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How do you even go about picking the right Realtor? And is it even important? In the market that we're in right now, or really any market at all, having a good agent on your side on your team really is a crucial component of either selling or buying that house. You really want an agent that's going to be willing and able to have those hard conversations. So that means telling you that your offer may not win and helping you craft the offer that will. That means telling you that your cats smell a little bit more than you maybe think they do. That is telling you that you might need to move that old sofa out and have your home staged. So while we all like to hear what we like to hear, sometimes we need somebody to give us those hard questions hit us with those hard truths to get us where we want to go. Obviously, I'm going to tell you, I am the agent that's going to give you the hard truths, ask the hard questions, and tell you what you may not always want to hear. So if you're ready to have some of those hard conversations that are going to help you get where you want to be in your real estate goals. Give me a call. I'd love to talk to you!

It's National Ice Cream Day! I'm celebrating with some of my RVA ice cream (or ice cream like) favorites. I've always loved ice cream. I mean, what says celebration, and summer, as much as ice cream? Just like so many things, I have a hard time picking a favorite, because sometimes that favorite just depends on my mood. So, here are a few (well, more than a few, really) of my faves. I'd love to hear yours!   When it comes to gelato, our overall, hands down favorite is Deluca Gelato at Gayton Crossing. Their gelato really transports you to Italy, and never disappoints. They've got all the classics- from Stracciatella and Spumoni to loads of sorbets and seasonal flavors. My favorites? I always go for a combo of Banana Nutella and Chocolate Sorbet, but you really can't go wrong here. (It's also very close to home, which is definitely a blessing and a curse.) One of the longest running ice cream spots in Richmond is Gelati Celesti, and it's the OG for a reason. (When I had my cafe in the early '90's, in fact, I would not rest until I had a full scooping cabinet of their ice cream.) With multiple locations now, it's super easy to grab your favorite no matter where you are. My go to here is always "Just Ask," a delicious white chocolate ice cream with frozen peanut butter ribbons and Oreos. We have some seriously fantastic "newer" additions to the Richmond ice cream scene, and yes, I have favorites there too! Charm School Social Club on Broad Street (in the heart of the Arts District) has a great, slightly edgy/artsy vibe and fantastic ice cream and flavors. Anything is great, but whatever you choose, you must get the house made, toasted fluff on top. So damn good. For flavors here, my favorites are Fruity Pebbles or Cereal Milk (obviously I have a thing for cereal) or the Princess Cake. If you find yourself on Southside, Charm School's Study Hall is the place to stop by for some delicious soft serve. This walk up window has a more limited menu than their flagship, and soft serve only, with a rotating variety of flavors (and a killer Dole Whip!) If you're looking for vegan ice cream, both locations of Charm School have good options for you, too! Scoop is located in the Fan, tucked into a little spot on Strawberry Street (next to Idle Hands Bread Company, another favorite). They are a small batch creamery as well, offering unique flavors, brownie sundaes, ice cream flights (hello!) featuring three flavors, shakes, and custom ice cream sandwiches. My favorite flavor here was always Croissants & Jam, but that's no longer a signature flavor. (The nerve!) Now, it's a toss up between Banana Pudding (going away soon), Roasted Strawberry, and Brown Sugar Cookie Dough. You may recognize the name Ruby Scoops from the Food Network show featuring Ben & Jerry's. Yes, she won the Grand Prize (justifiably so!) Located on Brookland Park Boulevard in Richmond's North Side, here you'll find a rotating menu of unique flavors, from ice creams like Dulce de Leche and Black Sesame (my two favorites) to vegan flavors and sorbets. Westray's Finest on Lombardy St. went from truck to cafe this year, and they've got some seriously top tier, small batch handmade ice cream. My favorite there is Gold Rush (Sweet Cream base, Dark Chocolate Swirl, and Honeycomb Candy. Yes please!) Bruster's has always been a favorite, since there is a location near my parents' house and we'd go there on hot summer evenings when my son was little. A great place to walk up, get a delicious sundae or waffle cone, and have lots of variety in flavors. ( A few locations have a drive through, too!) If you're in the mood for something a little different than "just" ice cream (though none of the above are "just" ice cream!), here are a few of my other frozen favorites: Sno Shack in Mechanicsville is the most unassuming little shack (yep, the name is no exaggeration) smack in the middle of a parking lot in Mechanicsville. With dozens of flavors for sweet, fluffy shaved ice, it's a true, old school, summertime treat. (Oh, yeah, they close after Labor Day, too, so get it in the summer or wait till next year!) My recommendation here? Tiger's Blood, with a Volcano. (A yummy blob of ice cream in the center of the magical ice!) Another soft serve/custard option around town is JiJi's Frozen Custard. With delicious flavors that change periodically, and "Pundaes" to go with the event/season and the flavors, they always have something unique and tasty. They are a truck, so seldom in the same place at once, but follow them on social to know where they'll be. There are a few new(er) places on my list to check out too- Sweet Wynns is an ice cream workshop, giving you the opportunity to create your own handmade, custom flavor. How fun and delicious does that sound?? Graham's Ice Cream reopened in Mechanicsville a few months ago, with lots of fun flavors, sundaes, and shakes. The only other "must have" on my list (as of today- that's always subject to change!) is Carl's Frozen Custard in Fredericksburg. I got turned on to Carl's when my brother was at Mary Washington, and I've been a super fan ever since. Carl's is an institution, and in operation since 1947. Usually a line, always worth it, and 3 flavors- chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. Why mess with perfection? My go to is a Chocolate Strawberry Malt (not on the menu, but they'll make it.) It's a must stop any time I'm going up I95, and I'll confess that on more than one occasion I've taken a cooler to buy a spare to have later.        

