2009 Lake Monticello & Fluvanna Real Estate Market Year-in-Review
January 28th, 2010 categories: Albemarle County, Charlottesville, Communities, First Time Buyers, Fluvanna County, For Buyers, For Sellers, Info, Lake Monticello, Market Statistics and Information, News, Quarterly Reports, STR Market Info Blitz
As promised on Monday, today is the day we release our 2009 Lake Monticello & Fluvanna Real Estate Market Year-in-Review. This report is just the latest edition of our Quarterly Market Reports.
2009 was in interesting year for real estate in the Charlottesville area, and especially in Lake Monticello and Fluvanna County. The year began with historically low sales numbers, but ended on a high note, spurred by the first-time homebuyer tax credit. All of this is reflected in the statistics in the report.
The report contains pages of statistics and analysis about the Charlottesville area and Lake Monticello and Fluvanna real estate markets. Here’s just some of the most interesting questions we answer in the report:
- Two counties in the Charlottesville area had more sales in 2009 than in 2008. Which ones were they?
- How many sales were there in Fluvanna and Lake Monticello in 2009? Which months were the best?
- What was the median home price in Fluvanna and Lake Monticello in 2009?
- What was the impact of the First-time Homebuyer Tax Credit on the market?
- How was the Lake Monticello waterfront market impacted in 2009?
These and many other critical pieces of information are included. We’ve been hard at work compiling the stats and doing the analysis because we want our clients to be the most informed clients in the area about the real estate market. This information is critical for you to have and understand so that you can make good decisions and reach your real estate goals.
Once again, you can find the report here. From that page, you can download, print, or even share the report with others. If you have any problems viewing the page, and would like us to email you a PDF copy of the report, just send us an email, and we’ll get it out to you right away. If you want, you can also scroll down and view the report right here in this post, and you still have the option of downloading or sharing the report with anyone you think might benefit from it.
As always, if there is anything you need, or any questions we can answer, don’t hesitate to ask. We’re always here to help you however we can.
2009 Lake Monticello and Fluvanna County Real Estate Market Year-in-Review
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FAQ About the Homebuyer Tax Credit
December 16th, 2009 categories: Albemarle County, Charlottesville, Communities, FAQ, Financing, First Time Buyers, Fluvanna County, For Buyers, For Sellers, Info, Lake Monticello, Louisa County, STR Market Info Blitz
This post is part of the Strong Team REALTORS Market Info Blitz. We’re heating up the Winter market by giving you three-months worth of the information you need, November through January. Check out the latest posts in the blitz, here.
Take advantage of the homebuyer tax credit!
We told you about the extension of the homebuyer tax credit as soon as it was extended and expanded back in November. Since then we’ve received a lot of questions from folks looking to buy a home in the Charlottesville area about the homebuyer tax credit and how they might be able to take advantage of it.
We thought it might be a good idea to answer some of the most common questions about the homebuyer tax credit right here, so that anyone interested in it will have a better understanding of how it works. As always, if you have additional questions about the tax credit that might not have been answered in this post, please feel free to contact us, and we’ll be happy to help you.
How much is the first-time homebuyer tax credit worth?
The first-time homebuyer tax credit is $8000. If you are a married couple who files your taxes separately, the tax credit is $4000 each.
Who is considered a “first-time homebuyer?”
In order to be eligible to receive the first-time homebuyer tax credit, you must not have had an interest in a principle residence for 3 years prior to your current purchase.
How much is the tax credit worth for current homeowners?
Current homeowners may receive a $6500 tax credit. If you are a married couple who files your taxes separately, the tax credit is $3250 each.
<Who is considered a “current homeowner?”
In order to qualify as a current homeowner, you must have used the home being sold as a principle residence consecutively for 5 of the previous 8 years.
When does the credit expire?
The credit expires for both first-time homebuyers and current homeowners on April 30th, 2010. In order to take advantage of the credit, you must have a binding contract by midnight on April 30th, and the home must close by July 1, 2010.
Are their limits to eligibility?
Yes. The income limits for eligibility are $125,000 annual income for single persons, and $225,000 annual income for married couples. There is also a limit of $800,000 for the home being purchased.
Is there paperwork
As with any government program, there is some paperwork to be done in order to receive the credit. The IRS has special forms for your purchase, which you can get from your closing attorney or accountant. You will also need to attach to your tax return documentation of the purchase, which will at least include the signed HUD-1 statement from your closing.
