Zillow released a new product today.
What does this mean for consumers?
1 – If you’re listing your house for rent on Zillow, it will cost you 10 bucks.
2 – When searching for homes for sale, you will be able to search by monthly payment – homes for sale and for rent.
3 [...]
Transcription:
Hey, Jim Duncan with RealCentralVA.com and Nest Realty Group here in Charlottesville, Virgina.
It is the first week of December, 2009 and that means one thing to me at least. It means that people are starting to think about buying and/or selling homes in the Spring. Now is [...]
At Trailside Coffee at 0830.
Search the MLS for homes for sale in Crozet, also known as the 22932 zip code. :)
Copyright RealCentralVA.com, LLC. If you are not reading this at RealCrozetVA.com the site you see is likely stealing content.
Crozet Business Networking Group – 15 [...]
Ah, Uncertainty. Perhaps the government’s forté, always in close competition with pandering and self-preservation. What will the impact be on homebuyers and sellers in the Charlottesville area real estate market? The answer is uncertain, and likely won’t be known until we are able to look back at 2010 from 2015.
FHA [...]
Crozet week in review via RealCrozetVA’s Twitter feed …
Donated $25 to VPAP today. Because they’re wonderful [ow.ly] and help transparency in Virginia & C’ville politics # @rprav8r I am 99% sure the original plan was to have the Old Trail pool open to all of Crozet. [...]
I sold a house in the City of Charlottesville to some great clients last year. Now he’s selling his car. Which is awesome, and very green.
is living and working downtown, so no need for a second car – someone buy it! [bit.ly] [...]
If you’re looking for Christmas lights in the Charlottesville area, start here … I’m hoping the ones in Crozet/White Hall are back this year after they took last year off due to illness.
If you have a google login, you can edit the map, add new light installations …
View [...]
Giant Food to Host Inaugural Stuff-A-Truck Food Drive
Giant Food Stores in Charlottesville to Collect Donations on December 11
Landover, Md. (December 9, 2009) – Giant Food is hosting the inaugural Charlottesville Stuff-A-Truck food drive on Friday, December 11 from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. to help alleviate hunger in the [...]
Here are some stories for sellers to to read to prepare for the selling and marketing process..
Transcription:
Hey, Jim Duncan here with RealCentralVA.com and NestRealtyGroup.com .
It’s Winter, the first week of December here in Charlottesville and I’m starting to get the e-mails and the queries from people [...]
I love questions.
I subscribe to your blog and had a question about Christmas trees in the Crozet area and thought you might be the best person to ask since you seem to be so well informed (love the blog, by the way – thanks!). Are there any Christmas tree stands [...]
I’m (clearly) no videographer, but I attended the Crozet Parade on Sunday and happened to have my little video camera with me …
The Crozet Christmas parade is a neat little part of living in Crozet; and we saw some friends while we watched … it’s nice to be part of [...]
The readers of Albemarle Family magazine (truly one of the best resources for families in the Charlottesville and Albemarle area) voted recently in all sorts of categories. Their inaugural “Winning Picks for Family-Friendly Fun and Services” selections covered virtually every segment of the Charlottesville/Albemarle area and economy.
Of [...]
Dr. Seuss Charlottesville, Dr. Seuss whoville charlottesville, the grinch … every year the questions renew …Is Charlottesville the inspiration for Dr. Seuss’ “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”?
This is the story I wrote last year to try to help answer some of the questions:
Today’s news really shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone paying attention to the Charlottesville-Albemarle real estate market. The news affects everyone in this area – politicians counting on that revenue, homeowners in nearby Mill Creek, Lake Reynovia, Foxcroft, Redfields, Mosby Mountain and other developments as well as any [...]
Thanks to VPAP, we know that the Rio District race in which David Slutzky lost to Rodney Thomas cost $150k, the Samuel Miller District race cost nearly $100k, and in the City of Charlottesville with its traditionally non-competive elections cost a mere $20k.
It’s a damn shame that local elections [...]
Andrew at C-Ville points out Ten steps to a greener Charlottesville.
The two real estate-specfic tips:
4 HANG IT OUTSIDE
Who doesn’t love to see a neighbor’s knickers adrift in the wind?
Lots of folks, apparently: Fifty million American homes are banned from hanging clotheslines on their property.
[...]
If you’re interested, there’s a meeting Friday, 11 December at Cville Coffee.
As an aside, I was at Cville Coffee this morning for a meeting … they seem to be stepping it up a notch. A nice paver patio in front for the warmer months, a stage is being built [...]
