All right, so let's talk about the nuts and bolts when we're talking about appraisals. Who pays for the appraisal anyway? And if I'm selling my home, and somebody's gonna come in and put a value on it, that's different than the value I put on it and my listing agent put on it, who is this person? Who are they working for? And how does this whole thing work? Well, the buyer pays for the appraisal. And yes, if you are the buyer, you are going to have to pay for the appraisal outside of closing. It is kind of sort of rolled into your closing costs, but generally, your closing costs are going to be paid at settlement on the closing day, and the appraisal is going to have to be paid beforehand. Why? Well, because in the instance that the appraisal throws a curveball to the whole situation, and you don't end up closing those appraisers would never get paid, because nobody is going to pay for a sour deal that didn't go through. So your lender is going to require that you pay that appraisal cost up front. And those numbers can vary, but usually between $500 and $1,000, is about where you're going to land in our area. Again, I work in Richmond, Virginia, and all the surrounding counties, you know, in central Virginia, and that's kind of a common cost here. In the event of an appraisal dispute where you or the seller may request a new appraisal or a new appraiser, then that cost can be shared, it can be split, or sometimes the seller might offer to pay. Again, anything like that, as long as it's legal can be worked out as long as everybody agrees on it. Generally speaking, though, the data is what the data is. So you want to look long and hard before you pay for a new appraisal if the data is not going to be any different. First, you're going to try to dispute that original appraisal before you go looking for a new appraisal or a new appraiser. Because, if they're going to pull the same data, then you've just wasted $500 to $1,000. Follow along for more information about appraisers about appraisals, how the whole experience works, and what it can do to affect or impact your transaction whether you're buying or selling.

So we know what the appraiser does, who they are kind of, but who picks them? And okay, I can't pick them. But who does? And how does that affect me? Well, if you're the purchaser, you really don't have any input on the appraisal process or who gets to do your appraisal or anything like that. Ultimately the appraiser works for the lender. They are making sure that if the lender is going to loan you $400,000, that the property is actually worth $400,000. Now, maybe you're paying $450,000 for the home, but the lender is only going to be loaning you $400,000. The lender needs to make sure that whatever they're giving you is, if it's an 80% loan, if it's a 75% loan, whatever, that they are covered for the amount that they have invested in the property. In other words, the lender usually has a larger financial stake than you do in the property and they want to make sure that should you stop paying and they get stuck with that house, that they can actually sell it for what it's worth, not just what you think it's worth. Follow along for my whole series on appraisals and appraisers, to get a little better feel about what goes on in the appraisal process and why it matters to you whether you're a buyer or a seller.

So I've seen a couple of things in the past day on social media talking about getting your pre-approval letter, getting pre-qualified with a lender, and getting ready to buy a home. So I wanted to clarify a couple of things. One thing that I saw was in The Wall Street Journal, and it said that you as a buyer, get a real leg up if you have your pre-qualification or your pre-approval ready to go. Here in the Central Virginia, Richmond metro area, sure, we'll call it a leg up. I'm actually not going to call it a leg up and I'm going to call it just like literally where you have to start. If you are working with me, and we're looking at homes, it is not a purposeful use of our time to look at homes if you do not have a pre-qualification, and you're not ready to go, because we are 100% never going to submit an offer on a property that you like, without having a pre-approval with that contract, period, end of story. It's not going to be accepted, it's not going to be taken seriously, it's not going to be considered. So if you really like the house, you like the house enough to write a contract on it, you want to buy a house enough to go look at houses and potentially write a contract on them, get your pre approval. Talk to a lender. Get all of your ducks in a row so that when you do find that house that you love, you can move forward on it. It's not a leg up, it's just what you need to do. Another thing I saw was Barbara Corcoran mentioned that getting all of that pre-approval, getting all of the lender hoops to jump through, getting your income verified, getting your tax returns to the lender, all of that stuff makes you a cash buyer. It actually does not make you a cash buyer. It just makes you a viable buyer. So it's going to be hard to compete with cash with a loan, but it is impossible to compete with anybody if you don't have that pre-approval. So that's my little two cents. If you're seeing people say it's really great to have a pre-approval, it is necessary to have a pre-approval. It's not like an extra step. It is the first step. If you have questions about buying a home, especially if it's your first home and you don't really know where to start, but even if you've bought a whole bunch of homes and you know that you can get qualified or you know you've got somebody that you've worked with and like I'll just give Bob a call and he'll give me a letter, call Bob now, before you start looking. But give me a call if you don't know a lender. I know lots that are fantastic and I'd be happy to put you in touch with them and then we can get started on your home search.

