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Who Wants to Hear an Hour of Real Estate Radio? – 26 January 2014

in Albemarle Charlottesville General Real Estate Shameless Self Promotion on

If you’re thinking about buying or selling in the Charlottesville area or curious or interested in the Charlottesville (and regional/national) real estate market, you might find some value in listening to this Sunday’s WNRN Wake-Up Call.

Matt Hodges and I will discuss the current state of the Charlottesville area real estate market, mortgages, tips for buyers and sellers, etc. We’ve done this every year for the past six years and every year each time has produced conversations. If you’re interested in us talking about something specific, please leave a comment or let me know.

Matt’s initial notes of stuff to talk about:

– Ability-to-Repay and Qualified Mortgages
– Recent Bureau of Labor Statistics payroll releases, 2/6 release and what it means to borrowers out there + Federal Reserves tapering decision and what it means
– Predicted increases in rates to 5 – 5.5% and how that affects ability to purchase vis a vis today’s rates

My initial notes of stuff to talk about:

– Brief market update
– How new mortgage laws may impact buyers’ and sellers’ decisions
– Current massive growth and density in the City of Charlottesville
– What buyers should be doing right now who are planning to buy this year
– What sellers should be doing right now who are planning/hoping to sell this year
– Inventory levels in the Charlottesville MSA

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A Kind Word about My Monthly Notes

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I received this soon after I sent out my monthly note:

As always, thank you for writing and publishing this note. Even though, thanks to you, we are happy where we are I love learning more about the market and area.

To which I say: Thank you. I write these for the real estate consumers – the buyers, the sellers, the curious voyeurs who might be or are thinking about moving back to or within the Charlottesville area.

Many people know how much I dislike using testimonials to market my services – I find unsavory using the kindness and thanks of my clients to market, even though I know that most wouldn’t mind at all.

I’ve said several times this year that I write my best stuff in my monthly note, and each month I’m proud of what I produce there – in spite of the beat-my-head-against-a-wall errors I’ve made.

If you’re interested, I’d gladly send you December’s note (and every subsequent one). Just ask here .

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Monthly Note – December 2013

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December's note

In February of this year, I wrote my first monthly note. I’d like to think that I’ve shared some useful knowledge and insight about the Charlottesville real estate market, the practice of real estate and other, tangential subjects. I know this – one of the most clicked-on parts has been the “blog recap” in which I summarize some of the better posts from RealCentralVA and RealCrozetVA. Above all, I’ve loved writing these notes and I hope I’ve been able to convey that through my writings. Aside from the writing, the best part has been the one-on-one interaction readers have shared – the format of the note is such there are no comments, but a lot of readers have chosen to reply to the note, and that’s enormously gratifying.

With that preface, the early outline of December’s note (lamentably, I suspect this will exceed my goal of no more than 1500 words)

– The market (I start all the notes with this)

– An interesting home inspector update

– A great builder anecdote

– Agent reviews (the current hubbub about AgentMatch) – determining the “best” real estate agent for you entails more than data.

– Life after being on the Realtor Board of Directors

– Brief recap of some of my favorite stories from this year’s notes

If you find subscribing to my blogs by email cumbersome (three-four emails a week from one site would be cumbersome for me too) – please consider subscribing to my monthly note.

Update: published late last night; at 2,000+ words, it’s the longest ever (and I’ll return to sub-1500 words in January). My monthly note really is where I write my best stuff.

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October’s Note – Contrasting buyer experiences, neighborhoods, Nest party and what happened on the blogs

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My once-a-month note is 99% ready and I’ll be sending it out today. If you’re interested in stuff I don’t publish elsewhere or if the posting schedule of my blog is too frequent, this could be just the read you’re looking for (and don’t know you’re missing!)

The only consistent feature is a quick market roundup; everything else is varied – some real estate, some not.

If you’re interested, you can subscribe here. (remember – it’s a two-step process)

Update: It’s done. If you’re interested, sign up and I’ll send it to you asap.

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September’s Monthly Note – Google Glass, Negligence and a Recap

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Choosing to not publish archives in my monthly notes is one of the more difficult decisions I’ve made this year.

I wanted to focus on the moment, the content and the reader. Not being able to link back to last month’s note forces me to focus on writing right now and to write more descriptively and concisely; I don’t have “see last month” or ” … in February I noted” as a literary crutch.

That said, I’ve found great enjoyment in writing these monthly notes – target audience being my readers here, consumers, and admittedly other real estate professionals (but I have yet to think about writing for that segment other than, “I better not write that – other Realtors read this.”

If you find subscribing to near-daily emails from my real estate blog too much (I probably would) you might find that my monthly notes, including a summary of the more notable posts of the previous month, valuable.

If you’re inclined, you can subscribe to my monthly notes here (it’s a two-step process).

Brief outline of September’s note:

– Market Update (a monthly feature)

– Lead and septic

– Nest Party

– Recap of August on my blogs

– a couple other things

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