Is this house in a good area or a bad area? What do you think of this neighborhood? How are the schools? These are some of the questions that I get asked all the time. And I hate to tell you, I can't really answer them. Because of a little thing called fair housing, we really can't, as Realtors, tell you what's a good area and what's a bad area. One of the things that I can tell you just as a person and not as a realtor is, we all have a different perception of what that is to just like, my favorite pizza might not be your favorite pizza. Telling you what an area is or is not necessarily going to give you the data that you need. My goal is always to be the source of the source. So I can always provide you with enough information and reference sources to get you where you want to be. Whatever you're looking for in a neighborhood. Remember, what's good for you may not be good for someone else and vice versa. What I can do to help you when you're searching for a home is give you all the information and resources to help you make the best decision for you and your family. If you're thinking about looking for a home and you have questions about any part of the process, please reach out give me a call send me a message. I'd love to talk to you.

Well, mostly midsummer, at least. It's hard to turn on the news without some sort of daily update about the real estate market, but with so much click bait, so many opinions, and headlines crafted to grab your attention, what is the real story?? (And how much does the national news impact what's going on here in Central Virginia?) I'm here to break it down for you! What's Been Happening for a While? Well, it's no surprise that the real estate market has been going full steam for the last couple of years. The reasons for that are numerous. To name a few: The pandemic created different needs in the home- more work from home situations, more desire for home to be a "get away" when so many get aways were closed (think pools, putting greens, and more outdoor kitchens), and more people becoming something of digital nomads, with the ability to move anywhere. Interest rates dropped to historic lows, so money became so cheap to borrow, and that absolutely spurred the market, make home ownership more attainable for many. Millenials/older millennial buyers dropped into the market in force. Being the most populous generation, they made up 43% of the buyers out there in 2021 and those numbers continue to grow. The production of new housing units dropped after the mortgage crisis in '08, and the supply has diminished since. All of those factors created a serious supply and demand issue, where there were quite literally more buyers than homes. That's been going on for a couple of years now. What we're seeing now and how it's changed over the last few months.  Obviously, rates have risen quite a lot in the last few months, going from a low of 2.68% in December of 2020 to the current rate (as of July 2022) hovering around 5.5%. That has pushed some buyers out of the market completely, and more into different brackets of their price range. In our market, in Central Virginia and the Metro Richmond area, We're still seeing a good number of multiple offer situations. But, instead of 15 offers, we're seeing more 4 or 5 offer situations. Every home is not selling immediately. The homes that have don't have great curb appeal, show a lot of deferred maintenance, or are priced too ambitiously are not flying off the market like they were a few months ago. Buyers are able to be, and are being, a little more picky, and a little more cautious. Fewer buyers are waiving "all the things-" Inspections, appraisals, etc. More price reductions. Price reductions have tripled since early May. Those days of pricing homes by throwing a dart up high, and having offers that still exceed it, seem largely over. In most cases, at least. What is projected in the