Home warranties can be attractive to home owners or buyers who are looking at purchasing a property. These service contracts can cover all of a home’s major systems, such as the furnace or air conditioner, and will cover needed repairs if the appliance breaks or damaged.
Some sellers are offering a home warranty to try to lure buyers.
But not all home warranties are the same. Experts say you should carefully weigh costs, policy allowances, and customer feedback before making a decision so that you ensure you’re getting the best deal. Home warranties cost about $250 to $500 a year.
Here are some more tips from experts in shopping for a home warranty:
Find customer reviews. Web sites, such as homewarrantyreviews.com, provide reviews of home warranty companies. You also might check how each company is rated with your local Better Business Bureau.
typical home in Belle Haven Estates
Check for extra fees. Will you have to pay a fee for service calls?
Check the coverage allowance. Are there any exclusions to coverage? Will the allowance cover the entire cost of a broken appliance or just some of it? For example, if you have older appliances and mechanicals, will the policy cover the full cost of replacing it or just the depreciated value? If the policy only covers the depreciated value when a 20-year-old furnace dies, for example, the reimbursement may not be enough to buy a new one. Also, verify what appliances are all included in the coverage. Some companies will allow you to add coverage for swimming pools, while others won’t.
"The biggest thing is awareness of what the exclusions are," Greg McBride, a senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com, told the Chicago Tribune. "The mere presence of a warranty, by nature, tends to have exclusions. Being aware of that can aid in the decision-making process."
Source: “When Home Warranties Are Worth It,” Chicago Tribune (Feb. 8, 2011)
Does paying cash for a home net the buyer a discount as it might for other transactions? The answer: “It depends.”
If the seller is in a big-time crunch, an all-cash deal can expedite the sale. Also, offering to pay cash gives the buyer less wriggle room, which could comfort a nervous seller.
A seller with minimal equity may be looking for a more generous deal than an all-cash buyer is likely to demand. Also, if there is a bank involved in the deal, it may not be so enthusiastic either because an all-cash transaction could undercut the reason banks are in business.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, June Fletcher (11/04/2010)
Yes, houses will sell as long as they are priced right. In many — but not all places — that means they’re priced low.
"People who price their homes to the market are selling them in a reasonable amount of time, but people who cling to 2004 or 2005 prices aren't," says Richard Smith, president and CEO of Realogy, the parent company of Century 21, ERA, Coldwell Banker and Sotheby's International Realty.
In some areas, pent-up demand has exploded. "It's crazy," says Brendon DeSimone, an associate with Paragon Real Estate in the Noe Valley near San Francisco. "I had one house with five offers, and it went from $1.4 million to $1.7 million. The valley has just popped. It's not uncommon for one open house to have 200 people come through."
Source: USA Today, Stephanie Armour (07/28/2010)
Home Prices In Arlington Continue To Hike
The housing market in Arlington County is getting more and more expensive as potential buyers continue to have fewer homes and condos to choose from.
Inlet Cove is alongside Route 1 This neighborhood of townhouses is near grocers and eateries Inlet Cove is close to Fort Belvoir, Alexandria, and Potomac Mills shops, in the city of Woodbridge Interior to these properties are multilevel Inlet Cove is serene
Pending home sales increased again in March, affirming that a surge of home sales is unfolding for the spring home buying season, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in March, rose 5.3 percent to 102.9 from 97.7 in February, and is 21.1…
Some of the best housing deals are on high-end homes, many over $1 million. Some of them need TLC or they aren’t in the most-coveted locations. But there are plenty of desirable properties and lots of sellers who are getting impatient. Buyers with cash have the best opportunities. Buyers who need a mortgage should move…
The National Association of Realtors recently did a study about the characteristics of home buyers. Some of the findings might surprise you. Thirteen percent of buyers purchased a home with one or more parents and grandparents together with adult children. There were several reasons given for purchasing a multi-generational home. Cost savings; Children over the…
Here's a snapshot of what's going on in the real estate market in Arlington VA as of April 28, 2010. The median price of homes sold increased sharply after March and at the same time the average number of days on the market decreased. This is a strong indicator that the market is recovering. As we approach the end of the first-time homebuyer's tax credit, we'll see if this is a trend or if this is capturing sales that would have occurred in June anyway.
