Ask Eli

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. Video summaries of some articles can be found on YouTube on the Eli Residential channel. Enjoy!

Question: Why would anybody waste hundreds of dollars each month on condo fees?

Answer: Most people associate paying condo fees with throwing money down the drain, but the truth is that most people aren’t looking at condo fees the right way; they even offer some advantages over a single-family home or townhouse.

What Do Condo Fees Pay For?

For those who haven’t spent much time studying condo budgets, some of the main expenses in a condo budget include:

• Reserves: a building’s savings account for large major repair or replacement of things like the roof, façade, elevators, etc.
• Property Management/Staff: contracts for a property manager, front desk, janitorial services, and engineer.
• Maintenance and Utilities: general upkeep of the building including lawn service, basic repairs, power washing, window cleaning, snow removal, and utilities like water, sewer, and trash (some buildings also include gas, electric, and/or tv and internet).
• Master Insurance: this policy usually protects everything except your personal items and improvements within each unit.

Predictable Expenses

One of the most beneficial, yet underappreciated, advantages of condo fees is that they give homeowners a very predictable, flat expense structure. Taking care of a single-family home might mean months or years with very low maintenance expenses and then a run of tens of thousands of dollars in expenses (e.g. a storm damages your deck and deck and your basement floods).

In a condo, your biggest financial exposure is usually HVAC and appliances, all of which are under $10,000 and have somewhat predictable expirations. Many of the other normal home maintenance and replacement costs tend to fall under the purview of the Association.

For younger buyers with less savings and retired homeowners on a fixed income, the benefits of stable, predictable condo expenses makes financial planning/management easier and also require less of an emergency savings fund so more cash can be deployed into investments or to enjoy.

Home Maintenance Cost > Condo Fees

When you own a condo, you’re only responsible for what’s inside the walls of your home (appliances, water heater, flooring, walls, plumbing fixtures, etc) and, if you have one, an outdoor HVAC compressor. Of course with a single-family home or townhouse, you are responsible for a lot more without anybody to share those costs with.

Over the last 12 months, the average condo fee in Arlington was $583/month (~$7k/year) representing about 1.4% of the average condo market value. Estimates for annual (single-family) home maintenance range from about 1-2% (Wells Fargo) to 1-4% (State Farm) of your home’s value in annual maintenance expenses.

Many homeowners will spend more in the long-run maintaining a single-family home than they will on condo fees, plus condo fees include more than just maintenance and repair.

Lower Utility, Insurance Bills

Condo living will help you save money on other expenses including utilities and homeowners insurance. It’s usually much easier to keep your unit comfortably heated and cooled because you benefit from the ambient temperatures from the units and hallway around you. And because of the existing Master Insurance policy for the building, your own homeowners insurance policy tends to be less expensive than a comparable policy for a single-family home or townhouse.

Amenities

Many buildings have amenities that can either save you money (e.g. a gym that saves you from paying a separate gym membership fee or grilling area to save you on a grill and propane) or enhance your living (e.g. pool, rooftop terrace, 24hr front desk security).

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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. Video summaries of some articles can be found on YouTube on the Eli Residential channel. Enjoy!

Question: How are sales going at Pierce condos in Rosslyn?

Answer: The Pierce condos are one of three new buildings in Rosslyn’s luxury Highlands development (the other two buildings are rental apartments) with prices that rival the most expensive buildings in the D.C. Metro and far outpace other Arlington buildings on a price-per-square-foot basis, which I detailed in this 2019 column.

Building Overview

Penzance (developer) and The Mayhood Company (sales) began pre-selling the 104 units just before the pandemic hit. Sales in the building have captured the attention of many Arlingtonians and the real estate community because of the building’s prominent position in the Rosslyn skyline, record setting price-per-square-foot, and shifts in condo demand for a couple years following COVID lockdowns.

The Mayhood Company, who also handled sales at Turnberry Tower, Rosslyn’s other luxury condo building, played an active role in designing Pierce condos and conceived it as “Turnberry Gen 2” with the application of lessons learned from their time selling those units.

