Four things you need to do if you looking to buy a home.

If you have been looking for a home or are considering looking for a home in the District and most close-in Maryland communities you need to be prepared for a seller's market. This is especially true in DC, downtown Silver Spring and Bethesda where home inventory has been low for over a year now. We simply have too many buyers chasing too few homes. The result has been a steady increase in values and a lot of multiple contracts. There is no reason not to expect the same situation for the coming year. For home buyers this means difficult times ahead.

Many purchasers are losing out on homes because they are not prepared. They are either not getting into see the home in a timely manner or are not writing the best or winning offers. This can be very frustrating. If you are a buyer here are some suggestions that might help you.

1. Find an experienced Realtor and set up a buyer's consultation.
2. Select a lender and make your loan application now.
3. Find a good mobile real estate search app and download it onto your phone and pad.
4. Commit yourself to the process.

When I hold open houses, I am surprised at the number of potential buyers that are out looking at a home but have no affiliation with a Realtor. It tells me one of two things.  Either some of these prospective clients are not seriously looking or they do not understand agency and the importance of having their own advocate who will look out for their interests. A good buyer's agent will not only be there to advise you about the home and surrounding neighborhood but will be ready to act in your interest when you are ready and the need for speed is urgent. Find a good agent and put him or her to work for you.

You must have your ducks in a row as far as the loan process goes. As a listing agent, whenever there are multiple offers, the first thing I do is look for offers that can be weeded out of the process. This serves to help me and the sellers as well. The first offers to get rejected are those that are not perfect financially. To protect my sellers, I need to know with confidence that your loan will get approved. You the buyer must be working with a reliable local lender (forget about getting a loan over the Internet) and have already made application.  Along with your offer, you need to submit a signed financial information sheet, a solid lender's commitment letter and the name of a contact with the mortgage company that I can actually reach by phone. It is important that your lender and loan officer are available for questions from the listing agent. Sometimes a quick phone discussion about a minor detail will make the difference between acceptance and rejection.

If you have been looking at homes on Trulia and Zillow  now it is time to wean yourself off of these web sites and get a good mobile search app that is linked to the local MLS service. I get frequent complaints from clients about how out of date these large web sites can be. In a competitive market you need an app that works all the time and is completely up to date. We live in a world of instant information. In a hot market the quicker you know the better.  Why not start with Keller Williams new mobile app? Click here to download it. Then ask your agent to set you up with a listing alert that will send you new listings as soon as they are placed in the Multiple Listing Service.

This is not a time to be indecisive. Either you have a need to find a new home or you don't. I have seen so many times when a casual buyer walks into my open house on a Sunday and all of a sudden finds themselves in the home of their dreams. However so frequently this sort of buyer is just not prepared to act quickly and as a result they lose out on a home that the should have had.  Don't waste your time and set yourself up for heartbreak. Take the leap and commit to finding your home. Then give me a call. I will make sure that you will get the home that is the right fit for you.

National Zoo

Went to the zoo last week. It has been a while and we took the opportunity of a beautiful, warm February day to sneak down for a few hours in the late afternoon. We thought we would have the whole place to ourselves but as it turns out it was, well, at total zoo. If you like strollers then this was the place to be. It is amazing the stroller culture in the US. Man, some people blow a wad of money on strollers these days. Most interesting to me is the number of older kids who really had no business being pushed around in strollers. These kids are big enough to be running around and really could use the exercise in my opinion. I really think it is a control issue. It is easier for parents to schlep their older kids around in strollers and keep tabs on them. But really now, five year old kids in strollers?

But I digress. The zoo as always is amazing. They have really been pumping some money into the place over the last few years. Biggest improvement is the new "Asia Trail" which is quite nice and fun. Lots of cool animals to see including my favorite, the "Maned Wolf" from Asia. The best kept secret and our favorite place of all is the Invertebrate House located behind and underneath the Small Mammal House. Never a crowd there and lot of cool things going on. Our favorite is the Octopus feeding and the cuttle fish-whenever they have live cuttlefish. Apparently these highly developed invertebrates actually do not live very long (two to three years) and there are periods where they do not have them. However, when they do it is well worth the time to visit the invertebrate house just to see them. Lots of spiders and cool bugs and things for kids to put their hands on.

If you have not been to the National Zoo in a while then put it on your list of places to go revisit. You will be glad you did.

Mold in the home

Here is a link to a recent debate about buyer agency and mold in a home when there is a purchase contract. There are two lessons to be learned here. One is that it really is best for the buyers in a home purchase transaction to have their own representation. The seller's agent has an obligation to treat buyers fairly but whenever an agent is wearing "two hats" in a transaction there is always a greater potential for conflict. The second lesson is that if you are looking at a home and see mold, the a little red flag should go up in your head. Mold in itself is not necessarily a dangerous issue but if it is present in a home, then you need to be aware that the lender usually is going to have problems with it if the problem is not remediated before settlement.

Silver Spring Stage-a good cheap date.

Elizabeth and I have been to a number of performances at the Silver Spring Stage over the years and have always had a great time. Located in the lower depths of the Woodmoor Shopping Center in Four Corners, the SS Stage is an all volunteer troupe with a long history of providing excellent community theater. Tickets for adults run around twenty bucks which is a pretty fair bargain in today's market. We have never been disappointed by a show there and there is not a single bad seat in the house-primarily because it is a pretty small venue. We love it and you should see it for yourself.