To answer your specific questions:

Is it realistic to expect to get at least your property tax value for the selling price?
Property tax value have relatively little connection to actual value. Fairfax County (where I'm guessing you may be) and most other Northern Virginia jurisdictions do try to assess at 100% of market value. But the numbers can be substantially off. Don't rely on tax values at all to determine a selling price. A Realtor can provide comps and a good estimate of your home's value.

Is it best to sell a townhouse before you move all of your furniture?
Be careful. In today's market, you don't want to buy another home before selling an existing one. Sell first, then buy. But--to specifically answer your question--it depends on how the house looks with the furniture, and how it would look without furniture. Most houses benefit from home staging--decluttering, cleaning, and rearranging. So, few houses look in ideal condition with the furniture and set-up that currently exists. However, just in general, houses show better with furniture than without. So you would probably benefit from moving some stuff (big and small) out to open the townhouse up more. But leave the essentials there.

And, lastly, what would be your guess as to how long the house would be on the market prior to getting a contract? We live in the blocks away from the outer beltway, between 2 metro stops, and 2 shopping areas and plan on selling our house in Dec 08 or Jan 09. We purchased the unit in 2000 and have upgraded most of the house.

If a house is properly priced in Northern Virginia (Falls Church, Vienna, Dunn Loring and even around the Beltway in the direction of Alexandria), it'll sell reasonably quickly--30-60 days, most likely. By "properly priced," that means within 10% of the lowest comps...making your house pretty much the least expensive one on the market. (But because you bought in 2000, you should have plenty of equity.) And your house has to show well, too. Sales are stronger the closer to DC you go--very strong in Arlington--and weaker the farther away you go--Fair Lakes, Centreville, etc. Right around the Beltway--inside or outside--is pretty good.

However, you may want to reexamine your timing. The market is very slow in December and January. Yes, some people are looking. But November and December are among the slowest months. If the timing isn't critical, you should wait until at least January, and maybe a month or two later. (One counter-argument to that is that there will be some housing turnover in November and December as a result of the Presidential election. Whoever wins, there will be a lot of Bush people moving out of the area, and a lot of the new President's people moving in. Hmmm....you bought in 2000, moving out in 2008. Are you with the Administration?)

I'm a Realtor in Northern Virginia. Feel free to contact me for further information.

Hope that helps.

Betty, I would suggest getting the advice of a licensed professional regarding all of your questions. I can try to give general answers to them. First, I would say that when it comes to selling your townhouse, I would declutter and neutralize the home as much as possible. I would leave some furniture in the house so that it is staged and gives buyers an idea of what the house could look like with their furniture in it. Also, buyers sometimes see a vacant house as an opportunity to "lowball" an offer. Secondly, the tax value might be a general representation of what your home's value is, but I certainly would not set my expectations that I would get at least tax value for the house. In my area, many of the homes are currently selling for less than their tax values. Market values have been flat or have declined, while the tax rates have continued to escalate. Lastly, I can't answer the time frame for selling your home, especially since I'm not familiar with you area. What I strongly recommend is finding a reputable agent that you can talk to. This agent should be able to give you the average time that townhomes have taken to sell in your neighborhood, as well as what the competition is currently at and answer any other questions that you might have. Good luck in your sale!

The tax value is usually no reflection of what the actual property value is.