This Week in Northern Virginia Real Estate - April 5, 2009
After a much needed 18 day vacation I pretty much walked off 24 hours of gruelling travel and straight back to work. I am grateful that I have clients to come back to. Before I report on the Northern Virginia market I want to take a minute to discuss the global real estate market. Dubai one of the richest cities that was one of the fastest growing real estate markets is also feeling the hurt from the meltdown of the global economy. Building has definitely slowed down and many people are being layed off from their jobs. One of Basil's cousins is an engineer and has been layed off from Nakheel one of the biggest developers in Dubai. They built The Palm Island. There are so many vacant new construction condo buildings that it is starting to look like South Florida there. Everyone over there of course blames the US for the downfall of the global economy. Shocker I know. Maybe they shouldn't be so reliant on us.
I heard people in the Middle East blame real estate agents for the crisis that we are going through. I repeatedly told people that not all agents are the same. I have not had a single client have to short sale their house or go into foreclosure. I have always told everyone that they will get approved for more than they are comfortable with and should figure out the monthly payment they are comfortable with and back into it.
Foreclosure townhouses and single family properties in the $200-$350k range in areas close to DC are still being listed undervalue and are receiving multiple offers. It is getting back to the system of the previous seller's market where agents are putting the house on the market on Friday and waiting until Monday to collect contracts. I submitted an offer on a property Saturday morning that wasn't even a short sale or foreclosure and the agent still hasn't gotten back to me yet. Another offer I wrote was on a steal of a deal property that was a regular sale and the agent got back to us in hours. There is no consistency which can be frustrating.
This week I earned the CDPE Designation this week which is the Certified Distressed Property Expert designation. I am now certified to list short sale properties. If you know of someone who is falling behind on mortgage payments I am now qualified to help them. There are many agents out there listing short sales and 99.9% are not qualified to list them and have no idea what they are doing. The process is 60-90 days when these agents manage the transaction. When a certified agent manages the transaction we can get approvals from 2-20 days. As a Certified Distressed Property Expert and Realtor, I can give the expertise necessary to save thier credit, relieve the uncertainly and most of all, help teir family. As a CDPE, I can save 9 ourt of 10 people from going into foreclosure. Time is of the essence. If you know of anyone in this situation please forward them my contact information. If they truly have a hardship I will be more than happy to help them. A few important points worth mentioning:
On average, foreclosures may lower your credit score anywhere from 250 to over 300 points and typically affects the score for over 3 years.
Short sales at times can have little to no affect on your credit score.
Foreclosures remain on your credit history for 10 years or more.
Short sales are not reported on your credit history.
We really need to sell the short sale inventory in order for the market to get better. When approvals take 60-90 days and the process isn't handled properly it leads to frustration and buyer's walking away. If you hire a CDPE from the start the transaction will run much smoother and will more than likely end in a sale.
As a buyer's agent showing short sales the biggest frustration for me has been the seller's. I always schedule my appointments the day before to give the owner's plenty of notice. I am tired of showing properties where people are at home showering, or sleeping in the beds. If I can't show your entire property then my clients most likely aren't going to buy it. If you don't care about selling your house you shouldn't even bother listing it. It is a waste of my time and my client's time to show up to a property that we can't even see.
Deals: I was able to get a client a condo that was listed for $200,000 for a bargain price of $165,000 + 3% in closing costs. The amazing thing is that the property even appraised at $220k which I haven't seen an appraisal that high over the sales price in years. This is the second property that I have been able to get for $40k below list this year. My new strategy is to look at properties that may be over priced and have been on the market for 100+ days. It seems like everyone is going after the undervalued properties and they are getting multiple contracts. When I offer $40k lower on an over priced property that has been on the market for a while and say that it is all that my client can afford the banks seem to be taking it.
Kim Darwaza, Realtor ~ http://www.kimdarwaza.com ~ kim@kimdarwaza.com ~