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Increase In Virginia Grantor's Tax And The Rest Of The Northern Virginia Transportation Plan
2007-06-27 21:00:00
As some of you may or may not know, the Virginia General Assembly is increasing the Grantor's Tax as part of the Northern Virginia Transportation Plan passed last March. Currently, the Grantor's Tax is $1 per $1000 of the sales price or assessed value, whichever is greater. The Virginia General Assembly approved an increase from $1 to $5 per $1000 effective July 1, 2007. The latest news is that they are delaying the increase until September 1, 2007 and may only be raising it to $4 per $1000. As a seller of a $400,000 property in Virginia, the new rate of $5 per $1000 means an increase from $400 to $2,000. Even if the lesser amount of $4 per $1000 goes into effect, the amount would be $1,600, an increase of $1,200. But wait, there's more... According to NVAR, here are some other things included in the plan: 2 percent increase in the rental car tax 2 percent increase in the hotel/motel occupancy tax $10 increase in the vehicle safety inspection fee 1 percent initial vehicle


5 Reasons Why Housing Prices Will Not Go Down in Loudoun County
2007-06-21 15:16:01
1.  Sellers Can't Go Any LowerIn today's market place, many of the sellers are at or below the price they purchased their homes for.  This has created a situation where many sellers are unable to negotiate much further on the sales price of their home.  In other situations, equity has been drained from a property and the same "upside-down" scenario is occuring.  A buyer who thinks they can negotiate an additional $30,000 to $50,000 off a list price is finding out that many sellers just don't have the money to sell the house for much lower than list price.  This is creating a floor in the market of available homes to choose from in many areas.     2.  Sellers Can Turn to Rental Market Many sellers who feel the price of homes is too low or are in "market loss" situation can turn to the rental market as an alternative to selling.  This allows them to rent their current property and move on to the next one.  Sell
Read more: County , Prices , Housing , Reasons

Will Interest Rates Push Prices Down in Loudoun County?
2007-06-12 12:10:54
The only national statistic that has any impact on the local Loudoun County real estate market is interest rates.  The national statistics that are quoted in articles are, for all intents and purposes, meaningless to our local marketplace.  But interest rates and their movements have a direct impact on the Loudoun County real estate market and could be argued to be the single most influential statistic when it comes to homes sales and home prices. The reason they are so important is because they directly impact the amount of money a buyer can borrow and thereby the amount they are willing to pay for a home.  In a rising interest rate environment (like today), each increase in interest rates will eventually lead to lower overall sales prices.  The question is how much of an impact will they have and when will it occur. The sharper the rise the sooner it affects our market.  A sharp increase in rates after a crisis occurred after Hurricane Katrina in September
Read more: Rates , Interest , Prices

Resources (other than real estate) For Loudoun County, Virginia
2007-06-09 13:45:40
For those of you living in Loudoun County and selling or buying within, you probably already know what Loudoun County has to offer. But if you're relocating to the area, you may not. And being that the numbers, stats and data this blog routinely covers are not the only deciding factor when it comes to moving to Loudoun County, here is a list of additional resources to help you with your decision or give you new ideas on things to do or places to check out on the weekends. Official visitor web site for Loudoun County, Virginia - covers everything from shopping and dining to wine festivals and fairs, even a wedding guide. The guides are available in hard copy or pdf files. Loudoun County, Virginia - Wikipedia - includes a history and background of Loudoun County and is loaded with links to other resources. Loudoun County Public Schools - Kindergarten through 12th. Includes school boundaries, stats, etc. Dulles South Online - online portal for news, information and listings for Loudo
Read more: Resources

Sales Up Throughout Eastern Loudoun County except....Ashburn
2007-06-06 14:23:35
The four areas of Eastern Loudoun County all showed an increase in homes sold versus the same period last year except in Ashburn.  Sterling, Leesburg and South Riding all had increases in volume and helped to push sales activity up 14% over May of 2006.  The only laggard was Ashburn with units sold down 16% (24) over last year.  This is a turnaround from the previous 4 months of the year when Ashburn either met or exceeded sales for the prior year period.  A quick look at pricing shows median list prices for homes under contract this year in the county versus last year shows a decrease of $30,000 from $465,000 down to $435,000.   This represents a drop of 6.5% and continues the trend of smaller and smaller decreases.  Median sales prices in Loudoun County drop dramatically in June of 2006 to $440,000.  The last twelve months have seen median prices hover near that number and establish a solid price basis for the county.  Barring any un
Read more: Sales

