Who’s going to be first?

Posted on June 4, 2008 by Jim Duncan

Pure speculation with no local knowledge to add -

I wonder how K Hovnavian’s development in Greene County is doing? I believe that they don’t put all of their properties into the MLS, so there is no accurate method by which to determine their specific market segment is doing. Buyers and employees have to be concerned in light of this news. (read the comments, too)

Related reading:

Not used to Northern Virginia traffic are you?

K Hovnavian slashing development

Where is the senior housing?

Buying new construction without a Realtor? Read this first!

About Jim Duncan

A Charlottesville Realtor who tries to stay on the bleeding/cutting/functional edge of technology and real estate trends. I have been selling real estate for the past 10 years, lived in C'Ville for twenty+ and am married to one of few Charlottesville natives left.
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  • John

    Why can’t I sell my home in Greene County! I’ve been on the market since mid-December and have dropped my price by close to $45,000 putting the cost per sq. foot at $136.74. Yet, I am getting little to no traffic. The home is in a good neighborhood and is conveniently located near GE, NGIC, etc. What gives!

  • http://www.realcentralva.com Jim Duncan

    Here is John’s house, and here is everything that is active in the Willow Creek development.

    Additionally, this is everything that has sold in Willow Creek since September of 2007; nothing has sold (or gone under contract( since the first of the year. *

    I cannot give specific advice, as you are currently represented by another Realtor.

    * Per the Charlottesville MLS.

  • John

    Jim -

    Perfectly understand not being able to give specific advice. Just tossing my “rant” out there to see what the group at large thinks. The lack of activity in Greene in general is a bit of a curiosity to me. When we moved to the area we felt one had to pay a market premium to live in Albermarle County that could be avoided by living in Greene. Our experience at this juncture, though, is that while we avoided the in-bound premium we are now paying an out-bound premium in order to leave. The adage of no free lunch comes to mind . . .

    - John

  • Matt Sommer

    Hovnanian, Beazer, Standard Pacific, WCI, race to the bottom! Or did Levitt or TOUSA already win?

    I see the mindset of these companies as being similar to that of Detroit automakers. Instead of looking into the future and seeing how they need to adapt, they just milk the last fading profits of stale business models.

    Looking at the KHov listings you linked to, I see one home with a heatpump, the rest are all fueled by liquified propane gas. LPG bills can be a killer in the winter months.

    The quality of insulation, and windows and doors is probably minimal, and I have read of warranty fights over mold problems in KHov homes because they didn’t even use basic plastic wrapping (Tyvek) under the exterior, which also allows more air infiltration.

    Perhaps they felt that older customers expect the “quality and comfort” of gas heat, but the typical cheap systems, with oversized BTU capacity causing short cycling and inadequate ductwork causing noise and uneven temperatures, are not really so comfortable.

    As LPG prices rose, I decided a couple of years ago to replace the old furnace with a heat pump. I finally did it last fall and saved a LOT of money and was more comfortable to boot, as the unit ran longer, cycled less, and kept temperatures more even floor to ceiling. (No, I don’t sell heat pumps, although I have worked in the trade, and installed my own.)

    I know I’m in the minority of people who pay attention to these things, but I wonder Jim, do you see more people considering what it will cost to heat and cool their new home?

  • John

    Big news! I sold my house on Friday!! Looking forward to a mid-July close. From soup-to-nuts it took roughly six full months to find a buyer. Additionally, while we had to reduce our price in Ruckersville, our builder in Charlotte had to reduce his price by almost as much to close his sale to us. Net/net, we came out of this almost whole!

    - John

  • http://www.realcentralva.com Jim Duncan

    John -

    A big congratulations to you. Good luck getting to closing; as I tell all of my clients – buyers and sellers – often the real work begins at Contract.