3rd Quarter 2016 Charlottesville Real Estate Market Report
If you're buying a home in the Charlottesville area right now, this can be a challenging market - some pockets remain extremely competitive (mainly the City of Charlottesville and close-in urban ring markets) - and for other pockets, days on market are up a bit and…
Local Lenders, Close Family, Googling Best Schools + the Charlottesville Market | Note from Jim
Archives of my subscription-only monthly notes. The blog is more searchable. Interested in not waiting a few months to read it? Learn more here. For these posts, I don’t do much formatting/changing as I’m more concerned about simply having the content here (because I own the blog, and…
This Market, Take 2. Blue Apron. Privacy. Pooping babies. | Note from Jim
Archives of my subscription-only monthly notes. The blog is more searchable. Interested in not waiting a few months to read it? Learn more here. For these posts, I don’t do much formatting/changing as I’m more concerned about simply having the content here (because I own the blog, and…
Would You Buy a House In (or near) a Flood Plain?
Buying real estate is (at least for many) a long-term decision. Right? Would you buy or build a house in a flood plain? My advice: don't make a glaringly stupid decision. Would you buy a house near a flood plain? Possibly. Depending on the definition of "near."…
Monthly Note – Market, Slack, & Soccer
Following up on last month's note, I'm writing about Slack, innovation in real estate (and why it's hard to disrupt), some thoughts about coaching soccer, and a bit more. Interested? Two clicks here and you get one email a month - real estate anecdotes, insight,…
Making a Rash Homebuying Decision
Getting my buyer-client to the point where they can make a rash decision. That's my goal. The Charlottesville real estate market - in many ways, it sucks. Really. Sucks. *NB: This applies to a certain segment of the Charlottesville area real estate market - and cannot and…
A Disco Ball, House under Construction, and Trespassing
Well, this is scary. Parents: do you know where your kids are? New construction - not just new homes, new hopes, dreams, operating systems ... but opportunities for thieves to steal tools, vandals to start fires and parties and shootings, apparently. From Richmond: A house…
(Urban) Planning for Self-Driving Cars
I don't know the answers, but it's worth the conversation and awareness. How are Charlottesville/Albemarle/Central Virginia planning for self-driving cars? They're coming. Uber swallows self-driving truck startup Otto for $680 million Columbus’ smart city win may lead to autonomous trucks Local smart city planners want big…
HOA Docs Have some Interesting Things
Saw this story today, "EL DORADO HILLS -- An El Dorado Hills subdivision still has a “whites only” occupancy rule on the books." And remembered (I wrote about this in 2012) this clause from a Charlottesville neighborhood: This particular document was written in 1972. Nineteen. Seventy.…
Monday Reading – AirBnB, Smart Homes, Affordable Housing
"Can I AirBnB this?" is a question a lot more of my clients are asking. Everyone wants to tax AirBnB. Here's how to apply to be taxed at Charlottesville's site. Albemarle County are considering (they will) taxing AirBnb. I wish they would date their documents. Interesting…