• Home
  • Buying?
  • Selling?
  • Archives
  • Contact Jim
  • About Jim

RealCentralVA.com

Charlottesville's Real Estate Blog. Buyer &/or Seller Representation, Real Estate News

You are here: Home / General Real Estate / Buying a House? Talk to Planners First

Buying a House? Talk to Planners First

June 9, 2014 1 Comment

Things change. Especially so when it’s some else’s property. Spend some time at GIS sites and look at historical photos – everything changes.

The things I dream about …

Realtor.com (or Zillow, or NestRealty or  Sitegeist + Charlottesville Tomorrow + Geocoded Locality Planning data:.

I’ve said for years that if you buy a house and are expecting that field (or house) across the way to stay that way you’d best buy it yourself.

In response to my note last month, I received this insightful email: (a few edits for clarity and bolding are mine)

I will say this about the questions “what it’s like to live here” as a planner I wish that the local realtors would tell potential buyers in the county (or City) are those areas that are within the development area and those in the rural. It always amazes me when people get upset about development on an adjacent property when they moved to the development areas. It would be awesome if they were told, “this is the development area so see that nice forested property? It may be developed in the future.” Not sure if you are “allowed” to give that info, but I am always amazed by people who get angry that didn’t know they bought in a development area. I think it should be added to the MLS, so buyers ask the question of what does that mean.

I make sure my clients are as aware as possible about the risks posed by adjacent properties and what they need to do to educate and prepare themselves.

As far as the MLS having development-area information: the flaw is almost always the human. Whether a house is in the development area would have to be an automated or required field, as many Realtors inputting property data neglect to specify basic data points such as whether a property has high speed internet.

Better yet, wouldn’t it be cool if there was an app that pulled locality data from Albemarle County’s County View and stories from vetted local sources, such as, say, Charlottesville Tomorrow (and RealCentralVA)?

Charlottesville’s going to be changing MLS’ this year and now would be the time to do this. At the same time, how about making “hardwired internet – Yes/No?” Plus a speedtest required fields. Darn it.

Share this:

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google
  • Pocket
  • Pinterest
  • Print

Filed Under: General Real Estate

Comments

  1. Mark says

    June 11, 2014 at 09:29

    Caveat emptor still works.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badgeShow more posts

Monthly Notes

Daily updates too much? One email a month? Yes please!

(I'll never spam you)

Email Updates in Your Inbox

We respect your email privacy

About Jim Duncan

I am a Realtor/Broker/Partner with Nest Realty in Charlottesville, Virginia. The goal of this site/blog remains unchanged in the nearly 10 years since its founding – to provide clear, coherent and unbiased analysis of the Charlottesville area real estate market.

Learn More

Load More...
Follow on Instagram

Looking for something? Find it!

Resources

  • Ask Jim
  • Buying a Home
  • Selling a Home

This work by Jim Duncan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Top Posts & Pages

  • A Few Charlottesville Area Hikes for Kids
  • A few of My Favorite Hikes around Charlottesville
  • Dominion Power's Water Line Replacement Program - What is It?
  • Checking Internet Connectivity before you Buy a Home
  • Disclosures versus Disclaimers - caveat emptor to a lesser degree
  • March Note: Railroad & a Blog Post & Appraisals in a Vacuum
  • Dr. Seuss and Charlottesville - What’s the Connection?
  • Builder's Bankrupt - What about the Warranty?
  • Nest Realty Annual Report 2017

Copyright © 2018 · Jane Theme By, Pretty Darn Cute Design

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.