The Future “So You Think You Can Dance” Winner (or McKinley High Kicker)

This kid is destined to be on Mary’s “train” or be the new starting kicker for McKinley High when he grows up (click here if you don’t see the video below)…

Congratulations to the Virginia Leadership Academy, Class of 2009

IMHO, to be a great Real Estate Consultant/Realtor, you have to do more than just “sell real estate”. That is why, over the past 9 months, I’ve been attending sessions throughout Virginia as part of the Virginia Association of REALTORS® (VAR), Virginia Leadership Academy (VLA) program.

From VAR’s website:

VAR challenges REALTORS® to invest in themselves and their associations by participating in the Virginia REALTORS® Leadership Academy . Through this program, VAR identifies and trains emerging REALTOR® leaders from all around the Commonwealth. Approximately 20 applicants are accepted each year, and each class of participants builds their leadership skills through a series of retreats and a major class project. Graduates are groomed to take on leadership positions in their local associations, at VAR, or in other organizations.

Not only do the participants develop strong leadership skills to put to use in their communities and professional lives, they also nurture strong relationships with their class members that turn into rewarding business and personal connections.

The VLA program consisted of several multi-day retreats throughout Virginia. We studied and discussed leadership and listened to and spoke with many incredibly knowledgeable and experienced folks with credentials the length of a real estate sales contract. We also spoke with local and state association officials and worked on a very mentally challenging class project.

This year’s class was instrumental in the design redesign and continued new direction of the Virginia Homeowners Alliance. This was a tough project, but the outcome was better than I thought it would be and everyone in our class learned a lot about leadership and speaking up for the sake of others in the process.

The VLA program was by no means a “piece of cake” – it meant taking time out of my professional career and working with 21 other professionals, many of whom are “Type A”. Was it worth it? It was more than worth it.

Will I end up being in a leadership role in the local or state REALTORS® association? I don’t know. But I do know that I’ve learned a lot, made some great friendships in the process and have become a more well rounded person personally and professionally.

Thank you to VAR for the opportunity to be a part of the Virginia Leadership Academy, Class of 2009 and congratulations to all my fellow alumni! (click here if you can’t see the video below)

How The First-Time Home Buyer Federal Tax Credit Works

Bob and Sally show us how the first-time home buyer federal tax credit works (click here if you can’t see the video below)…

Hat tip to NRVLiving.com and NVAR.com

Related Articles

Time’s a Tickin’ On the First-Time Home Buyer Federal Tax Credit

Loudoun Community Spotlight: Pulte Homes, Hamlets at Red Cedar

This Loudoun County Community Spotlight falls on the Hamlets at Red Cedar community by Pulte Homes. The community is located off of Evergreen Mills Rd in Leesburg, VA (click here for map). Once the community is complete, there will be a total of 350 homes situated on 1300 rolling acres.

Personally, I think that the Hamlets at Red Cedar community is ideal for those looking for that “private and quaint” community feel yet, be close to amenities and things to do.

The majority of single family homes in the Hamlets at Red Cedar community are located on 1/2 acre lots and the entire community is surrounded by conservancy lots ranging from 10 to 100 acres. This gives you privacy from surrounding development for up to 100 years (based on current zoning laws regarding conservancy lots).

Even though being inside of the community give you a feel of being away from the hustle and bustle of daily life, you are only 5 to 10 minutes from Brambleton Town Center, 10 to 15 minutes away from downtown Leesburg and about 10 to 15 minutes from the Dulles Greenway and the future Moorefield Station, which will include commercial, residential, retail and a Silver Line metro rail stop (coming 2016).

The Hamlets at Red Cedar is made up of town homes and single family homes. The town homes along with the Ambassador and Manor single family home collections have all been sold, but there are still some Stoneridge collection single family homes and home sites available.

The Stoneridge Collection offers 8 different models ranging from 2510 square feet on the upper two levels to 4589 square feet on the upper two levels. Base prices range from $539K to $739K. Delivery times are about 6 to 9 months though there are some quick delivery “spec” homes with move-in dates as early as November.

Lot sizes on the Stoneridge Collection are 1/2 an acre giving you more land than 90+ percent of the rest of Ashburn and Leesburg. One nice thing about these lots is that the majority of them still have trees in the back of them rather than just a flat piece of land where you can still see the house behind you.

Amenities include a club house with pool tables, a community living room, gym and pool. There are several parks, tot lots and trails throughout the community as well.

