There’s been quite a dustup taking place within the real estate industry this week. A brokerage out in San Diego, ARG Abbot Realty Group, declared that effective immediately, they are pulling all of their listings off of third party syndication sites Realtor.com, Trulia, and Zillow, via an impassioned video posted on YouTube (a video syndication site, natch). The argument was that the evil syndicators were not displaying data correctly and thus muddying the water of the market really looks like.  That particular company seems to feel it’s not in the best interests of their consumer to permit their listings to be displayed there. All three of those sites are in the top five trafficked real estate sites nationally.

As a potential home seller, if your agent can’t explain what listing syndication is, please get another agent. Seriously. As the person hired to sell your home, it is most advantageous to not only put your listing on as many sites where there are buyer eyeballs as I can, but also to ensure that the photos display correctly, the open house information is there, the links to the virtual tours work, etc.  The blunt truth is that consumers flock to Realtor.com, Trulia, and Zillow because they are easy to use, and they all have slick mobile apps, too. Would you want your listing hidden from the consumers searching there?

That San Diego brokerage was arguing, in part, that the consumer needs to be able to contact the listing agent for information, and not whichever agent paid to put advertising on the page next to the listing. Honestly, when I’m trying to sell your house, I’m just as happy to answer questions from a buyer’s agent as I am from a potential buyer: I don’t want to represent the buyer, I just want to get the house sold, as I was hired to do. I don’t care where the buyer comes from as long as we can get them in the front door of the home.

I don’t list your home to fish for buyers. I list your home to sell it. 

Not only that, I refuse to double-side a deal; I decided several years ago that I would no longer represent a buyer and a seller in the same deal.  In my opinion, there is no way to completely represent each of your clients interests in the best way possible while working both sides of the deal.

I’m sure, as a consumer, that you could care less about what goes on in the real estate kitchen, you only need the results. So I want you to know that when I list your home, you will continue to have a featured listing on the big three syndication sites, and I will ensure that the information displays correctly. And you won’t ever have to worry about my company removing your home listing from a place where your potential buyer can find it.

Cheers,
Heather

(If you would like to read a full rebuttal explanation of how that video is full of misinformation, please read my friend Jay’s post here. He explains it eloquently.)

Also, here’s how one of my listings renders on each of those sites:

Bear with me today, I’m going to take a detour from our regularly scheduled programming, because this struck a nerve. Yesterday afternoon, my husband and I received the following email from our daughters’ elementary school:

In keeping with current practices designed to protect the health and safety of all children, elementary students in Loudoun County Public Schools are not permitted to distribute candy or other food items to classmates.  As Valentine’s Day approaches, it is important for parents to understand that candy brought to school by students, including candy attached to Valentine’s Day cards, will be returned to the parent.

Perhaps it was this way last year, too, but I don’t recall getting a strongly worded notice before the holiday. My reaction was “are you kidding me?!” followed with wondering if there was anything I could do to change this. Or at least make my voice heard.

Trust me, I understand that the intent behind this is to protect the students that have food allergies…but as parents we are informed at the beginning of the year if our child is in a classroom with a student that needs to be protected. In our tight knit community, I’m sure we could handle sending in appropriate treats that wouldn’t be a danger. (We manage to make it through lunch every day without incident.)

The candy at Valentine’s day issue is not the whole problem, unfortunately. We can’t send in treats for our child’s birthday. We can’t have a Christmas party, it’s a holiday party. The Halloween parade in the school is now a ‘spirit parade’ with themed costumes… (I think my middle schoolers dressed up as “math nerds”?) Most disturbing to me is that the time honored tradition of Field Day now awards ‘participation ribbons’. There is no first, second, or third place. On American Education Week, we are ‘strongly encouraged’ to show up at pre-assigned times for scheduled performances…just dropping in to observe our child’s classroom in action would be too disruptive, and is discouraged.

I don’t think that school administrators or school boards have malicious intent, but they have stripped so much of the fun of childhood out of the elementary school experience. I can promise you that my life wasn’t ruined, nor did I need therapy, when I didn’t win first prize in the water balloon toss. I sure as hell remember getting first place in the three -legged race, though, and those ribbons are in my scrapbook. And I remember my class parties from elementary school…we all knew what it meant if a boy gave you a small box of chocolates instead of a lollipop with your card! (The teasing was good natured, I assure you!)

Each of these smaller policies are not such a big deal when taken individually, but add them all together and we’ve chipped away at the experience that helps shape these little people into who they will become as adults. At what point do we stand up and say, enough already?

~Heather

With the mild winter weather, the spring real estate market is already showing signs of life in Loudoun County. Buyers are out and about, beginning to check out what homes are available. Sellers are deciding on pricing and when to list their homes as active on the market. And everyone thinking about a move, whether as a buyer or a seller, is trying to gauge the market to see where it’s trending.  If you are basing your thinking on the national news regarding the real estate market, you  are going to have a problem this spring: Loudoun County is NOT a buyer’s market. In fact, it’s edging very close to a seller’s market right now.

(I’m going to give you a moment to digest that.)

Sure, we’ve seen some articles recently that talk about how strong and insulated the Washington DC metro area  real estate market is, but I want to give it to you on a usable level…what’s happening in Montgomery and Prince George’s County (or heck, even Fauquier) doesn’t necessarily apply here. Looking at our absorption rate (the rate at which homes are selling) shows us that we have 3.9 months of inventory, and 3 months or less is a seller’s market.

