Northern Virginia Real Estate Podcast with The Gillies Team
Cindy Gillies
If you are looking to buy or sell a home, get all the information and the latest updates, tips, and tricks from The Gillies Team - your professional Northern Virginia Real Estate Agents.
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Top 10 Northern Virginia Real Estate Podcast with The Gillies Team Episodes
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A Thanksgiving Message and a Tour of Park Ridge
Northern Virginia Real Estate Podcast with The Gillies Team
11/21/18 • -1 min
We recently hosted a great client appreciation event, and we want to thank all of our friends, vendors, and past clients who attended.
Looking to buy in the Stafford/Fredericksburg area? Perform a full home search
Looking to sell in the Stafford/Fredericksburg area? Get a free Home Price Evaluation
Today, there are a couple of messages we’d like to share with you all. First, we want to wish you a happy Thanksgiving. There’s something about this holiday that gives it a special place in my heart. There’s no better feeling than gathering with loved ones to enjoy great food and great conversation. Thanksgiving is also a great time during which to reflect on the things we’re thankful for. And here at the Gillies Team, we’re thankful for you. We wouldn’t be where we are today without you. Moving on, we would also like to let you know about the launch of our new neighborhood spotlight series, which we’re kicking off today with a look at Park Ridge. There’s something for everyone in this neighborhood, including townhomes, as well as single-family and multi-family properties.
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There’s something for everyone in Park Ridge.
”Located right in the middle of North Stafford, just a few minutes off of I-95, Park Ridge offers convenient proximity to neighboring areas, but also has many amenities and resources of its own. One of the main reasons Park Ridge is so popular, though, is the fact that there are over 1,200 homes within it. 80 homes have sold in the past 12 months in this neighborhood, which just goes to show how active the market here is. If you or someone you know is interested in learning more about this neighborhood, please reach out. My team would love to help in any way we can. Speaking of which, if you happen to be without plans on Thanksgiving and are looking for someone to spend it with, there’s always room at my table. I can’t tell you how many years I’ve been blessed to have someone turn up to celebrate with my loved ones and me. We’d be glad to have you. If you have any other questions or would like more information on what's happening in a different neighborhood, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
What 4 Methods Can You Use to Determine Your Home’s Value?
Northern Virginia Real Estate Podcast with The Gillies Team
04/03/18 • -1 min
There are four ways to determine your home’s value. Some of these ways, however, are more reliable than the others.
Looking to buy in the Stafford/Fredericksburg area? Perform a full home search
Looking to sell in the Stafford/Fredericksburg area? Get a free Home Price Evaluation
What are four methods to determine your home’s value? The first and most basic way is to take a look at your tax assessment. If you got your assessment in the mail, you can look at that. In most counties, you can also visit the county assessor website and check there. In our area, the county assessed home values every two years, and they do so using basic information such as the size of the land and the size of the finished space. There are a couple issues you might have with this method. First, the information they use might be old. The other issue is it’s a very basic method that’s applied with a formula using only certain criteria. This is a decent method to compare your home’s value against your neighbors’ homes, but it’s not the most accurate or up-to-date valuation method. The second method is a free home evaluation website. One of the more popular free home evaluation websites is Zillow, which features their Zestimate tool. A Zestimate gathers information from the county records and combines that with recent sales of other homes in the area. It’s beneficial that Zillow takes into account recent sales of other homes, but what’s not beneficial is they don’t have anyone actually walk through your home. This means they can’t tell the difference between a home that’s been completely remodeled and a home across the street that’s in the same condition it was years ago. If you’re curious about what’s happening with home values in your area, this is a good way to get started.
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Having an agent do a CMA is the most comprehensive method to finding your home’s value.
”The third method is an appraisal. An appraisal happens when you either refinance a house, you buy a house using financing, or you sell a house and the buyer’s lender has ordered the appraisal. The downside to this method is an appraisal typically costs between $500 and $550, so if you’re just curious what your home is worth, it’s probably not a good investment because in two years that appraisal won’t be valid anyway. For the most part, appraisals only happen in a transaction when there’s a loan involved. The appraiser’s job is to make sure the lender is able to safely lend the purchase amount that’s been requested. Lastly, you can contact an agent and ask them to do a CMA, or comparative market analysis. There are a few benefits of a CMA. The first is most agents don’t charge for one. Second, they’re able to look at the market as a whole instead of recent home sales. We can then make some projections and give you an idea of not only what yo...
Join Us for Our 2017 Client Appreciation Party
Northern Virginia Real Estate Podcast with The Gillies Team
09/20/17 • -1 min
Our annual client appreciation party is coming up at the end of the month, and you are cordially invited.
