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Bob: What is the difference between list price, sales price and appraised value? I want a  thorough and long answer please. I am thinking about buying ahome in Reston Virginia.
Steve Bachman: Bob, the list price is the seller’s current advertised price for his property. The price that the seller sets could be at, above or below the property’s market value. In a buyer’s market, when prices are flat and/or falling and there’s a lot of housing inventory available, you could reasonably expect to offer at or below the market value.
Bob: How does the agent figure out the market value? Can’t we just go with what Zillow says?
Steve Bachman: Bob, the market value of your Reston home of interest should be determined by your agent who will analyze the prices of recently sold comparable properties near that home, using what should be the “net” prices received by the sellers of those homes used for comparison. By “net” price, I mean that any seller’s subsidy or monetary help the buyer receives back from the seller should be subtracted from the published sales price of properties being used for comparison.
For example, if a comparable home sold for a sales price of $350,000 with the seller paying $10,000 of the buyer’s closing costs, the net sales price of that home is $340,000 not $350,000. Your real estate agent should be able to obtain and compile this data for you. It is a major part of her job.
 Do not rely on Zillow estimates or the like, they are notoriously prone to error because those folks are not using the most current data and they cannot make adjustments for improperly recorded square footage or condition of the subject properties. In a tight market, every $5,000 makes a huge difference to you as buyer, and in our experience that is the closest that the public national programs can do…. usually they are more prone to error than that.
Bob: I have heard the acronym CMA. What does that mean?
Steve Bachman: It is a home pricing analysis tool that your agent should use to provide you with data you will use to determine your offer price. It stands for Comparative Market Analysis. There is a CMA that most agents can compile from the local MLS in a relatively short period of time. These are very good for getting a “close” approximation of market value to use in comparing your homes of interest.
However,when you get down to writing an offer, if the properties that are being used as comparables are very different in style, lot size and square footage (this is often the case), the standard CMA may not be good enough.
Your agent should have the ability to do a spread sheet analysis using square footage records obtained from the tax records (which are often inaccurate and must be adjusted by experience) as well as provide you with a ratio of sold price to tax assessed value for all the properties being evaluated for comparison with the home you are offering on.
This can take hours for her to prepare since the data does not auto load from the county’s tax records and everything needs to be double checked for accuracy. Once this is done, you will then be able to see what homes in the neighborhood have been selling for on a square footage basis as well as see how the net sales price to tax assessed ratio lays out for all the properties used in comparison. With this data at your disposal, you as buyer will be well armed for negotiations.
Bob: Man, that’s a lot to remember.
Steve Bachman: Bob, don’t sweat it…good agents know how to do this. In fact when you interview prospective buyer’s agents you may want to ask them to show you some of the spread sheet analyses they have done for previous buyers.
HA! That will sort them out fast, since no amateur or real estate hobbiest will know what you are talking about.
 As far as the last part of your original question regarding appraised value…..the appraised value is a certified appraiser’s estimate of the worth of a property, and is based on comparable sales, condition of the property, square footage and numerous other somewhat “subjective” factors. It is the basis for the mortgage lender’s valuation of the property and determines in large part what they will lend on a particular home.
Bob: That was pretty thorough.
Steve Bachman: Thanks Bob, when you actually see a detailed CMA you will be pleased..they are very cool.
Sandy:We want to buy a house with a pool in Reston and are concerned about
our young  childrens’ water safety. They have never had swim lessons since they are both in pre-school. Can kids that are so young learn much? Are there any swim programs for children that young in Fairfax County?
 SwimteamAnswerman:I hate to use negative motivation to encourage parents to get their water safe at an early age, but you are right to be concerned. Whether you buy a home with a pool or not, you undoubtedly will go to the community pool, be around friends or neighbors who have pools or ponds, or be in or around water on vacation. Nothing can totally prevent disaster but you can go a long way to help protect your children by getting them trained as early as a few months old to float, hold their breath, and try to get to the pool side and hold on.
Sandy: Can really young children learn to do those things? I didn’t learn to swim until I was 7 years old.
SwimteamAnswerman: Unless you have seen what really young children can do, you would  not
believe it. My wife and I took our children to the community pool most nights after work in the summer starting when the were 6 months old. By 2 years old they were holding their breath under water, picking things up from the bottom of the pool with their head under water and eyes open and floating on their back pretty well. At that time, we were amateurs in children’s aquatics. Folks who are really trained well, can
teach your children more at an earlier age. What our kids could do between ages 2-3 can be done by children from 6 months to 1 year old if they are given the right instruction. The best web site I have seen that demonstrates with video what your children can do is at : InfantAquatics.com.