Washington, DC Metro Area #2 For Techies
2007-05-31 07:00:00
When it comes to the overall economic outlook for the DC metro area, including Loudoun County, job growth definitely plays a big part. It's also a large factor in property values and the overall real estate market. With tech jobs being a fairly big chunk of the local job market, a report from Dice.com's site earlier this month is definitely good news. Based on posted job openings, sorted by zip code, the Washington , DC metro area is number 2 on the list of the top 10 metropolitan areas for tech jobs. 1. New York/New Jersey - 11,044 postings 2. Washington, D.C. - 7,971 postings 3. Silicon Valley - 6,755 postings 4. Los Angeles - 4,546 postings 5. Chicago - 4,241 postings 6. Boston - 4,167 postings 7. Philadelphia - 3,156 postings 8. Dallas - 3,084 postings 9. Atlanta - 2,987 postings 10. Seattle - 2,309 postings Overall, Dice.com reports a 119% jump in tech job postings over the past two years. Says Dale Welch at Winter, Wyman: "Competition for tech talent is intense,


Mortgage Rates Spike On News
2007-05-30 09:58:48
Based on upbeat consumer sentiment and speculation that the Fed would not cut interest rates anytime soon, mortgage rates jumped this week. Comments from the Fed regarding inflation also played a part in the jump. According to Freddie Mac, the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate loan jumped almost two-tenths of a point to 6.37 percent for the week ending May 24, up from 6.21 the previous week. Last year at this time, 30-year mortgage rates averaged 6.62 percent so we're still doing better than last year, but the jump in the rate and the forward prognosis is significant. As a consumer, this will effect your buying power by forcing you to either increase your monthly payment for the same priced property or to lower your purchase price. One way to offset this effect is for property values to decrease, but they have plateaued/been flat in Loudoun County since the end of 2006. For the full story on CNN Money, click here.
Read more: Mortgage Rates , Spike , Mortgage , Rates

Loudoun County Property Demographics
2007-05-24 16:31:01
A common question of those relocating to Loudoun County , Virginia is what types of properties are most commonly available and what the local demographics are. Well, according to a May 22nd press release issued by the U.S. Census Bureau, among counties with a population of 65,000 or more, Loudoun County is number four when it comes to the percentage of properties with 4 or more bedrooms. Virginia is number seven overall in the same category. Top 5 counties in U.S. with properties with 4 or more bedrooms Davis County, Utah - 49.4% Fayette County, Georgia - 45.5% Forsyth County, Georgia - 48.5% Loudoun County, Virginia - 44.6% Stafford County, Virginia - 43.8% Virginia (and neighboring Maryland) made the top of the list when it comes to states with the highest percentage of properties with 4 or more bedrooms. Utah was number one with 39.2%, Maryland was number two with 28% and Virginia was near the top with 26.5%. In regards to other parts of Northern Virgina and the metro DC area


Broadlands Sales are Slow
2007-05-23 15:13:38
Current sales for the Broadlands subdivision have fallen off in the last month and continue a trend established in April.  Since the first of April, there have been only 20 homes go under contract in the Broadlands.  In the months of March and February there were 18 and 19 sales, respectively.  With actives at 61, current inventory stands at a little over 5 months. Here is a link to the homes that have sold in Broadlands for the month of May.  http://maps.live.com/?v=2&cid=12AA0FB299532BEC!161&encType=1
Read more: Sales

