Feature

Just Reduced Properties in Arlington

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

Each week, “Just Reduced” spotlights properties in Arlington County whose price have been cut over the previous week. The market summary is crafted by Arlington Realty, Inc. Maximize your real estate investment with the team by visiting www.arlingtonrealtyinc.com or calling 703-836-6000 today!

Please note: While Arlington Realty, Inc. provides this information for the community, it may not be the listing company of these homes.

We love a quirky holiday around these parts. And, mark your calendars, because Monday, May 4 is Greenery Day.

Officially established in Japan as Greenery Day in 1989, the annual observance encourages folks to be one with nature and to be thankful for their blessings. As we find ourselves in the heart of a global pandemic, it can be hard to find the time and energy to be thankful, particularly as life throws many of us unexpected curveballs.

But, amid the madness, we really do have so much to be thankful for here in Arlington County. On the greenery front, our parks, trails, bike paths and so much more are among the top in the state, if not the nation. And soon, hopefully we can return to enjoying them all at full speed.

Until then, the team at Arlington Realty, Inc. is wishing you health and happiness.

And now on to this week’s Just Reduced report.

As of April 27, there are 136 detached homes, 32 townhouses and 96 condos for sale throughout Arlington County. In total, 14 homes experienced a price reduction in the past week:

Please note that this is solely a selection of Just Reduced properties available in Arlington County. For a complete list of properties within your target budget and specifications, contact Arlington Realty, Inc.

Ask Eli: Technology and Innovation in Real Estate

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

This regularly-scheduled sponsored Q&A column is written by Eli Tucker, Arlington-based Realtor and Arlington resident. Please submit your questions to him via email for response in future columns. Enjoy!

Question: How well prepared is the real estate industry to use technology and innovation to adapt to social distancing?

Answer: With around $2.3T in new and existing home sales in the U.S. in 2019, you would think that the real estate industry would be a catalyst for technology development and innovation to support the purchase and sale of the most valuable asset most people will ever transact.

Unfortunately, that’s not the case and the real estate industry often lags well behind other industries in technology adoption, innovation and consumer experience. Why is that?

Role of Tech/Innovation in Real Estate

The conversation starts with one critical question — what is the role of technology and innovation in residential real estate? I’ve noticed two schools of thought amongst start-ups and innovators. One is that technology should reduce or eliminate the role of professionals (broker/agent, title attorney, lender) in the transaction and the other is that technology should improve the quality of service and efficiency of those professionals.

I’ll save a lengthy discussion on the value of (professional) real estate agents for another day, but history and many failed start-ups have shown that most consumers want professionals advising them during a home sale or purchase, despite numerous DIY options. I’ll also save commentary on people hiring non-professionals for 6 or 7-figure transactions.

It’s my opinion that the prevailing goal of technology and disruption in residential real estate is to help professionals deliver higher quality service more efficiently, which will in turn improve the experience and reduce cost (commissions/fees) for the consumer. I think it’s important to also improve technology that allows buyers and sellers who prefer a DIY approach, but that isn’t where the lion’s share of investment should be.

#1 Challenge: Fragmented Buying Power

The biggest challenge start-ups face in residential real estate is the fragmentation of the industry’s buying power, which makes widespread adoption difficult and expensive. Most real estate agents are independent contractors who make their own decisions about what systems and technology to pay for so a start-up/entrepreneur with a great idea has to convert tens of thousands (or more) of individuals instead of just a handful of decision-makers with large spending power.

Most agents are loosely organized into offices, brokerages and brokerage franchises that theoretically have stronger buying power to support start-ups, but it can be difficult to find technology that will be useful for, or adopted by, enough agents and their clients to justify the cost of organization-wide implementation because of so many niche practices and the independent nature of agents.

As they say: technology made for everybody, is good for nobody.

Some brokerages implement top-down in-house technology development and have produced great platforms/systems as a result, but even those technologies lack the disruptive innovation industries need from start-ups because they can’t risk their core business on failed technology development.