Will the government send me a check?
Maybe. When you apply for the credit, it will be applied to your tax bill. That means that if you owe less taxes then the amount of your credit, you will receive a check from the IRS. If the amount of the taxes you owe is more than the credit, it will simply reduce your total tax burden. Some people who took advantage of the tax credit early filed amended 2008 returns, and were able to receive a check, since they had already paid their 2008 taxes.
Are their homes available that will work for me?
Of course! We’ve worked with a number of buyers this year who have taken advantage of the tax credit. There are plenty of homes for sale in Lake Monticello, Charlottesville, and Albemarle that are perfect for people who want to take advantage of the tax credit. We can help guide you through the process every step of the way. If you are interested in taking advantage of the tax credit, just let us know, and we’ll be happy to help you!
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/ / CC BY 2.0
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If you want to sell your house, there are 2 resources you ABSOLUTELY MUST use. . .
December 15th, 2009 categories: FAQ, For Sellers, Helpful Tips, STR Market Info Blitz
This post is part of the Strong Team REALTORS Market Info Blitz. We’re heating up the Winter market by giving you three-months worth of the information you need, November through January. Check out the latest posts in the blitz, here.
A little while ago, we told you about the NAR 2009 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. This document is the result of data gathered from over 9000 people who recently purchased homes.
As you can imagine, the data is extremely useful to agents, since it shows what types of people are buying and selling, what types of homes they are buying and selling, and how they navigate through the buying or selling process.
While this data was gathered from buyers and sellers all across the country, it is certainly representative of what happens right here in the Charlottesville area. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be going over some of the more interesting and important information from the survey. You’ll learn exactly what we’ve learned.
How are buyers finding my house?
The first question we are going to address is one we hear from just about every seller we work with– “how are buyers finding my house?”
Obviously, this is an important question. It is important for one big reason: if you know where buyers are looking for your house, you can concentrate your marketing efforts there.
Luckily, this very question is answered by the data in the NAR 2009 Survey of Buyers and Sellers. The survey asked buyers where they found the home they purchased. There are two very important aspects to this question. The first is that this question was only answered by people who actually bought a home. No browsers or looky-loos in the mix. The second important thing is that the question refers to the where they found the home they purchased. This means that the source the buyers site was obviously very important to them. The answer to this question is one of the major reasons that they bought the house they chose.
The results are displayed by year, starting in 2001 and ending in 2009. Let’s take a look:
72% of buyers found the home they purchased either through the Internet or their real estate agent
Direct your attention to the last column, which contains the survey results for 2009. Notice that the two most popular answers were “Real estate agent” and “Internet” (36% each). That means: 72% OF PEOPLE FOUND THE HOME THEY PURCHASED FROM THOSE 2 SOURCES.
Why is this important?
Marketing your home isn’t a game of chance. There are some ways that work better than others. After looking at the results of the survey, it is obvious that your home needs to marketed on the Internet and to real estate agents. The most common way to market to real estate agents is through listing the home through the local MLS (Multiple Listing Service).
If you are planning on selling the home yourself, you can market it on the Internet through various outlets. You wouldn’t have access to the MLS, so you would have to come up with other methods of getting the home in front of real estate agents.
If, like most sellers, you are going to use a Realtor to assist you in the sale of your home, you want to make absolutely, positively sure that your Realtor has a plan for marketing the home on the Internet and through the MLS.
Things to remember. . .
Most people enjoy seeing their home advertised in print. You need to be smarter than those people. Only 2% of buyers found the home they purchased through a print ad. Your time, effort, and money is better spent elsewhere.
If you really want to sell your home, you need to make sure that it is marketed effectively to prospective buyers. For 72% of buyers, this means that the home needs to be on the Internet and/or in the MLS. Doing those two things, and doing them exceptionally well, will give you the best chance of selling your home for the highest possible price. This is true whether you are selling a home in Lake Monticello or Charlottesville, Albemarle or Louisa.
When you are evaluating Realtors, make sure that your Realtor has a good understanding of how Internet and MLS marketing works, and a solid plan for using both outlets to your advantage.
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Awesome clients deserve awesome listing photos
December 10th, 2009 categories: For Sellers, Info, STR Market Info Blitz
This post is part of the Strong Team REALTORS Market Info Blitz. We’re heating up the Winter market by giving you three-months worth of the information you need, November through January. Check out the latest posts in the blitz, here.
