NRVLiving - Real Estate. Simplified.

The Colosseum in Blacksburg

A few weeks ago, I attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Colosseum project in Blacksburg.  The event featured speakers, all kinds of food and drinks, Roman gladiators (I mean, honestly - can you name something "The Colosseum" without gladiators?) and golden shovels.  I took video to show you, in fact.

Stupid video - somehow, everything was corrupted and I lost it all. 

So I'll recap the project here, as best I can.  Sorry about that, but I DO have answers to some of the common questions people have been asking about the project.  From the project's marketing department:

What exactly is a condominium hotel - Condominium hotels operate as a hotel but also add the legal and financial structure of a condominium.  Buyers receive a deed for a real property interest that they can in turn sell whenever they choose.

How is this different from buying a regular condominium - In addition to the investment value of a condominium, buyers can take advantage of the benefits of a luxury hotel.  When the condominium unit owners stay at the hotel, they have access to all of the hotel's amenities, including its restaurant, bar, pool, fitness and spa facilities.

What happens when I'm not using my condominium - When the owners are not using their suites, they can be made available to rent through the hotel's voluntary rental program.  The Colosseum is managed by Salamander Hospitality, an award-winning manager of exclusive hotels and resorts, so buyers don't have to worry about maintaining a property away from home.

What makes The Colosseum a luxury sports condominium hotel - Conveniently located near the heart of Blacksburg's business and shopping district and two miles from Lane Stadium and Cassell Coliseum, The Colosseum is perfectly designed for Virginia Tech alumni and fans who want to support Virginia Tech athletics.  Game day enthusiasts can also take advantage of extras such as child care, game shuttles and underground parking.

How many units are there - The two tower, six story, 241 unit condominium hotel offers luxury fully furnished studio suites, or a one or two-bedroom suites.

How does The Colosseum support the local community - The Colosseum has pledged to donate a portion of the sale of each unit, up to $500000, to the construction of the new basketball facility.  The donation will be made in the name of the purchaser, who will also receive Hokie Points toward preferred seating and parking for their contribution.  Likewise, The Colosseum has committed to endow a permanent $100000 scholarship for a student athlete pursuing a degree in property management or hospitatlity and tourism management, and offer internships to building and construction students during the construction phase.

Pictured above, left to right:

Steve Semones, Balzer & Associates
Daryl Andrews, The Colosseum
Mayor Ron Rordam, Town of Blacksburg
Mark Kinzer, Unlimited Construction
Mike Burnop, ISP Network Analyst and Virginia Tech Hall of Famer
Todd Meckley, Entasis Design PLLC
Random Gladiator
                       

What's Your Baby Palin Name?

A reader sent me this the other day and I had some fun with it ... It's no secret that Governor Palin's kids have some interesting names - Track, Trig, Bristol, Willow and Piper.  

With such unique names, have you wondered what your name would be if you were a child of a Palin?  Here's a name generator to find out.

I was Steam Fangs Palin.  Hot.

Gave me a chuckle, so I put something out on Twitter about it and got a bunch of great responses.  Here are some:

Commando Coalfire Palin

Claw Washout Palin

Flex Gunship Palin

Slicer Mission Palin

Seam Marauder Palin

Plank Castle Palin

Stinger Assassin

Bow NATO Palin

Church Scorpion Palin

Buster Taint Palin

What's your Palin name?  Send me an email (jeremy at nrvliving dot com) and let me know!  By the way - the reader's name? 

Knife Pile Palin.

Update From The Christiansburg Aquatic Center

I received drawings for the new Christiansburg Aquatic Center from a reader the other day, and I wanted to pass them along here.  You may have seen them before, but this is the first time I've seen full-size drawings of them.

It's a project that's been in the news lately:

Terry Caldwell is named the new Director

Others see the pool as half-empty, rather than half-full

Christiansburg ... what do you think?  Good for the Town?

Light Posting This Week

Light posting this week, as I'm preparing to leave town for a few days and roll into Baltimore for VARConvention.com.  Yes, I realize that the VIRGINIA Association of REALTORS® conference is in MD; I'm told there's a very good reason for it.

Nevertheless, I'm busy trying to get things ready to leave town for a few days.  If you need something, Steve and Aaron are both here and more than capable.  In fact, I think they're excited about me taking off - Steve says every time I leave town things pick up ... still a little concerned why he brought my suitcase in for me this morning, think he's making a statement. 

