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The Real Estate Network

Piedmont Real Estate Blog

Blog by Julie Emery
Amissville, Virginia

An ongoing dialog on real estate news, opinion and trends in Northern Virginia and the greater Piedmont area. Julie is an Associate Broker at Century 21 New Millennium, 5451 Old Alexandria Turnpike, Warrenton, VA 20187

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 Let's not forget the interest rate factor. D...
RE: Foreclosures Frozen
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Piedmont Real Estate Blog

Bad Real Estate Photos

Dec. 10, 2008
Categorized in: Sellers

A little fun, first of all today. It's BAD real estate photo day!

Blurry House

Warning: This house may make you dizzy! At least looking at the photo could!

I wonder what they didn't want me to see? Or was this taken by one of those nocturnal real estate agents?

"Red sky at morning, Buyer take warning?"

While these are so ridiculous they're funny, they're a lot less funny if it's your house! It's almost impossible to over emphasize the importance of good photos online. It can be a tough market to sell your home. Having photos like these is shooting yourself in the foot!

And, lastly, a bit of blatant self-promotion.

The Fauquier Times Democrat ran a story today on my new property management business, as well as my thoughts on the local market.

 

 

 

Local Government Role

May. 29, 2008
Categorized in: Local Market Conditions

The Fauquier Times Democrat had an editorial this week that was right on the mark. This is a great opportunity for local governments to address affordable housing.

The editorial talks about what's being done in Prince William and Fairfax counties. The Prince William model may work better here. But maybe there's a third way.

I'd like to see a public/private partnership between Fauquier County and Habitat for Humanity. The two groups together could certainly do more than either group could on its own. And, while I mention Fauquier County here, because that's what the editorial addressed, this solution could just as easily be applied to Culpeper.

There's a growing inventory of vacant homes in the area. These vacancies hurt all existing homeowners. And, there's a huge pool of potential home owners that have been driven out of the market because of lack of affordability.

Seems to me there are potential solutions here for everybody!

Another Victim of the Housing Downturn?

May. 12, 2008
Categorized in: Local Market Conditions

There's a lot of fall out from the real estate market beyond what you read in the headlines. Sure, families are losing homes. Homebuilders are going broker or laying people off in droves. And, all the tradesmen who work on those homes are scrambling as well.

But there are some less visible casualties as well.

Newspapers are hurting. The big papers have gotten the press attention, papers like the Star Tribune from my home state of Minnesota. A lot of revenue for newspapers comes from the real estate agents and real estate companies who advertise with them. The truth is, a lot of that advertising should have been disappearing eons ago given how much less effective a medium it is these days for attracting buyers. But hard times has forced most agents and companies to cut back their advertising substantially, or, in some cases, stop it altogether.

And, while the big papers make the news when they're in trouble, the small, local papers are not immune.

The Times Newspapers here locally have cut staff. (Full disclosure: I'm a blogger for the Times Newspapers and a former columnist.) If you get the Fauquier Times Democrat or the Rappahannock News you've seen the size of your paper considerably reduced. In fact, given that the two reporters for the Rappahannock News are gone, the editor is leaving soon and the population of the county is not growing, how long can the paper continue to be economically viable?

We're not to the end of the carnage from this mess yet. The damage is more widespread than most people realize and hits industries no one has really thought about.

Corrections and a Sunnier Outlook

Mar. 31, 2008
Categorized in: Mortgages

In the Fauquier Times Democrat Weekend paper, I'm quoted in two separate articles. The first one "Few Find Escape From Threat of Foreclosure" is on page one and continues throughout the paper. The second, "By The Numbers" is on page 3.

The second article is basically information taken from one of last week's blogs. No problems there.

The problem is in the front page article. First of all, thanks to Laura Ruby for putting this together. It's good to see local coverage on this, along with some helpful information. But, there are some inaccuracies in the article that I'd like to address.

Dave Bryan says that "97 percent of homeowners facing foreclosure will, in fact, lose their homes, leaving only three percent who are able to actually come to some sort of agreement with their loan servicer."

I've spent hours trying to verify that number. I can find no documentation to support it. I finally called Laura Ruby to find out if Dave had cited a source when giving her that quote. He said "he had read it somewhere."

So, just let me say that after trying NAR, Mortgage Bankers Association and realtytrac.com and being unable to verify that number, I have serious reservations about it. My experience is that the number is nowhere near that bad. And, I'm concerned because I don't want families to think it's hopeless!

I then made calls to agents, lenders and organizations designed to help people with these issues. No one had specific numbers. But no one believed that the numbers were anywhere near this grim.

Keep trying! It is not hopeless. Every situation is different!

Another paragraph says "When homeowners have a second mortgage, short sales are virtually impossible, as that requires the approval of two loan servicers."

A first and second mortgage certainly make things even harder. But I've successfully done short sales with two mortgages. Again, it's not impossible. But you've got to be willing to take on the battle!

The last piece in here that I disagree with is from Dave Bryan again. "If you get behind two or three months, it's too late. You won't be able to sell it before it goes to foreclosure."

Again, absolutely not true! In fact, you can't do a short sale until you are behind on paying your mortgage! Again, I've done this for clients and it's worked! You do have to very aggressively price your home. If the home languishes on the market for months, eventually it will move into foreclosure. Then you'll have lost that window of opportunity. And, some short sale homes are in such terrible condition that it's tough to price them low enough to find someone interested. But I'd never say it's impossible!

My big concern here is that not enough homeowners are seeking help now because they feel overwhelmed and hopeless. They need to reach out for help early. But most importantly, they need to get help, whether it's early or not! There are very few times I walk away from someone and tell them there's no hope!

Ask for help. Be aggressive! Don't take "no" for an answer! I can't guarantee anyone a win every time, but your odds are a lot better!

 

Shameless Self Promotion

Dec. 19, 2007
Categorized in: Fauquier County

I wanted to let you all know that I've been added as a featured blogger by the Fauquier Times Democrat and the Rappahannock News. Their new sites are up today. You can check out all the blogs there, including mine, at http://www.fauquier.com/blogs/

or, for Rappahannock

http://www.rappnews.com/blogs/

The blogs you see there will be different than what I do here, although the Fauquier and Rappahannock versions may be more similar than different.

I hope you'll check out these new venues. I'll be interested in hearing your feedback.

If you're a fan of this blog, don't worry. What I do here will continue, day in and day out! I'm having too much fun to give this up!

I look forward to hearing from you on any of my blogs!