Creating good listing photos is important to us
It has been a very busy week here around the office. It has been so busy because we’ve been working hard to get a bunch of new listings on the market this week.
One part of getting a listing on the market is the photography.
We spend a considerable amount of time, effort and money taking the best possible listing photos that we can. We’ve invested in equipment, and learned real estate photography techniques that help our clients’ homes really stand out.
Why do we spend so much time, effort and money creating awesome listing photos? It’s simple– our clients are awesome, and they deserve the best listing photos we can give them.
Listing photos are critical
We’ve talked before about the importance of marketing your listing with really great listing photos. The importance of good listing photos cannot be understated.
The vast majority of buyers begin their search by looking for homes on the Internet. When people look for homes on the Internet, the most prominent feature of any home they find will be the pictures.
You’re homes listing photos are the first impression that the home will make on a potential buyer. If that impression is a negative one, the buyer will move on to another home, and your opportunity will be lost.
We understand how critical good listing photos are to putting your home’s best foot forward. That’s why we spend so much time, effort and money on the skills and equipment necessary to take great listing photos.
We know that you have put a tremendous amount of care into maintaining your home and getting it ready for showings. That means that we need to take just as much care with how we present your home to the public through the listing photos.
If you would like to see the difference that good listing photography can make, just let us know. We’re happy to show you some of the listing pictures that we’ve taken for our clients. Hopefully, our listing photos will make the same impression on you that they have made on the hundreds of buyers who have bought our clients’ listings– a positive one.
Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8692813@N06/ / CC BY 2.0
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How to Search for Lake Monticello Real Estate like a Pro
December 4th, 2009 categories: Communities, First Time Buyers, For Buyers, For Sellers, Helpful Tips, Lake Monticello, STR Market Info Blitz
This post is part of the Strong Team REALTORS Market Info Blitz. We’re heating up the Winter market by giving you three-months worth of the information you need, November through January. Check out the latest posts in the blitz, here.
See where Lake Monticello homes are for sale on a map
Searching for real estate can be a real pain in the butt.
There are so many sites out there that you can use to search. Thing is, they all seem to be kinda the same, but many of them don’t really seem to give you all of the information that you are really looking for.
This is especially true if you are looking for real estate in Lake Monticello. Being such a unique community, searching for Lake Monticello real estate poses some of its own unique challenges.
Since we are REALTORS, we have access to the MLS, and all of the ways that it can be searched. This makes our lives a lot easier. The public doesn’t have access to the full MLS, and the public portal that is available isn’t the easiest thing in the world to learn and navigate successfully.
So, what are you supposed to do? How can you search for Lake Monticello real estate like a pro?
We have the answer
We understand your frustration. We have worked with numerous clients who have told us that they wish there was a better way to search for real estate, especially Lake Monticello real estate.
We took all of their feedback and worked with a real estate search provider to come up with what we think is the best search engine available for finding the information you need when you are looking for homes.
All you have to do is click on the “Begin Your Home Search” button at the top of this page. From there, finding the information you need about homes in Lake Monticello is easy!
Search features you should know about
One of the things that makes our search engine valuable to you is that you can search by neighborhood. This means that you can search for homes in Lake Monticello ONLY. To do that, just enter “Lake Monticello” in to the box at the top of the search criteria.
You can view the properties on the map, or select them from your search results. The map can be especially helpful for Lake Monticello homes, as it will show you how close the home is to the Lake and the various gates.
You can save your searches and bookmark or share properties. If you want to be able to access those features, all you have to do is click on the “login” button above the map. Simply enter in your name and email address, and you’ll be all set up!
Where does the data come from?
What makes our search engine such a powerful resource is that it pulls the listings directly from the MLS via IDX. IDX is short for Internet Data Exchange, and it is a way for brokers to display their listings on other sites.
All of the brokers who choose to participate in IDX will have their listings displayed in the results of our search engine. The vast majority of listings are in the database. Occasionally, however, a broker may choose not to participate, or exclude a specific listing. In that case it wouldn’t appear. If you ever want to know if there are any listings missing, just contact us, and we can search the full MLS for you.
How can I see all the active Lake Monticello listings at one time?
We have created a link in case you want to see all of the active listings in Lake Monticello that are listed via IDX. The results are in price order from lowest to highest. Clicking on the “search” tab from the results page will let you search within those results.
If you have any questions about using our real estate search engine to look for Lake Monticello real estate, just let us know. We are always happy to help you find the home you are looking for!
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