Prices ranged from roughly $950,000-$4,000,000+ with the average unit going for about $1,750,000 for approximately 1,700 SqFt of living space. Currently, units in the building range in price from ~$1,800,000-$2,600,000 and in size from ~2,000-2,400 SqFt. The bulk of the building has sold for $1.5M-$2.4M.

Pierce was completed and ready for move-ins by the fall of 2021.

I caught up with the Mayhood sales team to get a sense of how sales have gone through the lockdowns, during the post-lockdown flight from condos, and the return to more normal buying habits over the past 12-18 months.

Pre-Sales/Pre-Pandemic

Sales jumped out to a great start prior to the pandemic, with about 10 contracts right out of the gate. As expected, many of these sales were to buyers targeting premium views — the building has quite a few upper-level units with unobstructed (and nearly impossible to be obstructed in the future) views of D.C. and the Potomac. The other non-view sales were units on lower floors with the lowest price-per-square-foot.

Many of these early buyers were downsizing from larger single-family homes, which is/was expected to be the most common buyer profile for the building.

COVID Lockdown, Sales Lockdown

The sales office shut down due to COVID lockdowns in March 2020 and sales were frozen until August 2020, when they began taking calls and doing virtual sales. There was zero activity from mid-March until August/September, but they still finished 2020 with 15 total contracts.

Vaccines Led to More Activity

The building had about one contract per month from August 2020 through May 2021, but once vaccines became more broadly available and life started opening back up around June 2021, activity picked up significantly, resulting in 8 contracts in June 2021 and about 3-4 contracts per month through the end of 2021. Also, by June of 2021, the construction had progressed to allow prospective buyers to take hard hat tours and see the finishes and views in person, as opposed to renderings, which is always going to boost interest and sales. There were 28 contracts written in 2021.

From late summer 2020 through early summer 2021, the buyer profile shifted from those downsizing from larger single-family homes to buyers who were already living in condos/apartments and looking to upgrade. That shifted back to the “norm” of more downsizers by summer 2021, when vaccination rates were up.

Return to “Normal” Life Kept Sales Strong

2022 was a return to “normal” operations for most people and Pierce sales were excellent, with a consistent pace of 2-3 sales per month, totaling 30 contracts on the year, evenly split between the first and second half of the year. The overall condo market in Arlington also started experiencing a return to more normal buying behavior; low interest rates early in the year helped too.

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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. Video summaries of some articles can be found on YouTube on the Eli Residential channel. Enjoy!

Question: How does assuming a low interest rate VA loan work?

Answer: Thank you to all who have served and to their families who have sacrificed or lost loved ones for our freedom. I hope you and yours had a special Memorial Day weekend with friends and family to celebrate our country and those we’ve lost defending it.

The Eli Residential Group is donating to Arlington, Virginia-based TAPS (Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors) in honor of Memorial Day. Since 1994, TAPS has provided comfort and hope 24/7 through a national peer support network and connection to grief resources, all at no cost to surviving families and loved ones.

In keeping with the theme of Memorial Day, I will revisit a column about assuming low interest rate VA (Veteran Affairs) loans.

An assumable loan is a loan that can be transferred from a seller to a buyer, allowing the buyer to maintain the interest rate of the seller’s existing loan rather than accept a market-rate interest rate. This can be valuable in a high-interest rate environment like we’re in now when most homeowners have an interest rate well below current market rates.

To help me provide the best information about assumable VA loans, I reached out to Skip Clasper of Sandy Spring Bank ([email protected]), who I highly recommend for a range of loan products including VA loans, construction/rehab loans, and jumbo loans.

Only Some Loans Are Assumable

VA loans (available to Veterans, service members and surviving spouses), FHA loans, and USDA loans are the only traditional loan products that are assumable. They make up a relatively small percentage of existing home loans in Arlington (likely single-digit percentage of total loans). I’m not aware of any conventional loans that can be assumed.

