Spring in Swing

Wow, the spring market is really in full swing (as evidence by the gap between blog posts). Lots of exciting stuff taking place.

This Monday, several members of the CB Leesburg team mingled with Coldwell Banker's elite agents in Washington DC as we watched the Phillies take it to our hometown Nationals on opening day. What a way to spend the day, blue skies, warm weather, five luxury boxes filled with CB staff and leadership hosting our 2009 award winners. Today we continue the celebration locally, as we enjoy a recognition lunch for our CB Leesburg team at Clyde's in Ashburn.

Congratulations to all participating:

Shirley Bumgarner - NVAR Multi-Million $ Club

Sandy Fletcher - DAAR Honory Society

Leslie Wilson - DAAR Honory Society

Carlos Myers - Home Team Spirit Award

Shannon Lauterstein - Home Team Spirit Award

Diane Northern - International President's Club

Mike O'Hara - International President's Club

Patrick McCabe - International President's Circle, #1 in Units, Volume, & GCI for 2009

While we have taken pause this week to recognize our accomplishments, it is clearly a time to recognize the old saying, "No rest for the wicked." Some pretty big things are taking place in real estate. In just a couple short weeks, the opportunity for homebuyers to participate in the well publicized tax credit comes to an end. This weekend is national open house weekend. Additionally, the federal government has stopped the purchase of mortgage backed securities. This week, we also saw the introduction of the Home Afford­able Fore­clo­sure Alter­na­tives Pro­gram of the Fed­eral Gov­ern­ment (HAFA). The pur­pose of HAFA is to stream­line, the short sale process. All this adds up to some pretty exciting times in real estate.

Many of these recent changes have left sellers feeling as though some air has been let out of the balloon. With the continued goal of staying one step ahead of the market, Coldwell Banker announces the launch of our Buyer Bonus program on May 1st, running through July 31st. Participating CB sellers will be offering a 3% closing cost credit, up to $8,000 for purchasers who sign an offer before July 31, 2010. Imagine that, a real estate company keeping the market momentum alive for our sellers while giving back to buyers. More about this win-win program to come. Curious to learn more about the market or the happenings mentioned above, stop in to CB Leesburg any time or give us a call at 703-771-8888. -Brian