All in a Day's Work
If you judged me only by today's performance, I'd be that strange lady running around town collecting keys from men she's just met and the lady that broke into a home to eat a tuna sandwich. Yep. That's me.
My day out started at a home inspection. The home inspector was running late, which gave me an opportunity to stop at Subway for a tuna flat bread sandwich. YUM! I took it with me and unlocked the door to the property to be inspected for my buyers. The electronic beeps at regular intervals reminded me that there was a house alarm. Only, the key fob that was supposed to be in the lockbox wasn't there. Oh no! Call the Listing Agent. No answer. Text her. The alarm is blaring. Eventually it stopped, but alas the home inspector arrived and opened a side door from the garage. Countdown to alarm bells started again. That's when I stepped outside and called ADT, begging them to please contact the home owner. Yeah, you can call the police, but who shows up with a name tag on to eat a tuna sandwich at the kitchen counter.
With that behind me, it was off to a listing appointment. Signed, sealed and delivered in thirty minutes. That's the joy of being known in a neighborhood like Braemar. Here is a man I've never met before, but who knows me, handing over the keys to his home. He knows he's in good hands because he's been receiving the hard copy of my Braemar Townhouse Report in the mail. But still....give a girl the keys to your house after only thirty minutes? This job does seem odd at times.
From there I headed out to REMOVE a key from a lock box...one of my new listings where tenants reside. Got the keys from the Property Manager, but apparently, the PM didn't give both keys to the tenants. The agents who have been showing the property are apparently locking out the tenants. Oops!
I think it's time for a margarita and some fajitas. If I mention the new Braemar townhouse listing coming up before the end of the month while I'm waiting for a table at the restaurant, I could probably have an interested buyer before the end of the day. That's how hot our market is. If it's priced right, it's going to fly off the shelf....that is, if it even makes it to the shelf.
Chris Ann Cleland, Associate Broker- Licensed in Virginia, GRI, SFR, Northern Virginia Short Sale Specialist. Affiliated with Long & Foster, 7526 Limestone Drive, Gainesville, VA 20155. To contact Chris Ann, call 703-402-0037 or email chrisann@LNF.com. Or you can visit her website: www.nvarealestate.net.
Header is a combination of photos from the Bristow, Gainesville & Haymarket areas, taken by Chris Ann Cleland.
were celebrity musicians would get on the air and play their "Desert Island Five" or something like that. The idea being that if you had to live with just five albums, what would they be. It's outdated thinking because we are all spoiled having our iPods carry all of our music in one device. And if you want to know what your top five albums are, all you have to do is go to your iTunes to find out how many plays each song in your library gets. If you've listened to a song 91 times and aren't sick of it yet, chances are that should be in your must haves.
I consulted with a home owner today who is facing a 
As days passed and the Listing Agent was receiving another offer, I recommended a proposal to my buyers. Clearly, the seller was worried he'd be taking his home off the market, in the hot spring/summer market, only to lose the deal if the buyer's clearance didn't come through. The only thing my buyers could offer was money for the consideration of taking the home off the market. So here's what we came up with:the fact that it was also a passion of his, and using some quote from a Civil War hero to bring the letter to a poignant close. The seller had also met my buyers. Hard to say no when you've met someone in person, but not impossible, and we were about to find that out.
new construction listing that finally was marked as sold. The low sold price was nearly 3% lower than last month while low marketing time was 1,600% higher. The average sold price was over 1% higher than last month and nearly 4% higher than last year. Average marketing time was 510% longer compared to last month and 1,044% longer than it had been last year. 
Only one home made it to settlement in April. It was a short sale and it's final price of $475,000 is all we have to compare to last month and last year, so we'll stick to comparing that to the averages. Compared to last month this is nearly a 2% increase in value and a 97% improvement in marketing time. Compared to last year, this is a 14% increase in value and a 99% improvement in marketing time. I suspect we will see more solds in May and a more accurate average.
There was one more single family home making it to the sold column in April than there had been in March. All that made it to the finish line were regular sales. The high sold price was 15% higher than it had been last month, with high marketing time 52% improved. The low sold price was 14% higher, with low marketing time improved by 81%. The average sold price increased 15% since last month and is practically the same as it was last year. The average marketing time has improved 69% since last month and improved 11% since last year. All good trends for Kingsbrooke single family home owners.
Kingsbrooke 
It was great to see three Kingsbrooke townhouses make it to settlement in April. The high sold price was 5% lower than it was in March and the high marketing time was 78% improved. The low sold price was 5% higher than it had been last month, low marketing time increased by 100%. The average sold price was over 2% higher than last month, almost 4% higher than last year. Average marketing time improved by 66% compared to last month and improved by 23% compared to last year.