Key Details about Assuming a VA Loan

There are some important details and caveats to assuming a VA loan that both buyers and sellers need to understand prior to transferring a loan:

1. Buyers do NOT have to be a Veteran or otherwise qualify for a VA loan to assume a VA Loan.
2. Sellers can NOT obtain a new VA loan until the previously assumed loan is paid off (or refinanced out of) unless the new buyer is a Veteran and uses their eligibility on the assumed loan.
3. It is less expensive (closing costs) to assume a loan than to originate a new loan. The VA Funding fee is only 0.5% for assumable VA loans.
4. You need a down payment that covers the gap between the assumable loan balance and the purchase price. For example, if the seller’s loan balance is $200,000 and the purchase price is $500,000, the buyer is assuming $200,000 is debt and will have to cover the remaining $300,000 via down payment or alternative debt such as a second trust.
5. Buyers need to qualify for the loan using normal income, debt, and credit guidelines.

As you can probably determine from the above details, there are only a limited number of scenarios where assuming a VA loan makes sense for both parties. The biggest hurdle to VA loan assumption is that the VA loan eligibility stays with the loan so if the buyer does not have their own VA loan eligibility, the seller must be sure they are okay giving up this very valuable benefit until the new buyer pays it off or refinances.

If you’d like to discuss buying, selling, investing, or renting, don’t hesitate to reach out to me at [email protected].

If you’d like a question answered in my weekly column or to discuss buying, selling, renting, or investing, please send an email to [email protected]. To read any of my older posts, visit the blog section of my website at EliResidential.com. Call me directly at (703) 539-2529.

Video summaries of some articles can be found on YouTube on the Eli Residential channel.

Eli Tucker is a licensed Realtor in Virginia, Washington DC, and Maryland with RLAH Real Estate, 4040 N Fairfax Dr #10C Arlington VA 22203. (703) 390-9460.

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. Video summaries of some articles can be found on YouTube on the Eli Residential channel. Enjoy!

Question: What is the ratio of bathrooms to bedrooms in Arlington? 

Answer: Somebody recently asked me what the bathroom-to-bedroom ratio is in Arlington and I ended up exploring Arlington market data through the lens of bedrooms. I might be the only person who finds this interesting but if you find yourself daydreaming about things like the number of bedrooms sold in Arlington and the cost per bedroom, than this is the article you’ve been waiting for!

What is a Bedroom?

Unlike many other jurisdictions, Arlington doesn’t have its own definition of a bedroom and defers to the Virginia Residential Building Code. I wrote about back in 2016, linked here. The Virginia requirements are pretty simple: minimum 70 SqFt, 7 Ft+ ceiling heights, proper egress window, heated, and ventilation.

Arlington’s Housing Market by Bedrooms

• Over the past five years, an average of 7,673 bedrooms have sold each year. 56% of bedrooms sold are in single-family homes, 25% in condos, and 19% in townhouse/duplex properties.
• There’s an average of 600 new bedrooms being delivered each year via new construction.
• The average cost per bedroom has decreased in 2023 causing an overall decrease in the cost per bedroom in Arlington, despite small increases in the cost per bedroom for single-family and townhouse/duplex homes.
• There are an average of 2.7 bedrooms in each home sold in Arlington. I expected to find that the number of bedrooms per transaction increased in the spring, suggesting that more larger homes are listed during the spring market, but the average size of homes by bedroom count is consistent each month of the year, always between 2.5 and 2.8 bedrooms per home sold.
• There is an average of .8 full bathrooms for every bedroom sold. The ratio for single-family detached homes is .73 full bathrooms per bedroom.

• The second table below shows data from 2022-2023 sales.
• The data suggests that 4BR homes are the most in demand, followed closely by 3BR and 5BR, and for good reason…4BR homes have the best cost per bedroom of any size home.
• If you are buying a home with 2-6 bedrooms, you’re most likely going to pay at or above the asking price.
• The most expensive zip code per bedroom is 22209 at $494,000/BR and the least expensive is 22204 at $244,000/BR. The average cost per bedroom in a single-family home in 22207 is $349,000.

