If you’ve ever searched for a home whether to buy or just seeing what’s out there, you’ve read the various remarks describing each property. And you may have noticed that some remarks/descriptions are more factual based while others are more descriptive and use a lot of adjectives…or as I like to call it, “fluff”. Facts are good, but you should be wary of fluff.

What are facts and what is fluff when it comes to listing remarks/descriptions?

Here is an example of a fact-based description/listing remarks…

This 4 BR, 2.5 BA, 3 level brick front town home has been renovated/updated throughout – kitchen, basement, bathrooms, fixtures, appliances, flooring, paint, landscaping, etc. Town home is in back of circle and backs to trees/common area. Fully finished walk-out basement, fenced in backyard w/brick patio & veg/flower garden. 2 assigned parking spaces + visitor spots. Comes w/home warranty policy.

And here is an example of a fluff-based description/listing remarks…

This charming rambler is a perfect 10! Great fully finished basement and incredible den/study attic. Closets galore! Private patio oasis out back. Backyard to die for! Your clients will be more than pleased.

See the difference?

Now why should you be wary of a “fluff” description like the one above? Let me tell you from first hand experience that the property with the “fluff” listing above was,

1. not charming
2. was not even close to being a perfect 10 (more like a 5)
3. the basement was far from great
4. the den/study attic was far from incredible
5. it had just an average number of closets for a rambler built in that year
6. the patio was far from being an oasis
7. the backyard was small, severely sloped toward the back of the house and needed serious landscaping help
8. and my clients were less than pleased (aka ticked off) that they wasted their time and mine going to see the property.

Speaking from experience and in talking with other agents and buyers, I can tell you that the greater the number of adjectives (descriptive words such as “great”, “beautiful”, etc), typically the worse the condition of the property is as compared to the description and the worse the let down is when a buyer sees the property in person.

Remember folks…the listing remarks/descriptions are written by either the seller or the listing agent (typically the listing agent). The listing agent’s goal is to get you to see the property in person and then to submit an offer. Some agents seem to believe that “fluff” will get both of these goals accomplished which is why you see so many “descriptive” words being used in descriptions. The problem with that theory is that the description may get buyers to come through the door, but then the buyers are ticked off that the description was a bunch of you-know-what and submitting an offer is the furthest thing from the buyer’s mind.

I’m not saying you or any other buyer should totally avoid listings that have such descriptions. Just be aware of what may happen and don’t get your hopes up only to be let down.

TIP: If you see a home for sale with a lot of fluff in the description, have your buyer’s agent preview the property on their own and report their findings back to you. That way, you avoid wasting your time going to see a property which won’t work for you.

On a related note…if you’re a seller that thinks fluff will get you an offer or you’re working with a listing agent that wants to use a lot of fluff or embellish, know that buyers and buyer’s agent are cautious and often turned off by such remarks. Be honest, straight forward and “wow” buyers with (real) photos of your property showing them how awesome it is. If you’re property is “beautiful” and “to die for”, the property will speak for itself.

There’s a lot for me to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. One of those things is you – those of you reading this post and my blog in general and past, current and future clients.

You have taken time out of your day to read my blogs, make comments, provide feedback and contact me both online and offline.

You have and continue to trust me to represent you and guide you through the process of buying and selling your home.

You connect me with friends, family and co-workers who are thinking of buying or selling their home because you trust I can help them.

For this and many other reasons, I am grateful to you.

To sum it up in one word…

“Thanks!”

Sincerely,

Danilo

It’s been a pretty busy past week or so when it comes to news affecting Loudoun County home buyers and sellers.  In case you missed it, here’s a summary…

Loudoun Board approves new metro rail deal – But the metro rail is still not set in stone…Loudoun County still has until late next year to fully commit or back out. Whether the metro rail comes to Loudoun has huge implications on local real estate.

Loudoun supervisors must decide on Raspberry Falls pipeline by May 2012 – The fate of  Raspberry Falls (and home owners within the community) is now in the hands of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors.

Loudoun County Public Schools’ Planning and Legislative Services Department proposes new attendance zones for Leesburg area schools – This is a “lively” debate to say the least for a variety of reasons some of which are real estate related.

