Northern Virgina Real Estate Video Blog with Diane & Brian Hagarty

Northern Virginia Real Estate Market Update for July 2014

There are many great Northern Virginia area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (703) 995-9449 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Today we are going to talk to you about some interesting items that have come across the wire, both nationally and in Northern Virginia.

More homeowners are tapping into their home's equity and treating their castles like cash registers. Borrowers took about about 230,200 home equity lines of credit in the 1st quarter of 2014, which amounted to about 23.4 billion dollars.

At the same time, we are also dealing with a lot of sellers right now who are downsizing their homes. It's an interesting thought process, where on one hand you have a lot of folks who are taking cash out of their homes, and on the other hand a lot of people are of the mindset where they are reducing their stress and liability by downsizing

In late July, specifically in Northern Virginia, we are seeing homes on the market a little bit longer, around 30 or more days. With that being said, next week we will be talking about some information that you should be aware of. If you are thinking about refinancing, please reach out to our fantastic preferred lender, Melissa Hoover at (703) 928-7074 or MHoover@HighlandsMortgage.com. If you are thinking about buying or selling, please give us a call. We wish you the best and hope to talk to you soon!

Real Estate Agents Outperform Online Services Every Time

There are many great Northern Virginia area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (703) 995-9449 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

How Accurate are Online Home Estimates?

A lot of consumers (nearly 97%) are utilizing the internet to search for their homes. Online websites such as Trulia and Zillow offer a service that is very convenient and easy to use, but there are some big disadvantages to the services they provide.

I often get clients here in Northern Virginia telling me that their property was worth such-and-such on Zillow. What these websites do is use algorithms from a variety of sources, with the goal of finding only a ballpark estimate.

For example, I recently sold a Northern Virginia property in 7 days, and the house sold for $409K. Interestingly enough, Zillow said that the same property was worth $391K. Zillow also says that this property is still on the market, but I sold it nearly a month ago.

The bottom line is that these websites are neither accurate nor updated. Another big factor is that they are machines that do not factor in the motivations of the buyer.

Only real estate agents can give you accurate and updated information on available properties, and only real estate agents can actually talk to you and understand your motivations for buying a home.

Hands down, a real estate agent beats an online service every single time. This is why it is important to speak with an agent when you're buying a home.

Please contact us via phone or email and we would love to assist you in finding real estate in Northern Virginia.

Download our Mobile App: This is Your Chance to Win $50,000!

The Keller Williams Real Estate app is easy to use and makes finding homes on the go much easier. You can refine your search according to the features you’re looking for in a home, as well as narrow down a price range. This handy search engine is just one more way we would like to help you find a property.

Aside from the ease of use and market advantage this app will give you, it will also give you a chance to win $50,000 dollars. Here are my download instructions:

Make sure to enter the code KW2ENXGBY when prompted.
From your mobile device, click the following link or visit the mobile app store: http://app.kw.com/KW2ENXGBY.
You can also text the code KW2ENXGBY to 87778.
Again, make sure you enter the code KW2ENXGBY to be entered for the $50,000 giveaway.

This application is free to download so please use it as resource when searching for a home. As far as the $50,000 dollar prize, a winner will be announced on or around April 9th, so stay tuned.