December 12

Does Your Kitchen Need a Makeover?

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If holiday entertaining has left you feeling like your kitchen needs some updating, here’s a great list of DC area kitchen specialists.  You can add their numbers to your New Year’s Resolutions. Your Guide to All the People and Businesses Around DC Who Can Remodel Your Kitchen

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December 08

Crushworthy Paint Palette

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We love the Benjamin Moore 2017 color palette!  The 2017 Color of the Year is called Shadow, and is a dark and stormy purple that looks great contrasted against white, grays and splashes of green.  Ginny is thinking this would be a great color for a front door on a gray house!  While we love […]

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December 05

What’s your favorite home style?

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My favorite residential architectural period and style was 1920’s and 1930’s colonials.  I love the classic details, the balance and the understated elegance.  I loved the house in Father of the Bride (the remake).  Jennifer loves the charm of Cape Cods.  Many houses now have elements of different styles all mixed together.  Sometimes it works, […]

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December 01

Buyers’ Market Advice

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Did you know that Great Falls and parts of the McLean market are a buyers’ market right now?  In other parts of Northern Virginia, like Sterling, Reston and Alexandria, homes are selling in 30-45 days, in some cases with bidding wars, which is good for sellers, but not great for buyers. By contrast, in Great […]

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November 28

Interest Rates are Climbing…Time for Buyers to Get off the Fence!

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In case you missed it with all the election news…interest rates are headed up.   Just a little data: an interest rate increase of .5% on a $500,000 loan, means an additional $180 in monthly mortgage payment, which translates to almost 10 percent less buying power on a $500,000 purchase. Ouch! If you have been considering […]

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November 21

Big Change Election…What does it mean for Real Estate Here?

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Do elections impact our area?  One would think, with all of the hand wringing and pearl clutching going on over the past couple of weeks, that the major changes coming to the Executive Branch (4000 plus jobs changing hands!) will mean big business for our real estate market.  That would be wrong.  Surprisingly, elections have little […]

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November 19

Thanksgiving Curb Appeal

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We are constantly advising home sellers on curb appeal, so I thought I better practice what I preach.  Here’s my work on improving my Thanksgiving curb appeal…with winter pansies (sprayed with Bobex deer repellent, of course), cabbages, twisty branches, birch branches and some light up branches from Target!  I save those branches every year, and […]

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November 17

The Home Equity Playbook

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What is Home Equity? Home equity seems to be a very simple calculation — the total amount of mortgages owed subtracted from the current market value of a home. Here is a simple example: Current Home Market Value $325,000 Existing Mortgage $225,000 Homeowner Equity $100,000 One side of the equation is well defined, and it […]

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September 15

A Beginner’s Guide to Real Estate Investing

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Despite the grim economic outlook for some industries, one sector is gaining viability — real estate. According to the 2016 Emerging Trends in Real Estate, which was released by the Urban Land Institute earlier this year, trends such as “18-hour cities” and millennial parents increasingly moving from urban areas out into the suburbs signal that […]

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September 08

Why You Need to Get a Home Inspection

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Okay, you made one of the most important decisions in your life: you’re buying a home! You found your ideal home. It’s in your desired neighborhood, close to everything you love, you love its design and feel, and you’re ready to finalize the deal. But, whoa … wait a minute! Buying a home isn’t like buying […]

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