Last Friday I received an email from the developer of a large condo/loft project in Tysons announcing that The Lofts at Park Crest are now renting from $2213 a month...what? This was supposed to be Tysons premier property FOR SALE. Looks like another victim of the down market - another condo sale project converting to rentals.

I inquired as to the status of the entire project and was told that only the Lofts are converting to apartments, the Towers are still for sale. So, if you are looking for a GREAT rental in the Tysons area, look no further! You can check out the website here at www.parkcrestapt.com/

Right now they are also offering a rental special - one month FREE or a $2500 gift card to Golfdom or Williams-Sonoma when you rent - available for a July 2008 move-in. The architectural design of the lofts was inspired by authentic urban neighborhoods such as Soho and Battery Park and offers an amazing array of unique designer finishes, including EcoFinishes® hardwood flooring, Wood-Mode® cabinetry, KitchenAid® appliances, Grohe® fixtures and Lualdiporte doors. The brand-new loft apartments are located within a pedestrian-friendly urban community with tree-filled spaces and resort-style amenities. This extraordinary community is served by a Starbucks coffee shop to help you start your day and a Harris Teeter market to nourish your love for cooking. The neighborhood grocer's flagship store will offer traditional goods as well as a tremendous selection of gourmet prepared foods, fresh meats and cheeses, and specialty wines from around the globe.

With innovative amenities and five-star services, The Lofts at Park Crest offers an apartment living experience without equal. Need tickets to a game or a picnic for Wolftrap? Let our concierge do the legwork. Car washes, tee times and personal shopping can all be arranged with a click of your mouse. Even maid service, dog walking and dry-cleaning pickup are available through the professional concierge staff.

Boutique setting with 24-hour concierge service
Harris Teeter food and pharmacy on-site
Starbucks coffee on-site
Resort-class rooftop pool and sun terrace
3,000 square foot athletic club featuring cardio and strength training equipment
Personal training available
Extraordinary entry lobby with chic furnishings and 24-hour front desk staff
Internationally inspired architectural details and finishes
Controlled access garage parking
Cats and large dogs welcome

Come join us this Saturday as we close out our final model at Martin's Chase in Leesburg with a Model Home furniture sale! Items are priced to sell - couches from $300, lots of finishing touches & fine quality pieces at bargain prices.

Times for the sale are still TBA, but it is looking like 5-7 pm on Saturday, May 10th. Check back here for details or contact me via email.

Address for the sale is 21883 Knob Hill Place; Leesburg VA. Since the neighborhood is new, you probably will NOT be able to MapQuest, so here are directions:

Take 267/Toll Road to Loudoun County Parkway and turn Left. Turn right on Ryan Road and follow it around past the new movie theater/Harris Teeter shopping center. Once you pass Brambleton Golf Course, turn right on Beaverdam. Then turn right into the community, pass the sales offices, left on Bristow Manor and right on Knob Hill Place...The home is the second one on the left.

This title is a little misleading, because for me, it's always charity time. I am involved in the Junior League of Northern Virginia where we do a lot of unique programs to help prepare children for success. However, this post is about one event that is near and dear to my heart, the annual Texas Independence Day Celebration & Scholarship Fundraiser. For the last two years, I have organized this event for the DC Texas Exes, the alumni group for the University of Texas at Austin - Hook 'Em Horns!! The Texas Independence Day event is our biggest fundraiser of the year and helps raise money for two scholarship programs - one that assists DC Metro area students who wish to attend the University of Texas at Austin, and another that provides stipends to University of Texas students who participate in the Archer Fellows program here in DC. Attendance is open to everyone, not just alumni or even Texans..

This year's event is on Sunday, March 2, 2008 at Lounge 201 in the District. The event is from 4-7 pm and will feature entertainment by fellow Texas ex, DJ Andrew Garcia of g3 Entertainment. Event photography is also generously being donated by Katy of Dahlia Photography. The highlight of the event, however, is always our silent auction. This year we have over 50 items, including private wine tastings & tours, gift certificates to area restaurants, ski packages, artwork, autographed novels, a Shiner beer gift basket, Texas paraphernalia, and more! A full listing of auction items and event details can be found at www.dctexasexes.org/march2.htm. Hope ya'll can make it!!

I've had several buyers recently ask me about the mess in the mortgage market. With lenders shutting their doors right and left, and the media dogging us with constant doom and gloom on the subject, it's a fair question. How does this affect me?

