Why did I choose real estate? Let me share the story of how I got into real estate. To explain what makes the AJ Team who we are, I’ll share my own story of how and why I got into real estate.  We’ll start with my graduation from George Mason University in 1999. My degree was in English literature, but my first job out of college was at a used car dealership in Fairfax. My dad was happy I landed a sales job. My mom was less so considering I just completed an English literature degree and she assumed my career path would start elsewhere, but God has a way of positioning us in places we need to be.  Two years later, my dad suggested it was time for me to buy a house. You see, his graduation present to me was $5,000 to put toward buying my first house. At the time, I was doing well at the dealership, and because I worked a lot and didn’t have time to spend a lot, I had enough money saved up.  During my first weekend checking out open houses, though, no one would talk to me. This was the early 2000s, and I had Allen Iverson cornrows and was wearing baggy sweatpants because it was my day off. I didn’t look like a typical buyer, and I wasn’t treated like a typical buyer. Next week I told my dad what happened and said it was a sign that I should stay where I was at.  "At this point, it feels more like family." He disagreed, and when the next weekend came around, he went with me to check out open houses. As you can imagine, most of the agents talked to him instead of me. At the last house we visited, though, the listing agent (who looked like my aunt) we talked to said I reminded her of her son, and that she’d love to help me buy my first house.  However, when I showed up at her office on my next day off, she stood me up. I called my dad and tried telling him again that it was a sign not to buy. The next day at work, the first person who walked into our lot was a young man named Lydio. He ended up deciding to buy a Mazda 626, and when I saw his loan application, I noticed that he wrote “real estate agent” as his job.  That’s when I told Lydio I would buy a house with him, and three months later, I did. In those three months, I also obtained my real estate license. I had a bunch of friends graduating college at the time, and I didn’t want them to go through what I went through. I wanted them to be treated right—to have a Realtor that they could grow with, helped them understand the market, and do right by them regardless of how they looked.  18 years later, I’ve sold over 1,200 homes, and I’ve had the pleasure of helping so many people buy their first home. At this point, it feels more like family.  As always, if you have any real estate needs I can take care of, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d love to help you.

How do you sell your home and buy a new one at the same time? Find out today. When it comes to selling your current home and buying a new one at the same time, there are three key points to think about: planning, committing, and executing.Plan. Your plan should start at least four to six months in advance. Starting the process early will save you a lot of stress. Also, communication is crucial during the process. We like to coordinate with our clients months in advance so that we can make sure that they’re on the right path and that we have a solid game plan. Planning ahead will give you plenty of time to prepare your home for the market, as well; you never know when the perfect home is going to come on the market. Be ready at all times. Commit. Juggling both transactions on top of everything else in your life is stressful, so you need to commit. The good news is that we help two or three families buy and sell at the same time each month, so you can lean on us for help. Part of committing to the process is being educated about the process to come. When clients we work with don’t expect what’s coming, it hits them by surprise and they get frustrated.  “      Throughout the process, we may tell you some things you may not want to hear, but trust the process and remember that we only have your best interests at heart.” Execute. Make sure that you understand the contract. For our part, we sit down with our clients to explain the contingencies of the contract and write out the full plan.  Throughout the process, we may tell you some things you may not want to hear, but trust the process and remember that we only have your best interests at heart. Additionally, think about why you’re moving—when I last moved, it was because we had a baby on the way and we needed more space; that made all the stress we went through worth it.If you’re planning to sell and buy a home, reach out to us as soon as possible so that we can start forming a game plan. For any questions you have, don’t hesitate to give us a call or send an email. Hope to hear from you soon!

