If you are considering selling your
Virginia Active Adult Community home, you will be facing a Buyer's Market. That
is, there are many more sellers than buyers and that means downward
pressure on prices and a longer sales cycle.
A good indicator of the market are these statistics on Prince William
County single-family homes (from MRIS, the multiple listing service for
Northern Virginia):
Basically, in the last year, inventory has doubled while sales have
fallen by almost half.
Consider these Active Adult Community per month re-sale
numbers compiled from MRIS:
Units Sold per Month
Jan ’05 > Dec ’05
Jan ’06 > Dec ‘06
Dunbarton
4.0
1.2 (-71%)
Heritage
9.5
4.4 (-53%)
Regency
3.7
1.3 (-53%)
Leisure Wld
2.7
2.3 (-62%)
Four Seasons 2.8
0.9 (-68%)
(Historic VA)
A broader indicator is the total number of resale listings in Northern
Virginia. Currently, there are over 200 Active Adult Community
homes listed for sale in the multiple
listing service and about 10 or 12 "For Sale By Owner." Six months ago,
the combined total was less than 100.
There is a lot of inventory and it is moving slowly. And,
there is more
inventory coming; builders have 8,000 units planned for Virginia over the next decade.
Fortunately, there are over 70
million "Boomers" and interest rates will eventually come down. It may
take a year or two but the active adult market will stabilize.
"But, I have to sell now..."
If you are in a "must sell" situation, there is hope. This is what it
will take and what I will help you with:
-
Price realistically - First you
must face the reality of the market you are entering. In order to
help you set a realistic price, I will perform a
Comparative Market Analysis
for your home that will cover all homes currently on the market and
recently sold in your Active Adult Community.
-
Market Aggressively - I will
implement a highly aggressive marketing program that will include:
-
A Website dedicated exclusively
to your home and including more information and photos than
provided on typical multiple listings. It will have its own
domain name. Here is and examples of "single property site":
http://www.owl55home35.com.
-
A virtual tour with as many photos as required to highlight all
the best features of your home.
-
Comprehensive advertising
including appropriate local newspapers, Web search engine ads
(Google, Yahoo, MSN and others), direct mail, and
others. (Note that according to Realtor.org, over 70% of buyers
begin their search on the Web.)
-
Open houses that
are advertised and promoted locally and on OWL55.com.
-
A listing on Realtor.com,
the highest traffic real estate site on the Web.
-
A "Featured Listing" on the
home page of OWL55.com linked to the dedicated Website
for your home.
On Pricing
One variable in the
sales equation overrides all others: price.
While every property is unique, any type home in any
location, in any condition, in any market, will sell
at the right price. What a seller
“needs” or “wants” has nothing to do with it; the
market decides what a home is worth. If a home sits
on the market for months and months with few visits
and no offers, the market has decided:
“over-priced.”
If you would like a free, no obligation consultation on what it will
take to sell your home, use the email address or telephone numbers below
to contact me for an appointment at your convenience.
