There’s been quite a dustup taking place within the real estate industry this week. A brokerage out in San Diego, ARG Abbot Realty Group, declared that effective immediately, they are pulling all of their listings off of third party syndication sites Realtor.com, Trulia, and Zillow, via an impassioned video posted on YouTube (a video syndication site, natch). The argument was that the evil syndicators were not displaying data correctly and thus muddying the water of the market really looks like.  That particular company seems to feel it’s not in the best interests of their consumer to permit their listings to be displayed there. All three of those sites are in the top five trafficked real estate sites nationally.

As a potential home seller, if your agent can’t explain what listing syndication is, please get another agent. Seriously. As the person hired to sell your home, it is most advantageous to not only put your listing on as many sites where there are buyer eyeballs as I can, but also to ensure that the photos display correctly, the open house information is there, the links to the virtual tours work, etc.  The blunt truth is that consumers flock to Realtor.com, Trulia, and Zillow because they are easy to use, and they all have slick mobile apps, too. Would you want your listing hidden from the consumers searching there?

That San Diego brokerage was arguing, in part, that the consumer needs to be able to contact the listing agent for information, and not whichever agent paid to put advertising on the page next to the listing. Honestly, when I’m trying to sell your house, I’m just as happy to answer questions from a buyer’s agent as I am from a potential buyer: I don’t want to represent the buyer, I just want to get the house sold, as I was hired to do. I don’t care where the buyer comes from as long as we can get them in the front door of the home.

I don’t list your home to fish for buyers. I list your home to sell it. 

Not only that, I refuse to double-side a deal; I decided several years ago that I would no longer represent a buyer and a seller in the same deal.  In my opinion, there is no way to completely represent each of your clients interests in the best way possible while working both sides of the deal.

I’m sure, as a consumer, that you could care less about what goes on in the real estate kitchen, you only need the results. So I want you to know that when I list your home, you will continue to have a featured listing on the big three syndication sites, and I will ensure that the information displays correctly. And you won’t ever have to worry about my company removing your home listing from a place where your potential buyer can find it.

Cheers,
Heather

(If you would like to read a full rebuttal explanation of how that video is full of misinformation, please read my friend Jay’s post here. He explains it eloquently.)

Also, here’s how one of my listings renders on each of those sites:

There are some mornings that I can’t help but hear my Nana singing Cat Stevens “Morning has broken…”  This is one of those mornings.

Cheers,
Heather

Because the Loudoun County annual property tax assessments were just mailed, it’s probably a good time to take a look at whether your new assessed value matches up with the recent market data… Hop over to the post I just published at LoCoMarketStats.com that has the charts with the most up to date information:

From LoCoMarketStats:

Are you thinking about selling this spring? Or do you just want to make sure that your new property tax assessment matches up with market value? This should help: here’s the data for single family homes in Loudoun. If you want information targeted directly to your home and neighborhood, click here to schedule a consultation or sign up for an emailed market report.

Click here to see the charts…

Cheers,
Heather 

Bear with me today, I’m going to take a detour from our regularly scheduled programming, because this struck a nerve. Yesterday afternoon, my husband and I received the following email from our daughters’ elementary school:

In keeping with current practices designed to protect the health and safety of all children, elementary students in Loudoun County Public Schools are not permitted to distribute candy or other food items to classmates.  As Valentine’s Day approaches, it is important for parents to understand that candy brought to school by students, including candy attached to Valentine’s Day cards, will be returned to the parent.

Perhaps it was this way last year, too, but I don’t recall getting a strongly worded notice before the holiday. My reaction was “are you kidding me?!” followed with wondering if there was anything I could do to change this. Or at least make my voice heard.

Trust me, I understand that the intent behind this is to protect the students that have food allergies…but as parents we are informed at the beginning of the year if our child is in a classroom with a student that needs to be protected. In our tight knit community, I’m sure we could handle sending in appropriate treats that wouldn’t be a danger. (We manage to make it through lunch every day without incident.)