Are you considering refinancing your mortgage? Here are a few things you’ll need to take into account first. We’ve been getting a bunch of questions recently about refinancing and whether it’s a smart move in our current market. Here are a few things you should think about if you’re experiencing the same dilemma. For starters, if you’re going to consolidate some type of high-interest debt, refinancing makes a lot of sense because you can lock that debt into a much lower interest rate. That can save you a ton of money. If you are currently in an adjustable-rate mortgage and it’s about to expire over the next year or two, it might be a good idea to refinance to a fixed rate before that adjustable rate skyrockets. Another thing you’ll need to think about is the terms of your loan. Let’s say that you’ve been paying your mortgage down for the next seven years and you go to refinance. Typically, if you go to refinance for another 30 years, you’re basically extending the life that you’re paying for your loan by another seven years. For some people, that is advantageous and for others it’s not. You have to think about where you are in your life. “    Now is a great time to refinance, pull out your equity, and make another investment. ” For example, we had a client who needed more cash flow from their property because they had a child going to college. They decided to extend their mortgage out so they could keep more of their cash and use those funds for college. Don’t just think about terms on one side. Think about them in the totality of where your life is and where you should have your cash. If you’re a real estate investor, right now is a great time for you to take out a home equity line of credit, refinance, and pull out money to buy another investment property. These are just a few of the things you’ll need to think about when refinancing. If you have any questions for me about the process or what you should do in your situation, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. If you have a rate over 4.5%, we should be talking. I hope to hear from you soon.

Beware these three deal killers both before and during the home selling process. Recently, I spoke with someone from one of our local title companies. During our conversation, he said something that was pretty eye-opening: 15% to 18% of home sales collapse after going under contract. To put that into perspective, that means that out of 100 deals, somewhere between 15 and 18 of them will fall apart. To prevent your deal from suffering the same fate, today I’ll list three “deal-killers” that you should avoid. The first deal-killer on the list is not working with an experienced agent. Certain factors make our Lake Ridge market challenging and unique, and agents who are still new to the business suffer from inexperience that makes it difficult for them to successfully navigate through challenges that arise. It’s best to work with an agent or team that has years of experience and plenty of sales volume under their belts like the Allen Johnson Team. “   15% to 18% of home sales collapse after going under contract. ” Other sellers make mistakes related to timing, preparing, pricing, and relationships.  •Timing. Presenting news to your buyer and their agent and negotiating in a timely way are essential to the success of your sale.   • Prep. Make sure you’re crossing your t’s and dotting your i’s ahead of each stage in the selling process. That means making preparations before you list your home, making sure inspections are complete, and making sure you reach the settlement table. • Pricing. Your pricing strategy can either make or break your sale. If you price correctly from the start, challenges that may arise will be much easier to address.  • Relationships. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve been able to salvage a deal based on a strong relationship we had with the agent on the other side. When agents collaborate well together, deals get done. It’s that simple. The last deal killer is sort of a combination of the first two. To illustrate my point, let me share a quick story. We listed a home in Westridge that contained poly pipes, which is normal for certain homes in this area. The buyer’s agent was actually from Alexandria and was totally unfamiliar with poly pipes.  As a result, they wrongly informed the buyer that replacing the pipes would cost anywhere from $10,000 to $15,000. In reality, we got them replaced for closer to $5,000, which made all the difference in keeping the deal alive.  If you have any questions or you’re thinking about selling your Lake Ridge home, please give us a call. We’d love to sit down and speak with you!

Today I wanted to check in and let you all know what’s been going on lately with our team. The AJ Team has been working really hard lately, so today I’ll update you on what we’ve been doing. Every morning at 8 a.m., our team participates in a devotional where we pray over our past and current clients, our community, other agents, as well as anyone else who might benefit from being held up in prayer. We often have clients reach out to us to pray for them, and we just wanted to let you all know that you don’t have to be afraid to do the same. Sometimes handling life on your own can be hard; let the prayer warriors in your life help you. Also, for the past three years, we’ve helped to fund the mentoring program at our local Title 1 school, and we’re going to continue to grow. Lately, we’ve been seeking out additional mentors to add to the program, so if you know of anyone interested in donating to the cause or being a once-a-week tutor, mentor, or life-skills coach, reach out to us. Children will one day become great resources, so we appreciate any and all of your contributions. “ We’re excited to announce that the AJ Team won The Prince William County Best of Residential Agents Award. ” Next, we’re excited to announce that the AJ Team won The Prince William County Best of Residential Agents Award. We thank all of you who have supported us and helped us grow. Even though we’re not perfect, we aim only to improve every day. Finally, we’ve sold 106 homes to date, and our goal is to get to 200 homes sold. If you know of anyone who is in need of real estate services, whether they’re buying or selling, we’d love to talk to them.  For any other questions or comments you may have, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We hope to see you soon!