I AM hoping to find the time to put up a post about some recent changes in lending that might affect buyers and sellers.  Stay tuned, more to come ...

RepairPal.com

Mike Ziray sent this out the other day - it's RepairPal.com, and is supposed to give you and idea of approximately how much certain car repairs should cost. 

Don't know how accurate it is ... I tried to look up a new A/C compressor repair, which was the last work I had performed, but it wasn't on there.  Still, might be a helpful tool.

The Power - and Randomness - of Nature

All I can say is wow.

The New River Trail

A couple of weekends ago, my wife and I took the bikes down to the New River Trail, where we picked it up in the Draper area.

The New River Trail is an abandoned railroad right-of-way, part of the Rails to Trails Program, and parallels the New River and Claytor Lake for 39 miles.  The entire park is actually 57 continuous miles long, and heads through Grayson, Carroll, Wythe and Pulaski counties.  Here's a map.

If you're looking for a new bike ride that's just gorgeous, I'd encourage you to check this one out.

Here are some pictures we took ...

Who Knew Reading Could Be So Much Fun?

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to speak in four sessions at the NRV Association of REALTORS® annual trade show and education fair.  The topic was social networking and media, something that I've been covering regularly lately, it seems.

In the sessions, we talked specifically about the NRVLiving Real Estate Blog, as well as Twitter - two tools that I really find value in.  There are any number of social networking sites, however, with many related to real estate (and of interest to the session members yesterday), while most are NOT even remotely related.  Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, YouTube or Flickr might be ones you've heard of before, and there are seemingly thousands more; this blog would be considered a social media site, in fact.  

I've been writing this blog for two years this December, and I read a lot of other blogs in order to find topics I want to discuss, laugh about, etc.  On average, I'd guess I likely read five or six times more things than I ever consider writing about.  As I talked with people yesterday, I realized that there are three main benefits I've  received from writing here.  They are, in order of importance:

• Education - I've become a much better agent and student of real estate as a result of the reading I've done.
• Relationships - The relationships with clients, readers, even other agents as a result of reading and commenting on other social networking sites has been a huge benefit.  Professional relationships, personal relationships, they've all meant a lot to me.
• Impact on my business - Obviously, I need to be able to quantify my efforts, and based on the education and relationships things like this blog and Twitter have fostered, I can do that.

As I said, I read a lot.  Most are industry-focused blogs about real estate, sites like VARBuzz.com and AgentGenius.com, as well as dozens of blogs written by REALTORs® and lenders from around the country - Blown Mortgage, RealCentralVA, Real Estate Shows, and Jay Thompson all have tabs open in my browser right now, and there are another 200 unread items in my feed reader.  Most of my reading is real estate-related, but there's some golf and Hokie stuff in there, as well.

What do you like to read online?  What blogs do you check on a regular basis, or have delivered to your inbox.  Share some of them in the comments, and I'll post a follow-up post with everyone's recommendations - maybe we can all find something new and exciting to read!

Photo credits.

The Wall Street Collapse & Its' Effect On Real Estate

As I was researching on Monday night the day's collapse on Wall Street and how it might affect housing, I got a better sense of how absolutely broad the news was.  Consider:

• the world's largest insurer, AIG, must sell off $20 billion in assets and come up with another $20 billion in capital
• Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, setting the dubious distinction of being the largest bankruptcy in history (more than 6x larger than 2002's WorldCom fiasco)
• Merrill-Lynch, in business since 1914, was forced to sell to Bank of America to avoid going into bankruptcy
• More than 24 stocks fell for each that rose on Monday

That's not the half of it, I'm afraid.  As I write this, headlines scrolling across all the news stations are screaming at me - "Financial meltdown grows - AIG failing", "Fed fails to reduce interest rates", "Crisis on Wall Street".  Insurance giant AIG is in talks right now with the Federal Reserve, on how best to stabilize that company with an infusion of capital somewhere on the order of $100 billion plus.  Morgan Stanley has been dealt a severe blow, Several phone calls from friends and clients called or emailed throughout the day, and everyone wants to know what it's doing to the housing market. 

Truth be told, I don't think that much happens.  Here me out on this, there's a point.

