DC Real Estate and Area Events: March 2008

      Dear Home buyers,

      Sure! I know that you are always hearing everywhere about how the real estate market is so bad-Don't believe everything that you hear or read -Seriously. Whether it is the news on television,radio,newspaper and magazines,words of some crazy old sleep deprived big mouth -Jim Cramer ( I really like the guy. But he needs to stick to stocks,bonds,mutual funds and IRA's and stay out of real estate )all you are hearing them say is don't buy. Even some real estate professionals are saying this is a bad market and discouraging some people from buying and/or selling their home-What? Are you kidding me? You can't be serious. 

      So home-buyers you want to know is this a bad market? It is a bad market -But not for you the home buyer. Buying a home now is like you opening a bank account with money already in it before you can make your first deposit into your bank account- It doesn't get better than that. It is a great market for ready,willing and able home buyers. I have to say that because everybody is not qualified and financially capable of taking on the responsibility of paying a mortgage and the other bills that comes along with a mortgage payment.Even Donald Trump said that he has made some of his best deals during a time when the real estate market is bad. Who else's mouth do you need to hear that this is a great time to buy before you decide whether you should buy a house now?

      So Home buyers let me give you reasons why you should buy a home now.

• This is still a buyer's market - You control the market.
• You have the power to write good offers NOT BAD OFFERS ( There is a difference ) and have it accepted by motivated home sellers.
• There are still a lot of inventory currently available on the market for you to choose from.
• Interest rates are still historically low.
• Tax breaks. The U.S Tax Code lets you deduct the interest you pay on your mortgage,property taxes you pay,as well as some of the costs involved in buying your home.
• Gains-Even though home value dropped around 6%,prior to that,home value has increased 88% the past ten years.
• Equity-MONEY YOU PAY FOR RENT IS MONEY YOU CAN KISS GOODBYE FOREVER. Mortgage payments let you build equity ownership in your home. You can use that equity to start a business,pay off a bill,save for your children's  college fund,take a vacation or even buy another home. See what you can do when you build equity in your home.
• Savings-Building equity in your home is a ready-made savings plan which already has deposited for you before you can even make a deposit into the savings plan. I bet you can't get that from any kind of investment. Also,you can generally take up to $250,000 ( $500,000 for a married couple )as gain without owing any federal income tax.
• Predictability -Unlike rent,if you have a fixed rate mortgage-NOT ADJUSTABLE RATE,your mortgage payments don't go up over the years so your housing costs are may decline the longer you own your house. However,property taxes and insurance costs will rise.
• Freedom - The house is yours. You can decorate the house the way you want and not worry about your landlord telling you what to do to your house.
• Stability-Remaining in one neighborhood for several years give you the chance to participate in community activities,lets you and your family establish great friendships and gives your children the benefit of educational continuity.
• There are still programs for first time home buyers such as CDA Loans and DC Bond Program ( Check your city and state for programs suitable for first time home buyers )

       And check out this homes that are currently still on the market for sale.

      Washington,DC  4 bedrooms,2 baths and a basement. Great for investors. Seller Offering Closing Cost help. $170,000. Similar homes in this area are selling for $200,00-$220,000. That's 30-50k below market value.

      Washington,DC $284,000- Great home. Priced to sell. 3 bedrooms w/2 baths near Langston golf course. FR off KIT,new tiles,windows,basement,BA,HWH,furnace,roof,counters,cabinets,smooth surface stove & flooring;hardwood floors;sitting rm off back BR.Skylight,ceramic tile,claw foottub & deck.

     Washington,DC $255,000 -Solid home at affordable price! Estate sale being sold as is. Great potential with this. 3 bedroom,2 full bath home with hardwood floors,natural woodwork,deck and patio. Located near 295 and other main roadways.

     Upper Marlboro,MD - Great starter home in a sought after community. This two bedroom,1 bath condo awaits your approval. Closing assistance and cosmetic allowance available. $215,000.

      So what are you still waiting for? Why haven't you brought your home yet? Hurry and buy now. These great deals won't last for long.