Loudoun County Spring Market - Fact and Fiction
2007-05-10 10:41:45
During this time of the year many of the questions buyers and sellers have regarding real estate are about the spring market.  Most of what people believe to be true about this time of year is actually not true at all for the Loudoun County market.  And other things that people think have an effect on the real estate market have little if any effect at all.  Here are some of the most common public perceptions of the spring market and the real truth to them. The spring market starts in the spring. FALSE - The spring market actually starts in the middle of winter.  In Loudoun County, real estate activity starts to pick up at the end of January or the beginning of February.  After about a month of slowing activity preceding the winter holidays and for about 2-4 weeks after the new year, the buyers start looking again and the listing activity begins.  This past January sales activity increased 28% over sales activity just a month earlier in December 2006. M
Read more: Fiction , Market , Spring

Inman Innovator Real Estate Blog Finalists Are...
2007-06-29 16:07:45
Congratulations to the following real estate blogs/bloggers for being finalists in the Inman Innovator Most Innovative Blog category (award to be presented August 1 at Real Estate Connect in San Francisco): Transparent Real Estate Real Estate Tomato 3 Oceans Real Estate Real Estate, Real Competition and the Law Redfin's Sweet Digs blogs Calculated Risk Bloodhound Blog Mortgage Fraud Blog Patrick.net With so many good real estate blogs out there, this category was sure to have stiff competition. Congrats once again to all of the finalists!


Appraisal Institute's Alan Hummel Blames Mortgage Lenders For Appraisers "Hitting The Numbers"
2007-06-28 11:00:00
Alan Hummel, spokesperson for the Appraisal Institute , in prepared testimony Tuesday before a Senate subcommittee on mortgage industry abuses blamed poor regulation of mortgage brokers and lenders, and weak or nonexistent enforcement of real estate practitioners for the practice of "hitting the number" (aka inflating the value of a property to meet the purchase price and make the lender "happy" and the deal go through). Hummel pointed the finger at mortage lenders and said,"Appraisers face pressure from various parties involved in mortgage transactions. They are told to doctor their appraisals or else never see work from those parties again." So what Alan Hummel is saying is that the lender is to blame for the personal decision of an appraiser to basically lie, cheat and steal consumers and investors out of money by falsley inflating the value of a property and the documents that "support" that value?! Yes, Hummel is correct that the lender (and some agents/brokers) would have stoppe
Read more: Mortgage , Lenders , Hitting , Numbers

Which One Of These 7 Will Win "Most Innovative Brokerage or Franchise" Award at Inman Real Estate Connect?
2007-06-27 16:33:16
Inman announced the seven real estate brokerage companies that will compete for the Inman Innovator award this year in the Most Innovative Brokerage or Franchise category. This award, along with all other category awards will be given to the finalist on August 1, 2007 at Real Estate Connect in San Francisco. And the finalists are... Coldwell Banker - internationally known with over 120,000 sales associates and inventor of "Second Life", a 3D virtual community with over 7 million users John L. Scott Real Estate - focused on Washington, Oregon and Idaho and known for its Neighborhood Wizard and mapping features on its web site Real Living - based in the mid-west and best known for its MyRealLiving 2.0 portal, which enables agents and consumers to work together in real time @properties - a fast-growing and several-award winning company based in Chicago The Corcoran Group - a heavy hitter in New York City, specifically high-end properties Foxtons - based in New Jersey serving New
Read more: Inman , Award

How Real Estate Videos Killed The Open House
2007-06-24 09:30:00
As we all know by now, open houses are becoming less and less effective for the marketing and sale of real estate. Open houses still exist thanks in part to misinformed sellers and real estate agents who can't say no nor tell the client the truth (that they don't work like they used to). But what will completely kill open houses are videos - of properties, inside and out streaming directly to the masses.  And remember, America is built on convenience and videos are much more convenient than a traditional open house.  Let me explain...  As a buyer, imagine this: You no longer have to get dressed up to go out in public You no longer have to get into your car and waste time, energy and gas money driving from property to property You no longer have to get harrassed by the listing agent(s) holding the open house You can now preview the property from the comfort of your couch, office or wherever you are You can now preview the property at any time, day or night Y
Read more: Estate , Killed , House

