|
A: We work mostly in Northern Virginia. Our most active Virginia counties are Alexandria, Arlington, Prince William, Stafford, Culpeper, Fauquier and Loudoun. We also work in the cities surrounded by these counties, including McLean, Vienna, Manassas, Manassas Park and Falls Church. These are our most active market areas -- we will work outside these areas as well.
A: Yes, in Virginia! You can also search rentals and land on our MLS search.
A: We don't sell any of your information -- it's confidential by our code of ethics. We may contact you via email or phone if you so request or you use any services of this site that asks for this information. If you don't wish to be contacted, state that and we will respect your wishes. Most of our business is referral-based and we simply don't focus on blind prospecting.
We are active in efforts to reduce spam email on the internet. We are a member of Project Honeypot, a project that is continiously collecting information on those who practice email harvesting. In fact, there are secret honeypots on this site to trick the harvesters into being blacklisted (don't go trying to find these pages or you may be blacklisted by many internet sites - here's an example you can safely look at). Honeypot links are hidden from human view but not from automated harvesters. See the bad guys we caught, already. Plan and simple, we hate spam and we don't send it to you. In fact, we don't keep email addresses anywhere on this site, just in case.
A: Yes! Follow the instructions in our MLS Finder search engine. You may store multiple searches as well. If they change (listings added or modified), you will get notified if you so desire. In these cases, we require an email address because that's how the system remembers you and communicates its findings. From time to time we may call or email those with saved searches if we know of properties that fit those search criteria as properties go on the market (you will then get a one-day jump on others who are searching properties since most public MLS systems update daily). If you don't want to be called, enter all zeros as your phone number.
A: Well, you could bookmark either. We made a "dummy" URL that is easy to remember and will be constant if we change the way we provide MLS searches in the future. The address that will be valid even if we change MLS providers will remain constant at http://mls.NorthernVaHomes.net
A: It's an eye-test, agreed. The engine is trying to get everything on one page. If you're not so eagle-eyed, just print the listing without the print friendly feature. More pages, but you can read them. And don't feel bad, none of us are that eagle-eyed, either. Also, keep in mind that driving around somehow makes print even smaller.
A. Call us. You could do this with the MLS Finder, but we may not get your email in time.
A: Yes! We are members of the National Association of Realtors®. We are also members of the local chapter, Northern Virginia Association of Realtors®.
A: Good question. Here's the simplified answer. It's probably familiar because there were newspaper articles on how MLS is shared in the recent past. This is a holdover from the "olden" days where each broker had a paper book of listings, then they started sharing informally, then it got complicated!
The MLS you see on this or any other site is controlled by a consortium of real estate boards that are members of the National Association of Realtors® (called NAR in the industry). NAR is marketed under the Realtor® branding. Our local board is called NVAR and our regional database is known in the trade as MRIS. For branding purposes, MLS is the name used in the public to denote the aggregation of MRIS with all other regional databases (which are similar, but different than each other).
Each board determines what the public can see versus what a member real estate agent can see so the public MLS is limited. Further, the information given to the public is a copy of the real databases and may be stale by a day or two (perhaps longer). Providing the public with direct access to a regional database is a Terms of Service (TOS) violation.
The only reliable way to get complete, up to the minute information is by working with a Realtor®. Generally, buying a home is a big investment so why wouldn't you want all available information in real time? So public MLS is good for getting the "big" picture, but that's about it.
A: Yes! You can search our MLS for Northern Virginia properties, or any other properties provided by our MRIS database. This includes some properties in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, too. Our search is open to all and includes everything available to the public consistent with our Terms of Service.
A: Absolutely! Go to our contact us page.
A: Absolutely! Because the design part of our business is graphic-intense, there is a section of the website devoted to picture exchange.
If you are a client with a signed agreement (either buyer agency or listing agency agreement), you may have two-way access to the Gallery. As always, our information is confidential so you are in complete control of your Gallery area (it is initially setup so only you have access -- you may change that to add another client or the general public).
You may upload your pictures or download your pictures in bulk using the "shopping cart" feature which will give you all your selected pictures in a .zip file. Just click on the Gallery button to go to that area.
We have some interior design examples that the general public may see to get an idea of our design portfolio and what the gallery would be like. Go ahead and take a test drive!
Q: Why do you require the verification code with those funny numbers and letters?
A: These are termed CAPTCHAs in the industry. In general, you will see these if your IP address has been associated with email harvesting. Unfortunately, we had to institute this practice because of internet spamming. You may be presented with a series of random letters and numbers to re-type. This proves you are a human and not a spam-bot. We suppress CAPTCHA displays if your IP address checks out, so you shouldn't see them as a general rule.
Q: What's the del.icio.us thing on the home page?
A: del.icio.us ("Delicious", get it?), now owned by Yahoo, is the leader in the newest wave of bookmark (favorites) sharing. Called "social bookmarking", this service allows you to save your bookmarks on the internet either for your use at another computer (so you don't have to try to remember your favorites) or to share with the public. These sites may replace (or at least supplement) search engines because websites are getting real votes in the real world. Try it out -- it's free. If you bookmark us, please make it public! To sign up, visit del.icio.us.
A: Please see our technical support page.
Q. Do you share links?
A: Yes, that page is here.
| Anna Fortune |
|