Many of the large brokerages that practice top-down technology development suffer from common ailments like expensive systems becoming legacy systems before they generate enough value to justify the cost. The cost of in-house development is too high in many cases, which is why many of the technology/disruptor-branded companies announced the first and largest furloughs/layoffs in the industry just a few weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic.

There is a massive opportunity for disruptive technology in residential real estate, but the fragmented nature of the industry makes it difficult for great start-ups to get off the ground and reach profitability fast enough to survive.

This is one reason why VC money has poured into the PropTech (Property Technology, which also includes commercial real estate) industry over the last few years, with investments increasing from $491M in 2013 to $12.9B in the first half of 2019.

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Local Cancer Survivor Pays It Forward With Hospital Gown Donations

By Vernon Miles

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow,  Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups and their founders, plus other local technology happenings. Monday Properties remains firmly committed to the health, safety and well-being of its employees, tenants and community. This week, Monday Properties is proudly featuring 1000 and 1100 Wilson (The Rosslyn Towers).

Elise Yanker Hasenei used to jog to her radiation treatment at the Virginia Hospital Center and back home. It became something of a community event, with friends and supporters taking to the street with her to encourage her. Now, Hasenei is making the trip to the Virginia Hospital Center to encourage others.

With the Virginia Hospital Center (VHC) seeing an increasing uptick in coronavirus patients, Hasenei’s startup GoLisey recently donated over a hundred brightly colored hospital gowns with brightly colored masks to help out.

Hasenei runs GoLisey, a “glam gown” company she started in 2015 after surviving breast cancer. The hospital gowns are brightly colored and aim to boost spirits, but are no less medically functional than the usual drab coverings.

The gowns can be worn in either direction, with access to the front or the back depending on the specific medical needs.

“Elise wanted to do something to help during this trying time in the healthcare industry, so she reached out to VHC to donate all of the gowns she currently had in stock, for men and women alike,” Hansenei’s niece, Megan Wrobel, said in an email. “She dropped four boxes of Glam Gowns to the donation center on Tuesday afternoon, which serendipitously ended up being located in the Oncology wing; an area she was, of course, familiar with.”

Hasenei said when she was going through cancer treatment, she always hated the gowns.

“I never felt depressed about cancer until radiation and I just had to put those ugly things on,” Hasenei said. “I can sow a little bit, so I started playing with the pattern and people started saying ‘that’s fabulous.’

After making a few, Hasenei started to get serious about the idea of making them on a larger scale. Hasenei put together a design with a pattern maker and started working with a factory in Brooklyn to produce the designs while she handled the business from her Arlington home. Since then, Hasenei has moved production to a facility in Fairfax County.

The gown business is a second job — her main career is coaching and consulting businesses — and Hasenei said the gown line was never intended to make her rich.

“Didn’t start the business to be a big moneymaker,” Hasenei said.”It’s really been about — one gown at a time — making a difference.”

When COVID-19 hit, Hasenei said her brother-in-law sent her a message about people in New York seeking gowns and masks. When it became apparent that hospitals nationwide were starting to run low on supplies, Hasenei decided to donate to the hospital where she’d received treatments.

Other local organizations, like Marymount Nursing School, have also donated items like gowns and masks to VHC.

“I reached out to contacts who put me in touch with the hospital,” Hasenei said. “I gave them everything I had. I was able to deliver those, and we’re waiting to see how they’re distributed.”

Now, Hasenei said the factory is “full tilt” making masks, which will be included in the next round of donations to VHC.

Photo courtesy GoLisey

Neighborhood Spotlight: 3 Great Options for Takeout Food

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

This content was written and sponsored by The Keri Shull Team, Arlington’s top producing residential real estate team.

Since the stay-at-home order took effect in Virginia at the end of last month, a lot of people living in Arlington and other parts of NoVA have been looking for ways to feel normal again.