If you’d like to discuss buying, selling, investing, or renting, don’t hesitate to reach out to me at [email protected].

If you’d like a question answered in my weekly column or to discuss buying, selling, renting, or investing, please send an email to [email protected]. To read any of my older posts, visit the blog section of my website at EliResidential.com. Call me directly at (703) 539-2529.

Video summaries of some articles can be found on YouTube on the Eli Residential channel.

Eli Tucker is a licensed Realtor in Virginia, Washington DC, and Maryland with RLAH Real Estate, 4040 N Fairfax Dr #10C Arlington VA 22203. (703) 390-9460.

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. Video summaries of some articles can be found on YouTube on the Eli Residential channel. Enjoy!

Question: Do I have to use my Property Manager if I sell my house?

Answer: This is more of a PSA post than anything else. If you’re a landlord or tenant, it’s crucial to pay attention to the fine print in agreements, especially regarding a future property sale. It’s common for Property Managers or Agents to include language that gives them the right to list your property if you choose to sell it or gives them a right to a commission in the event it sells during the rental period, to the tenant or somebody else.

Property Managers With Exclusive Right to Sell

Watch out for language granting property managers or agents exclusive rights to list your property if you decide to sell. This exclusivity restricts your options and flexibility, limiting your ability to explore alternative selling methods or use the agent of your choosing.

Required Commission Payments

Be aware of language stipulating a commission to property managers or agents if you sell your property to the tenant or another buyer during the rental period. Landlords might be obligated to pay a commission, even if they find an alternative buyer or wish to handle the sale independently. This financial burden can significantly impact both parties.

What If an Exclusivity or Commission Clause Exists?

Like most things in a contract, these clauses are negotiable. If you see something that you believe binds you to certain actions or payments in the event of a sale, ask about it and work to ensure you have the most flexibility if a sale does take place. You may not plan to sell when you sign the paperwork, but life happens and priorities change.

If you’d like to discuss buying, selling, investing, or renting, don’t hesitate to reach out to me at [email protected].

If you’d like a question answered in my weekly column or to discuss buying, selling, renting, or investing, please send an email to [email protected]. To read any of my older posts, visit the blog section of my website at EliResidential.com. Call me directly at (703) 539-2529.

Video summaries of some articles can be found on YouTube on the Eli Residential channel.

Eli Tucker is a licensed Realtor in Virginia, Washington DC, and Maryland with RLAH Real Estate, 4040 N Fairfax Dr #10C Arlington VA 22203. (703) 390-9460.

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. Video summaries of some articles can be found on YouTube on the Eli Residential channel. Enjoy!

Question: Do you have any advice on questions I should ask a Realtor I’m interviewing to sell my home?

Answer: Before you ask, yes, I used ChatGPT for this column, BUT I used it to come up with 50 questions AI thinks you should ask a Realtor so that I can offer you human brain questions that will hopefully be more useful.

Or… is that what AI would say if I told it to pretend like it was a human trying to convince readers an article wasn’t written by AI.

Without further ado, here are five questions (from my own non-AI brain) that will help you make the right decision about who is handling the sale of your home:

How Do Your Determine Price?

It’s impossible not to ask the agent you’re interviewing how much they think your house will sell for, and that’s totally fine, but don’t get wrapped up in an on-the-spot valuation of your home during the first appointment. Instead, it’s more important to understand the process your agent uses to determines pricing and decide if it’s an approach you’re bought into. 

Who Will I Work With?

Agents and agent teams come in all shapes and sizes (link to past article on the topic), some are solo agents and some have a series of coordinators that handle each stage of your sale. In some cases, you may have little interaction with the agent you interview. It’s important to understand who will be involved in each step of the sale from determining/coordinating listing prep, to preparing the marketing, to negotiating contracts, and overseeing the contract-to-close.

Who Will Host the Open House(s)?

Open Houses are a great opportunity to interact with interested buyers, highlight strengths of the property, and collect valuable feedback. Open Houses are also a great source of new business for agents. Make sure that the interests of your Open House host(s) are aligned with your interest in selling your home.

