Kincaid Forest is located directly off the new Battlefield Bridge and is just a few blocks away from the Kincaid community pool and W&OD trail. MI homes started clearing the lots shortly after the bridge was opened in 2009.
M/I plans on only building 38 units in this particular project. M/I will feature it’s Callaway III floor plan which can be customized with bumpout and upgrades. Here are a few highlights:
24’ Townhomes
All Brick fronts
3 bedroom /2.5 bath/ 3 level standard
Callaway III floor plan
Starting price is $361,990-$387,840
Delivery dates June/July
Community amenities include a pool, trails, tennis courts, and basketball courts. Kincaid Forest is also just a few short steps away from the W&OD trail and small but well built community park. This should be the last open plot in the Kincaid Forest development. I’ll be interested to see what the finished project will look like. Check back here in a couple of months when I revisit Kincaid Forest.
Take care,
Chuck
Serving all of your Ashburn, Leesburg, Mclean and Loudoun County area Real Estate needs!
Tags: kincaid forest, MI homes leesburg, real estate leesburg
If you have ever driven past Ashburn Farms heading towards Belmont Ridge Rd you have then certainly seen( and have been caught in) all the construction in that area. The project you are seeing (or stuck in) is called Goose Creek Village. Named of course for the majestic Goose Creek that broader the development. The project was first planned and started by Centex homes which later sold out to Pulte. Here are a few highlights you should know about the project if you are considering moving into the neighborhood:
- The Goose Creek project in Ashburn has several phases:
- Townhouses( two building phases)
- Retail shopping ( currently there is a Walgreens, Harris Tweeter and a gas station)
- Commercial and office space (this part should be very interesting given the glut of current vacant office space).
- The total project will encompass 174 acres and 700 townhomes
- The townhomes current starting price is $329,000 for a 3 bedroom / 2.5 bath unit (appx 2,000 sq feet) with only two different floor plans available. I wouldn’t be surprised to see newer floor plans in the second phase of building( at least I hope so)
- Although the website claims that Goose Creek will “deliver a true Main Street experience unmatched in Loudoun County”. There are however, a few other neighborhoods that are in the area that offer a very similar look and feel. For example, Belmont Greene, parts of Lansdowne, Brambleton, South Riding and even Ashburn Village to larger extent offer walkable neighborhoods anchored by shopping and entertainment options.
What are the negatives about The Goose Creek project?
- Its location is a double edged sword. Yes, it is right on the Greenway which is convenient however; it is right on the Greenway which can be loud! Also, most commuters really hate paying the $4 one way tolls. If you skip the toll road you will fight traffic through some of the most congested roads in that part of Ashburn.
- Not much of a mix of residential units. Have you ever pulled into a neighborhood to visit a friend and wondered how the heck anyone can tell the difference between the homes? Well, this is looking to be like one of those neighborhoods. Centex and Pulte are only offering two different floor plans so for the most part all the units will look alike on the outside and feel the same on the inside.
- Although I have not seen the master parking plan I suspect that parking is going to be a bear with 700 townhomes so close together. If you are lucky (and Pulte is smart) they will give everyone 2 dedicated parking spots. This means however, that your guests are S.O.L when they come to visit you.
Where would I go if I was in the market for a townhome in the $329,000 range in the Ashburn, Brambleton and Leesburg area? We’ll, I’m glad you asked( its what I do for living you know!)I like Belmont Greene and Belmont County Club which are both less the 5 miles from Goose Creek. Both neighborhoods are fully built so you will not have to guess what the builder will or won’t put next to you. For the most part both have mixed use elements to them and are easily walkable. One of my personal favorite neighborhoods in terms of similar developments is Brambleton. Lots of stores, lots of floor plans, different building models and builders.
I give Goose Creek Village 2 out 5 stars
Want to find Ashburn Real Estate or Loudoun County Real Estate for FREE? Checkout my free (no registration required) MLS search. Ready to list your home? Checkout my blog on Lockboxes and “What to Look for When Hiring A Super Realtor”.
Take care,
Chuck
Serving all of your Ashburn, Leesburg, Mclean and Loudoun County area Real Estate needs!
Tags: Ashburn Belmont Country Club real estate, ashburn properties, ashburn real estate, homes for sale in Ashburn, leesburg homes for sale, real estate ashburn, remax leesburg
What makes a SUPER Realtor?