When the stock market drops, you typically see people moving money from stocks and into what are considered "safer" investments, like bonds, and specifically mortgage bonds.  A drop in the stock market is only a good thing for mortgage rates, as evidenced by the movement of rates over the last several days.  In some cases, I've seen drops among 30 year fixed rates by as much as 5/8 of a point, and today they were lower than yesterday.  I'm of the opinion that in the short-term, we'll continue to see mortgage rates low and no response from the Fed to move the interest rates.  Rates won't continue to stay low - and truth be told they've been low for much longer than we realize - and will eventually trend upwards again.  If you're a buyer right now and haven't yet found a place, I think you're likely okay for the time being.  If you're under contract and haven't locked in your rate, you might want to do it as the volatility of rates this week is really creating a crap shoot. 

The best analysis I've seen of this whole thing comes from Jeff Corbett, written on Agent Genius:

Lehman Brothers

The Government can’t bail everyone out and it looks like Lehman Bros got to be the first major brokerage to receive the pink slip.  Why?  They had the baddest of the bad assets, especially from a mortgage perspective, Lehman owned Aurora Loan Services and BNC Mortgage.  These two sub-divisions lent sub-prime mortgage money on some of the most ridiculous terms I’ve ever seen. 100% LTV on investment properties with a 640 score, no need to prove income or assets… A+ paper, for the bathroom.

In the end it was cheaper and easier to let Lehman Bros get gobbled up in Bankruptcy by Goldman Sachs and other private equity players than have the Treasury shore them up.  Someone had to be the first to get the shiv.

Merrill Lynch and BoFA

As it became evident Lehman Bros was going down, Merrill Lynch scrambled to make a deal with what ended up being cash deposit rich Bank of America (rumors had them courting Wachovia too).  Good for Merrill, bad for BoFA, who apparently didn’t learn their lesson when they acquired Countrywide (IMO).  Merrill started going sideways when they aggressively entered and became one of the top issuers of *drum roll please* the sub-prime mortgage market.  The way it’s being spun is BoFA is strong in banking and lending and wanted Merrill’s wealth management pundits…spin-spin…

AIG

The world’s largest insurer (for now) appears to be in a bit of trouble as well, although the trouble should be confined to their holding company and not affect their individual insurance company subsidiary’s ability to conduct business and pay claims.  AIG (as most insurance companies do) invest a portion of their premiums into other assets, and guess where AIG invested heavily?  *Drum roll please* the sub-prime mortgage market…

AIG is significant in all of this for a few reasons, they’re part of the DJIA and a staple of many mutual funds.  So as AIG goes, it drags the Dow and many others (down) with it.

The Common Denominators

So, crap runs down hill.  The common denominators here are how vested these companies were/are in the sub-prime mortgage market, how bad those poor performing assets really are and what other upside is there to mitigate the crap…

Lehman Bros appears to have been the worst of the bad and was subsequently voted off the island.

More analyses here:

• Dan Green, The Mortgage Reports
• Tom Vanderwell, written on Bloodhound Blog

Not to sugarcoat any of this, because it sucks for a LOT of people.  I wonder how Bank of America will do, taking on this many bad mortgages from Countrywide and now Merrill-Lynch?

Photo credit

There's No Road Map On This Trip

     What a day.  We knew on Sunday that there were bad things waiting to happen when the markets opened on Monday, but in case you've missed it (and I don't know how you could):

• the DOW dropped 504 points, the worst free fall since 2001
• Lehman Brothers, one of the top firms on Wall Street, went bankrupt
• Merrill-Lynch was forced to sell to Bank of America
• American International Group (AIG) is looking for money in order to stay afloat

Are you wondering what this all means for housing in the US?  Yea, me too - I'm still trying to wrap my head around it all myself, but stick around and I'll try to get something logical up here shortly.  There's no guide book for today's news, time will tell how we fare.  Stay tuned ...

Wisdom and Patience

Sometimes, you just know what the right thing to do is. 

That's all, hope everyone's having a great day!

Don't Watch This Until You Have Two Minutes To Waste - I'm Serious.

Honestly - don't watch the video below until you have two minutes of your life that you're willing to give up and never get back.

It was sent to me by one of the fine folks in our Marketing Department; I think it reinforces an idea I had a few months ago about doing a rap to advertise a house.  If you know me, I ain't exactly a lyrical virtuoso (my wife is nodding her head enthusiastically at this point, I'm sure).  Note to self - get on that rap idea pronto, and begin planning your eternal embarrassment.

Watching this, I'm reminded of this Geico commercial ... lots of heel work.  I love it.  Now, do you have two minutes to spare?  Enjoy.