One of the best ways that we’ve found is to order food from some of the local favorites around the city. This gives you a chance to support local businesses during these trying times, get a taste of some of your favorite fare from Arlington’s best — and enjoy a nice meal without having to worry about groceries and cooking.

Today, we are going to highlight 3 Arlington favorites that you can get as take-out, so you can enjoy our local flavors from the comfort and convenience of your home.

First is Don Tito, one of our favorite places to get tacos and margaritas in Arlington. Usually, this popular taqueria offers some of the most fun you can have while grabbing a bite, with weekly events like Taco Tuesday and watch parties for sporting events. Of course, patrons won’t be able to attend these events — or dine in at the eatery — until social distancing orders are lifted… but you can still enjoy some of the best tacos and drinks in town!

Although you won’t be able to eat your food on the beautiful rooftop terrace, you can still enjoy some of Arlington’s most scrumptious cantina bites from the comfort of your own home. Best of all? Don Tito’s has created to-go versions of their locally famous margaritas, so you can bring the party right to your doorstep. You can order online for delivery or pick-up at dontitova.com.

Next, we have True Food Kitchen, located in the Ballston Quarter. Like many other stores and restaurants in the Quarter, True Food is doing everything possible to respect social distancing and other safety measures, while still providing nutritious and tasty meals to their patrons.

The Arlington location of True Food Kitchen is remaining open for take out and delivery services — including a special no-contact pick-up option to help protect staff and guests as best as possible. In addition to True Food’s delicious, health-conscious meals, you can order canned beer or bottles of wine with your pick-up or delivery order, so you can round out the True Food Kitchen experience with a refreshing drink. You can click here to place an order for delivery or no-contact pickup!

Finally, we want to talk about Tupelo Honey, home to some of Arlington’s most popular southern comfort food and one of the hottest brunches in the area. Although the dining room is closed to patrons, you can still get a taste of Dixie from the comfort of your own couch with Tupelo Honey’s delivery and pick-up options.

Like Don Tito and True Food Kitchen, Tupelo Honey is open for delivery and pick-up orders — and this includes their brunch options, as well as their lunch and dinner fare! Recreate your favorite weekend tradition with flaky biscuits, griddled potato pancakes and southern-style shrimp & grits!

On top of this, Tupelo Honey is also gearing up to offer BOGO take & bake meals, so you can pick up a meal for dinner and take a second one home to store — so you can heat it up and have southern comfort whenever you want!

Unfortunately, our needs can’t always take a backseat during times like these — that’s why essential businesses are staying open to help people who need it right now. This is true for restaurants like the ones listed above; and it’s also true for real estate teams like the Keri Shull Team. We know that many people can’t wait weeks or months to buy or sell a home, and we are dedicated to protecting those people’s physical and financial health.

So if you have any real estate needs that you have to take care of during these times, please contact the Keri Shull Team or schedule a time for a virtual meeting today.

Your Beermonger: New Normals

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway). Sign up for Nick’s email newsletter and receive exclusive discounts and offers. Order from Arrowine’s expanding online store for curbside pickup.

We’re starting off this week with recommended reading: Mike Snider at USA Today picked up on that Brewer’s Association survey I mentioned in my last column and ran with it, talking to several breweries about their experience during the pandemic, and how long they think they can sustain themselves.

Like in the survey, the responses are not encouraging but they’re not hopeless either. You can check out the piece here.

Prominently quoted in Snider’s article is Greg Engert of Neighborhood Restaurant Group. Besides local beer scene landmarks like Church Key and the two Rustico locations, NRG also has their Bluejacket Brewery in D.C. Bluejacket’s beers had, over the past year, gone from mostly D.C. with some appearances at Virginia bars and restaurants to becoming available at retailers with draft stations like Arrowine.

