Northern Virginia Real Estate Podcast with Jody Donaldson

.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; height: auto; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } Looking to sell your home? Get a free home value report  Buying a Virginia home? Search all homes for sale I just wanted to take a moment today and wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. My team and I hope you enjoy and cherish the time spent with loved ones this time of year.   For our military personnel, we continue to pray for your safe return home to your families. For our public safety personnel, stay safe out there and come home at night. From the entire Donaldson Team, we wish you the happiest of holidays, and look forward to connecting with you in the new year!

I just wanted to take a moment today and wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. **My team and I hope you enjoy and cherish the time spent with loved ones this time of year. **

Last time we covered how to prepare for winter on the inside of your home, and in this episode we’re going to discuss how you can winterize the outside of your property.

.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; height: auto; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } Looking to sell your home? Get a free home value report  Buying a Virginia home? Search all homes for sale Today’s topic is preparing your home for the winter, the indoors edition. This is part one of a two part series, and we’ll cover the outside of your home on the next video. It may not feel like winter now, but it will be here before you know it. To make sure you are prepared for the weather and all that it brings with it, we want to give you some tips today for getting the inside of your home all ready for winter. Right now is a great time to go through and thoroughly clean the interior of your home. We’re talking sweeping, vacuuming, dusting, and even hiring a carpet cleaning service to steam clean or shampoo your floor. We recommend mopping and sweeping those hardwood, tile, or linoleum floors as well.  One area of your home you should pay special attention to is the bathrooms and the kitchen. Deep clean the countertops to refresh them for the season and get rid of those lingering cold germs. Now is also a great time to perform preventative maintenance on your heating system. It’s not a bad idea to have a service contract with a company to check your heater a few times a year, which will help prolong its life. Finally, make sure you check those smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and replace their batteries. Also, check and purge your closets, cabinets, and garage of any unnecessary items and donate them to charity. If you have any questions for us about winterizing your home, give us a call or send us an email. We’ll be back with part two next time, and we look forward to hearing from you soon!

Today’s topic is preparing your home for the winter, the indoors edition. This is part one of a two part series, and we’ll cover the outside of your home on the next video. It may not feel like winter now, but it will be here before you know it. To make sure you are prepared for the weather and all that it brings with it, we want to give you some tips today for getting the inside of your home all ready for winter.

.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; height: auto; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } Looking to sell your home? Get a free home value report  Buying a Virginia home? Search all homes for sale Have you ever wondered what the first step in the home buying process is? Today, Tim Curtin from Americorp Mortgage Services is here to help answer that question. Before you even start looking at homes, the first thing you need to do is get pre-qualified. You simply call your lender, talk to them about what you want to do, and then they will take your personal information, income, and assets to figure out what kind of loan you will qualify for. A pre-qualification is different from a pre-approval. The pre-qualification is more of a preliminary step. A pre-approval is when the lender goes through and verifies the information you provided during the pre-qualification. The documents you need to provide to the lender include 30 days worth of paystubs, your W-2s from the last two years, two years of tax returns if you have investment income or are self-employed, bank statements from the last two months, and a photo ID.     The whole process lasts about 30 days from getting approved to taking the loan to closing. You may even qualify for more than what you can afford. The lender allows you to borrow as much as their guidelines will allow, but that might be more than you can afford. Budget out your monthly mortgage payments in order to know what you can actually afford to spend on a home. If you have any questions for Tim, you can call him at 703.930.1765 or email him at [email protected]. As always, if you have any real estate questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to me. I look forward to hearing from you!

Have you ever wondered what the first step in the home buying process is? Today, Tim Curtin from Americorp Mortgage Services is here to help answer that question.

.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; height: auto; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } Looking to sell your home? Get a free home value report Buying a Virginia home? Search all homes for sale Today we have got the latest market update for you for Northern Virginia, and we are excited to share the great numbers we have been seeing. Here’s what’s been happening in the Northern Virginia real estate market: New pending contracts increased 14% from August of 2014Inventory was up as well, for the 25th consecutive month. There were 4,418 new listings added in August, a 1.5% increase over last AugustOur current active inventory in Northern Virginia is high, and sits at 10,599 The median sale price of $430,000 stayed pretty similar to last yearThe average days on market is up 8.89% So, we are entering the fall market with high inventory and the days on market increasing. However, buyer demand in Northern Virginia continues to increase, while significant gains in new contracts and closed sales continues to be a trend.   Our market is still very strong and continues to improve every year. If you are on the fence about buying now, just know that an impending increase in interest rates could push you out of the price point that you could afford today. So don’t wait, get prequalified today. If you don’t have a trusted lender, we have plenty that we can refer to you. If you have any questions for us at all, give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you!

Today we have got the latest market update for you for Northern Virginia, and we are excited to share the great numbers we have been seeing. Here’s what’s been happening in the Northern Virginia real estate market:

.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; height: auto; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } Looking to sell your home? Get a free home value report Buying a Virginia home? Search all homes for sale Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:8.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:107%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} If you're thinking of buying a home in the next three months or so, I'm going to give you three questions you need to ask yourself before you dive into the home search.Why am I buying in the first place? This is the most important question. For most people, the reason has nothing to do with finances whatsoever. People want a safe place to raise their kids. They want more space for their family, and they want control of the space that they have.Where are home values headed? When looking at future values, the Home Prices Expectation Survey provides a fair assessment. Every quarter, a nationwide panel of economists and real estate experts make projections for the next five years. Home values will appreciate by 4% through 2015. Even the more conservative experts project an accumulative appreciation of 15.1% by 2019.Where are mortgage rates headed? A buyer must be concerned about more than just home price. The long-term cost of a home could be dramatically impacted by an increase in mortgage rates. Mortgage rates will increase by one percentage point over the next twelve months, so keep that in mind.The bottom line is that only you and your family can determine the best time to buy a home. These three questions will guide you with that decision. If you have any questions for me, give me a call or send me an email. I'd be happy to help you.