next few months/looking into next year? (And how will it all affect you if you're looking to buy or sell?) Despite some people's predictions of a housing market crash, that's VERY unlikely to happen here in the Richmond area. Demand is still high, and supply is still pretty low. While we may see a more "normal," market, it is doubtful that we'll shift completely from a seller's market to a buyer's market. It will likely just be more balanced. We're already seeing more home inspections and fewer high appraisal waivers, so if you've wanted to buy and those things have scared you, that window is opening just a bit. All of the experts do predict that rates will continue to rise over the next few months to a year, and that homes prices here will continue to go up (not at the same rate, but still, up) for the next few years, so if you're thinking of buying, don't wait for prices to go down. Buy when it's right for YOU. If you're thinking of selling, you may have missed *much* of the crazy peak of the seller's market, but with supply still low, it is still a good time to sell and leverage the equity you have in your home. Do you have more questions about the market? Follow me on social media and here for more market updates, or give me a call to give you a customized assessment of your unique situation.  

But wait a minute, if you're writing an offer, isn't it always about who is willing to pay the most money? In this crazy competitive market, we've been in now for a while. Sometimes it is. And sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's about those little individual things that make a difference to the seller. Here are a few things that I've seen recently. One, a seller that had 19 offers, the ones that they wanted to negotiate were the ones with no inspection, not because they thought there was going to be anything wrong with the house, but because they had small children. And the idea of not having to clean the house once more made a huge difference to them. When you're getting a mortgage on a home, you are going to have to have an appraisal, your lender is going to require one and if it doesn't appraise for the escalated value that that offer may have been, and you can't make up the difference in cash. You could be offering $10 million on a $300,000 house, but the lender is only going to give you $300,000. And sometimes people are just super emotional about their house. I've also seen situations where the people just knew that the buyer's love, love, loved everything that they had done, and that made a huge difference to them. They wanted someone to love the home as much as they did. Are you curious about more ways to be a lucrative buyer in this incredibly tough competitive market? I'd love to talk to you. Sit down and help make your homeownership dreams come true. Send me an email give me a call.

"Thinking of selling your home in the next few months. One of the things you definitely want to do is have everything ready. Get yourself ahead of the game. And one way to do that is to grab a copy of my 10 Things You Must Do If You're Thinking of Selling your home. It's a free guide that I'm offering. Click the link in my bio, shoot me a message. I'll get a copy of it in your hand and you can start working before you even sign the papers and make sure you are ready to go when it's time to sell." --- Are you considering selling your home? Whether you're looking to take advantage of the current Richmond market, relocating, or downsizing - get started on the right foot & grab my FREE GUIDE - 10 Things You Must Do if You're Thinking of Selling Your Home. These are things you can start right now to get you on your way to getting the most money from your investment. Download here: https://bit.ly/10ThingsYouMustDo. Got questions? I'm always happy to answer them. Find me on Instagram at @cindybennettrealestate or via my website at cindybennett.net.

