Keeping you up to date on the real estate market in Northern Virginia. Demand is HIGH, supply is LOW. Hear what Scott has to say…now is the time to….
Contact Scott MacDonald 702-652-5777 Broker/Owner of RE/MAX Gateway for more information and a personal assessment to meet your goals.
For most of us, the idea of paying off our mortgage well in advance is elating. But before you make this big move, it’s important to understand prepayment penalties, and what they could mean for you.
Simply put, a prepayment penalty means you will have to pay the lender a percentage of the principal, or some other stated amount, if you decide to repay the loan early. While this may seem wild (being charged for making your payment early!?), it’s actually quite common.
Some mortgages have prepayment penalties written into them. However, the prepayment clause is usually in effect for only one to three years and may be waived for special circumstances. Lenders impose the penalty to recover any losses related to your early payment.
If you are in the market for a home loan, ask about prepayment penalties before signing on. If you are applying for a new loan, the penalty should be disclosed in the truth-in-lending statement. Read the fine print and weigh all your options.
If you already have a home loan, call your lender or dig through your paperwork to spot any prepayment penalty clauses you may have missed.
As a Member of the Top 5 in Real Estate Network®, I have a wealth of real estate and home ownership information that may be of help to you. Feel free to contact me any time to learn more about this important information, and be sure to forward this article on to any friends or family that may be interested as well.
Scott MacDonald video update about the local housing market statistics and the impact on buying and selling a home in Northern Virginia – even with Winter Storm Jonas and the possibility of Snowmageddon 2016! click to play video
Now is a great time to buy and sell a house!
Contact Scott MacDonald 702-652-5777 Broker for RE/MAX Gateway for more information and a personal assessment of your housing goals.
RE/MAX Gateway
Wow, 2015 flew by in a blink of an eye and I am sure 2016 will as well. As 
I mentioned in my previous market updates, we pretty much enjoyed a stable market for housing in 2015. I expect things to pick up in 2016 because of all the recent activity. Many of our agents have been working through the holidays with clients and I too have been meeting with both buyers and sellers looking to make moves in 2016 – more so than any other recent December. So buckle up, the market will be moving forward in a positive direction.
A few areas in the mortgage arena for us to keep our eyes on are rising interest rates and loan products. Now that the Fed has raised their rate, mortgage interest rates are now just above 4%. Still great, don’t get me wrong, but they are just a tad higher than where they have been most of 2015. The other interesting thing to watch with mortgages are the new programs coming into the market. Fannie Mae now has a low down payment loan to compete with FHA loans. These loans compete because the down payment can be a gift so buyers don’t need to have their own money saved for the down payment. Additionally, I have read there are potentially no down payment loans coming back into the market soon. These two loan products could help Millennial buyers enter the market sooner as they have not been able to save for their down payments due to high rents, student loan debt and lower paying jobs. This is important because Millenials will be the largest home buying demographic once they can afford to buy.
Something else to watch is as sales continue to rise, prices too will follow – hopefully at a sustainable rate and not like the San Francisco market or our market from 2002-2006. Home ownership is extremely important to wealth building and consistent growth in prices help this happen for many people. We don’t need an escalating housing price market like we had in the past, as no one wins in the end. I would expect a 3-5% increase in housing overall in Northern Virginia. Some areas will see more, others less, so please ask me about your home’s value if you are interested.
As always, if you or someone you know is looking to buy or sell a home, I am here to help so please feel free to call me. Here is to making 2016 one of your best years ever! Happy New Year!
RE/MAX Gateway 4090B Lafayette Center Drive, Chantilly, VA 20151 Offices strategically located throughout Northern Virginia.
Leaves are falling and so is our inventory of homes for sale in Northern Virginia. It is typical that homeowners who don’t need to sell or don’t have to sell take their homes off the market this time of year.
Along with the falling leaves and inventory, house sales are also falling – again, typical for this time of year. Many potential homebuyers take a break over the holiday in anticipation of the spring market.
All this being said, there are sales happening in the marketplace. Year over year sales are up in Northern Virginia as are sales prices making our housing market healthy. If you have a situation which causes you to sell, now is a good time to do so. With lower inventory levels and serious buyers in the market you can set your house apart from the competition to attract a sale. Couple this with mortgage interest rates remaining low adds to the allure of home ownership right now.
On an interesting note, the SEC passed a ruling – Title III – which will allow retail investors to have access to invest in private businesses without that company having to register with the SEC. This could have an impact on real estate as Equity Crowdfunding is a $2.5 Billion market. These are groups that are forming to purchase properties and rent them out or fix and flip them. This ruling goes into effect in 90 days and it won’t transform real estate overnight but it is something for us to keep an eye on moving forward. To learn more about this, please feel free to call me 703-652-5777.
