Death and taxes.  Good way to start a post, right?

When making a mortgage payment every month, one of the pieces of that payment includes your real estate taxes.  These amounts will vary from locality to locality, and in some cases a municipality will have TWO rates – one rate will be for the City or Town, and the other rate will be for the appropriate County.  Feel free to use the phone numbers below to contact the taxing authority if you have questions.*

The good news is that by paying taxes, we’re contributing to the infrastructure that makes the New River Valley such a great place to live.  But how the heck do they come up with the amount you need to pay?  Well, it’s based on the rate that’s voting on by the various municipalities, and they’re detailed below.  You’ll note that some have TWO rates – one is the Town or City rate, added to the County rate.  And should you need more information about a particular location, feel free to use the phone numbers below to contact the taxing authority.

To calculate current yearly tax, take the current assessed value of the home, divide by 100 and multiply by the current tax rate.

The assessed value of the home is $250000 and the home is in Blacksburg:
$250000/100 = 2500 x .93 = 2325           Yearly tax $2325

* Tax information is assumed reliable – contact the local Commissioner of the Revenue for more information.

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There are five bills currently making their way through the Virginia General Assembly that homeowners in Virginia, particularly those in Montgomery County, should be paying attention to.  From the Virginia Homeowners Alliance:

• HB570 – real estate taxes are based on a real estate assessor’s assessment of your property’s value, and is almost always based on a combination of a visual inspection of the exterior (read – sitting in the car) and a quick perusal of the property card.  If you don’t like the assessment, it’s up to YOU to defend whether the property’s value should have gone up or down.  This bill shifts the burden of responsibility from you to the assessor who valued the property.
• HB552 – a scenario to consider – you want to build a detached apartment on your property, and you petition your local government to change the zoning to allow for just that.  You break ground, start building, and then … the locality changes its’ mind and makes you undue everything.  Hmmm … I can’t think of anything like that happening around here.  HB552 strengthens a property owner’s “vested rights”.
• HB191 – this legislation unifies the process of filing formal complaints against a homeowners association.  Right now, the rules are different for each association.
• HB205 – when your home gets damaged, your hazard insurance should pay to fix that damage.  However, there’s no guarantee that the brown roof you had on the house won’t be replaced with a green one.  This bill serves to make sure that you’re not stuck with a green roof when you ordered a brown one.  Unless, of course, you wanted the green roof … oh, nevermind.
• HB430 – Remember HB570, up above?  HB430 focuses on values as well, but this time requires that real estate assessors have more education, and make the appeals process easier for homeowners.

I like that HB570 shifts some of the responsibility away from the individual who isn’t actively involved in the assessment process to the one who should be well-versed in the area.  There needs to be a balance, certainly, but it’s a step in the right direction.  And certainly more education can’t be a bad thing as it pertains to HB430, but certainly education doth not a good assessor make.  Interested to see what the final iteration of this one might be.

If you’re a homeowner in Virginia, I would highly recommend joining the Virginia Homeowners Alliance.  This service, provided by the Virginia Association of REALTORS, helps all of us protect our homes’ value by knowing what’s happening in legislation that affects each of us.  As someone who’s worked very closely on the implementation of this very important service, I can speak firsthand to the attention to detail that has gone into it.  The link to signup is here, and as always, it’s SPAM-free!

As a final aside, during the middle of this month I’ll be attending what’s called the Day on the Hill.  It’s an opportunity for the real estate community to talk one-on-one with our elected officials in Richmond, and some of the discussions might center around topics like these above, or most certainly the first-time buyer credit.  If there are housing issues you’d like addressed directly to your representatives, email me and let’s see if we can get it in front of them.

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Last week I talked about having a short sale right down the street from an upcoming listing.  It’s not the greatest deal in the world, to have a house just steps away that’s being sold for less than what is owed on it, but it is what it is.  My sellers are realistic, they’ve got a house that’ll be priced right and will show great, and we’ll continue on.

