This Sunday should offer a fun hour of radio. Thanks to Rick for asking me to join him on Sunday, I asked friends for topic suggestions to fill an hour of live radio. We should be ok.

Suggestions welcome.

Tune in this Sunday at 11 on WNRN.

I asked for suggestions, and some of the early ones are –

– This should be a fascinating topic, should be get to it – America is rapidly aging in a country built for the young

– Which meshes well with this – “What will be/is the impact on the Charlottesville / Albemarle economy as the aging baby boomer population moves from homes, to apartments to retirement communities and assisted living over the next ten years.”

– And this – “Who are the local first time buyers? Are they local? What types of jobs do they have? Starter properties affect the entire real estate food chain, so I’d like to know if our local economy provides opportunities for them.”

– And ties in with this – “Impact of bringing to market so many high-end apartment plexes in Charlottesville over the last decade, most recently The Flats at West Village for the students and CityWalk for the yuppies.”

We have a lot to talk about.

– “Realistic pricing for sellers. when I had to sell my mom’s condo in CT, I first visited competing units and saw how long they had been on the market, and then priced to sell within 90 days – didn’t give it away, but did not want to sit on it for a year, either!”

Some of Rick’s early thoughts as we prep –

– What makes a good neighborhood? (coincidentally, I’ve had this tab open for a couple days – When buying a home, what do you want to live or not live next to/nearby?)

– Uber (and urban vs suburban vs rural)

– Triangles (a story I wrote last month)

And I love this prompt – “What do we discuss for listeners who aren’t buying/selling but want to learn more about our area?”

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What’s your triangle?* The above is from a map on which I was drawing the Downtown Mall, Belmont and what is “walking distance” to Downtown and UVA for some clients.

I’ve found that many, if not most, of my clients have specific triangles – geofences of sorts – that guide their buying areas.

The top squiggle in the box is 29 North. The circle in the center circle is the City of Charlottesville. The two points of the triangle to the West represent home and school. Typically, my clients’ lives (and my life too, when I’m playing dad/husband and not Realtor) lead them to at least three points on a daily basis, and determining these points is often challenging at best to do from afar, or quickly.

– Which school will my kids attend?
– Will there be redistricting?
– At which grocery store will I shop?
– Wegmans? Whole Foods? Kroger?
– Which coffee shop?
– Which library?

Much of what I do is knowing how and when to guide and my clients to see the value of these data points, as well as help them know what’s around the corner. (Did you know there’s going to be a subdivision there?)

Enter Google:

Today, Google is tracking wherever your smartphone goes, and putting a neat red dot on a map to mark the occasion. You can find that map here. All you need to do is log in with the same account you use on your phone, and the record of everywhere you’ve been for the last day to month will erupt across your screen like chicken pox.

(I have location history turned off on my phone, otherwise I’d have used one of my own screenshots)

So … if you’re moving to Charlottesville, take my advice to rent before you buy – turn on google’s location history and use them to better understand your triangles. And once we’ve figured out the triangles and have a foundational understanding of the Charlottesville real estate market, we devise a path forward.

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