Trying to navigate the northern Virginia real estate market?

In this episode of Give, Work, Play, I answer some of the top real estate questions I am asked every single day. We’ll explore everything from traffic to lease agreements so you know all about buying and selling here in Northern Virginia.

2020 and 2021 the real estate market was bananas, especially in Northern Virginia. With so many variables, I answered some of the top real estate questions that I get on a daily basis. The original date of this video is 2021, but much of the information remains the same.

In 2021, my team and I closed over $54 million in sales and helped over 100 families move into the Northern Virginia area. I'd like to think I have a little bit of expertise on what it takes to win an offer. So if you’re looking to move into Northern Virginia or want to sell, I can help you do that successfully.

All About Traffic

One of the top questions I get is about the traffic in Northern Virginia. If you Google it, you're probably going to see that Northern Virginia makes the top 5 and 10 lists of the worst traffic in America. Let me tell you, my friends, it can be difficult. However, it also really depends on when you're commuting, where you're commuting to, and what the options are that you can take.

You could take the hot lane, which is the high occupancy travel vehicle lane. To do so, you can have a little transponder and pay as you go. If you have three people in the car, then it's free. You can also take the metro depending on where you live, or you can take a bus. There’s even a thing called slugging, which I talk about in another video.

Alternatively, you can do a vanpool or carpool, getting a group together to commute. It can take you an hour or 10 minutes to commute, depending on where you're going and when you're going there.

Visiting Before You Move

Another question that we get is whether prospective residents should visit the towns of Northern Virginia before they decide to move. We definitely recommend taking at least a weekend trip out here to drive around and look at the different areas to see which one you like best.

Northern Virginia offers so many unique, quaint things about each town. Choosing the best one really does depend on what kind of lifestyle you're looking for. You also have to take commuting into consideration, especially because of traffic. Lindsey grew up in Vienna, Virginia, which has bus options, and metros. If you go further down 95 South, you mainly just have the 95 and the BRE train station—though there are also vanpools and slug lots.

We also help a lot of overseas clients, so we have options if you can’t be here in person. One of the things that we can do is send you other videos that we've done on some of the towns in Northern Virginia. Make sure to subscribe to the channel so you see some of our other videos; we can also do some FaceTime tours to give you an idea of what the areas are like.

Preapproval

There’s also a difference between prequalification and preapproval. You can get preapproval after the property goes through underwriting. Typically, when you’re just browsing, you're only prequalified—although some buyers do come with a preapproval process. That means that they've gotten more of their documentation to the lender.

The advantage of doing a preapproval is that you could probably move a little bit faster in the buying process. Getting from point A to point B is a good thing. So if you can get to the preapproval process, that's a thumbs up, too.

New Construction

If you’re thinking of building new construction, do you need Lindsey Harrington, realtor extraordinaire, to help? We're always going to recommend that you do have an agent going through the new construction process with you. This is because we're going to be able to help you understand what you're actually signing.

In new construction, sometimes these builders do not fully explain everything that is in the details of the contract to you. You’ll definitely want an agent there on your side explaining what you're signing. Additionally, we use standardized contracts in Northern Virginia when we're doing resales. With builders, they create their own contracts. The person that you're actually meeting from the builder represents the builder.

VA Loans

Another question we get is, if I'm a military buyer—which we do have quite a bit of here in the Northern Virginia area—is it harder to buy right now in this market with a VA loan? Sometimes, it can be a little bit harder getting your offer accepted with a VA loan. However, as long as you still can be as competitive as possible, you still are going to be in a good place.

If you do have a military seller, they’ll sometimes gravitate more towards VA loans and want to help you out. Whether you're a VA, FHA, conventional, or cash buyer, it doesn't really matter. Put your best foot forward and you have a great agent behind you; that’s all you can really do.

Quick Closings

Another question we get is, how long will it take to buy a house in this current market? This really does depend on whether you’re financing or paying cash. A cash deal can close in a matter of a couple of days to a week—which is pretty quick.

If you're using a loan, typically it takes about 30 days from contract to close. Once you win the house and you're under contract, that contract to close period is usually about 30 days, regardless of what type of loan it is. However, in our market here in Northern Virginia, we're finding that there are a lot of what we call post-occupancies or rent-backs.

This means to get the house and win the offer, you might need to offer the seller the ability to stay in the house for 30 days or up to 60 days. The 60-day allowance is because our VA buyers have to be in the house or take possession on day 60. The post-occupancy is something that we negotiate in the deal when we're working with our buyers. So while you could close on the house in 30 days, you might not actually be moving in until almost 90 days later.

Buying And Selling At The Same Time

The next question we get asked is, do you recommend selling a current home before trying to purchase a new home? This is like the chicken and the egg question. If you need the proceeds of the sale of the house that you're living in, then yes; you should get your house on the market if at all possible. When you purchase in this area of Northern Virginia, it is very difficult to buy with a home sale contingency.

If you have a home sale contingency and you're not towards the end of the process, it can be a hurdle to get your offer accepted, regardless of what your financing is. Right now, sellers with multiple offers are often getting offers without that contingency. So if you do need to sell to buy, my recommendation is that you get that house on the market right away and get it as close as possible to the end of the contract—where there's a lack of contingencies left.

If you can, include a post-occupancy deal so you can stay in that house as long as you can. Then you’ll have the opportunity to go and buy—and you may not even have the contingency of a home sale. With a 60-day post-occupancy rent back, we're going to need to go find you a house, with just 60 days to get you from contract to close.

An Expiring Lease

If you have a lease that expires next year but you find a good deal on a house now, what should you do? For one, you can possibly break the lease. The first thing I would do is read your lease agreement and see what the requirements are—because you may have to pay out the entire lease.

You may also have the ability to have someone backfill your lease. This means that they could put it on the market for rent and, if they can replace you, you may only have a shorter or a smaller penalty. However, if you find the deal that you absolutely cannot give up, I would say consider going for it. In this market right now and in this area of Northern Virginia, it is really difficult to find the deal and win the contract.

Again, it does depend on your financial wherewithal. The expectation—and the worst case scenario—is to be prepared to pay out your lease from contract all the way to closing for that lease agreement. That means if you sign on the dotted line and you're only in there for the first two months out of a 12-month contract, I would expect that you may be held to that full year. Still, see what you can do to break the agreement. Work with the owner or landlord, and see how you could possibly backfill yourself and replace the finances that they might be missing out on.

Make Northern Virginia Your Home

I hope this helped answer some of your common questions about buying or selling in the Northern Virginia area. If you want more information give us a call. We are happy to help and don’t forget to subscribe to our youtube channel!