Oh, and we cannot forget, it is that time of year again, when the holiday season comes into full swing! We have Thanksgiving right around the corner followed by Christmas and New Year’s Day – lots of time to spend with family and friends. We wish you a happy time this season and hope you have a great holiday season. And always remember, if you have any questions or concerns about real estate, we are here to help!
RE/MAX Gateway
4090B Lafayette Center Drive, Chantilly, VA 20151
Offices strategically located throughout Northern Virginia.
The Northern Virginia real estate market continues to remain stable. Recent numbers show that houses are selling, prices are raising slightly, and inventory levels are increasing slightly. All of these numbers are at healthy levels in my opinion. 
This news is making now a good time to both sell and buy a property.
One thing that has been a wild card is interest rates. Increased rates can hamper the steadiness of our market and right now they are near 2015 highs. Over the past 3 weeks, there have only been two days where rates managed to improve even a little bit. Four out of the past six days have seen uncommonly big moves higher. These are the sorts of moves that we’d normally only see 2-3 times per month, so to see 4 of them in just over a week is alarming. It is definitely an area we need to pay attention to moving forward.
Going forward, I see more of the same out of our housing market. There will be a good home selection for buyers to choose from, reasonable prices and rates remaining in the 4% range. As good homes come on the market that are priced right, they are selling because there are buyers in the market looking to own. Houses that have been on the market because the owners “pushed” prices, didn’t have them in the right condition or just had bad timing (putting them on the market at the end of October) will continue to sit. Buyers want fresh listings, not old, tired listings that have been lingering on the market. Therefore, it remains critical to have your house staged, in the right condition and priced right to get it sold if you are looking to put your house on the market.
If you have any questions or concerns about your situation, feel free to call me today 703-652-5777 . I am happy to discuss how we can help you.
RE/MAX Gateway
Which will you do – rise and excel?
Will you do nothing or the same things you have always done and get what you have always received or get even less?
What will you become if you do act?
You have set them for yourself. Act accordingly to make them happen. Put the action items in your calendar, plan each day the night before, have a to do list of high priority activities in place to accomplish your goals and do them. Get a routine in place and make it a habit. If you want time, you need to make it – you won’t find it. Your calendar is gateway to success.
Too often I hear excuses of why something cannot be done. Stop with the excuses and start making things happen. It is a choice. It is easy to do nothing it is hard to make a change, accept the challenge and become better. You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them.
The critical thing you need to realize is you have to start. Whatever you need to do to take the first step to success and achievement. Put down the fork, go to the gym, make the call, go to the networking event, hold the open house, blog, do videos, visit with your past clients, just do the activity. Whatever the goal you want to attain needs to start with “a first step”. What is your first step? Why? What happens if you don’t take it? More importantly, what happens if you do? Life is full of choices – make the right ones to get you moving in a positive direction and get you out of your rut.
Important things to remember are to not overestimate the competition and do not underestimate yourself. You are better than you think. By doing the activities required for success, you will develop the skills, mental toughness and ability to forge ahead when things get difficult. By taking action you gain confidence in your abilities, you stretch outside your comfort zone and you learn.
Will you make mistakes? Yes.
Will it be difficult at times? Yes.
Will it kill you? NO.
So stop wasting time and move forward and grow from what you have learned. Go out and make your own luck.
You have set your goals – do what it takes to make them happen. You wouldn’t have written them out if you didn’t expect them to happen. Life is changing rapidly, daily and you need to adjust to become better and make your dreams come true. It is so important to increase your level of commitment so you can overcome the frustrations you have had with your previous results. Doing nothing to change to improve yourself is actually regressing. Regression is not an option. Take the appropriate action required. Now is the time. Procrastination is over and 2015 is the time to start to make something more of yourself. Get it? Got it? Good!
Now, go sell something!
RE/MAX Gateway
Happy New Year Gateway Agents,
Now that the holiday season has come and gone, it is time to get geared up for 2015 and make it your best year ever. In order to achieve all you desire, you will have to make sacrifices, develop more willpower, practice more discipline, have more consistency and continue to grow personally and professionally.
One is time. Time with family and friends will be limited. As you will be busier than you have been before, are you ready to make this sacrifice and are they?
Another area is investing in yourself and your business. Do you have the money and resources available to you and are you willing to allocate them appropriately this year to realize the success you are planning for in 2015. Lastly, committing yourself to working more efficiently, effectively and focused is a huge sacrifice – are you ready to make the sacrifice for your success?
Developing willpower – the ability to say no to unproductive, time-wasting activities is huge. You will have to say no to coffees, lunches, happy hours, and ball games with family and friends to keep you focused and on point. Do you have what it takes to develop this necessary ingredient to high levels of achievement? Get willpower do to the hard things and get successful.