To receive a free list of "Houses for sale in Washington DC",please give me a call at your earliest convenience. I can be reached at 202-378-0283 ( Direct ) or ( 301 ) 560-6700 x1154 ( Office ). I can also be reached online on my websites www.buyandsellnewhomes.com and www.freelistofhomesforsale.com Thank you very much. Looking forward to helping you make your home purchase or sale a stress free and very happy one.Lanre Folayan - Real Estate Professional with Exit Premier Realty. "Buy and sell a home in Washington,DC"

      Dear Homebuyers,

      After months or maybe years of donating your hard earned money to the "I want to make my Landlord very wealthy because I just love giving away my hard earned money for free" Foundation,you decide that you want to stop giving away your hard earned money and finally become a homeowner- Congratulations to you. ( We are going to party like its 1999 once you settle in your new home ) I thought my kids were going to graduate from Grad school before you buy a home. ( I have no kids by the way )But before you start your home buying process,there is one thing that I need for to do for me. Pre-qualify yourself before you apply for a loan.

      You need to do a debt to income ratio which is the ratio of a borrower's total of debt as a percentage of their gross income. Nobody knows your expenses better than you. You make the money and you know how much of it you spend on bills. Home buyers you simply need to create a chart similiar to this before you get preapprove for a loan.

INCOME

Monthly Income ( Take home )-

Salary/Wages -

Social Security-

Military Pay-

Pension/Retirement Income-

Bank and Investment Interest-

Alimony/Child Support-

Rental Income-

Unemployment-

Food stamps-

Royalties-

Business Income ( Draw )-

Other-

          Total Income-

DEBT

Outstanding Debt Payments ( Monthly )-

Credit Card Payments -

Student Loans-

Car Payments-

Recreational Vehicle/Boat Payments-

Bank/Credit Union/Loan Payments-

Furniture and Appliance Payments-

Other Credit Loans or Accounts -

Other Debt Payments-

Debt to Income Ratio ( Calculated )

Monthly Debt Payment - 

   ( divided by )

Monthly Income-

   ( Equals )

Debt to Income Ratio -

Creditors say that a debt to income ratio of 35% or higher is a higher credit risk. 20-35% is questionable credit,10-20% -Good credit risk and less than 10% is great shape.

Real Estate Professionals need to tell all of our clients during our first contact with our home buyers that they should add at least an additional 50% to their current rental income budget. Additional money will cover additional expenses that a lot of first time home buyers fail to calculate into their monthly mortgage payments such as property taxes,water,gas,electricity,home maintainance,and home insurance and other home expenses  until they pay their first mortgage payment.

One thing that we as Real Estate Professionals need to educate our clients more. And that means more than just accept a preapproval letter from some lending institution called "John and Jill loves Dollar,Dollar bills"only to find out that the company folded months ago and I didn't bother to verify the information of the preapproval letter. Most preapproval letters now are outdated not even after a month now but a week. We need to restore the trust of home buyers and sellers in a time when they really need our help. 

To receive your free list of "Houses for sale in Washington DC",please give me a call at your earliest convenience. I can be reached at 202-378-0283 ( Direct ) or ( 301 ) 560-6700x1154 ( Office ). I can also be reached online on my websites www.buyandsellnewhomes.com and www.freelistofhomesforsale.com.  Thank you very much. Looking forward to working with you and helping you make your home purchase a stress free and very happy one. Lanre Folayan  -Real Estate Professional with Exit Premier Realty.  "Buy and sell a home in Washington,DC"                                                                                                              

Right Now

72° Mostly cloudy 8 mph
Winds WNW Feels Like: 70°F
Washington DC  VA

Nice weather today. So I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and do some door knocking in my neighborhood. Most of them people were not home so I just left a door hanger along with my business cards attached to it. I met one man who was doing some work in front of his house. When I gave him my business card,first thing he asked me smiling was "How much do you think I get for my house?" I told him I am not sure. ( I didn't want to lie by making up a number ). But I told him I would be more than happy to do a CMA on his house. He said Okay. When he is ready,he will give me a call. Then a minute later,the mail lady putting the letters in the people's mailbox drove by. Before she drove off,I introduced myself to her and told her that if she knows anyone who is interested in buying or selling that they should please give me a call. She said that she is interested in buying herself in the same neighborhood where I was distributing my business cards and doorhangers. So she said that she will definitely give me a call. Then like ten minutes later,I met a man who is interested in buying a fixer upper in Washington,DC for up to $200,000. We had a good talk for almost thirty minutes. He was telling me about himself,his neighborhoods and the neighborhood. He even gave me his card to call him as soon as I have found him some properties.