Looking to buy in the Stafford/Fredericksburg area? Perform a full home search
Looking to sell in the Stafford/Fredericksburg area? Get a free Home Price Evaluation
Our annual client appreciation party is coming up quickly and we’re making thorough preparations to make it our best one yet! These parties are important to us because they give us the opportunity to see you and your families, catch up, and have a great time doing so. They also give us a chance to say thanks for trusting us with your homes and with your friends and family we’re fortunate to hear from so often when real estate needs arise. We'd love to have you join us on September 30th from 1pm to 5pm. If you haven't already received your invitation in the mail, just give us a call or send us an email to RSVP and we will send you all the details.
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This is our chance to say thank you for trusting us.
”As always, we’ll have live music, plenty of food and drinks, and a whole range of fun activities for the kids to enjoy. We couldn’t be more excited about it, and we can’t wait to see you there! If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’d be happy to speak with you.
Why You Need to Test for Radon Gas
Northern Virginia Real Estate Podcast with The Gillies Team
08/07/17 • -1 min
Having the radon level tested in a home is a very important step in the real estate process that can actually save lives.
Looking to buy in the Stafford/Fredericksburg area? Perform a full home search
Looking to sell in the Stafford/Fredericksburg area? Get a free Home Price Evaluation
Radon gas is something that’s around us all the time and could impact the real estate process. This is because it can become concentrated in places like basements, where it is typically tested for. So what does this mean for you?
Radon gas exposure is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States. This is a topic that comes up a lot in the real estate process because it’s a standard contingency in our area. Thankfully, there are a few ways to identify and deal with it.
Whether you’re on the buyer or seller side of a real estate transaction, you are likely to go through the radon testing process.
In most cases, this involves having an inspector come to the house to place a test that will read radon levels for 48 hours. After that time, it will give you an average reading from which you can determine whether or not there is a problem that needs to be dealt with.
Specifically, you will look whether the test is above or below the 4.0 EPA action level. If the test comes in above this level, however, it doesn’t mean that you will be unable to buy or sell the house.
The radon level can be reduced through a very standard process which will leave the home safe.
The radon level can be reduced through a very standard process which will leave the home safe. Usually at this point a contractor who consistently, if not exclusively, does radon work will come out to the property and install a system that pulls air from below the house in order to prevent radon from concentrating.
Thankfully the process is neither complex nor is it cost prohibitive—usually costing in the $850 to $1,000 price range.
If you are a buyer and this device is installed by the seller in the property you’re purchasing, the process will be as simple as periodically checking the device’s u-shaped dial to make sure it is working properly and that your house is protected.
If you want any more information or have any other que...
The Keys to Staging Your Home While Still Living in It
Northern Virginia Real Estate Podcast with The Gillies Team
05/19/17 • -1 min
Staging your home for the market involves depersonalizing, decluttering, neutralizing, and three other key points to remember.
Looking to buy in the Stafford/Fredericksburg area? Perform a full home search
Looking to sell in the Stafford/Fredericksburg area? Get a free Home Price Evaluation
If you need to stage your home to prepare it for the market while you’re still living in it, there are four main points you need to remember to maximize its value. First, you need to depersonalize, declutter, and neutralize. These three things are at the core of what it means to stage and get your house ready. The reason why you depersonalize and take down family portraits, kids’ trophies and other personal items is that we want the person who walks into your home to envision themselves living there. Your home is a place where you have created memories, but when the time comes to sell we need the buyer to be able to make that same connection and feel like it is a place where they will make their own family memories. When you declutter and neutralize, you’re making sure you’re not distracting buyers with bold colors or too many things in your house so they can focus on the things that make your house great. Second, work to make sure each room has a purpose. Oftentimes there are rooms in a house that are sparsely used or used for a purpose the average buyer is unlikely to copy. For example, many homeowners use their formal living room as a kids’ play room. Think about repurposing this room as a 2nd living area or an office – these are uses buyers are likely to see value in and can envision using it in a similar way. If you can show value in each room and present it as a place buyers can see themselves using we are likely to get a higher return on the square footage.
Depersonalizing, decluttering, and neutralizing are at the core of what it means to stage your house.
6 Questions That Will Help You Choose a Listing Agent
Northern Virginia Real Estate Podcast with The Gillies Team
02/21/18 • -1 min
When interviewing listing agents for the right to sell your home, there are six important questions you must ask to ensure they can sell your house quickly and for top dollar.
