Karen Briscoe's Blog

Lynwood is a subdivision of just over 50 homes in McLean, VA near the intersection of Dolley Madison and Georgetown Pike. These colonials, built in the late 70s and early 80s, are located a bit off 123 in McLean and sit on comfortable, roughly third-acre lots. These homes are in HIGH demand, even...

The Silver Line of the Washington DC metro is the silver lining of the Tysons area.  It will cover 23 miles and has four Metrorail stations in the Tysons area alone.  The first phase opened in July 2014 and has changed the landscape of the region.  The Tysons Partnership was formed to build commu...

Real Estate Market UpdateFirst Half 2019 vs.First Half 2018 and 2009 Comparison McLean and Great Falls Flat is the best description of the real estate market performance for the first half of 2019.  Truly I am surprised as there were signs and indicators of more robust activity.  The numbers spea...

Interior or Exterior Motivations It is helpful to understand the source of the motivation for Buyers and Sellers of real estate.   Essentially the urgency is from inside their personal life or situation or the drive to move has an external catalyst.  In order to best be able to help a client, it ...

The objective of almost every Seller I have met wants to sell for the highest price possible and doesn’t want to leave any money on the table.  On the other side, the Purchaser wants to pay the lowest price possible for real estate and, for certain never more than the current market will bear.  T...

The fastest-growing segment of city parks is dog parks, according to the non-profit Trust for Public Land.  A century ago the demand for parks was for playgrounds for children. There has been a demographic shift of more households with dogs (43 million) than with kids (38 million), thus the incre...

In real estate, a ratified contract is when all of the terms have been agreed to in writing and delivered back to the parties. In the case of a home purchase, if there are any contingencies in the contract in most cases the number of days to satisfy that contingency begins at that point. It is li...

Millennials are entering their first-time home buying years in droves.  Our daughter Callie who is in her mid-twenties purchased her first home in Austin 3 years ago.  On closing day her Facebook caption was that she hit another “adulting” checkpoint. It seems “adulting” has become a buzzword amo...

There are numerous factors that determine whether a location is considered highly walkable.  The first is that there is a central location where people congregate. Typically there are numerous businesses and access to public transportation.  The infrastructure design is pedestrian oriented and pl...

Shouse Village is a large Vienna suburban neighborhood of over 250 homes just north of Wolf Trap. These homes are primarily Single Family Homes of the Colonial, split levels and rambler architectural styles. They sit on lush lots, usually around 1/3rd of an acre. The neighborhood attends the McLe...