Thanks to all our great supporters, the Military Appreciation Monday event raised nearly $4,000 for Operation Second Chance.  We had nearly 100 people turn out for the dinner to include several servicemen and women currently stationed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.  One of the greatest parts about the evening was that two of the most desirable door prizes were won by one of our visiting vets.  He walked away with a two day stay at the Lodgecliffe on the Choptank Bed and Breakfast and a fabulous apple pie from B. Sweet.  The four star lodging is donated each month by Dawson Richardson at Merrill Lynch.  B Sweet has donated two pies for each of our last two events. The wife of another vet won the biggest prize of the evening, a beautiful pendant donated by Adeler Jewelers.

If you have a chance, please be sure to give a big thanks to our co-sponsors and door prize donors.

Co-sponsors include:

The Old Brogue
LSA Title Services
Gary Kaihara, DDS
The Grossman Family
Julius Fleischman
The Norman Family
The Nelson Family
James Gaudiosi – Wells Fargo Home Mortgage
Taylor Allgyer – First Savings Mortgage
Carrillon Capital

Door Prizes for this month were donated by:

Adeler Jewelers

Lodgecliffe Bed and Breakfast

Dominion Title

PF Chang’s

Maison Du Vin

Great Falls Design Build

State Farm Insurance

Great Falls Exxon

B. Sweet Pies

This Month’s Military Appreciation Monday’s will be supporting Operation Second Chance.

Date:  October 25th.

Where: Old Brogue – Great Falls, Va.

Time: Two seatings – 5:30 and 7:30.

Please be sure to make a reservation by calling: (703) 759-3309.

As always, you simply come out and have dinner at the Old Brogue in Great Falls. Myself and my cosponsors will each be contributing a 10 percent match (A 110 percent match this month) of your dinner tab to help our Nation’s True Heroes.

If you know of anyone who might be interested in becoming a co-sponsor, please contact me at bob@bobnelsonteam.com or call at (703) 999-5812.

You can also show your support through:

A. The purchase of door prize entries. (ALL Proceeds will go directly to Operation Second Chance)

B. Our buy a vet dinner initiative. We hope to have between 10-15 enlisted personnel for whom you can buy dinner.

C. Or you can make out a fully tax deductible donation to Operation Second Chance.

Please come out strong to show your support. This is our first time back after the summer and I’d love to have a huge turnout to show our active duty personnel and veterans just how much we appreciate their service.

If you have a chance, please be sure to thank my co-sponsors.

The Old Brogue

LSA Title Services

Baran Family

Gary Kaihara, DDS

The Grossman Family

Julius Fleischman

The Norman Family

The Nelson Family

James Gaudiosi – Wells Fargo Home Mortgage

Taylor Allgyer – First Savings Mortgage

Carrillon Capital

and our door prize donors:

Adeler Jewelers Dominion Title

PF Chang’s

Lodgecliffe Bed and Breakfast

Turner Framing

Maison Du Vin

Great Falls Design Build

Pinkman Baseball Academy

Legenter LLC. S

tate Farm Insurance

Downs & Assoc. Insurance

As I have been saying (and writing about) during the past two years, our local real estate market will likely be the first to return to normalcy.  This is based on the fact that our local economy continues to be a fairly strong once.  A recent Washington Post Article entitled, “In Throes of Recession, D.C. Stands Apart”.  I have also been warning that we may well see a spike up in prices for both first time home buyers and move up buyers.  This due to what I believe will be a severe lack of new homes coming into the local inventory.  Many first time buyers have been looking at foreclosures as a means of getting into the market.  This is beginning to wane as those opportunities become less and less.  While the number of foreclosures currently at 179 for Fairfax County may seem high, a total of  225 sold in October alone in 2009 compared to only 113 for September 2010.  If you or someone you know is contemplating a purchase in the near term, I would suggest they consider doing so during the next three to four months.  I fully believe that once our spring market kicks in, we may well see a spike in prices as the inventory gets eaten up quickly.  This has already begun to happen with homes located inside the beltway in Virginia with homes receiving multiple offers and in some cases offers that include escalation addenda.   We also have record level interest rates for 30 fixed mortgages.

While nationally, the real estate market continues to barely limp along, locally we have been quickly moving towards a greater balance between buyers and sellers.  This, of course, depends on where you are considering buying or selling.  The general feeling among my co-workers has been that the closer to the beltway, the stronger the market.  There have been repeated stories of buyers paying more than asking price for homes located inside the beltway.  While out with some clients on Tuesday, they told of friends who had withdrawn their offer on a home in Mclean once they learned that one of the three other offers included an escalation addendum stating that they would pay $5,000 more than the highest offer.  Anyone familiar with the market during the 2003-2005 period may recall that this was very much the norm at that time.  I have been saying for the past year that Northern Virginia may well be headed for a severe shortage in housing in the not too distant future.  We have slowly been edging towards this potential shortage since builders have essentially stopped construction on new homes.  This despite the fact that Northern Virginia continues to grow in population.

Whether you are considering selling or buying a home, you really do need to remain focused on the critical do’s and don’ts highlighted in a recent Rismedia article entitled:  Be-Smart:  Dos and Don’ts for Home Sellers and Buyers.

As Realtors, we often get asked questions regarding the accuracy of the Zillow website “Zestimates”.  I typically respond by saying that the efficacy of these depends entirely on the neighborhood, location and condition of the home.  The accuracy within Virginia ranges from a best case of 5.2 percent for Arlington to a worst case of 27.8 percent for Caroline County.  Even within these figures, the numbers can really vary from street to street.  Your best bet is to make certain you employ a Realtor who fully understands the local market and can help you establish a true fair market value for the home whether you are buying or selling.  Click on the link to review the Accuracy of  Zestimates.

Please take a look at Zillow Zestimate Accuracy Table by clicking on the link to see how they did with your county.  Feel free to give a call or e-mail if you have any questions on these figures.

Last month’s Military Appreciation Mondays dinner in support of the Golden Age Games was our most successful event to date.  We ended up raising more than $5000 which will help support the sending of several local vets to the next games which are to be held in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Hope you can make it to this month’s dinner on October 25th which will be raising money for Operation Second Chance.

Thank you again to all of you who came out and a special thanks to our co-sponsors and door prize donors.

Co-sponsors Include:

Nelson Family

Norman Family

Grossman Family

Julius Fleishman

Gary Kaihara, DDS

The Old Brogue

Carillon Capital

Chris Melnick – LSA Title Services

Taylor Allgyer – First Savings Mortgage

James Gaudiosi – Wells Fargo Home Mortgage

and our Door Prize donors

Adeler Jewelers

PF Changs Restaurant

Dominion Title

Great Falls Design Build

State Farm Insurance

Great Falls Exxon

Legenter LLC

Neighbors Network

Lodgecliff on the Choptank B&B

B Sweet Home Baked Pies

Romantica Deli

Maison du Vin