Trust. Hard-earned, and easily lost.

“My friend told me that I should …” Is your friend in real estate? No. Does your friend live in the area? No.

But you trust your friend. You want to trust your friend. I get that. I want to trust my friends (and family) too. Yet … heed the advice of those friends in context of how it’s given, and the expertise of the giver.  

I was thinking of how to structure this segment, and how to capture the jarring feeling when a new client actively mistrusts me (likely, they’ve read a story on the internets advising to “never trust your realtor” or something like that. And that jarring feeling is a reminder that I need to earn the trust of every single person with whom I interact – whether a new client recommended to me by another client, a long-time reader of one of my blogs, or someone who randomly came my way.

First, Download the Nest Report here. Pricing your home as a seller is crucial. Buyers – be smart, and do the legwork. I have advised many buyers to wait, as I vividly recall the calls I received from clients a few years ago (and even some this year!) who were/are under water. I hate those calls.

Now …

I don’t have complete faith in these numbers, for one simple reason – I perceive that a lot of transactions are happening without the MLS. I’d wager that Realtors are involved in at least 90% (admittedly, an arbitrary number) of the off-MLS transactions, but unless I were to scrub tax rolls with MLS transactions, I’m left making educational guesses.

When doing analyses for clients, Albemarle County’s tax site and the City of Charlottesville’s site are fairly functional when seeking to evaluate sub-markets. Example: in the City of Charlottesville, between $350K and $450K, from 1 January to 8 April 2017, the MLS shows 19 transactions and the GIS site shows 24.

From 1 January to 31 March, contracts for all properties up 5% year over year.

New construction up 49% and resales are actually down 5%.

If you are competing directly with new construction, you are in an unenviable position.

I wrote this to a friend last week

Unrelated tip for Sellers:  if there is something wrong/hinky with your house, and you’ve grown accustomed to it, “they’ve never had an issue” is likely not going to fly with buyers who are not accustomed to your house’s idiosyncrasy.

Questions about the market? Call or email me – jim@realcentralva.com or 434-242-7140

If I think about it, I might make this a regular segment … stories from the years that I tend to tell frequently. 

When showing houses, sometimes buyers need to use the bathroom. It happens. Many years ago, I was showing a house with a client who had one of those tiny dogs with her – a pocket dog, if you will. I hadn’t even noticed. Until we get into the home, and I hear my client yelp, and I discover that the dog had pooped on the tile kitchen floor. I handed her paper towels so she could clean it up. She throws the poop in the toilet, and I hear another yelp. The toilet didn’t flush.

At this point, the fear in my stomach is real. How am I going to tell this woman to scoop the poop from the toilet?

Luckily, the solution was simple and less messy … the toilet was turned off, so I turned it on, flushed, and turned the water back off.

But that fear was real. And that, friends, is the reason when a client asks, “May I use the bathroom here?” I respond, “flush first.”

One of our agents recently recounted an encounter with another Charlottesville realtor who remarked in colorful terms how he was only in the business for the money, hated his clients, wanted to make as much as he could and get out early.

Sadly, he’s quite productive.

I’ll gladly tell the rest of the story in person, but that story made me think about something I wrote ten years ago:

Next month

• City of Charlottesville versus the County of Albemarle, or, how these governments arguing about trees and “the environment” seem to miss the forest.
• A value of community, and how it can be there when you need it most.

Thanks for reading.

— Jim
434-242-7140

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Jim Duncan, Nest Realty, 126 Garrett Street Suite D, Charlottesville, VA 22902. Licensed real estate agent in Commonwealth of VA.