Check it out, if you have not been around children’s swimming programs you will not believe what you see.
Sandy: That website’s videos and program are awesome but I did not see that company’s programs anywhere near here. Does such training exist in other places?
 SwimteamAnswerman: Sandy, my observation is that most suburban areas with indoor pool access have infant and toddler water safety programs. Nationwide, the aquatics fraternity is very active and passionate about what they do… whether it is teaching swimming lessons, coaching summer swim teams or being involved in scholastic swimming up through college. Locally in Fairfax County you can check out program availability at the parks website: BabyAquatics.
In Reston you can check out: Infant and Pre-school swim lessons. In addition to helping your children improve their water safety skills, they will have FUN! Should you decide to enroll them in a local swim team later, (most are a combination of advanced swimming lessons, stroke clinics and an intro to competitive swimming for kids 5-18 …both genders) they will advance more easily due to their ability to control their breathing and comfort in the water.
Sandy:Really, what can 6 year olds do on a swim team?
SwimteamAnswerman: Sandy, once again unless you have seen it you will not believe it.  Our
daughter teaches a group of 6-8 year olds who are doing freestyle, backstroke, and a couple can do breaststroke. They swim around 500 yards in 25 yard increments in around 30 minutes. That is a beginners
class. There are kids that young who can swim for an hour in 50 and 100 yard or more increments. You can follow a new blog for swim team parents that I am working on that will answer this type of question at:
SwimTeamAnswerman.com. Both of our daughters were on a swim team by 5 or 6 and could do all four competitive strokes reasonably well by age 7. They were not athletic phenoms…this is common place. Your kids can do amazing things in the water regardless of their natural abilities. All you have to do is provide the transportation and pay for the training. Beginners training is usually very cheap for what you get. Go get wet!
Get your kids in the water now!
Karen: Do you think swimming or aquatic therapy is appropriate for my special needs kid?
SwimteamAnswerman: Absolutely, positively without equivocation. In general, the swimming community is the most supportive group of families we have come across in the 17 years that we have been involved with kids sports in Fairfax County. The Special needs volunteers are as you can imagine…outstanding human beings. Your child does not need to be involved in competitive Special Olympics programs to physically and mentally benefit from aquatic training. For some reason, water has a special power, it is almost spiritual. It has a calming effect on children when they are introduced to it in the right way.
The following information was taken directly from Fairfax County park web page on Adaptive Aquatics: Click here to view.
Adapted Aquatics
“The Park Authority’s award-winning Adapted Aquatics is an individualized swimming and water activity program for customers with physical and developmental disabilities. This  success-oriented program targets individuals who do not currently meet the prerequisites for participating in an inclusive environment. The program is designed to develop basic swim skills in a structured setting with one-on-one support from trained volunteers.
Students may register for:
- Adapted Aquatics Group Classes – These courses are conducted by American Red Cross certified Adapted Aquatics Instructors and trained volunteers.
- Small group lessons (one to four students) – These lessons are offered at all RECenter pools. Flexible scheduling is available. Classes can also be arranged for school groups and group homes. Call 703-324-8565 for more information.
Please note that family members may be requested to assist in the water if volunteers are not available.”
Also available are Special Olympic prep programs for developmentally delayed youth who want to participate in swimming competitions. These swim meets are awesome and encouraging. Check out what the county currently has available HERE.
Here is the main Aquatics Specialty page: Swim now!
Getting ready to sell your home?
Sam: I am thinking about selling my home in Fairfax. Do have have any tips for getting it ready to show and sell?
Steve: Sam, here is a short video with our thoughts on the subject: click here to view.
Also: Clean, neat, and neutral without being crowded with too much furniture are the main keys to making a positive impression on prospective home buyers. Organizing your home for showing is different for organizing your home for living. For example… we have too much furniture in our home for selling and showing. We have pieces from my parents, grandparents and my aunt Hazel. It works well for living since the kids (and us) often have a fair number of people over and they all need a place to sit. All this furniture fails to show off the room sizes well if I were selling. One third at least would have to go to storage when I show and sell our place. Also, most folks including ourselves have a few things on the kitchen counter tops that make living easy and fast…cleared off counters are amust when selling and showing your home for sale.
Samantha: I have so many collectibles and pictures…I have spent soooo much time making this home a reflection of who I am and what my interests are….I do not think I can get it staged like everybody says…it will be to painful.
Steve: Samantha…truly most home sellers feel exactly like you…but think of it this way….buyers are not buying your memories and the reflection of yourself. They want a clean and neat canvas where they can paint their own memories. We tell clients that when their home goes on the market it stops being their home. It becomes a product that must compete with the other products out there. This is a hard saying we know. We also advise them to stop calling it their home…it is now the “house or the “property”. Their home is where they will be going after this “property” sells. Wwill post much more info in the future on this topic.
