Braemar Patio Quarterly: January-March 2023 (1st Quarter)

Posted on April 12, 2023 by cacleland

Braemar Patio Quarterly: January-March 2023 (1st Quarter)

Here comes another gorgeous day in Bristow and another Braemar real estate market report. No matter how nice it is outside, sometimes a Top Braemar Real Estate Agent like myself just needs to get the job done. While bringing you market reports is self-imposed work, it is just as important to me as writing an offer or putting in a new listing. When I moved to Braemar in 2005, I made the decision shortly thereafter to make myself an expert in this neighborhood. I take that committment very seriously.

Today the focus is on the sales of Patio homes in Braemar. These properties are also known as quads. The homes are attached side to side and back to back, each being an end unit. They offer two levels with very generous sized bedrooms and tons of storage. There are one car attached garages on each one and a fenceable side yard.

Unfortunately, during the first three months of 2023, there were no Braemar Patio homes listed for sale. As you may have heard, there is a severe inventory shortage in our area. The first quarter of the year has been extremely limited with what is available for the overwhelming number of buyers in our market to purchase. The year initially started with the same buyer behavior we saw in the latter half of 2022. Buyers were reluctant to jump quickly to write offers as they had been doing in early 2022, and all of 2021 and most of 2020. However, in February buyers seemed to come out of that fog of deliberation and were ready to act quickly and decisively on properties listed. Buyers have become accustomed to our mortgage interest rates in the sixes as the new normal.

Just because there were no Braemar Patio home sales in the first quarter does not mean that we do not have new data available to review. The six and twelve month data points tracked in this report were updated when the first quarter’s worth of sales from 2022 were dropped from my running twelve months of Braemar Patio home sales.

Starting with the sold prices, it is not unexpected to see both six month Braemar Patio home sold prices above their respective twelve month sold prices. Values continue to push up as high buyer demand continues. If you felt you missed out on the 2020-2022 seller’s market, you have not.

Seller subsidy (closing cost help to buyers) is an area that has fallen to the buyer’s advantage according to these updated figures. Both six month values are substantially higher than their corresponding twelve month values. Though buyers have gotten used to higher mortgage interest rates, home affordability is a real problem buyers are facing, particularly first time home buyers, which is the primary demographic for these Patio homes in Braemar. My philosophy when it comes time to list is to not offer anything, but let buyers tell you what they require to make a deal.

Days on market is obviously stable at nine days down the line. Braemar Patio homes hit a sweet spot for many buyers looking in the price ranges around $450,000. These homes don’t last long on the market.

If you placed your Braemar Patio home on the market, priced to current conditions, you could expect it to be under contract in a week or so. You could get yourself in the best negotiating position possible for seller subsidy requests and any other offer term by doing three things: 1) price right, 2) properly prepare for market and 3) make sure your home is professionally presented. A full time professional in the neighborhood like me will help with all three of these goals with the strategy to lift buyer enthusiasm.

The next Braemar Patio Quarterly will be out in July. Between now and then, you can reach out anytime to find out what your specific home’s value in our current market would be. It is never to early to have a conversation about the market and how to prepare to list. Since 2005, No One Knows Braemar Better!

Chris Ann Cleland
Associate Broker, Licensed in VA
Long & Foster Real Estate
703-402-0037, ChrisAnn@LNF.com
www.SellingBraemar.com
www.UncompromisingValues.com
www.ChrisAnnCleland.com

Braemar Patio Quarterly: October-December 2022 (4th Quarter)

Posted on January 10, 2023 by cacleland

Braemar Patio Quarterly: October-December 2022 (4th Quarter)

Happy New Year! I hope that 2023 is treating you all well so far. With 2022 behind us, it is time for another Braemar Patio Quarterly, detailing sales of the Patio homes in our neighborhood. Braemar Patio homes are two level, quad style attached homes with an attached neighbor on the side, corner and back. They are all end units and enjoy a side yard that can be privacy fenced if the owner wishes.

During the last three months of 2022, only one Braemar Patio home sold. Details of that sale are listed below.

What is good to see is that this Braemar Patio home got its full list price after being on the market for only nine days. What is disappointing to sellers that there was a closing cost credit (seller subsidy) in the amount of $11.225. As mortgage interest rates have increased and home prices have done nothing more than slow their rate of increase, a lot of first time buyers are finding themselves needing seller subsidy in order to make a deal happen.

Combining this sale with all the Braemar Patio home sales from 2022, the six and twelve month data points followed in this report are updated as seen below. You will notice immediately that the six month average and six month values are identical. This is because the only Braemar Patio home sale in the past six months has been the one above. Nonetheless, we’ll see how it compares to the entire year’s worth of sales.

