About Bristow's Braemar

Braemar Townhouses continued to be in demand as we started the Fall selling season in September 2009. Overall, between the months of September and October, there were 5 Breamer townhouse resales, which I divided into two categories: Garage Townhouses and Townhouses with No Garage. When comparing sales prices, it is always best to compare like to like.

Braemar Townhouses without Garages gained some ground this report. After only two resales, the average sales price has gone up 10.6% since last report (July-August 2009) to $212,000 this report (September-October 2009). Average seller subsidy (closing assistance from seller to buyer) was up 65% to $2,998. And if you were thinking of selling your Braemar Townhouse without a Garage, you can expect to have it under contract (if priced to current market conditions) in just under two weeks. That's nearly identical to last report.

Braemar Garage Townhouses lost some value this report. After three resales, average sales price is down to $215,000 since last report...a 7.9% loss in two months. Average seller subsidy is up 14.7% since last report, to $5,698 this report. And if you are thinking of selling your Braemar Garage Townhouse, you can still expect to have it under contract (if priced to current market conditions) in a week's time.

I prepare the Braemar Townhouse Report every two months. The next one will be out in January. If you would like to receive a hard copy, send me an email and I'll add you to my mailing list. Otherwise, you can check my website to see average sales prices of Braemar Townhouses dating back to 2006. Go to www.nvarealestate.net and click the link on the left for Braemar Townhouse Report Online. The two categories will look like this:

In the meantime, if you are thinking of buying or selling a Braemar townhouse, don't hesitate to call.

No one knows Braemar better!

Chris Ann Cleland, Long & Foster, Realtor, Licensed in Virginia

703-402-0037, chrisann@LNF.com

Many rumors going on!!! However, the lates update is that the credit most likely be extended to April 2010. The house is trying to expand the bill to assist everyone!!! $8,000 for 1st time home buyers and possible $6,500 for existing homeowners. They are talking to modify the annual income from less than $125,000 up to $225,000.

If that's not enough they home value will be for $800,000 homes or less and the contract must be signed by April 30, 2010 and settlement shall take place by June 30th!!!

I will keep you posted as development continue!!

When I say improve curb appeal I do not mean

• Altering featutres of the home or
• Adding and deleting plants, trees, high tension lines or anything else that would be deceptive.

However, I take photos on cloudy or rainy days - my schedule does not give me the luxury to only take photos of homes on sunny days with a beautiful blue sky filled with clouds. The photo below is a prime example - the row of town homes appears as bleak as the day the photo was taken. They certainly will not enhance the appearance of an MLS entry or a blog about the subdivision

Take a look at the photo below. I did not make any enhancements to the photo above except to add blue sky and clouds that we have on file Everything other than the sky is exactly the same as it was in the photo above. I didn't even edit out the newspaper on the right hand side of the photo

Is it unethical? Absolutely not

• Mother Nature would have come by in a day or two to add the blue sky and clouds.
  
• I just made it look as though she had already been there before I took the photo.
• There is no place in the US that only has gray skies

I believe more people would be attracted to the lower photo as opposed to the original photo above. The simple addition of blue sky even had a positive effect on the other colors in the photo.

We have the option to submit our own photos to our MLS. Some of them look like the one above. I prefer to take my own photos and have "blue skies smiling at me".

The good news is that it took less than 10 minutes with four simple steps to make the change.

Although there any number of photo editing software programs available we find Adobe Photoshop Ekemernts 7 the most user friendly for us. The four steps we use can be found in "The Photoshop Elements 7 Book" by Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski. All of the photo editing ideas in the book are far simpler than the instructions that accompany the sotware.

Step One:

Open a photo that needs the addition of a blue sky.

Step Two:

Type W to

• select the Magic Wand Tool
• Click in the area that needs blue sky and release - the tool will do the rest selecting the entire gray area.
• Do nothing further with the photo

Step Three:

• Open a stored blue sky photo
• Under Select choose All
• Under Edit choose Copy
• Close out of the blue sky photo

Step4:

• Since you closed out the blue sky photo the original photo will reappear
• On the Layer palette choose New
• Go to Edit and choose Paste into Selection
• Press Ctrl-D to Deselect

Voila!!!! Just go to File and Save As

NORTHERN VIRGINIA HOME FINDER

and then contact Karen and Art by Email or call us at 703-690-6569. Put our record of customer service, real estate experience and state-of-the-art technology to work for you in Alexandria, Arlington County, Fairfax County, Prince William County, Stafford County or the entire Northern Virginia Area.