Looking to buy in the Stafford/Fredericksburg area? Perform a full home search
Looking to sell in the Stafford/Fredericksburg area? Get a free Home Price Evaluation
There are six questions you must ask a listing agent when interviewing them: 1. How many homes have you sold in the last year? This will tell you how active the agent is in the market. If they’re only selling one or two homes a year, that might bring up more questions about how involved they are in your market. Inside of that question, ask how many homes they’ve sold in your community. If everything they’re selling is two counties away, they may be a great agent, but they may not have the experience they need in your community to give you the advice you need. 2. What percentage of your listings actually sell? This is critical because if someone is listing 30 homes a year but only selling 15 or 20 of those homes, you have to ask what’s happening with the other homes that aren’t being sold. Look at this ratio and make sure the agent does everything they can to sell their listings. 3. What is your list-to-sale price ratio? When they list a home, are they typically getting 95% of the price their seller asked? Are they getting 96% or 97%? Or is their ratio perhaps lower than that, like 93%? Whatever the percentage is will tell you a number of different things. First, it will tell you how well they typically price homes. It will also tell you how well they can market homes and generate the kind of traffic they need to sell them quickly and for top dollar.
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Don’t lose out on any hot inquiries because your agent doesn’t have a follow-up plan.
”4. What’s the average time it takes you to sell a listing compared to the market average? Again, this will tell you a lot about what the agent does to market homes and how well they do against the competition. If the average home sale in your price range takes about 30 days and the agent’s average is two weeks, they’re probably doing a great job. On the flip side, if they average 90 days to sell a home in a market when most homes take only 30 days, there might be something wrong. 5. What is your advertising budget? Marketing a home involves more than just putting it on the MLS. There are websites that your home needs to be advertised on and get great exposure. Ask the agent about their marketing budget and where that budget is spent. Also, make sure they have an advertising and marketing plan. Doing the data entry into the MLS is part of what your agent needs to do to get your home exposed, but if that’s all they’re doing, there may be a piece of the puzzle that’s missing. 6. What is your follow-...
Where Are Interest Rates Headed in 2018?
Northern Virginia Real Estate Podcast with The Gillies Team
05/22/18 • -1 min
Interest rates have risen since the beginning of the year and are expected to increase again. Let’s discuss what this means for buyers and sellers in today’s market.
Looking to buy in the Stafford/Fredericksburg area? Perform a full home search
Looking to sell in the Stafford/Fredericksburg area? Get a free Home Price Evaluation
A question many have been asking lately is, “What’s going on with interest rates?” The short answer is that they are going up. Rates have already risen this year and are expected to do so again in the future. Based on positive indicators in the US economy, the Fed is pushing rates back up and tempering years of policy that has been keeping them artificially low. Since the first of the year, rates have increased from around 3.99% to 4.5% as of May 2. It’s hard to say what the future holds, specifically, but I think it’s safe to anticipate a couple more increases by the end of the year. This could put us at, or even above, the 5% mark. However, even if rates do reach this level, they would still be low compared to historical averages. Freddie Mac has easily accessible data going back to the 1970s that supports this.
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If you’ve been thinking of buying, now is absolutely a great time to take advantage of our market.
”So if you’ve been thinking of buying, now is absolutely a great time to take advantage of our market. That said, it’s also a good time to sell. Rising rates will translate to decreased buying power, meaning the current market presents an opportunity for sellers to capture higher prices before this happens. Affordability has a major impact on how buyers make decisions. Even what seems like a small rate increase can have a significant effect on the dollar amount buyers pay for a home. If a buyer would have bought a home for $350,000 at the beginning of this year when interest rates were around 3.99%, their monthly mortgage payments would be $115 less expensive than if they bought a home at that same price today. By the end of the year, a buyer for that same home could see a $200 difference. If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
What Does the Fed’s Recent Announcement Mean for You?
Northern Virginia Real Estate Podcast with The Gillies Team
10/31/17 • -1 min
Now that the Fed has announced they’ll start reducing their balance sheet, you should consider buying or selling sooner rather than later.
Looking to buy in the Stafford/Fredericksburg area? Perform a full home search
Looking to sell in the Stafford/Fredericksburg area? Get a free Home Price Evaluation
As you may have heard already, the Federal Reserve had a meeting on September 20th. At that meeting, they announced that they are going to start reducing their balance sheet. This means they’ll start reducing their massive holdings of the mortgage-backed securities they bought during the height of the economic crisis. What does this mean for buyers and sellers? The first thing to keep in mind is this isn’t an immediate situation. This program is getting ready to start, but the Fed owns $3.5 trillion in these securities, and they’ll only be selling back $10 billion a month initially.
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Whether you’re a buyer or seller, it’s a good idea to think about how this might affect your situation.
”If you’re planning on buying a house and getting a mortgage loan to do so, the monthly amount you’ll be paying on that mortgage will be affected in a huge way by how much the interest rate is. Over time, the Fed reducing their balance sheet will increase borrowing costs for consumers, which in this case means interest rates. Essentially, if you wait as long as six months to a year from now to buy, it will either cost you more to buy or you’ll be able to afford less house. If you’re considering selling your house a year or two down the road, you want to think hard about doing it sooner rather than later because of the effect this decision is having on buyers. If you wait, they won’t be able to afford as much house or they’ll have to purchase at a lower price. This is especially true if your house is in the upper price ranges of your area or it’s considered a move-up house for buyers. Whether you’re a buyer or seller, it’s a good idea to think about how this might affect your situation. If you have any other questions about this subject or you’re thinking of buying or selling a home in our area, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d be happy to help you.