According to the latest numbers, the market is pulling back on sellers, and now is a great time to be a buyer. What’s the latest news from our Northern Virginia market? Let’s take a look at some key statistics from July to find out. July is typically a very busy month in our market, and we expect about 40% of all listed homes to sell during summer. In Prince William County, though, the number of home sales didn’t increase at all compared to last year. However, this is good news considering this number decreased the previous month compared to 2018. The average sold price in Prince William County, meanwhile, dropped almost 2% month over month, and the average days on market increased 5.6% during that same time. In Fairfax County, the number of closed sales dropped 4.8% month over month, the average sold price dropped 1.1%, and the average days on market rose 6.5%. You usually don’t see the average days on market increase during this time, so sellers need to realize right about now that the market is pulling back. Another tell-tale sign of this is the numbers from Alexandria City. A couple of months back, a lot of people predicted our market would go crazy because of Amazon moving their second headquarters here, but I told people that would only happen in a small area for a short time. Sure enough, closed sales in Alexandria City are down 17% year over year, the average sold price is down 3.4% month over month, and the average days on market is up 8.7% compared to June. “ If you’re a buyer, these numbers mean now is go time. ” In Arlington County, closed sales dropped 9.5% year over year, and the average sold price dropped 7.2% month over month. The good news here, though, is that the average days on market dropped 16.7% compared to the previous month. Stafford County is an intriguing case in terms of home values: Month over month, closed sales rose 11.2%, the average sold price rose 0.4%, and the average days on market dropped 3.7%. Lastly, in Loudoun County, it’s the same story as most of the other counties—closed sales are down 1.2%, the average sold price is down 1.4%, and the average days on market is up 22.6% month over month. If you’re a buyer, these numbers mean now is go time, especially considering that interest rates are in the 3% range for owner-occupied properties and in 4% range for investment properties. If you’re a seller, since we already know the market is pulling pack, you need to prep your home accordingly and price it correctly from the first day you list it. You also need to make sure you hire the right agent—roughly 85% of all agents in our market have never sold a home in a “down” market. If you have any more questions about our market or you’re ready to buy or sell now, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. These are waters we’ve navigated before, and we’d love to help you do so too. Remember: You have the dream, we have the address.

Are you thinking of waiting until prices come back down before you buy? You might be better off buying now, and here’s why. Should you buy a home now or wait until prices come down? Whenever someone asks me this question, they’re usually asking because they want to be careful with their finances. If people need to move because they need more space, they tend to just move.   If you’re asking yourself this question, one important factor you must take into consideration is the difference between interest rates and home prices. In general, for every 1% increase in interest rates, buyers’ buying power decreases by 10%. For example, if you were to buy a $350,000 home with an FHA loan at a 4.75% rate, your monthly mortgage payment would be roughly $1,750. If you wait a year to buy and the home’s price drops to $330,000 but the interest rate for your FHA loan increases to 5.75%, your monthly mortgage payment would increase to $1,850. Even if you buy the home at a cheaper price, you’re still paying more for it. On top of that, your down payment doesn’t affect your monthly payment as much as you think it will. So, while it’s important to pay attention to how home prices fluctuate, you should be paying more attention to where interest rates are moving, because that will have a greater long-term impact on your home purchase. If you have any more questions about this topic or you have any other real estate needs, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d be happy to help you.