Starting with the sold price column, we see that this most recent sale is higher in value than the both the twelve month average and median sold prices. This is consistent with what I am seeing throughout the market, which is a more measured rate of increase in values. Our market is not crashing and does not yet favor buyers. Quite the opposite. It is technically a seller’s market. The buyer frenzy has just cooled due to the increase in mortgage interest rates.

Seller subsidy obviously increased significantly in this sale compared to the twelve month values. We will see what the first quarter of 2023 bears out with respect to this. Only then will know if it is a trend, or one off event.

Days on market was only two days longer in the most recent sale, compared to both twelve month values. Single digit days to go under contract is still phenomenal.

If you placed your Braemar Patio home on the market, priced to current conditions, you could expect it to be under contract in about two weeks or less. We are likely to see more homes coming on the market as we march into spring. Calendar spring happens a lot later than real estate spring, which is gearing up right now. You could also expect that a buyer may need closing cost help. However, if you price your home right, have it properly prepared for market and hire a professional, local marketing agent like myself, you can lift buyer enthusiasm to a point where you may be able to negotiate closing cost help away, sell over list or even get a couple of buyers bidding on your home.

The next Braemar Patio Quarterly will be out in April. Until that time, if you would like to know what a sale would mean for you this year, it is never too early to reach out and schedule a complementary consultation. Helping Braemar sellers is my pride and joy. It gives me tremendous satisfication to put my considerable skill set and eighteen years experience to work to get you the top of the market. Since 2005, No One Knows Braemar Better!

Braemar Patio Quarterly: July-September 2021 (3rd Quarter)

Posted on November 8, 2021 by cacleland

Braemar Patio Quarterly: July-September 2021 (3rd Quarter)

Welcome to another edition of the Braemar Patio Quarterly. This property report focuses on the sales of Patio homes in Braemar, which are also known as quad style townhouses. They are the two level attached homes with no basement, one car garage and are attached on the side and back to their neighbors. This particular edition features sales of Braemar Patio homes in the third quarter of 2021.

There were only two Braemar Patio homes that sold during the third quarter and both were in July. The details of those sales are listed below:

Looking at these two sales there are many points of similarity. Oddly, they both have the same street number, but on different streets. (I did a double take to make sure I wasn’t making a typo.) Neither had a main level bedroom, but had the same number of bedrooms and bathrooms, being the exact same floor plan. They also went under contract in the same number of days. Where they are different are the list price, sold price and seller subsidy. The lower priced home was poorly marketed and likely not prepped to create the all important buyer enthusiasm. Certainly, the higher priced home did have more updates, but definitely not twenty-five thousand dollars worth in my professional opinion. They were definitely creating buyer enthusiam in how their home showed online. Hiring a professional marketing agent is where you max out your profit. You can see it for yourself when looking at the two listings.

Taking these two sales and combining them with the previous three quarters worth of Patio home sales in Braemar, our six and twelve month data points are updated as seen below.

Looking first at sold price, we see that both the six month average and six month median are well above their twelve month average and median counterparts. This means that prices of Braemar Patio homes is still rising. The growth rate on value is the same as we saw last report of 3% average and 4% median comparing the six month value to the twelve month value. This is good news.

The seller subsidy column is where we find out how much closing cost help buyers negotiated from their Braemar Patio home sellers. The six month average is more than double the twelve month average. No doubt the sale of the lower dollar Braemar Patio home in July not only meant a lower price, but $10,000 in seller subsidy. Ouch! First impressions are costly in real estate. The six and twelve month median seller subsidy values remain at zero. That means that in both time periods, more than half the sellers gave absolutely nothing in closing cost help.

Days on market shows marketing time in single digits down the line. There is little variation in the average from four days marketing in six months to five days marketing time in twelve months. The median marketing times are the same at four days.

If you priced your Braemar Patio home to current market conditions, you could expect it to be under contract in less than one week. You could also expect, if you prepped your home for market and created buyer enthusiasm, to give nothing in closing cost help.

The next Braemar Patio Quarterly will be out in the New Year. Until then, when the time comes to sell your Braemar Patio home, give me a call so we can get you max profit by creating the necessary buyer enthusiam. Since 2005, No One Knows Braemar Better!

Braemar Patio Quarterly: April-June 2020 (2nd Quarter)

Posted on July 15, 2020 by cacleland

Braemar Patio Quarterly: April-June 2020 (2nd Quarter)

Patio Home in Braemar

If you were wondering what your Braemar Patio may be worth in this high buyer demand/low inventory market, today is your lucky day. This is the Braemar Patio Quarterly, featuring sales of Braemar Patio homes during the second quarter of the year.

