line through the  center of Fairfax County, including Great Falls, Oakton, Fairfax Station, and Clifton contains large areas of housing with larger yards and a more rural feel.  Clifton is the most rural area of Fairfax County with most lots being atleast 5 acres, and many horse farms dotting the land.  Check out the satellite view to see for yourself.

7.  Fairfax plays hard. Youth sports is a major pastime here.  One example is the Northern Virginia Swim League which is made up of 102 neighborhood pools and keeps kids all over the area busy all summer.  Every sport you can think of is available to the youth of Northern Virginia.  Fairfax County runs a popular Adult Softball League and adults in Fairfax participate in sports as varied as hockey, soccer and cricket.

8. Fairfax County is right next to Washington DC. This fact not only gives our economy a huge boost, but it also let’s us enjoy all the capital has to offer.  Smithsonian Museums, the Capitol, White House, the Kennedy Center, the Capitals, Redskins, Nationals, and Georgetown are just across the Potomac.

9.  Fairfax freaks out when it snows. It’s not just us, it’s the whole DC area.   But Fairfax will close schools on just a forecast of coming snow, and sometimes it doesn’t come.  If you have lived somewhere that has real snow, get ready to laugh at your neighbors when you see them react to a snowstorm or even a little flurry.

10.  Fairfax County is in Virginia. We don’t go to Maryland.

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

Do you work as a buyer’s agent?
How much do you charge?
What do you do for buyers?
Do you work as a buyer’s agent?

Yes.  we work for buyers, not for sellers when our client is buying a house.

How much do you charge?

We charge 3% of the sales price of the house, but this is often covered in whole, in part, or in excess by the seller of the house.  Agent compensation is still based on a time when both agents involved in a transaction worked for the seller and were therefore paid by the seller.  That evolved into sellers offering to pay the commission of both agents, even if one represented the other party.

We still have this system today, except the last couple of years have seen changes in the amount sellers are offering.  While over 99% of listings on the market offer buyer agents somewhere between 2 and 4% commission, I’ve seen the commission offered as low as $1 and as high as 10%.  Additionally, many listings have various amounts of bonus dollars that are being offered to buyer’s agents, either straight up, or on the condition the buyer pays a certain amount or closes by a certain date.

The varying commissions on listings creates a conflict of interest for buyer’s agents who have a duty to represent their clients best interests in the transaction, but also (obviously) want to make as much money as they can.  How should a buyer agent respond when a client is asking their advice as they consider two houses, one with a 2% commission and one with a 4% commission?  They, of course, should give their best advice on which house would be better for the client.  As you can imagine, agents will be tempted to see the positives in the house where they will make twice as much money.  A trust issue is created when they tell their client that they like the house with the 4% commission.  The client will have already assumed they would say that and will have a hard time believing the advice, even when it is true, good advice.

Is this why you hire an agent?  No.  You want your agent to give you advice without having his own interests clouding his judgement.  You don’t want an agent who is tempted to avoid showing you a listing because of a low commission or who gets excited about a house because it will pay him well.

So…pay your agent!  We consider any amount offered by the seller, in commission or bonuses to belong to our clients.  Our client then pays our commission of 3%.  Most of the time this is a wash, but not always.  The house that is offering only $1 is an example.  With many agents avoiding it because, really, who would even drive to a house for $1, the price on the house should be significantly lower.  If you can save 5-10% (and ask the seller for an extra 3% towards your closing costs) on that house and pay us 3% you are way ahead of the game.  And the sellers trying to get us to “sell” their house for that extra $5K bonus.  That’s great.  As a buyer you can include that $5K bonus (that YOU’ll get) in your thinking about how much to offer the seller.  Now the buyer and their agent are on the same side.  We can offer advice on whether it is better to buy the house that pays 2% or the house that pays 4% in an objective way and from the buyer’s perspective.  The agent is in a position to do his job the way it should be done.

So..we charge 3%.  And we’ll help you get that from the seller.

What do you do for buyers?

In a nutshell, we listen to what you want and we help you get it.

We work a little differently with different buyers.  Some buyers know exactly what they want to buy and our job is to find it for them.  Some buyers need to buy a house in the next week, and our job is to help them get the best one available right now.  Some buyers, usually first time home buyers, are trying to figure out where the best place to live is and what kind of house they need.  Our job is to ask them lots of questions and give them lots of suggestions in order to bring clarity to their decision.  As a buyer it is important that you communicate what you are trying to accomplish so that we can help you in the appropriate way.  We want to show you houses that will make the decision on which one to buy easy and obvious.  Then we want to give you information and advice that will help you decide how to approach negotiating with the owner of the house.

We answer three questions for you to help you make wise decisions in your negotiating:

–What is the house worth on the open market?  We will show you similar houses that have sold recently, and point out the differences with the one you are considering to establish a value range for the house.  You make all of the decisions on what you want to offer, but we help you to establish a framework for making an offer.  You may decide to offer higher than market for a unique house you don’t want to lose.  You may want to wait on a house you can get under market.  Those are your decisions, but we want you to make them with your eyes open.

