The Charlottesville Downtown Mall from Karl Krause on Vimeo . Found via Twitter .
Date Archives February 2010
What Matters to You when Relocating?
Inspired by a conversation at Roost’s Facebook page , my answer to the question was: Schools Parks Internet Accessibility – the Charlottesville/Albemarle region does not have 100% coverage. … Proximity to work Who the neighbors are – are they at similar “life-stages” to you? Churches if that matters Proximity to grocery stores & coffee shops Are there bike lanes? Property taxes School budgets, school test scores, percentage of kids on free/reduced lunches Walkability These are just some of the factors that my buyer clients have recently brought up.
FHA Changes – What they mean for the Charlottesville real estate market
Guest post by Matt Hodges with Compass Home Loans : FHA has picked up much loan volume that the sub-prime world vacated – so much so that for every ten new purchases, FHA insures three.
…For all new case numbers (FHA’s mechanism to keep track of loans they insure) assigned on April 5, 2010 or later, the UFMIP will increase from 1.75% to 2.25%. … It might be at a $200,000 loan, but at $100,000, most borrowers will expend at least $3000 in closing costs, pre-paid items and points. … If HUD removes the ability to get seller concessions at the lower loan amounts, they will be directly affecting the housing recovery and effectively be discriminating against poorer borrowers, who can only afford lower priced homes.
Why Use a Buyer-Broker Agreement?
I tend to use buyer broker agreements with all of my buyer clients fairly early on in our buyer client realtor relationships and this reason is this: first and foremost it lays out my fiduciary duties to my buyer clients. … I approach it as something that I will be asking for, but the first couple of meetings is sort of a time of dating of us feeling each other out and seeing if we are good matches, if we want to work with each other. Buyers and Realtors tend to spend a lot of time with each other, anywhere from six to 1,000 hours together looking for houses and home inspections and just time in the car and meeting the kids. … So pretty much if you need a page to explain the perils of why dual agency is bad, really, you might want to get rid of it altogether, but I write in all my buyer broker agreements that I will not do single agent dual agency.
School Values and Housing Prices – Specifically in Albemarle County
In an effort to get my head around the numbers, I have prepared the attached spreadsheet which evaluates (to the best of my ability with the data available) , the impact of the different budget scenarios and what different property tax rate increases necessary to close the funding gap.
…At this point in the process, I don’t like trying to address a budget challenge by manipulating the tax rate, but I think the public deserves some factual information about the different scenarios and how that might impact their personal pocketbooks.
ɉۢ In the best case state funding scenario , a property tax rate of 81.9 cents would balance the budget and increase ANNUAL tax payments by $146.19 for the median priced home when compared to 2009.
…1 However, the strength of the consensus is puzzling, given the formidable empirical challenges facing any homeowner or empirical researcher seeking to answer the question carefully.2 First, good schools usually come bundled with other neighborhood qualities– such as proximity to employment, shopping and recreational conveniences and neighborhood peers.
A Food Revolution – Start in Charlottesville
… Charlottesville folks – What are the best local food options you have found/used? Search for local food options in Albemarle at Buy Fresh Buy Local ; Search for local food options in Charlottesville . Personally, I like reading the Green Scene blog at C-Ville .
Charlottesville Twitter Week in Review
@ TessOrtega I repeat my call for canceling this week, school during Spring Break and the first 3 weeks of June. in reply to TessOrtega #
… Really, really wish I’d written an article about # RTB radio http://bit.ly/cgat0J for @ agentgenius Will do so next week.
… @ amywebb I like my idea of closing this week, canceling Spring Break and having school throughout June in reply to amywebb #
… @ ProfessionalOne Something will come of it when we have infiltrated NAR leadership. & by that time I’m concerned that “we†won’t care in reply to ProfessionalOne #