You’ve heard this before from us, but it’s worth repeating: recession or not, this is an INCREDIBLE time to buy a home. Properties in Northern Virginia are listing (and selling) for 1/3 of the price they would have been going for 3 years ago. As recently as a few months ago, we were buying homes at 40% of their replacement value. Does any of this sound like the market bottoming out? Sure does to us. Some more numbers, and a bold claim On the sales side of our operation, we continue to unload homes 3 times faster than the market average. Want some real numbers? The last 3 homes we sold lasted 27, 7 and 0 days on the market, respectively (that “0” is not a typo; we actually sold the home before it even made it to listing). As the country’s largest home buying firm and the 8th best selling team in the Keller Williams organization nationwide, we are your go-to source for the best real estate deals in the DC Metro area, a region that includes Maryland and Northern Virginia. Because we work closely with the FDIC, Fannie Mae, Countrywide, Wells Fargo, Indy Mac and many others, we ensure that our level of access to foreclosed homes and REO’s is second to none. You can view our up-to-date inventory at www.expresshomebuyers.com/email and www.ExpressRs.com. We’ve said it before in this blog, but here it is again: now is the best time to buy a home in the next 30…
sell2us
Beat the Rush
Navigating the real estate market can be a demoralizing process. Quality homes are few and far between, and quality homes in attractive locations that are priced within your budget are rarer still. There are few experiences more frustrating than finding a good listing only to call in and learn that it’s been snapped up, or realizing that a bidding war has driven an affordable property out of your range. The best advice we can give you here is to get in early, and put an offer down before the house you’re eying disappears or sits long enough to swell in price. Here’s what we mean: If you’ve done some research on our company, you may know that we tend to sell houses pretty quickly: this is due to our commitment to pricing houses reasonably, and the quality of the renovations we perform. Below is the graphic we included in the recent post explaining homebuyer survey results: As you can see, our houses sit on the market for considerably less time than the regional average. What this chart does not show you, however, is that over 50% of the homes we move are actually sold before they’re ever listed. How is this possible? Easy; because we are first and foremost a homebuying operation, we’ve already bought the houses in question. Although we hesitate to list the house before the renovation process has been completed, as the homeowner we have the luxury of arranging a showing anytime you want; in fact, people…
First-Time Homebuyers Seminar
First- Time Homebuyers Seminar: Mortgage Assistance. Credit Repair. Home Selection. Closing. This is a great opportunity to gain valuable insight into the process of purchasing your first home. May 16, 2009 10:00AM to Noon Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church 201 Fourth Street SE Washington DC Corner of 4th and Independence Ave. SE. Located close to the Eastern Market or Capitol South metro stations. Please note that parking for the event is extremely limited. This seminar will: 1. Suggest ways to improve your credit rating. Credit scores can be raised by as much as 100 points through our simple, legal, and no-hidden-costs method. 2. Explain how you can secure up to $18,000 in down payment assistance. No strings attached, and available to all qualified first-time home buyers. This is grant funding you won’t ever have to pay back if you occupy your home for a certain length of time. 3. Teach you to identify and target the best DC-area properties for your budget. Learn simple tricks and techniques to get the most value for your money. 4. Remove the mystery from the closing process. Learn to understand concepts such as deeds, closing costs, title and ownership. This Home Buying seminar is unique in that you can pre-qualify, apply and view new home opportunities right on the spot. You won’t want to miss out! Hosted by Express Realty Services – www.ExpressRS.com. Featured Speakers: Marc Hershkowitz – Realtor and Host Kristine O’Neill – Senior Loan Officer, Virginia Heritage Bank Mortgage Mark Schrader –…
A RESPONSE TO RECENT BLOGS…
Recently, a blog on our work at Illinois Avenue caught our eye, and we posted this response (You can read the original at Concrete Jungle). Our response is listed here: “Thanks for your post. We are always happy to clarify our business. Couple of things. First, it’s easy to take the hard numbers at the beginning and end of a transaction and question the spread and the profit – particularly if one wants to question the profit makers. It is true express Homebuyers purchased the Illinois Avenue property shown here for $150,000, a price we determined after investigating the overall condition of the property, and what it would take to renovate it to our standards—which are top-of-the-market. In terms of this property, we judged the total cost to renovate it to our standards could be well over $125 to $150 thousand dollars. Just this alone would justify a price equal to similar properties in the neighborhood. Atop our costs of renovation we have to add marketing, listing, commission for agents and a host of other small costs that whittle away the remaining margin. Finally, the $374,955 is the asking price. It would be ideal if it sells for that, but like all other properties, our listed price survives or dies at the very real hands of the market. Secondly, we don’t necessarily favor the term “flipping” when it comes to our work. House flippers notoriously buy properties cheap, perform minimal—if any –repair, and try to sell the property as quickly…
Overpricing is a Risky Business
We’ve written several times about home selling, and weighed the pros and cons of using a licensed realtor to assist you in this process. The advantages to turning to an experienced professional include the training, experience and network at their disposal. Moving homes is something they’re familiar with, and a task they can fully devote themselves to. This is not to say you can’t be successful on your own; however, if you do decide to go it alone, know that there are several easy (and potentially costly) mistakes you can make. The most common tends to be overpricing your house. It’s not a flea market. If you’ve ever gone to a street sale or marketplace, you know that haggling is part of the process. The selling price is whatever you can get it lowered to, and half the fun is low-balling until you and the vendor reach an agreement. This is not how the home market works. Drastically overpricing a house isn’t a good policy; potential buyers will be scared off, and will skip over your listing until they find something within their price range. Your best bet is to determine its market value, and set the price close to this number. Know your surroundings. Another good move is to take into account what comparable homes in the neighborhood have sold (or are selling) for; if the other two story townhouse across the street has already been appraised and priced, it might not be a good idea to list yours…
Express Homebuyers on TV
Although we prefer to use our blog to create a forum for discussion and provide helpful advice rather than talk too much about ourselves, we have some exciting news to share with you today. Express Homebuyers will be appearing in a promoted feature in April on Channel 4 News at 11 pm, as part of a special segment on businesses that have managed to do well in a down economy. We will be discussing the houses we provide as well as our company as a whole. Be sure to tune in if you’re interested in learning more about us and the services we offer!