Blacksburg's Main Street To Get A Facelift

The Blacksburg Town Council unanimously approved major changes to a 1/2 mile stretch of North Main Street (460-Business) here in Blacksburg, including additional turn lanes and a two-lane roundabout at Main and Price's Fork. 

It's been discussed before here, here and here. 

Is this a benefit to the long-term viability of Main Street businesses in Blacksburg, or a short-sighted reaction to Virginia Tech's expansion?

Download vt_construction_narrative.pdf here.

Down The Drain

Tonia Moxley (the Roanoke Times' best daily contributor, in my opinion) wrote a story on Wednesday regarding the natural draining of 50-acre Mountain Lake in Giles County. 

If you haven't been to Mountain Lake, it's the site where Dirty Dancing was filmed.  Yawn ... but it's a gorgeous drive up the mountain and there are some really cool trails and things surrounding the resort. 

Anyway, the lake is one of only two naturally occurring lakes in Virginia, and one of only a handful in the world that naturally drains and then fills back up.  It has been draining for the last several years, to a point where it now holds a small amount of water that continues to recede, and is at levels unseen before.  The draining effect is supposedly a natural phenomenon, due to a large crack that formed, and according to a retired Virginia Tech biologist, this isn't the first time.  Core samples he's taken at the lake show that it's happened at least a half dozen times before in the last 4500 years.

Tonia's article highlights some of the issues the resort is facing, and then Kevin Myatt followed that up with a look at the impact weather has had on the lake.  Just found it interesting - it's a strange phenomenon, happening right here in our backyard.  If you haven't been to Mountain Lake I'd encourage you to go, if for not other reason than to see firsthand the incredible power and resiliency of nature at work. 

Updated 9/22/08 - these things happen when you can finally see the bottom of a lake after 90 years

Photo Credit

 

When Vanilla Ice Said He Was Rollin', I'd Bet He Wasn't Referring to This ...

Somehow, when Vanilla Ice was spewing the lyrical genius that was "Ice Ice Baby" (I couldn't write that without chuckling, have you seen these lyrics?), I've got to imagine this wasn't what he was referring to when he spoke of the wind blowing his hair ...

The Roanoke Times' Lerone Graham tried out one of these low-speed vehicles recently; I'm certainly no fan of the idea, and I thought some his quotes were telling enough to give Councils who are considering allowing them on public streets pause.  Consider:

"Because the E-Merge has no doors and is lower to the ground than normal-size vehicles, I felt exposed when vehicles would fly past me."

"... most of the time they will do about 18, which is only a little more than half of the speed limit."

"Though it was a very routine turn, a person in a sport utility vehicle who was several hundred feet behind me in the same lane soon had to brake to keep enough distance from me."
                                                                                                                                Photo Credit

They have no exterior protection for passengers, only do half of the maximum speed posted on the streets they're allowed to drive on, and will be passing hazards for even the most attentive of motorists.  Still smells of dumb, to me.

What's an insurance agent think of the plan? I asked Jon Hannah of State Farm Insurance what his thoughts were, and this was his response in an email ...

"As long as these vehicles are maintained with the proper equipment, according to state law, and are being operated in areas that allow these types of vehicles, per the Virginia Code, we have no issue with them being used.  However, vehicle owners should make sure they are properly licensed and insured.  I would encourage them to contact their agent, or any State Farm agent, for information about their insurability."

"Safety in any vehicle is a concern regardless of the size or how fast it goes.  A recent Virginia Tech study showed that 80% of all vehicle accidents and 65% of near accidents involved driver inattention.  I would encourage readers to log on to www.statefarm.com or www.drivesmartva.org for more information on driving safety."

Rule of thumb?  Be careful.  My hope is that the Christiansburg Town Council sends this one back to the golf course, but if they don't, be sure to call Eric Johnsen and get that thing insured.  And don't be bothered by helmet hair - it's for your own protection.

A Few Things To Take Note Of In Blacksburg

As I mentioned last week, the Town of Blacksburg is using Twitter to broadcast news and notes to citizens regarding things happening in the Town. 
I love the idea, and yesterday I saw two things posted that caught my eye, so I took a screenshot from my phone and posted it here:

* a reminder that carboard can now be recycled during the weekly pickup.  Just make sure to break down the pieces and lay them under your blue bin when you set it out.  They must be less than 3 feet long by 3 feet wide when broken down.  You can find out more regarding the Recycling guidelines at Blacksburg.gov/recycling.