Now, Bluejacket is one of a sudden multitude of breweries whose beers will show up right at your door through NRG’s Neighborhood Provisions ordering service (Note: my wife and I placed a Neighborhood Provisions order within the past week; it’s outstanding).

With restaurants being decimated, breweries that were previously focused on “on-premise” sales have shifted, making beers available to consumers that we never would’ve expected to be retailed — and with home delivery, at that. Aslin, Bluejacket, Ocelot, Wheatland Spring and more NoVA breweries are now dropping beers at your doorstep — check with each for minimums, etc.

Outside of the immediate area, Richmond heavy hitters The Veil and Triple Crossing are now offering delivery of their beers to homes in NoVA, making many beer geeks daydreams come true.

It’s odd to encourage people to buy their beer directly from the brewery rather than from Arrowine, but the vast majority of these breweries weren’t distributing to retail anyway and weren’t planning to: the exceptions being the occasional Bluejacket keg (as of this writing, I have two on our draft station) and Aslin can release (again, two new ones just hit our Online Store.)

Also, this whole thing is going to come to an end someday and while I know we’ll lose some — maybe a lot — of our great local breweries, I want as many as possible to survive. Not to mention that right now, when we can’t go out and get together like we want to, it’s nice to have something exciting and enjoyable available. Anyway, we’re not hurting for selection at Arrowine.

So, going forward what I think I’d like to do is, as often as possible, use this column to feature different breweries to shine a light on them, and what they’re going through during this… let’s say unique?… period in time. Drop into the comments if you’ve taken advantage of any of these direct delivery options, whose beers you’ve ordered, and how the experience as been.

Take care of each other. See you next time.

Open Houses in Arlington This Weekend

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

Looking for a home? There are plenty of houses and condos open for viewing this weekend.

Check out the Arlington Realty website for a full list of homes for sale and open houses in Arlington. Here are a few highlights:

3156 N. Pollard Street
8 BD/6 BA, 2 half bath single-family home
Agent: Weichert Realtors
Listed: $2,700,000
Open: Virtual Tour

 

2366 N. Oakland Street
4 BD/4 BA, 1 half bath single-family home
Agent: Compass
Listed: $1,425,000
Open: Virtual Tour

 

1029 N. Kensington Street
4 BD/4 BA, 1 half bath condo
Agent: Re/Max Gateway Llc
Listed: $1,100,000
Open: Virtual Tour

 

6930 27th Road N.
4 BD/3 BA, 1 half bath single-family home
Agent: Redfin Corporation
Listed: $944,999
Open: Virtual Tour

 

2660 S. Kenmore Court
3 BD/3 BA, 1 half bath villa/townhouse
Agent: Ttr Sotheby’s International Realty
Listed: $819,900
Open: Virtual Tour

 

5920 5th Road S.
2 BD/1 BA, 1 half bath single-family home
Agent: Weichert Realtors
Listed: $718,590
Open: Virtual Tour

 

2035 N. Glebe Road
2 BD/3 BA, 1 half bath villa/townhouse
Agent: Compass
Listed: $650,000
Open: Virtual Tour

Just Listed in Arlington

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

Just Listed highlights Arlington properties that just came on the market within the past week. This feature is written and sponsored by Andors Real Estate Group.

It takes a while for trends to become apparent in many things, and real estate is no exception. Now that we have been experiencing the impacts of COVID-19 for over a month, I’m able to start drawing some conclusions.

I’m closely watching a realtor favorite, sale price to list price ratio (SP%/LP%). For sales closed in Arlington over the last 30 days, that ratio is 101.59% meaning, on average, sellers pocketed nearly $12,000 more than they were asking (average sales price $748,421).

If we drop to 15 days of properties sold, that average goes up to 102.24% and will encompass more, but not all properties that went under contract post-COVID-19 restrictions/impact. Conclusion — by and large sellers are still getting what they want in the housing market and buyers are still having to pay up!

