That house a realtor just posted in Fall Church City needs a lot more work than new carpet, awning removal and a new door. That house is a tear down!

The seller may have just priced the home well. It's possible someone offered all cash or just above what you offered.

I see how it is frustrating but remember - the person who wins any bidding war paid more than everyone else thought it was worth!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The OP should wait, but not for market-wide prices to come down (since they are unlikely to) but, OP should wait for just the right, otherwise overlooked house. People pay a lot of money for well-presented and well-marketed homes. Those are the ones with bidding wars.

What you need to watch for, and they are out there, is a house that has sat on the market a while and does not show well. How a home is staged and marketed has everything to do with it getting top dollar. The deals are in the slightly ugly ducklings and the solution could be as simple as a few gallons of paint.

And by "sitting for awhile," that really means "doesn't sell in the first weekend."

And start including escalation clauses, even small ones, OP--or set your target price a little lower so you can include an escalation clause.

We really didn't have much wiggle room in terms of price last spring, but we lucked out in finding a house overlooked the first weekend it was open (non-staged as-is estate sale with non-updated kitchen and bathrooms). Even then, we put in an escalation clause, though it turned out we didn't need it. It will take years and years to be able to do some renovations, but it has what we wanted, and we love the house.

Realtor here: I have made a lot of money over the years buying the homes in which others are not seeing the potential. I would never bid on a house with a lot of competition. That is not where the deals are. Don't get caught up in the momentum and group think. Find that little house in a great location that will look cute as a bug when you are done with it.

The DC area market is notorious for lack of vision and not seeing the potential. People here are busy and need the vision spelled out for them- thus the well staged, freshly painted homes go first. Those of us with more vision than money can do very well here if we study the market hard and look closely at the homes that have sat on the market a while.

Have you seen this house in Falls Church City? It could be cute and is only blocks to a lot of redevelopment. Get rid of the green carpet and awning. Paint the door red and put window boxes on. If the current owners had done that, it would have sold.
http://franklymls.com/FA8235916

I'm with 8:20. I was looking in 2011 in an area where houses in my range were selling in a week or less. (North Arlington.) I had pretty much resigned myself to buying in South Arlington (for the same money) when a house that had been on the market for almost 2 months finally dropped its price again and was only $25K above my "max." I saw it and made an offer that day at just below list price, $10K above my "max." They hadn't done much to stage it, hadn't painted, and the baths were very old. It needed a bit of work, plus the neighbors next door had a bunch of crappy cars parked outside. I got the house for the price I bid, and it appraised $50K higher than I paid, and then $150K higher when I refinanced. (and the neighbors have moved out.) We love our house and neighborhood, and all it took was some imagination and moving quickly.

OP. in your areas of interest many houses were built in 1960s. and 1970s and will still have original owners. Look for those houses. They will start appearing this year after older owners get discouraged by this winter and move to easier places to maintain. Those houses will generally be well maintained and have older kitchen and baths but newer systems and roofs. Overlook wallpaper, wall to wall carpeting and the DCUM disdained old people smell. You can deal easily with all of that with sweat equity. Good luck

Inventory is low throughout the DC area, even crappy houses in not so great areas get multiple bids. Plus investors are out in full force.

Supply will probably be better in the spring/summer. If you buy now you may really end up overpaying.

You will not pay list price unless the home has been sitting for a while. Don't bother wasting your time unless you bid more waive contingencies and pay cash over the appraisal.

Your Realtor should have explained this to ypu wtf.

We got lucky 10 years ago when everything was getting multiple bids etc by finding a house that was not well staged. The people had a clutter problem. We got it for list price and have done work over the years, eventually adding an addition. We were very attracted to the houses that were well staged and we only would up with ours because we kept losing out on the others. I am so glad that we did. I look at the other houses and ours is now nicer and we didn't overpay.

Anonymous wrote:The OP should wait, but not for market-wide prices to come down (since they are unlikely to) but, OP should wait for just the right, otherwise overlooked house. People pay a lot of money for well-presented and well-marketed homes. Those are the ones with bidding wars.