We’ve had Charlottesville Tweetups before. As Crozet continues its growth towards self-sufficiency – coffee shops, grocery stores, restaurants, hardware stores, Christmas trees – there are fewer and fewer reasons to come to Charlottesville (other than work … and even in that category Crozet has made progress over the [...]
The Crozet Library has been delayed. Again.
This comment on cvillenews last week spurred me to ask a question about the Crozet Library’s traffic and circulation numbers. I remembered some data about circulation being high in Crozet, but could not remember (nor find) the exact numbers … I have [...]
The Crozet Library has been delayed. Again.
This comment on cvillenews last week spurred me to ask a question about the Crozet Library’s traffic and circulation numbers. I remembered some data about circulation being high in Crozet, but could not remember (nor find) the exact numbers … I have [...]
Some things don’t warrant a full post on RealCrozetVA. That’s why I post on Twitter throughout the week and provide the summary here … there’s actually quite a bit of pertinent information! (for a much broader and less-Crozet-centric Twitter view, you can see my main Twitter account.
Courtesy of Fardowner’s newsletter …. Combined with the Crozet Mudhouse, there’s plenty of stuff to do in Crozet on the weekends!
Sat 5th, John Wyant Band
The John Wyant Band (from Charlottesville) performs at various venues, including lots of community benefits – they recently performed for the third consecutive year at [...]Old Crozet School Arts Holiday Open House today, December 5, from 2:00 to 4:00.
Demonstrations and performances by our faculty and students.
Punch and cookies and festive atmosphere, including a little snow to set the mood! www.oldcrozetschoolarts.org
Update 6 December 2009:
Old Crozet School Arts Holiday Open House postponed to SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12th [...]
Continuing my mostly-regularly scheduled Friday Chart series where we look at a snippet of data of the Charlottesville real estate market …
This week we’re looking at price changes in the Charlottesville MSA* – not necessarily price reductions, but price changes. There is no way to search solely by price [...]
Dr. Seuss Charlottesville, Dr. Seuss whoville charlottesville, the grinch … every year the questions renew …Is Charlottesville the inspiration for Dr. Seuss’ “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”?
This is the story I wrote last year to try to help answer some of the questions:
Is it time for the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority to accept its (possible) obsolescence? Charlottesville and Albemarle folks should read this story, and ask questions of our elected officials.
Dave Mcnair at The HooK has a great story about the impact the Vanderlinde single-stream recycling facility has had on the [...]
As much as I prefer to shop at local bookstores rather than chains, in light of the recession and the need for schools to earn money, the following presents an opportunity to support the Western Albemarle High School Library:*
A book is a present you can open again and again!
If you [...]
It seems that well enough may not be left alone; Cathy Harding reports in this week’s C-Ville:
Recent discussions between the Albemarle County Planning Department and county wineries raise questions about exactly what comprises normal activity at a winery—and even, to a degree, what constitutes a farm winery, itself. Planners [...]
From part four of Charlottesville Tomorrow’s excellent series on traffic -
Scenic 250 formed as a grassroots organization in 1997 to protect the rural character of the highway. According to steering committee member Scott Peyton, it was a coincidence that the Virginia Department of Transportation launched a pivotal study [...]
We’ve had Charlottesville Tweetups before. Now it’s time for a Crozet Tweetup.
?A Tweetup is an impromptu social gathering of people using Twitter, usually held at a restaurant, bar or coffee house. It’s not a sponsored or ticketed event, it’s just a gathering so people [...]
Transcription
Hey, Jim Duncan with RealCentralVA.com and Nest Realty Group here in Charlottesville, Virginia thinking about the various ways that my buyer clients assess neighborhoods. I provide data on the value of the homes in the neighborhoods what the recent solds and actives are, etc.
We can look at [...]
The Crozet Mudhouse is (finally) publicizing on Facebook the events they’re having. December’s going to be busy!
Mudhouse Coffee Fluid Jazz with R&B influence featuring keys, guitar, horn, and vocals. Steve Smith and Jim Wray bring the West Coast to the Blue Ridge. [...]
I am probably the worst Alumni Chapter president in the country.
At the urging of an alumnus from the Class of 49B, I’m attempting to organize/mobilize the Charlottesville chapter of the VMI alumni association. If an alumnus 50 years out is interested [...]
These are but a small sampling of the charts to which I was alluding a few weeks ago. While they are still a work in progress, I thought I’d tease you a little bit. I am still integrating the wonderful feedback and suggestions from the original post, so stay [...]
You may have noticed the blown post from earlier today discussing the Crozet real estate market. Unfortunately, I’m having some issues with the backend of RealCrozetVA; if you’re interested, check out the full post at RealCentralVA.If this kind of real estate data for the Charlottesville and Albemarle real estate [...]
