A Tale of Reston Real Estate: Ready to Buy & Ready to Sell

This is a little story about Buyers and Sellers in Reston.

First, the buyers. This young couple is hoping to buy their first home. After viewing hundreds of homes online and researching different communities they selected Reston as being a great place to start their life together. They were impressed with the amenities, loved the urban vibe of the Town Center, the unique charm and beauty of the Lake Anne area, they were sold on the community.

They had a good sense of what was going to be available in their price range, they had already spoken to their lender, and they are ready to buy! We looked at 10 properties that were within $15,000 of top of their price range.

Now for the Sellers. Sometimes it is hard to make your house stand out from the crowd, sometimes it’s easy. Sometimes it’s easy but it’s for all the wrong reasons!

Let me start this by saying that I called and spoke to either the listing agents or the homeowners on all of these properties except for the one or two that were vacant, so everyone knew we were coming.

Having recently sold my own home, I know how hard it is to leave your home in showing condition EVERY SINGLE DAY. I got so sick of trying to channel Martha Stewart, I thought I was going to scream, but honestly Sellers, it’s what you have to do.

Two of the houses I showed on Saturday were in the same townhouse cluster. One was extravagantly over improved but had dishes in the sink, unmade beds, toothpaste in the sink, and halfway into the showing the home security system went off with an eardrum piercing noise that defies description.

The other house on the same street, was in a slightly closer to the main road, which is typically considered less desirable, and it had no significant or showy upgrades. But oh, what a difference.

The second house was an oasis of serenity. It was immaculate, it was uncluttered, and it was neutral. Everything about the house said “I have been cared for.” My buyers were reassured, nothing felt scary, and they could see themselves living there.

Tonight, the Buyers are going back to take a second look at the tidy little townhouse; the listing agent called me earlier today to say that he has received one contract (after eight days on the market), so if my buyers are ready to write a contract, we’ll have to scramble. Hopefully it will fall in their favor because they are in a position to write a nice clean offer.

The moral of this story?

We all need to take a clue from the Boy Scouts…we all need to be prepared.