I may have mentioned before, back in the olden days before the mortgage crisis of 2007/2008, the appraisers were able to be chosen. So, maybe somebody had a specialty in the city of Richmond and that is the appraiser that everybody would call if they had a property in the city of Richmond, especially if it was a property that I don't know might be a little trickier to appraise, and the lender and or the agents were able to request a particular appraiser. That is no longer the case, because the appraisal companies, the appraisers themselves, work for the lender. The lenders have to have an unbiased opinion of the value. Somebody who is not necessarily chosen, they just get handed the name of that appraiser and when that happens, we do get a more unbiased opinion of value. But sometimes it can create a problem if an appraiser is not totally familiar with the nuances of a particular area or neighborhood. In most cases, it's fine because the data is what the data is right? But trickier appraisals can happen. And there are ways to deal with those too. So, follow along for my whole series on appraisals and get a little bit more information about what can happen, what the pitfalls are, why you want an appraisal or maybe you know that you're going to have an issue and you want to know what might happen and how to deal with those problems.

  So one of the questions I get asked a lot is, "Is Richmond a good place to invest in real estate?". And I would say, yes. I'm probably a little biased, because I love it here, but yes, it is. And there are a few reasons for that. I hadn't really thought about the first one, until the other day when I was with clients who were from New Jersey, and they said, "Wow, your taxes are so low here, that it probably makes sense to buy real estate as an investment.", and I thought ding, you're absolutely right. There are lots of areas of the country where the property taxes are so high, that it pushes the rents beyond, you know, what they would be reasonably able to rent for, and makes it just not a worthwhile endeavor. It just wouldn't be. It wouldn't make sense financially. But in our area, because the taxes are relatively low compared to a lot of other municipalities, you can actually buy a place with a mortgage and include those taxes and your insurance and still have a little bit of positive income every month from that rental. But there are a couple of things that whether you're buying here or somewhere else, as a rental investment that I think it's really good to think of. The first thing you want to think about is, "What's your business plan? What's the business model that you want to use? Are you thinking of buying something and just have it pay for itself? Maybe you're buying it when your children are five, and you're going to keep it until they graduate high school, and that's going to be their college. So you're banking, really on the equity, and not really looking for a positive cash flow situation every month. So think about that, and what that looks like for you. The next thing you really want to think about is, "Do you have a little bit of extra cash, once you put the money down and do anything you need to do to get your rental up and running?" Do you have enough to cover any incidentals that might come along throughout the time that your renter's in there because remember, if you've got a tenant in place, you can't just say, I can't fix that right now, I'll wait until I have a little more cash. If the toilet is leaking, or something's literally not working, they have no heat, for example, you can't kick that can down the road, you will actually need a little bit of a buffer a little bit of a safety net to cover those sorts of repairs. And you will have those sorts of repairs guaranteed. Make sure too that you have a good application process in place. You are vetting your tenants well so that you don't end up having to completely repaint, or refinish/redo at the end of that lease term. So, unfortunately, this is where I get a little emotional with things like allowing pets, make sure that you know what you're in for if you do allow pets because they will oftentimes damage the property. And while many don't, many do, so having that little extra buffer or pet fee is going to make a big difference in what you have to do to the house when those tenants leave. Finally, once you get it rented, you have a tenant in place, you're getting ready to sign that lease, get a security deposit, make sure your lease is very clear on what happens there. Because inevitably, the time that you don't have a security deposit is the time that somebody skips out on their rent the last month, or does some damage that you are not prepared to cover when they move. So lots of things go into real estate investing, but it can be really lucrative and people always need a place to rent so everyone needs a home. I definitely think there's a need for it. If you have any other questions about real estate investing in the Richmond area, I'd love to talk to you and help you determine if it's the right thing for you and how you'd like to proceed. Just give me a call send me a message and let's get talking.

