About Washington's American University Park

They say there are three really important factors in determining a homes value: location, location and location. We've learned over the last few years, however, there are three more equally important factors, and these would be timing, timing and timing.

If you live in American University Park and are considering a move, you already have the location thing. You live in one of Washington, DC's most popular neighborhoods, close to Metro, terrific schools, and Guapo's. But right now, you have the timing thing with you as well.

Prices in AU Park have increased since last year. The average price so far year-to-date is $885,321, compared to $838,321 during the same period in 2010.

In addition, interest rates are their lowest since most of us were born, bouncing around 4.75 percent. This makes your home much more affordable to more people. And inventory is down.

If the whole country looked like AU Park, we would be well on our way to the real estate recovery we'd all like to see happen.

If you are planning a move to or from the Washington, DC area, I can help. Call, email or text me at:
Housepat@mac.com
202-549-5167
Licensed in DC, Virginia and Maryland

I took this yesterday at a concert at the National Presbyterian Church in Northwest Washington, DC. I noticed the sun coming in through the stained glass and the things it did with light and reflections. And as always, my camera was in my purse, very handy! This church is as beautiful as the singing was at the concert of the Washington Bach Consort.

How many times have you lost a potential client because your real estate website didn't have enough information about local schools, the neighborhood or offer current mortgage rates and a loan calculator? Probably more than you know. A 2008 Yahoo Real Estate report clearly spells out the methodology used by consumers to select Agents, Brokers and Realtors.  Besides wanting real estate listings they also wanted tools and resources.

Well thanks to the good folks at MLCALC and assuming your running a Wordpress website you can now give them what they want by way of a plugin.  These plugins allow you to put the current mortgage rates and/or loan calculator in your sidebar as a widget or use "short codes" and add it to any page or post you choose.

We like these plugins because they present the desired information in a clear and easy to understand application and is feature rich.  Take a look at the DEMOs (links below) and see how much information is packed into these powerful plugins which are free!

DOWNLOAD (Can also be installed from your wordpress backend) | DEMO

In their words: Mortgage Loan Calculator is a great value-add for any loan officer or real estate agent looking to provide good-looking, functional, valuable content to readers. The execution of this calculator is superb from the smooth sidebar integration, modal window results and AJAX-based graphs that are incredibly visually appealing. It's a great little application that delivers a lot of value in a user-friendly and well-executed way

You can choose between a Narrow or Wide form.  After you input the loan parameters (i.e. loan size, down payment, term etc) and click the calculate button you are then presented to a detailed amortization table that includes date, principal, interest, taxes/insurances/pmi and balance.  This is done using a lightbox effect (the background darkens and the information looks like it's coming out at you).

If your not using Wordpress CMS you also have choice to "Cut & Paste" Javascript code or use an API call.  You can find further details about usage by visiting the links.

Current Mortgage Rates Plugin | DOWNLOAD (Can also be added from wordpress backend) | DEMO

You choose from a Narrow or Wide form and choose to show National Average or by state.  And if you want to add the rates to your non-wordpress site you can do so using the Javascript code.

Engage current clients and attract new ones with a Mortgage Loan Calculator and Current Mortgage Rates widget!

Precision Pricing

Last month, I put together a very careful market analysis on a home I listed in American University Park, a popular DC neighborhood. Still, there were several homes that had been on the market for a while and some of those are still for sale.

By the time it hit the market, my listing was ready for prime time. The seller had it painted, refinished the floors, and transformed it from crunchy granola looking like it should be in Takoma Park to proper AU park understated chic. When we posted the listing on MRIS, it was with a beautiful virtual tour, and we had great brochures for the Open, produced by our brilliant in house Art Directory, Piers Lamb. We brought the house on the market when the seller was at a week long spa retreat, and her gorgeous German shepherd was at a doggy camp. So it was very easy for our colleagues to show if their clients couldn’t make the Open House.

Most important, however, it was priced right on the nose. Ed Schneider, my co-lister, had been previewing the AU Park listings for several months before we actually listed the place. We looked at the current listings, our competition, the homes that were under contract, and the sales back to the beginning of the year. Since we’d actually seen most of the homes we used for comps, we were able to advise out client on the factors that went into determining the value of each of the other homes.

So we set the magic number not too high and not too low. An offer came in right after the first Open House. We didn’t have a mob scene with multiple offers. But the offer we did get was quite perfect, and that was all it took.

The staging, marketing and virtual tours certainly got people in the door. And some of the lingering listings were also nicely done. But the big difference with ours, at least I think, is what Ed and I have started to call “precision pricing”.

If you list a good house at the magic number and make it easy to show, it’s a slam dunk.

Blog Buddie Ed Schneider and I have just listed a house in American University Park that started out as interesting and has morphed into a huge flirt.

Last week, we had our office come through to help us price it and to act as more sets of eyes to suggest cost-effective fix-ups.

One thing that everyone voted to change was the front door. It had a heavy security door that is hardly necessary in AU Park to begin with. And it didn't look like decorative grill work. It screamed "Burglar bars!" Behind it was a black door that just looked sort of, well, boring.

So we had our fix up guy remove the security door, sand the trim, and paint the front door red.

Red front doors are supposed bring good fortune. We're hoping it will bring a buyer!