NRVLiving - Real Estate. Simplified.

We've Moved ...

That's right, NRVLiving Real Estate has moved to NRVLiving.com.  Same name, new site.

Check it out, and if you find anything that isn't working correctly on the new site email me and let me know.  Still tweaking widgets and gadgets and whoop-de-doo's, but I think I've gotten most of it.  Let me know if you find something, and if you read this blog through RSS or email delivery, you should not have to make any changes in order to continue delivery.  

My thanks to CWI Media for their assistance and patience!

Investors Can Now Own More Properties

In a stroke of genius - well, a reaction to what was a poor decision in the first place - Fannie Mae has now increased the investor loan limits from 4 properties to 10.

Limiting serious investors to 4 properties just didn't make sense - these folks don't deal with numbers like that.  We're not talking loans for weekend warriors who want to flip a house or two, or invest in a condo.  These new limits are designed for the serious investor, the ones who have excellent credit, money to put down (20% or more), and they're set up with tighter guidelines than before.  And that, in my opinion, is a good thing.

This opens up a number of opportunities here in the New River Valley, specifically in Blacksburg and Radford.  I've said it before and I'll say it again ... and again ... and again - investing in college communities makes sense.  For the past couple of years at least, Virginia Tech has announced an on-campus shortfall for residents, which means students are having to find off-campus housing.  Investors are smart to snap these up, because not only do the universities get larger, but so do the periphery of businesses that follow universities.  Where there's a university, so also there are research facilities, medical schools, design and engineering firms, and more.  Housing becomes a premium.

Before you say I'm a cheerleader for housing - which I am, but I want to be an honest cheerleader - I'm not suggesting everyone jump in the housing pool.  However, in the past two weeks I've worked with an investor, two sets of parents with kids at Virginia Tech, and one first-time buyer who have specifically targeted our market because of the university-focus.

That's proof enough.  Thanks, Fannie Mae.

Paint - It Makes All The Difference

Watch a home improvement show on TV, or read an article in a magazine, and one of the recurring themes you'll find is that changing a room's paint color can have profound effects.  Recently, I was reminded of this when a client shared photos with me of a kitchen they just painted, and the results are dramatic.

When Ron and Laura bought their home last year, the walls throughout the house were just a boring white.  White everywhere, and it hadn't been cleaned in quite some time.  While they're working their way through the house, putting their own touches on it, Laura surprised me with some photos of the kitchen "makeover" that cost less than $100 worth of paint supplies.

The Before (wish we had better photos of the before so you could see the complete package):

And the after:

So ... is their a simple home improvement project you're taken on this President's Day?  Send me the before and after photos so we can show off your handiwork!

It's All About Your Neighborhood, and It's SPAM Free!

Ever wondered how to find out what that creepy neighbor sold their house for?  I remember the neighborhood Christmas parties - seems someone always wants to talk about real estate, and inevitably someone will ask "what do you think I can get for my house?"

I'm glad to talk real estate - it's one of my passions - but what if you could stay on top of the market and be the  envy of all your friends?  Now YOU can be the neighborhood expert at cocktail parties, just email me with your New River Valley neighborhood and I'll set up an automatic search that will notify you when a new listing hits the market in your neighborhood, and if it sells.  Easy enough, and no, I will not contact you otherwise - these emails as SPAM-FREE!

If you're interested, email me at jeremy at nrvliving dot com and I'll set it up for you.  I've already had several past clients sign up for updates on their own neighborhoods, and it was so well-received I thought it might be helpful for everyone.  All of this information is online and available for public consumption, let me make it a little easier and send it directly to you, in real time! 

Thanks, cobalt123, for the image.

Blacksburg's Odd Fellows Hall

You've probably seen the building before - a dilapidated, run-down structure tucked away at the intersection of Prices Fork and Main Street here in Blacksburg.  It's a forgotten little building - WAS, a forgotten little building - until yesterday.

Odd Fellows Hall, the forgotten little place with the huge history, is being remembered. 

Free Money's Not Cheap Money - A Look at the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

Home buyers - how does a $15000 Tax Credit sound?  $15000, free money - sounds pretty good, right?

Who knows if it'll actually be there, though. 

Let's catch up to speed ... The House has passed a version of the stimulus bill, while the Senate is currently working on their own version.  They're supposed to vote on it tomorrow, February 10th, but as of this post I don't know if that'll happen.  There's some political wrangling that has to go back and forth, and once that's finished then it's voted on by both the House and the Senate ... again.

But why a stimulus in the first place, and will it even help?  Remember - I'm not a lawyer or a CPA, so if you have questions about whether this makes sense for you I'd suggest starting with them FIRST.  Then mail me.

The idea is that a tax credit of 10% of a home's purchase price, or a value no greater than $15000, could be written off on your taxes as a credit, thus stimulating buyers to invest in the housing market by purchasing either new homes or homes that are being resold.  The original stimulus bill, called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, said that only $7500 could be applied for as a credit, but this most recent amendment upped that to $15000.

15 grand is a lot of money.

I received some emails from first-time buyers late last week that thought it was just a first-time buyer credit, but according to the AP that's not the case.  The AP reports "The Senate has voted to award anybody buying a home this year a tax credit worth up to $15000 in hopes of jump-starting the sagging housing market.  The homebuyer tax credit offered by GOP Sen. Johnny Isakson would apply to any home purchased as a main residence and would cost taxpayers $19 billion."  So it looks as if it's a homebuyer credit and not a first-time buyer credit. 

I don't know if this makes a difference overall in the housing market across the country.  I know that the New River Valley market is not facing many of the same problems, and I hope to have my 2008 Annual Report out in the next several days.  Nevertheless, $15000 is a lot of money to just leave on the table and I think by the response I've gotten from buyers so far, and from what I'm hearing across the country, it's going to make SOME kind of a difference.  Make sure to read this report from Calculated Risk on the situation.  Jay Thompson also has a good recap.

EverythingNRV.com and Housing Shortages

Tim Jackson quoted me in a piece he did at EverythingNRV.com entitled "Two Sides of the Coin".

I love seeing people pick up on what the market's doing here, and I thank Tim for including me in his piece.  I did find much different data than he reported with regards to sales figures for both November and December of 2008 and 2007, which I addressed in the comments.  Nevertheless, thanks to Tim for writing and asking me to participate, be sure to check out EverythingNRV.com and add it to your daily read!

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Seems like we covered this last year, as well, but Virginia Tech has announced another shortage of housing for on-campus rooms.  Let's see ... buyers' market, great loan rates, students having to move off-campus ... who might be interested in an opportunity like this? 

Investors.  Parents.  Students with documented sources of income.  Email me ... we need to talk.