http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/292621/20120203/hottest-real-estate-markets-washington-dc.htm

1. Are you a full-time Realtor(R)? Does this person have another full-time job, and therefore can only work on selling your house after 5pm or on weekends? You want someone who does this all day long and will devote their time to selling your home! A full-time Realtor(R) also likely has a better pulse on what’s going on in the market and new advances made in selling/exposing/marketing your property.

2. How Many Homes Did You Sell Last Year? Ask the number of transactions, that’s more telling than volume. In our area, someone could have sold $20M in real estate, but only 4 deals. Did they sell more than 10? More than 20? Is it just the person or is there a team behind them? Who actually does the selling?

3. What’s Your Marketing Plan? Many agents have a checklist they follow to market your property. The most important one these days is internet advertising. Where will it appear? How many sites will the listing syndicate to? There are 1,000s of places that your property can appear, but it only takes 1 set of eyes and 1 buyer to sell it.

4. How Many Properties Like This Have You Sold? Ask for a list of all of the homes they’ve sold. Do they sell mostly in Arlington? If you’re interviewing a Price Williams agent for an Arlington listing, you may be barking up the wrong tree.

5. How Long Have You Been in the Business? This is two-fold, I think you want an agent with experience, but you don’t want someone newly licensed or someone who is in their 80th year selling real estate. New agents aren’t experienced enough yet to handle the unknowns in a transaction, while some seasoned agents are used to the way things used to be. Real estate is a constantly evolving business and you need to be able to adapt to what buyers are looking for and ways they’re finding their new homes.

If you’re thinking selling, please contact me. I’m happy to answer these and any other questions you may have!

-Contract accepted in writing, all parties agree to all terms in writing. This is known as ratification. Part of that agreement will specify an agreed upon closing day.

-Home Inspection to take place X days from ratification (normal timelines are usually 7-10 days)

-Radon Test (if appl) to take place X days from ratification (normal timelines are usually 7-10 days)

-Appraisal to be completed within X days from ratification (Conventional financing is usually 21 days, FHA/VA can be until the time of closing, although they’re usually returned before then)

-HOA/Condo Resale Package Review to be completed within 3 days of RECEIPT (not necessarily ratification since these need to be ordered from the management company)

-Termite Inspection to be completed within 30 days of closing

-Any other contingency written into the contract will have hard dates from which they need to be completed

Once you’ve passed all of these contingencies, it’s a waiting game until closing.

Search Virginia Square Townhomes for Sale

• 67 rental apartments
• Underground Garage
• Rooftop Terrace
• Resident Lounge
• Fitness Center

Construction is expected to be completed in December 2012. The property address is 1200 N Rolfe St, Arlington, VA 22209.

Future Site Rendition

If you bought:

• Your mortgage company will send you a 1098, which you’ll use to deduct the interest paid in 2011. It will NOT include any prepaid interest, origination fees, etc. that you paid as part of your closing costs. They ARE deductible, but you must remember to take them from your HUD1.
• If the property was an investment, remember to show your tax preparer any prepaid condo/HOA fees or taxes shown on your HUD1.
• Also for investment properties, don’t forget to save all of those receipts for any work you did on the property.
• If you sold stocks or bonds to use as your down-payment, don’t forget to tell your tax preparer about those as well, although you should get a statement from the financial institution you went through.

If you sold:

• If this home was your primary residence for at least 2 years, you’ll most likely be exempt from paying taxes on your Capital Gains (up to $250k if you’re single, or up to $500k if you’re married). Make sure when you show the sale price to your tax preparer, you also show them how much you paid.
• Bring your HUD1 closing statement with you to show any taxes paid as a proration or credit to the purchaser, or any other costs associated with selling.
• If this was an investment, you’ll also have to consider depreciation during the length of which you owned the home when trying to calculate taxes owed on the sale.

All of my clients who bought or sold with me last year received a courtesy copy of their HUD1 the second week of January. If you can’t find yours, try contacting your agent or the title company who did your closing. It’s really important to have that on hand when doing your taxes! Remember though, I’m not a CPA, so double check with your tax preparer on any other deductions I have missed (I am sure there are some I don’t know since the tax laws are always changing!!) You can read more from a CPA:  Homeowners Tax Tips.