How Often Do Deals Fall Through and What Happens If Things Go South?

Real estate deals go sideways in expected and unexpected ways so risk prevention (early identification and diffusion of problems) and management (handling of problems that arise) are critical attributes of a great agent. When things go south, a great agent has the resources to manage the most difficult deal-killers by tapping into brokerage leadership, legal resources, contractors, and having the experience, creativity, and leadership to put it all together.

Should I Consider Selling Off/Pre-Market?

It’s a great question and the answer is not the same for every home/homeowner. The right answer requires a deeper understanding of your goals, the market, and some good ol’ fashion critical thinking. There’s also a lot of different information out there about off/pre-market sales (some good, some misleading) so I think it’s a good topic to cover with your potential Realtor.

If you’d like to discuss buying, selling, investing, or renting, don’t hesitate to reach out to me at [email protected].

If you’d like a question answered in my weekly column or to discuss buying, selling, renting, or investing, please send an email to [email protected]. To read any of my older posts, visit the blog section of my website at EliResidential.com. Call me directly at (703) 539-2529.

Video summaries of some articles can be found on YouTube on the Eli Residential channel.

Eli Tucker is a licensed Realtor in Virginia, Washington DC, and Maryland with RLAH Real Estate, 4040 N Fairfax Dr #10C Arlington VA 22203. (703) 390-9460.

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. Video summaries of some articles can be found on YouTube on the Eli Residential channel. Enjoy!

Question: How much of a difference do schools make in the value of homes in Arlington?

Answer: Nothing drives home values like schools and for most buyers around here, that is determined by the 10-point scale ratings on the all-powerful GreatSchools.org. Let me be clear, this article is not meant to validate or contest the quality of GreatSchools ratings, rather an acknowledgement of the weight the website’s school ratings have on home purchase decisions and therefore, home values.

Quick Tips for Using Schools in Your Home Search

• Families define a “good school” differently. Whether that’s test scores, socioeconomic diversity, language instruction, athletics, or a STEM focus think about what matters most to you and target schools that fit your values.
• GreatSchools offers more than just a single rating, they offer component data as well. Dig deeper and look at the components of a school’s rating and review them based on what you value.
• I have spoken to parents who have had both excellent and terrible experiences at top and low rated schools alike. The GreatSchools rating is not everything.
• There are excellent public resources available for research including the Virginia Dept. of Education’s School Quality Profiles and information nights for each school where you can see a school and interact with teachers first-hand.
• There are numerous message boards with loads of information about school operations from disability support, to college readiness, to athletics.
• There are other private ratings websites like Niche.com and US News and World Report that offer different perspectives and ways of ranking schools.
• Arlington County ranks as the #2 school district in Virginia, just behind the City of Falls Church, with an overall A+ grade. Loudoun County ranks # 5 and Fairfax County ranks #6 in Virginia with an overall A grades.

How Much Does Each GreatSchools Point Cost?

If you want to buy a detached house or townhouse within a top-rated school boundary, you’re going to pay a lot. However, if school ratings and budget are your top focuses, you can use the table below to figure out what the most efficient use of your budget is to maximize your GreatSchools rating per dollar spent.

The table is sorted by the average cost per point of the GreatSchools.org rating (GS rates schools on a 1-10 point scale) for each neighborhood school in Arlington with the most “cost-efficient” schools to buy a home in listed first.

The data uses sales since January 1, 2021 of detached and townhouse homes with at least three bedrooms. Net sold price is the sold price less any seller credits. Only the neighborhood schools are included in this analysis, not the magnet/option schools. Fleet and Arlington Science Elementary and Hamm Middle are not currently rated on GreatSchools.org

