I find that my clients are all different, and they all like to search for homes in their own way. With that in mind: RealCentralVA.com – Map-based, search by multiple school districts (ie: Crozet & Brownsville Elementary Schools) filter by short sale, Walkscore, foreclosures, and many other ways, such as Days on Market. FranklyMLS.com – Fast, and is a favorite of many of my clients. … How do you like to search for homes in Charlottesville ?
Did you know there is a “Bank Secrecy Act”?
Pursuant to the Bank Secrecy Act and requirements specified by the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”), [ Bank Name, edited out by me ] will not engage in any transaction with any individual or entity that either appears on the list of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons, Specially Designated Terrorists, Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers, or that [ Bank Name, edited again ] suspects to involved in a suspicious transaction or one in violation of federal law . … Specifically, the act requires financial institutions to keep records of cash purchases of negotiable instruments, file reports of cash transactions exceeding $10,000 (daily aggregate amount), and to report suspicious activity that might signify money laundering, tax evasion, or other criminal activities. … And from Wikipedia: The Bank Secrecy Act of 1970 (or BSA , or otherwise known as the Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act ) requires financial institutions in the United States to assist U.S. government agencies to detect and prevent money laundering . Specifically, the act requires financial institutions to keep records of cash purchases of negotiable instruments , and file reports of cash purchases of these negotiable instruments of $10,000 or more (daily aggregate amount), and to report suspicious activity that might signify money laundering, tax evasion , or other criminal activities.
Housing Costs & and Affordability – Where Does Charlottesville Rank?
The newer website also allows users to break all of the data down into owners costs and renters costs, different income classes, greenhouse gas emissions, and a variety of other factors.
…EIA forecasts that the annual average regular grade retail gasoline price will increase from $2.35 per gallon in 2009 to $2.84 in 2010 and to $2.96 in 2011 because of the projected rising crude oil prices. … Projected annual average retail diesel fuel prices are $2.96 and $3.14 per gallon, respectively, in 2010 and 2011.
Related reading from RealCentralVA.com over the years : 2006 – Gas prices and real estate 2008 – Proof that Gas Prices are Affecting Homebuyers in Charlottesville 2008 – If you don’t think gas prices are affecting buyers
Twitter Week in Review
FYI. I love @DocuSign for getting stuff done efficiently # I really ought to try to leave town more often. One contract verbally ratified, and working on another one. # @MaggieMcCoy Nope. No call back. 🙂 in reply to MaggieMcCoy # RT @superbalanced: Send positive vibes to my wife @cvcvo. She just got home from the hospital. She's ok but her back is in rough…
The Importance of Local – In Charlottesville
From the Nest Realty Group blog : I was speaking with a client just the other day who said he was excited to move to Charlottesville because he noticed the wide variety of local restaurants and saw that as a sign that Charlottesvillians supported their local businesses. He said that his current town (which will remain unnamed) is chock-full of chain restaurants and there isn’t much of a local restaurant scene. … Check out the ‘ Charlottesville Scout Promise ‘, which includes this: My goal is to promote local business and help to maintain Charlottesville as a unique and interesting place to live. … So grab a cup of coffee from Mudhouse , a doughnut from Spudnuts and we’ll see you at the City Market this Saturday at 9….
Friday Charts – March 2010 Home Sales
I suspect that the number of home sales in the Charlottesville MSA will show a slight increase as Charlottesville Realtors update their closings over the next couple days. In the meantime, it seems that sales may be on track with last year. Maybe. The First Quarter Charlottesville area market report is going to be very interesting. [altos_flash_chart st=”VA” cid=”1978951″ zid=”2878485″ rt=”sf” ra=”a,c” q=”t,b” right=”median_inventory” left=”mean_dom” mini=”mean_age” width=”450″ height=”500″ /]
Charlottesville Short Sales and Buyer Agents’ Responsibilities – Part 2
Fourth – Prepare our buyer clients for what they may run into. (more to come on this) What’s a Charlottesville buyer to do in this market with more and more short sales? – Be patient. – Be aware that there are some things that neither you nor your agent can control . – Be informed . – Be qualified.
…Maintain confidentiality of all personal and financial information received from the client during the brokerage relationship and any other information that the client requests during the brokerage relationship be maintained confidential, unless otherwise provided by law or the seller consents in writing to the release of such information;
…The second section is a protection for the Buyer, should the Seller find out in the course of the transaction that they cannot pay off all indebtedness and need to revert to a Short Sale transaction. Much like how good Charlottesville Buyers’ Agents should be researching a property’s true continuous days on market (quote from a client regarding Days on Market, “The MLS lies” 🙂 ) [ Realtors gaming the MLS ] – Buyers’ Agents should be doing extreme due diligence.