It's Time to Clean Up Real Estate
2007-06-23 10:31:00
If a recent article stating that the competency level of the real estate industry has reached an all-time low isn't a call to action, I'm not sure what is.  The RISMedia article quotes former National Association of Realtor's Chief Economist, Dr. John Tuccillo as the originator of this statement.  Of course, Dr. Tuccillo would never utter those words if he was the acting Chief Economist and, in fact, the current Chief Economist is probably working on a rebuttal to this claim as I write this.  The reason the NAR would never admit to this is because they get their money from agents and the  more agents they have as members the more money they have to spend on crap like Bill Clinton speeches that cost over $100,000.  They would like every person in America to be a member and could care less about the quality as long as they paid their dues. Therefore, they will probably act to overthrow any effort to limit the number of potential agents that they can solicit
Read more: Estate , Real Estate , Clean

What Happened to Postlets?
2007-06-20 14:43:11
My marketing manager just informed me that Postlets.com is not working.  It seems this has happened before back in February.  I don't want to jump to conclusions and say they have gone out of business without knowing.  I did several searches and nothing came up regarding their website being down. If anyone has an idea of what is going on, could you fill the rest of us in.  Maybe Joel at FoREM knows something or Pat at Transparentre or someone over at Inman. UPDATE Postlets is back up this morning.  Guess it was a temporary glitch.


Zillow Adding Direct Feed Of Listings For Agents and Brokers Plus Lender Feature
2007-06-16 13:45:12
Based on a post by Jeff Sommers on Zillow .com, it seems that Zillow will be adding a feature making it easier for agents and brokers to upload their listings onto Zillow.com. Rather than uploading each individual listing one by one, a feed will used (guessing here) to upload the listings automatically, auto-populating each field and creating the "listing" on Zillow.com. This will hopefully save agents and brokers time and energy while helping ZIllow increase its number of listings. This idea is not new - it's being done similarly by Trulia who has agreements with many of the large brokerage firms such as RE/MAX, Century 21 and Keller Williams Realty where all their listings are automatically fed in to Trulia.com. Zillow seems to be focused on quantity - getting as many listings as possible in order to capture the most amount of web traffic possible. This will surely help with advertising and other forms of revenue. The issue so far though has been the quality of their info
Read more: Direct , Brokers , Lender

Zillow Beats Out Yahoo Real Estate; Realtor.com Still King
2007-06-06 14:15:15
The online home valuation and property marketing site Zillow .com passed Yahoo Real Estate to rank sixth among the most visited real estate Web sites in May, Web metrics company Hitwise reported this week. Real estate marketing site HouseValues.com had the largest monthly jump on the top-20 list of most visited sites, going from from 24th in April to 18th in May. Other sites with improved monthly rankings include Century 21 Real Estate (century21.com), ServiceMagic.com, VisualTour.com, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (hud.gov), MLS of Northern Illinois (mlsni.connectmls.com), Move.com, Realtytrac.com, HomeGain.com, Rent.com, remax.com and ZipRealty.com. Sites that had monthly declines in visitor traffic include Yahoo Real Estate, Coldwell Banker Real Estate (coldwellbanker.com), Realtor .com and ApartmentGuide.com. According to Hitwise, the top 10 real estate Web sites captured 28.9 percent of all visits to Web sites in that category in May. This is an increase from 28
Read more: Beats

Stewart Copeland Needs To "Police" The Real Estate Industry
2007-06-05 10:46:20
After their opening show in Vancouver, Police drummer Stewart Copeland ripped his band's performance in a posting on his web site Thursday. He was very frank, to say the least, calling the performance "unbelieveably lame". Stewart also said that Sting made the band look "like a petulant pansy instead of the god of rock". The news made headlines across music sites including Yahoo Music, yet many came to the aid of Stewart and the Police saying it was just opening night jitters.  What's amazing is that no such self-policing (no pun intended) ever happens in real estate when the industry has plenty of things that need policing. Can anyone point out an article where an agent, broker or brokerage firm said "we screwed up" or "we did our customer a disservice" or anything of the sort? And if that admission was ever made, would consumers come to their aid?  The answer to those questions are "No" and "I seriously doubt it&q
Read more: Estate , Needs

