Archive for the 'Urban Living' Category

It seems like such a simple thing. The phone rings, you answer. The person on the other end says they found you on the internet and are interested in working with a Reston specialist. “That’s me! How can I help you?”

The Devil’s in the Details…

Long story short, the buyers wanted a one or two bedroom condo in the Reston Town Center area for under $400,000 This was to be a kind of pied-à-terre that they would use during the week while in town for business. Great, I can do this, I can find them a great place. We continue to talk about what they liked and what they were hoping for and then comes the deal changer—dogs, not one but two and they’re large dogs, over 50 pounds of loving fun.

Scout

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of dogs, my husband and I share our condo with two French Bulldogs. We started with Scout and then a few months later decided to add Boo. Because I’m active in my condo I knew that we had a pet policy that called for one pet per household and that in order to get an exception I would have to make a case to the Board of Directors before we added the second pup.

Condo Living does mean Rules

Boo

Before I took my pooch loving buyers out I started making calls to the Town Center properties. Every condominium had slightly different rules regarding pet ownership. It ranged from a strict 1 pet per unit, to 1 dog and 1 cat or 2 cats, to 2 pets no weight restrictions. Some properties have breed restrictions. I was so glad that I took the time to make the calls before showing property, it would have been disastrous to find the perfect property only to realize that “Rover” wasn’t welcome.

Home Owner’s Associations, Townhouse Clusters and Condo living does mean more rules. They can be anything from not being allowed to park your boat or RV on the street to not being able to own any pets–get the scoop up front to save from being disappointed later.

This is a little story about Buyers and Sellers in Reston. First the buyers. This young couple is hoping to buy their first home. After viewing hundreds of homes online and researching different communities they selected Reston as being a great place to start their life together. They were impressed with the amenities, loved the urban vibe of the Town Center, the unique charm and beauty of the Lake Anne area, they were sold on the community. They had a good sense of what was going to be available in their price range, they had already spoken to their lender, and they are ready to buy! We looked at 10 properties that were within $25,000.00 of top of their price range.

Now for the Sellers. Sometimes it is hard to make your house stand out from the crowd, sometimes it’s easy. Sometimes it’s easy but it’s for all the wrong reasons! Let me start this by saying that I called and spoke to either the listing agents or the homeowners on all of these properties except for the one or two that were vacant, so everyone knew we were coming. Having sold my own home this past year I know how hard it is to leave your home in showing condition EVERY SINGLE DAY. I got so sick of trying to channel Martha Stewart

Stage your home Martha Stewart style and watch you home fly off the market!

I thought I was going to scream, but honestly Sellers, it’s what you have to do.

Two of the houses I showed on Saturday were in the same townhouse cluster. One was extravagantly over improved but had dishes in the sink, unmade beds, toothpaste in the sink, and half way into the showing the home security system went off with an eardrum piercing noise that defies description. The other house on the same street, was in a slightly closer to the main road, which is typically considered less desirable, and it had no significant or showy up grades; but oh what a difference. The second house was an oasis of serenity. It was immaculate, it was uncluttered, and it was neutral. Everything about the house said “I have been cared for.” My buyers were reassured, nothing felt scary, they could see themselves living there.

Tonight the Buyers are going back to take a second look at the tidy little townhouse; the listing agent called me earlier today to say that he has received one contract (after 8 days on the market), so if my buyers are ready to write a contract we’ll have to scramble, hopefully it will fall in their favor because they are in a position to write a nice clean offer, but the moral of this story? We all need to take a clue from the Boy Scouts…we all need to be prepared.