Washington, DC (CNN Business) It wouldn't happen for months, if not years. But Amazon's eventual arrival in Northern Virginia and Queens has already sent shockwaves through two surrounding real estate markets.

Mara Gemond , a longtime Arlington, Virginia, realtor, never did much business in the dingy cluster of office buildings next to Reagan Airport known as National Landing (formerly Crystal City) — until news broke last week that Amazon would probably be splitting its 50,000-employee second headquarters between there and Long Island City in New York. (Amazon confirmed the location of HQ2 Tuesday.)

All of a sudden, the two-bedroom condo in a 1980s-era building that had been sitting on the market for nearly three months with no offers, even after a price cut, had a flood of interest. Gemond did eight showings in one day, for people who wouldn't tell her why they were interested — but who she suspects were either investors looking to flip the property or rent it out at an inflated rate, or people from companies planning to locate near Amazon if it moves in.

"It feels like that moment in a horse race where all the horses are lined up in the starting gate," says Gemond. "They're just antsy and ready to get going, they're waiting for that gate to be lifted."

It's not just her. The real estate listing website Redfin found searches in the first six days of November grew 345% from the same period last year in National Landing and 659% in Long Island City.

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