Arlington Open House Insanity

[Anonymous]

My DH and did a marathon open house tour yesterday, and like a previous poster said - every house was packed! We ended up seeing some of the same people multiple times during the day.

We made an offer on our first choice, and have a back up selected, but with that many people I think it's pretty possible we don't get either. Now I am wondering, if last week was when most of the spring inventory came on the market or will we hit another 10 new listings next week.

We did both N. and S. Arlington 500K - 700k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DH and did a marathon open house tour yesterday, and like a previous poster said - every house was packed! We ended up seeing some of the same people multiple times during the day.

We made an offer on our first choice, and have a back up selected, but with that many people I think it's pretty possible we don't get either. Now I am wondering, if last week was when most of the spring inventory came on the market or will we hit another 10 new listings next week.

We did both N. and S. Arlington 500K - 700k.

The price range you are looking at describe the level of insanity, I am not surprised at all. It has been challenging to find places in this price range inside beltway years ago, even in 2008-2009, demand for these properties was high. Try over 1.5 mil and you see a different level of interest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DH and did a marathon open house tour yesterday, and like a previous poster said - every house was packed! We ended up seeing some of the same people multiple times during the day.

We made an offer on our first choice, and have a back up selected, but with that many people I think it's pretty possible we don't get either. Now I am wondering, if last week was when most of the spring inventory came on the market or will we hit another 10 new listings next week.

We did both N. and S. Arlington 500K - 700k.

The price range you are looking at describe the level of insanity, I am not surprised at all. It has been challenging to find places in this price range inside beltway years ago, even in 2008-2009, demand for these properties was high. Try over 1.5 mil and you see a different level of interest.

Hardly. House down the street for us had an " open house sunday" sign up on Friday. On Saturday night it was changed out for " under contract". It was right above 1.5 in NWDC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DH and did a marathon open house tour yesterday, and like a previous poster said - every house was packed! We ended up seeing some of the same people multiple times during the day.

We made an offer on our first choice, and have a back up selected, but with that many people I think it's pretty possible we don't get either. Now I am wondering, if last week was when most of the spring inventory came on the market or will we hit another 10 new listings next week.

We did both N. and S. Arlington 500K - 700k.

The price range you are looking at describe the level of insanity, I am not surprised at all. It has been challenging to find places in this price range inside beltway years ago, even in 2008-2009, demand for these properties was high. Try over 1.5 mil and you see a different level of interest.

Not in my N ARl neighborhood. We have zero inventory. Houses in that 1.5 mill range still go under contract before the Open house. It is insane.

[Anonymous]

That is good news! I'm putting my shirlington townhouse on the market in the next few weeks But gosh, that does sound crazy!

[Anonymous]

This is the pp right above - just wondering if you saw single family homes only or town houses too?

Good luck op!

[Anonymous]

I was also at open houses this weekend with more or less the same price range as OP: we were looking mostly at 50s ramblers (our preference), along with some of those smaller postwar colonials that are so common in places like Westover. The newer home styles all seemed to be priced way over our budget. I think there was a grand total of three ramblers under 700K in the entire county, and I would not be surprised to see a bidding war on all three. This market is just insane right now.

[Anonymous]

We've been looking in the 850-950k range. Same deal, very low inventory, busy open houses.

[Anonymous]

OP here -- we saw mostly SFH - and also a condo in Cameron station to compare. I was hoping for a 2 story because I don't care for ramblers - but in our price range the ramblers seemed more open (the 2 story models we saw were 2 bedrooms upstairs sharing a bathroom, and usually a full bath in the basement with a 3rd bedroom

Anxious to hear if they all sell this week and we are back to square one next weekend!

[Anonymous]

I would not buy in Arlington right now because prices are way over valued.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DH and did a marathon open house tour yesterday, and like a previous poster said - every house was packed! We ended up seeing some of the same people multiple times during the day.

We made an offer on our first choice, and have a back up selected, but with that many people I think it's pretty possible we don't get either. Now I am wondering, if last week was when most of the spring inventory came on the market or will we hit another 10 new listings next week.We did both N. and S. Arlington 500K - 700k.

We are looking in the same areas and same price range as you are...I don't think anyone really knows what the market will do in the coming weeks/months. It certainly seems plausible that more sellers will decide to get into the market for one reason or another, but who knows? It really can be discouraging, so much so that after living in Arlington for 7 years I'm feeling like we should be looking more elsewhere. Probably the most discouraging thing for me is that we really haven't seen anything I've liked enough to feel like we should put an offer on. I think we have pretty reasonable expectations and yet every place we see has a fatal flaw which makes it something we can't justify spending such a large amount of money on. I want to really like the place we buy, even though we are at the "low" end in terms of price range.

I hope you are successful, OP! Good luck!

[Anonymous]

OP again -- have you really seen bidding wars at this price range? I thought that was reserved for the big bucks! -- hoping we can stay under 650 is that unlikely - even if the house is listed for 595 or 610?

[Anonymous]

I think it really depends on the house and the location. In spite of what you read on DCUM not every place has a bidding war. We saw one place this spring that listed at $625k and sold for $660k, and another that listed at $649 and sold for around $700. Both were very close to Metro, nicely done, and were probably underpriced to begin with. We've also seen a place that listed for $635k and went for under asking. Don't get caught up in the insanity, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it really depends on the house and the location. In spite of what you read on DCUM not every place has a bidding war. We saw one place this spring that listed at $625k and sold for $660k, and another that listed at $649 and sold for around $700. Both were very close to Metro, nicely done, and were probably underpriced to begin with. We've also seen a place that listed for $635k and went for under asking. Don't get caught up in the insanity, OP.

There are a number of places in CC Hills for sale right now that have been on the market a while, but they're probably all overpriced.

[Anonymous]

I was under the impresson that in desirable neighborhoods its critical that you get into the house before the open house. Once the open house happens, there will already be multiple contracts on it. If you are using a realtor, they really need to be working that angle for you. I am getting ready to list a condo I own in DC and my realtor is listing for about 10k than I would prefer. But he said the idea is to get a bunch of folks interested and then start the bidding up to get it above what I want. He also plans to show before the open house for serious buyers or realtors he has relationships with. I think we are assuming to be under contract and never really deal with an open house. I know its brutal and it sucks but thats just whats going on in the market right now.