Beyond BRAC for Fort Meade

The deadline of September 15th is over for the Fort Meade DISA BRAC moves and the new base commander says the employees are all here. Now he's focusing on beyond BRAC and some smaller, but still substantial, organizations including:

• The Defense Adjudication Activity (DAA) which processes security clearances for the DOD and their contractors. This facility will employ about 760 local workers.
• The Defense Media Activities (DMA) which will employ around 650 and is about 70 percent staffed as of August.

And what may turn out to be the largest new command..

• US Cyber Command - I've heard lots of numbers tossed about on the size of this organization including figures as high as 60,000 but that references on and off base jobs so it is very hard to narrow down any specifics or timing. On the Cyber Command website they reference just over 4,000 jobs but that seems to include all bases, not a consolidated Fort Meade. Regardless it appears this will continue to bring people to our area for the much needed protection of our National networks and computer systems. And it could actually dwarf the 5,200 (est) DISA employees.

As predicted there were definitely more rentals than sales with the BRAC real estate boom. And home owners who were waiting for the advent of BRAC to increase the value of their homes are now left with a property that is actually worth less than it was a year ago as values on most properties continue to decline. Some notable exceptions were the homes closest to the base in areas like Crofton, Odenton, Severn, Gambrills, Piney Orchard and Columbia where properties in the lower range (under $200k) and the high range (over $450k) actually maintained and in some cases briefly increased a small bit in value. For a brief spurt we saw luxury homes in nearby Severn and Odenton selling quickly and close to asking price.

However, real estate inventory in popular areas like Piney Orchard, Crofton, Odenton and Severn climbed throughout the Summer and we just didn't have enough buyers to absorb them. That has kept prices down and homebuyer incentives up. We've also seen a larger influx of foreclosure homes and short sales and thos numbers too are expected to increase.

It's certainly not all doom and gloom in our area when it comes to the real estate market and that is not the picture that I want to paint. We are completely blessed when compared to other areas in the U.S. Well priced homes that are properly prepared and advertised on-line are still selling in 60 days or less. Our team average is staying right at 45 days. And the volume of sales (for our team) is actually up substantially over last year as families take advantage of amazing fixed interest rates as low as 3.5% on a 30 year mortgage and great prices and buyer incentives such as closing help.

If you are a homeowner planning to place your property on the market, make sure you've done your homework to:

1. Choose the right real estate agent. One who has experience in your area and good Internet visibility through their personal and company websites.
2. Employ good staging techniques (staging services are FREE with our listing contracts).
3. Have great wide angle digital photos displayed in a slideshow that depicts a "walk through" order of how a visitor would tour your home. Bad photos will guarantee you get fewer showings! Buyers are looking on-line now before they even contact an agent to view homes. They are choosing the homes they want to see based on how they are shown on-line. If your Realtor hasn't invested in a good 35mm DSL camera they haven't invested in your successful sale. And who wants to see photos of the living room next to the photo of the master bath? Put those photos in order to make it more visually appealing to buyers.
4. Make sure that your home is prominently on-line including the military related real estate websites which are key to the Fort Meade area! This should be something your Realtor is investing in by affiliating with local, national and military related websites that are critical to our area. And the costs for those sites should be paid for by your Realtor!

This will ensure your home will be closer to the quick sale range of 60 days than the Anne Arundel County market average of over 120!