The True Benefit of Working With a Team
Northern Virginia Real Estate Podcast with The Gillies Team
10/11/17 • -1 min
When it comes to a real estate transaction, you’ve got one shot to do things right. Why work with just one agent when you could have a team of people all working to make your transaction go smoothly?
Looking to buy in the Stafford/Fredericksburg area? Perform a full home search
Looking to sell in the Stafford/Fredericksburg area? Get a free Home Price Evaluation
Today I want to talk about the difference hiring a team of agents can make for your transaction. Obviously, you want the process of selling your home to go as smoothly as possible. For this to be achieved, you’ll need to have good, strong communication with whoever you’re working with. When you work with a team, you’ve got the benefit of having a number of people taking care of the many steps of the real estate process, instead of just one agent trying to take on all the work him or herself. Having multiple people dividing up the work of completing pricing analysis, staging, taking photos, marketing your home, negotiating contracts, hosting showings, scheduling inspections, processing hundreds of pages of paperwork and more, will really help things move more smoothly. A single person only has a finite amount of energy they can expend and direct into the important tasks of the real estate process. One person dividing their time and energy is much less effective than having a team of individuals all focusing on different parts of the process. When you work with a team, you are working with people who are specialized in different areas. On my team, for example, we separate out our listing specialists and buying specialists. The job of a listing specialist and that of a buying specialist are very different. A listing specialist needs to spend their time working on pricing, marketing, and creating exposure for sellers. A buyer’s agent needs to have time available to spend on the road with their clients, making sure they have the right perspective to make a good decision.
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HAVING SPECIALISTS DIVIDE THE WORKLOAD THROUGHOUT YOUR TRANSACTION WILL HELP THINGS MOVE MORE SMOOTHLY.
”One person trying to do both of these jobs and more would cause every area of their work to suffer. Teams like ours also have staff working on the process to make things go more smoothly for clients. On our team, we have a marketing coordinator whose only job is to make sure that all of the marketing details are taken care of in a timely, efficient manner. Real estate transactions are all about timing. For this reason, our team uses a transaction coordinator to help finalize all of the details of the sale. Utilizing a team of staff members and agents is hugely beneficial in helping the transaction to move forward smoothly. When it comes to a real estate transaction, you get one shot to do it right. Would you rather have one person working on your behalf, or would you rather work with a team of sp...
Thank You For Helping Us Celebrate
Northern Virginia Real Estate Podcast with The Gillies Team
11/08/18 • -1 min
We recently hosted a great client appreciation event, and we want to thank all of our friends, vendors, and past clients who attended.
Looking to buy in the Stafford/Fredericksburg area? Perform a full home search
Looking to sell in the Stafford/Fredericksburg area? Get a free Home Price Evaluation
We want to thank all of our friends, vendors, and past clients who were able to join us at our most recent client appreciation event. Thank you for trusting us with your real estate needs, and thank you for trusting us to help your family and friends as well. We had somewhere between 250 and 300 people in attendance at this party, and we had an absolute blast. We had catered food, live music, and all sorts of fun activities for the kids. We were also able to partner with S.E.R.V.E., our local food bank, and raffle off some donations and other great prizes.
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We want to thank everyone who came out to celebrate with us.
”We also managed to sit down with some of our previous clients, and they were kind enough to share their experiences working with our team. You can see what they had to say starting at 1:57 in the video above. Once again, we want to thank everyone who came out to celebrate with us. If you weren’t able to make it, we look forward to seeing you next year. We also look forward to hosting other events throughout 2019, so stay tuned for those as well. As always, if you have any questions or real estate needs, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’d be happy to help you.
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FAQ
How many episodes does Northern Virginia Real Estate Podcast with The Gillies Team have?
Northern Virginia Real Estate Podcast with The Gillies Team currently has 14 episodes available.
What topics does Northern Virginia Real Estate Podcast with The Gillies Team cover?
The podcast is about Top, Property, Estate, Local, Home, Virginia, Real, Podcasts, For, Selling, Education and Tips.
What is the most popular episode on Northern Virginia Real Estate Podcast with The Gillies Team?
The episode title 'A Thanksgiving Message and a Tour of Park Ridge' is the most popular.
How often are episodes of Northern Virginia Real Estate Podcast with The Gillies Team released?
Episodes of Northern Virginia Real Estate Podcast with The Gillies Team are typically released every 34 days.
When was the first episode of Northern Virginia Real Estate Podcast with The Gillies Team?
The first episode of Northern Virginia Real Estate Podcast with The Gillies Team was released on May 19, 2017.
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