The candy at Valentine’s day issue is not the whole problem, unfortunately. We can’t send in treats for our child’s birthday. We can’t have a Christmas party, it’s a holiday party. The Halloween parade in the school is now a ‘spirit parade’ with themed costumes… (I think my middle schoolers dressed up as “math nerds”?) Most disturbing to me is that the time honored tradition of Field Day now awards ‘participation ribbons’. There is no first, second, or third place. On American Education Week, we are ‘strongly encouraged’ to show up at pre-assigned times for scheduled performances…just dropping in to observe our child’s classroom in action would be too disruptive, and is discouraged.

I don’t think that school administrators or school boards have malicious intent, but they have stripped so much of the fun of childhood out of the elementary school experience. I can promise you that my life wasn’t ruined, nor did I need therapy, when I didn’t win first prize in the water balloon toss. I sure as hell remember getting first place in the three -legged race, though, and those ribbons are in my scrapbook. And I remember my class parties from elementary school…we all knew what it meant if a boy gave you a small box of chocolates instead of a lollipop with your card! (The teasing was good natured, I assure you!)

Each of these smaller policies are not such a big deal when taken individually, but add them all together and we’ve chipped away at the experience that helps shape these little people into who they will become as adults. At what point do we stand up and say, enough already?

~Heather

We’re almost to the spring market (anyone else noticed the confused forsythia bushes blooming around here?) so I thought we’d take a look at how far your money will stretch…with $500,000 to spend, how much house can you get in Loudoun County right now?

Inventory is slim pickin’s at the moment, with only 62 resale homes priced between $475,000 and $525,000. If that’s your ballpark range you can choose from:

• A restored 6 bedroom Queen Anne style Victorian with a wraparound porch…
• Several ready to move in foreclosed homes in good shape, dotted across the county…
• A large farmhouse on a (nearly) 28 acre lot …
• Your pick of two townhomes or five patio homes within the gates of different golf communities…
• A charming 200 year old period home in an historic community…
• A log home on a 10 acre lot overlooking a pond….

Plus numerous other properties…click through to see all of them:
Cheers,
Heather 

 Click here to set an appointment to view homes.

Showing properties 1 - 6 of 111. See more What you can get for $500K in LoCo.
(all data current as of 2/5/2012)

1. $489,000 : 240 Mindy Ct Se, Leesburg
   
   5 beds, 3 full baths

   Lot size: 16,988 sq ft

   Year built: 2005

   Parking spots: 2

   Days on market: 2
2. $525,000 : 11724 Lotus Ln, Lovettsville
   
   4 beds, 2 full, 1 part baths

   Lot size: 8.50 ac

   Year built: 2003

   Parking spots: 2

   Days on market: 2
3. $499,999 : 226 Banff Springs Pl, Chantilly
   
   4 beds, 3 full, 1 part baths

   Home size: 3,200 sq ft

   Lot size: 7,000 sq ft

   Year built: 2012

   Parking spots: 2

   Days on market: 3
4. $525,000 : 21308 Hidden Pond Pl, Broadlands
   
   4 beds, 2 full, 1 part baths

   Home size: 2,588 sq ft

   Lot size: 8,712 sq ft

   Year built: 1999

   Parking spots: 2

   Days on market: 3
5. $509,900 : 25580 Upper Clubhouse Dr, South Riding
   
   4 beds, 2 full, 1 part baths

   Home size: 2,492 sq ft

   Lot size: 8,276 sq ft

   Year built: 1996

   Parking spots: 2

   Days on market: 3
6. $519,900 : 21357 Hidden Pond Pl, Broadlands
   
   4 beds, 3 full, 1 part baths

   Home size: 4,135 sq ft

   Lot size: 7,405 sq ft

   Year built: 1998

   Parking spots: 2

   Days on market: 3

Listing information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Read full disclaimer.

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