“Local Explorer” Good Source Of Info About Loudoun County Area, Schools, Home Sales, Crime

If you’re moving to or new to Loudoun County and don’t know where many things are or want information about the area in general, check out The Washington Post’s Local Explorer. Type in a specific address such as "43330 Junction Plaza Ashburn, VA" or just "Ashburn, VA" and you can find information on places in the area, schools, recent home sales and crime, all on a map. Local Explorer also has facts and figures, local news, classifieds and upcoming events that will help take you further inside area communities. It’s a good tool for anyone moving or new to Loudoun County as well as those already in the area looking for information.

Related Articles:

Links To Loudoun County Communities And Home Owner’s Associations

Resources (Other Than Real Estate) For Loudoun County, Virginia

Moving To Loudoun County, Virginia? How Far Will Your Salary Go?

Sorry, I Can’t Tell You That

Links To Loudoun County Communities and Home Owner’s Associations

Perhaps you’re new to Loudoun County, Virginia and would like to know more about the various communities and Home Owner Associations in the county. Or maybe you’re moving within the county and aren’t too familiar with your future community or HOA. Whatever the reason may be, here are links to resources on all the HOAs and communities in Loudoun County that have sites:

• Ashburn
• Ashburn Farm
• Ashburn Manor
• Ashburn Village
• Belmont Country Club
• Belmont Greene
• Brambleton
• Broad Run Farms
• Broadlands
• Cabin Branch Forest
• Cardinal Glen
• Cascades
• Countryside
• Courts and Ridges at Ashburn
• Edwards Landing
• Exeter
• Falls Ridge
• Farmwell Hunt (site under construction-coming soon)
• Kincaid Forest
• Lansdowne on the Potomac
• Lucketts
• Potomac Crossing
• Potomac Station
• Richland Forest
• River Creek
• Rivercrest
• Spring Lakes
• South Riding
• Tavistock Farms
• Waterford

If you would like information on areas not listed above, just let us know and we’ll provide that to you.

Resources (other than real estate) For Loudoun County, Virginia

For those of you living in Loudoun County and selling or buying within, you probably already know what Loudoun County has to offer. But if you’re relocating to the area, you may not. And being that the numbers, stats and data this blog routinely covers are not the only deciding factor when it comes to moving to Loudoun County, here is a list of additional resources to help you with your decision or give you new ideas on things to do or places to check out on the weekends.

• Official visitor web site for Loudoun County, Virginia – covers everything from shopping and dining to wine festivals and fairs, even a wedding guide. The guides are available in hard copy or pdf files.
• Loudoun County, Virginia – Wikipedia – includes a history and background of Loudoun County and is loaded with links to other resources.
• Loudoun County Public Schools – Kindergarten through 12th. Includes school boundaries, stats, etc.
• Dulles South Online – online portal for news, information and listings for Loudoun County Dulles Region (Dulles South) businesses, organizations and residents, focusing mainly on economic, public policy and community development topics and issues.
• Loudoun County Government Site – Covers everything from transportation and taxes to utilites and art/cultural events.
• Loudoun County Communities/Home Owners Associations – links to all the communities/HOAs in Loudoun (on the Loudoun County government site).
• W&OD Trail – a trail going from Arlington, VA to Purcellville, VA used for biking, walking, roller blading, etc. The setting for numerous charity events during the spring, summer and fall.
• Loudoun County Public Library – available to all residents of Loudoun County. Used by local businesses and residents for various seminars throughout the year.
• For a map of Loudoun County and surrounding areas, check out MSN Live’s mapping feature. Just input a particular city within Loudoun County (i.e. Ashburn, Virginia) at the top of the page and zoom in or out from there. Definitely check out the Bird’s Eye View feature (located immediately to the right of the zoom feature on the left side of the map) to get a clear view down to even the car in driveway of a house.

Hope that this is of use to those of you contemplating moving to the area or those who are already here, but haven’t had the time to really check out what’s going on in the county. And if there is something that you are looking for, but can’t find through the sources listed above, please let us know and we’ll find it for you.

Loudoun County Foreclosure/Bank Owned Property Update

As of this morning, the percentage of properties for sale that are in foreclosure/bank owned in Loudoun County, specifically Ashburn, Sterling and Leesburg is:

• Ashburn – 5 percent
• Sterling – 11 percent
• Leesburg – 11 percent

This is an increase over last month and the highest in several years.

One reason why the perecentage is increasing is because we’re looking at the active properties. More new foreclosures are coming on the market than are selling.

These bank owned foreclosures are not selling nearly as quickly as the other properties because they are not yet priced at a point that makes them very appealing to investors or home buyers. Once you factor in what it would cost to bring them up to the standards of comparable properties, you’re just below or at the same total cost. The difference is that you can just buy a move-in condition property and save yourself the time and hassle of getting contractors out to fix it.

