Northern Virginia Real Estate Podcast with AJ Team Realty

How is it possible to get your offer accepted in a competitive market? I’ve got three tips today to help you achieve this. How is it possible to get your offer accepted in a competitive market? Imagine you’ve been searching for months and have finally found your dream home. Now you want to write an offer, but you can’t get the home. This is a common problem. People think they can simply look at a home, write an offer, and prepare to move in. But this isn’t how it works. You need a game plan from the start if you want to win in this market. "You need a game plan from the start if you want to win in this market." On my team, we sit down with our clients to do just that. Today, I’d like to bring you a few tips for how we help our clients get their offers accepted. First of all, research the home. Look at comparable properties, as well as trends for how things are selling in the area. Understanding what kinds of offers are being accepted is going to be a huge boost in writing your own. The second best way to get your offer accepted is to work with a great, local lender. If the listing agent knows and trusts the lender you’re working with, you are going to have a competitive edge—even over near-identical offers. Listing agents want to make sure that the lender behind the deal is solid and understands the local market. Third, make sure you work with an experienced agent. My team has been in business for 17 years and our clients have definitely benefited from our experience. We’ve helped our clients win out even against offers where the seller would net more than they would from ours. This is because the listing agent has confidence in my team. As a final bonus tip, I’d like to suggest that you tell the seller your story. Sometimes, money isn’t the biggest object. This tip won’t always help you win out, but if other offers are very similar and yours has a personal touch, it will definitely help. So, consider writing the seller a letter about you and your family, and about what their home would mean to you. As always, you have the dream; we have the address. If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

A good listing agent will keep negotiating for you until you are at the closing table. Here’s how we helped one of our sellers by doing just that. When you sell your home, it’s very important that you hire an agent who will negotiate all the way through the deal. We recently sold a property that was on the market for about 20 days before an offer came in. We went back and forth and got to the point where we were about to accept the offer when another one came on the table. This second offer wasn’t necessarily as high as the one we already accepted, but we wanted to make sure that we continued to pay attention to it. So, we almost got to the end of negotiations with the original buyer when they suddenly got flaky. This buyer ultimately bailed on the transaction for whatever reason. An experienced listing agent is taught to negotiate through the deal. My communication with the new offer was consistent and crystal clear. I continued to call them and treat them like they were the bee’s knees so they felt like their offer was the only offer. Had I not done that, our seller would have had to go back on the market and we would have had to find someone else to buy the house. "My communication with the second buyer got the seller more money in the end." Not only that, the second offer ended up netting the seller more than the original offer because I continued to negotiate with them. When you hire someone to sell your property, these are the small things that an experienced listing agent should be doing. Selling is more than pricing, staging, and painting, although those things are important. Ultimately, you need someone who understands how to negotiate and will put you in a position where you can win. If you are thinking of selling your home or if you have any other questions, just give us a call or send us an email. After all, you have the dream; we have the address. We look forward to hearing from you!

A good listing agent will keep negotiating for you until you are at the closing table. Here’s how we helped one of our sellers by doing just that. When you sell your home, it’s very important that you hire an agent who will negotiate all the way through the deal. We recently sold a property that was on the market for about 20 days before an offer came in. We went back and forth and got to the point where we were about to accept the offer when another one came on the table. This second offer wasn’t necessarily as high as the one we already accepted, but we wanted to make sure that we continued to pay attention to it. So, we almost got to the end of negotiations with the original buyer when they suddenly got flaky. This buyer ultimately bailed on the transaction for whatever reason. An experienced listing agent is taught to negotiate through the deal. My communication with the new offer was consistent and crystal clear. I continued to call them and treat them like they were the bee’s knees so they felt like their offer was the only offer. Had I not done that, our seller would have had to go back on the market and we would have had to find someone else to buy the house. "My communication with the second buyer got the seller more money in the end." Not only that, the second offer ended up netting the seller more than the original offer because I continued to negotiate with them. When you hire someone to sell your property, these are the small things that an experienced listing agent should be doing. Selling is more than pricing, staging, and painting, although those things are important. Ultimately, you need someone who understands how to negotiate and will put you in a position where you can win. If you are thinking of selling your home or if you have any other questions, just give us a call or send us an email. After all, you have the dream; we have the address. We look forward to hearing from you!