One of the emails I received over the weekend asked, “Is buying a short sale something you recommend?“.  Kristina, if you’re ready for an interesting experience, then yes, buying a short sale here in the New River Valley is something I recommend.  Three things:

1. Hard work is required. The bank has agreed to let the borrower – in this case, the homeowner – sell the house for less than it’s worth.  In all likelihood, you’re not going to get the belle of the ball.  The house is likely going to be in some state of disrepair (I’m not suggesting all homeowners who sell short do this, just suggesting that sometimes you’ll need a little more than elbow grease), and since the borrower has already shown they have no money to make the payments, they’re not likely to make any repairs, either.
2. Losing the deal will happen.  When your offer goes to the bank for approval, it could very well be one of several offers on the same property.  And the bank will continue to accept offers until it makes a decision.  Don’t be surprised if, while waiting for a response from the bank, you learn that you’ve lost out to another offer.  Your agent should help you write as tight an offer as possible, but when push comes to shove the banks only care about the bottom dollar.  You WILL lose a short sale from time to time … the key is to lose as few as possible.
3. Hope you’re not in a hurry. I thought about writing this point first, but saving it for last seemed more appropriate since we’re not in a hurry.  And I hope you aren’t, either, because buying a short sale will take time.  There’s no sitting down at the kitchen table and presenting an offer when it comes to a short sale – the offer is agreed upon the seller and THEN it’s submitted to an overworked “specialist” who reviews and approves everything.  Since this specialist is working on who knows how many hundreds of other files at the same time, it could sit for quite a while.  If you don’t have the time to wait, don’t – and if you do, I hope you’re patient.  Honey can cure a lot of troubles, but it’s not guaranteed when dealing with a short sale.

I’m sure I’m not the first to repeat this to their clients, but I constantly remind my clients that one of the greatest strengths of a good agent is their ability to be an unemotional facilitator in the transaction.  When it comes to short sales, both the homeowner selling the home, and the buyer trying to buy the home, need to ratchet up their ability to be unemotional, as well.  It’ll take time, and it might be ugly at times, but if you’ve got the patience you can buy a short sale.

Updated 2/2/10 2:10pm – Danilo Bogdanovic just posted a good addition to this post, entitled “How Long Do Short Sales Take?“.  If anyone would know it’d be an agent in the 51st state, Northern Virginia.

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Next week, I’ll be listing a house in Christiansburg.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is that just a few doors down, there’s a short sale.

I wanted my clients to see the floor plan of this particular house because it’s a little different than many of the others on the street, and so we took a little walk to look around.  As we were in the house, I mentioned that the property was a short sale, and asked if they knew what that meant.  Blank stares.

Not much has been posted on this blog about short sales because, well truthfully, we just haven’t seen too many of them.  There was this post, “What Is A Short Sale, Really?“, but that’s really about it.  I sense that short sales will become more prevalent here in the New River Valley though, as our real estate trends tend to be a bit behind many of the larger metropolitan areas – here’s to hoping I’m wrong, but if that’s the case than it’s likely we’ll see a rise of them in the next year or so.  But back to the story …

A short sale is simply when a homeowner owes more to the lender than their home is worth.  It’s an unfortunate scenario, but one that is pretty common in a lot of areas.  The impact of a short sale to a homeowners’ credit is often less of a hit than that of a foreclosure, but nevertheless it’s a tough pill to swallow.  And the impact on surrounding properties can also be tough to deal with, as well, as homes sold “short” will often drag down comparable home values.  A short sale isn’t always a lender’s first preference, but when it comes to choosing to foreclose – and then having to put a foreclosed property on the market – versus getting some kind of value for the property, I suspect most lenders will choose to at least explore a short sale with the borrower.

But a short sale isn’t for everyone.  As the borrower, you’ll need to prove to the lender that you can’t afford to continue making payments – this is done through what’s called a hardship letter, and in this letter you’ll need to explain – with verification – exactly why the payments are not being made.  Once the lender has agreed to allow the home to be sold short, the house can be put under contract … but it doesn’t get any easier.  There are any number of moving targets that need to be met, and as a homeowner you should know that not every short sale that goes under contract successfully makes it to the closing table.

The long and short of a short sale is this – it can be done, but it’s not easy, and it’s not foolproof.  At some point, because the bank is the one making the final decision on whether to accept less than what is owed, the decision-making is taken out of your hands; if you’re not comfortable with the uncertainty of that, a short sale may not be right for you.  And an agent who knows their way around a short sale is a must.

If you think you might need to address the possibility of a short sale with your lender, contact me and let’s talk.  There may be other ways of handling it, but even if there aren’t, we can get you through it.

Updated 2/2/10 2:10pm – Danilo Bogdanovic just posted a good addition to this post, entitled “How Long Do Short Sales Take?“.  If anyone would know it’d be an agent in the 51st state, Northern Virginia.

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Finally, real-time search is available on NRVLiving.com.  My thanks to Gary Cope of CWIMedia for his help getting it set up!

Now, find the properties you’re interested in, right from NRVLiving.com.  This new search is much better than the old one as it offers as much search criteria as you’d like in order to find just the results you’re looking for … and if you can’t find exactly what you’re looking for, email me and we’ll craft a search that’ll keep you updated as new things come out.

