Hello Summer!

As we head into the long, hot days of summer, we are seeing that the Northern Virginia real estate market is in a “weird” place right now. It appears that some current buyers are creating unrealistic expectations while on the search for their new home – not every house is perfect, nor will it be. Each home has its flaws and sellers are not required to make houses “like new”. Home inspection list requests, multiple visits to the house with multiple inspectors (some licensed, some not) and extensive walk through items on or before the day of settlement are making selling a house even more difficult today than ever before. Unreasonable demands are being put on sellers and buyers in many cases are threatening not to close over last minute or minor issues that did not come up on the home inspection. Now, this isn’t happening in all cases, but it is in a lot of situations which is making the process more stressful than home selling normally is. It is my belief that buyers feel they are paying too much or are paying top dollar and because of shows they see HGTV, they feel the houses need to be nearly perfect. Hopefully, these demands will revert back to normal sooner rather than later. Time will tell.

So, what does this mean? It is more important today to have a professional Realtor, with years of experience on your side to guide you through the process, letting you know what is reasonable and expected and what is not. This is for both buyers and sellers. Please let me know if you or anyone you know may need my assistance.

As far as inventory goes, we are relatively flat week-over-week recently and sales remain strong. The issue remains the number of houses for sale are 18% below last year and 29% below 2 years ago and with sales remaining consistently high, we see prices increasing in some areas across the region. Now, not every market is strong, and not every house is seeing an escalation in value so please be sure to ask me what the right price is for your house if you are considering selling. Each area, house type, condition of the property and location dictate value today.

Stay dry and cool in these crazy summertime weather conditions.