One of the questions that I get asked all the time in every season, at a party by clients, whatever, "Are we in a buyers market or seller's market?". If you look at real estate news across the country that answer varies greatly from location to location, region to region, but here in central Virginia in the Richmond metro area, we are still in a seller's market. Now, what does that mean? That means that a balanced market is basically six months' worth of inventory. That means that if we had no more homes come on the market, that we would have six months to sell through all of the inventory that's currently on the market. So if a balanced market where it's not preferring or leaning towards buyers not leaning towards sellers, a balanced market is six months' worth of inventory. We are currently still, here in January of 2024, with less than two months of inventory. If we had no more homes come on the market with the buyers that are currently in the market, it would be at a zero within two months, like all of the houses would be sold. That's going to continue to a greater or lesser degree throughout 2024. We will still find ourselves in a seller's market. But with rates coming down, there are a lot more opportunities for buyers, especially first-time buyers or buyers who are very dependent on those rates. So if you're thinking about buying a home, reach out, I'd love to talk to you, and help you navigate that process, whether it's your first home or your tenth. And if you're thinking of selling, yes, it is still a great time to sell and I'd love to talk to you about the best strategy to get your home on the market before the spring when there is still pretty little competition right now. So give me a call, send me a message, and let's set up a time to chat.

Who is the appraiser anyway? How did they get picked? How did they come into the transaction? What did they know? One of the most commonly asked questions about an appraiser or the appraisal process, especially if it's not going the way everyone wants it to go is," Who the heck is this person anyhow?". Appraisers are not just real estate agents. So in terms of "just" a real estate agent, they actually go through a lot of the same or similar licensing process, but they also have to apprentice under another appraiser for a period of time. So, they have to really not only do their homework, but take a lot of exams, and they are constantly having to update their information and their knowledge to make sure that they are doing their job correctly. They have a lot of responsibility, and nobody picks them. So back in the olden days, it used to be that if an appraiser worked in a particular area, the lender and or the agents can say, Hey, we should have SO and SO appraised this property, they know the neighborhood, maybe I've known them for 10 years, they live in the neighborhood, or they work a lot in this county or municipality. After the mortgage crisis of '07/'08, the consumer protections that were put into place after that made it so those appraisers were chosen almost by a lottery. It's like their name just gets spit out as this is who does it. Because they want to make sure that it is a totally unbiased opinion of value. Follow along to the rest of my series on appraisals and get all the information about who they work for, why they do what they do and how it affects you. When you are in the midst of a real estate transaction.

So you're thinking about buying a house, or a condo, or a townhouse, or something? How do you decide on what the right type of home to purchase is based on your budget and your lifestyle? First of all, a lot of people, with lower price ranges particularly, often think a condo or a townhouse is going to solve all their problems, because usually, they're a little less expensive, in most cases than a single-family home. Don't forget that one of the things you have to include, and that your lender is going to look at, in your qualifications number, is the homeowners association, the condo association, whatever they want to call it, that community that you're joining is going to have a fee every month. Sometimes it's going to have special assessments, sometimes those fees can go up. But always, you're going to want to make sure that the fee that is there now is going to work with your budget and the payment that you're going to end up with, and that it's going to cover enough to make you feel comfortable spending that money. The main difference between a townhouse and a condo is the type of ownership. Basically, in a condo, you own what's inside the four walls. Often people think of condos as units in a building like apartments. But, sometimes townhome-looking things can be condos as well. But again, you only own what's inside those four walls. As opposed to having any land or garden yard, whatever that is yours. Obviously with a single-family home, unless you're in a maintenance-free community, all of that exterior maintenance is going to be yours with a townhouse or a condo. Often, that fee is going to cover things like the landscaping and the outdoor areas. Usually, if there's a pool or other amenities, tennis courts, that sort of thing, it's going to cover those as well. But often, it will also cover siding, the roof, the exterior items like doors, and things like that. But those are going to be on a schedule. So there are a lot of moving parts. When you start looking at those associations, what they cover, and how they're covered, you might be thinking, well, I'm not going to pay $250 a month because I can buy a house and then I'll just mow my own grass. But, you can usually pretty much assume that you're going to end up somehow spending at least $250 a month on your single-family home unless you are kicking some maintenance items down the road a little piece. So while the money is important, often the lifestyle is even more important. More maintenance-free options, like townhomes and condos, I think are fantastic for a lock-it-and-leave-it mentality. If you travel a lot for work or you travel a lot for pleasure, or you just don't have time to do yard work or it's just not something you want to do. You don't want to have to worry about getting quotes on a new roof. You want somebody else to deal with that. Or maybe you want the amenities that come with a townhome, a maintenance-free community, or a condo. Those are really lifestyle differences instead of just simple financial ones. Make sure that you read those documents well. You do have a three-day right of rescission, if you can't live with the way that they take care of the property, what you're paying for, or if it looks like their finances are shaky. You want to make sure that you're comfortable not only with the amount of money, but also what you're getting for the amount of money you're paying. A condo or townhome may be for you if you want to have a little bit more of a hands-off approach to maintenance. Sometimes it's worth it and sometimes it's not. If you're thinking about buying I'd love to talk through it with you and help you determine what the best deal for you is for both your budget and your lifestyle to make sure that the home that you buy is one that you love to live in. Give me a call send me a message shoot me an email and let's get started.

