Tag Archives: home sellers

Where Will My Home Be Advertised?

Almost 100% of people start their search for a home online, especially in the DC Metro Area. In the old days, agents would advertise in those free booklets at the grocery store and send out postcards but most of those things are no longer effective. Getting in front of people who are looking at their laptops and tablets or driving around with an Android or an iPhone should be the number one goal for today’s real estate agent.

I was recently asked “Where will my home be advertised?” and I realized I have so many places I promote myself and the homes that I list for sale that I thought I would share some of them here. Come join me on any of my social sites, business or personal!

The search feature on my web site where this blog post can also be found:
http://homesearch.fairfaxcountyvirginiahomes.com/idx/search.cfm?cid=53002 (Cost $)

My mobile MLS search tool for iPhone and Android
http://fairfaxcountyvirginiahomes.idxre.com/idx/mobile/index.cfm?cid=53002 (Cost $)

My profile on realtor.com
http://www.realtor.com/realestateagents/Roy-Kohn_Burke_VA_16595_144594635 (Cost $)

My profile on Zillow
http://www.zillow.com/myzillow/Profile.htm (Some free, some cost $) by the way… if you’re a former client and would be so kind as to rate me, you can do that here: http://www.zillow.com/reviews/write?s=X1-ZUz3tu7xuykikp_5jgqr … Thank you!

Yahoo profile (same as Zillow, same ownership)
http://realestate.yahoo.com/agent-profile;_ylt=Ao95yTLmit6rn71uCwLfmdhm47Qs?agentid=2112376&requestid=lpb

I advertise regularly on Cragslist. Here’s an ad (for as long as this link is live) (FREE)
http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/reb/3102544402.html

Twitter
https://twitter.com/#!/roykohn (FREE)

Facebook Business Page
https://www.facebook.com/northernvirginiarealestate (FREE)

Personal Facebook (where real estate does bleed through)
https://www.facebook.com/roykohn (FREE)

YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/user/roykohn?feature=mhee (FREE)

PropertyTube (like YouTube for real estate)
http://www.propertytube.com/us/channel/roy-kohn-united-states-2682#.T-o-p7VDxWw (FREE)

LinkedIn
http://www.linkedin.com/in/royko (Free and Cost $)

Foursquare
https://foursquare.com/roykohn (FREE)

Google Plus business
https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/117796435411174543812/117796435411174543812/posts (FREE)
I’m having trouble with Google plus because I have 4 accounts. It’s still growing and I plan to merge them when Google Plus matures.

Market Leader is a website system that requires registration which allows one to use this great home searching tool. (Very expensive)

Here’s my personal Market Leader Account at http://www.searchfairfaxcountyhomes.com/
Here’s my Market Leader account with my RE/MAX office http://roy.allegiancehomes.com/

There’s also: Flickr, Yelp, militarybyowner, Trulia, Listing Book, RE/MAX website, and dozens of others including a major player that charges me a lot of money for the people that come through it but it is very popular, so… to benefit my clients, I do maintain a presence there. I will share it with you after we start looking at homes or get yours listed if the curiosity is killing you :-)

Most Expensive Home Sale in South Run

 

I’m very excited to have sold a home in South Run in a very short amount of time. I wish I could take all the credit by pointing out my mad skills as a real estate agent and aggressive marketing but the sellers share in the success. They insisted on a higher price than I would have liked but they did have an exceptionally fine home to sell. Despite the opinion of real estate agents in general, we do not KNOW for sure what’s going to happen. Market knowledge and past experience guide us but there is no absolute certainty. One of my weaknesses and strengths is trusting my clients. Not the wild “I want to win the lottery” dream price but when they are well thought out have a rationale, I’m fine sharing my opinion but still shooting for their goal.

We listed the home for $62,000 higher than any other recent comparable sold home and got a full price offer within two days of actually listing the house for sale. We did have a couple of weeks to pre-market the home online, get professional photographs taken and a video completed, which can be seen here.

If you live in South Run you should know that now there’s such a great comp and more coming, that your home may be worth more. I think this sale is the highest price home sale in the South Run subdivision in the last six or seven years! Since this home went under contract, even the conservative agents who normally work in South Run have started listing homes much higher than they have in the past. One at just under $900K and another at $914K (and some change). The market has been booming for the last year or so and it’s fantastic to see it in the price range I seem to find myself in these days!

