I have been building this list since Monday and have a fairly wide range of links – Trulia alerts Hard work required to stage a home There’s no inflation — except for necessities Understanding home…
Date Archives June 2007
All the agents wanted my business!
Many of my clients are sounding boards for my ideas, mini-focus groups if you will. The following is a snip from a conversation I had this morning with one of my favorite clients.Me: Did you know about buyer’s agency before we started working together?A: No.Q: What did you do when you wanted to see a house?A: I’d call the agent and ask if I could see it.Q: Did any of them explain agency to you?A: Sure!… (buh-dum-bum)What is a Buyer-Broker?Being Selective (sample Buyer Agency Agreement – pdf)Competent representation is more crucial than ever, particularly in this market. I am working on a horror story now about the consequences of not having representation.
State of the nation’s housing
Harvard’s paper is here. If you love data, check it out. There is nothing there specific to the Charlottesville area, but insight may be extrapolated to our area – notably immigration’s rise, baby-bust’s influence, waning affordability, – it’s all there.
Charlottesville Neighborhoods – Woolen Mills
Located East of the Downtown Mall and flanked by largely by 250 East and 20 South and more specifically is “bounded on the north by East High Street…. Biking distance to the Downtown Mall and Pantops for shopping (although driving to Pantops would be a better route if you’re concerned with self-preservation) and a very active homeowners’ organization (not Association) Albemarle Historical Society:“The Woolen Mills neighborhood is one of the earliest textile mill villages in the South, and though the neighborhood is threatened by development pressures, it remains largely intact,†says Historical Society executive director Dr. Douglas Day. “This exhibit is a labor of love, by a neighborhood with a mission, it is the kind of project we’d like to encourage from each of the area’s historic neighborhoods.â€Topography: Gently rolling hillsHousing Prices: Unfortunately, there is no good way to search for homes for sale in the Woolen Mills area, other than looking at the results and knowing which streets are within the Woolen Mills ‘hood…. Meade Park is quite closeBroadband Internet Coverage: 100%- A recent podcast- A little bit of political controversy.- They have their own website.- Charlottesville Community Design Center- The Neighborhood Plan laid out by the City (PDF)Don’t miss one of the coolest displays of housing data there is, showing growth over the past 100 years.For those residents of Woolen Mills – what do you love about your neighborhood?
One of the best real estate resources on the web
Is Todd Carpenter’s real estate blog search engine, whereby one can search 950+ real estate blogs, all of which have been vetted by Todd. Naturally, this search engine is made possible by Google, who provide the tools for people to use. If you’re looking for real estate information and don’t want to wade through the billions of pages Google indexes, try Todd’s smaller subset (it’s on the right side of this page, too)…. As a fellow real estate blogger, my thanks to Todd for his hard work; it is an asset to the community, large and small.
Interest rates in the Charlottesville area
With the average interest rate for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage jumping to 6.74%, I asked Carl Heimlich with C&F Mortgage to pen a quick note on what is happening in the mortgage market…. The Producer Price Index (wikipedia), the government’s key measure of inflation at the wholesale level, was up 0.9 percent in May, compared to a 0.7 percent rise in April…. There was a sell-off in Mortgage Bonds on the news of Central Bank rate hikes in other countries, as these hikes make other global investments more attractive than our US Bonds for those seeking higher yields…. There are many good deals out there right now, I would recommend that you check with your Realtor and if you find the right deal, lock in your rate as soon as possible.
Building credibility takes time
Much like Technorati rankings give greater authority to those blogs with more inbound links from other blogs with authority, being quoted in local media outlets is similar. Even though internet access reached majority of the American populace, many are not familiar with blogs, much less real estate blogs…. Charlottesville is lucky to have an aggregator of most of the local blogs.A client who is relocating out of the area asked me the other day what advice/tips I had for her as she will be entering the family business of real estate when she moves…. This knowledge will set you apart for your clients and potential clients.- Get started at Greg’s real estate blog taxonomy and Rain City Guide, the two preeminent real estate blogs in the country.