Absorption rate is calculated by taking the number of active listings and dividing it by the number of homes that have gone under contract within the last 30 days. Six months or more is a buyer’s market, 3 to 6 months is a balanced market, and under 3 months is a seller’s market.

As of today, there are 1290 active listings, and 326 homes under contract in 30 days or less. That’s 3.95 months of inventory. (That matches with the most recent sales data from December, homes sold last month averaged just 69 days on market.) Now, that figure includes the new construction market. Some of those ‘active’ listings are just placeholder listings for models within communities: builders put in one active listing to represent all available lots with that model.  So their listings tend to skew the data on active homes.

Looking strictly at the resale market, removing the new construction listings and contracts, there are only 893 homes for sale in ALL of Loudoun County right now. Resale contracts in the last 30 days total 254…which puts the resale absorption rate at 3.51 months of inventory. Even closer to a sellers’ market!

What does that mean for you? If you are thinking about buying this spring, be prepared…if inventory levels do not increase, we will continue to see homes going under contract quickly, with the potential for multiple offer situations. (Yes, we have been seeing this for the last couple of months!) Be prepared and organized when you are doing your home search so that you can act quickly when you decide you are ready to offer on a home.

As a seller? We are not going to see the run-up in pricing that accompanied the craziness of the market in 2004 and 2005.  However, you can expect that if your home is priced appropriately and is prepared for showing and sale, you should be able to successfully sell within 3 to 4 months at the most.

Certainly, if everybody and their brother puts their home on the market next week and our inventory count goes drastically higher, that will affect our absorption rates for this spring.  This is obviously an overview for all of LoCo; different price points, home types, and neighborhoods will have different situations. If you want to know how this applies specifically to your home and your neighborhood (or the neighborhood you are looking to move to) you can click here to schedule a consultation.

Cheers,
Heather

Median Home Price for Loudoun County

If you follow along with any of my social media accounts, you might have noticed some mention of New York City….I am in the Big Apple this week for the Inman Connect conference, which is put on by one of the most respected sources of real estate news, Inman News. I think it’s massively important for me to stay on top of the trends within the industry, so I attend this and a few other conferences throughout the year. My goal is to feed my brain by attending classes taught by some of the brightest minds in the industry; I also appreciate the opportunity to network with these folks and hear how their business is going.  The real estate market and the way that transactions are handled is very different depending where you live, and I find it enlightening to hear how other professionals work.

It also gives me the chance to bring new strategies and good information back that I can put to use for my clients. Above everything else, I want to give my clients the best possible representation I can, and continuing my ‘real estate education’ is a big part of that.

Of course, the LoCoMusings team is still in the office in Loudoun County if you would like to set an appointment or have a question, so don’t hesitate to reach out.  I’ll be back in LoCo tomorrow night.

Cheers,
Heather

Last year in January I did a wrapup post of the most expensive homes sold in Loudoun County for 2010. Obviously, now it’s time to take a look at the top 2011 luxury sales in LoCo. The top five homes sold, not unlike 2010, were all just about in the $2 million and above price range. Money may not be able to buy you happiness, but it can certainly get you some fantastic real estate:

11409 Coyote Court, Sterling: $1,950,000

Listed by Janean Buchner of RE/MAX Select and sold by Robin Bono of Weichert Realtors after 165 days on market. The home is located in Cascade Estates (near the 8th hole at Trump National Golf Club) on over an acre of land, was built in 2001, and boasts over 9600 finished square feet, an in-ground pool, and private putting green.

20443 St. Louis Road, Purcellville: $2,250,000

Listed by Gloria Rose Ott and sold by Cindy Polk, both of  Armfield, Miller, and Ripley Fine Property, after 476 days on market.  Combining two parcels for over 53 acres, this estate home has a newly remodeled main house with a sleeping porch, veranda, and in-ground pool.  The guest house was built in 2009; the property is also home to a first class equestrian facility.

15916 Old Waterford Road, Paeonian Springs: $2,610,000

Co-listed by Nancy Yahner of Keller Williams and Jim Lemon of Middleburg Properties, and sold by Charles Blanks of Coldwell Banker Preferred Properties after 41 days on market.  The main home was built in 1982 and is situated on 175 acres with mountain views. The property also has a tenant house, barn, pastures, pond, and woodlands. (And also, the potential for a vineyard, as pictured.)

15164 Berlin Turnpike, Waterford: $3,000,000

Listed by Jeffrey Stein of Tranzon Fox and sold by Sam Rees of Prudential Carruthers Realtors after 78 days on market. With numerous outbuildings,  and 27 acres of land (including a 7 acre pond) , the historic Wheatland Manor property dates back to 1741. The listing was shy on details but offered that the property could be used for a corporate retreat.

And the most expensive home sold in Loudoun in 2011?

Grace Hill Farm

19786 Ebenezer Church Road, Bluemont: $4,500,000

Listed by Mary Ann McGowan and sold by Jim McGowan, IV, both from Thomas & Talbot Real Estate, the company that listed the most expensive home sold in 2010 as well. Built in 1998 and sited on 107 acres of land in western Loudoun, this home has over 10,000 finished square feet of luxury. Four fireplaces, five bedrooms, four full and two half baths, dual curved staircases,  in-ground pool, stocked pond, mountain views, guest house….you get the picture. It looks absolutely amazing….a true luxury retreat, here in the most beautiful county in Virginia.

Cheers,
Heather