Well, for the Realtor, the answer is simple...Now is the time to get even more proactive. As a buyer's agent, make sure your clients have a recent pre-approval. My preferred lenders are telling me that loan programs are changing on a daily basis now. Where they were getting program updates weekly, things are changing so quickly, it is quite difficult to keep up with them now. Talk to your buyer and their lender (make sure it's a reputable one!) about the loan programs they are considering...do they have money down? how's their debt/income ratio? credit score? You certainly don't want to spend weeks driving clients around only to find that they are no longer approved for a loan. Talk early and often to them about financing.

As a listing agent, check in with the selling agent and buyer's lender with the same questions. Is the file out of underwriting? Is their loan locked? I had a client that settled last week whose lender told me that if they would have locked 3 days later, she would have needed an additional 5% down because the bank eliminated the loan program she was using. Make sure the deal is solid before accepting a contract and follow up religiously through settlement.

As a buyer, how does the mortgage market mess affect you? Well, it depends on your financial situation. Do you have money to put down? How is your credit history? What type of employment do you have? It is becoming harder and harder to do 100% financing, especially for jumbo loans (anything over $417K), which is most of the DC Metro market. Stated loans (or "liar loans" as they are so affectionately referred to as) are also going away. More and more documentation is being required and loan guidelines are getting more strict. It is now more important than ever to make sure your credit is in the best shape possible.

And as a seller? Unfortunately, the tightening of loan guidelines means that there are less eligible buyers out there right now. Make sure your listing agent is heavily scrutinizing any offers that come in and following up with lenders to check the status of loans.

I have been working with a lot of first-time buyers as of late and several of them have asked me...what questions should I be asking that I'm not asking? It has really reminded me that oftentimes, first-time buyers just don't know what they don't know. :)

So, in response, here's some pointers I share with my first-tme buyer clients to help them through the process.

*The Pre-approval process - I provide all of my buyers with a glossary of terms...Basically, what is an ARM, and I/O loan? There are so many types of loans and programs out there that many times they don't know what to choose. While a good loan officer with walk them through the process, if they've brought in their own lender, I don't necessarily know how that lender operates, so it's good to do a checks and balances with both the lender and the buyer and make sure everyone understands what is going on. The recent developments in the mortgage market should teach us all a lesson if we aren't doing this already. While it's not technically "your job," I always make it a practice to review the terms and conditions of a buyer's loan because the last thing I want is a surprise at settlement. Since I build my business on referral, I rely on happy buyers to continue working, and unhappy borrowers make for unhappy buyers.

*The offer process - To many buyer's surprise, the offer process should not be a game of back-and-forth, and back-and-forth...This wastes a lot of time. As a buyer's agent I always show my buyers comparable properties to help them determine what they feel comfortable offering for the property in consideration. We also talk up front about what happens next...if they counter, reject or accept the offer. Then, I advise them to think about a "ceiling" for this property - what is the max they are willing to pay, what do they feel the property is worth. This helps prevent buyers remorse in the end if they accept a counter that's higher than what they originally offered. I also try to talk with the listing agent before making an offer to determine if the seller has any other offers, if they are at all flexible on their price and any special circumstances that would affect our offer. You'd be surprised at what some listing agents will tell you if you just ask (not that they should, but that's a whole other issue!) I've found that if we can give on a point that's not important to my buyer (for example, settlement date, contingencies, etc.), we can usually get something that we want in exchange.

*Buyer incentives - In today's buyers market, many people are looking for a deal - closing costs paid, condo fees paid, something for nothing. What many buyers don't realize is that those incentives, in a way, factor into the overall asking price. If you're asking for $10K in closing costs, the seller will see that the same way as a $10K price reduction. The seller is really considering their bottom line and most of the time don't care how they end up there. They have a certain net they want to make and whether they are offering a discounted price or some other form of incentive, any money out of their pocket is going to reduce their bottom line.

These are just a few of the things I touch on with first-timers. I also use the Brian Buffini system for following up with my clients and just LOVE the neat tidbits of information I can share each month with my past clients and prospects. I really get a lot of joy out of working with these first-time buyers because I don't think anyone is happier than a person who settles on their first home. I know it was exciting for me and I just love sharing that with others.

I admit it...I'm not a mortgage lender!! But after almost 5 years in the business, I can tell you a thing or two about loans. This blog is really a "buyer beware," brought on by a situation I encountered this past week.

