Author Archives: acollier1410

Today let’s talk about dual and designated agency, which is applicable to both purchasing and selling. To give you simple definitions: Dual agency – when one agent represents both the buyer and the seller. Designated agency – when two agents from the same brokerage represent the buyer and seller separately. Our team will not doContinue reading “Dual and Designated Agency”

Hello to all those home sellers out there. Today, I’m going to cover the topic of staging. In terms of to-do items, this will usually fall on my list immediately after a home has been visited by contractors and cleaners, and is almost ready to hit the market. I always educate sellers on why IContinue reading “Seller 101: Importance of Staging”

One important safety net you, as the buyer, have in your corner when purchasing a home in either a condominium association or home owners association (HOA) is the governing documents review period. When a seller lists a home that is part of an association, by law they are required to deliver these documents to theContinue reading “Home Buyer 101: Association Doc Review Period”

Forgive me, friends – I did take last week off. It’s been a busy spring real estate season over here! Today we will cover the appraisal contingency in depth. So let’s start with the basics. What is an appraisal? Your lender will require that an objective third party (an appraiser) visits the home to assessContinue reading “Home Buyer 101: Appraisal Contingency”

Continuing on in our educational journey to teach readers about the financing contingency. Let me start this article by saying, WHO YOU CHOOSE AS YOUR LENDER MATTERS. In our market in particular, I always recommend a local lender. There are many reasons this is the case, but here are my top five: A local lenderContinue reading “Home Buyer 101: Financing Contingency”

Happy spring, fellow real estate connoisseurs. Though the smell of blooming flowers and the sound of birds chirping may stir happy emotions, this is also the sounding call indicating the time of year with competition and bidding wars for buyers and multiple offers for sellers (at least in the current state of the market inContinue reading “Home Buyer 101: Home Inspection Contingency”

Before diving into more educational pieces about the home buying and selling process, I’d like to walk buyers and sellers alike through the current market landscape around the greater DC Metro area and Northern Virginia. Inventory is as low as ever and interest rates are still historically low, driving out a large pool of buyers,Continue reading “Market Update: Spring 2021”

This week I’ll dive into the part of the process for a seller following acceptance of an offer. At this point you will have selected the best offer for you and officially ratified. Contracts with less contingencies included (home inspection, appraisal, financing, association docs, etc) are going to require less work for the seller. InContinue reading “Home Seller 101: Ratification to Settlement”

Diving into another general overview, but this time for the listing process. The listing process of real estate has more steps than the buyer side, and as such I’ve decided to split this up into two different posts: first, the listing process, followed by a separate post on steps to take once you have acceptedContinue reading “Home Seller 101: The Listing Process”

There are many tips and tricks when purchasing a home, but I want to start with a broad overview – AKA Buyer 101. Following this post, I’ll do a deeper dive into many of these topics, but for any first time home buyer (or even return buyers) this is a great place to start orContinue reading “Home Buyer 101”