If you're thinking about putting your home on the market, yes, even in the seller's market, there are always things that you can do to make it show a little bit better and make it a little bit more appealing to a larger pool of buyers, and that's always going to help you in the long run. One of the easiest things or the 'more easier' thing to DIY is going to be your outdoor space. Especially as we head into the fall in winter a lot of the competition is not going to be doing a lot to their outdoor space because everything starts to look gray and bed and cold and brown. Today's buyers place a premium on well-kept and well-built-out outdoor space. So especially heading into the fall and winter, it is a great way to put your listing ahead of the pack by making your outdoor space more appealing and approachable. In fact, in 2020, 26% of buyers that were surveyed, said that that outdoor space made a huge difference in them wanting to buy a particular home over another. This can look as simple as putting nicer furniture outside or just staging an area to show that it could be a great firepit or relaxing area in any season. If you're wondering about ways to help make your outdoor space a little bit more appealing, I'd love to come take a look at your home if you're in the Richmond area. Give you an idea of what you can do to make your outdoor space a little bit more appealing to potential buyers make your indoor space a little more appealing to potential buyers and help get you the most return on your investment in your home. Send me a message give me a call or shoot me an email and let's set up a time for me to come take a look at your space and help give you that list of things that you can do to make it a little bit more of a wow in the sometimes a little gloomy or fall in winter markets.

Do you even need a realtor to set up a search for you if you're just starting your search process? There are so many search portals out there that often when people get started on their search, they start on the internet, they start looking at all of those portals. And we'll say to a realtor, I don't need you to set up a search, I already have access to all this other stuff. So if you're thinking about looking for a home, or you're starting to seriously look for a home, and your agent says, hey, I want to set you up with a search portal, there are a few reasons why you might want to do that. First of all, the timeliness with which that information gets syndicated out to all those other sites, sometimes it can take two days. And in two days, in this market, you may have missed the boat on that home that you could have fallen in love with. Secondly, it's a great little reminder for your agent. If I am looking for five different buyers and I have searches set up, it's going to send me a copy of that too. So I am also able to get that little tap on the shoulder from the multiple listing service, letting me know hey, there is a house that you know, Bob and Mary Smith might love. It's also a great way to communicate with your agent because you can put notes on there. So as we're sometimes learning what you like and what you don't like, if you're putting notes on there that say things like I love this location, but I hate this kitchen, then that helps me if I'm your agent learn a little bit better about what you like. So always don't get too specific in those things, but it really does shorten that learning curve a little bit and help make your home search a little bit more efficient. So if your agent says, "Let me set you up with a search portal", don't just wave it off. Yes, it's one more email. But hopefully it won't take very long before you'll be able to find the home that you love. It'll be easier, shorten that learning curve, and make sure that you're knowing exactly what comes on the market exactly when it comes on the market and not two days later. If you have any questions about the home buying process, the home searching process, I'd love to talk to you more, give me a call, send me an email or shoot me a message and let's chat.