Practicing and working on discipline is critical to getting the results you want for yourself. Getting up earlier, staying at the office a little later, developing a morning routine that gets you on track the rest of the day, sticking with a structured schedule – daily – and pushing yourself outside your comfort zone are the pieces of the puzzle that will get you further, faster. Be disciplined in your activities, work smarter not harder and achieve great things in 2015.
Accomplishing tasks, making things happen and doing them regularly, with consistency is a key ingredient to success. The important thing to keep in mind here is to not let a few disappointments slow you down. Consistently set a schedule – with top priorities the night before you leave the office, consistently call your database, consistently attend networking events, consistently grow your database, consistently review and adjust what your plan is according to how the market fluctuates.
Growing personally and professionally is another success factor. Start an exercise program, eat healthier, drink less alcohol and sodas, stop smoking, and take time to think. Grow professionally by attending trainings, get involved in mastermind groups, obtain a designation, get a mentor or coach and meet with an “expert” in the business to get their perspective on what is happening and what they are doing to be successful.
Here are a few more tips to consider – stay positive, stay focused, talk to yourself and stop listening to yourself, read more and watch less TV, stop complaining, hang around people more successful than you, volunteer your time, learn something new every day and take action.
Don’t just survive, it’s time to thrive in 2-0-1-5! Get it? Got it? Good!
Now, go sell something
RE/MAX Gateway
The beginning of the year always brings about hope, excitement and anticipation of good things ahead and 2015 is no different. We believe that this year will be a much better year for real estate in Northern Virginia. There are many reasons for this optimism – great rates, new financing programs, lower inventory levels, positive consumer confidence and pent-up demand.
Let’s review each of these areas.
One other area to see home ownership grow in 2015 and beyond is the Millennial homebuyers. They believe in home ownership as a wealth building opportunity and an overwhelming majority of them will be buying in the next 5 years. Lastly, rising rental rates will push more people into ownership as a cost savings measure.
All of these positive influences in our region will strengthen our housing market in 2015 and beyond. As we see our local economy continuing to rebound after 4 years of stagnant growth, this will have a positive impact on housing. To see what this means to you, please feel free to contact me.
Cheers in the New Year!
RE/MAX Gateway
As you grow and develop it is necessary to experience discomfort. You will need to break out of your comfort zone and create a new comfort zone that will help you expand yourself and your business. In some cases in can be referred to as expanding your box – get out of your box and experience exponential success. Let’s review how this can be broken down into manageable steps:
D – Decide that you need to do more than you are doing to get you more results than you are receiving today. Being satisfied with your results today won’t advance your future. At the same time, getting fewer results than you desire is going to put you further behind. Decide to do more today.
I – Implement the strategies required to make you attain the success you need to grow. It could be building more relationships, making more calls, attending more events, or whatever it takes to get you in front of more people. Relationships are the key to success. Build relationships deeper, make new ones and make them count for you and them!
S – Strateg
ize the what, how and benefits of what your actions will do for you and others. It will be necessary to adapt to the changing environment and make yourself relevant. Technology is rapidly changing all aspects of our lives and you need to make sure your strategy is in alignment with these changes.
C – Create the vision to make it happen. Write down what is necessary for your success, visualize your success in these undertakings and the results it will bring you and others – and they will happen.
O – Ownership of the ideas, thoughts and necessary tasks to get you to where you want to go will enable you to achieve your success. If you don’t buy into the end result, you won’t leave your comfort zone and make it happen.
M – Mastery of stretching yourself beyond your comfort zone through repetition, role playing and rehearsal will make you more comfortable in doing what is necessary to take yourself to the next level. Become a master of what steps you need to take to make it take place for you.
F – Find people who will help push you out of your comfort zone and want to see you become successful. Having others hold you accountable, help you grow and have your best interest at heart is vital to your growth.
O – Opportunities will become available to you as you make yourself expand and grow outside your comfort zone. You will be able to direct your future and take advantage of these opportunities. Luck is preparation meeting opportunity – be ready by experiencing discomfort.
R – Reward yourself for your new found comfort zone. If you don’t take the time to pat yourself on the back with small, medium or large rewards for your efforts, you won’t continue to put forth the effort. Rewarding yourself is a critical piece to keeping you motivated to do more.
T – Track and measure your results so you know how far away or how close you are to your goals and what you need to do to expand yourself to make these dreams a reality. What can be measured can be improved. Tracking what needs to be done for your success is imperative to receive results.
Discomfort allows you to grow and become better in the end and it is necessary for your success in all areas of your life. As the saying goes, if you aren’t growing, you are dying. Step up your efforts, step up your activities, grow outside your comfort zone – with baby steps or by leaps and bounds – and get where you want to go faster and perhaps even further than you expected. Get it? Got it? Good!
Now, go sell something!
RE/MAX Gateway
Scott's Motivation and Real Estate Market Updates 