If you see something that’s not working, please let me know; I know you’ll find this new search feature a vast improvement.

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Welcome to a new week, and another in the “Best in the New River Valley” series!  In part 1, we introduced Coldwell Banker Townside, the real estate company you voted #1 in the New River Valley.  In part 2, we introduced yours truly and my snake charming skills.  Part 3 included an interview with Mike Eggleston, the agent voted #1 in the New River Valley, and in today’s video, we asked others what they thought about Mike and myself – you might be surprised at their answers.

So why exactly are we doing this?  Because last year, you voted Coldwell Banker Townside the #1 real estate agency in the New River Valley, and you voted Mike and myself the #1 and #2 real estate agents, respectively (although I’m still disputing the results), in the New River Valley.  We’re proud of that fact, and excited to share with you all the reasons we think Coldwell Banker Townside is special!

Don’t forget to vote!  Voting is now open at The Roanoke Times‘ website, or by clicking through on this link, and the deadline to cast your vote is February 14th.

Disclaimer #1 – your participation entitles you to nothing but our undying admiration. And – we hope – perhaps a chuckle or three.

Disclaimer #2 – thank you for thinking so much of us.  Seriously.  We’ve had a lot of fun with these videos, and we hope that you enjoy them, but in all honesty none of this would be happening if you didn’t think well of us and vote.

Disclaimer #3 – see Disclaimers 1 and 2.  Rinse and repeat.

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The Best in the New River Valley series continues today!  We had fun with Part 1 and Part 2, and this time we introduce Mike Eggleston, the New River Valley’s #1 real estate agent in 2009 as voted by Roanoke Times readers.

Don’t forget to vote!  Voting is now open at The Roanoke Times‘ website, or by clicking through on this link, and the deadline to cast your vote is February 14th.

Disclaimer #1 – your participation entitles you to nothing but our undying admiration. And – we hope – perhaps a chuckle or three.

Disclaimer #2 – thank you for thinking so much of us.  Seriously.  We’ve had a lot of fun with these videos, and we hope that you enjoy them, but in all honesty none of this would be happening if you didn’t think well of us and vote.

Disclaimer #3 – see Disclaimers 1 and 2.  Rinse and repeat.

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In Part 1 of the “Best in the New River Valley” series, we were introduced to Bill Gearhart and Anne Lee Stevens, managing brokers for Coldwell Banker Townside. They went on … and on … and on about all the things they thought went into making Coldwell Banker Townside the #1 real estate agency in the New River Valley, but truth be told they had a lot of good reasons.

But that’s not why you read this blog, right?  You want to hear from me!  <crickets chirping> Okay, my megalomaniac moment is over.  Following is Part 2 of the series, an interview with yours truly … warning, there are tears … and foam fingers.

Don’t forget to vote!  Voting is now open at The Roanoke Times‘ website, or byclicking through on this link, and the deadline to cast your vote is February 14th.

Disclaimer #1 – your participation entitles you to nothing but my undying admiration. And – we hope – perhaps a chuckle or three.

Disclaimer #2 – thank you for thinking so much of us.  Seriously.  We’ve had a lot of fun with these videos, and we hope that you enjoy them, but in all honesty none of this would be happening if you didn’t think well of us and vote.

Disclaimer #3 – see Disclaimers 1 and 2.  Rinse and repeat.

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The Roanoke Times’ “Best of the New River Valley” contest is back, and voting has begun!

You might remember – probably not, but let me remind you – that last year, you voted me the #2 real estate agent in the New River Valley.  You also voted another Coldwell Banker Townside agent, Mike Eggleston, the #1 real estate agent, AND voted our office the #1 real estate office – a clean sweep.

In anticipation of even better things to come, Kelsey and the folks in our marketing department decided to step it up a notch this year, debuting a series of videos highlighting the office, Mike, and yours truly.  We’ll roll them out over the next several days, but here’s the first one.

Don’t forget to vote!  Voting is now open at The Roanoke Times‘ website, or by clicking through on this link, and the deadline to cast your vote is February 14th.

Disclaimer #1 – your participation entitles you to nothing but my undying admiration. And – we hope – perhaps a chuckle or three.

Disclaimer #2 – thank you for thinking so much of us.  Seriously.  We’ve had a lot of fun with these videos, and we hope that you enjoy them, but in all honesty none of this would be happening if you didn’t think well of us and vote.

Disclaimer #3 – see Disclaimers 1 and 2.  Rinse and repeat.

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