And when I got home,I got a e-mail from someone saying that she is trying to spend up to $180,000 for a fixer upper in Washington,DC. So it was not a bad day for door knocking. Spring is here meaning more home buyers and sellers are coming who wants to play buy or sell-Yuppie!

To receive a free list of "Houses for sale in Washington DC",please give me a call at your earliest convenience. I can be reached at 202-378-0283 ( Direct ) or ( 301 ) 560-6700 x1154 ( Office ). I can also be reached online on my websites www.buyandsellnewhomes.com and www.freelistofhomesforsale.com  Thank you very much. Looking forward to working with you and helping you make your home purchase a stress free and very happy one. Lanre Folayan - Real Estate Professional with Exit Premier Realty. "Buy and sell a home in Washington,DC"

      I was listening to the news last night when I heard this. Did you know that light bulbs can be bad for your health. Energy-efficient fluorescent light bulbs-8000 hour long life bulbs that slashes your light bills contain mercury-potentially potent toxic. Government experts are urging people not to throw them away. So what are you supposed to do when it light bulbs burn out? You should properly recycle them in your home. But only a handful of counties in the country recycles them. Also,ACE and other hardware stores are encouraging franchise owners to create in store recycling centers for these light bulbs.

In the market to buy and/or sell a house?,Want to receive a free CMA on your existing house? or do you want a free real estate market report statistics in your area of choice? Then please contact Lanre Folayan of Exit Premier Realty at your earliest convenience. I can be reached online at Washington DC,Maryland and Virginia Houses for Sale,Houses for sale in Washington,DC,Lanre Folayan "Buy Washington DC Real Estate" (EXIT PREMIER REALTY ...  and Twitter http://twitter.com/DCHomesforsale . I can also be reached at 202-378-0283 (Direct) or 301-560-6700 x1154 (Office) at your earliest convenience. Thank you very much. Looking forward to helping you make your home purchase or sale a stress free and very happy one. Have a great day.  "Buy a home in Washington DC" Zip codes 20011,20019,20020 and 20032

      Spring is almost here ( I feel like jumping for joy-But I won't yet ) Which means that we are slowly saying good bye to cold weather while we transition slowly to start getting warm weather. But this also means that the National Cherry Blossom Festival is coming up. Yes! The Cherry Blossom Festival from March 29th-April 13th 2008. Blooming of the cherry trees around the Jefferson Memorial attracts many tourists as well as city residents and vistors to Washington DC.

         The famous trees a gift from Japan in 1912 signal the coming of spring with an explosion of life and color surrounding the Jefferson Memorial on the Tidal Basin in a sea of pink and white. The National Cherry Blossom is an annual two week,city-wide event featuring more than 200 international cultural performances and over 90 other special events. The National Cherry Blossom Festival kicks off the busy tourist season in Washington,DC and includes many special events near the monuments and museums on the National Mall. So if you are planning on coming to Washington,DC. I am sure you are going to need somewhere to stay,( Sorry,but I have no space for you at my place-LOL ),things to do while you are here,how to get around the city. Don't worry. I got you covered. For more information about the National Cherry Blossom Festival and list of hotels,restaurants,tourists and things to do,please go to http://www.nationalcherryblossomfestival.org/

To receive your free list of "Houses for sale in Washington DC",please give me a call at your earliest convenience. I can be reached at 202-378-0283 (Direct ) or 301-5606700 x1154 (Office). I can also be reached online on my websites www.buyandsellnewhomes.com and www.freelistofhomesforsale.com. Thank you very much. Looking forward to working with you and helping you make your home purchase or sale a stress free and great one. Lanre Folayan - Real Estate Professional with Exit Premier Realty. "Buy and sell a home in Washington,DC"

      Most of us know that we all need to watch our cholesterol level in order to avoid heart disease. But few of us don't know that when it comes to kidney or kidney disease. March 13,2008 is the third annual world kidney day. What can you do you ask? There are some things that you can do.