There were two sales of Braemar Patio homes in the three months making up the second quarter. Those sales are detailed below.

In most of the Braemar Patio homes I see with main level bedrooms, there are three bedrooms upstairs and an additional two full bathrooms. However, the sale on Brewland had only two additional bedrooms on the upper level and the two bathrooms. The one on Rannoch Forest was lacking a third bathroom on the upper level but had an gorgeous two story living room. Judging from the price, the two story living room didn’t make up for lacking that third bathroom.

Taking these sales from the second quarter and combining them with the three quarters before, we get an entire year’s worth of sale data for the Braemar Patio homes. Our updated six and twelve month data points are below.

As usual, we start by looking at the sold price column. Here we see a slight decrease in the average sold price from the twelve month average to the six month average. That’s due to the low sale of the most recent sale on Rannoch Forest that lacked that additional full bathroom. However, the six month median sold price is exactly the same as the twelve month median sold price. All in all, it seems Braemar Patio home values are remaining stable.

In the seller subsidy column we get a peek at what the average and median amounts of closing cost help sellers are giving in these sales. The six month average and six month median seller subsidy values are both well below their respective twelve month values. In this intense seller’s market, buyers are foregoing asking for seller subsidy to just get their offers accepted. It is fierce competition that buyers in this market are facing.

Finally, when we look at the days on market we see that the six month average marketing time is actually higher than the twelve month average marketing time. That’s because there was one sale in the first quarter than took nearly six months due to being overpriced for too long. Mind you, they weren’t overpriced by much, but nonetheless, buyers were not going there. More the trend I expect in this market is the one we see when we find the six month median marketing time is less than half the twelve month median marketing time.

The next Braemar Patio Quarterly will be out in October. Until then, there has never been a better time to wring out the maximum profit from your Braemar Patio home. If you want to know what your Patio home is worth right now, give me a call for a free market analysis. Since 2005, No One Knows Braemar Better!

Chris Ann Cleland

Associate Broker-Licensed in VA

Long & Foster Real Estate

703-402-0037, ChrisAnn@LNF.com

www.SellingBraemar.com

www.UncompromisingValues.com

Braemar Patio Quarterly: January-March 2020 (1st Quarter)

Posted on April 20, 2020 by cacleland

Braemar Patio Quarterly: January-March 2020 (1st Quarter)

Another week of our shelter-in-place is underway. What a great time for this Top Braemar Real Estate Agent to get together yet another Braemar market report. Today’s report is the Braemar Patio Quarterly. This report focuses on sales of the two level, quad style townhouses in our neighborhood.

The first quarter didn’t have a lot of activity, despite intense buyer demand. There was only one Braemar Patio home that sold and the details of that sale are listed below:

Why only one Patio home sale? Well, no other Patio homes were on the market and as of the date of this report, none are. And the story of this sale started back on July 12, 2019. I remember competing against this listing when I listed and sold 12849 Rannoch Forest in late summer last year. My listing was priced only $5,000 lower, and sold in two weeks. There were other sales reported here that were also competing against this particular Patio home. This one has been lingering on the market, with a brief time off the market, for 171 days. The marketing time on this one should never have been this long, and it will skew the marketing times in our report. Your choice of listing agents makes a HUGE difference in your outcome when selling.

Taking this sale and combining it with the prior three quarters of Patio homes, our six and twelve month data points are updated as follows:

Starting with the sold price column, both the six month average and six month median sold prices are below their twelve month respective values. However, looking to the sale that happened in the first quarter being substantially higher than any of the average and median values, this “drop” in value may be misleading. Patio homes in Braemar are still in high demand.

The seller subsidy column shows that the six month average and median seller subsidy values are both lower than their twelve month average and median values. This would indicate seller subsidy (closing cost assistance that sellers give to buyers) is going down. Again, our most recent sale shows contradictory information. One thing we do see is that when prices go up, seller subsidy tends to increase as well.

Finally, we get to the days on market column. The six month average and median, not surprisingly, are higher than their twelve month respective values. Will the pandemic and shelter-in-place affect marketing time? We’ll have to wait and see.

If you placed your Braemar Patio home on the market priced to current conditions, it would be reasonable to expect your home to be under contract in less than three weeks. You could also expect to give an average of about 1.5% of the sales price in seller subsidy.

The next Braemar Patio Quarterly will be out in July. By then, we’ll have a good look at what the pandemic has meant to our Braemar real estate market. Until then, if you have a need or want to sell, there are still plenty of buyers out there looking for homes in our area despite our current public health crisis. Give me a call if you need to discuss safely selling your home while still maximizing profit and minimizing marketing time. Since 2005, No One Knows Braemar Better!