Connie: Do you think those home selling and staging shows on TV have much merit?
Steve: YES! The advice given is generally right on target. They have actually made our job easier since their inception…sellers believe the folks on TV and take their advice to heart….whereas they often would get offended at our polite, helpful suggestions. This is a huge topic and we will have many more posts on it in the future. Please drop us a line with questions or comments. By the way, if you have a home that is in rough shape and you do not have the money for a big re-do…..just make the adjustments in your asking price compared with the homes you are competing against. Also, ask your agent to take you to visit some of the homes that are similar to yours that are on the market…see what condition your competition is in. We have found this to greatly benefit our buyers preparation and mind set.
 I want to mouse a house…where is the data current?
Cara: I have started looking online for homes for sale in Northern Virginia. I must say that I am sorely disappointed with the old data I have come across on the main public home search programs.4 of the 5 homes that I wanted more info. on turned out to have been sold or put under contract days (sometimes weeks) ago. What do you recommend I do?
Steve: Cara, the reason the big public home search programs are so out of date and such time wasters is that they have to pull info from hundreds of separate Multiple Listing Services from all over the country. It is a huge data transfer problem. We have 3 programs we use to help friends and clients search online. Right now this is the most popular: Search Like an Agent. If you click on that link it will take you to a search set up page. The data on the search site is normally updated no later than every 30 minutes, so it is the closest you can get to the Realtor’s Multiple Listing Service (MLS). You often see a home listed on a place like Realtor.com only to find that it went under contract 3 days ago…that should not happen here. Search live or set up an automated search that will email listings that meet your criteria. Just fill out the little form and accept the confirming email and your password will be sent right back to you and off you go. It’s free and easy. No one will bother you.
Cara: Is this some semi transparent attempt at blatant self promotion on your part?
Steve: If you have wandered around our blog much, you have probably noticed that we try very hard not to self promote. Hopefully you can tell from the tone of the writing that we are not annoying, painful people. We provide information. If you feel like contacting us, that’s great. If not, please have fun on our blog and search site.
Cara: What areas does the search cover?
Steve: The entire DC metro area. Virginia, DC and Maryland. It is linked straight to the local Realtors MLS and only acquires data from there. That is one reason the data is fresh…it only has to pull from one local source of data…not hundreds from all over the US.
Cara: Ok I’ll give it a whirl. Just click HERE. Is that correct?
Steve: That will do it. Please let us know if you have any questions, problems or want to go see a property. Just drop us an email at Steve@HomesByBachman.com. No one will hassle or annoy you.
Hunters Square Ct…..brought our newborn oldest daughter home to this house 22 years ago. Still looks good.
Click on this link to see Video #2 on “Things to think about….”
Jenna: Is this another amateur attempt at low quality video?
Steve: Yes. These were experiments at the time. I will re-do them with a different camera in a month or so. The content is OK though.
Jenna: OK. Does this video give me a thought process for home to approach my home buying adventure? As long as the information is solid and informative I guess I can overlook your sorry presentation.
Steve: I will strive for improvement.
Click this link: Things to Think About when Buying a Home
Sally: I want to buy a home. Is this timeless info. that never gets old?
Steve: Yes. Just watch the video by clicking on the link right under the above lovely picture. Buying a home can be fun if you are not under time pressure and the market is in your favor. There are certain things you need to do to prepare and educate yourself…that is the point of these videos and this blog. Our goal is to make you knowledgeable and comfortable with the whole process. Be at peace.
 Selling your home and market conditions
Click on the link under my “hard at work photo” above to view Market Conditions video
Jenna: I want to sell my home. Can you tell me how the over all real estate market will affect my situation?
Steve: Jenna, click on the link above to see a video I made a bit ago on market conditions. The difference in the market today from when I made the video is as follows:
In Northern Virginia:
- the market is still a buyer’s market in the above $500k price range. (buyer’s market means that the supply is greater than the demand and the buyer has more market factors in his favor which should result in sales terms favorable to the buyer ie. the buyer has more more negotiating power than the seller)
- Under $400k the market for properties in good condition and good locations is trending from even, to being in favor of the seller (if the property is priced at market level as determined by comparable sales of recently sold property.)