Market Snapshot

Address Status ListPrice ClosePrice CloseDate SellerSubsidy
SOUTH PARK CIR ACTIVE 675000
LAKETREE CT ACTIVE 897448
SOUTH VALLEY DR ACTIVE 775000
LAKETREE DR CNTG/NO KO 914950
REACH DR CONTRACT 699950 7/17/2012
SOUTH VIEW CT CONTRACT 834800 6/27/2012
SOUTH PARK CIR CONTRACT 784950 6/22/2012
LAKETREE DR SOLD 937500 937500 6/21/2012 0
PARK POINT CT SOLD 675000 640000 6/1/2012 0
SOUTH REACH DR SOLD 849900 824000 6/1/2012 3000
WILDERNESS WAY SOLD 805000 781000 5/15/2012 0
SHADY SLOPE CT SOLD 874950 875000 5/14/2012 0
RUSTLE RIDGE CT SOLD 795000 795000 5/11/2012 1600
ROLLING RIDGE DR SOLD 849950 820000 5/4/2012 0
ROCKY RAVINE DR SOLD 824950 795000 5/1/2012 0
VALLEY DR S SOLD 849900 840000 4/30/2012 0
LAKETREE DR SOLD 879950 862500 4/27/2012 500

 

South Run is in a very popular subdivision in Fairfax Station.  South Run residents have easy access to the trails surrounding Burke Lake. The Schools are Sangster Elementary and Lake Braddock Secondary School. If you’d like to see what else is available in Fairfax Station, click the following link: http://blog.fairfaxcountyvirginiahomes.com/fairfax-station-real-estate/ If you need a real estate agent to list your Fairfax County home or need a buyers agent for your next purchase, please consider me. I would value and honor your trust!

 

 

RE/MAX Agent Survey Reveals Rising Prices, Strong Demand

 

RE/MAX Agent Survey Reveals Rising Prices, Strong Demand

 

RE/MAX Agent Survey Reveals Rising Prices, Strong Demand.

 

 

This agent survey is from RE/MAX real estate agents nationwide. Northern Virginia has been experiencing a shortage of inventory and increasing prices for over a year now.

 

It’s not unusual while showing, selecting and writing offers on homes to be in competition with other offers. Even when full price or higher are offered, it’s a battle to win. Sometimes you have to be creative and add some details to make your offer more attractive.

Mobile Search Homes For Sale in Virginia

Now you have one more resource for searching the MLS. On my mobile site (SoldSurfer.com), you can find every single home for sale and all upcoming open houses directly from your mobile browser. There are big companies and Brokers who already have different apps and mobile websites but there’s good and bad aspects to each and few are as slick at searches as this one. I was anxious to get it up and running so while it’s fantastic at it’s core function, several enhancements will be coming soon.

The ability to search for homes in the DC Metropolitan area (Maryland, DC and Northern Virginia) is provided by the same state of the art company that provides the search function on my full site. It’s very fast and accurate.

Currently in place in order of importance to you, is the ability to:

  • Search for every listed home, regardless of broker
  • Search for all upcoming open houses (more available as you get closer to the weekend)
  • “Top Picks” which are the preformatted searches already created on my full site (e.g. All Burke Single Family $500K-$600K)
  • “Featured Listings” a detailed list of homes listed by me (by the way, I need more if you know of anyone interested in selling)
  • My contact data and the ability to push a button to call or email me if you have a question or just want to say “Hi!”

The ability to search for homes based on your physical location will be coming soon, so stay tuned! I’m rarely as excited as when I’ve got some great new tool or technology to share with people. This is so useful, I use it myself when I’m out with clients because it’s much faster than logging into the actual MLS to do a price or availability  check on a home we pass by.

Please let me know what you think and any other enhancements you’d like to see integrated into the new mobile site. you can find the site from your mobile phone at SoldSurfer.com or by scanning the QR code below.

Fairfax Station Home Selected as the Washington Post’s “House Of The Week”

I am so very happy that the Washington Post’s Real Estate section decided to use one of my listings as their House of the Week. Here is a link to The Washington Post article. The featured home is in the equestrian community of The English Hills Estate in Fairfax Station, which is in Fairfax County Virginia.

You can directly link to 10901 Henderson Rd as a “Featured Listing” and also see the posted video on YouTube.

I am thrilled to be selected for a several reasons.

  1. First and foremost, my sellers are getting their home seen by a far larger group of people than I could provide by my marketing efforts alone and who doesn’t love free advertising?
  2. It introduces me to that same group of people who, if I’m lucky, will read what other people think about me and hopefully, contact  me themselves for their home buying and selling needs.
  3. Finally, I place a huge amount of importance on driving people to this website for promotion of my clients homes and myself and I do everything I can to optimize my website placement on search engines. This Washington Post honor occurred yesterday and my website traffic has increased by more than 25 times the normal number after only one day.

So, thank you for checking out this grand and unique home in Fairfax Station, Virginia. If you are considering a move to our area, let me know and I will happily set up a private showing for you. While you’re on this site, feel free to search for everything in Fairfax Station or just create your own search from scratch. Registration is never required and the only time you’ll be asked for information is if you want me to know where to send something like Email Alerts which will automatically email new listings to you every day.

Home Warranty for Rental Property?

I think all homeowners should have a home warranty. This is also true of homeowners who rent property to someone. Inevitably, during the rental period, something breaks or needs replacing. Hopefully it’s a little thing like a leaky pipe or bathroom fan but the moment you’re looking at a stove, refrigerator or an entire HVAC system, you’re going to be kicking yourself for not having a warranty in place.

