Archive for March, 2008
Ashburn VA: A Suburb Of Small Cities
March 31st, 2008 categories: Ashburn
Most of Ashburn has developed within the last 10-15 years. The cool part about Ashburn is that it has been created with modern development tecniques in mind. You can easily reside in neighborhoods like Ashburn Village, Brambleton, or the Broadlands and never travel outside of your own neighborhood for most of your daily needs.
Ashburn is changing the lifestyle structure of Northern VA. Up until now most people have lived in Northern VA for a temporary season of life while they sought our great career opportunities from here to DC. This is changing.
Most Ashburn residents can now choose a grocery store on the basis of it being within 2 minutes of their home. Much further than this and they have 3 to pick from. This may be a small exaggeration, but there are grocery stores in almost Ashburn neighborhood. These aren’t stand alone stores, these stores are surrounded by great restaurants, auto services, movie stores, clothing shops, local pubs, etc…
A few to mention:
- Ryan Park Center
- Ashburn Village
- Brambleton Town Center
- Wegmans Shopping Center (actually in Sterling/ feels like Ashburn)
- Broadlands Shopping Center
- Ashburn Farm
- And the future Moorefield Station
What does this mean for you?
Convenience.
Northern VA is a faced paced area. When we have free time, it shouldn’t be spent a grocery store or an auto shop. So the closer to home the better. Then we can get back to what is really important…. Family and Friends.
If you are looking to move to the Ashburn area and want to work with a local expert contact me here.
You can also search for Ashburn homes here.
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Worst MLS Photo Of The Day- Spending Time On The Back Porch?
March 28th, 2008 categories: Worst MLS Photos
I am stealing this idea from my friend Jack Levine over at VeryVintageVegas who post some of the funniest bad photos in the Vegas MLS.
It is the spring market so why not show that porch off?
My only question is, “can we fit anything else out there?”
As Jack says, “The only thing worse than a bad picture is no picture at all.”
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Are Things As Bad As They Appear?
March 27th, 2008 categories: Buyers, Market Statistics
Hindsight is 20/20
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DC’s Foreclosure Comparison
March 26th, 2008 categories: Market Statistics, Short Sales & Foreclosures
Foreclosures are everywhere. Not just low income areas. From the smallest of homes to mansions, foreclosures have no preference.
How does the Northern VA market compare to other metro areas in the United States? Are we the only area struggling to move past this?
Here are the stats comparing us with other large metro areas in the US as of the last quarter of 2007 by Dr. Stephen Fuller.
(click image to enlarge)
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The DC Metro Area Future Prediction From Dr. Stephen Fuller
March 26th, 2008 categories: Market Statistics, Real Estate News
You can’t call yourself a true student of local real estate and not know who Dr. Stephen Fuller from GMU is. Well, you could, but if you haven’t heard of him I would highly encourage you to check out his work. Dr. Fuller is the DC’s regional expert on employment, economic, and housing trends of the area. You can check out more about him here.
He recently put together a economic and housing trend prediction for the area that is very interesting.
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Community Of Week: The Glen At Goose Creek
March 25th, 2008 categories: Ashburn, Community Of The Week
On the boarder of Ashburn and Leesburg lies one of the newest townhome communities in the area.
Centex is a nation wide builder that has been recognized many times by Big Builder Magazine as “Americas Most Admired Big Builder” and named one of FURTUNE magazine’s “Most Admired Companies.” You may have seen some of their homes built in Brambleton, Lansdowne, or Potomac Greene but nothing of this magnitude.
Currently at the Glen At Goose Creek, they are constructing around 92 townhomes which will be considered the South Side. It is estimated that within a couple of years they will begin building the North Side which will consist of around 600 townhomes along with condos! This area will be comprised of a new shopping/ entertainment area.
The neighborhood is located off of Sycolin Rd (the end of Ashburn Farm Parkway) at the intersection of Belmont Ridge Rd. At this point there honestly isn’t much too see. Centex is predicting around 5 years for the whole project if everything sells well. They currently have a couple of quick deliveries for great prices. The first set to-be-builts should be finished up in August and September.
If you are interested in learning more about the community contact me. You can also check out their site at www.centexhomes.com
Here are a couple of pics of their townhomes under construction.
Related Articles:
New Windermere Community In Ashburn
Community Of The Week: Waterford Ridge
Community Of The Week: BIG BRAMBLETON
All information is deemed reliable but should be verified for accuracy. I do not work for or represent Centex Homes. I work directly with Buyers.
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The Sacred Open House
March 24th, 2008 categories: Buyers, For Homeowners, Sellers
What is the goal of an open house?
