Recently, in preparing for an upcoming closing, the closing attorney and the builder had an email discussion regarding the use of a General Warranty Deed versus a Special Warranty Deed. The deed is the document that legally transfers the property from the Seller, to the Buyer – how it’s worded is of importance, because it shows how the property is conveying, and what the ownership structure is. Now, I pride myself on knowing a little something about New River Valley real estate, but I have to admit that I was wrong – I thought we should be using a General Warranty Deed, when in fact per the Contract we were supposed to be using a Special Warranty Deed. Turns out, either was appropriate, but both are very different.

So what, right? Apparently people care about this whole thing. It’s important and stuff.

Since I obviously didn’t know what I was talking about, I asked John Spicer, of Frank, Spicer & Cox, to explain a bit further. He and one of his paralegals, Joe, explained in great detail the differences, and why one is used over the other.

Real estate in Virginia can be transferred generally by the use of one of three (3) types of deeds, the General Warranty Deed, the Special Warranty Deed and the Quit Claim Deed. With both General Warranty Deeds and Special Warranty Deeds the property is transferred from the seller to the buyer with certain guarantees against future problems or claims. The difference between a General Warranty Deed and Special Warranty Deed is the extent of the coverage of the warranty.

Both types of Warranty Deeds (Special and General) guarantee the buyer: 1) that the seller owns the title to the property; 2) that the seller is legally allowed to sell the property; 3) that the property has not already been sold; 4) that the property is free of debt or other claims (aside from those satisfied at the closing (i.e. deed of trust of judgment lien); and that the seller is responsible for any problems/faults with the title to property.  However, where the guarantees in a General Warranty Deed cover the property’s entire history, the Special Warranty Deed only covers the period of time for which the seller owned it. While the seller in a General Warranty Deed must defend the title against all other claims and compensate the buyer for any unsettled debts or damages, the seller in a Special Warranty Deed is only responsible for debts and problems accrued or caused during his ownership of the property.  The Special Warranty Deed is typically used by persons acting in a representative capacity (i.e. Trustees, Executors etc) or commercial real estate transactions.

The Quit claim deed does not convey any warranty of title by the seller.  In essence, the seller is merely stating that IF he has any ownership interest in the property (which the seller is not warranting they have), then such interest is conveyed to the buyer.  Quit claim deeds are used generally in estates where it is unclear whether an individual was an heir or beneficiary or there are other “gaps”.

The gist? Basically, a General Warranty Deed says that the Seller will defend the title to the property going backwards. A Special Warranty Deed means the Seller will defend the title to the property only for the time period the Seller owned the property.

And I have a headache. These lawyers like to make things even more difficult than real estate agents do.

Have more questions? Post them here in the comments, and we’ll ask John to clarify a bit more.

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A completely different kind of post for a Blacksburg real estate site.

If you know me, at all, you probably know that I love my iPhone. It’s never far from my person, and I use it constantly – pictures, Twitter, Facebook, email, and oh yea, to make phone calls too. I’ve used it to sign contracts, I use it to open lockboxes … I even use it as a flashlight.

And Sketchy Steven even caught me walking downtown one day and sketched me, with the ever-present iPhone right in my face. Caught in the act.

It might be is a little bit of a problem. And the truth is, I’m not alone. Some of you are reading this post on your iPhone right now, in fact – I know, because I look at the analytics. (thank you, technology).

So when I saw a friend post a bunch of Siri commands online the other day, I knew I had to repost her list. I mean, Siri has got to be one of the greatest inventions ever, everyone needs to know how to use her! Tell Siri to set an appointment? Boom. Ask Siri to remind you to make a phone call when you leave. Bang. Want to ask Siri random questions? You never know what kind of answers you’ll get.

In truth, I use Siri for all kinds of things, like getting directions, setting reminders and to-do’s, and sending messages on a variety of different services. There’s a ton of versatility to the system, and I find it incredibly useful. If you have Siri on your iPhone but you’re not using it, I hope you’ll find it useful too - here are some commands to get you started.

Just don’t ask her to sing you a song. She’s really terrible.

Photo credit.

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Breathe.

