The Jamil Brothers Blog

Top 10 Mistakes Rockville Home Sellers Make

Most "seller mistakes" articles tell you not to overprice and to hire a photographer. You already know that. This is not that list. These are the ten things that actually go wrong in Rockville, and most of them are legal or procedural rather than cosmetic. One of them can stop your deed from being r

Selling a House With Unpermitted Work in Fairfax County

A finished basement no one pulled a permit for, a deck the previous owner built one summer, a wall that was moved to open up the kitchen. Unpermitted work is everywhere in Fairfax County's older housing stock, and for a seller it can turn into a stressful surprise the moment a buyer's inspector or a

Polybutylene Pipes: What Fairfax County Sellers of 1980s–90s Homes Need to Know

If your Fairfax County home was built between the late 1970s and the mid-1990s, there is a real chance the water lines running through your walls are made of polybutylene, a gray plastic pipe that was popular for two decades and then quietly discontinued after it earned a reputation for failing with

What Is an Appraisal Gap? How Fairfax Buyers and Sellers Handle Low Appraisals

You have agreed on a price, signed the contract, and everything is moving smoothly, until the appraisal comes back lower than what you agreed to pay. Suddenly there is a gap between the price and the appraised value, and the whole deal is at risk. It is one of the most stressful moments in a transac