transaction

How Many Agents Worked in Arlington Last Year?

elieliresidentialcom Arlington , , , , , , , 0 Comment
How Many Agents Worked in Arlington Last Year?

Question: How many different real estate agents do business in Arlington in a typical year?

Answer: There were 3,535 real estate transactions in Arlington in 2021, well above the 2,770 and 2,782 in the previous two years, totaling over $2.786B in total sales volume, up from $2.16B and $1.96B in 2020 and 2019, respectively.

Most people would probably assume a few hundred different real estate agents worked on those 3,535 transactions, but in fact there were 2,799 different agents who were involved at least one transaction in Arlington last year (remember, most transactions have two agents involved).

I looked over the 2021 Arlington transaction data and pulled out some interesting highlights below. Of note, there are real estate teams that enter all sales under one agent’s name, so in these cases, individual numbers represent the production of multiple agents rolled into one agent’s name (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.

  • 57.9% of the agents who did business in Arlington last year were involved in just one Arlington transaction (many did other business outside of Arlington)
  • Just 3.5% of agents handled 10 or more transactions in Arlington and .6% handled 20 or more transactions
  •  1,894 different agents represented buyers in Arlington and 25 of them (1.3%) worked with 10 or more buyers in Arlington
  • 1,639 different agents represented sellers in Arlington and 42 of them (2.6%) worked with 10 or more sellers in Arlington
  • Of the 1,178 agents who handled 2 or more transactions in Arlington, they averaged 4.5 transactions each
  • Keri Shull and her team once again led Arlington in transactions and sales volume, by a wide margin, participating in roughly 7.9% of the transactions in Arlington and handling just under $160M in Arlington sales volume.

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 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 Eli@EliResidential.com.

If you’d like a question answered in my weekly column or to discuss buying, selling, renting, or investing, please send an email to Eli@EliResidential.com.

Video summaries of some articles can be found on YouTube on the Ask Eli, Live With Jean playlist.

All-Cash Home Purchases

elieliresidentialcom Arlington, Buyer, Seller , , , , , 0 Comment
All-Cash Home Purchases

Question: I just lost a competitive offer to an all-cash buyer. How common are cash buyers in Arlington? How much of a disadvantage am I at?

Answer: I have personally noticed an increase in cash buyers and expected to find a significant increase in the number of cash deals over the last 12-18 months, so I was a little surprised when I ran the numbers and learned that the percentage of homes purchased by all-cash buyers has only increased a few percent in the last couple of years. Since 2019, 17.5% of homes purchased in Arlington have been by all-cash buyers, compared to 14.3% in 2017.

Increased Cash Deals Attributed to Condo Sales

The number of cash purchases in Arlington jumped in 2018 and 2019, likely due to more cash investors getting involved after the Amazon HQ2 announcement in November 2018. This increase is attributed completely to condos (likely investors). The number of buyers paying cash for single-family or townhouse purchases has remained about the same since 2015.

The rate of all-cash purchases seems to be spread pretty evenly across all price-points and housing types. I assumed that the lower priced condos would have a much higher rate of all-cash deals, but it turns out that since 2019 only 20.5% of sub-$400k condo purchases were all-cash, which isn’t much higher than the overall Arlington market.

The chart below shows the percentage of homes sold in Arlington that were bought by all-cash buyers since 2015, also broken out by condo and single-family/townhouse purchases.

Cash vs Mortgage – What’s the Difference?

The idea of getting a cash offer sounds exciting, but what exactly does it mean? After all, a dollar from a lender is worth the same as a dollar from a savings account.

  • Contingencies: Cash buyers don’t need the contractual protection of a financing or appraisal contingency because they don’t need a lender to approve/review anything. This is appealing for sellers because it decreases the possibility of something going wrong that disrupts the sale.
  • Speed: Cash deals can close faster, often in one week or less, than financed deals which usually take at least 3-4 weeks due to the time it takes to process the loan.
  • Security: Cash deals are considered more secure because the purchase funds are already available
  • Cost: Cash deals have lower buyer closing costs because there are no lender fees or lender’s title insurance. Lenders also require a substantial about (usually 1-1.5% of purchase price) of money be pre-paid into an escrow account for future property tax payments and homeowner’s insurance.

Given how competitive the current housing market is, many buyers using a mortgage take steps to make their offers as cash-like as possible by removing the appraisal and financing contingencies and/or working with lenders who can close quickly. For buyers that have taken these steps, there’s very little difference to sellers between their offer and a cash offer.

If you are a seller considering a cash offer, make sure you verify the existence of the cash funds the same way you would verify a buyer’s mortgage qualification with a pre-approval letter. The most common method of verification is to request bank statements, but a letter from the buyer’s bank should also suffice.

If you’d like to discuss buying or selling strategies, don’t hesitate to reach out to me at Eli@EliResidential.com.