Charlottesville Virginia Real Estate

Libertarian state senate candidate Arin Sime got some great press in the Daily Progress today.  I love the libertarian positions on property rights and land use restrictions.  It’s fun to see a third party getting some attention.  The article is here and her website is here.

From LP.org:

Public Policy instruments including eminent domain, zoning laws, building codes, rent control, regional planning, property taxes, resource management and public health legislation remove property rights from owners and transfer them to the State, while raising costs of property ownership.

Biscuit Run now has all the approvals they need to go forward.  Love it or hate it, there is a need for more housing in the area and this will provide much of it.  According to the article in the DP, there was some positive public sentiment expressed at the meeting, which was a first.  I think I tend to skew pro-development, but I think this plan has really done an admirable job atempting to satisify its critics.

Charlottesville is such a difficult place to develop property in.  The DP has an article about Biscuit Run almost being ready.  The thing that gets me is that they had approval MONTHS ago but there are still zillions of hurdles.  I try to see both sides of these debates but I have a philosophical problem with people telling me what I can’t do with my own stuff.  The higher the hurdles are to development, the more expensive housing gets (I was already priced out of the market).  Only the very rich or powerful can afford to fight all the old coots raising a fuss, making the unequal income distribution in this community worse.  I don’t really know a solution.  I can appreciate people who look at NoVa and don’t want C’ville to turn into that, but there must be a better way.  Anyone?

The following is a paid review for Scottsdale Fine Properties, a Scottsdale real estate firm. Scottsdale Fine Properties is a midsized Real Estate Agency outside Phoenix Arizona. They seem to focus on the higher-end of the market (I doubt they list many mobile homes).  I like the site overall. There is nothing distracting about the design, and everything you’d expect to find about a real estate agency is there. The text is well written and I didn’t find any content errors that would turn me off (I get turned off by text that is clearly written by someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about). The most noteworthy thing that I see about the site / agency the One on One program. To quote the One on One page “My one and One program is tailored specifically to meet the needs of CEO’s, professional athletes, celebrities and anyone desiring anonymity in their real estate transactions.” I’ve never seen this sort of service from an agency. I don’t know if they get many celebrities signing up (Are there many in Scottsdale? I guess as a suburb of Phoenix there may be a few.) but having a signup process makes me want to see if I can get the kind of treatment that a professional athlete would receive. I think that’s great marketing.Though as I said, I like the site, there are some details that were overlooked I think. On the agents’ page, several of the pictures are skewed to fit the dimensions rather than cropped (see Berglund Linda). The picture quality varies greatly. Martinson Lesley (the lack of a comma between first and last names bothers me for some reason) for example, has a professional quality photo whereas Martinson Dru has a grainy picture. Also, in the upper right hand corner there are a couple of icons that are way too small to make out. When I clicked on the left-most one, it turns out that it is an award they won for best agency last year. That’s big news! Put that on your front page instead of icons for tontenproperties.net and the homes magazine thing. Those don’t make me want to hire you… the best agency one might.

So those are my thoughts. It’s a nice site. I can tell from bumming around that they do a good job taking care of their customers. Keep up the good work and if I know anyone looking for a realtor in Arizona I’ll mention your name.

The Washington Post has an article about fixed vs. variable mortgages that highlights a Charlottesville man.  The article notes a resurgence of fixed rate loans: 

In recent months, adjustable-rate loans have accounted for about 20 percent of all mortgage applications, after peaking at 36 percent during the height of the housing boom in early 2005, according to the mortgage bankers group.

I think that this is probably a very good trend.  I hear the stories in the news about deceptive mortgage practices and people losing their homes… fixed rate mortgages insulate people from a lot of that.  I have two thoughts about the issue of mortgage defaults and the fixed vs. variable debate. 

I’ve heard a couple of stories on NRP about people being thrown out of their homes after 25 years because they refinanced and couldn’t afford the new APR after it readjusted.  What that tells me, is that someone who should have already (or very nearly) completely paid for their house, opted instead for the instant gratification of sucking out all that equity and spending it now.  Those people chose to go to Europe or drive a new car, or something, rather than live within their means and when the house is paid for, live a little better with the money that previously went to servicing debt.  I don’t have a lot of sympathy for that.  If you had to pay medical bills or something like that, I understand.  If you just wanted more expensive toys, shame on you.  Don’t pilfer your future so you can drive the same car that your neighbor does.