If you are interested in knowing more about the community, home models, available lots/home sites, spec homes, incentives, etc., email or call me – danilo.bogdanovic (at) gmail (dot) com – 703.582.6900.

Related Articles

Pulte Homes King of Customer Satisfaction in Loudoun County

Slideshow of Hamlets at Red Cedar community

Time’s a Tickin’ on the First-Time Home Buyer Federal Tax Credit

If you would like to take advantage of the first-time home buyer Federal tax credit, you’ll need to act soon because time is running out. The tax credit expires December 1, 2009, which means that you have to settle on your new home no later than November 30, 2009.

What does this mean practically speaking?

Despite November 30 being the deadline, you should aim to settle by November 15th to help leave room for any delays on your or the sellers’ end. Also, settlement companies will be swamped with settlements the last two weeks of November and may be delayed themselves. And don’t forget that the Thanksgiving holiday takes away at least one, if not two business days at the end of November.

At this point, short-sales are pretty much out of the picture as far as settling in time to take advantage of the first-time home buyer federal tax credit. It takes an average of 90 days to get a response from a bank(s) on short-sale approval and then you will need another 3 to 4 weeks after that to settle. This puts you way past the November 30 deadline.

If you are a home buyer going after a traditional resale or foreclosure, you should ratify a contract no later than about October 1 to 15 depending on the type of financing (conventional vs FHA vs VA). Conventional financing takes about 30 days from date of ratification to process and fun. FHA financing takes 30 to 45 days. VA financing takes closer to 45 days. (These are general numbers – the lenders I work with closely are awesome and get everything done within 30 days no matter what type of financing you go with)

If you are a home buyer who wants to take advantage of the first-time home buyer federal tax credit, you need to start actively searching for a property to purchase immediately. This will give you about a month to search for a property, submit and ratify an offer with enough time to settle before the deadline.

Wondering how to get started in home buying process?

First - click here to read my post, “The Home Buying Timeline”

Second – Click here to contact me so we can chat more about your specific situation and see what’s best for you.

Related Articles

“Move fast to take advantage of first-time homebuyer federal tax credit” – Washington, DC Examiner

Information on first-time home buyer federal tax credit from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

Home Seller Tips, Part Two – Marketing

This is part two in a three part mini-series for home sellers on how to sell your home for the most amount possible in the shortest amount of time. The first part dealt with “The Three C’s” (click here if you missed it). Part two deals with Marketing.

Who is your audience?

The first step is to determine who your audience is. Your audience consists of ready, willing and able buyers. This means buyers who are looking for a property such as yours in your area, can afford a property at your price point and are ready to make an offer on a property and can settle within the next 30 to 90 days.

How does your audience search for and find properties for sale?

In the Washington, DC metro area including Northern Virginia, approximately 90 percent of buyers start their search for real estate on-line. They search through a variety of real estate listing sites, as well as Google, Bing, Yahoo, AOL, etc. This means that you focus heavily on on-line marketing. This includes putting your property on the appropriate web sites and making sure that your property listing stands out from your competition (other similar properties for sale in your area).

Approximately 40 percent of buyers find the property they ultimately buy through a real estate agent/broker. This means that you must put your property listing in front of as many agents/brokers as possible. The best way to do this is to market your property on the MLS as well as word-of-mouth marketing by your agent/broker to other agents/brokers (via phone, email, in person, social media, etc).

How do buyers get more information about the community, amenities, proximity to major routes, etc?

Buyers don’t just buy your property. They buy the community, amenities, location, proximity to major routes, transportation, etc. The amount of information allowed by the MLS and real estate listings sites is limited. There is no place to put links or much information about amenities, the nearest shopping centers, major routes, etc.

That is why having a single property site specifically for your property is so important. Your property’s site should provide potential buyers with all the information they need to make an informed decision about not only your property, but the subdivision, town and general area it’s in.

To see what I mean, check out a few of the single property sites I have created for my sellers:

• 21377scaraplace.com
• coloniescondo.com
• 44039risingsun.com

Do yard signs work?

They used to work much better once upon a time than they do today, but they still help. The statistics a few years ago showed that 15 percent of buyers found the property they ultimately bought by seeing the sign in the yard. That statistic is now in the single digits.

Nevertheless, they do still work a bit so having a sign that stands out and mainly provides information about the property, not the agent or brokerage firm is key.

Let me repeat… The sign must stand out and mainly provide information about the property, not the just the agent or brokerage firm.