One of the primary reasons my clients move to the Charlottesville region* is because, relatively, our traffic is insignificant compared to what they are used to. But for how long?
Part One started yesterday in the Daily Progress.
The difficulty in balancing growth pressures and a decline in transportation infrastructure spending [...]
From Charlottesville Tomorrow:
The Commonwealth Transportation Board will vote this week on ways to deal with a $851.5 shortfall in VDOT’s Six-Year Plan. Among the cuts is nearly $7 million for Jarmans Gap Road, a key infrastructure project supporting the Crozet Master Plan, adopted in 2004. The project currently [...]
There is talk of all that crozet has lost–and I’m sure much has been lost with all of the rapid growth of the last several years. But growth, and it’s associated losses will continue with or without master plans or streetscapes. Shouldn’t the conversation be about what are [...]
Everything’s been on the table for non-government people for years.
Next year is going to be an interesting budgetary year. Brandon Shulletta writes in today’s Daily Progress:
School division leaders drafting budget requests are also wondering whether next year’s supervisors are more likely to maintain the current real-estate tax rate of [...]
Bear with me … I’m working through something here …
I’m beginning to think that anyone who says that “next year, the (Charlottesville) real estate market is going to be better” is either uninformed, lying or delusional. I could be wrong.
About one in seven [...]
Join us for a Holiday Open House this Saturday, November 28th, from 12 – 5 PM! In addition to our regular tours and tastings, we will have local artisan vendors, live music [...]
And we couldn’t be happier by their addition.
Search the Charlottesville MLS
Copyright RealCentralVA.com, LLC. If you are not reading this at RealCentralVA.com the site you see is likely stealing content.
Nest Welcomes Two Realtors
Thanks to Charlottesville Tomorrow’s Sean Tubbs:
The fate of a proposed Regional Transit Authority (RTA) could depend on who is selected in January to represent the City Council and the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors on two regional transportation bodies. Since a joint meeting in February [...]
Editor’s note on two of the items below:
1 – Regarding participation and publicizing the Crozet Community Association – if anyone ever wants to write a story (or three or five) about the Crozet Community Association, please feel free to submit it to RealCrozetVA.
2 – Having Homeowner’s Association Presentations each meeting [...]
Why Use Electronic Signatures?
1 – It’s secure
2 – It’s easy
3 – It saves time and money
4 – It’s environmentally sound – instead of driving 30+ miles to meet clients, I can just email them. Think about it – by using electronic signatures in the past few weeks, I have saved [...]
There’s a whole lot of important stuff on the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors’ agenda next week – the bold parts are most interesting to me.
The next Albemarle County Board of Supervisors meeting will be held on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 starting at 9:00 a.m. in the Lane Auditorium, County [...]
A RealCrozetVA reader asked last night, “where are the yoga classes in Crozet”? I knew of the Old Crozet School, ACAC and I’d heard about some classes at the Greenwood Community Center. So, I asked my Twitter friends:
Visitor to RealCrozetVA wants to know where the yoga classes are in [...]
It’s amazing to look at how fast the recycling economy has moved in the past eighteen months. First, Albemarle County had no curbside recycling, while the City offered it as part of property taxes. Then, we had (and still have) at least one curbside recycling option. And now, thanks [...]
I frequently tell my clients that at any given time, UVA has a couple hundred million dollars of construction underway. Turn out, I wasn’t far off.
Charlottesville Tomorrow reports:
Pace Lochte, UVA’s director of economic development, said that a “miniature intelligence community” is developing around NGIC and the North Fork Research [...]
Rather than bore you with a full summary of my time on posterous, here are a few of the stories I noted/wrote there last week -
Postal workers say facility closure would slow mail service | Charlottesville Daily Progress
From the Daily Progress:
A man who was the treasurer of the Mill Creek Homeowners Association for about 10 years has been charged with embezzlement.
Kevin O’Connor was arrested earlier this month, police said.
Neal Grandy, president of the homeowners association, said the organization hasn’t determined exactly how [...]
I grew up in Culpeper, Virginia, just north of Charlottesville … before it became a bedroom community for Northern Virginia. My dad was and is a commercial real estate broker there; I remember when I was a kid Dad would joke with me – and say, “they know who I [...]
Now this is an interesting little widget from the folks at hotelicopter.
Frequently buyers come to Charlottesville on house-hunting trips and need a place to stay. I’d like to pick the specific ones I recommend and display that widget. What say you hotelicopter?
I’m still working on I’ll use this, [...]