The chances of selling your home during an open house have to be like 1 in 100.
If the odds are that low, why the heck to do we still hold our houses open? Wouldn’t it be much more efficient to spend that couple of hours that we hold our homes open passing out flyer’s or something? Seriously, think about it. We spend all day Saturday stressing ourselves out trying to make our home appear clean, smell good, and get those vacuum lines in our carpet so we can let complete strangers and nosey neighbors wonder around our homes for three hours? Do we seriously expect that that during those 3 hours the future buyer of our home will be in our neighborhood and be so enthralled by our 4 signs that they will come and visit our home and want to buy it on the spot?
Don’t get me wrong. It could happen. The question is, “is it worth it?”
Truthfully, I bought my home after going to an open house. However, I was already going there because I knew it was for sale. I have had clients buy homes after going through an open house. However, I sent them there meaning we would gone either way.
The truth is that I hold open houses. I will probably hold one open this weekend. I do it because sellers think it is important. Every weekend. NO. But once in a while, sure. Open Houses are the sacred cows of real estate. Its like knocking on wood. Read the rest of this entry »
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Giving Back This Easter
March 22nd, 2008 categories: Local Events
I want to share briefly with you about a fantastic opportunity available locally. Mercy And Grace Ministry is a local non-profit that that gives back to those in need in the area by providing food and clothing to the homeless, along with mentoring and tutoring programs.
This weekend they teamed up with Grace Covenant Church out of Chantilly (located at the old water-park off of Route 28 and Willard Rd.) to give back to single moms and their kids in the area. It was an amazing event offering a huge meal, Easter egg hunt, free food, drawings, signed footballs from Redskins, and a chance to fellowship with other mothers in the area.
If you are interested in finding out more about Mercy and Grace Ministry or donating to them you can contact Carole Miernik at hismercygrace@yahoo.com.
I was able to take a few pictures with my phone for you to see. Sorry for the poor quality of the pics.
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Signs Of Spring In Virginia
March 21st, 2008 categories: For Fun
After a cold winter season spring has to be one of the most exciting times of the year.
While showing homes yesterday I decided to snap a few pictures to share with you.
I saw this tree while driving through Falls Church. I saw many more budding trees closer to the city than in the more western areas.
Look closely. The first Easter Egg tree I have seen thus far. They must have some tall kids.
I tried to take some shots of trees that had already blossomed in Arlington. They were bad. Here is a budding limb of a tree outside of my house in Ashburn.
I left this larger for you to see this car on 495. That’s right. An Easter Bunny Car. See the pink nose on the front along with the 2 ears. Check out a behind view in the next photo.
The behind view of the Easter Bunny Car. Those my friends are ears!
HAPPY EASTER!
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Why to Home - Inspect - Your - Gadgets
March 20th, 2008 categories: Buyers, For Homeowners
Two weeks ago I wrote an article called The Secret To Saving Yourself From A Dying Home where I talked about purchasing a home warrant when buying your home. At that time I didn’t talk much about the essentials of a home inspection.
When you write an offer on a re-sale home in VA, you have the option of conducting a home inspection to check out the house beyond the appearance. Depending on the size of the home you are looking to pay $250 and UP. This is not something that you want to overlook or just bring in your buddy who knows housing well. Overlooking an issue could cost you A LOT OF MONEY in the long run if not addressed. The state views this as such an issue that there are forms you may have to sign if you decide against having the inspection. In most cases you can actually decide to not buy the home if you find things that scare the mess out of you, or the seller refuses to fix them.
During a standard home inspection, your inspector will go through your home, looking over all of the electrical issues, plumbing, appliances, outlets, roof, windows, smoke detectors, etc… This does not mean that if the roof appears old or if there is a ding in the wall that you can force the seller to address it.
The worst thing that I see taking place after a home inspection in this market is that buyers who have already picked the sellers pockets during the negotiations come back and seek to get thousands of dollars more of work done for issues that are not hazardous to the home but the seller simply wants fixed like a wood piece on a garden wall leaning, or to have the whole side of a 1950’s house repainted.
Don’t get me wrong, it is ok to ask for issues to be addressed that cost a lot of money. However, I am referring to minor issues that have nothing to do with the structure of the home, appliances, heating, cooling, electric, plumbing, etc. It can simply become an issue of taking advantage of people at a certain point.
I can assist you with buying a home in Fairfax City, Chantilly, South Riding, Ashburn, Leesburg, Hamilton, Vienna, Mclean, Reston, Sterling, and Herndon….. CONTACT ME.
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