Too many real estate signs are the same size, just say “For Sale” and have the brokerage firm’s name, agent’s name and contact information in bold lettering – nothing else. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t believe having nothing about the property itself makes a buyer driving down the street say, “Wow! That sounds like a great house on the inside! I want to see it ASAP!”

That’s why a custom signs specific to your property listing is important. Put some photos of the interior of the house on the sign. Point out the main selling points of the property. Share some special features of the property and/or community. Make the sign odd sized. And put a link to your property’s web site. This will make the sign and your property stand out above the rest.

Every sign I create for my listings is unique and specific to the property. All of the things I just mentioned along with some others help my signs stand out and help sell the property. After all, I wasn’t hired to promote myself or my brokerage firm – I was hired to market and sell my clients’ property.

Do Open Houses work?

The answer to this question depends on where you are. If you’re in a market such as New York City, open houses are very effective. In areas such as Northern Virginia, they are not. Statistics shows that about one percent of buyers found they home they ultimately bought through an open house.

So why do agents still do open houses? Because it appeases their clients and they’re afraid to “lose the listing” if they don’t agree to do an open house regardless of whether they’re effective or not. Another reason they do it is to get future listing and buyer leads.

All of your nosy neighbors that come through your open house to see what you have inside, how you’ve decorated and how your property compares to theirs are potential seller/listing clients. Your agent hope to chat with them and get their information at the open house so they have a shot at being hired by your neighbors when they decide to sell their home.

The consumers that go through open houses are typically in the very early stages of house hunting and are usually 6 to 12 months out from actually buying a home. Remember, your target audience is ready, willing and able buyers – not, “not quite ready, not quite willing and not able to buy yet” home browsers.

The next and final part of this three-part mini-series will focus on pricing, which is the most important aspect of selling your home in today’s market.

Related Articles

Home Seller Tips, Part One – “The Three C’s”

GrowSmartBiz Conference – Helping Small Business Owners Grow Their Business

Network Solutions and The University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business have put together the first-ever GrowSmartBiz Conference, a one-day educational conference and networking event featuring renowned small business leaders and well-known industry experts from across the U.S.  I am fortunate to have been chosen as one of the panelists at the conference and am looking very forward to it.

The conference will focus on key areas of business that small businesses view as critical to their success according to the 1,500 small businesses that were interviewed for the Small Business Success Index (SBSI).

The goal of the event is to provide small business owners with the proper tools in today’s marketplace that will best grow their business. The event is being held on Tuesday, September 29, 2009 at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington, D.C.

What topics will be covered?

• Driving Small Business Performance with Marketing & Innovation
• Raising Capital with Effective Finance Strategies
• Staying Ahead in the Current Economy
• Social Media Marketing

Is there a keynote speaker?

• Yes – Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of WIRED magazine, Author of “The Long Tail” and most recently, “Free fame!”

What will you get out of it?

• Insights into best practices of successful small businesses
• Strategies for growth despite the current economy
• Cost-effective ways to market and promote their businesses
• Tips for raising capital
• An opportunity to connect with small business owners, experts, and solution providers

Who should attend?

• Small business owners
• Entrepreneurs
• Aspiring CEOs

For more information, check out the GrowSmartBiz Conference web site, the GrowSmartBiz page on Cvent.com or the Network Solutions’ blog.

To save $100 on registration, click on the GrowSmartBiz  icon/widget located at the bottom of the right hand column of any page on LoudounScene.com.

Home Seller Tips, Part One – “The Three C’s”

This is the first in a three part mini-series for home sellers on how to sell your home for the most amount possible in the shortest amount of time. The first part deals with the “Three C’s” – Cleanliness, Clutter and Cohesiveness.

Cleanliness

If you’ve ever been house hunting, you know how it is to walk into a dirty home. I’ve heard my buyer clients say things such as,

• “Ewwwww”
• “I can’t believe they can live like this”
• “If the house is this dirty, they must not take care of the rest of the house much either”

These are not things that you want potential buyers saying while going through your property.

Here are some of things that my buyer clients say while going through a very clean house…

• “Wow! They really take good care of their home!”
• “The carpets and hardwoods are in great shape!”
• “The house looks much newer than it really is!”

What a difference in buyer perception, isn’t it?

The cleaner your home is, the more attractive your home will be to potential buyer. And the more a buyer will perceive the house being in good shape which translates to the buyer seeing more value in the property and offering a higher price for it.

