Many people make the mistake of looking for a Fairfax home to buy, then going to their mortgage lender or broker and applying for a mortgage. What one should really do first is go to a lender and see how much you can afford to buy.
The process to get prequalified takes only about 15-30 minutes. You can call a good lender, Bank of America for example, and give him or her the information about your finances over the phone. You give your income, debts, assets, monthly payments you must pay, and your lender will run a credit check to see what you look like financially. After taking your info and checking your credit, he'll get your FICO score (Fair Issac Corporation) which lenders use to determine: if you can get the loan, your interest rate, and what loan programs you can qualify for. Your FICO score is determined by your length of credit history, your payback history on credit cards and car payments, and by the amount you owe on your credit cards compared to your credit limit. You should try to have your credit card balance, the amount you owe, under 50% of your limit. Over 50% will lower your score. Late payments and maxed out credit cards will lower your FICO score.
These days Fairfax lenders are more strict than they were a year ago in 2007, so they will check your financials carefully. A good score will be over 680, and the higher the better. The highest score you can get is 850. Lenders will also look at your "debt to income ratio," also called your "total debt ratio." This ratio compares how much money you have to pay out every month, compared to how much you take in every month.
Remember, your FICO score determines if you can get the loan, and determines interest rate and mortgage program type. Your "debt to income ratio" determines how much money you can borrow.
In summary, you must get a good, solid pre-approval letter, then go shopping for your home. When you have a signed and ratified contract in hand, your real estate agent then faxes it to your lender and he starts to process your loan. The lender will then ask you for your "supporting documents." One or two years of W-2's, 2 months of pay stubs, and bank statements for 2 months. In other words, all your supporting documents to back up your claims you made in your first telephone call with the lender. This is why it is important to be honest with your lender during the first call because sooner or later, you will have to back up your claims about the $85,000 a year income you are making and how much you have in savings for your $40,000 down payment. It is important to know that you don't hide any skeletons when talking about your monthly payments you must make. Some men have been known to hide the fact that they are making spousal payments and child support payments, and this comes out during the buying process to the surprise of his new wife.
Also, it is very important that once you get your pre-approval, that you don't do anything to change your credit history or credit report from the time of your pre-approval interview, to the time of your settlement. Don't be late on any monthly payments, don't apply for credit for anything because this will lower your score as an "inquiry," and don't buy any big ticket items during this two month period. The mortgage underwriters will do a final credit check as your loan package reaches it final approval stage.
The length of time it takes for your loan approval, the time the loan underwriters check all your supporting documents, can be done quickly, as fast as one week, but usually takes 2 to 4 weeks to complete normally.
In the next blog, I'll talk about how to search for a home and what you can expecting while "home shopping."
There is nothing worse than walking into a Fairfax home for sale and seeing it clean, but full of clutter and personal items all around. Personal pictures on the tables and walls, too much furniture in a room, carpets not cleaned, personal things of the owner's all over the house. How can a buyer imagine living in this house? A Fairfax buyer cannot imagine it because the current owner's personal things are all over the house. The home for sale in Fairfax should look like one of those model homes or a nice hotel suite. How can the seller make it ready for sale? By following the proper guidelines of home staging.
Staging is a tool to help the buyer imagine living in the home he or she is viewing.
Staging entails depersonalizing the home as much as possible and getting rid of clutter in all the rooms of the house. It also means taking care of the outside to make sure the outside is spotless, has fresh paint if needed and the bushes are trimmed and the yard cleaned up as much as possible. Excess junk should be put in storage or the garage if possible. After the outside is all cleaned up and "decluttered," it is time to do the inside which in some cases can take a week or more to get ready.
Basic things to do: clean or replace carpeting; make sure all lights work and are "on" when people see the home; pack up collections, books, family pictures (you are going to have to pack up when you sell the home so why not start now?) keep soft music playing at all times for showings; be sensitive to odors: pet smells and especially urine in carpets and mildew odors or cooking odors (You can't sell it if you can smell it!); wash all windows and make sure they work; pack up little things (little things create clutter and clutter is the enemy of a well-staged home); depersonalizing and decluttering should be the main objectives besides cleaning the home.
Living Room: model homes are sparsely decorated because you want to create space for the buyers to mentally move in to the room by reducing clutter and overall number of items. Clear off coffee tables and end tables to just 2 magazines, one nice vase and remove all ashtrays.