•    Find out if you are at risk.
•    Get your kidney function tested.   
•    Support your efforts
•    Take the kidney Quiz

I took the quiz and I am glad that I did. I learned that

•    Kidney disease in children and teens is most often due to congential birth defects or genetic diseases.
•    Before dialysis -"Which is a way of cleaning your blood",total kidney failure meant death.
•    Currently there are 350,000 Americans that are on dialysis and more than 70,000 people are waiting
•    for a kidney transplant.
•    The kidney filters 200 liters of blood every day-enough to fill a large bathtub removing two liters of toxins,wastes and water from your body.
•    26 million adults suffer from chronic disease,up from 20 million just a few years ago.

     And after you finish the quiz,they will ask you to fill out some information so that they can send you a book. Also,if you want to learn more information on certain things such as being a volunteer and getting free newsletters in the mail if you want to. Today will be a good day to get tested. For more information please go to http://www.kidney.org/. It's time to improve our kidney IQ and get up to speed on risk factors,early detention and the role of the kidneys in maintaining overall health.

To receive your free list of "Houses for sale in Washington DC",please don't hesitate to give me a call. I can be reached at 202-378-0283 or ( 301 ) 560-1154. I can also be reached online on my websites www.buyandsellnewhomes.com and www.freelistofhomesforsale.com/. Thank you very much. Looking forward to working with you and helping you make your home purchase a stress free and very happy one. Lanre Folayan -Real Estate Professional with Exit Premier Realty. "Buy and sell a home in Washington,DC"

  Hello Everyone. There is a free conference call next week. Though you might be interested. If you can,please tune in for this free agent conference call. As every conference call,I know this is going to be a good one.

          Home equity - falls below 50%

       Just what we needed.  More bad news when most homeowners are struggling to keep up paying on their mortgages. Now this. For the first time on record since 1945,homeowners percentage of equity in their homes has fallen below 50%. After saying just this,I don't even know if I should even say more. But maybe reading this,some homeowners might want to put their homes on the market hoping to at least get something out of the selling their home before it is too late. And with spring approaching soon and more home buyers looking to buy a home,this would be a great time for home owners to put their house on the market who have been hesitant to sell but was not sure whether they should or not. Homeowners will make up on the buying side what they are not going to get on the selling side. 

       In the second quarter of 2008,homeowners percentage of equity slipped to lower than 49.6%. It declined even further to 47.9% - the third straight quarter it was under 50%. This marks the first time that debt have exceeded equity since the Fed starting tracking data in 1945. This of course is terrible news for the hardworking american citizens who have worked so hard to own a piece of the American Dream.

       The total value of equity also fell for the third straight quarter to $9.65 trillion from a downwardly revised $9.93 trillion in the third quarter. Economists expect this figure to drop even further as declining home prices eat into the value of most Americans best investment. What's disturbing about all of this?Moody's Economy.com which is a trusted independent provider of economic analysis,data, and forecasting and credit risk services estimates that 8.8 million homeowners, or about 10.3% of homes,will have zero or negative equity by the end of the month. While around 13.8 million households or 15.9% will be "upside down"if prices fall 20% from the peak. This is not good news at all. We just have to pray that it gets better soon. We'll just have to wait and see how this all plays out.