Will NesbittWill Nesbitt is the principal broker of Condo Alexandria.
According to research economist Jessica Lautz, "More than one-third of all home buyers buy a home for the desire to own. This has been the most cited reason consistently for the last several years, but it is even more true of single female buyers. Nearly half of single female buyers purchase a home because they have a desire to own a home. The second most cited reason for single female buyers in choosing to purchase a home is a change in family situation—13 percent of single female buyers purchase for this reason, compared to 9 percent of all buyers.
Court House Neighborhood in Arlington VA
"In comparison to other household types, single female buyers are more likely to have lived with parents, relatives or friends before buying their own residence, 20 percent compared to 12 percent of all buyers. Single female buyers are also more likely to rent an apartment or house before buying their own place compared to all buyers. Both previous living situations are related to the large share of single female buyers being first-time buyers."
Her research indicates: "The median age of all home buyers was 39 years old, compared to 41 for single female buyers. Among single-female buyers, 58 percent were first-time home buyers in 2009, compared to 47 percent of all home buyers. The median household income for single-women home buyers was lower than that of all other homebuyer household types. Single females reported a median household income of $47,900 in 2008 compared to $73,100 among all home buying households. This difference in household income should not be completely surprising as 68 percent of home buying households are couples – and so perhaps likely to have two income earners. The difference in median income for single women households compared to those for single men is less striking—single men typically made $53,700 in 2008. Additionally, single women households are less likely to have children living at home than couples. Results from the survey show that 22 percent of single women home buyers have children at home, while 38 percent of all home buyers have children at home."
Source NAR
Because we do business as Condo Alexandria, I'm often asked: do you only work with condos?
The answer is of course: no. Condo Alexandria works with all types of real estate in the Commonwealth of Virginia. But we do fill several niches and have expertise in a few specific areas that might be of interest to you.
brick home in Belle Haven
Condo Alexandria serves the condo market in Alexandria (mainly in the West End and Old Town), Crystal City, Pentagon City, Arlington, Fairfax County, and Kingstowne. Our focus these days is on buyers and landlords. As a buyer's agent we are well equipped to find the property that suits you needs and make the sale proceed smoothly and quickly. As property manager we take the hassle out of being a landlord. We of course have listings for sale but if the time isn't right to sell, we'll let you know and advise you of your best options.
Condo Alexandria also does business as Nesbitt Realty. In the capacity as Nesbitt Realty, we focus on homes and properties near our offices and homes.
Our agents and I have particularly good insight in Alexandria especially around Bucknell and Belle Haven, but also in Kingstowne and Old Town. These neighborhoods have condos, but they also have single family homes and town houses.
If you have questions or if I can be of service, please don't hesitate to contact me! If you need help finding properties please help yourself to our fast and free database of properties that are currently on the market. The number of listings that are available can sometimes be overwhelming, so feel free to contact me if you'd like for us to do the search.
Will Nesbitt of Condo AlexandriaWill Nesbitt is the Principal Broker of Condo Alexandria / Nesbitt Realty.
Are you searching for real property in Northern Virginia? Then you’ve come to the right place.
Condo Alexandria is Northern VA's condo expertCondo-Alexandria.com is the official site of Nesbitt Realty . Our real estate agents provide this site to help educate and assist home buyers with their real estate needs. Please don't hesitate to take advantage of our comprehensive real estate guides, real estate news, mortgage calculators, links to real estate market conditions, and wisdom from our team of skilled realtors. If you’re in the market for homes for sale or if you're seeking a condo in Northern Virginia, Condo-Alexandria.com is the real estate website for you.