Are you starting your home search? Get off the internet! Here's why a lot of those sites that seem so terrific on the internet might not be the best place to really get going on that home search. You just start poking around and then the next thing you know there's a house you want to see. Make sure that you are connected with, you know, me, or a realtor in your local market that's going to be able to give you the solid data, the actual listing price, and the comparables that are up to the moment in that particular neighborhood and area that you're looking at. Once you're ready to look at real homes in real life, let's set up a meeting in real life and set up a plan that's perfect for you and that home that you know you're gonna love.

Curious about what the market is doing? Here's what's happening, with a few FAQs, a few stats, and a few predictions. Do you have questions? Reach out to me- I'd love to get you some answers! If you've been waiting for a "crash," I hate to disappoint you. While we're certainly seeing something of a shift, that only means that we are heading towards (hint- we're not there yet) what will likely be a more balanced market. That means things will start getting a little easier for buyers, while still being good for sellers. Wait. What? Well, here's what that means- The definition of a balanced market is one in which the supply and demand are, well, you guessed it- balanced. That means if no other homes were listed, it would take about 6 months to sell through the inventory on the market. Where have we been in the last year+? If you look at this graph, you'll see it's actually been nearly 10 years since we've had a true balanced inventory, but  in the last year or two, we've consistently been under one month of inventory. There have simply not been enough homes to meet demand. (The why of all this is a longer story that I won't get into now.) As of May '22, we're at .9 months, and still very much in a seller's market. Because of the length of time it takes real estate transactions to close, these numbers are often lagging indicators. In other words, the data is generally a little old to really be accurate for the moment. What I can tell you is that anecdotally, here's what we're seeing: We are STILL seeing many multiple offer situations. Just more often there are 4-6 offers, rather than 20. (There are still lots of 20+ offers happening, though, on those "perfect perfect turn key" homes.) We are seeing more inspections written in to offers, and more of those offers getting accepted. Whew! This is GREAT for buyers. (Keep in mine, in certain areas, and on certain homes, we're still seeing lots of inspections being waived, so just be aware of that if you know you're in a competitive situation.) We are definitely seeing more price reductions, more homes on the market for a bit longer, and more homes without tight offer deadlines. All of these things mean there is hope for the buyers out there, and while we don't really anticipate prices going down, we do anticipate things getting just a bit easier for the buyers out there. (Finally!) "So, what does this mean for sellers? Have we missed our window?" NO! You have not missed your window. It is still a great time to sell! But, we are definitely seeing things trending more to "normal," which means if you're going to sell, there are some things you'll probably want to do to get top dollar (search Selling Your Home posts here for some of those tips!). Cleaning, using a great agent who actually uses professional photos and markets your home, staging, and doing some repairs and prep work are making a comeback for folks who want to get the most money for their home. Also key? Pricing correctly! That window of exorbitantly high prices that still go for over asking may indeed be closing. Questions? I've got answers. Message me or give me a call. I'd love to help!    

Ugh, I wish I had done that sooner. Now I love my house! I hear this all the time. People do things to get their homes ready to sell, but they don't do them until they're really getting ready to sell. If you know you're thinking of selling your house this year, and you know that there are some things that you're going to want to do to get it ready, start doing those things now so you can enjoy them and not just the new buyers. If you're wondering what that list is, of things that you need to do to get your home ready to sell, give me a call, and let's walk through, get that list together so you can start doing those things that are going to help you not only get the most bang for your buck but help you enjoy the house while you're still living in it. Give me a call or shoot me an email today and let's get a time set up to take a look at your home.

Every season (or every season I remember to do it) I come up with a "must do" list. Doing this sort of forces me to be mindful about the things I appreciate, and it goes hand in hand with my gratitude practice. It helps keep me focused on the things that really matter to me in my life, and not let time slip by without doing some of those things that I truly love. Have you ever done this? Are you down to try it? I'm sharing some on social media, as well as attaching a downloadable list of ideas below. Let me know what you do, or what you add! Enjoy!! Summer Must Do List Want to customize your own Summer Must Do List in Canva? Click HERE for a free template!