- In the video I stated that the months supply of housing at that time was 7 months. It is currently 1.5 months supply overall….this means that inventory is tight (small #of homes for sale based on the demand) This situation favors the seller. We see multiple offers on most homes in good condition under $400k. Under $300k the multiple offer situation has become the norm and you will be competing with other offers almost 100% of the time and they will go under contract fast. If it is Monday, those homes will not be there for you to see on Saturday. You will need to get there and get an offer in asap. This is not hype. It is a fact.
The Chantilly High School Band: The Chargers
Home Location Considerations?
Sally: What is the most important location consideration I should consider when buying a house?
Steve: Sally, in Northern Virginia and in most communities in the country, the school district is probably number one. In many rural areas, you do not have a choice. There may be only one high school for the whole county. In densely populated Herndon, Reston, Ashburn and the rest of the close in DC suburbs you can have many choices within a few miles. Within a 3 mile radius of our house, there are boundary lines for 4 high schools. People do their homework and try to find the best situation for their kids.
But my kids are Grown!
Whether you have children in the local school systems or not, your property value and price for re-sale is affected by the ratings your local schools receive. Here are useful websites to know…the first 3 are favorites of our clients…. for use when comparing one area or school to another. The rest are the local school systems official websites. Always think about re-sale before you buy. Don’t buy in haste and repent at your leisure!
School districts are so important to at least 75% of our buyer clients, that they will only look at homes within a particular high school boundary. We have a client now that has taken it down to the elementary school level. They figure that is where their young children will be for the next 5 years, after which they hope to move to a bigger home within the high school boundary of their choice.
Where do I go to investigate school systems?
These sites are client favorites:
http://www.greatschools.net/
http://www.schooldigger.com/
http://www.schoolmatters.com/
Local school sites: Should be clickable!
Loudoun County
Fairfax County
Prince William County
Arlington County
Alexandria City
Fauquier County
 - The Warf…off Glade Dr. in Reston…it is unique.
Real Estate-Is it still a good investment?
Tom: I am nervous about buying a house. Is real estate still a good investment?
Steve: If you want to buy a place and try to sell it in 3 years and expect to make bunches of money after your sales expenses….then the answer is no…you should not buy a place and attempt to do that. That was easily done during the go-go years of 2002-2005 where prices went up 20-25% per year. That is much tougher to do today…there are special circumstances where distressed properties can be purchased, repaired and re-sold for a profit…however that is a business…not a hands off investment and it cannot be done without a huge investment of your time.
My wife and I are counseling our buyer clients to make a 5 year commitment to the home they purchase…recent history shows that to be the best way to reduce investment risk….and have a nice place to live at same time. If your question is “Should I buy or should I rent over the long haul?”….. the numbers below add perspective:
Average net worth of Homeowners vs. Renters
Annual income Owners Renters
$80,000 and up $451,200 $87,400
$50,000 to $79,999 $194,610 $25,000
$30,000 to $49,999 $126,500 $10,600
$16,000 to $29,999 $112,600 $4,240
Under $16,000 $73,000 $500
Source: VIP Forum, Federal Reserve Board
Aren’t THINGS REALLY BAD?
Gina: But aren’t things really bad?
Steve: Gina, if you watch the news, there is no reason to continue living….things are that bad. If you are older than 25, hopefully you have a better perspective on reality and spend minimal mental energy worrying about the messages of doom and things beyond your control. If you do not like the area, if you do not like your job or feel secure in it, if you do not like your current romantic situation, if you want to be able to have a very flexible life and pick up and go at a moments notice, then you should not buy.
The nations economy is not good, no question…however your PERSONAL economy could be great, secure, solid and improving. If so buying a house should be considered. Are we at the bottom? Don’t know. What we do know is that housing inventory is incredibly low right now and homes under 300k appear to have bottomed if they are in good condition and not in the boonies.
Home prices in many areas are at levels that were seen 6 years ago. There is may be more down side in homes over $600k since they are out of range of first time home buyers with no equity to harvest from a previous home …..under $400k home are flying of the shelf and have been since March….that price range is solidly in the strike zone for a couple with 2 good incomes or one excellent one Unemployment in NOVA is half the national average.
All Money Comes Through Here!
All federal tax dollars pass through our area and many stick on the way back out. People come here from all over the world and it is one of the most educated places in the US…we will be the last area to have total financial disaster and rampant unemployment because of the government and all its supporting mechanisms (re: lots of well paid people who need shelter)
Although real estate is not all of life…it certainly is a large part of the American dream…. In what other investment is it likely that you would have achieved that return? Plus you had a roof over your head at the same time. Try living inside your stock portfolio. Do your home work and make a decision based on your personal economy, situation and wants and needs….renting is not going to kill you and it may be just what you should be doing. Prices are not going to soar out of your reach for the foreseeable future.
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