About Arlington's Leeway Heights

North Arlington home sells in 24 hours. Are the listing agents geniuses?

Tom: I noticed that an "under contract" sign went up on 2005 Illinois Street N. on Saturday night. Didn't that house just come on the market on Friday?

Jan: Yes Tom, this home came on the market Friday evening and we had a ratified contract put to bed at 9:30 Saturday evening.

Tom: Are you guys real estate marketing geniuses?

Steve: No Tom we are not geniuses. Selling a home is a collaboration between the Realtor and the home owner. The sellers in this case, purchased the home in a desirable location, added a well done addition that gave the home a large family room, master bedroom suite, and the 2 extra full baths that most North Arlington colonials built in the late 1940s were missing. This home was also beautifully maintained as you can see from the virtual tour below on the property website we built for this home.

Tom: Yes this home looks beautiful!

Jan: It's a great property Tom and perfect for the new owners. Our job is to analyze the North Arlington market for our client and help them price the property in line with what is happening. As you know almost every home in the area has been modified over the last 50 years so we do a price per square foot analysis as well as a comparison using a ratio of sold price to tax assessed value.

When homes are so different you must do very detailed work including looking at the pictures of homes similar to the one you are marketing to see what upgrades they might have that you do not or vice versa. Do not hire a listing agent to help you who does not know how to do detailed market analysis.

We also like to take our selling clients to visit the homes they will be competing with if they are willing. This enables the seller to see what prospective buyers see when they take a tour of homes for sale in the area. It helps clients see how they compare in price, location and condition.

In addition to advising clients on staging, updating, and pricing, it is our job to make sure that news about this great property gets out to qualified North Arlington home buyers.

Tom: What did you do?

Jan: In addition to the normal sign, outside brochure (for the sign box) and inside brochure with more pictures and specifications we created the property website you see below. This info goes to Craig's list and 35 other national home listing data bases. Steve also writes a real estate blog on Active Rain that goes out internationally where he featured this property.

He also went back through 5 months of North Arlington real estate listings and collected the email addresses of all real estate agents that had sold high end North Arlington single family homes. He sent the listing and the property website to all those agents as well as to all the Realtors that we respect in Northern Virginia.

We also attend a weekly listing exchange where Realtors from different companies get together and talk about the homes they have coming on the market in the days ahead.

The result of all this activity was a flood of visitors. So many agents with qualified buyers came that our clients gave up and just vacated the house for the day. The real result was a perfect offer in our email in box at 6 pm. Which is the true goal of all this effort.

Tom: What you do makes sense to me. Do you sell all your listings in 24 hours or just few days?

Steve: No Tom we do not.... but we prepare and execute our plan with the intention of doing so. You cannot control what the market, interest rates, the economy or what prospective buyers will do. You can only control what you do.

Both the home seller and his agent need to do the best they can do to prepare the home for quality photography and viewing, price the property in line with current market conditions and market the home properly to qualified buyers and other excellent Realtors.

You must market well to other real estate agents because the majority of truly financially qualified, ready to act home buyers are already working with them. A good listing agent should never be unethical, rude, unkind, or plain annoying or the buyer's agents will not want to show their listings.

Tom: Could I talk to you guys about listing my home for sale?

Steve: Sure Tom. We are happy to provide a free market analysis of your home and chat about what you want to accomplish.

Tom: I will drop you an email.

Jan: Happy to help Tom

Sue: I want a 4 bedroom 3 full bath classic colonial style single family home in North Arlington under $750k. Is that possible?

Steve: As of this moment Sue there is only one. 2005 Illinois Street N. Check out the property website below. Click on all the buttons on the left hand side to get the whole picture on the home and the area.

There are a couple of smaller colonials on the market around town, but as you know finding one of these classics that has a two story addition with 4 real bedrooms upstairs with 2 full baths under $800k and buying it before someone else does is very difficult.

Sue: Is there a full bath on the main level?

Steve: Yes Sue. The addition on the entry level has a huge family room, full bath and large closet. If you need a first floor master bedroom/in law suite this room would work perfectly for that as well. Picture to the left.

Sue: I will call my agent now and have him show us the home today...you are right...the good ones go under contract so fast that I dare not delay!

Steve: Thanks for your interest Sue. Happy to help. Check out the house on the video tour below. This home also has nice flowers by the way.