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Q&A with Anita Lasansky
Today's guest is Anita Lasansky. A Realtor and a Reston resident for 35 years, she is managing broker of Long & Foster for Herndon/Reston.
Q: Ms. Lasansky, from your experience, how have home sales been faring since the start of the year?
A: Activity is increasing. We are seeing lot of short sales and bank-owned property sales that have not yet gone to foreclosure. ["Short sales" occur when the mortgage lender agrees to accept a payoff of less than the balance due, in order to avoid foreclosure.]
We are reading a lot about buyers who could not afford their mortgages, when the banks were giving them to "anyone who could fog a mirror"... in other words, anyone who was alive! Those prices are now at the same place where they were in 2003, which was very low. The banks are taking the loss in order to clear out their inventory.
The other sellers are having a hard time. If they don't have to sell, they should wait until next year. We are hoping that by the end of this year, the foreclosures and short sales will have cleared out. Hopefully, the other sellers, who have been paying their mortgages, won't be facing so much competition from houses selling at $200,000 less.
Realtors are involved in short sales. Some do more of them, although I would not say that they are specializing. Some of the properties are listings that they had previously sold to clients who had mortgages with no money down or less-than-perfect credit, so now they are getting those listings back.
Q. Is your own area involved in this trend?
A: It is more true of Herndon and eastern Loudoun, but it is happening in parts of Reston, too. We have a single-family home listed in Sterling at $488,000. Two or three years ago, it was sold for $550,000, but the house next door sold for $380,000, and that was a short sale. How can we deal with that? It is priced well and should be competitive, but there is a $200,000 difference.
On the other hand, these [short sale] houses are generally not in terrific condition and there is competition for them. The buyer would often have to wait three weeks to a month before getting a decision, and there would be two or three offers. Some investors are buying them, as well as people who want to live there. Many buyers don't understand that they might have to spend more than $100,000 to bring the house up to snuff, with new carpeting, kitchens, baths and other things.
The same sort of thing is happening in Herndon and parts of Reston. We have a $330,000 townhouse in the same Herndon subdivision as a short sale for $220,000. But they need a lot of repairs: It might take $40,000 for them.
Q. In your 35 years as a Realtor, have you ever seen a situation like this?
A. I have never seen anything like it. But I could say the same thing about what happened in 2004-2006. I had seen good and bad markets before, but I had never before seen the kind of amazing inflation that happened during those two years, either. So everything may even out.
Q. Should buyers wait to see what happens next?
A. I still think a house is a terrific investment because the prices and interest rates are so low. You can get a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage for 6 percent, and we have had a lot of refinancing, too.
But we are not seeing a lot of no-money-down contracts, the way we did during those crazy years. The lenders are asking for a 5- or 10-percent down payment and excellent credit, which is a good lending practice.
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