• The most cost-efficient elementary schools are Tuckahoe (9), Ashlawn (7), and Glebe (8)
• The most cost-efficient middle school is Swanson (7)
• The most-cost efficient high school is Wakefield (4)
• The most expensive school to buy housing in on a total cost basis is Jamestown Elementary (9), but the most expensive per bedroom and per square foot is Innovation Elementary (6)
• The least expensive school to buy housing in on a total cost and price per bedroom basis is Abingdon Elementary (3) and the least expensive per square foot is Carlin Spring Elementary (2)
• The most difficult school to find a 3BR+ detached/townhouse home is Hoffman-Boston (5)
• Barrett Elementary (3) is the only North Arlington school with an average price under $1M and Oakridge Elementary (4) is the only South Arlington school with an average price over $1M
• A purchase of a 3BR+ detached or townhouse home in the top rated school pyramid of Jamestown Elementary (9), Williamsburg Middle (9), and Yorktown High (6) averages nearly $1.45M and an average of $332k per bedroom

If you’d like some more personalized data run for you using home sales and GreatSchools ratings, you’re welcome to reach out to me at [email protected]. I’m happy to help.

If you’d like to discuss buying, selling, investing, or renting, don’t hesitate to reach out to me at [email protected].

If you’d like a question answered in my weekly column or to discuss buying, selling, renting, or investing, please send an email to [email protected]. To read any of my older posts, visit the blog section of my website at EliResidential.com. Call me directly at (703) 539-2529.

Video summaries of some articles can be found on YouTube on the Eli Residential channel.

Eli Tucker is a licensed Realtor in Virginia, Washington DC, and Maryland with RLAH Real Estate, 4040 N Fairfax Dr #10C Arlington VA 22203. (703) 390-9460.

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. Video summaries of some articles can be found on YouTube on the Eli Residential channel. Enjoy!

Question: Is it more effective to save for my kids’ college through a rental property investment or a more typical college savings plan like a 529?

TL;DR (1:53)

Answer: I often hear from parents who purchase a small investment property around the birth of their child as the primary savings vehicle for college. Some people swear by it. I did it when my son was born (and will report back with results in 13 years!).

I reached out to my financial advisor, Erik Fischer CFP, RICP of Taylor Financial ([email protected], (727) 417-3400), about the topic and he offered a very detailed, thoughtful comparative breakdown of using a real estate investment as a college savings tool vs a more traditional 529. Erik is an excellent resource if you have additional questions about this topic or other financial savings topics.

With frequency, this question arises from parents who gravitate towards real estate investing. And, there is not a definitive answer. Okay — column over. Just kidding.  While it’s true that there is not a definitive answer, depending on your situation the answer may be definitive for you.

Identifying the parameters:

• First, establish a target — how much wealth do you want to save to pay for college?
• Then, consider the following key areas when comparing the two investment vehicles
  • Savings strategy — how will you fund your savings vehicle
  • Flexibility
  • Level of involvement
  • Associated risks
  • Expected growth rate
  • Tax implications

Establish your target:

The good news here is that your target will likely be the same regardless of which approach you choose. So here is an easy-to-follow framework of how to establish your target.

1. Identify the amount you would like to have accumulated for each child when they reach college. You can research the “Cost of Attendance” (*important* this is your all-in cost, not just tuition) at www.collegeboard.org.
2. Use the current cost of attendance for a school and inflate that amount to future dollars using an inflation rate of 5%. Inflate this number out until your child is likely to graduate college.
   1. Why 5%? This is somewhat arbitrary, but over the last 20 years college costs have been doubling or more the long-term average inflation rate of 2-3%. I encourage you to use a number somewhere from 5-8%.
3. Take the last 4 years of inflation adjusted costs and add them up. These numbers represent a ballpark of what you could expect to pay for this child. Is it perfect? Of course not, but it will give you a greater level of visibility into what you will need.

Establish your target (example):

Let’s say your child was just born, plans are to attend college in 18 years, graduate in 4 years. At UVA, in-state cost of attendance for families making over $110,000 per year is $29,877 (tuition represents roughly half of this number). If you adjust for inflation and add up 4 years of all-in cost, you arrive at an aggregate number that includes the annual timeline of cashflows. See table below:

These calculations will vary whether you plan for in-state vs out-of-state, public or private, and how much of the cost you are willing to fund. Regardless, the framework will remain the same or very similar to arrive at some accumulation target.