We all know a Realtor, right? It’s sometimes a family member, a friend at work, the guy stocking shelves at Wal-Mart…well maybe not the last one? But you want a SUPER REALTOR! How do you pick a Great Realtor to sell your largest investment or help you chose your next home? During my many years as a Realtor I have had many mixed experiences working with Realtors? Rather then calling out other Realtors (low hanging fruit, and very tacky), I thought I would rather tell you what I would look for if I were looking to sell or buy my next house.
- Commitment: Is the Realtor ready to make the time necessary to meet your needs. This isn’t always about being full time or part time it’s sometimes more about flexibility and organizational skills. I have met plenty of full times Realtors who never return phone calls, can’t figure out addendum’s, have sloppy contracts, or my biggest pet peeve of all, don’t update there listings.
- Monetary investment: Can your agent invest in the marketing of your home. My average investment in marketing a house usually runs several thousand dollars. This includes everything from hanging the sign, professional stager, virtual photographer, and color brochures to subscriptions to websites and technology investments (360 tours, auto feedback, lock boxes {checkout my blog on lock boxes} online real estate docs etc. All of these investments are made without receiving the first CENT. Now image listing 6 to 10 houses at a time?
- Education: As I think most of us know by now the bar to become a Realtor is low. There are required classes one must take and a state test that you have to pass but for the most part its fairly easy. I would ask any Realtor that wanted to work for me what type of continuing education the agent has taken since becoming a Realtor. I personally carry the Broker designation (must be a full time Realtor for at least 3 years, take 180 hours of class room course work and pass a national and state administered test), ABR, Accredited Buyer representative (advanced buyer techniques) and CDPE, Certified Distressed Property Expert (training with distressed property such as short sales and foreclosures). Other designations that I like (and have not gotten around to taking) are E-Pro (advanced web technology training), Green and GRI. I would also ask if your Realtor has attended any Realtor conferences? Realtor conferences are extremely important because of the timely topics that are often discussed such as new trends and changes to Real Estate laws and policies. By asking this question you will also know just how connected your Realtor is with the rest of the Realtor community. Engaged Realtors are successful Realtors.
- People Skills: It almost goes without saying that one must have good people skills to be in sales. Think about it, if your agent lacks people skills how will he or she work with a fellow Realtor. Do you really want someone to negotiate on your behalf that has no people skills.
- Location, Location, Location: Hiring a local Realtor is critical!! A local Realtor will know things about a neighborhood, local builders, proposed county projects and schools that no web search site will ever know. I would flat out ask during the interview where was the last house they “SOLD either as a listings agent or buyers agent”.
- Embrace Technology: Does your Realtor embrace all the new technology being used to find and sell real estate in today’s market? Does he or she have a Blog, Twitter account, Facebook profile or You Tube account? What about auto reply feedback, daily market availability emailed directly to you? When you google your agents name how many hits do you get? If you google a recent listing how many hits come up? Ask him or her to define Social Media. Btw, if he or she tells you that they market in the local paper, RUN!!!
What qualities in a Realtor do you think I’ve missed? Let me know?
Take Care,
Chuck Rifae
Serving all of your Ashburn, Leesburg, Mclean and Loudoun County area Real Estate needs!
Tags: ashburn real estate, homes for sale in Ashburn, Leesburg Real Estate, real estate agent leesburg, real estate agent loudoun county, real estate ashburn, real estate leesburg, real estate listings ashburn, real estate loudoun county, remax ashburn, remax leesburg
So, it’s all most time to go back to work right? Well, before we can really hit the road and go back to our workaholic ways let’s take a quick look at 2009 shall we……
Hope you enjoyed!!
Take care and see you in 2010!!
Chuck
Serving all of your Ashburn, Leesburg, Mclean and Loudoun County area Real Estate needs!
Tags: ashburn properties, ashburn real estate, ashburn remax, home sales in loudoun, Housing info ashburn, leesburg homes for sale, Leesburg Real Estate, real estate ashburn, remax ashburn, remax leesburg
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!
Enjoy this rocking Video!!!
Serving all of your Ashburn, Leesburg, Mclean and Loudoun County area Real Estate needs!