The Other Side Of Foreclosures
2007-06-01 13:15:42
There has been and will continue to be a lot of talk about foreclosures effecting owners, banks and investors. But what has been barely talked about, if at all, is how foreclosures are effecting the tenants/renters in them. Perhaps it's because they don't pose a monetary risk to any of the parties involved. Maybe it's because they're seen as disposable. It could be because the laws don't really give them any rights in a foreclosure situation. Either way, the tenants including children (even pets) are directly effected when renting a property that is being or has been foreclosed on. One such story came out in a local newspaper here in Loudoun County, Virginia, the Loudoun Times-Mirror. A registered nurse and single mother with lupus found out last month through a legal advertisement in a newspaper that a bank was foreclosing on the Leesburg, Virginia town home she has been renting since Christmas Day, forcing her and her 8 year old son Nicholas to move once again. That's right
Read more: Foreclosures

Happy 4th!
2007-07-03 10:53:37
Wishing everyone a happy and safe 4th! If you're headed out of town, good luck braving the traffic. And if you're breaking out the grill and cooler, make sure the "rookies" don't burn your burgers and dogs. Before heading to a BBQ for some grilling and fun ourselves, we're hoping to catch up with the crew at Sellsius who's "Blog Tour USA" is making a stop tomorrow in our nation's capital. It'll be nice to finally meet them in person and check out the details of the tour so far. Photo courtesy of Nikonians.org.
Read more: Happy

"Flip This House", A&E and 813 Casting Looking For New Cast Of Characters For Upcoming Season
2007-07-10 13:50:14
"Flip This House ", A&E's #1 rated lifestyle show is looking for a team to be featured on the upcoming season. If you would like your team to be considered, send an email to fth@813casting.com and include your contact info, bios on you and your team and some reasons why your team should be the next to be featured on "Flip This House". Teams should consist of four or more people. Our team is focused more on the sale and purchase of residential real estate than "flipping houses" so we figured we'd spread the word to others who may be more experienced in this area. Good luck to all those who apply!
Read more: Casting , Characters , Upcoming , Season

POLL-The National Association of Realtors Is Spending Your Money-How Much Say Do You Have In The Matter?
2007-07-15 21:47:33

Read more: National , Realtors , Spending , Money

Terabitz Launches-Just Another Real Estate Listing Site or Different?
2007-07-17 16:46:21
Another startup in the world of online real estate launched today - Terabitz. It seems that rather than being just another real estate listing site, Terabitz is aiming to bring together an array of different information and data with properties for sale in one place. Terabitz allows users to customize their "homepage" through a "drag and drop" system, save their preferences and share information with others. Some of the things that users can customize their homepage with are mortgage calculators, market sales, pricing trends, crime statistics, for-sale listings, maps and neighborhood info such as local restaurants, banks, schools and post offices. The drag and drop system is very "google-ish" and easy to use, but the navigation to and from your homepage is cumbersome. Another feature that they are saying is "key" is the snapshot feature. It allows you to send a snapshot of your findings to a friend, family member or whomever. Not only could
Read more: Estate , Real Estate

Power Outage!
2007-07-24 20:58:38
Earlier today, real/diaBlog experienced some down time due to a power outage in San Francisco, which effected TypePad, our blogging platform. According to TypePad, things are up and running once again and we should be in the clear. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience. Now back to blogging...


Realtor.com Losing Ground Fast, Zillow.com is Stuck
2007-08-02 15:15:03
I read a recent comment by the CEO of the National Association of Realtor s, Dale Stinson, that the "technological relationship" between NAR and Move.com will remain stable.  Move.com is the company that runs the realtor.com website.  The comments were made on the stage at Inman’s Real Estate Connect conference.  Also on the stage was the CEO of Zillow .com, Rich Barton. Both of these websites, in my opinion, are terrible.  The realtor.com website can be called stable, only in the fact that it has barely changed in the last 5 years.  It is difficult to navigate and all my clients tell me so.  I also have found out that prospective buyers who reply online through realtor.com to a listing, get redirected to someone other than the listing agent.  I don't know where they go but a recent buyer called me up and asked why I didn't return her email.  She sent it through realtor.com but I never got it. It's hard to return an email you never
Read more: Stuck