Courtesy of the Free Enterprise Forum:
Last Wednesday (11/4), the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors received a briefing titled “Survey of DIA Personnel Moving to Rivanna Station”. The survey, conducted by the Center For Regional Economic Competitiveness, a non-profit research organization affiliated with George Mason University, provides [...]
Wake up a little bit earlier, grab your kids, stop by a coffee shop, and enjoy the morning on Friday!
Search the Charlottesville MLS
Copyright RealCentralVA.com, LLC. If you are not reading this at RealCentralVA.com the site you see is likely stealing content.
Friday is Walk to [...]
And we’re even getting a netbook to prove it.
Nest Realty was awarded with an HP Realtor Technology Award last week at the National Association of Realtors conference in San Diego. HP honored 5 brokerages across the country that used technology in and out of the office to gain a [...]
As far as I know, this is only for Crozet Elementary, but why not expand it to all schools in Charlottesville and Albemarle?
If you’re in Old Trail, stop by Trailside Coffee on the way to Brownsville, Henley or Western Albemarle. If you’re in Downtown Crozet, stop by the Crozet Mudhouse. [...]
Once again, it’s time for the Charlottesville Toy Lift. And once again (thanks to my wife being on the Board for the Toy Lift) it’s time to volunteer.
Click through to fill out a volunteer form.
What is the Toy Lift?
The Kids Lift Foundation believes every child is entitled to [...]
I’ve been using electronic signatures for a few weeks now, and they have been tremendously helpful – saving gas, time and energy. Instead of faxing, emailing, printing, scanning … my buyer and seller clients have clicked to sign. From out-of-country to clients to those fifteen minutes away … Simple and [...]
From a reader:
Please stop by the Crozet Mudhouse between 2:00 and 4:00 on Saturday, November 21, to meet the artists of Old Crozet School Arts, a nonprofit school for arts instruction located in the old Crozet Elementary School.
We have faculty in dance, drama, art, and music as well as [...]
Erika Howsare walks from Laurel Park behind the Hollymead Town Center to the Harris Teeter in said Town Center. From what is supposed to be a “walkable” area, she walks in drainage ditches and discovers sidewalks and stairways to nowhere.
I stepped onto the edge of [...]
Jeff Gunther has a slightly different idea for a slightly different workforce here in Charlottesville. For many local mobile warriors, turning wherever you find yourself into a workspace is the status-quo. However, without access to printers, actual desk space, big screen monitors, and conference rooms, Java Java can’t [...]
The world is flat.
I just got off the phone (although I have Skype, too) with a client overseas who had been questioning whether the railroad near the Belvedere development was abandoned. She answered her own question when she said, “I’m looking at it now, and it appears that [...]
The United States Air Force Heritage of America Band’s Langley Winds woodwind quintet will span more than 250 years of musical tradition when they appear at the Field School for a FREE performance co-sponsored by Old Crozet School Arts and Field School on Monday, November 16th at 7:30 pm. [...]
The development is moving forward off of Rio Road (it’s not done yet; it still needs site plan approval) …

Location of Treesdale Park off Rio Rd, between Towne Lane and Stonehenge Road.
Treesdale Park is an 88-unit multi-family community that will be located on East Rio Road. AHIP [...]
And grab a cup of coffee; it’s a long post with lots of analysis, market data and a bit of opinion.
Search the Charlottesville MLS
Copyright RealCentralVA.com, LLC. If you are not reading this at RealCentralVA.com the site you see is likely stealing content.
Charlottesville Bubble Blog [...]
Gingergermani says on Twitter:
Seriously, the light at WAHS is the worst timed light ever.
From a reader:
Have you noticed how screwed up the lights have gotten at WAHS and Henley? Seems they have been reprogrammed to “rest” where it is green for WAHS. Do you have any contacts at the [...]
This is an amazing story, and I find it mighty cool that we have these nuns in our presence.
Read the whole story by Lindsey Nair with the Roanoke Times.
By the time Sister Smickel arrives at the barn that morning, Sister DeFeo and Sister Jan McCoy are already bustling about, [...]
The Crozet community is invited to attend public forums on the five year revision of the Crozet Master Plan.
The next forum will be held:
Thursday, November 19, 2009
7:00-9:00 p.m.
Old Crozet School/Field School
The public forum is being held by County staff and the Crozet [...]
From a reader:
I recently talked to the local Blue Ridge Food Bank, and they desperately need many items. They especially need canned meat (tuna, spam, salmon…). Therefore I am organizing our first canned food drive for Old Trail, otherwise called a “Meat ‘n Greet!” We are planning on meeting Saturday [...]
