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 Real Estate Listings

Manassas has special regulations


Every area has its own building regulations. You need to know how these restrictions will affect the design of your Manassas home. Issues to consider include zoning, setbacks, rights of way and easements. Most subdivisions have CC&Rs (Covenants, Codes and Restrictions). Studies of Manassas demonstrate that these carefully to make sure they are not too restrictive for your needs or create excessive building costs.

Manassas Home Improvement


Homeowners hear a lot about improvements that might add value to houses. But less attention is paid to what to avoid. Steer clear of renovations that will cost you money at resale time.

If an Manassas home becomes conspicuously larger -- and more expensive -- than those around it will risk becoming hard to sell. Additions tend not to return their entire investment. The 2005 "Cost vs. Value Report" found that homeowners were able to recoup only 83% of the cost of a family-room addition and 82% of a midrange master suite.

Manassas Real Estate Cycles


In the business cycle of real estate, there are buyers' markets and sellers' markets...and some markets in between. It is all based on supply and/or demand. Manassas is no exception.

There are times when the economy is brisk and everyone feels confident about his or her prospects for the future. As a result, they spend money. People eat out more, buy new cars, and... they buy houses, namely Manassas.

Then, for one reason or another, the economy slows down. Companies lay off employees and consumers are more careful about where they spend money, perhaps saving more than usual. As a result, the economy decelerates. When there are fewer people in the market to buy homes. This is true for the Manassas real estate market as it is for all markets nationwide.


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.

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.


What Makes Manassas Sell?


If your only reason for selling your Manassas is for the purpose of taking your profits there are a couple ways to approach this. Assuming you have lived in the Manassas for two years so you can avoid federal tax consequences, if you sell when prices are high and rent until prices come down before buying a replacement home, you will have maximized your profit. Remember, if you sell when prices are low, you will still make a profit and be able to buy a replacement home while prices are still low.