Quick Charlottesville Market thoughts

• The Charlottesville City market remains smoking hot. There weren’t enough homes on the market in the City this year to satisfy buyer demand.
• Albemarle County – parts are still crazy hot, particularly in the close-in and urban ring. Rural properties remain tougher to sell.
• Central Virginia as a whole – stable-ish to appreciating – speaking broadly. Your micro-market may vary.
• Interest rates remain stupid low. People can get loans. Local lenders remain infinitely preferable to internet non-local lenders.
• Parts of the market feel bubble-y. Very very bubbley. Maybe that’s just me, having not fully recovered (I never will) from the crash, but I feel good about a lot of my buyers who weren’t able to buy this year.

Value and Innovation in Real Estate – Part 2

Part 2 starts with a Slack conversation with a client/friend

One thing we keep coming back to is why some rogue realtor doesn’t go around advertising that they’ll buy/sell for 2.9% instead of 3% and undercut everybody? Is it really just that everyone knows that is a race to the bottom so they don’t do it, or is there something else going on?

Because. It’s always been done that way.

• (Most) buyer agents don’t need to talk about/defend their value/cost – many/most times, the commission is offered through the MLS. Not many agents are going to offer to receive less than is being offered. (related blog post)
• Rebutting the Realtor Rip-Off; from 2012, this is still relevant.
  • “Buyers’ agents have an incentive only to show their clients homes whose sellers offer them a standard 3% commission.”
    • Partly true. This is one of the reasons I negotiate my fee with my buyer clients first; I don’t want my fee to be determined by the opposing party – it’s not right and leads to suspicions of collusion.
• A challenge with the way real estate compensation is done is that newbie (I was one once) agents are paid the same as experienced experts (I consider myself one-of-these-in-training).
• Getting rid of Cooperative Compensation would be a start; but one reason this is the way it is is because of lending and regulatory guidelines. I won’t delve into this, other than to say, bureaucracy and turning a slow battleship.
  • So would buyers paying their hired representation out of pocket. That’s likely not going to happen.

Haus will not provide any real estate brokerage services or legal, financial, tax or accounting advice. Haus does not perform any due diligence or investigation, and does not make any warranties, regarding the Property or the parties.

My unrefined thoughts on real estate practice (from a buyer agent point of view)

Slack

The best thing that has resonated with me was the guy who said that almost 100% of that email is external. That is so incredibly enticing and appealing.

[10:19]
And that is my goal. At least for my practice

[10:20]
Change is hard. People know and trust email, despite their cost of limitations about how invasive it is.

[10:20]
And I think that that could be a story I’m going to write this month. 🙂

Soccer

Again with the coaching. Being a part of my kids’ lives – and the community.

I’m reflecting on recent conversations with my girls about holding tempers, negotiating with parents, testing in schools (and their worthlessness), interacting with friends, hearing stories about someone who’s pregnant (dear God, I hope it’s a teacher), being nice to teachers who “everybody” hates, and yeah, soccer, too.

Nearly 15 years of this stuff and, much as I know the girls don’t understand the sacrifice that volunteer coaching brings, I cherish this (frustrating, time-consuming, painful) time.

What I’m reading

• 5 Minutes Early Is On Time; On Time Is Late; Late Is Unacceptable
• Roman Empire’s Fall is Linked with Gout and Lead Poisoning; who knew?
• Freddie Tests Less-Stringent Loan Program. What the (*$* is wrong with our system that this is even being considered?
• Get Ready for Freeways That Ban Human Drivers – Good. “… it’s the logical endgame of a technology that could dramatically reduce — or even eliminate — the 1.25 million road deaths a year globally. Human error is the cause of 94 percent of roadway fatalities …”
• Jesse Ventura speaks.
• Planner describes how “form-based” zoning changed Nashville
• Tesla sues to sell cars without a middleman. Interesting.
• Not just Wells Fargo; all banks suck.
• Surprising Outcomes from Police Body Cameras

The Blogs

RealCentralVA

• HOA Docs Have some Interesting Things (like, “no Greeks”)
• Killing Blog Comments – A Very Tempting Thought – I might do it.
• Local Journalism Matters
• Two Opinions on Growth
• Buy a home, Not an investment

RealCrozetVA

• Old Trail getting 190 apartments. Unsurprisingly, people are surprised.
• Crozet Park is growing into even more of a destination park
• Crozet is a beautiful place to live.
• Recapping the CCAC meeting (local politics matter, folks)
• After 6 years, Crozet gets another sidewalk.
• After school childcare in Albemarle County schools is a challenge.
• And … what if Crozet became a town?

Thanks for reading.