My other thought about the fixed vs. variable debate is that you shouldn’t overlook the long ARM (5-7 years).  This can change day to day, but for one of the three mortgages I got, the 7 year ARM (locked for the first 7 years of the mortgage) was 2% less that the fixed.  I wasn’t sure how long I’d be in the home, but Americans buying homes are only likely to stay there for about 5 years.  I felt comfortable with 7 years and was reassured by knowing that I am early in my career and would likely be making considerably more money in 7 years anyway (That turns out to be false, but I thought it would be true at the time).  And I could always refinance along the way if it looked like a good time to do so.  I was talking this week to a coworker who had only heard of a 2 year ARM and was (rightly) hesitant.  The 5-7 year ARM may not be the best or even appropriate for everyone, but for me in 2005, it was best.

I found this really interesting.  If you are a real estate investor working on a very long term horizon, I might have heard about the right plan for you.  Lo’ihi Development Co. will is offering oceanview lots in Hawaii for about $40.  Sounds great huh?  What’s the catch?  The lots are currently submerged about 3000 feet below the water, but they’re rising fast (in geological terms).  You’d be about 10,000 years away from (maybe) owning a gem. 

See MSNBC’s Hawaii real estate — a looong-term investment for the story.

I’m trying something new with my blog today. I’m writing a sponsored post. I’ll talk more about what that is in a followup post, but I wanted to disclose that I was paid by a third party to review a real estate site for my readers. The topic (Realty1st.net) is given to me, but the opinions, good or bad are my own. So here goes… I don’t need a realtor in Atlanta, so what I am going to review is the website. Is it functional and usable? Is it credible? Does it satisfy the needs of its intended audience?

About Realty1st.net

Realty1st is an Atlanta Real Estate Site sponsored by Mark Teytel and Lena Zaretsky, Atlanta realtors for over 15 years. The site is very comprehensive (more than 100 pages), and includes details about the realtors, testimonials, current MLS home listings (sortable by city or searchable by the typical criteria), real estate articles, a real estate term glossary and a current real estate news section.

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The DailyProgress has a story today about how Eco-friendly homes are the hot new thing.  The idea is to use less pollutant and more sustainable (easily replacable by the earth) materials when building a home.  There are three major development projects in Central Virginia underway that the article mentions that will use these principles:

The Belvedere project off East Rio Road in Albemarle County will eventually be a community of 700 homes that are certified as energy efficient. The developer, Stonehaus, broke ground on the project May 10.

South of Charlottesville, in North Garden, a 2,300-acre property called Bundoran Farm is being developed into an environmentally friendly community, in which 90 percent of the land will be conserved.

And in Zion Crossroads in Louisa County, a Utah developer is planning a 650,000-square-foot outlet mall, with office, retail and restaurant space. The project will include green building aspects, including solar power, recycled building materials and preservation of the 119-acre site’s existing wetlands.

This is such a Charlottesville thing to do.  I wonder to what extent this is happening nationally?  When sustainablility gets cost neutral, that’s when these efforts will really start to make a difference.

At Yahoo News a local builder got a shout out this morning.  Building Homes For A Lifetime: Interest In Accessibility Is Rising mentions custom-home building Charlottesvillian Randy Rinehart and his practice of building accessible custom homes for the elderly.

That 10,500 Americans turn 55 every day is a fact not lost on Randy Rinehart, 60, a custom builder in Charlottesville, Va. “About half of the eight homes we build each year are for active adults,” he said. “It’s not unusual for these people to walk in and pay cash for a $2 million house.”

I wonder how some smalltown person building 8 houses a year get’s an expert mention in an out of town publication?  Kinda fun.

The News Virginian has a nice article about assessment appeals.  In Waynesboro, land owners have seen value rollbacks as small as $100 and as high as $3 million.

I’ve been reassessed serveral times but each time, though I was unhappy, I thought the new value was fair, or maybe a little low. If you think the assessment is too high, contest it.  You don’t need a lawyer and there are no fees associated with doing so.  You have nothing to lose.  Richard Spurzem gained tens of thousands of dollars.

A real-estate developer from Charlottesville, Spurzem made headlines during the 2005 reassessment for convincing the appeals board to make a major slash to his shopping center’s valuation, arguing in part that the west-end site held little attraction for big-name commercial endeavors.

In Charlottesville, to appeal an assessment, you have 30 days from the date of the assessment mailing to appeal, by either calling or visiting the Real Estate Assessor’s Office in City Hall. You can then review the data used in computing the assessment and, if necessary, schedule an inspection of the property. “After this, should a dispute still exist, you may appeal to the Board of Equalization. The three-person board, appointed by the Circuit Court, is composed of City property owners. The board may affirm, reduce or raise the assessment, if in their opinion such adjustments are necessary to equalize the tax burden upon all citizens in the City. If you are dissatisfied with the Board’s decision, you may appeal to the Circuit Court. If you have assessment questions please call the City Assessor’s Office at 434-970-3136.”