You have your target, now what’s the best way to get there: Let’s compare a 529 based approach to a rental property-based approach. Of course, these are not the only two ways to save for college, but we’re focusing on these two today.

Let’s first look at the rental property approach: The high-level idea is buying a rental property when a child is born and selling it to fund college when the child is college-ready.

Because of the increased complexity of rental real estate (which is not inherently good or bad, it just is), let’s identify some of the important considerations first:

• Down payment will be required
• Management/execution risk
  • cash flow planning
  • property management
  • tenant management
  • increased tax planning
  • increased insurance planning
  • financing considerations (if you will require a mortgage)
  • a plan to sell the property (to fund college)

So, you may have picked up here another hint at what the answer might be for you depending on your situation. That is, if you do not have the cash on hand to make a reasonable down payment for the type of property you desire, the rental property might be off table for you, at which point you might lean on an annual savings approach of a 529.

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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. Video summaries of some articles can be found on YouTube on the Eli Residential channel. Enjoy!

Question: How is the real estate market through the first quarter?

TL;DR (1:33)

Answer: “How’s the market?” Well, technically, that answer depends on what market you’re talking about — location, property type, price point, etc. but for this column, I’ll provide an overview of what we’re generally seeing in the Arlington/Northern Virginia/D.C. area market these days.

• The market is competitive
• Demand is moderately high
• New listing volume is historically low
• Rates (Hopefully) Heading Down
• Ignore National Data

The Market is Competitive

Multiple offers, escalations, and reduced or no contingencies are common.

The data visualization below is from the listings that went under contract each of the last two weeks at our brokerage, RLAH @properties, of ~400 agents in the greater D.C. Metro area.

Demand is Moderately High

Demand is lower now than it was from late 2020 through early 2022, due to high interest rates.

The chart below shows the quarterly absorption ratio for Northern Virginia over the past decade. A higher ratio equals higher demand. We’ve fallen slightly from the post-Amazon HQ2 year (this was primarily driven by the condo market) and Covid buying years, but demand is still well above the “norm” established from 2013-2018.

New Listing Volume is Historically Low

The lack of new listings is driving competition, not high demand.

The chart below highlights the dramatic drop in new listing volume for the D.C. Metro area for Q4 and Q1, with about 10,000 fewer homes listed for sale during the most recent Q4/Q1 compared to previous years, or a ~25-30% drop for most D.C. area localities.

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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. Video summaries of some articles can be found on YouTube on the Eli Residential channel. Enjoy!

Question: How many different real estate agents are there doing business in Arlington?

TL;DR (1:54)

Answer: There were 2,795 real estate transactions in Arlington last year, totaling $2.264B in sales volume. This is down from over 3,500 transactions in 2021 that totaled $2.786B in sales volume, but very similar to the 2019 and 2020 numbers.

There were 2,491 licensed real estate agents involved in at least one sale in Arlington in 2022. Each transaction usually includes two real estate agents — one representing the buyer and another representing the seller.

I looked over the 2022 Arlington transaction data and pulled out some interesting highlights below. Of note, there are many real estate teams that enter all sales under one agent’s name, so in these cases, individual numbers represent the production of many agents rolled into one agent’s name, but I don’t have transparency into that data. Here’s a link to an article I wrote in 2019 explaining how different agents/teams are structured.

• 63% of agents who did business last year in Arlington had just one sale in Arlington (many of those had more sales outside of Arlington) and accounted for 24.4% of the total sales volume
• 6% (65) of agents handled 10+ transactions in Arlington
• 36% (9) of agents handled 20+ transactions in Arlington
• 1,666 different agents represented buyers, 66 (4%) represented 5+ buyers
• 1,379 different agents represented sellers, 115 (8.3%) represented 5+ sellers
• The top 20% producing agents in Arlington accounted for 61% of sales volume
• Keri Shull and her team once again led Arlington in total transaction and sales volume, representing 2.7% of buyers and sellers in Arlington and just over $94M in total sales volume, but for the first time I can recall, we have new leaders in the listing category, with Betsy Twigg leading listing sales volume at $46.5M and Kay Houghton leading listing transactions at 58
• The highest average sale price with at least four transactions in Arlington is Julie Zelaska at more than $2.16M per sale

Most studies suggest that consumers are less concerned with measures like sales volume and more focused on the strength of communication and trustworthiness of the agent they’re working with, but market expertise and experience are still important factors for most people.

