We’ve started doing quarterly conversations about the Charlottesville real estate market and I’m testing what works best for both reach and posterity of the information. I like being able to look back and see what I’ve been right about, and what I’ve been wrong about, and then learn from each. With that, two videos to start the week:

Getting Better at What I Do

Hire the right representation, know your market band as well as you possibly can. Walk through your house as if you’re looking at it for the first time. Pretend that you’re showing the house or you’re seeing the house for the first time with your agent and look around through that critical eye and recognize when your home hits the market that the buyers who look at it when they walk through your home will be the second or third time that they’ve gone through your house, whether floor plan, video, photo. That first time. impression matters critically. And for buyers, when you go through that house for the first time,
it’s going to look a lot different than it looked on Zillow or the MLS, because any good agent is going to make it look great, not maliciously great, but they’re going to make it look enticing. So you come into the house wanting to see the home.

And for buyers, know your comfortable price point.

And with my buyers, if they say their comfort level is $475K to $500K, I might say let’s look to 515. Because that might be where they’re willing to squeeze. But work with the right, hire the right representation, interview agents. Because we’re not all great fits for everybody. Interview at least one agent, maybe two, maybe three. Get the right local lender to prepare you for that market because the right local lender will give the best advice and bring credibility to the transaction.

Quick Tips for Buyers and Sellers in Charlottesville in 2024 (and beyond)

Okay, and the last thing, because Greg and I can talk about real estate forever, I think that one thing that I really do strive to do, and I ask my colleagues to help me with, and I think you do really well also, is yes, we’ve been doing this for 20 -some -odd years, respectively, I’m trying to get better every day. I recognize that I’m not as good as I want to be for my clients, so I’m trying to learn and get better every single day, and I think you do too. I think that we both know when to say I don’t know, but I’ll figure it out. I think that’s a critical skill. that, you know, took me a little bit to learn in my career but now I know kind of what I don’t know.

Questions? Comments?

Jim Duncan with Nest Realty – 434-242-7140