Dining Room: remove leaves and tablecloth except for one nice centerpiece. Keep only four or six chairs around the table and put the rest in the garage or storage.
Kitchen: What can you live without? Clear off all the counters to only a few things you have to use every day. Store appliances out of sight or in storage. Put a few large items on the counter like a bowl of fruit or a basket with bread or a bowl of lemons. Remove all things on top of the refrigerator and remove all things attached to the refridgerator like pictures, magnets, ads; remove all items on the refrigerator. Clean the stove and oven, the floor, and keep all cleaning supplies under the sink including towels, soaps, cleaning pads, and push button lotions and hand soaps; and put away the dish rack, too.
Master Bedroom: Make beds in all bedrooms every day; invest in a new bedspread if necessary; clear off bedside tables and chest of drawers; put extra books and magazines under the bed and out of sight; keep closet doors closed; and remove the personal photos on the table and walls to zero.
Bathrooms: clear off counters and reduce toiletries to a few; replace hand soap with a neat bottle of liquid soap; coordinate towels to one or two colors and fold in thirds and hang them neatly and tie a ribbon around the center of each towel (don't use these towels for drying, but use other towels and store them under the sink or closet; clear all things out of the tub except one soap and one shampoo; remover toilet lid covers and keep toilet lids down at all times; remove rugs in the bathroom as they make the room look small.
This will give you an idea of what is needed to sell a home these days, and in a market we are having now, sellers need all the help they can get. But no matter the market, staging a home is a must and can cut in half the selling time and increase the money you will receive from the sale!
After the outside inspection is completed on the Fairfax Home, the inspector goes inside the home and goes to the lower level or basement. Fairfax Homes are checked for many things inside. The electrical system is checked, the plumbing system is checked, the heating system and air conditioning, washer and dryer, kitchen appliances, bathrooms, the attic, and the doors and windows are also checked in all Fairfax Homes.
The Fairfax inspector will first check the electrical panel by taking off the cover and checking the wires inside to make sure they are all the correct size and make sure there is not a fire hazard. Federal Pacific panels have been banned because the circuit breakers fail to trip if there is an overload. The Fairfax inspector also checks all the outlets in the home to make sure they are wired correctly and that there are no "reverse polarity" outlets. Also the GFCI (ground fault circuit interrrupter) outlets are checked to make sure they trip when tested.
Next the plumbing in a Fairfax Home is checked. All bathrooms are checked for leaks at the drains and makes sure all toilets work well. He checks and notes the type of the interior water supply lines; copper and C-PVC (beige colored plastic piping) are acceptable, whereas polybutylene lines are not as they have been known to leak and burst at the joints. These are noted by their gray color and copper bindings at the joints. The dishwasher and kitchen sink is checked for leaks along with the garbage disposal. The water heater is also checked for leaks. Most water heaters are good for 10 to 15 years, but some can last up to 25 years.
Next the heating system and air conditioning are checked by the Fairfax Home inspector. He turns on the heating system and checks to make sure it works, and then checks the air conditioning system if it is warm outside. Air conditioning systems are not checked in cold weather as it may damage the compressor. There are two common types: the gas furnace and the heat pump which is all electric.
After the electric, plumbing, and heating/AC systems are checked, the inspector checks the attic and checks for signs of leaks, mold growth, insulation, and general condition of the attic.
After these main parts of the home are checked by the Fairfax inspector, all room doors are checked to make sure they all lock and close correctly, checks all the windows to make sure they move well and stay up when opened, he checks the walls for cracks and "nail pops." Nail pops are usually found on the second floor of the home in the ceilings. The expansion and contraction of the wood over the second floor ceiling forces the drywall down when it expands, and when it contracts, the nail stays stuck out. Sometimes it is a bulge, and sometimes the nail is clearly seen sticking out. It is mostly a cosmetic problem.
That is the complete interior inspection!!!!
Buyers of homes in Fairfax, Va. always need to get a home inspection in order to know what is going on with the home's condition. Whether the home be new or 50 years old, all homes you buy in Fairfax, Va. should be inspected. Would you buy a used car without having a qualified mechanic check it out first for problems that may be hidden from your eyes? Of course not. Homes in Fairfax, whether single family homes, townhomes, or condos, all need to be inspected first in order to find problems that you may only find out about after you have lived in the home a couple months. Fairfax, Va. home inspectors are trained to find most if not all of the problems a home in Fairfax may have. In this posting, let's look at what the inspector looks for on the outside of the home.
