More will be coming … Condo project shifts to rentals (in DC)A rant against suburbiaWhat do home sellers want?Fascinating and wide-ranging discussion on affordable housing at cvillenews.Charlottesville’s dirty secret is out. (we have traffic – occasionally lots of it) HT: Waldo.
Date Archives December 2006
Charlottesville has a new logo
Whoo-hooo. HT: Daily Progress.
Buyer beware
Two recent vignettes -Lender story: Three days before closing, a Charlottesville lender, who had not previously given a written GFE (Good Faith Estimate) to the Buyer, somehow added ~$3,000 in mystery fees…. At no point does this agent mention agency.”Agency” means every relationship in which a real estate licensee acts for or represents a person by such person’s express authority in a real estate transaction, unless a different legal relationship is intended and is agreed to as part of the brokerage relationship…. Nothing in this article shall prohibit a licensee and a client from agreeing in writing to a brokerage relationship under which the licensee acts as an independent contractor or which imposes on a licensee obligations in addition to those provided in this article…. A real estate licensee who enters into a brokerage relationship based upon a written brokerage agreement that specifically states that the real estate licensee is acting as an independent contractor and not as an agent shall have the obligations agreed to by the parties in the brokerage agreement, and such real estate licensee and its employees shall have no obligations under §§ 54.1-2131 through 54.1-2135 of this article.Moral to the story?
Zillow cannot adapt
(at least an acre or so, at least 3,000 or so square feet, no more than ~30 minutes to Charlottesville/UVA) After looking at one development and listening to my client on the way, we decided that the first development would work…. So – with my guidance, we eliminated the other two developments/houses from the equation and I took him to another development that was not on the list, but “fit” much better.Zillow cannot know that the quality of construction of this builder is better than that builder. It cannot know that while this builder is better than most, he also has a tendency to deliver the product late (~two months) and that I as the Buyer’s Representative would have to guide my clients through this process. Zillow cannot know from reading this article in the Daily Progress that Glenmore is a high-end development, and as such, its residents carry more “oomph” when they get organized against a proposed development.Until Zillow can make the connections between similar developments, until Zillow can adapt while in the field, they will remain an accessory to, rather than a replacement for, a successful Realtor.
The best cell coverage
I have also heard good things about nTelos.Someone at Slashdot said to ask me. Cell coverage is like real estate – it’s local.Ask your local real estate agent. Someone commented asking a trucker for coverage, but usually highways are very well covered, even by the worst providers because it is easier to towers very near highways. Your local real estate agent will have traveled all over your area, and probably would even be able to tell you which service doesn’t work in what particular neighborhood.