*  Sustainability Week in Blacksburg is coming up, October 20-25.  More information to follow - there's not much on their website right now, but they do have the Executive Summary from last year (see below)

Download 2007_sustainability_summary.pdf

Don't forget to fill out the survey the Town is distributing, asking for  citizen input on Downtown issues.  The deadline for submission is September 15th.  I can't find anything on the website about it, so here's an image of the form that you can print and send in.  Topic #1 for improving Downtown - provide an electronic copy on your website of the form you want people to fill out.  (It may be there, I'm just not seeing it).

A University On The Move

Mentioned this a few weeks ago ...

Radford University is a school on the move. 

I think these are steps in the right direction.  For years, Radford's been a university that was just there - little growth, no real focus or direction into what the vision for the university is.  It appears they've solved that problem.  And the City of Radford will benefit from that direction - I can't find studies to support this, but my experience - limited as it may be - is that communities that are home to four-year and graduate institutions rank higher in terms of quality of life and economic resources, infrastructure, and the like.

Any Radford residents care to chime in on this?

If I Told You There Was $50000 Buried In Downtown Blacksburg, Would You Hustle There To Find It?

I don't know if $50000 is buried in downtown Blacksburg or not, I just wanted to get your attention.  But you knew that already ...

The Town of Blacksburg IS encouraging residents and visitors to flock to downtown Blacksburg, however, and they'd like your input on how to make the 16 blocks even better.  They'd like your input; the form is attached here, you can print the image and mail it to 300 Main Street in Blacksburg, or deliver it to The Lyric when you check out Brideshead Revisited and Gonzo:  The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson.

Deadline for submission is September 15th.

The State of the Market - August 2008

It's the home stretch for 2008, and what a year it's been so far - the first half of the year showed that the time to sell a home was actually FALLING a bit, but prices were unchanged for the most part save for a few select areas.  As we head further into fall and winter, I expect we'll see shifts across all area markets to what we'd consider a buyers' market.  There are also many Adjustable Rate Mortgages expected to reset in early 2009 and so I'm wondering if we may see more homes coming on the markets in the next couple of months, as homeowners try to avoid rising mortgage payments.  If you're one of those homeowners and aren't intending to move, please contact me immediately - let's find a local lender who can act quickly to help you refinance and keep your payments low.

When it comes to absorption rates, we're looking at how long it would take to sell the existing residential inventory in a particular area, if nothing else came on the market until supply was exhausted.  Anything over 5 months is typically a buyers' market, and anything less than 5 months is typically a seller's market.

Area	# of Active Properties	# of Sold Properties	Absorption Rate	Buyer/Seller Market
Blacksburg	208	35	5.94 Months	Buyer and Seller
Christiansburg	276	41	6.73 Months	Buyer
Montgomery County	69	11	6.27 Months	Buyer
Floyd County	123	6	20.50 Months	Buyer
Giles County	60	4	15.00 Months	Buyer
Pulaski	108	13	8.31 Months	Buyer
Dublin	123	14	8.79 Months	Buyer
Radford	92	12	7.67 Months	Buyer

This shift into a buyers' market is certainly nothing new, it usually happens every year.  Interesting days ahead though, a slow, steady and calculated approach to the market is going to be important as we move forward towards 2009.

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What Is A Home Inspection?

Last week, we had several properties having home inspections being done, all by the same inspector.  We try to use the same vendors, over and over, because they consistently bring their best to the job each and every time, which is one reason why we like John.  And he shares my affinity for all things Mac related, but that's for another post. 

So we kept John busy last week, and in the course of those inspections I got to thinking about the purpose of the home inspection.  On the Contract we use, the home inspection clause reads:

"A home inspection for the purposes of this Contract is RESTRICTED TO DETERMINING ONLY that the plumbing (including well, well pump and septic systems, if any), heating, air conditioning (if any), electrical systems and appliances are in safe working order, there are no structural defects, and the roof is free of leaks.  The home inspection and any subsequent inspections shall be at Purchaser's expense."  It's not a license to swing for the fences ...

With that in mind, the inspection is a comprehensive snapshot of the major systems in a home.  It usually takes 3 or 4 hours to complete, usually costs a few hundred dollars, and the result will be a thorough report detailing the good - and sometimes bad - regarding the condition of the home.  If you're a home owner, preparing to put your home on the market, you might also want to consider getting a home inspection ... it'll give you a better idea of items that can or should be addressed prior to listing your home.

Thanks for the image ...