Buying a house in 2011 – What Advice do you have now?

in Charlottesville General Real Estate on

Help Jeannine get educated on how to buy a house … Never one to put off day dreaming today about something that won’t be reality until tomorrow, I’ve already started to casually glance at real estate listings. I used to have some house characteristics in mind, but this browsing has me thinking about very specific locations, down to the actual street. … She may be buying in 2011, but she’s preparing now …

Read More

Walkability – More than a Fad

in General Real Estate on

“For the typical metropolitan area, each additional point of Walk Score was associated with a $700- to $3,000- increase in home values, after controlling for other observable factors. To give you an idea of what kind of difference that makes in the marketplace, we looked at the difference in home values between a typical house that had the 50th percentile Walk Score, compared to an otherwise identical house that had the 75th percentile Walk Score. Going from the average level of walkability to the 75th percentile raised the value of the median house by between $4,000 and about $34,000, depending on the market.”

…Even more on walkability from the New York Times : REAL estate agents often chant the mantra “location, location, location,” which essentially means “find a home in a well-kept neighborhood with good schools and a low crime rate.”

Read More

How NOT to use social media – Particularly when it’s my name

in sideblog on

If you’re a LinkedIn contact of mine , please know that I had nothing to do with the recent solicitation spam sent out. The offender has apologized to me and others, but this is a prime example of how not to use social media. As I said on Marijean’s blog : It’s one thing to farm email addresses, but an entirely different affair to use the farmed-one’s name as a means to attempt to ooze credibility. * I will be moving this post to the sideblog shortly, but wanted to apologize publicly and disavow my name from this practice.

Read More

Should I get Three Competitive Market Analyses?

in Stupid Real Estate Questions - AKA: What are the questions you think you should know but have never asked? on

The best may not be the highest, in fact, the worst may be the highest because that realtor may be trying to buy your listing and then in three months come and say: well, you know, we really kind of missed it, let’s reduce the price. You want to try and price it right from day one, as challenging as that may be and the worst may be the lowest because that realtor may be trying to just get a quick sale and not look out for your best interest. … Look at the amount of inventory in your segment of the market and look at those trends, the pricing trends, the market trends and anything that I can look at and then what I do after I come to my conclusions of a price range and look at my market plan, I give everything to my potential client so that they can see what I’m looking at and so that I can back up my advice. Ultimately the decision is my clients, but I want to make sure that they are as educated as possible on what my marketing strategies are and what my pricing strategy is because again, it’s not my money we’re talking about or my life, it’s my clients.

Read More

Bus, Bike and Walk around Charlottesville

in sideblog on

#cgrw1 h2#cgrwh, #cgrw1 p#cgrwp, #cgrw1 form, #cgrw1 input, #cgrw1 img {text-align: left; text-decoration:none; padding: 0; margin: 0; font-style: normal; vertical-align: baseline; background: none; border: 0; outline: 0;}

…#cgrw1 h2#cgrwh a {display: block; width: 163px; height: 67px; background: url(http://www.citygoround.org/images/widgets/public-transit-apps-near-you.gif) 0 0 no-repeat;text-decoration: none;}

… #cgrw2 h2#cgrwh, #cgrw2 p#cgrwp, #cgrw2 form, #cgrw2 input, #cgrw2 img {text-align: left; text-decoration:none; padding: 0; margin: 0; font-style: normal; vertical-align: baseline; background: none; border: 0; outline: 0;}

…#cgrw2 h2#cgrwh a {display: block; width: 160px; height: 53px; background: url(http://www.citygoround.org/images/widgets/support-open-transit-data.gif) 0 0 no-repeat;text-decoration: none;}

Read More