Now, as far as a rental investment, there are some that are appealing. With the amount of rent you can bring in based on the current rental market along with the price point and the monthly payment based on a 20 percent down investor loan, you would break even if not have positive cash flow. But once again, we go back to having to spend the time and energy to fix it up along with at least one if not two months worth of carrying costs (PITI and HOA dues). It seems that most investors that are in it for the long haul (rentals) are not willing to spend this kind of time and energy.

The reason why these foreclosures are still not priced aggressively enough is that the banks have not been beat up enough to drop the price to where the market will absorb them. Once they carry these properties for an extended period of time and the number of foreclosure they have goes up even more, they may start to realize that they need to adjust the prices in order to get the properties off their books.

Time will soon start taking its toll on banks though. We’ll start seeing foreclosures/bank owned properties coming down in price and banks will start accepting offers that they’re currently rejecting because they’re "too low".

Foreclosures, Pre-Foreclosures, Bank-Owned and Short Sales in Eastern Loudoun County

Two topics dominating real estate headlines over the last couple of weeks have been Foreclosure Rates and Subprime Lending.  This post deals with foreclosures and the other various stages of financial distress regarding home ownership such as pre-foreclosure, short sales and bank-owned and how it’s affecting Eastern Loudoun County. 

First a definition of the four common terms used by real estate professionals when talking about financial distress:

• The main one is Foreclosure.  In layman’s terms, this means that the owners of a property fell behind on payments and the bank or mortgage company has decided to sell the house to pay off the loan.  There are plenty of other more comprehensive definitions, but you get the point. 
• Pre-foreclosure is a term used to describe a situation where the owners have fallen behind and the bank or mortgage company has started the process of foreclosure but has not yet auctioned it off.  The owners are trying to sell the property before the bank actually forecloses.
• In some cases the owner tries to sell the house before foreclosure but the house is no longer worth as much as the loans on the property.  In this instance, the owner is trying to do a Short-sale.  Sometimes banks will authorize this if the costs for foreclosing are more than the loss that will be incurred in the Short-sale.  It’s sometimes the lesser of two evils.
• Bank-owned property are also known as Real Estate Owned (REOs).  These are properties that have gone through the foreclosure process and an auction, but neither brought anybody willing to pay more than what the bank was willing to pay to protect its original loan.  Therefore the bank bought the house and is now trying to sell it.

Now the question is how many of these distressed properties are on the market here in Eastern Loudoun County and what effect does that have on real estate market values. 

In Ashburn, there are about 22 homes that are in one of the various stages of distress.  This represents about 5% of the total listings.  A closer look at the properties shows very few of the homes appear to be priced significantly below market value.  And when considering that most of these properties have an AS-IS clause that precludes the seller from making any repairs, the prices are very much in line with current market valuations. 

In most cases the list prices of the distressed properties are actually higher than other properties and because of this they are lingering on the market for hundreds of days.  This can be attributed to a number of factors.  Agent knowledge, market conditions, property conditions,  seller indifference, etc. 

A closer look at the properties shows a number of interesting facts.  The list prices of the distressed properties in Ashburn range from $309,000, up to $1,195,000 with no price range being inundated with distressed properties.  There are also no more than 5 distressed homes in one community so the properties are not concentrated geographically within Ashburn.

The level of distressed properties in both Sterling and Leesburg is approximately 60.  This represents almost 10% of the available listings in both areas.  Also, 60% of the Leesburg distressed listings and over 70% of the Sterling distressed listings are priced below $400,000.  This indicates that many of the first time buyers who tried to stretch in order to get into a house during the boom have found the payments are now beyond their means. 

Fortunately, first time buyers make up about 40% of the buying activity so these properties will more than likely be snatched up by the next wave of first time buyers.  Or investors who have been on the sidelines for much of the last 2 years will step in and establish support.

Loudoun County Real Estate – The Word On The Street

You read the data, you see the graphs and you hear and watch the media comment on the local real estate market in Loudoun County. But what are the active sellers, buyers and real estate professionals saying?

The comments being made by Buyers:

1. "There’s not much to choose from!"
2. "Why are the last three we saw so overpriced?"
3. "I want move-in-condition, but there aren’t many that are."
4. "This property sold in 4 days, but so many have been on the market for 4, 6 or even 12 months."
5. "We can totally beat up every seller out there because _____________ (add in a comment based on an incorrect comment by the media or someone not in real estate)."

Translation/explanation:

1. The inventory is at the lowest point since the peak in the summer of 2005 so there’s not much to choose from.
2. Over 75 percent of the properties currently on the market are overpriced.
3. Sellers may still think that just putting their home on the market will be enough, which is incorrect. Buyers are more knowledgeable and pickier than ever.
4. The properties that are of the best value are the first to sell. With so many homes overpriced and showing poorly, buyers are acting quickly when they come across a "diamond in the rough".
5. The media is typically 6 to 9 or months behind the curve.  What was true last summer or fall is no longer the case. Yes, you can still get great deals and negotiate, but the market is more balanced than it has been in two years.