Condo-Alexandria.com puts real estate listings for thousands of homes and condos for sale at your fingertips in communities across Northern Virginia. We provide focused hyperlocal information taken about communities and condo associations right here in Northern VA. We also provide listings from one of the largest MLS providers in the country. Our listings from the Multiple Regional Information System can access every single home listed for sale or rent in Northern Virgina.
We are realtors and real estate agents that care about hour clients need and we believe in sharing (not hording) information. As such, Condo-Alexandria provides the means to search by map, by community, by mls or just browse by text listings. We even provide a page where you can find condo listings and homes for rent. So whether you’re looking for Alexandria VA real estate or detailed Arlington real estate listings, look no further than Condo-Alexandria.com.
Each real estate listing provides comprehensive details about the property so you have a clear picture of what features and amenities are included. Condo-Alexandria.com goes beyond real estate listings, however, with access to real estate tools and resources such as calculators, moving guides, real estate buying tips. Our site doesn't provide information for everyone. We cater to folks who are interested in Northern Virgina, Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax County, Crystal City and Kingstowne. If you are moving to Northern VA, Condo-Alexandria.com provides you with everything you need to find the perfect home for you.
Nesbitt Realty sells homes in Northern VA
Walk Score helps people find walkable places to live. Walk Score calculates the walkability of an address by locating nearby stores, restaurants, schools, parks, etc. Walk Score attempts to numerically measure how easy it is to live a car-lite lifestyle---not how pretty the area is for walking. If you're looking for a walkable area, check out what Condo-Alexandria.com can do:
Search by Walk Score. Now this is cool. You can decide what your minimum walkable criteria is when you search for properties.
Sort by Walk Score. If you can search by Walk Score, you should be able to sort by Walk Score too. Just click in the "sort by" box at the top of the results and choose "Walk Score, Highest First" to order the search results from highest to lowest Walk Score.
View the Walk Score in both the search results and property details. Every time you search for property you'll find out just how walkable the area is!
View the Walk Score tile. When you click on the "Walk Score" link at the top-right of the property details area, you’ll see the Walk Score tile that shows all of the amenities that are factored into the score.
We hope you'll enjoy using Walk Score as much as we enjoyed building it into our system. We're really excited to say that we’re one of the first providers of this type of functionality. We spent quite some time on the UI for this feature in order to make everyone happy.
And in case you haven't heard, Walk Score just improved its usefulness. Previous versions of Walk Score did not include public transportation. That is to say, a property next door to a metro station had no higher Walk Score than a property far from public transportation. Well, that's all changed now!
Our latest enhancement adds mass transit to the Walk Score calculations. See for yourself now.
This week I was in a condo selling for over a million dollars. It was a beautiful condominium home with excellent views, a state of the art kitchen and all the upgrades one might expect ... except the unit didn't have a washer and dryer.
Because my office is in River Towers, and we also serve Belle View, I often confront the question of a washer and dryer in the unit. (Neither River Towers nor Belle View has laundry in the unit.) I've talked to the older residents of River Towers about this and surprisingly many of them resist the idea of putting laundry in the unit. They like their laundry-rooms right where they are---thank you very much.
This might seem baffling to some of the younger generation, but laundry rooms have a number of distinct advantages:
community --- You get to know your neighbors in the laundry room. This creates a sense of community and you know who belongs in the secured areas and who is a stranger.
maintenance --- You don't have to worry about buying a new washer when the old one breaks down. More importantly you don't have to worry about your personal laundry flooding a neighbor's condo.
square footage --- Laundry takes up space. You have more space in your unit if you have a community laundry room
more washers --- Many folks like to wait and do an entire week of laundry at one time. If you have a laundry room you're not limited to one small washer. You have many washers available.
In a luxury community, most people don't do their own laundry anyway, so they don't care if the laundry is outside the unit. My tip to folks who are shopping for homes in Northern Virginia: don't box yourself in. If you won't consider a unit with a laundry room, you're walking past some of the best neighborhoods in Northern VA.
Because my office is in