Manassas Homes for Sale / How to Shop for a Home

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

Manassas Homes for Sale / How to Shop for a Home

Manassas Lot


Financially that may be a good strategy but take heed and purchase your Manassas lot with care. Why? Because it can happen that the lot you buy today is not suited at all for the Manassas home you want to build in the future. Here are some things to watch out for.

Qualifying the Buyer for your Manassas Property


Either you or your agent will want to weed out potential buyers who cannot afford to purchase your Manassas home. Items to investigate include the buyer’s debt and credit history, current income and employment, the availability of cash for a down payment, the time the buyer needs before closing on the home and the buyer’s level of interest in your home as compared to other properties.


Manassas FAIR MARKET VALUE


When you buy Manassas real estate or refinance your present home, your lender will ask you to pay for an appraisal to help ensure that the sales price and mortgage amount is consistent with the property's market value. The appraiser uses the Rule of Three. What that means is the lender wants to evaluate three "comparables"—recent sales of nearby homes that are very similar to the one you are buying. Based on this information, the lender will make adjustments to reflect the differences between the properties and arrive at a fair price for your home.

Manassas Disclosure Rule


Types of Material Defects for Manassas might include any known structural deficiencies or building code violations. Material Defects might also include defects in walls, ceilings, floors, windows, foundations or electrical or plumbing systems. If you are selling in the summer and the place usually floods in the winter that is a material defect that is not going to be obvious to a prospective buyer.

When you are contemplating the possibility of selling your Manassas you might want to ask yourself what you would want to know about the property if you were planning to buy it. If a condition or situation would be important to you, disclose it and disclose it in writing. As a seller, this is your strongest protection against future litigation.


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.

The Benefits of Selling Manassas


If your Manassas holdings consist of both a personal residence and a rental, you can sell your personal residence and exclude up to $250,000 ($500,000 for a married couple) on the gain. Then you move into your rental, live in it as your personal residence for two years and then sell it, again benefiting from the $250,000 or $500,000 exclusion. This is true even though most or all of the increase in value occurred before you converted the property to your personal residence.