The comments being made by Sellers:

1. "My home is worth more than my neighbor’s one because ____________ (add in an emotional based comment)."
2. "I can’t get a straight answer from my listing agent on what I should do to sell my house."
3. "The comps from summer and fall of 2006 and the tax assessment clearly show that my home is worth ________ (add in a price higher than today’s market value)."
4. "How come I’m not getting any buyers through?"
5. "How come I’m getting traffic, but no offers?"
6. "I’m glad that I priced the home where I did so that is sold in 30 days!"

Translation/explanation:

1. Sellers are trying to make logical and factual decisions based on emotion. Yes, it’s emotional to sell your "home". But in the end, it’s still a product.
2. Some listing agents are either uninformed, scared to say the truth for fear of insulting the sellers or losing the listing or like to keep the sign in the ground in order to generate more buyer leads. The listing agent’s relationship with their sellers should be based on honesty. It’s better for everyone if the agent were to tell their client what they need to hear, not what they want to hear.
3. Comps older than 3 months are worthless in a changing market. And 2006 tax assessments are not indicative of today’s market values because they are from the beginning of 2006 when property values were 10 to 15 percent higher than today.
4. The most common reason that there haven’t been any buyers through a home is that the property is overpriced. Being off even $15,000 in price may lead to not a have even one buyer through. Other reasons may be that the listing doesn’t have any pictures on the MLS or other sites and/or the information is incorrect and is therefore being overlooked by buyers.
5. Your asking price is close to the market value, but not quite where it should be. Good news is that you’re almost there, but you’d better act quickly before your neighbor comes on and undercuts you and your market value becomes even less.
6. The home was priced correctly and therefore sold! With the first 60 days on the market being the most critical, pricing your home correctly is key. Once 60 days go by, buyers will begin to view your home negatively ("Something must be wrong with the property otherwise it would have sold already").

The comments being made by Agents/Brokers:

1. "There are only 5 properties that fit my buyer’s needs that are of great value in all of Ashburn."
2. "An undervalued property that shows well that fits my buyer’s needs?! Quick, let me call my client immediately because it won’t last long!"
3. "I need to just tell the sellers that I can get the price they’re looking for because I need the listing and the sign in the ground for the advertising and seller and buyer leads."
4. "I can’t sell your home for that much because the market value is __________ (add is a lower amount). So you don’t want to use me as your listing agent because of that? Ok. Good luck!"
5. "I can’t get my clients to adjust the price to market value even after the same model in better condition down the street just sold for $20K less!"

Translation/explanation:

1. Great deals are few and far between. Finding the best valued properties is not an easy task these days.
2. With buyers all looking for the best deal, chances are that you’re not the only agent or buyer that ran across this great deal. Buyers and sellers are even seeing multiple offers (I personally know of 4 instances in the last 2 months that had between 2 and 8 competing offers). The early bird catches the worm!
3. I call this "Buying A Listing". The agent/broker is lying to the seller, putting their own interests before those of their client and is hurting all consumers as well as fellow agents/brokers. It does absolutely no one any good especially the seller. I personally think that this practice should be punishable by a heavy fine to the agent and their supervising broker, suspension of the agent’s license and possible license revokation.
4. This is what an agent/broker should say rather than "Buying A Listing". No matter how good of a salesperson you are, you can’t sell something worth $500K for $600K. Consumers are armed with more tools and information than ever before. It’s easy for consumers to see that a property is overpriced even from just searching Realtor.com, Homesdatabase.com or any MLS Listing Search/IDX feed.
5. If, from the start, you had devised and agreed on a clear game plan that also addresses the issue of your neighbor undercutting your price, you would have no problem taking the proper course of action. If you didn’t do this, get all your comps and data together and clearly explain the market conditions and how they will effect your clients – you owe it to them and yourself. If they still don’t get it, you may have not been clear and/or had enough data. If you did everything you could and they still don’t get it, you may want to cut your losses and move on. Yes, I mean fire your client. It may sound ludicrous especially with the market being extremely slow for most agents, but don’t ever forget the 80/20 rule.

To sum it up:

Buyers  -  Don’t get discouraged. Though they’re few and far between, there are great deals out there. Just make sure that you and/or your agent is finding these deals for you and act swiftly once you find them.

Sellers  -  Price your home correctly and choose an experienced and honest (if not painfully blunt) local agent/broker to sell your property. If you don’t, you will just sit on the market and watch your market value diminish while your competition sells. 

Agents/Brokers  -  Do your homework, know what the hyper-local market conditions are, be honest and upfront from the start regardless of your fear of rejection and refuse to take a listing that you know will not sell at the pie-in-the-sky price the seller wants.

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