To begin, I'll tell you a story about my first listing and how the settlement quickly went south for the buyer. What's really unfortunate is that the buyer's agent was his mother. The buyer had asked for a $6000 concession, or approximately 6% of the sales price of the home back in closing cost assistance (mind you, this was in Texas several years ago, where you really can buy homes for around $100K!) My seller's agreed to pay the concession in exchange for a favorable closing date and a sales price slightly over asking. All fairly normal so far, right? Well, we are sitting at the title company, all ready to go and the buyer's agent notes that the seller concession on the HUD is only about $5200, not the $6000 we were supposed to contribute. Well, it all comes out that the lender would not allow a $6000 contribution, the buyer got the max credit he could based on his loan, and the leftover money? well, that goes back to the seller. Of course, the buyer's agent panicked and asked if we could just cut them a check outside of closing (which is absolutely not a possibility - all money changing hands needs to be reflected on the HUD) and the seller walked out of the title company with a check for $800 more than he thought he would...

So what went wrong? Well, first, the buyer's agent did not check with the lender before writing the offer to determine what the maximum seller contribution was for the loan the buyer had applied for. In most cases, this situation can be avoided by knowing the loan limits before submitting an offer. However, in some cases, the buyer may change loan programs or lenders before settlement. This is why it is absolutely imperative that you first, trust your lender to let your agent know when issues come up and second, trust your agent to double check with the lender on items like this. While $800 isn't much, here in the DC/NoVA market, with sales prices a lot higher, 1% of a deal can be thousands of dollars. Make SURE everyone on your team (mortgage, title, and agent) is on the same page!!

As early as 1900, March 2 became a day for Texas Exes to observe a holiday. A great deal of tradition and sentiment surrounds the celebration on the local level. In that year, The Ex-Students Association adopted this resolution:

Whenever two ex-students of the University of Texas shall meet on Texas Independence Day, they shall sit and break bread and pay tribute to the institution which made their education possible. Each year the DC Texas Exes invite our friends in the DC Metro area to celebrate Texas Independence Day with us and help raise money for our scholarship fund. All profits from the event go directly to assist DC Metro area students who wish to attend The University of Texas and to provide stipends for our Archer Fellows here in DC.

This year's event will be held on March 1, 2007 from 7-10 pm at the Hotel Palomar in the Phillips/Freer ballroom (2121 P Street NW; Washington DC). The hotel is about a block and a half from the Dupont Circle Metro stop, street parking is available in the area and valet parking will also be avaliable for $16. Special thanks to the Hotel Palomar with their help in hosting our event!

Live music will be provided by Washington DC's premier local party band - Gonzo's Nose. The band has a set list of over 200 songs guaranteed to keep you entertained throughout the evening. Who knows? You might just want to dance?!?!?

Light appetizers will be provided by Hotel Palomar's restaurant, Urbana and there will be several cash bars to quench your thirst. And yes, Shiner Bock beer will be available!

Finally, the highlight of our event will be our silent auction. This year's silent auction promises to be bigger and better than ever.

Here's a sneak peek at what our silent auction will have to offer!

• $250 gift certificate for laser hair removal from Laser Perfect
• Estate Planning Gift Certificate from Fisher Law Office, including the creation of the Living Trust Agreement, Will, Power of Attorney, Certificate of Trust, Trustee Affidavit, General Durable Power of Attorney, Living Will and Healthcare Power of Attorney - valued at up to $5000!
• Gift basket with $100 worth of gas cards provided by KB Home
• 2 - VIP free admission tickets from DC Improv (each admits 2)
• 2 - $50 gift certificates for hair services from Le Salon
• $100 gift certificate to New Day Massage Therapy
• $50 gift certificate to Eggspectation
• $50 gift certificate from the Neighborhood Restaurant Group good for any of their restaurants: Vermilion, Evening Star Cafe, Tallula or Rustico
• Texas coffee table book

Tickets will be available online beginning February 1, 2007 at http://www.dctexasexes.org/march1.htm. If you'd like to donate an item for our silent auction, send me a message...no gift is too large or small!!

Well, the times they are a changin'...or are they? There is a great new study out by the George Mason University Center for Regional Analysis on the 2007 Housing Forecast. While there are some positive parts to this study, the crazy days of massive appreciation and escalation clauses are over. What is currently affecting the housing market the most in my opinion, is the power struggle between the buyer and seller. Sellers are hearing that the market is going to spike in the spring, so they are holding out for every last penny. Buyers are seeing the sheer volume of property on the market and knowing that they should be able to get a deal right now.

It is going to be interesting to see how this develops over the coming months...there is no denying that everyone has gotten busy as of late!