What Does The Face Of Real Estate In The Future Look Like? - 04/26/07 05:32 PM
Buying, selling and marketing real estate is changing and will be very different in the future as will being a real estate agent or broker. But how? What effect will the changes occuring today have on consumers and real estate professionals? And what changes lay ahead? Let's look and see...
Real estate today:
Buyers have limited access to accurate or pertinent information about properties, whether it be online or in print formBuyers have to actually go through a property to find out what it truly looks like or have their agent preview it on their behalfBuyers have limited access to a plat, HOA … (1 comments)

Zillow's "Zestimate" vs Arizona...Who's The Bad Guy? - 04/26/07 05:30 PM
Two cease-and-desist orders to Zillow from the Arizona Board of Appraisal; Arizona Senate Bill 1291 (notice the strikethroughs and changes) fails to pass on a 32-22 vote earlier this week; Senate Bill 1291 has been temporarily revived by a motion to reconsider the legislation on Monday, April 30...the fight continues. But who's the "bad guy" in all of this?
Though many are not fans of Zillow's "Zestimate" for it's complete lack of accuracy, Arizona may be picking on Zillow a bit too much and with prejudice on this one. Perhaps...just maybe...the Arizona Board of Appraisal is trying to protect itself as … (5 comments)

Robert Melton's Catalog Of Local Real Estate Blogs - 04/16/07 11:03 PM
In October 2006, Robert Melton cataloged 500 (local) real estate blogs to watch. On April 9th, he updated the list in order to celebrate the first day of Project Blogger and the list now stands at 750.
Thank you to Robert for including my associate and I's blogs, Loudoun Stats, real/diaBlog, The Ashburn, Virginia Community Blog and BlogBack in the original and updated list.
You can find the list on Robert's Pittsburgh Homes Daily blog. The local and national  blogs on the list provide a wealth of resources for consumers and professionals alike.
… (1 comments)

Sellers - How Do Buyers Search For And Find YOUR Home? - 04/16/07 10:36 PM
Most sellers in Loudoun County, Virginia as well as everywhere in the world, wonder how and where today's buyers search for and find their new home. Why? Because they want to know how today's buyers will find their home (and buy it, of course). If you do not market in the places where today's buyers search for homes, you will lose very valuable exposure and have a very tough time selling your home. Savvy sellers and real estate agents will know the answer to this million-dollar question and will focus their marketing so that it's appropriate to today's buyer's search methodology. … (2 comments)

Ignorance Is Bliss - But NOT When It Comes To A Mortgage - 04/11/07 02:18 PM
In a recent post by Bankrate.com titled "Mortgage Ignorance Rampant", the results of a survey of 1,004 adults conducted by Gfk Roper showed that 34 percent of homeowners had no idea what type of mortgage they had. That statistic is startling, alarming and down right scary. No wonder subprime defaults and foreclosures are on the rise. According to Ken Wade, CEO of NeighborWorksAmerica, it's "a symptom of the complexity of the mortgage market today". How about just being blunt and honest - it's a symptom of the lack of due diligence on the part of the consumer.
It's quite simple folks … (6 comments)

Zillow Retreats - 04/06/07 01:27 PM
It turns out that Zillow's newest feature "Tell Us a Home's For Sale", caused so much controversy that they decided to turn it off.  A post by Jonathan Washburn here on Active Rain generated over 70 responses in a little less than a day and a lot of them were negative.  They pointed out possible rules violations and the implications for agents who abused the new tool.  Read through the comments to see how agents responded. 
Several posts on real estate blogs also look at the implications of the new Zillow, but from a couple of different angles.  Check out Sellsius … (3 comments)

Zillow, Trulia and now...Google? - 04/06/07 01:26 PM
  Although Zillow and Trulia are becoming heavier hitters by the day, in the world of listing sites, Google may be positioning itself in the same league. Google left a vague and intereting post on their blog yesterday that seems to hint that they're up to something big. After all, the online listing site business is growing by leaps and bounds and the potential for adverstising revenue is huge. This is right up Google's alley.
If you've been using or watching the housing section on Google Base, you would have noticed that they're making many improvements and changes as of late. Google … (5 comments)

U.S. House and Senate - Funded By Real Estate And Beer - 04/05/07 05:12 PM
According to Federal Election Commission data, the REALTORS Political Action Committee (RPAC) was the largest PAC contributor to U.S. House and Senate candidates in the 2006 election cycle contributing a whopping $3.75 million. The next largest contributor was The National Beer Wholesalers Association PAC which contributed $2.95 million. The National Association of Home Builders' Build PAC was third with $2.90 million.
The Center For Responsive Politics data also shows that RPAC's contributions were the most bi-partisan with 49 percent going to Democrats and 51 percent going to Republicans.
Just goes to show how much of a big business real estate and booze … (1 comments)

2007 Loudoun County Tax Rate Set At 96 Cents - 04/05/07 04:00 PM
The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a tax rate of 96 cents after cutting $19 million from the school system's proposed spending plan. According to the Board of Supervisors, had the county kep the tax rate at 89 cents, $76 million would have been needed to be cut from the school budget.
The 2007 tax rate will be the highest for a county in Northern Virginia:
Arlington: 81.5 cents (proposed)Fairfax: 89 cents (proposed)Prince William: 78.7 cents (proposed)Loudoun: 96 cents (approved)The drop in the housing assessments due to the recent real estate market conditions almost cancels out the tax rate increase, … (0 comments)

Loudoun County Foreclosure/Bank Owned Property Update - 04/04/07 06:28 PM
As of this morning, the percentage of properties for sale that are in foreclosure/bank owned in Loudoun County, specifically Ashburn, Sterling and Leesburg is:
Ashburn - 5 percentSterling - 11 percentLeesburg - 11 percentThis is an increase over last month and the highest in several years.
One reason why the perecentage is increasing is because we're looking at the active properties. More new foreclosures are coming on the market than are selling.
These bank owned foreclosures are not selling nearly as quickly as the other properties because they are not yet priced at a point that makes them very appealing to investors … (0 comments)

 

Danilo Bogdanovic-Real Estate Consultant -Loudoun and Fairfax County

Ashburn, VA

More about me…

Market Advantage Real Estate

Address: 107 Kale Ave, Sterling, VA, 20164

Office Phone: (703) 582-6900

Cell Phone: (703) 582-6900

Email Me

Your source for what's going in the Loudoun County real estate scene/market


Links

Archives

RSS 2.0 Feed for this blog

Find VA real estate agents and Ashburn real estate on ActiveRain.