Contrast Albemarle’s open and excellent approach to GIS to West Virginia’s:Now a county tax assessor has filed a lawsuit trying to block the tax maps from being put online, claiming copyright infringement and financial damages since fewer people are coming to her to buy paper copies at $8 per page.It would be very useful if the City of Charlottesville would upgrade their GIS applications – rich and accurate GIS applications are mighty useful to the well-prepared Realtor (and consumer).The comments in the /. article are mighty interesting.
Date Archives February 2008
Serious questions for real estate agents
Sometimes it’s better to read honest insight from those you trust – this post has lots of it. Since I started this blog, one of my goals has been to read the macro-level analysis and apply it to the Charlottesville/Central Virginia real estate market. This post is one of the ways I learn.
The 10 Rules to blog by
Real estate bloggers, brokers, those in real estate associations considering “regulating” real estate blogs … you should all read this article and watch this course…. Consider what you copy.7…. Seek legal advice.Sadly, all of these seem to be basic common sense, something that is often lost in one’s zeal to publish or lack of education, thought and/or foresight.Hat tip to Darren Rowse on Twitter.
More on SB 768
Bacon’s Rebellion has a good post today about the previously-referenced bill that would mandate impact fees on new development and eliminate proffers.The bill would remove localities’ ability to negotiate (some say extort) proffers from developers; but … is this the consequence the bill authors were looking for?”Be careful what you wish for,” warns Corey Stewart, chairman of the Prince William County board of supervisors. SB 786, which would eliminate proffers and impose uniform impact fees on new real estate development, “will shut down residential development all over the county. I will make sure it shuts down residential development in Prince William.”
At what point is it cheaper to walk away?
$100,000?While mortgage fraud has abounded in recent years, voluntary foreclosures are not by themselves evidence of a newfound irresponsibility on Americans’ part…. But markets have changed, and people are changing their behavior in response….Of course, there’s a price. Mortgage “walkers” will take a hit to their personal credit rating…. That’s because, just as when markets change their behavior, people change, when people change their behavior, markets change also.
“SB768: Conditional zoning; replaces cash proffer system with system of impact fees.”
When the Republican Chair of Albemarle County’s Board of Supervisors, who has a history of siding with real estate interests, says that “that he had already been making personal calls in opposition to the bill,” something is amiss…. This bill will impact everybody in the state – homeowners, landowners, renters – by forcing (from what I have read) localities to seek other sources of revenue – read: property taxes – to make up the difference. This is exactly the type of bill that Realtors need to come out against, in my opinion, but politics is like the show Survivor; sometimes distasteful compromises are met with the expectation that the next round will require another allegiance…. The bill has 10,230 words and was written at a grade level for those who graduated 18th and 19th grades (per Flesch-Kincaid).Coincidentally, an Adequate Public Facilities bill shows up on the page as a “related bill.”
If the public doesn’t speak, don’t complain
From today’s Daily Progress:A public hearing on Charlottesville Superintendent Rosa Atkins’ proposed $58.1 million budget for fiscal 2008-09 was as over as soon as it started at Thursday’s School Board meeting.Though no one spoke Thursday, the public will have another chance to comment on the budget on Feb. 21.It’s a shame to see citizens abdicating their responsibility to themselves and their fellow citizens. Better public schools are one of the absolute best ways to increase property value. Where were the homeowners?