Many Arlington homes are still getting multiple offers, but we are seeing fewer offers in these scenarios. Homes that might have attracted 8-12 offers last spring, or even in early January or February, are mostly only getting 2-3 offers right now, and it’s still happening in the first few days of public marketing.

Of course, this does not represent all properties. Some homes don’t receive multiple offers or sell in the first week. Some take multiple price reductions in order to find the market — they were on the market, but not really in the market. This is leading to some head scratching from sellers and maybe realtors alike. Your absolute best bet, sellers, is to hire an experienced Arlington expert and follow guidance on proper pricing and presentation. These are always important considerations and even more so now as the dynamics of our market begin to shift substantially.

There are currently 239 homes for sale in Arlington (a bit over 1.25 months’ supply at current demand). 127 are detached homes, 26 are townhouses/semi-detached, and 86 are condos. Average days on market (DOM) is 55 and median DOM is 31. These stayed almost constant from last week.

Sellers listed some 60 properties for sale this week, up from 44 last week! Buyers ratified 45 contracts, 25 of which were homes that had been on the market one week or less. Average DOM of the ratified properties this week is 13, median is 11, furthering my point about being left on the market instead of in it.

The median list price of available properties is $­­­1,022,500, while the average is $1,154,701.

Last year for the same week, sellers listed 84 homes and buyers ratified 64 contracts. Though the volume is down right now, the absorption rate of new properties is remarkably similar. The supply/demand characteristics are very similar — sellers, make no mistake, this is still very much a seller’s market!

Click here to search currently available Arlington real estate. Call the Andors Real Estate Group today at (703) 203-1117 to talk more about buying or selling Arlington real estate. Below are eight homes that are new this week that I think you might like to check out.

Boring Title: What Makes a Video Go Viral?

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

Title insurance is boring, but Allied Title & Escrow is here to decode the jargon and make it (somewhat) more interesting. This biweekly feature will explore the mundane (but very necessary!) world of title insurance while sharing interesting stories of two friends’ entrepreneurial careers.

For this week’s edition of Boring Title, we wanted to open up a discussion with those reading ARLnow.

The past month, we’ve had Mike from our marketing team shoot and post one video per day. While some of these videos have been educational, others have been funny videos with the sole purpose behind them is to provide laughs to clients during these stressful times.

The videos have been well received by our clients and those who know Allied Title & Escrow, but one video in particular went semi-viral (See below).

@alliedmikeDon’t you wish all buyers were this easy!? ##fyp ##foryou ##forypupage ##realestate @drewcarp89♬ Intentions – Justin Bieber

With around 500,000 views and 70,000 likes on TikTok, it made us all wonder… what gives a video the ability to go viral? This specific video was not the funniest, or the most educational, and we didn’t have any expectations for it to go “viral.”

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Biz Talk: Arlington Tracks COVID-19 Impacts on County Businesses

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

This article was written by Telly Tucker, Director of Arlington Economic Development.

We’re now in the sixth week of various shutdowns, teleworking, staff reductions and other challenges in Arlington as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Arlington Economic Development (AED) has been closely monitoring the effects on all our businesses.

In the latter half of March, just as the gravity of the situation was beginning to emerge, we conducted our first COVID-19 business survey. We had more than 600 businesses take the survey, which concluded on March 30 — coincidentally, the day before the April 1 Stay at Home Executive Order took effect in Virginia.

But even before that order was in place, it came as no surprise for us to learn that Arlington businesses were impacted — some significantly. Overall, the majority of our business respondents reported declining sales, hiring freezes, supply chain disruptions and delayed or canceled investments, with a considerable number having laid off workers as a result of the pandemic.

More than 70% of all Arlington businesses, and more than 90% of small businesses (those with fewer than 50 employees), said COVID-19 was “extremely disruptive” or “very disruptive” to their business operations. Additional details on survey results can be found on our website.