Loudoun County physics teacher charged with being drunk in public at J. Michael Lunsford Middle School in South Riding – School quality/reputation plays a big part in the decision making process for many Loudoun home buyers so you can see why this can affect real estate in South Riding.

And I’m sorry to bring this up… Don’t forget that property taxes are due December 5.

Many home buyers have questions about new construction homes versus existing homes. One such question was posted by David on Trulia’s Q&A section…

New and used prices on comparable homes, in my area, are the same (Northern VA). Are there advantages of buying an older home, besides immediate possession?

Here is my $0.02 on the subject (which is also the answer I posted on Trulia)…

The prices may be the same, but what you get for your money is not the same. You will pay a premium for having a new construction home over an existing home. Why? Because it’s new.

It’s similar to buying a car – you can pay about $45K for a brand new fully loaded Mercedes C350 or you can pay the same for an excellent condition, 4 year old, decent mileage S550. Some people will go for C350 while others will go the S550 – it’s personal preference.

Regardless of which you may think you would rather go for, you should check out all your options. Have your Buyer’s Agent get you all of the info on all new construction builders/communities in your price point in the areas you’re interested in. Have them take you to see the model homes (some builders have models located in communities other than the ones you’re interested in). Have your Buyer’s Agent give you a list of all the current builder incentives, lot releases, etc. And have your Buyer’s Agent give you the inside scoop on their and their clients’ experiences with each builder in the area whether it be a local or nation builder with local presence.

As far as advantages of one versus the other…new homes are just that, new. The new smell, the lack of wear and tear, you getting to choose where everything goes (i.e. outlets, ceiling fans, HDMI points), you getting somewhat of a choice of the look and color of cabinets, etc. You also get the builder’s warranty.

The disadvantages are that you have to deal with all of the construction around you until they finish the community, the switch of the HOA from the builder to the future HOA management, the settling of the house (i.e. nail pops, dry wall tape, etc) and what some say to be lesser construction and attention to detail than “how they used to build them”.

As for existing homes, the house has already settled and the previous owner(s) have more than likely addressed those issues. You may also find than an existing older home has been renovated with higher quality materials and looks better than a new home for the same price.

For example…your new home has builders’ “level 1″ granite, decent cherry cabinets, their standard hardwood floors and the typical builder secondary bathrooms choice of materials. But the resale home has really expensive and awesome looking granite, top of the line cherry cabinets and high-end, wide plank hardwood floors and the secondary bathrooms have been renovated with top of the line contemporary vanities including granite and cabinets, awesome and expensive tile work (floor and walls), top of the line fixtures/faucet, etc.

There’s more to it than just this, but this gives you an idea of some of the differences and just how much there really is to consider. If you would like to chat in more detail about the rest of the differences and what to consider, give me a call or email me anytime. I have worked with many new construction homes in Loudoun County and stay in constant contact with sales reps at all of the new (and future) new home communities and developments in the area.

P.S. This is David’s reply to my answer: “I really appreciate your comprehensive reply to the question I posted on trulia. I would like to talk with you more. I have been prequalified for a VA loan and am looking for a home in Western Loudoun County. Can we talk? 571-XXX-XXXX”

If those of you reading this would also like to speak in more detail about this, don’t hesitate to contact me.

-Danilo

It’s that dreaded day of the year…the day after Halloween when all of the leftover candy is saying, “Eat me!”, but your waist line is telling you to throw all of the candy away. I feel your pain. But it’s also the day when you should winterize your home.

Much like your waist line is telling you to throw away the candy, your pocket book is telling you to follow these steps in order to avoid thousands of dollars of unwanted (and unnecessary) repair bills in the near future…