Where: The “affordable” price range in Arlington spans from $300k – $650k-ish. Basically anything in that price range is flying off the market, if it’s:

a) Priced correctly
b) In a good location
c)  The only property of that type (i.e. a 1 bedroom in Clarendon)
d) In good condition

What: Condos are in high demand but low supply, there are nearly ZERO townhomes on the market, which means that as soon as either of these property types are listed for sale, they’re generating interest from every buyer who is waiting for something to become available. You’re going to be competing for the property, so make up your mind quickly if you want to make an offer.

How: My most recent experienced with multiple offers (which happened yesterday) was a condo in Ballston that got 5 offers the first 2 days it was on the market…the winning bid went $15k over asking AND did not include ANY contingencies in their contract (meaning no inspection, no appraisal, no nothing!). Reminiscent of 2005, isn’t it? While I don’t think we’ll return to that as standard practice, things like contingencies and down payment will start making a bigger difference, in addition to price (of course).

Tips to Win:
1) Put a larger deposit with your offer. If you have no plans on getting cold feet or defaulting on the contract, it’ll be a credit to you at closing anyway, but sellers feel “safer” when they know you have a lot of money on the line to show up a closing.
2) Do everything you can to make inspections and contingencies short. A 4-day home inspection period is much less risky for a seller than a 10-day period. They know you’ll have to make up your mind quickly if the condition is something you’re willing to accept, so they lose less time off the market in the event you void.
3) Know that if you’re doing an FHA loan, sellers are most likely going to pick a buyer with a larger down payment. Reasons for that are two-fold: first, you’re putting down 3.5% and likely don’t have much more cash if something goes wrong (i.e. a low appraisal or a long list of inspection repairs). The second is the length of time for an appraisal, the contingency on an FHA (and VA) contract runs the length of the contract up until closing day. A conventional loan  usually has only 21 days for an appraisal, again limiting the length of time a seller is in limbo.
4) Find out what the ideal timeframe for a seller is for closing. Are they moving ASAP and therefore want to close ASAP? Do they need 60 days to find a new home? Being flexible on closing will give you a bigger advantage if they’re not going to have to pay an extra mortgage payment while the place is unoccupied, or you can give them extra time to figure out where they’re going.
5) If you put your best offer on the table, you do everything within your means and it still doesn’t get you the place…move on. It just wasn’t meant to be and something better will come along. I promise!

If you’re reading this and thinking you want to explore putting your home on the market, call me! Find out what your Arlington home is worth. 

• Decrease in short sales and foreclosures: 2011 market share was 7.7%, down from 9.9% in 2010
• Fewer closed sales: Down 10.3%
• Fewer new listings: Down 9.1%
• Increase in Days on the Market: 61 from 55 (surprising given the decrease in inventory)
• Increase of % sold compared to Original List Price: 95.8% up from 95.6% in 2010
• ….drumroll please…..Median Sale Price for Closed Sales: UP 3.6% (2010 prices were up 4.4% from 2009) so back to back years of increases

Remember, these are overall County statistics for the year. Based on your property type and location, the numbers will be different (some much better, some worse).

-Values are assessed using sales data from June 2009 to June 2010, meaning sales that are 18 months old. The value they’ve assigned is a lagging indicator of the market. The market in 2009-2010 was the beginning of our recovery, so sales were still modest and slow, but that value does NOT represent market value if you were to sell.

-The county has released the following stats about their values:

• 32% increased
• 46% remain unchanged
• 22% declined

-The 2012 tax rate has not been set yet for the county, so it still remains to be seen whether your actual property taxes will increase or decrease based on this assessment.

-Your tax payments are due twice per year: June 15 and October 5

-You CAN challenge the value, if you think it’s wrong (whether it’s low or high), but the appeal deadline is March 1.

• If you’re in a condo or townhouse and you’re thinking of appealing your assessment, consider this: when you go to sell your property and someone looks up your tax history, they’re going to wonder why yours is so different from your neighbors. If it’s low, they’ll likely ask “what’s wrong with it?” Just some food for thought.

It’s important to find out that things were done to code, because if the work was done without permits, how do you think the quality of the work was? hmmm….

Here’s a quick list of places to find permit history by property address. Remember that like all technology, this may not be 100% accurate if it comes up with nothing. If nothing comes up, call the county zoning office just to confirm.

Arlington County Permit Lookup

Town of Vienna, VA

Fairfax County Permit Lookup

Alexandria City Permit Lookup

Washington DC Permit Information

Town of Herndon Permit Information