–What is the seller’s and listing agent’s thinking about the house?  Most listing agents have sold many houses and have established patterns of price reductions, and willingness to advise their clients to bring their price down.  Some price close to market value and get their price very quickly.  Some price with lots of room for negotiating.  You need to know which type of listing agent you are dealing with and act accordingly.  Sellers are often more difficult to understand.  Most haven’t sold a home for many years and when they did, it was in a whole different market.  In the case of foreclosures and flips, you will deal with sellers who sell houses on a regular basis.  How much have they come down on their last several sales?  How has the time a listing has been on the market affect their willingness to negotiate?  When you are negotiating a purchase worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, it’s worth finding out.

–What are the (very) local market conditions that can effect the value of the home going forward?  You need to find out if the neighbors have been given public notices of foreclosure to see if a similar house might be coming on the market at a discount soon.  Are many of the neighbors having financial issues?  This is especially important in the case of a condo.  You are going to be relying on other members of the condominium association to pay their dues in order to maintain the complex, including the exterior of your unit.  I’ve found condo complexes right here in Fairfax where over a third of the units were behind on their condo payments.  You need to know what is happening in the neighborhood before you commit to becoming a partner in an association that means a lot to the value of your property.

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

The overcrowding at Annandale is complicated by the fact that the elementary schools in the Annandale pyramid are K-5, where most of Fairfax County is K-6. Both Poe and Holmes middle schools are grades 6-8 to accomodate this model, but it makes moving boundaries even harder.

I was impressed with Jennifer and Emily. They were very knowledgeable about the numbers of children affected by each boundary option discussed and gracious to those who didn’t agree with them. The committee was challenged to “think outside the box.” That is what they did. Several of the options included keeping the boundaries, but having Annandale High School be 10-12 grade. This would be accomplished in one of two ways. One option would be to make Homes 6-7 and Poe 8-9. Another option would be to make both middle schools 7-9 and adding 6th grade to all the elementary schools. One mother commented, “I wouldn’t mind my 14 year old waiting a year to be around 18 year olds.” As always there are 2 sides and there were some who thought that boundary options were the best solution.

What stood out to me was the complexity of the problem and the effort by all to work together. Everyone was so cooperateive! People at the meeting showed a lot of trust in the School Board.  Both School Board members in attendance, Sandy Evans and Tessie Wilson, seemed impressed with the committee and its work.

To view and comment on the report go to Fairfax County Public Schools.

Sherell Williams from the Annandale Patch has written some insightful news articles on this subject I recommend reading.

The strongest sentiment at the meeting from parents was that those kids who start at Annandale High School should be allowed to graduate from Annandale. The School Board will now take the Committees suggestions and ask staff to prepare a feasibility study. The Board is scheduled to vote on this in July.

Tiffany Royce is a REALTOR licensed in the state of Virginia and an agent for Frankly Real Estate, Inc.  She can be reached at tiffany@ourfairfax.com.

• Pictures
• Video
• School Info
• Transportation Info
• Square Footage

So good listing agents put this info in their listings.  More buyers look and the houses sell for more.  But do you want to pay more?

To save money on your next home, look for listings that:

• Have no (or few, or poor) pictures
• Have no video
• Have no school info
• Have no transportation info
• Don’t list square footage

Spend the extra time to see more houses in person, look up the school and transportation info yourself, and find the houses that other buyers are skipping.  Nice houses with poor listings sell for less all the time.  Most buyers just never bother to look at them.

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

Photo by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Walkability Search.  Walkability, a search for the most walkable houses in Northern Virginia (based on scores from walkscore.com)

Cheap Houses.  Properties that are likely under-priced.  This search identifies houses that MIGHT be under-priced.  From all the houses on the market it pulls out the houses that are listed at 75% or less of their tax assessment.  If you want to explore this further, check out my video on setting up custom cheap house searches and tweaking them to work in certain areas. Hint: the ones that are actually under-priced go VERY fast.  Get alerts for this one.

Metro Mentions.  Properties that are near the metro, and the listing agent says so.  This includes mentions of future metro stops.  Tip: Do this search and then sort by the column WS (for Walk Score) to see properties you can live in without owning a car.  It’s hard to do in Northern Virginia, but these houses will give you the best shot.

Metro Geographic:  Because so many agents do NOT mention they are near a Metro (I KNOW! But it happens about 50% of the time so we need to work around it, and just think, other buyers looking near Metros are likely to miss those where the Metro ISN”T mentioned and NOT compete with you for those properties.  You should be happy about this).  This is a post with a list of metro stations and links to a list of all the properties for sale within a mile, as the crow flies, whether Metro is mentioned or not by the listing agent.

Water-Oriented:  Homes in Northern Virginia that are near bodies of water, both large and small.  Everything from a creek in the back yard to places with docks for your yacht.

Cul-de-sac:  Houses that are on a cul-de-sac.  This is a popular request I get from home buyers, and it is searchable.

Photo by Kalleboo

Granite Counters:  If granite is your thing, this is the search for you.  You are likely to get newer/updated kitchens in this search.

Bikers:  If you want to be near a bike trail or in areas where you can bike, start here.  This search gives you the listings where the listing agent mentioned that the house was good for biking.

Each of these searches are for Fairfax County, Fairfax City, Falls Church City, Arlington, and Alexandria.  After click on a search, you can tweak it for different price ranges or areas.  You can also combine these searches to get, for example, granite counters near a metro station on a cul-de-sac.  If you need assistance with a particular search or want to see a house in person, email me at jeff@ourfairfax.com.  Please let me know if you find another search that reveals interesting houses.  If you want future posts emailed to you, subscribe below.

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