It’s the weekend, so I’m tinkering a bit. I want to change the appearance of this site, but cannot decide between this one, this one or this one. What do you think?
Date Archives January 2006
Real estate assistant wanted
We are ready to hire an assistant. Part-time to start, with possibility of full-time and incentive pay in the future. Initially, we are requesting 10am to 1pm every day (flexible for the right person), five days a week. Must have own, reliable transportation (it’s a no-brainer, but you know what happens when you assume), prefer that you have your own laptop, desire to learn, listen and be enthusiastic. Email Jim if you are interested.
Small builders in a large-scale bureaucracy
Wyant said proffers from Wickham Pond could go toward infrastructure, such as the proposed eastern connector, and Supervisor Sally H. Thomas said such a development could limit growth in the rural areas.Excellent point, and one on which I have been masticating for some time. NYTimes:In recent years, the difficulty of getting things built has made business harder for small, local builders and easier for big companies, with their greater resources, to gain control of the housing market. “The large builders have taken the position: we’re just going to fight,” Chris Mayer, a housing economist at Columbia University’s business school, says. ” ‘We have lawyers, we have experts, we have money, we’re going to buy these tracts of land and fight it out’ ” – that, according to Mayer, is their position…. But the local builder who used to have the benefit of knowing the local people – that has become far less important than the ability of the big builders to fight the current regulatory environment.” As Mayer points out, virtually every state in the country now has policies to restrain developers. No matter the region, he says, the small developer is at a tremendous disadvantage.Ryan Homes are already here.
Ideas for future posts
Some good ideas come from the keyword analysis for my blog.
Virginia home sales slow
But the Charlottesville market area remains strong. PDF link here.Virginia’s median existing-home price for November was $197,213, up 20 percent from a year ago when the median was $163,750. The median is a typical market price where half of the homes sold for more and half sold for less.I expect full statistics from CAAR shortly. I did just see that CAAR has previous years’ statistics in XML format; I don’t know how to use this, but I know that it can be used! Help, anyone?
Neat Trick if you’re changing utilities
Whenever one of my clients moves, I give them the local utility phone numbers to change all of their services. I did the same as always yesterday for a client moving into a house in Crozet. I was surprised when I received the following email – The number I used today for Dominion (Power) was 888-782-0455, which took me directly to customer service.Nice thing, after setting up our electric service, I was able to set up our Phone, Cable/Internet (Adelphia), and Newspaper via Dominion.Was a long phone call and very successful.Neat. Simple. I didn’t link Sprint because I hate them. And need a land-line.
Morning Reading (a bit of green)
Interest Rates, not home prices have the greatest impact on “affordability”Simple things to do to prepare your house for the market.Homebuilders’ incentives – this is going to be a more common theme in 2006Perhaps most interesting, “Ready for Everything under the Solar Panel” (thanks to Natural Home & Garden blog). I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – the segment of the market that caters to and specializes in sustainable/renewable/efficient energy and building is poised for significant growth.