I recently earned the coveted Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE) designation to formally and objectively document my knowledge, skills, and experience in assisting with the sale and purchase of distressed properties.
A property can become distressed for a variety of reasons but the most common is a foreclosure. Any situation that has caused a property owner to have difficulty making mortgage payments or even selling the property is said to be in a distressed state. Basically any property which has foreclosure looming.
I can help homeowners concerned with the complexities of selling their home short to avoid foreclosure. I can also help investors and homebuyers with the process of understanding the purchase of a short sale or a foreclosed property.
Please reach out to me at stacy@dreamtohome.com if you or anyone you know would like to explore options surrounding a distressed property.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Thursday, October 11, 2007
What factors you should consider when determining the value of your home?
It is tough to determine the value of your home in today’s market. It’s not what you want, need or what your neighbor got six months ago. The real value is what a ready and able buyer is willing to pay.
To determine the value of your home, ask a Realtor for a comparative market analysis (CMA). There are factors that as a Realtor, we look for.
The recent sales statistics are very important. We are going to research what other homes similar to your home have sold for recently. Emphasis will be on recently sold homes with similar features, including style and square footage of home, days on market, type, condition, number of bedrooms and baths, etc.
If you are considering selling, it boils down to three things: Price, Location and Condition. Buyers are looking for the best condition in a location that fits their needs for the best price! Let us know how we can help educate to in finding your dream home.
To determine the value of your home, ask a Realtor for a comparative market analysis (CMA). There are factors that as a Realtor, we look for.
The recent sales statistics are very important. We are going to research what other homes similar to your home have sold for recently. Emphasis will be on recently sold homes with similar features, including style and square footage of home, days on market, type, condition, number of bedrooms and baths, etc.
If you are considering selling, it boils down to three things: Price, Location and Condition. Buyers are looking for the best condition in a location that fits their needs for the best price! Let us know how we can help educate to in finding your dream home.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Homeowners Insurance - Do you know what is covered
Attention Northern Virginia Homeowners:
We found this great article of the challenges homeowners encounter due to not being familiar with the coverage stated in their homeowner's insurance policy. This is a must read!
http://realtytimes.com/rtcpages/20070612_doesinsure.htm
We found this great article of the challenges homeowners encounter due to not being familiar with the coverage stated in their homeowner's insurance policy. This is a must read!
http://realtytimes.com/rtcpages/20070612_doesinsure.htm
Home Energy Practices
With the Northern Virginia weather change this fall, here are some key tips to remember on your energy practices in your home:
Be careful not to overheat or overcool rooms. In the cooler months, try to set your thermostat at 68 degrees in daytime, and 55 degrees at night. A programmable thermostat may be a wise investment. In the warmer months, try to stabilize your thermostat at 78. Lowering your thermostat just two degrees during winter could save up to 6 percent of heating-related CO2 emissions. That's a reduction of 420 pounds of CO2 per year for a typical home.
Try to clean or replace air filters as recommended. Advice we offer in the PIM/PDA age is to put a reminder on your electronic calendar for the day/week to change your filter. Energy is lost when air conditioners and furnaces/heat pumps have to work harder to draw air through dirty filters. Cleaning a dirty air filter can save up to 5 percent of the energy used. That could save 175 pounds of CO2 per year.
Saving CO2 emissions is just a start - it also will save you on energy expenses!
Be careful not to overheat or overcool rooms. In the cooler months, try to set your thermostat at 68 degrees in daytime, and 55 degrees at night. A programmable thermostat may be a wise investment. In the warmer months, try to stabilize your thermostat at 78. Lowering your thermostat just two degrees during winter could save up to 6 percent of heating-related CO2 emissions. That's a reduction of 420 pounds of CO2 per year for a typical home.
Try to clean or replace air filters as recommended. Advice we offer in the PIM/PDA age is to put a reminder on your electronic calendar for the day/week to change your filter. Energy is lost when air conditioners and furnaces/heat pumps have to work harder to draw air through dirty filters. Cleaning a dirty air filter can save up to 5 percent of the energy used. That could save 175 pounds of CO2 per year.
Saving CO2 emissions is just a start - it also will save you on energy expenses!
Monday, September 10, 2007
Key points in this real estate market.