1. Winterize your hose bibs. It takes about 5 minutes (literally). Turn the water off to all of your exterior hose bibs by turning the valves inside of your home to the off position. Go outside and turn the valves to the on position on all of your exterior hose bibs so the water drains out of them. And don’t forget to disconnect your garden hoses from the hose bibs and put them in your garage. This helps guard against pipes bursting which can lead to thousands of dollars in repair bills.
2. Have your heating system inspected to make sure it’s working correctly. Better to find out you need something repaired now than in the middle of winter.
3. Clean your gutters. As soon as the all of the trees around your house are without leaves, get it done. Gutter with leaves still in them in the winter can lead to poor drainage, basement leaks and gutters falling off your roof thanks to water which has been trapped by the leaves turning into much heavier ice.
4. Adjust your ducts. In the summer, you want the vents in the upper parts of your home wide open and the ducts in the lower parts of your home slightly open or even closed because cold air falls. In the winter, you want the ducts in the lower parts of your home wide open and the ducts in the upper parts of your home slightly open or even closed because hot air rises.
5. Reverse your fans. In the summer, you want your fans “pulling” the cold air up. In the winter, you want your fans “pushing” the hot air down.
6. Check your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. Make sure they work. If your alarms use batteries, now may be a good time to change out the batteries for a set of new ones. Better safe than sorry.
7. Have your chimney inspected especially if you use your fireplace. You’d be surprised to find out what made it into your chimney since the last time you had it checked. I’ve heard of birds, squirrels, tennis balls…and the list goes on. Anything in your chimney that shouldn’t be there is a fire risk.
8. Think about getting a humidifier especially if you have hardwood floors. Hardwood expands and contracts as the temperature and level of humidity rises and drops. After several years of the hardwood expanding and contracting, you will start to see gaps and possibly even cracks in your hardwood. The winter months and your heating system lead to low humidity levels which is not good for your hardwood. If you have lots of hardwood, think about getting a complete house system which is installed directly into your heating system. If you have hardwood in only one or just a few rooms, think about getting a small, stand-alone humidifier for those areas.
9. Get a battery back up for your sump pump. Nothing worse than having your power go out due to a bad snow or ice storm and them watching your basement flood as the snow/ice melts because your sump pump isn’t working. You can either get a separate sump pump with a built in battery back-up or just a battery back up which goes in between your existing sump pump and the wall outlet. If you’re not the electronics/handyman type, don’t worry…there is plenty of info on the subject (click here for an example).
10. Get your shovel and salt ready now. Don’t be like most people who run to Home Depot or Lowe’s after the snow has already started to fall. By having both ready now, you’ll avoid the day-of-the-snow full parking lots, long check-out lines and then hearing, “sorry, we don’t have any more shovels or salt in stock”.

Two important pieces of the marketing puzzle are web appeal and curb appeal. Getting both right is key to selling your home for top dollar in today’s market. I discussed web appeal in an earlier post entitled, “Web Appeal – Your Home’s First Impression to Buyers” (click on title to read). Today, we’re going to look at curb appeal.

Curb appeal sets the tone and attracts (or deters) home buyers. It makes your home stand out from the competition – hopefully in a good way. If done properly, it informs and attracts those just driving by as well as buyers/agents pulling up in their car to see the property in person. If done incorrectly, it will deter potential buyers and make your competition (aka similar homes for sale in the area) appear better and more appealing than yours which usually leads to the buyer placing an offer on your neighbor’s home rather than yours.

How do you go about getting an A+ grade on your home’s curb appeal? The same way you would go about getting your ready to sell. Give it a full detail. You won’t get top dollar of your car is dirty and doesn’t look well maintained. The same goes for your home.

Here’s a partial list of what should be done…

• power wash the exterior
• replace any damaged siding, bricks, wood, etc.
• give your home a landscaping facelift (mulch, shrubs, flowers, trees, grass, etc)
• fresh coat of paint if applicable
• bay and other window frames, shutter touch-up
• power wash (and possibly re-seal/stain) the deck

There’s more, but this gives you an idea of what I’m talking about.

One part of curb appeal which few agents/brokers talk about is the yard sign in the front yard. Why don’t they talk about it? Because the typical agent/broker yard sign does absolutely nothing to increase the curb appeal. In some cases, it detracts from the home’s curb appeal.

The typical agent/broker yard sign gives buyers only the following information…

• brokerage name and phone number
• agent name and phone number

The irony of it is that we, as agents and brokers are hired by you to market your home in the most effective manner possible in order to attract a ready, willing and able buyer with an offer acceptable to your terms. The bad news is that the typical yard sign gives no information about the property whatsoever which does nothing to attract a buyer which, in turn, does nothing to help sell your home.

