Archive for the 'Reston Real Estate' Category

In a few weeks the Spring Peepers will begin to sing. It’s one of the things like fireflies and the Fall colors that remind me how much I have come to love living on the East Coast.

The Uplands area of Reston has a wide range of housing types.

I first heard the little frogs when Rick and I moved with our tribe of daughters to Reston. We lived on Buttermilk Lane in a beautiful modern Bonner home in the Uplands. This area of Reston is bordered Wiehle Avenue and Lake Fairfax Drive at one end and by Baron Cameron and Lake Fairfax Park at the other end.

Family properties in the Uplands Neighborhood

Uplands includes several townhouses clusters and single family homes in a wide variety of types from small ranch styles houses to large contemporary and pretty much everything in between. The neighborhood has a great layout with just two access points; while there is a convenient cut over to Rt. 7 mostly the people driving through the area live there.

The neighborhood boast a great kid oriented pool and a huge recreation area that includes 2 tennis courts, a full sized basket ball court, a baseball diamond, hiking trail along Buttermilk Creek and the huge Winter attraction of sledding on King Kong Hill. Forest Edge Elementary School is there for the educational needs of the little ones.

The Uplands is the quintessential suburban Reston neighborhood. It was ideal for our large family. The safety of the cul-de-sac for learning how to ride a bike, the freedom of letting the kids walk to school and to the pool, for us it was the perfect Reston neighborhood.

Plenty of Nature around too

Like most of Reston the Uplands is beautiful; full of nature with deer and foxes a common sight. The walk along the Buttermilk Creek trail to the back of Lake Fairfax is hushed and wooded; if you walk towards Lake Fairfax park when the first few evenings get warm you’ll be rewarded with the sound of the Spring Peppers.

Don't let the few ruin it for all

It’s just sad…we’re a hair above used car salesman. The worst thing about it is that by in large—I know the reputation has been earned.

It’s probably always the case that the stinkers are always the ones you hear about—the agents that do it right, that work hard—that really do put your interests ahead of their own, they’re boring no one wants to hear about them, but they are out there.

If you are in the market for an agent here’s a list of things that will help you weed out the good from the not so good.

Full Time Agent

• Given how tough the market is a lot of agents are not working full time as real estate agents. If you are the person responsible for putting food on the table and making ends meet you gotta’ do what you gotta’ do; but if you’re hiring someone to sell your house you need someone whose head is in the game full time; who can return calls in a timely manner and who can respond as needed. Real Estate is a demand driven business—and mostly it’s someone else’s demands.

Technology Savvy

• While real estate is still a relational business if your agent can’t expose your property in a sophisticated technological way, keep looking. Your agent should have a strong web presence in the market that they serve. It should be easy to find your agent online and it should be even easier to find your agent’s listings.

Added Value

• Competitive pressure should create a higher level of service. We all have to do everything we can to stand out from the crowd. Your agent should be an expert in their market; they should help make your home the very best, most appealing product it can be. That includes

1. Helping you price it right
2. Recommending improvements
3. Offering staging
4. Producing beautiful print and digital materials
5. Exposing the property to the broadest possible market and to the appropriate “move up” market,  and pretty much anything else that it takes to get the house soldIf they only offer you a discount in commission—well I guess that’s all they have to offer and that’s something your should think about.

Honesty

• Obviously your agent should be honest but more importantly you and your agent need to have a relationship that is based on the ability to have an open honest exchange of ideas and information—even when the information being relayed doesn’t make you happy.  If you have your agent walking on eggshells then you’re not going to get the best from your agent. If you feel like you can’t trust them then don’t hire them.

It’s always surprising to me to see an intensely negative attitude applied to a whole profession—Real Estate is like everything else—if you’re  not  satisfied with the service you vote with your feet. Find an agent that merits your business—and be willing to pay for the service.

I suspect that a big part of the horror story scenarios are in part a function of people seeking the bargain before they understand the level of service that’s needed to effectively get the job done…and if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.

Send me your experiences!