They don’t want you to hire an agent. So, you should hire an agent. Some people think that if they’re going to buy a new home, they should do it on their own in order to get the best deal possible. They think that maybe they will save on commission costs or get a better deal. The truth is, none of that is true. In fact, builders prefer working with teams like ours as opposed to a lone-wolf buyer. The reason why is because we have the potential to bring them multiple deals. Because of that, they give us better deals than you could typically get on your own. We work with several home builders, such as Ryan Homes, who are willing to give our clients better deals because they know that if they do, we will bring the next client back to get a good deal as well. "We work with several builders who have given great deals to our clients." If you are thinking of buying a new home, give us a call. It doesn’t cost you a thing to work with us because our commission is covered by the builder, and we’d love to help you get into the new home you’ve been dreaming of. If you have any other questions in the meantime, don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us an email. We would love to hear from you.

Today I’d like to tell you the tale of two home inspections. If a buyer backs out after a home inspection, what happens when the next buyer’s inspection results are completely different? It’s time for me to tell you the tale of two home inspections. We had a property on the market in Fairfax where the original buyer backed out. The buyer claimed they backed out due to the home inspection, but I know this wasn’t the case. The simple truth is that they got cold feet. Only a matter of days later, another buyer came to the property and went under contract. This buyer ordered a home inspection, which gave us the opportunity to see two different inspections on the exact same property within about a five-day period. This is where things got interesting. The two home inspections were both done by professionals, but ended up being completely different. Because they found completely different things to fix within the home, the buyers asked for completely different things following their respective inspections. It’s because of scenarios like these that we encourage our sellers to negotiate a credit instead of fixing specific items. This just makes more sense, since the likelihood of two home inspections being exactly the same is slim to none. I’ve seen this kind of situation many times in our business. If you aren’t careful, you may end up making fixes on home inspection items for a buyer who will ultimately back out, only to be asked about making completely different repairs from the next buyer. "The right repairs will make all the difference." Understand that there will always be things within your home that you never noticed or cared about but that will be important to a buyer. Don’t make any hasty repairs before you list. There are certain things you should definitely fix, but sometimes those things aren’t what you might think. We can help you determine the right repairs, and help you move forward with your listing. The right repairs will make all the difference. Even if you aren’t considering selling for another year, my team and I would still love to get in touch. The earlier you call, the more we can do to put you in the position to win. If you have any other questions or would like more information. Feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

On this week’s edition of “AJ Eats,” I’m headed to one of my favorite local restaurants: Presto! Pizza. The pizza here is the best you’ll find anywhere. Welcome to this week’s edition of “AJ Eats.”  This week we’re visiting Presto! Pizza—a great family-owned restaurant in Lake Ridge where I had the chance to meet up with two of the owners. Pat, his mother Pina, and their family started Presto! back in December of 2007.  Since then, they’ve held a philosophy that’s kept people coming back seven years later. Pat says that it’s all about freshness. But using quality ingredients for their pizzas and homemade sauce is just part of what they do. Everyone here at Presto! Pizza has a true commitment to creating connections. Family is important to them, and they treat their customers like family. "Family is important at Presto! Pizza, and they treat their customers like family." Whenever I call in, Pat remembers not only my name, but also my favorite pizza—pepperoni and sausage. He says this extra effort is important, and they put it into the way they treat people and the way they make their food, as well. I’ve always loved the pizza here, but today I got the chance to do something different and actually go inside the kitchen. With Pat’s help, I even got to make my very own version of my favorite pizza. It all starts with rolling out the ball of dough.  Using one hand as a guide and using one to mold, we shaped the dough out into a crust. Next, we added a sprinkle of flour before flipping the dough over and stretching it even more. From the beginning of the process, it was easy to see the level of care that goes into the food here. Every pizza is hand-stretched, hand-tossed, and hand-topped every time.  After we evenly spread out the homemade sauce, we added parmesan and mozzarella cheese. Finally, it came time for the toppings. Because Presto! Pizza has the best pizza in Lake Ridge, I arranged the toppings on the one I made into an “LR.”  The reason Presto! Pizza is the best isn’t just about the quality of their food, it’s also about the love they put into the restaurant. You absolutely can’t go wrong with coming here. I definitely recommend that you check it out. But don’t just take my word for it. While I was in the restaurant I took the chance to interview Dominic, another member of the AJ team, about why he’s always here at Presto! Pizza. As someone with Italian heritage himself, Dominic says it’s worth coming back for.  We here at the AJ team love to help out local businesses, so if you decide to come out to Presto! and give it a try, be sure to tell them we sent you. If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

