Woodbridge Real Estate Market Having A 40%-Off Retail Price Sale Extravaganza!!
Why Buy AN Outfit At Nordstrom For $200 Retail When Macy's 40%-Off Sale Sells Same For $120?
A Buyer Transferring From California Cannot Wrap Her Brain Around Multiple Offers For Homes
Woodbridge Home Prices Bidding Up Because We Have Too Few Homes For Sale And Too Many Buyers
I am helping a nice lady who was transferred to Dulles from Los Angeles buy a home in the Bristow area.
We have seen some lovely homes in her price range. She was shocked to find out that homes she saw last week all sold, with multiple offers, that turned the sale into an auction, with buyers pushing prices $15K - $25K over list price.
The letter/email I sent to the nice lady is SO GOOD, and SO ARTFULLY CRAFTED, my assistant urged me to share it with you.
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Dear Sally,
In this message I shall give you the same candid talk I would share with one of my cousins, or family members.
First, I hate this market.
I hate watching homes, good and shabby, get multiple bids, and selling above the list prices.
You said, "I think the Cascade Falls house price is ok if without all holes on the wall and broken doors. It doesn't have washer and dryer and backyard. So it should be lower than the one sold at 230K."
I agree with you.
There are other folks who are shopping for a home in your price range, in the Bristow area, who will bid top-dollar to get that house because most homes in that price range, in that area, need SOME repairs of one sort or another.
"So it should be lower than the one sold at $230K."
"Should" is a word that the banks and sellers do not use. They see more buyers than the number of homes for sale, they see prices rising with each home sold and closed, so in their world, they should get higher values because Bristow is a rising market, meaning home prices are rising.
Jenny, it is NORMAL for home buyers to look at a home price, and wonder, " What LOW price should we offer? We should offer less than list price, then negotiate."
That does not work in 2009.
We are in a rising market in 2009.
In "normal" times, buyers wonder, "I wonder how low below list price I should offer for the house. That's how the game works in "normal" times.
However, we are not experiencing "normal" right now.
The name of the game is, "How much over list price must I offer to beat my competition and win the bid to buy the house?"
Sure, a house may need $3,000 worth of new carpet, and a $3,000 paint job, but they will pay over the list price, and pay $6,000 to paint and carpet the house.
Why?
Because they are getting the house at a price now that is 40% off the 2005 price.
IT'S A 40% OFF SALE FOR HOME SHOPPERS
Just as if you went shopping for clothes. Would you buy an outfit at Nordstrom at retail price, or would you 
walk through the mall to Macy's and get the same outfit 40% off retail?
If an outfit you want is $200 at Nordstrom, and you could get it for $120 at Macy's, you would buy at Macy's, right?
That is what is happening in real estate right now.
Those homes in the Pembrooke, Sheffield Manor, and Braemar were $400,000+ houses in 2005.
Home buyers quit buying in 2006, and waited on the sidelines through 2006, 2007, and 2008, watching the prices for those homes drop through $350K, $300K, $275K, $225K.
All of a sudden, all at once, the buyers decided the prices were so low, that it was time to jump into the game, and buy something.
So now a house may come up for sale at $225K, that attracts multiple bids that push the prices up.
There will be SOMEONE who is willing to out-bid everyone else at $240K or $250K.
Those folks aren't crying or upset about paying $15K-$25K over list price. They are celebrating because they are buying the house they could not afford when it was $400K for 63% below top-dollar at a price they can afford.
So Sally, what's my point?
Sally, the point is you can get mad because houses in Bristow that need cosmetic repairs are selling $15K
- $25K over the rock-bottom list price, or you can choose to be happy because you are taking advantage of the special "40% Off Sale!!" going on now.
Dos that make sense to you? Do you see the logic? Do you see what your competitors are doing?
Erick
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Erick Blackwelder or Peggy James of Erick and Company - Exit 1st Choice Realty, Woodbridge VA. Realtors®, call 703-590-2252 list your property for sale or to purchase a property in Lake Ridge, Westridge, Old Bridge Estates, River Falls, Middle County, Cannon Bluff, Meadowbrook Woods, Blooms Crossing, Manassas Park, Beaver Creek, Hunter's Ridge, Brittany, Manassas, Montclair, Dumfries, Occoquan, Dale City, Nokesville, or anywhere in Prince William County.
Selling over 2,000 homes over 20+ years in Northern Virginia, and Woodbridge in particular, lots of folks know me as "The Local Real Estate Guy."
"Existing home sales jumped 7.2% in July - the biggest monthly gain on record. First-time homebuyers are purchasing about one third of all homes sold. This is largely due to the tax incentive, interest rates hovering at historic lows and housing affordability at its best level in more than a decade."
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