What you need to watch for, and they are out there, is a house that has sat on the market a while and does not show well. How a home is staged and marketed has everything to do with it getting top dollar. The deals are in the slightly ugly ducklings and the solution could be as simple as a few gallons of paint.

And by "sitting for awhile," that really means "doesn't sell in the first weekend."

And start including escalation clauses, even small ones, OP--or set your target price a little lower so you can include an escalation clause.

We really didn't have much wiggle room in terms of price last spring, but we lucked out in finding a house overlooked the first weekend it was open (non-staged as-is estate sale with non-updated kitchen and bathrooms). Even then, we put in an escalation clause, though it turned out we didn't need it. It will take years and years to be able to do some renovations, but it has what we wanted, and we love the house.

Anonymous wrote:OP, are you absolutely set on the Woodson pyramid or would you consider other schools in that area? Lake Braddock, West Springfield and Robinson are also very good schools with reasonably close proximity to the Beltway (I can get from the Lake Braddock area to the Beltway in 10 minutes or less). I keep an eye on listings in the 450-600 range in this area and frequently see decent quality 3-4 BR homes come on the market in this price range, even in the Woodson pyramid. The housing stock is older so you may need to compromise on something that needs some work.

Additionally, you may want to reach out to the real estate agents who do a lot of business in your target area and let them know what you're looking for. Many houses around here sell before even hitting the market.

There are less expensive pyramids. She needs to get over this mindset that her kids can't go to school with FARMS kids. There is a whole thread on the schools forum about this.

The OP should wait, but not for market-wide prices to come down (since they are unlikely to) but, OP should wait for just the right, otherwise overlooked house. People pay a lot of money for well-presented and well-marketed homes. Those are the ones with bidding wars.

What you need to watch for, and they are out there, is a house that has sat on the market a while and does not show well. How a home is staged and marketed has everything to do with it getting top dollar. The deals are in the slightly ugly ducklings and the solution could be as simple as a few gallons of paint.

Waiting is a recipe for disaster. Houses are appreciating at a 10 percent clip. On a $600k house, thats $60k per year. I doubt the OP will be able to get ahead of that snowball unless they purchase yesterday.

OP the truth is that there is a ton of money in this area pushing up prices, particularly for 'family housing'. In order to compete in this market you must become comfortable with the idea of being house poor to 'win' a decent house, because otherwise you will continue to be outbid by those who are willing to do that.

How long can double digit appreciation continue? Not forever, but certainly longer than you afford to wait on the sidelines.

Anonymous wrote:I echo the advice to wait. We bought a house in December for list price, and had an inspection (information only but the ability to walk) contingency.

And why are you paying $500 to make an offer? We had to put $10,000 into escrow for earnest money, but that would have rolled through if we didn't ratify a contract.

Pretty sure the $500 is a reference to the cost of a home inspector. If you're doing "informational only" inspections on houses you want to bid on against other people, you risk having to pay $500 each time after you lose.

EMD is differently.

I echo the advice to wait. We bought a house in December for list price, and had an inspection (information only but the ability to walk) contingency.

And why are you paying $500 to make an offer? We had to put $10,000 into escrow for earnest money, but that would have rolled through if we didn't ratify a contract.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Consider yourself lucky. My parents sold their house in a Woodson pyramid a little before the bubble and the value of it went down hard and didn't really recover. They bought in McLean and the value didn't fall at all.

I would look to somewhere closer in that has a lot of development or new housing builds. The woodson area has good schools but is stuck in some weird time warp with no new houses being developed or anything new happening.

Are you still monitoring the house and the comps? How do you know the value didn't recover? It would make your parents' house about the only house in NOVA that hasn't been a part of the recovery.

Nobody's house is worth what it was at the top of the market anymore....

It dependsn the neighborhood. Our house is now worth more than the previous peak. Location location location.