For including me on their list of “Wired Business people in Charlottesville”
From the story:
CBS19’s Bianca Spinosa profiles a list of three local business leaders who are “wired-in.” They use all the high-tech tools to communicate and keep their businesses prospering.
From cyber space to work space, these three local business [...]
I’m sitting on a panel discussing the Future of the MLS at the National Association of Realtors convention in San Diego. After the announcement of RPR last week, the future is bright/cloudy/great/muddled/uncertain.
As with every conference I attend, I go with a couple goals:
1 – What can I learn [...]
You might have seen the occasional Zipcar in Charlottesville – usually they’re from the DC Metropolitan area. But now it seems that Charlottesville has their own Zipcars – 6 of ‘em in fact.
It was good of UVA to have sorted out a deal with Zipcar; [...]
You may remember a story a few months ago in which I discussed recycling options in Charlottesville and Albemarle. It used to be that there were no options, then there was one and now there are a few.
Three years ago I ran a poll questioning the market for [...]
It’s been pretty boring in real estate for a while. Not anymore.
There was an announcement by the National Association of Realtors, in conjunction with Cyberhomes and RPR, LLC in the real estate world last week, and likely very few Realtors, real estate agents and fewer consumers knew, noticed or [...]
Why do I post weekly reviews of my Tweets? Simple. I want that content to ultimately live on my site, and the post also gives me a chance to review what I was discussing the previous week.
First thought on Houselogic.com – It’s trying to be a Mint.com for homeowners. [...]From yesterday’s Daily Progress regarding the worsening Albemarle County budget (bolding mine):
The proposed 77.2-cent tax rate would mean the average homeowner would pay the same real-estate taxes as this year for the next two years, officials say. Assuming real-estate values begin to pick up, there would be a slight [...]
From yesterday’s Daily Progress regarding the worsening Albemarle County budget (bolding mine):
The proposed 77.2-cent tax rate would mean the average homeowner would pay the same real-estate taxes as this year for the next two years, officials say. Assuming real-estate values begin to pick up, there would be a slight [...]
The recession is finding its way further into Crozet.
From Charlottesville Tomorrow:
Boyd expressed concern at the amount of money that the County has invested in the project. He said he was not sure if this was appropriate spending given the County’s ongoing budget issues.
“We have two master plans, and we [...]
And this is a good thing, I think. Courtesy of Charlottesville Tomorrow:
Southern Development is donating an acre and a half of land to increase the size of Forest Hills Park in Charlottesville. The land, which is appraised at $90,000, is located between Forest Ridge Road and Antoinette Avenue. [...]
From friends at Blue Mountain Brewery:
Today is the release of our tasty Lights Out Holiday Ale. Available on draft & in six-packs here at the brewery. Today is also the first Thursday of the month which means it is Steal the Glass day, all day long. Buy a beer [...]
A vistor to RealCrozetVA asked the other day:
“what happened to Patterson’s Flower Shop? I noticed a new sign with a new name in front of their shop yesterday”
Luckily, we have the Crozet Gazette …
But there’s still a flower shop … more at the [...]
From Albemarle County:
Mark Your Calendar…
The Crozet community is invited to attend public forums on the five year revision of the Crozet Master Plan.
The next forum will be held:
Thursday, November 19, 2009
7:00-9:00 p.m.
Old Crozet School/Field School (across from Crozet Elementary School)
The public forum is being [...]
From friends at Blue Mountain Brewery:
Today is the release of our tasty Lights Out Holiday Ale. Available on draft & in six-packs here at the brewery. Today is also the [...]
Update 7 November:
And it’s a Law.
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Three things:
1 – David Slutzky losing is huge.
2 – If you think your vote doesn’t count, think again.
3 – Local elections matter.
Lots of discussion in the Charlottesville news:
- Daily Progress
- cvillenews
- The HooK
- [...]
If you’re wondering where to vote in Charlottesville or Albemarle (or anywhere in Virginia, really:
Start here if you’re looking for where to vote in Virginia. Charlottesville City polling places Albemarle County Polling places Google’s Virginia Voting information. Me? I’ll be watching the [...]
If you’re wondering where to vote in Charlottesville or Albemarle (or anywhere in Virginia, really:
Start here if you’re looking for where to vote in Virginia. Charlottesville City polling places Albemarle County Polling places Google’s Virginia Voting information. Me? I’ll be watching the [...]There’s never been a better time or reason to grow one.
I’ve never had a mustache before, and really, if I can’t have a little bit of fun with my facial hair and hopefully raise a bit of money to fight men’s cancer, what good is waking up everyday? Life’s [...]
[...]