The good news is that you don’t have to settle for the norm nor anything less than top of the line. Here’s why…

 

This is one example of a custom yard sign I made for a recent listing of mine. Here’s what this sign includes that others do not…

• price
• photos of the interior
• number of bedrooms and bathrooms
• description of other key interior features
• custom property web site URL

Why is this stuff on the sign? Because this is the type of information that buyers want and they want it right then and there. And as the saying goes, “If you got it, flaunt it” – inform potential buyers driving/walking by about your home, what it’s best features are and make them say, “I want to see this house!” This is key, because getting a buyer to want to see your home in person is the first step in getting an offer in your hands.

In the case of this particular listing, while the sitting at the settlement table, the buyer said, “We pulled up to the house and said, ‘Wow, that’s an awesome sign!’” That’s the kind of stuff that will make a buyer remember your home over others (i.e. “the home with the awesome sign”) which plays a part in getting your home sold for top dollar.

The bottom line is this… If you want to sell your home for top dollar in today’s market, you must have excellent and “stand out from the rest” web appeal and curb appeal. If you don’t your home will sit on the market while those around you sell or you lower the price. If your home’s web appeal and curb appeal is better than the rest, your yard sign will look like this,

 

If you haven’t heard the news, mortgage rates hit new historical lows this week. Depending on the area you’re in and your credit worthiness, mortgage rates are at 4 percent, if not under 4 percent. That’s just cheap money – plain and simple.

Not only are mortgage rates at all time lows, monthly payment amounts have come down substantially since the beginning of the year. Check it out…

Mortgage payments based on the conforming loan limit of $417,000 are now 9% cheaper as compared to the start of the year:

• January 2011 : A $417,000 mortgage cost $2,180.30 per month
• October 2011 : A $417,000 mortgage cost $1,976.42 per month

That’s over $200 per month saved for bills, home repairs, eating out or your vacation fund.

In addition to record-low mortgage rates and lower monthly payments, lenders are beginning to increase the number and types of financing options available to borrowers.

For example, I recently received an offer on a listing and could hardly believe my eyes…the buyer’s lender letter stated the type of loan as being “100% financing, no PMI”! Now this lender letter wasn’t from just any mom-and-pop mortgage shop – it was BB&T.

I could hardly believe it so I called the loan officer to verify and get the 411 on the loan program. Here’s the scoop,

• It’s a BB&T in-house program
• 100% financing
• no PMI (mortgage insurance)
• credit score of at least 660
• little or no credit history OK
• income cap of $84K based on the property being in Loudoun County, VA
• interest rate, points and closing costs were competitive with traditional financing programs

In case you’re wondering, “What’s the catch?” (I did too)…there’s no catch. There were no “hidden fees” and no last-minute hurdles for the buyer (or seller). We settled on time with no problems. At settlement, the buyer told me they were extremely satisfied with the entire financing process.

This is just one example of how lenders are easing their restraints on financing. I am by no means saying nor wishing that lenders get as lax as they did 2003 through 2006. But I am happy that they’re getting away from the overly-strict lending guidelines of the latter part of the last decade.

With mortgage money being cheaper than ever and financing options becoming more abundant, you’ve got a lot of good things going for you if you’re in the market to sell or buy a home. If you would like to discuss your financing options in more detail, click here to contact me and I will send you names of some great lenders so you can pick their brains and see what’s available to you.

photo credit

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Many factors go into selling your home, two of them being web appeal and curb appeal. In the first part of this two part series, we’re going to talk about web appeal. How important is web appeal? The COO of Zillow, Spencer Rascoff said it well in an article on ABCNews,

Sellers used to have to worry about curb appeal: How does the grass look, etc. Now a seller needs to worry about Web Appeal: When a buyer is browsing on the Web, what is their first impression.

With over 90 percent of local home buyers saying that they start their search for homes online, there’s a 90 percent chance that a home buyer’s very first impression of your home will be what they see of it online.

If your home makes a lousy first impression on the web, the chance of a home buyer coming to see your home in person is seriously diminished. And if a buyer doesn’t see your home in person, there’s about a zero percent chance that buyer is going to buy it.

Are you starting to follow me now?

So how do you get your home to make an A+ first impression and have awesome web appeal? Take full advantage of every possible aspect of online marketing. And I’m not just talking about some photos, a generic virtual tour and a few search platforms. I’m talking about great photos, video, virtual tours/shows, e-flyers, directories, a custom property web site, blog posts, aggregating your listing to all pertinent search platforms and using as many available tools as possible to expose your property to potential buyers.