We’re not calling the end of any real estate troubles here in the New River Valley, but we’re continuing to see the trends we want to see that indicate a healthier real estate market. Slow and steady has been the mantra for some time now, and we will continue that into 2013. But after a year of studying the numbers here in the NRV, we think real estate is poised to do some positive things. Consider that for the year, we saw a:

• 4.38% increase in median sales prices
• 19.10% decrease in year-end months of inventory (and down 38% from 2010)
• 3% decrease in cumulative Days On Market (DOM) for sold homes

We’re getting somewhere. And if demand stays high while inventory stays – relatively – low, we should be on stable footing for 2013. You can read the entire report below, or download it as a PDF here.

2012 New River Valley Real Estate Market Annual Review by Jonathan Kauffmann

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This was sent to me by two separate people today – including our real estate photographer – with the caption “perspective is everything”. Reminds me of how people talk about how photos of houses can be deceiving – “wow, no wonder they didn’t show that whole room – it’s missing the floor!”.

You can see the image here, as well.

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For the three of you hanging on my every word, posts have been sporadic, for a number of reasons, but the most recent reason is that I’m launching myself down the mountainsides of Revelstoke, BC.

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Santa’s come and gone, and taken the cookies on his way out the door. The kids have woken you early, and shrieks of laughter are hopefully filling your home. Ideally, the sound of a new drum set is not present.

May your Christmas 2012 be full of Happy Everything, and Merry Always, from all of us at Nest Realty.

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Admit it – you head out late in the evenings around the Christmas holidays to look for houses decorated (in an over the top way) for Christmas. Kind of like this one …

Natalie and I like riding around and looking at how people decorate for Christmas … I’ve mentioned it before. We like them all – the ones that are tastefully done, the ones that have a “whoa I’ve never seen that before!”, and especially the ones that make you slow down as you drive by, stop in the road, or even circle back around to see it two or three times (we call those Ho Ho houses).  Of COURSE you need to take pictures of those! We’ve seen you out cruising a street, driving really slow and peering out the window at all the lights, so we know you do it too – don’t judge!  And since SO many of us seem to enjoy it as well, a few years ago I decided to do a little map that shows different spots around the New River Valley – and a few a little further away – that people might want to check out.  It received so much traffic that I’m doing it even bigger this year, and I need your help!

(last year’s map)

View Christmas Lights in the New River Valley in a larger map

Have you seen your neighbors starting to decorate their house?  Snap a photo, email the photo to me along with the home’s address, and I’ll add it to the map.  Have you decided that you’re going to go all Clark Griswold this year?  Snap a photo of the finished product, email it to me with the address, and I’ll add it to the map.  Have you seen a house that defies all rules of energy usage?  Snap a photo of the finished product, email it to me, and … you get the drift.  I’ll use the photo and upload it to the map, along with the address (and a description, if you’d like to provide one) so that we all can enjoy the season a little bit together!

And I need a few elves this year – as the map has gotten bigger, it gets harder and harder to get around the New River Valley to get photos. If you’re willing to be on the lookout for New River Valley homes decorated for the holidays, let me know and you can help grow the Christmas Lights in the New River Valley map even larger this year!

It’s fun to watch the New River Valley light up this time of year, and hopefully, this map will serve as one way for you and your family to celebrate the season.

Photo Credit

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We’ve hinted at it for months, it seems, but it’s finally here. The first in our Live Where You Love series of videos has finally arrived!

The Nest Realty folks in Charlottesville have been doing these videos for a while, and we couldn’t wait to get them done out here, as well. We spent several days with an awesome film crew, got to talk with some great people, and I think it’s safe to say we fell in love with Blacksburg and the New River Valley all over again!

What do you think? Did we get it right?

Find a home, so you can live where you love.

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The Nest Report – your light reading as you nod off to sleep. In all seriousness, after doing two quarters of real estate market reports here in the New River Valley (see Q1, and Q2), we’re thrilled that so many of you ask “when’s the next quarter going to be available?”. It makes our bean counters happy to know that their work is so desired; they don’t get a lot of attention, you know.

So what’s the report tell us? Some highlights:

• the number of sales increased between Q3 2011 and Q3 2012 by 3.4%
• inventory levels have dropped by as much as 27.7%, a potentially positive sign
• Blacksburg single-family homes saw a median price increase of 7.3%, to $263500
• Christiansburg dominated the quarter, with a year-over-year sales increase of 26%
• other areas, like Giles County, Pulaski County, and Radford City have seen increased prices and volume

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