Many people see the low barrier to entry for real estate licensing, and the resulting high volume of agents, as a negative, but it also means that you have a lot of choices as a consumer and, with some effort, can make sure that you’re working with somebody who provides the type of service you’re looking for and the experience to match.

If you’d like to discuss buying, selling, investing, or renting, don’t hesitate to reach out to me at [email protected].

If you’d like a question answered in my weekly column or to discuss buying, selling, renting, or investing, please send an email to [email protected]. To read any of my older posts, visit the blog section of my website at EliResidential.com. Call me directly at (703) 539-2529.

Video summaries of some articles can be found on YouTube on the Eli Residential channel.

Eli Tucker is a licensed Realtor in Virginia, Washington DC, and Maryland with RLAH Real Estate, 4040 N Fairfax Dr #10C Arlington VA 22203. (703) 390-9460.

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. Video summaries of some articles can be found on YouTube on the Eli Residential channel. Enjoy!

Question: I’m planning to sell my home to a builder to be torn down, do you have any advice?

TL;DR (1:37)

Answer: For many homeowners with older, smaller homes in expensive markets, selling to a builder is the easy and most profitable option when you’re ready to move. If you live in a home like this, you probably get hundreds of calls and letter from builders, investors, and real estate agents offering to buy your home as-is.

Here are six tips and ideas if you’re considering this option…

Don’t Overvalue Cash

The idea of somebody paying cash for your home sounds exciting and more reliable than somebody getting funds from a bank. “They pay cash” is one of the most common reasons I hear from homeowners explaining why they prefer selling to a builder.

The truth is that many builders don’t buy homes with a mountain of cash they have sitting around; they rely on strong banking relationships to finance their purchase with cash-like deals (the money is available quickly and easily).

The real value of cash is that a buyer can close quickly and does not require any bank approval, but a cash-like deal from a well-qualified buyer working with a great bank can often mirror this by removing any finance or appraisal contingency and closing as fast as the bank will allow (many can close in 2-3 weeks).

The contingency (or study period) structure and Earnest Money Deposit terms are more important than the funding source being a buyer’s private cash balance vs a trusted bank/lender. I would also argue that it’s more likely that an individual or builder cash-buyer will run into a cash crunch prior to closing than an established bank/lender.

Your Home May be Worth More to a Homeowner

It’s no secret how hard it is to find entry level homes these days. You may think that your current home with a small kitchen, old roof, and unfinished basement is only worth the land it sits on, but buyers are hurting for inexpensive homes, even if they need loads of improvements. Don’t assume that just because your home is small and dated that a builder is your only option.

Make sure you’re comparing builder offers to what you can get on the open market, taking into consideration other financial (e.g. differences in commission) and non-financial (e.g. timeline and showings) differences between the two routes. There may be little downside to testing the open market before committing to a builder, depending on your situation.

Your community will also appreciate your contribution to preserving the local tree canopy!

Builders Can Offer Attractive Rent-Backs

A rent-back means that you can live in your home after closing (aka after getting paid) for a specified period, usually for little or no cost, for months after a sale. For many sellers, this extra time is perfect for searching for your next home or apartment, with cash in-hand, or taking time to clear out decades of personal belongings.

A normal buyer can also offer a rent-back, and are often happy to, but if a home is being purchased using a mortgage for a primary residence, the buyer cannot offer a rent-back over two months. A builder, even if the funding comes from a bank, or cash buyer has no restriction on the length of rent-back. It’s well within reason to negotiate 3-4+ months of free or low-cost rent-back from a builder after closing.

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