Clutter

Though your definition of clutter may be different, the definition of clutter when it comes to real estate is,

• No more than one to two items on any one piece of furniture or wall
• Having no more furniture or items in a room than is necessary to fill it up and make it look lived in

An example of the first would be one lamp on a nightstand…or… two items on the fireplace mantle…or…one item on top of the dresser…or…one painting on the outside wall of the family room.

An example of the second would be a medium sized couch in a medium sized room rather than a huge “L” shaped couch that takes up 1/2 of the room’s floor space…or… a small circular table and two chairs in a small eat-in-kitchen rather than a medium-sized square dining room style table with four chairs that takes up the majority of floor space in the eat-in-kitchen and makes it looks formal when it shouldn’t.

Clutter clouds a buyer’s mind and makes them focus on the items creating the clutter rather than property itself. The less a buyer notices the actual property, the less they will remember the good things about it let alone the property itself. This translates to less of a perceived value by the buyer and less of an offer price – if they make an offer at all.

Cohesiveness

Cohesiveness is how well everything flows together throughout the entire property – furniture, decorating, paint schemes, landscaping, outdoor decorations, etc. If things do not flow, buyers will focus more on that then the  physical property itself. This doesn’t help their perceived value of the property and hurts your chances of getting a high offer price.

For example…Buyers are thrown off when one room is burgundy and has contemporary furniture in it while the next room over is burgundy and has traditional or country style furniture.

Stick with one theme and try to make things match as best as possible.

• If you have contemporary furniture in the family room, do the same in the kitchen and dining room
• If you have neutral paint in two of the bedrooms, do the same or something very similar in the other bedroom(s)
• If you have lots of bright flowers and bushes as part of your landscaping in the front of the home, plant some in the back of the home as well

If you would like to find out how your property does in a “Three C’s” test, call or email me – danilo.bogdanovic (at) gmail (dot) com – 703.582.6900. I would be happy to stop by, give you my professional opinion and be of help.

RELATED READING

Home Seller Tips, Part Two – Marketing

Home Seller Tips, Part Three – Pricing (and Reality)

Back To School Funnies

Because Now is Much Better Than Later

An increasing number of blog readers, sellers and buyers have been contacting me for real estate help and advice. I’m glad to help whenever I can, but many contact me after the problem has already occurred. Contacting me after the fact is often times too late – the damage has already been done. Here are two examples…

My parents just relocated from Delaware and bought a house in [city removed for privacy reasons], VA. On their 2nd look at the house they noticed the stove was different than what was pictured on the online listing.

It was at that time their agent then told them the house was “as is”, however, come to discover after the purchase and moving in and comparing the online pictures to the actual home, all of the kitchen appliances were switched, ceiling fans were removed, the replaced dishwasher wasn’t properly attached and hooked up – it leaked and damaged the hardwood flooring, and the upper air unit had serious problems (due to the “fix” the selling agents inspector supposedly made).

They only had limited time to preview homes and were basing their decision largely by the online pics. Anyway, just seems the out of town “old folks” were taken advantage of.

Your wise thoughts are appreciated. Seriously, I value your input. Thx!

“T”

I have a question that I hope you can  answer.

We just purchased a home in Loudon county…we are actually from out of state & were not familliar with any inspectors. Our agent recommended an inspector that she uses all the time. Well, he missed some obvious things such as rotten plywood for the roof & a rotten water damaged  huge window that is totally shot.

Now these are basic things for the envelope of the  house…how could he have missed them?

To top it off I had asked our agent if he was licensed,insured & bonded she said that he wass. I have since found out that he doesn’t carry any liability insurance for  what he misses–he only carries workmens comp for himself. I also have not been able to find his license# & have asked my agent to get it for me  & she has not responded to my request.

What would your recommendation be at this point? Should we file a claim with the Real Estate firm for sending us to someone who quite possibly is unlicensed & definitely not insured properly? I do not feel properly represented by our agent.

“A“

Though I would love to help “T” and “A” as well as everyone else who has contacted me, I can’t always do so. In “T’s” parents’ situation,  the problem could have been avoided had I been involved in the process in the beginning. But now, they have to battle it out with the real estate broker, lawyers, etc. The same holds true for “A” and her situation.

In many other similar situations, many folks are already working with a real estate agent and/or they are too far into the process and can’t go back and fix the issues that are costing them money and grief now.

Avoid getting yourself into the same situation as these and other sellers and buyers have. And avoid paying the price that they now are (literally and figuratively).

If you’re considering selling your house or purchasing a home in today’s market, allow me to help you now – because now is much better than later.

Click here to contact me now.

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