I’m joined today by Dr. Daria Groover, the principal of Featherstone Elementary School, and she has a special story to share. I’m joined today by Dr. Daria Groover, the principal of Featherstone Elementary School, and she has a special story to share. As some of you may know, myself and some of the other members of our team like to volunteer our time mentoring some of the students at Featherstone. Public school teachers and administrators have tough job, but when she came to me and told me of the successes of one of our mentees, I just had to share with all of you. Here’s what Dr. Groover had to say: “We have a student who is being mentored by Allen and some of the members on his team. This student hadn’t always been successful in the classroom in the past, but he has come a long way this year. He ended up passing two of his state standardized tests and when his teacher asked him what inspired him to get it together, his response was the mentoring program. That’s how we know the program is working and our students are meeting their goals.” The time that we spend coming in and talking to these kids about responsibility, leadership, having pride, and setting goals is priceless. All of these things make a difference for students here at Featherstone. "We will be back next year, and we want you to join us in sharing your talents with the younger generation as well." We will be back next year, and we want you to join us in sharing your talents with the younger generation as well. If you have any questions about the program or want to get in touch with Dr. Groover, give us a call or send us an email. We are also always here to answer any real estate questions you may have. We look forward to hearing from you.

Online home valuations can give you an idea of what your home’s worth, but you shouldn't price your home based on their calculations. When selling their home, most people nowadays do their own online research on websites like Zillow so they can get an estimated value of what their home is worth.  That’s a dangerous thing to do, however, and I have some numbers to show you why. Below is a list of homes we’ve sold in different areas this year and how wide the difference was between their Zillow Zestimates and their actual sold price:  A Clifton property was sold for $610,000, while its Zestimate was $611,000—a $1,000 difference. A Lake Ridge property sold for $330,000, while its Zestimate was $386,000—a $56,000 difference.A Manassas home sold for $485,000, while its Zestimate was $564,000—an $80,000 difference. An Alexandria home sold for $735,000, while its Zestimate was $780,000—a $45,000 difference. A Woodbridge home sold for $360,000, while its Zestimate was $435,000—a $75,000 difference.  "Give us a call so we can give your home an accurate valuation." Why is Zillow a dangerous place to calculate your home’s value? Let me put it this way—has Zillow ever actually been into your house? Have you ever gone to Zillow and informed them about any of your home’s updates?  Of course not. Zillow’s Zestimate is based on an algorithm that gives sellers unrealistic expectations of what their home is worth. If you’re thinking about selling a home, give us a call so we can give it a thorough, accurate valuation and you don’t leave money on the table once it’s sold.  If you have any other questions about our market or determining your home’s value, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We love to help you.

Summer is here, and that means it’s time for our annual backpack challenge. It’s time for this summer’s annual backpack challenge.  This year, we’ll be donating pre-filled backpacks to children in need at a local homeless shelter as well as in local schools.  But we can’t do this alone. We’d love to have your help. All you need to do is fill a backpack with school supplies such as erasers, pencils, crayons, and notebooks, and drop it off with us—we’ll take care of the rest. "We’d love to have your help." For your convenience, we have two drop-off sites you can bring your donations to.  You can either drop off your pre-filled backpack at our office, which is located at 4310 Prince William Parkway, Suite 200, or with our cosponsors at the Frostie Moose—located at 12581 Milstead Way. But that’s not all. As a way to thank you for your generosity, the Frostie Moose will be giving out coupons for free ice cream to anyone dropping off donations at their location.  Of course we all love ice cream, but we also love taking care of our community.  We’re excited for the opportunity to help kids in need, and we hope you’ll help us do so.  If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Today’s local market is seeing a few changes from what it looked like last year. Today I wanted to bring you some statistics from today’s local market.  Here in Lake Ridge, the average sale price is up by 4%. In the past, we predicted we’d be seeing a slow down year over year in this area, which is the case when you look at this number compared to last year’s five or 6%.  In the big picture, this is a healthy slow down. Homes are still appreciating, but not at a breakneck rate.  Sellers should be happy to hear that the average days on market is down 28%. This will drive up demand because homes in good shape will sell quickly.  "Buyers and sellers alike should be aware of how fast things can move on today’s market." Because of this, buyers and sellers alike should be aware of how fast things can move on today’s market.  Finally, townhomes and condos are still selling at a much higher rate than this time last year, having experienced an increase of 7%.  More and more, we’re seeing people move out of condos for a number of reasons. Many people want larger living accommodations, and many others are simply tired of renting. This trend can definitely be expected to continue in the future, as well. If you have any other questions feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you, soon.