Cue the deer!
You would’ve thought Andy Farmer was stalking my buyers around the Roanoke Valley as I toured several homes for sale recently. Yesterday as I was showing some land for sale in Floyd County, I was driving down the gravel road toward the home and spied a doe and two fawns standing in the road! How awesome! They skipped up a hill into the woods and then turned around and watched us in the car. The picture shows them peeking back at the Roanoke real estate agent with the camera!
Today, as I was taking a different set of buyers around some homes in the Glenvar area of Roanoke County, as we step out on the back porch of a beautiful home off of Wildwood Road, what is standing at the back edge of the woods but another doe and her fawn! Unfortunately this time my camera was in the car and I didn’t get a picture of them.
Roanoke County homes evacuated
A tractor trailer accident on Interstate 81 yesterday presented a huge problem for Roanoke County Fire and EMS professionals. According to The Roanoke Times:
The tractor-trailer was carrying sodium hydrosulphite…a hazardous chemical that produces fumes when in contact with water.
Firefighters evacuated about 80 homes within a half-mile of the incident Thursday night before entering the burning trailer…
My parents were among those evacuated from their Hollins homes and spent the night with us!
Troutville farmhouse for sale (Botetourt County)
Great deal on a farmhouse in Botetourt County. This great home is conveniently located on Stoney Battery Road in Troutville and features 1.53 acres of flat land, a 2-story farmhouse built in 1940 with 1992 square feet of living area, 3 bedrooms, 1 bath and a detached garage. Botetourt Country Schools (Troutville Elementary School, Read Mountain Middle School and Lord Botetourt High School). The home needs some sprucing up and would be perfect for the handy fixer-upper in you. It’s ready to be moved into right away!
A great deal in Botetourt County, priced below assessment at only $109,950!
Contact me to get inside and see it before it’s gone! This property is sold!
Roanoke foreclosure sale
There are ten government-owned houses for sale in the Roanoke Valley right now (eight in Roanoke, one in Salem and one in Vinton). Have you ever considered buying a HUD-owned home for sale? Some are a little rough around the edges but they more often than not come with cash to help you make the necessary repairs. Not all real estate agents can show you a HUD home but I’d be glad to unlock the door for you.
Below is one of the government homes for sale now; this one is in Roanoke City on Dell Avenue.
This beautiful 3BR/2BA home in north Roanoke City is currently priced at $133,000 but oftentimes the government will negotiage with you. It currently has a cash escrow amount of $3,400 to help you with any necessary repairs). It was built in 1949 and has 1728 square feet of living area. Contact me for more information, it is open for bids right now!
Staging your home to sell
When a big company wants to sell you something, how do they get that message to you? Marketing. When you want to sell your home, there are many ways of improving the odds of not only receiving a higher value for your efforts, but selling your home quickly and as painlessly as possible.
Staging a home. Staging means preparing your home to be shown to prospective buyers. Have you been to Grand Home Furnishings or any other furniture store for that matter lately? Have you ever paid attention to all the trouble they endure to make their large warehouse look like a decorated, lived-in bedroom or kitchen? The fake television sets in their living room sales area? Why do you think that is?
Staging is more than just setting up props and cleaning your house; taking down items that personalize your home is important too. That’s the hard part but removing family photos, children’s drawings, etc. make it easier for a prospective buyers to see themselves in your home. Psychology makes the sell easier and less painful for you!
CNN Money has written a great article in their real estate section on profiting from staging your home.
White Oak Tea Room - Botetourt County
Back on July 12 Allison and I visited the White Oak Tea Tavern on the right side of north Route 11 in the Amsterdam community (between Daleville and Fincastle) in Botetourt County. What a delight it is!
The respectfully restored log cabin is the perfect spot for a cup of iced tea during this heat wave and the hot tea was perfect too (try the strawberry!). Bagels baked fresh after you order them is a unique offering not to be found in the Roanoke Valley. (They also have scones, yum!) It is tastefully decorated and with the beautiful wood floors and electic collection of tables and furniture, a perfect place to meet for tea time.
I had the artichoke heart and spinach bagle with strawberry tea. I also tried the cinnamon scone, it was all very good. They have many different bagle varieties and spreads to choose from with a large selection of teas as well. Allison particularly liked the tea warmer they bring to your table to keep your tea piping hot, just the way she likes it.
I believe the atmosphere and light fare make the perfect place for a business meeting, so future real estate clients can expect to go there!
Roanoke police officers show restraint and professionalism
A job well done for Roanoke Police Department officers. Having worked with local and state police departments in the past, I have seen innumerable occasions when our police officers have shown great levels of patience and restraint in circumstances when deadly force could have been used without batting an eye. This just shows what police officers endure regularly for the safety you and I take for granted. So the next time you encounter a police officer and maybe they’re not as friendly as you think they should be, remember they don’t know whether you are the next person to pull a gun and shoot them or not.
Happy Anniversary!
Today is the 9th anniversary of the day my lovely wife Allison and I were married! We spent a lovely day traveling to Warm Springs, stopping along the way at a lovely tea room on Route 11 (in Amsterdam) in Botetourt County where we enjoyed a piping hot kettle of strawberry tea and freshly made (and I do mean fresh) bagels. It was an excellent stop. We made it to The Jefferson Pools in Warm Springs where we spent over an hour soaking in the warm mineral springs and then drove to Lexington for dinner at the Southern Inn. It was a wonderful day and evening!