Greetings to Virginia Buyers and Property Owners,
The current upheaval in the market has given rise to significant opportunities to help our clients make informed decisions. Tom Sherman, President of Mortgage Services Unlimited in Dallas, emphasizes the importance of educating clients and customers. Therefore, please allow me to share these points.
For sellers, the following points are key:
* Home values will stay stagnant or potentially decrease.
* Qualified borrowers are looking for deals.
* Fewer borrowers are qualifying for home loans.
* Rising foreclosures tend to negatively affect home values.
* Increased “days on the market” (DOMs) increases the likelihood that buyers will aggressively negotiate prices down.
* Continued stress in the financial markets will affect consumer confidence.
* Loans may take longer to close.
* Appraisals are becoming more difficult to obtain.
* Properties should be funded before contract contingencies are removed.
It’s critical to price homes to sell -- and sell quickly -- decreasing the need for price reductions. If you are thinking of selling in the near future, please contact us so that we can discuss the market and what is best for your particular situation.
Hope everyone is having a great week!
The current upheaval in the market has given rise to significant opportunities to help our clients make informed decisions. Tom Sherman, President of Mortgage Services Unlimited in Dallas, emphasizes the importance of educating clients and customers. Therefore, please allow me to share these points.
For sellers, the following points are key:
* Home values will stay stagnant or potentially decrease.
* Qualified borrowers are looking for deals.
* Fewer borrowers are qualifying for home loans.
* Rising foreclosures tend to negatively affect home values.
* Increased “days on the market” (DOMs) increases the likelihood that buyers will aggressively negotiate prices down.
* Continued stress in the financial markets will affect consumer confidence.
* Loans may take longer to close.
* Appraisals are becoming more difficult to obtain.
* Properties should be funded before contract contingencies are removed.
It’s critical to price homes to sell -- and sell quickly -- decreasing the need for price reductions. If you are thinking of selling in the near future, please contact us so that we can discuss the market and what is best for your particular situation.
Hope everyone is having a great week!
Friday, August 3, 2007
Northern Virginia Homeowners - vacationing tips
Northern Virginia Homeowners – Tips for while you are away!
Vacationing is fun anytime of the year but with this summer starting to ease into many families' summer vacations, we’ve compiled some tips on preparing your home for your absence.
1 - Consider a house sitter. Maybe a trusted neighbor, relative, or family friend can look after your home and/or affairs while you and the family are away. Consider leaving an information sheet or packet about the house for the sitter as well - alarm system information, important phone numbers, how to work the appliances and electronics, spare key location, and circuit breaker panel location.
2 - Security System - Consider the installation of a home security system. Most vendors will try and sell you the whole ball of wax, while an effective and efficient purchase would be monitors on all doors to the outside and motion sensors for high traffic areas. Consider a passphrase that you and your emergency contacts will remember easily for false alarms. Security Systems also normally convey when you go to sell your home. This is a nice add-on.
3 - Periodical Services - Please consider putting your mail on hold at the local post office, and also telling the newspaper company to hold your paper. Piled up mail or newspapers is a clue to potential burglars that your home is absent or unattended to. Of course if you have a house-sitter, they can gather these periodicals daily. Or a neighbor can gather your mail and papers every day for you.
4 - Lighting - Consider motion detectors on outside lighting and automatic timers for some selective inside lighting. These features can help convey the presence of someone while you are away. Don’t tip off burglars that you are away.
5 – Separate Power circuit - Many homeowners keep a second refrigerator or freezer in their garage for additional food storage. With high heat and summer thunderstorms, your power can fluctuate while you are away. Since most garage electrical outlets are on Ground Fault Indicator (GFI) circuits which can trip off very easily. Your stored food will unfortunately spoil with an outage or fluctuation. Consider having an electrician install a dedicated, non-GFI power circuit for your garage refrigerator or freezer so that you do not return from vacation with a spoiled surprise.
There are other handy tips to prevent burglaries – refer to your local police department for crime prevention services.
Websites for reference:
Alexandria City - http://alexandriava.gov/police/pd_csp_crimeprevent.html
Arlington County – http://www.arlingtonva.us/departments/police/citizens/reference/crime_prevention/policecitizensreferencecrime_preventionPreventionsafety.aspx
Fairfax County - http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/POLICE/police15c.htm
Loudoun County – http://www.loudoun.gov/publicsafety.htm
Prince William County – http://www.pwcgov.org/default.aspx?topic=04003600225
Happy vacationing!
