Facts About Manassas Real Estate Values / Buyer – Seller Tips

DC METRO REAL ESTATE

Serving the Real Estate needs of the communities of Manassas, Bristow, Haymarket, Warrenton, Gainesville and Culpeper  in Northern Virginia


Dave Scardina  
Broker / Owner

703-829-SOLD

866-909-0900

Facts About Manassas Real Estate Values / Buyer – Seller Tips

Negotiating the Sale of Your Manassas Home.


Some say that the “Devil is in the Details” and these last two steps are full of details as buyers make offers contingent upon certain conditions being met by the seller and sellers make counter offers in the process of closing your Manassas home. Once there is agreement, however, many details still remain in order to finalize the sale.

Manassas Home Improvement


Don't underestimate how much projects will cost. Expenses usually are added, not subtracted. Homeowners, even Manassas homeowners, routinely go 20% to 30% over budget. Remember, it is common to under budget cost and time.

When remodeling for resale, don't waste time with renovations that won't pay off. If you must have a pool, you still may have to lower your expectations on who will be interested in buying. The National Association of Realtors/Remodeling magazine study has identified four renovations that show the greatest return at resale: improvements to siding, windows, kitchens and bathrooms. Remember you have a lot invested in Manassas.

Bitten by the Manassas Home Improvement Bug?


Maybe, like millions of Americans, you can’t help it! You live in your Manassas home for several years and before you know it, you find yourself thinking about how the kitchen would look with new cabinets and a granite countertop. Should you start with the kitchen or would it be better to add a home office to give the family a little more room? There seems to be endless options for the creative Manassas homeowner bitten by the Home Improvement Bug. Once you get started thinking along these lines, it usually doesn’t take long before the ultimate question pops up. Is it better to improve your current home or simply sell and buy a bigger, newer or more desirable Area home? Here are some issues to help you make that all-important decision.


Bitten by the Manassas Home Improvement Bug?


Unless money simply isn’t an issue, the financial implications of remodeling are definitely something to consider. When it comes time to sell your Manassas home, the new buyer will usually not pay for over-improvements. This means that if you have the smallest home in an area of larger, more expensive homes, home improvements may make very good financial sense. However, if you already have the largest, most expensive home in Manassas, more improvements may make you more comfortable but may not bring you a good financial return. You may find that it is financially wiser to sell and move to a different home that already has the features you want to add.

Does Your Manassas Have Curb Appeal?


Good curb appeal is definitely an advantage to home sellers when prospective buyers visit your Manassas and can be an advantage in advertising in the newspaper and on the Internet. However, it is important to note that even a home with great curb appeal can look bad in an advertisement if the photographer did a bad job with the camera. A photograph of a Manassas home on a dreary day will look quite different from a photo of the same home when the sun is shining. Sometimes it is better to take a picture of a home from an angle rather than a straight on shot that may turn out to be more about the garage door than about the house itself.

Tips for Buying or Selling Manassas


Most experienced real estate agents and brokers already have Websites that showcase their local MLS data so your Manassas can show up online as soon as it is listed. On the other hand, if you are selling on your own it will take time or a considerable advertising budget to get your individual Manassas property to show up on the major search engines where prospective buyers will find it. You could tap into one of the several For Sale by Owner Websites but that would limit your market of buyers.

Buying real estate in Manassas is also much easier when you work with a real estate agent who knows the area and the market. While there is a great deal of information online about real estate asking prices, it is not always so easy to find out what a property actually sold for. And even then, specific terms of a sale often make a difference in how to interpret the sales price.