Beyond the headache, having a bad tenant in your rental property cancost a lot more than you think. We like to help people with their rental properties; in fact, we have actually opened up a property management company of our own. During our work there, we found that some landlords and homeowers simply want to take the first few tenants who apply. But choosing a bad tenant comes with a cost, soit’s important to be patient. Here’s a scenario I went through this year: A tenant had moved into my property sometime in 2017. They couldn’t make it to the end of their lease, and they ended up moving this past summer after about eight months. Honestly, it could have been a lot worse than it was. One of the things that helped me was having good conversations with my tenants because if they’re in any trouble, I want to know about it first. Even though it could cost you money, handling these situations with grace will go a long way. Based on that experience, here’s what a bad tenant could cost you: - Three months of lost rent, to the tune of $6,300. - Stress. I can’t put a price on stress, but it’s definitely a cost. - Holding costs. I still had to pay my $3,900 mortgage. - Turnover costs of about $2,500. This included carpet, paint, blinds, lights, and other small repairs/replacements. If they didn’t have the money to pay the mortgage, then they didn’t have the money to hire a professional mover, and they weren’t the type of people to be gentle with rental properties. - New tenant and Realtor costs. I had to list the property initially, and then again once he left, adding up to $900. - Advertising costs, which added up to $200. I like to rotate my tenants seasonally, having their leases end in the spring and summer, since that’swhen most people are looking for a rental. But because this tenant moved early, I had to put a newtenant in last month, and I won’t know what that will cost me until a few years down the road. In total, this tenant cost around $14,000. Ultimately, the lesson here is to wait for the right tenant, even if it takes an extra month or two to find them. An extra month or two of mortgage payments is a lot less than $14,000 to turn over a bad tenant, and in certain situations, those costs can be a lot higher. If you have any questions about property management or about buying or selling homes, feel free to reach out to us. Remember: You have the dream—we have the address.

A home sitting on five acres and a home on half an acre aren’t worth the same, but their values aren’t as different as you might think. Let’s say there are two different homes for sale that are the same size and in the same location, but one property is on 5 acres and the other is on .25 acres. Will the values differ? Not as much as you think. If you get even $5,000 more per acre of land on the sale of your home, you are doing extremely well, according to an expert local appraiser. We sat down with this local appraiser recently. He has been doing this for almost 30 years and has done thousands of appraisals in the area. He told us there is a big difference between usable land and land that’s just a flat lot. If your extra land can be farmed or can be subdivided than it will be valued differently because the use of the land can create income. However, the value of the lend itself isn’t worth nearly as much as the actual property in the grand scheme of things. Finally, this appraiser told us that location is much more important than acres. If you’re on a cul-de-sac, your property is going to be valued higher than the same property that’s on the main road. If you have any questions for us or want to talk more about any real estate questions you might have, don't hesitate to give us a call or send me an email. I would love to hear from you soon.

There are a couple reasons why your agent would lie to you, but you can avoid this situation by communicating with them regularly. Why would your agent lie to you? There are a couple of reasons. The first reason is that, sometimes, people just can’t handle the truth. And by the time they finally can handle the truth, sometimes it’s too late. For example, I once had a client who couldn’t handle it when I told them the truth about what price their home should be listed at. They got it, but they didn’t really get it, and by the time they finally did get it, it was too late. Their home spent three months on the market, and during that time, the market shifted. When an agent tells you the truth instead of what you want to hear, it’s important that you act on what they tell you in a timely manner, because the market could look very different in just three or four months. The second reason agents lie to their clients is your reactions can be misleading. Think about it— when you deliver bad news to someone, are you ever excited about it? We agents never want to deliver bad news to our clients, but sometimes the way our clients react to that bad news is a double whammy—we have to deal with the bad news of the transaction itself and how badly you might react to that news. We don’t love delivering bad news, but we’re all working toward the same goal, so we have to deliver bad news so we can adjust, move on, and get the best deal possible. This is why it’s so important that you and your agent communicate through this type of situation. How do you handle bad news? It’s like I tell my clients sometimes—if you’re at work trying to handle a high-stress situation, that’s probably not the best time to receive bad news. It might be better to wait until you have a moment to decompress so you and your agent can discuss the situation without emotion or without any exterior stress life might be trying to bring you. Buying or selling a home isn’t easy, so again, you need to communicate with your agent to the point where they’re comfortable delivering bad news to you. On our team, we never, ever lie to our clients. We give you the news straight—no chaser. However, we also try to deliver that news gracefully, so we expect that same grace in return so we can help you reach your end goal. Remember—you have the dream, we have the address. If you have any questions about this topic or you have any real estate needs at all, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. My team and I would love to help you.