Across the varied results, the most pressing need respondents identified was financial assistance, everything from grant assistance to SBA economic injury assistance, tax payment assistance to landlord assistance. Remember — these results were even prior to the Stay at Home order. AED has been working diligently to connect companies to resources while working to develop some of our own.

Last week we announced the creation of the Arlington Small Business Emergency GRANT (Giving Resiliency Assets Near Term) Program, which will provide up to $10K in funds for businesses who need to keep up with payroll, rent and other expenses during the pandemic. We plan to have the application process open in early May; to receive future communications as details about the GRANT program are finalized, please add yourself to the mailing list on our GRANT page.

Additionally, we set up a COVID-19 Business Support section on our website, which covers everything from lists of restaurants providing carryout/delivery options to special offers from local businesses. We’re also providing the latest breakdowns on CARES Act and SBA actions as well as free webinars and counseling for businesses to help them navigate the various assistance programs and resources out there.

Finally, AED has just launched Phase 2 of the COVID-19 Arlington business survey. Each week brings new challenges and we understand the importance of keeping up-to-date on the impacts being felt by our community.

If you represent a business in Arlington, please take a few moments to complete this new survey in English or Spanish so AED can continue to assist you. The survey will remain active through April 30. Some of the questions may seem repetitive if you took our first survey, but we ask for your participation to help us continue to monitor the situation and aid us in developing appropriate resources and communications.

Arlington Pet of the Week: Penelope

By ARLnow.com
1/5

Meet Arlington’s newest Pet of the Week, Penelope, a 6 month old Ragdoll who loves to curl up in the bathroom sink.

Here is what Penelope’s owner had to say about her life here in Arlington:

Penelope, or Penny for short, is an energetic, snuggly 6 month old ball of fluff – you can find her on instagram as @playingwithpenny. She’s a Ragdoll from south of Richmond, and has never met a stranger she didn’t like! As her breed suggests, Penny likes to roll around on any surface and particularly loves to curl up in the bathroom sink. This little water baby is always eager for a lick from the faucet.

At the ripe age of 12 weeks old, Penny made the exciting adventure south for the holidays and flew as a carry-on during her first domestic flight. During her vacation, she met her fur-aunt (a friendly Boykin Spaniel) and it was love at first sniff. Penny is always up for a new adventure whether it’s venturing to a neighbor’s apartment in the building or across the street to visit her favorite vet at Clarendon Animal Care. While she’s certainly a night owl, her cuddles make all the late-nights worthwhile.

Just Reduced Properties in Arlington

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

Each week, “Just Reduced” spotlights properties in Arlington County whose price have been cut over the previous week. The market summary is crafted by Arlington Realty, Inc. Maximize your real estate investment with the team by visiting www.arlingtonrealtyinc.com or calling 703-836-6000 today!

Please note: While Arlington Realty, Inc. provides this information for the community, it may not be the listing company of these homes.

A happy Earth Day to our readers here. It’s certainly a bit of a different Earth Day here in 2020.

No, we’re not going to encourage you to go celebrate our green and blue planet in masses out in public. But there are a couple of things on the real estate front that you can do from your own home to make a difference.

The first thing is examining how you can make your home more energy efficient. Whether it’s upgrading your old HVAC set-up or giving your insulation a refresh, these fixes not only protect Mother Nature, but put dough back in your pocket. And, in many cases, these upgrades can be tax deductible.

Also, as you weather the COVID-19 storm, it’s a good time to think about your property’s curb appeal. If you have the green light to plant a tree where you live, they give off oxygen and a little extra never hurts us humans.

And now on to this week’s Just Reduced facts and stats.

As of April 20, there are 148 detached homes, 30 townhouses and 88 condos for sale throughout Arlington County. In total, 9 homes experienced a price reduction in the past week:

Please note that this is solely a selection of Just Reduced properties available in Arlington County. For a complete list of properties within your target budget and specifications, contact Arlington Realty, Inc.

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