Ask yourself the following,

• Does my listing include a virtual tour/show?
• Were the photos professionally done and edited before going up on the web?
• Do I have at least 30 photos of my property and subdivision/community up on the web?
• Is my listing aggregated to all of the pertinent search platforms buyers use to search for home for sale?
• Does my home have a custom single property web site?
• Is my custom single property web site as in-depth and clean yet, robust as this – http://45BerkeleyCt.com?
• Do I have the proper SEO and visitor tracking/analytics built in to my custom single property web site?
• Is social media (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, blogs, YouTube, etc) a part of my home’s/listing agent’s marketing plan?

There’s more to it than just the examples above. But, if you answered anything but “yes” to all of the basic examples above, you have not taken advantage of all of the available tools to expose your home to potential buyers nor have you done so in the most appealing way. And that will cost you grief, stress and money by increasing the time it takes you to sell your home and decreasing the amount of money it sells for.

This is why I take online marketing very seriously – and so should you. New platforms and methods of marketing come out regularly and I make sure to stay on top of them and constantly learn in order to provide the best possible service to my clients. Real estate is no longer just about knowing a neighborhood or properly negotiating a contract…staying on top of technology and successfully marketing a property in today’s environment is key.

The next part of this two part series talks about curb appeal, another key component to successfully selling your home. Keep an eye out for it next week.

There are many pieces to the puzzle when selling your home in today’s market. Two of them are web appeal and curb appeal. Both are extremely important and should be a main focus when selling your home. If either are not done well, you may turn away potential buyers and/or get a lower priced offer than you had hoped for.

Web Appeal

If your home’s web appeal is not A+, your home will fall into the “possibilities” and “discarded” folders of buyers’ searches. If your home stands out from the crowd and makes buyers say, “That looks nice!”, then your home goes into the “favorites” or “must see” folders.

Speaking from experience along with countless studies done on the topic, if your home is not in the top 3 to 5 of a buyers’ “favorites” folder, the buyer will most likely not want to see your home in person. And you can’t sell a home to a buyer who doesn’t come to see the home in person.

Curb Appeal

Once a buyer drives past your home or arrives to see it in person, your curb appeal is your home’s first impression to the buyer. The first impression can attract or deter the buyer within a matter of seconds. If your curb appeal is lower than an A+, someone driving past your home may say, “Bleh. The other house around the corner looks better”.

And someone coming to see the house in person will have a less than positive outlook on the entire property if the curb appeal isn’t excellent. You may either deter a potential buyer from seeing (and buying) the house or you may lose money because anything negative equals less money that a buyer will offer.

If you have your home on the market or about to put your home on the market, what grade would your home get for web appeal and curb appeal? If it’s not an A+, there’s something wrong. No, getting an A+ in web appeal and curb appeal is not like acing a master’s level class. And it can be done by even the busiest of sellers and listing agents.

So how do you get an A+ in web appeal and curb appeal? I’m going to go into detail about web appeal and curb appeal each in a separate blog post. The blog posts will be coming out over the next 10 days so grab the RSS feed, add this blog to your Google home page/reader/Google+ or other service you are using or just check back.

Regardless of how you access the posts, make sure you read them. Though the posts are free for everyone to read, what you get out of reading them may be the difference in whether you sell your home or not and/or may make you thousands of extra dollars when selling your home.

Want to go to the Capital Home Show this week? Is money tight? Don’t worry…I gotcha covered! I have tickets to the Capital Home Show which I am giving away for free to clients and LoudounScene.com and LoudounForeclosures.com readers.

“Nothing in life is free!”, you say? You’re right. Here’s what I ask in return…

1) I have a limited supply of tickets and they’re first-come, first-serve so if I don’t have any more left when you contact me, please don’t be angry with me

2) When contacting me, you have to give me your real name, home address, working phone number and actual email and have to be OK with hearing from me once in a while regarding what’s going on with the local real estate market

If you’re still interested, click here to contact me for your free Capital Home Show tickets. And don’t forget to put in your home address so I can either mail them to you or drop them off at your front door (I will drop them off to you as long as you live in Northern VA and not somewhere like Richmond).