Oops back behind bars
Photo from WDBJ7
Oops the errant snow monkey is officially captured according to this story by The Roanoke Times. He was spotted by a resident of the Garden City area behind her home in the Mill Mountain Estates neighborhood, about one mile from the zoo. After about two hours of following the monkey through the trees, the zoo staff and Roanoke City animal control officers tranquilized Oops and returned him home to his cage. The monkey will be quarantined for about thirty days to make sure it didn’t contract any diseases during its weeklong sojourn in the woods of Mill Mountain.
A week just doesn’t seem like enough!
Discount brokerage: read the fine print
Several professionals I have talked to about real estate in the Roanoke Valley have expressed concern over the discount brokerages emerging in Roanoke. Today, The Roanoke Times has written an article touting the “big” money an individual can save by hiring a discount brokerage to sell their home as opposed to a “traditional” real estate agent.
I’m not concerned, there will always be people who look for the cheapest way to do something, even though it isn’t likely the best way. The best example I can give is, you wouldn’t always hire the cheapest attorney just because they were cheap. You want someone who is effective, communicated well and can get the job done successfully.
I’d like to point out this quote from the above story for those who might miss it–
Discount brokers sell homes at a lower percentage fee, but they may not offer all of the services that a traditional real estate agent offers.
Bingo! Most people don’t realize that most “traditional” real estate agents pay for advertising out of their own pockets. Most all costs associated with selling your home the individual agent pays. (not their broker) In most cases, they also have to split this commission with the buyer’s agent. So let’s use a $100,000 home for an example. The agent earns (in a 6% commission instance) $6,000. They split that with the buyer’s agent. So the agent earns $3,000. But wait, they have to pay their broker a percentage as well. Let’s say it’s between 20-30% on average. Now, let’s say the agent advertises your home a few times in the local Roanoke paper, and maybe once or twice in a local real estate magazine. Plus the cost of a few open houses (refreshments) and the price of gasoline (yikes!) to show your home to prospective buyers. You can see easily how now they would be down to around $1,500 or less earned for selling your home. So while it looks on the surface like a $6,000 payout, in reality most “traditional” real estate agents earn far less than the commission.
Update: Oops spotted monkeying around behind hospital
As a followup to my previous story on Mill Mountain Zoo’s errant monkey, Oops has been spotted foraging behind Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital. Patients and staff watched the Japanese Macaque in the trees on the side of Mill Mountain before the zoo staff arrived with bananas and binoculars. Oops promptly disappeared again.
Crazy snow monkey! Someone should adopt him!
On a whim, I searched to see how far this story has gone, the AP picked it up and it has been reported in–
- British Columbia, Canada
- Washington, DC
- Cayman Islands
- Cleveland, OH
- India
- South Africa
- Connecticut
- and many more places!
I-81 Community Building
As I was travelling down I-81 yesterday near Dixie Caverns, there was a furniture truck that had overturned and was in the process of being righted. The entertaining part of the whole scene, was my fellow travellers headed southbound who had obviously been waiting for quite a while for the accident to be cleared up (it was blocking both lanes).
There were people gathered in groups just talking and interacting with their fellow stranded motorists. I saw a little girl rollerskating on the Interstate, several boys throwing a football in the median and a man chipping golf balls in the median. It was an interesting sight and I enjoyed it. Traffic was backed up for over 5 miles, yikes!
Roanoke real estate prices still up
According to CNN Money, real estate prices in the City of Roanoke have increased 6.86% in the previous 2-5 years compared to a nationwide average of 14.88%.
For comparison, here are a few rates of increase from around Virginia-
- Charlottesville - up 12.82%
- Richmond - up 8.38%
- Virginia Beach - up 13.59%
- Alexandra - up 23.67%
So as you can see, home values in and around Roanoke are still a great deal compared to Virginia and the rest of the nation!
Monkey on the lam in Roanoke
Oops! A monkey escaped from the Mill Mountain Zoo yesterday. Be on the lookout for a 20-pound Japanese macaque on Mill Mountain or in the vicinity. (In all seriousness though…the monkey can be dangerous if it feels threatened, so don’t try to capture it, call the zoo or authorities.)
Fork in the Alley Restaurant Review
Fork in the Alley is a fantastic Roanoke restaurant. Tucked away in an alley in the Crystal Spring area of South Roanoke, this great pub serves up piping hot brick oven pizza and other fare that will make you glad you tried it out.
Allison and myself and good friends Andrew and Polly ate there over the weekend and ordered up two pizzas. I personally thought the atmosphere is fantastic. We dined outdoors on their patio complete with big screen television (showing the race, blah!), ceiling fans and comfortable seats. The service was excellent and the smell from the brick oven really built up some anticipation! They have a great variety of pizzas to choose from or you can customize your own.
All in all I highly recommend stopping by this charming little restaurant for a great time and excellent food.
Directions can be found on the Fork in the Alley website, but if you know where First Presbyterian Church is at Jefferson Street and Crystal Spring Avenue, it’s behind and to the side of it (off of Crystal Spring Avenue). It’s also behind it’s sister restaurant, Spoon on the Avenue.