Take care,
Chuck
Tags: leesburg homes for sale, leesburg homes search, leesburg listings, leesburg mls search, real estate agent ashburn, real estate agent leesburg, real estate agent loudoun county, real estate ashburn, real estate leesburg, remax agent ashburn, remax agent leesburg, remax ashburn, remax leesburg, remax loudoun county remax agent loudoun county, remax purcellville
Have you ever wondered what type of lockbox was on your door?
Did you think that all Realtors use the same lockboxes and lockbox keys?
Has your Realtor spoke to you about a plan B?
Want to know what the heck I’m talking about? Checkout my video blog below!
Hope you enjoyed the video don’t forget to leave a comment!
Thanks,
Chuck
Serving all of your Ashburn, Leesburg, Mclean and Loudoun County area Real Estate needs!
Tags: ashburn real estate, Leesburg Real Estate, loudoun county real estate, real estate agent ashburn, real estate agent leesburg, real estate loudoun county, remax ashburn, remax leesburg, remax loudoun county
1. 1. Headline: “ Angry Wife Chases Tiger into the
Woods”
2. 2. I didn’t know a 4 Iron can be
used as the Jaws of life
3. 3.
Mrs. Tiger Woods just did her Tweet Cloud for
past four days. Most popular words are Kill, Castrate and 50%.
4. 4. Tiger Woods must have been fading when he hit
that tree and fire hydrant!
5. 5. Lucky for Tiger Woods, his wife has a hook in
her swing and not a slice.
6. 6. The new EA Game Tiger Woods will involve dodging
the angry wife in nightdress swinging at you? Must avoid the fire hydrants and
trees while driving backwards.
7. 7. First time Tiger couldn’t drive 300 yards.
8. 8. Difference between Tiger Woods hitting a wedge
and driving an Escalade? He can back up the wedge….
9. 9. Breaking News: Tiger Woods has just signed on to
be spokesman for Safelite Auto Glass...
10 10. Cadillac
brings out the black in Tiger, Asian in him caused him to hit the tree— Wanda Sykes
Bonus ( We all need a little bonus every now and then)
I Insert your Joke HERE"……………………………"
Enjoy!
Chuck
Tags: real estate ashburn, real estate leesburg, remax ashburn, remax leesburg, Tiger Woods Jokes
So, what’s in the new Home Buyer and Jobless Bill for you! Here
are some quick facts everyone should know about the bill;
- The total
cost of the bill is estimated to be $24 billion. The Bill will cover both unemployment benefits and housing. - Unemployment
benefits will be extended for an additional 14 extra weeks. If your state
has unemployment above 8.5% you will get 6 more additional weeks for a
total of 99 weeks of unemployment. The average unemployment check is $300
per week. - The
housing buyer credit will be extended until June 30th. This
means (very important) that you must be under contract by April 30th and close by June 30th . Very important!!!! - There
is a new $6,500 buyer’s credit for repeat buyers. You Must have lived/owned
your principle home for the last 5 years to qualify for this credit.
Here is a quick break down of the differences between the old and new bills:
Need more info on the tax credit?
- Boston Globe
- Bloomberg
- National Association of Realtors FAQ Most commonly asked questions!!!
- Download Extended tax credit Cheat sheet
Take care,
Chuck
Serving all of your Ashburn, Leesburg, Mclean and Loudoun County area Real Estate needs!
Tags: $8, 000 tax credit, 000 tax credit info, ashburn home search, ashburn properties, ashburn real estate, leesburg home search, leesburg properties, Leesburg Real Estate, loudoun county blog, loudoun county homes for sale, loudoun county properties, loudoun county real estate, New $8, real estate agent home search, remax ashburn, remax leesburg
Why is important to get rid of HVCC? We’ll let’s start at
the beginning shall we…? A long, long time a ago in a distant parallel universe
someone got the idea that loaning money to unqualified buyers and then
reselling the loans as investment vehicles was a great IDEA! So good in fact,
that if you could fog up a mirror and one of the three blind mice could vouch
for the properties value that you were buying than you could get a loan. And
not just any loan I mind you! I loan that is guaranteed to self destruct the minute
you walk off the closing table! But hey, this is a parallel universe were
Bankers with MBA’s and Greenspan rule all the dark forces around us. And
everyone knows that home values never go down! Crazy Talk!
