Web Appeal – Your Home’s First Impression to Buyers

 

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.

What Happens if Loudoun Backs Out of the Dulles Metrorail Project?

Loudoun County is considering backing out of the Dulles Metrorail project. More specifically, Loudoun may back out of the last two planned stops on the Silver Line in Loudoun County- Route 606 and Route 772. If this happens, it will have a huge impact on Loudoun, its’ residents and home values.

Why is Loudoun County considering backing out of the Dulles Rail project?

• Loudoun officials want an above ground station at Dulles Airport far from the actual terminal versus MWAA’s more expensive $300 million underground station that drops passengers close to the main terminal.
• This additional cost is on top of the already $1 billion dollar increase in costs to the project. And costs could very well go up even more as the project moves forward.
• Loudoun is responsible for 4.6 percent of costs associated with the building of the project
• Due to the additional costs, tolls would rise to $6.75 (one way) with Federal financing and $10.75 (one way) without Federal financing

What happens to the Dulles Rail project and stations within Loudoun if Loudoun backs out?

• The last two stops on the Silver Line would be scrapped and the Metrorail would end at Dulles Airport
• Since the Dulles Airport station is in Loudoun County, Loudoun will still be responsible for the operation and maintenance of the airport station
• Parking at and around Dulles Airport would be affected – the proposed neighboring Route 606 Metrorail station would have provided parking garages with 6,000 parking spaces

The affect on Loudoun, its’ residents and home value if Loudoun back outs of the Dulles Rail project…

Developments well into (and even beyond) the planning and approval phases will be greatly scaled back if not scrapped altogether. We are talking about millions of dollars and thousands of man hours already spent only to be thrown away at the 11th hour.

We are also talking about Loudoun sending this message to Comstock, Claude Moore Foundation and other developers,
“Don’t take our word for anything. We may just change our minds at the last minute and leave you out to dry.”
This negative stigma will reputation will stick around Loudoun for many years to come. If you think that this may not affect you as a homeowner, think again…

The majority of Loudoun’s tax base comes from residential property taxes (aka homeowners). If the corporate/business tax base increases, the tax burden on homeowners would decrease. If the corporate/business tax base stays the same or goes down, the tax burden on homeowners will increase.

Furthermore, all of the cool developments, their amenities and positive affects on home values be no more. Just look at the affect metro had on Arlington back in the day and is having on Tyson’s and Reston today…

Once the metro came out to Arlington, property values went up. Arlington became a desirable place to live and has further prospered as an easily accessible area with developments and amenities galore.

Fast forward to Tyson’s and Reston today…property values in both areas started going up well before the rest of NoVA showed any signs of stabilization or recovery. I can give you countless examples of property values going up 10 to 30 percent over the last 18 months around the future Metrorail stations including roads and arteries to/from the Tyson’s and Reston stations. I highly doubt we would be seeing this type of appreciation without the metro.

Coincidence or not?

Is it mere coincidence or is thanks to the proposed metro stations at Route 606 and Route 772 that Brambleton, Loudoun Valley Estates, South Riding, Stone Ridge and other neighboring communities have seen sales go through the roof and values hold strong over the past 18 months?

Considering that every buyer I have come across looking in those areas over the last 2 years has mentioned the future metro stations as a reason for considering buying there, I’d say it’s definitely not a coincidence.

Now consider what would happen if Loudoun backed out of those stations.

I usually remain objective in my posts, but I’m interjecting my $0.02 this time…

- Yes, costs are important to consider. And yes, costs have skyrocketed. But you should have anticipated this if you’ve read even one U.S. history book in your lifetime.

- You should be looking hard for alternatives such as Federal financing/assistance rather than just thinking about scrapping the project.

- Consider the affects on the residents and overall reputation of Loudoun.

- Consider the good the proposed metro has had on the area already, its’ future positive impact and the negative impact it will have if its’ scrapped.

- Think long term rather than just tomorrow.

It would be a shame to see Loudoun County back out of the Dulles Rail project – for everyone’s sake. I hope Loudoun County can get it together and move forward rather than backward.

 

Photo Credit

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)