Washington Mutual, National City and Now IndyMac
2007-08-09 07:42:47
We first got our hands on the email sent out by Washington Mutual regarding subprime loans and 2nd liens. Then we heard about National City no longer taking applications on 2nd liens. Now, we got our hands on this email sent out by IndyMac: "Dear Valued Customer, In response to recent liquidity issues in the secondary mortgage market, we have found it necessary to revise a number of our program limits and underwriting guidelines. The following revisions became effective for loans that were not rate locked prior to 12:00 p.m. Pacific Time today. The Indymac Lending Guide will be updated to reflect the changes shortly. Loans affected by the revisions below but rate locked prior to the effective date will be accepted and funded provided all QuickPricer® ratelocks are converted to full e-MITS® submissions by August 10, 2007 and all credit packages are delivered to Indymac by August 17, 2007. In addition, there will be no grace period or "auto-extensions" for clearance of c
Read more: Washington Mutual

Contrarian Real Estate - The Bottom is Near
2007-08-20 08:40:05
Bad news has proliferated throughout the economy regarding real estate and reached a boil during the most recent week when the stock markets blamed the credit crisis in home lending as the main reason for a 10% selloff in less than one month.  Just last week the following stories hit the news wires regarding real estate: New Home Construction Slowest in Decade: Both Housing Permits and Housing Starts were running at levels not seen in over 10 years Countrywide warns of credit-market risks: The country's biggest mortgage lender tells Wall Street that it is having problems selling their loans and it might cause liquidity problems.  One analyst reads this as warning as an indication that Countrywide could go bankrupt. Existing Home Sales fall in 41 states:  This report came from the National Association of Realtors, the most optimistic group in America.  This makes the current downturn the worst slump in 16 years. Risky Mortgages Turning into Toxic Mess:  A
Read more: Estate , Bottom

Chevy Chase Bank Loses One Class-Action Lawsuit, Now Faces Another
2007-08-31 06:00:00
If one class action lawsuit wasn't enough for Chevy Chase Bank, they're potentially facing another one. Last summer, Chevy Chase Bank finally settled a 7 year lawsuit over the credit card business for $16.1M plus other damages. The lawsuit created an entire "society" against Chevy Chase Bank, made headline news and gave their reputation quite a hit. Now, Chevy Chase Bank possibly faces another class-action lawsuit after a Wisconsin couple won a judgement stating that they were deceived over the terms of their mortgage and that Chevy Chase Bank violated the Truth In Lending Act (TILA). Not only did the judge rule in favor of the Wisconsin couple, the judge ordered Chevy Chase Bank to rescind the loan and certified the lawsuit as class-action. This opened the case to other borrowers who felt misled. Unfortunately, a ruling earlier this year by an appeals court in Boston cast doubt on whether class-action lawsuits will be allowed in mortgage recission cases. The court said
Read more: Action , Lawsuit

"Let's Talk" by Realtor.com - Useful To Agents and Consumers or Just Hype?
2007-08-30 04:00:00
At first glance, it looks as though NAR got with the times and finally did something that would help Realtor s by launching their  "Let's Talk by Realtor.com" feature. If you're a member of NAR, you can set up your blog for free and it seems that they offer tools to help you get on your blogging feet as well. Errol Samuelson, Realtor.com President even came out and claimed that the blogging tools are designed with search-engine-optimization (SEO) features to help with placement and traffic in order to help promote you as a Realtor. A free blog, tools to help you get on your feet, SEO optimization and the backing of your association?! Sounds good, doesn't it? Well, it may not be as good as it seems. After a closer look, here are some things that became more apparent: 1) Take a moment to check out the format. It's almost identical to ActiveRain when it first started out - the posts are hand picked by the staff of the community blog hosting the personal blogs. If you
Read more: Useful

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