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5 Mistakes to Avoid When Choosing a Home

January 23 by Marina Brito

Choosing a home is like baking a cake – it really is only a matter of following the recipe. That is, if you actually know the recipe!

Choosing a home is like baking a cake; they both require a recipe

There’s an easy recipe for choosing a home

When you have the recipe, you measure, you mix, you bake, and voilá! Out comes a yummy cake.

If only recipes pointed out the most common mistakes…

But even with a recipe, sometimes what we need is a bit of experience on how to get some of the steps done. And, inevitably, at the end of the process we realize that there were a few things that we could improve next time. If only recipes pointed out the most common mistakes, then you could have an easier time baking the cake on your first try.

When choosing a home, it’s best to avoid mistakes on the first try

Choosing a home (with schools in mind) is also a matter of following a recipe. But you might not have a chance to try it again for another few years, so it’s best to avoid any mistakes on your first try.

Here are 5 mistakes to avoid when choosing a home (with schools in mind): Continue Reading…

Fairfax County Real Estate: How much is the perfect home?

January 15 by Marina Brito

Most statistics quote average prices of Fairfax County Real Estate. But, do we know how much it would cost to buy the “Perfect Home”?

The perfect home is a matter of personal taste

The Perfect Home is a matter of personal taste…

While The Perfect Home is definitely a matter of personal taste, there seems to be a trend on the most popular homes among buyers of homes in Northern Virginia.

“Everybody has their own idea of heaven…
My heaven is a wood frame house with a great big porch goin’ all the way around
Sittin’ on the swing listenin’ to the sound of the birds singin’…
While we’re eatin’ watermelon
That’s my heaven”

– My Heaven by Trace Adkins

Let’s see which homes are the most heavenly (according to buyers) in Fairfax County Continue Reading…

How to Choose the Right School in Fairfax County

January 4 by Marina Brito

When Andy & Paula got married, they bought themselves a place in a lovely area where it was easy to walk out the door and get something to eat. Andy & Paula also really loved the pool and the gym that were part of their community.

But, one day, they found out that there were no longer only two members of their little family, but that in a short 9 months, they’d be three.

Their cozy place was great for three, although the gym was not being used as much as it once was…

A couple of years went by and very soon they were four

Moving to a bigger place

That’s when they decided that they could probably use a bit more space, and perhaps even a little yard. Since they were moving, they decided to consider their school options as part of their home search… but where to start?

Start by choosing the right school

In Fairfax County, it’s best to start by choosing a school because the attendance areas are very strict. So it’s easier to choose a school first, and then find a home that belongs to that school’s boundary.

If you are like Andy & Paula, and don’t know exactly where to start choosing a school in Fairfax County, here are some tips: First, you get the overall picture of how the Fairfax County Public Schools district is organized (by school pyramids). Continue Reading…

The Top 4 Readers’ Choice Articles of 2012

December 28 by Marina Brito

Well, folks, it’s the end of 2012 and we thought of doing a quick re-cap of the articles that were most interesting to you, our readers.

Here are the top 4 “most liked” articles (by number of page views). You might want to enjoy them again, so here they are:

The Top 5 Styles of Single Family Homes

House Prices: What $500K buys where

Best Elementary Schools

Best High Schools

Best wishes for the New Year

Thank you for a great 2012 and wishing you a New Year filled with health and happiness.

P.S. If you are planning on buying a home in 2013, please reserve your preferred timing with us so that we can be sure to be available to help you.

Fairfax County Real Estate – When is the best time to buy ?

December 14 by Marina Brito

Should you wait to buy Fairfax County Real Estate until the Spring, or do you think “Time is of the Essence” (as you often find in real estate contracts)?

Time is of the Essence: NOW is the right time to buy Fairfax County Real Estate

A couple friends of mine have been on the fence about buying a home. They have been wondering whether they should wait until the Spring to start looking, or if they should start looking now, in the Winter months, in case interest rates start to go up.

To help them figure out when the best time is to buy a home, we reviewed the home sales statistics for the previous five years.

The Fairfax County Real Estate market has been stable for 3 years

First, we reviewed the overall trend of the Fairfax County Real Estate market*, and we determined that it has been stable for the past three years:

The average sold price has stayed stable, and
The number of sales (demand) has been keeping up with the number of listings (supply)

But, is it time to buy NOW, in the Winter months?

Is it time to buy NOW as in: “Let’s buy a new home before the end of 2012”, or “My 2013 New Year’s resolution is to buy a home”?

If the market has been stable for the past three years, why would there be an incentive to buy a home sooner rather than later (other than the fact that interest rates are at their historic lowest)?

Let’s look at the graphs of home sales to see if they could help us figure out if the time is NOW: Continue Reading…

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