To receive a free list of "Houses for sale in Washington DC",please give me a call at your earliest convenience. I can be reache at (202) 378-0283 (Direct) or (301) 560-6700 x1154. I can also be reached online on my websites www.buyandsellnewhomes.com and www.freelistofhomesforsale.com Thank you very much. Looking forward to working with you and helping you make your home purchase a stress free and very happy one. Lanre Folayan - Real Estate Professional - Exit Premier Realty. "Buy and sale a home in Washington,DC"

             Okay! So you are searching for a house for your clients to buy. You are searching on your local MLS until you come across a listing that you think would suit your clients wants,needs and lifestyle. The house looks great. Pictures looks so good you'd think Annie Leibowitz took the pictures of the listing. Virtual tour is courtesy of Point2Agent ( Shameless plug -Then again why am I even mentioning this company if I am not getting paid promoting them? ) Anyway,exterior and interior pictures of the house  looks very nice. So you and your clients go and view this property. On your way to the house,you are silently praying that they like this property because you have been working with themfor two years -two years too long if you ask me. What can I say some people just can't make up their mind when it comes to making a decision on something.

        You finally arrive at the place. Curb appeal alone can attract more bees than a bee hive would.  So you open the door.

And all of a sudden the house smells like a dead skunk 

  ( I couldn't find a dead one. But at least no animal was harmed while writing this post. ) Worse part? You don't know where the smell is coming from. How would you feel if you come back from a hard day of work only to be welcomed by a bad odor? Or you go to a friend,family member or neighbor's house and the house doesn't smell nice. Nobody likes a bad smell. I know I don't. So if you want to sell your house quickly,makes sure it smells good. Good smells attract home buyers to your listings. If you have to open the windows for some fresh air to come in,dump all the trash so no left over pizza or foods that have those awful are not in the trash cans. Plug a air freshner in the wall,spray air freshner or burn one of those scent candles. A house that smells good sells quicker than one that doesn't. Selling your home with a sweet scent makes a whole loooot of cents and sense.

To receive your free list of "Houses for sale in Washington DC",please give me a call at your earliest convenience. I can be reached at 202-378-0283 ( Direct ) or  ( 301 ) 560-6700 x1154 ( Office ). I can also be reached online at www.buyandsellnewhomes.com/ and www.freelistofhomesforsale.com  Thank you very much. Looking forward to helping you make your home sale or purchase a stress free and very happy one. Lanre Folayan - Real Estate Professional with Exit Premier Realty. "Buy and sell a home in Washington,DC"

Sell this home. Would you?

So you got a call from a home owner who just happened to open your listing packages that you sent to them or left at their front door. You are happy to get the call. An opportunity to sell yourself as a real estate professional to the homeowners and get the listing. And you know that they had their house on the market for over 240 days. ( A very long time )

But what you probably didn't know was how it looks inside. So you go to the listing presentation all dressed professionally with your listing presentation in hand. But when you get there,the house looks like it got hit by Hurricane "What the heck just happened here". Okay! No need to panic. ( But if something starts moving under the clutter and you don't know what the heck it is or can't see it -RUN FOREST! RUN!-Sorry! I'm just kidding )

So you see the house. After going to each room in the house with the home owners and going over your listing presentation with the home owners,you tell them that the only way this house can be sold is with the help of a cleaning service and a home staging company. You tell them that investing in a home staging company will even help boost the value of their home and improve the chances of getting their house sold for more than the list price. But they say no way. They feel that it doesn't make any sense at all to spend more money on a house that they are trying to sell.

So what would you do? Would you still try to take the listing of this house if it looked like this? ( I used these pictures because the house is very cluttered. And of course as we all know,a lot of home owners houses look cluttered and don't know too much about the value of home staging. So I am writing this post to try and convince home owners to invest in the services of a home staging company ) Home stagers please comment on this one.

Looking for a DC Real Estate Agent that will help you buy and/or sell your next house? Want a "Free Real Estate Market Report" in your area of choice? Register on my website at www.buyandsellnewhomes.com. I can also be reached at my new Active Rain Outside Blog www.GetDCSold.com  or Twitter http://twitter.com/DCHomesforsale. Please give me a call at 202-378-0283 (Direct) or 301-560-6700 x1154 (Office) at your earliest convenience. Thank you very much. Looking forward to helping you make your home purchase or sale a stress free and very happy one. Have a great day.  "Buy home Washington DC Zip codes 20019,20020,20721,20774,20011

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