A home inspector will check first the land to see its grade; whether the land is sloping to the home or away from the home. This will help in determining whether rain water may build up around the foundation and make for humid and musty smelling basements. This is particularly a problem with older homes. Newer homes have French drains to carry the water to the sump pump which will then pump the rain water to the outside of the home, preferably 8 feet away from it. Next the Fairfax inspector will check the roof for its age, curling shingles, or broken shingles. Most of the time this is done on the ground with binoculars. When it is possible, the inspector will go on the roof and check it closely. But this is not always possible especially with newer homes and townhomes. The roofs are too high and dangerous to climb. Next the Fairfax inspector will check the outside of the home, check the windows, look for any cracks in the foundation, check the condition of gutters, check for peeling paint, and stairs that lead to a basement door. Usually a stairwell leading from the ground to a basement door will have a drain. It is important to let the buyer know that this drain should always be kept clear of debris or else it will clog up and the rain water will overflow into the basement floor.
No only must an inspector look for existing problems, but also must be on the lookout for potential future problems. His job also entails describing the home, the kind of windows it has, the type of siding, brick, vinyl, or aluminum siding; the type of trim, aluminum, vinyl or wood, and the type of roof, shingles, wood shakes, or slate; and also the age and type of air conditioning compressor the home has. On the next posting, I'll talk about the inspection on the inside of the home. Feel free to comment or ask questions!!!!!!
Fairfax house values have definitely appreciated dramatically over the last 10 and even 5 years. Although these home values have not yet reached the point where a piece of Fairfax property is unattainable to the average Virginia buyer (as is often the case with the surrounding area). Home values in Fairfax Virginia are just below the $430,000 mark. Prices in this range are considered a bargain by many especially considering that the surrounding area of Falls Church can easily see home prices in the $600,000’s and the luxury homes located in McLean typically start in the $800,000 price range. In fact, very few newly constructed single family homes are appraised at under the $500,000 mark (mostly because the absence of available land means that those looking to build their own homes often times must purchase and demolish those older homes in order to take advantage of the land). There is also a great deal of property value growth in terms of estimated median house/condo value. In the year 2000 the estimated median house/condo value was $192,100 in the year 2005 it had more than doubled to $426,200. With a slight dip in the national market effecting 2006 and 2007 appreciation numbers recent growth has not been as dramatic but the perceived value of Fairfax homes are still on the rise, especially as supply becomes more and more scarce.
Fairfax house values are among the more affordable for this area of northern Virginia. With Washington D.C. a relatively short distance away, those looking to relocate are either doing so for employment purposes or are looking for property investment opportunities. Not only are house values appraised higher because of proximity to the nation’s capital but also because of the excellent public schools, shopping, and transportation options that Fairfax offers its residents. These advantages of the area cause the median house prices of the homes that fall inside of the Fairfax city limits to increase.
Fairfax Virginia real estate is among the most desirable locations in all of Northern Virginia. Fairfax Virginia boasts benefits of being in a prime location for those who are employed in the D.C. area. A short commute into town, as well as excellent public schools and prime real estate locations make Fairfax one of the most popular places to live. Over the past five years property values have increased dramatically as the demand for homes continues to grow but the supply is becoming more and more limited. As open plots of land for new construction become more difficult to find, those with a desire to move to the Fairfax area are even buying older homes just for the land and builders are anxious for the increased work load of new construction after old homes are torn down.
Fairfax real estate typically attracts those with single families and a history of home ownership. It is not common for first time home buyers to be able to have established enough savings or equity to be able to afford a home in Fairfax. So the markets, as well as the neighborhoods themselves, are typically filled with well educated business people and their families. This is not to say that all homeowners are older or that they all have older children. The average age of homebuyers in Fairfax is 35-37. This makes for a community with individuals who are involved and enjoy the social benefits of shopping and sightseeing in Fairfax and the surrounding areas. Fairfax is by no means a retirement community or a community that is reserved only for the rich although many who are able to live in Fairfax are comfortable in how much they earn annually. Fairfax Virginia real estate is estimated to continue its growth as far as property values are concerned especially as available plots of land become more scarce.