Okay, fast forward to today and our reality. Our new bosses
have to now prove to the world that they are not asleep at the wheel like the
old bosses (does everyone know this song… In with the new boss… Same as the
old boss… love that song okay back to the story). So, rules started flying off
the shelves. Now you need to give fluid samples and swear a triple swear pinkie
shake before a bank will even look at you. Our new bosses also imposed new appraisal
rules just to make sure there is no funny business with home values. This
brings me to the HVCC program. Did I lose you? Are you wondering what appraisals
had to do with banks giving out bad loans and then reselling them? Fear not, so did everyone else in the Real Estate business!
So, you are probably thinking “what’s the Big Deal with strengthening appraisal rules?” I say nothing! Having one of the three blind mice vouch for
the value of a half million dollar home is probably not a good idea. However,
sending an appraiser from another county or another state to determine the
value of a home in an area that he or she is unfamiliar with is not a well thought-out
plan. And hence comes the rub. The new HVCC rules prohibit banks from directly
hiring appraisers. This means that if you are a bank and you have a qualified
applicant that has both given you fluids and promised you his first born you
must then call a third party vendor who is located somewhere around Pluto to do the appraisals.
This vendor then sends out a bid request for anyone willing to appraise your
house. The bids are granted based on…drum roll please…… LOWEST BID. Shocker
right! Now you’re probably thinking this should at least drop the cost of appraisal
right? Wrong! The average appraisal price has increased by as much as 100%. Well,
then I bet appraisal’s get done twice as fast as they used to… Wrong again, it’s
taking an average 14-20 business day to get appraisals done (Pluto is very far
away you know). I used to see appraisals get done in 3-5 days!
So, it gives my heart joy to know that our dear bosses are
thinking of scrapping the HVCC system. May I also add that if our Dear Bosses
need suggestions on how to fix our parallel universe problems that they just
pick up a phone and speak to someone that does this for a living? Those MBA Wall
Street banker guy’s are great at golf but suck at just about everything else
that happens in the Real World.
The End
Take care,
Chuck
Serving all of your Ashburn, Leesburg, Mclean and Loudoun County area Real Estate needs!
Tags: ashburn real estate, HVCC rules, Leesburg Real Estate, loudoun county real estate, remax ashburn, remax leesburg
Belmont Country Club is one of only a handful of exclusive gated communities in the Eastern Loudoun County area. Nestled between Ashburn and Leesburg this community is directly off of Rt 7 and is only a few minutes away from the Greenway and the new Wegamans shopping center.
Like most gated communities of this type Belmont Country Club boosts a full array of amenities such as a club house, tennis courts, pool, volleyball pit and of course what country club would be complete without the 72-par Arnold Palmer Signature golf course!
History of Belmont Manor
Belmont Country Club was named after the Manor that sits near the gated community. Belmont Manor traces its origin back to the early 1800’s as a plantation house and home to many notable residents. The Belmont Manor and its grounds are listed on the National Registry as a Historic place and is maintained by the Park Service. This should preserve the manor and the majority of the open space around the manor for future generations!
The Developer
Belmont Country Club was brought by Toll Brother from IBM in early 1995. Toll Brother built and designed the community as a high-end exclusive gated community. The single family homes start in the mid $900’s and can go up to $1.5 million. The townhouses (when they are available) are priced in the low $400’s with a few foreclosures selling in the $300’s recently. Overall Toll Brother’s threw in every possible amenity to make Belmont Country Club its signature high-end home development. You might notice when you first enter the neighborhood that all the lawns are just about prefect. This is no accident; Toll Brothers actually cuts and treats your lawn. No more worries about the one neighbor who can’t seem to take care of their yard. Also included in the HOA fees are high speed internet, basic phone service, walking trails and community activities.
What homes are available in Belmont Country Club now??
Current Availability (as of 10/09) 0(YES THAT IS ZERO)
Under Contract 14
Sold (6/09- 10/09) 16
So, are you ready to get a jump on the next home available in Belmont Country Club? Contact me now and I will put you on my Exclusive Neighborhood watch database. Don’t miss your dream home… EVER!
Serving all of your Ashburn, Leesburg, Mclean and Loudoun County area Real Estate needs!
Take care,
Chuck
Tags: Ashburn Belmont Country Club real estate, ashburn properties, ashburn remax, Belmont Country Club ashburn, homes for sale in Ashburn, Toll Brothers Belmont Country Club
Chuck Rifae
Associate Broker
Premier Realty Group
703-885-1582
Entrepreneur, Real Estate Broker, Avid runner, and soccer dad!
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