Ed and Stacy
Vacationing is fun anytime of the year but with this summer starting to ease into many families' summer vacations, we’ve compiled some tips on preparing your home for your absence.
1 - Consider a house sitter. Maybe a trusted neighbor, relative, or family friend can look after your home and/or affairs while you and the family are away. Consider leaving an information sheet or packet about the house for the sitter as well - alarm system information, important phone numbers, how to work the appliances and electronics, spare key location, and circuit breaker panel location.
2 - Security System - Consider the installation of a home security system. Most vendors will try and sell you the whole ball of wax, while an effective and efficient purchase would be monitors on all doors to the outside and motion sensors for high traffic areas. Consider a passphrase that you and your emergency contacts will remember easily for false alarms. Security Systems also normally convey when you go to sell your home. This is a nice add-on.
3 - Periodical Services - Please consider putting your mail on hold at the local post office, and also telling the newspaper company to hold your paper. Piled up mail or newspapers is a clue to potential burglars that your home is absent or unattended to. Of course if you have a house-sitter, they can gather these periodicals daily. Or a neighbor can gather your mail and papers every day for you.
4 - Lighting - Consider motion detectors on outside lighting and automatic timers for some selective inside lighting. These features can help convey the presence of someone while you are away. Don’t tip off burglars that you are away.
5 – Separate Power circuit - Many homeowners keep a second refrigerator or freezer in their garage for additional food storage. With high heat and summer thunderstorms, your power can fluctuate while you are away. Since most garage electrical outlets are on Ground Fault Indicator (GFI) circuits which can trip off very easily. Your stored food will unfortunately spoil with an outage or fluctuation. Consider having an electrician install a dedicated, non-GFI power circuit for your garage refrigerator or freezer so that you do not return from vacation with a spoiled surprise.
There are other handy tips to prevent burglaries – refer to your local police department for crime prevention services.
Websites for reference:
Alexandria City - http://alexandriava.gov/police/pd_csp_crimeprevent.html
Arlington County – http://www.arlingtonva.us/departments/police/citizens/reference/crime_prevention/policecitizensreferencecrime_preventionPreventionsafety.aspx
Fairfax County - http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/POLICE/police15c.htm
Loudoun County – http://www.loudoun.gov/publicsafety.htm
Prince William County – http://www.pwcgov.org/default.aspx?topic=04003600225
Happy vacationing!
Ed and Stacy
Friday, July 20, 2007
Some thoughts on the D.C. area real estate figures in the media
Stacy and I are stopped quite often and brought into enjoyable conversations about the Northern Virginia Real Estate market. Regularly these conversations will involve a reference to an article in the Washington Post, a smaller local paper, or a story on a local news show. Something along the lines of, "I heard on the Washington Post that Real Estate in the D.C. area is expected to drop an estimated 12% this month."
While such predictions are usually not unfounded, we are quick to point out that statements like this are an average .... of everything in the population being made reference to. In a prediction that Northern Virginia home prices will drop 12% this month, we need to make sure we concluded that this number includes a the sume and average of lot of other numbers. The case could be that townhomes on Eastern Loudoun County are down 18%, yet condominiums in Arlington County are up 3%, and luxury homes in Potomas are down 10%.
Real estate is a local business. You may find if you drill down into one of these reports or predictions, that the elements of a real estate market value sum percentage can vary within the same zip code or subdivision.
When we are asked - "How is the market?" The answer out of my mouth is usually - in a balanced market like here and now, it depends on what local piece of the market you are talking about.
While such predictions are usually not unfounded, we are quick to point out that statements like this are an average .... of everything in the population being made reference to. In a prediction that Northern Virginia home prices will drop 12% this month, we need to make sure we concluded that this number includes a the sume and average of lot of other numbers. The case could be that townhomes on Eastern Loudoun County are down 18%, yet condominiums in Arlington County are up 3%, and luxury homes in Potomas are down 10%.
Real estate is a local business. You may find if you drill down into one of these reports or predictions, that the elements of a real estate market value sum percentage can vary within the same zip code or subdivision.
When we are asked - "How is the market?" The answer out of my mouth is usually - in a balanced market like here and now, it depends on what local piece of the market you are talking about.
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