For most homes, a home warranty costs about $425 and can be renewed annually. Home warranties have a deductible usually $50-$75 per call. During my time in Northern Virginia, I’ve personally benefitted from having a home warranty. We had a $6,500 HVAC unit replaced, a dishwasher, and a hot water heater. They were completely replaced with brand new items for $50 each… you can’t beat that. What’s the worst that will happen? You’ll spend $400 on a warranty and nothing will break. It seems like a small price to pay for complete peace of mind (in my opinion).

Whether you own a home as your primary residence or as a rental property, a home warranty could save you a lot of money!

Northern Virginia Real Estate Pre-Settlement Checklist

Every contract is unique but all of them have time frames for contingencies and actions to be completed. Even the cleanest of contracts will have a small handful of deadlines that need to be met. If something isn’t completed within the time frame specified, someones money could be at risk or the entire sale could fall apart.

Examples of items may include:
Home or radon inspection, termite inspection, loan approval, home appraisal and more.

Without a checklist, buyers, sellers and sometimes, even seasoned real estate professionals may occasionally miss something. I’m on a continuous quest to be organized.

Back when we all used software, I always prepared a pre-settlement checklist with a spreadsheet. Today there are numerous web based choices for sharing data. I’m using Backpack by 37 signals which not only allows me to prepare and share lists electronically but I can also include notes, files and photos.

Once an offer is ratified:

  • I go through it a couple of times compiling the list of time frames for the pre-settlement checklist
  • I add a list of the principle participants and their contact information
  • The local utility companies
  • Downloadable pdf files of the ratified contract, buyer agency forms, all disclosures and any other required files

Once completed, I can send the list to my client securely via a link which they can open, view and edit (if they wish).

37Signals is the company that owns Backpack.Other products they offer are Highrise, which I use for contact management and Basecamp which is an online project manager but a little overkill for a single agent real estate business (in my opinion).

If you’re another real estate agent using a different method, please share it with me! If you’re a home owner or want to be a homeowner and you’d like one of my pre-settlement checklists, just give me a call so we can get started!

Burke, Virginia Area Market Absorption Rates

The rate at which homes are selling is called the absorption rate, in other words, how many months of inventory would we have if no more homes were listed for sale. If 2 homes each month are selling and there are 6 homes currently listed, we have a 3 month absorption rate. Click this “Market Absorption Rate” link for an older post explaining the rate.

As an example, below are several city and subdivision absorption rates in our area as of the writing of this post. This data is easily updated if you’re visiting from an older link someday.

City                                     Active          Listed in last          Contract in last     Absorption Rate

                                            Listings        Last 30 Days             Last 30 days                 in Months

Burke SFH                              71                           20                                      14                                       5.1

Burke TH & Condo              58                            19                                      27                                      2.1

Fairfax Station SFH            83                            22                                      14                                      5.9

 

Subdivision

Orange Hunt Estates          4                                0                                         2                                       2.0

South Run  Forest               4                                 3                                         1                                       4.0

 

If you’d like a freshly compiled Market Absorption Rate for your City, Zip Code or Subdivision, don’t hesitate to contact me. I’d be happy to prepare one for you!

Interesting, Embarrassing or Weird?

I was just reflecting on the unusual things I’ve seen bringing buyers to homes as a real estate agent. I’m sure most agents have experienced the same sorts of things. An occasional home with a bug infestation, pet accident problem or an unlocked door are not complete shocks when they happen. So what is shocking?

  • I’ve seen in plain view: underwear, bullets, adult products and cash.
  • I showed a home with no indoor plumbing only a three stall outhouse in the side yard. (No buyer interest).
  • Empty beer cans in a pile as big as a riding mower.
  • Neighbors coming up to us explaining the numerous reasons why my buyers should NOT buy the house they were about to look at.
  • Sleeping adults in their rooms with no warning from the person who let us in the house.
  • Home owner singing in the shower when I entered the home with buyers and they refused to acknowledge my yell of “Hello… Anyone home?” So we backed out slowly and left. We did have an appointment.
  • Another home that I backed out of slowly with buyers was a home in Alexandria. After entering we all smelled a strong odor that we couldn’t identify. My best guess was a pesticide of some kind. As we started walking through the home, I heard a hiss coming from the kitchen. The gas stove was leaking gas into the house. I know what gas smells like but I guess we couldn’t identify the smell because it was so incredibly thick. We tip toed out of the home nervously turning the door knob afraid of causing ANY sort of spark. After the buyers were out I went in briefly and opened a couple of windows (older house, all wood) and then called the listing agent to immediately contact the gas company and deal with the problem.
  • Several instances of smells and/or drug paraphernalia including pipes, visible bongs (I mean water pipes) or actual  second hand smoke wafting through the air.
  • Huge graphic, nude, crayon drawings on interior walls with buyers in tow (very embarrassing).
Every once in awhile I’ll work with a new person and they’ll say, “I bet you’ve seen some pretty strange things in your business” and I guess they’re right.