Realtors, developers and the buying public have a foot fetish. In almost all walks <pun alert!> of real estate life, people ask the question about the number of feet in a home. Of course they are referring to SQUARE feet in the home (not ACTUAL feet) in an attempt to be able to draw a conclusion on pricing using size as the primary consideration. Generally speaking, … [Read more...]
Who Is Behind This Site?
My name is Rick Jarvis and I have sold a lot of condos. In 2007, I was asked to help sell a new condo project in the Jackson Ward neighborhood called the Emrick Flats. It was before we had formed One South and before we ended up representing close to 20 different projects. Emrick Flats turned into the Reserve turned into Tribeca and so on. We now represent Ginter Place … [Read more...]
Define Your Brand with Space
The market wants you, small business owner. Property Owners want to talk to you. Bankers want to talk to you. Realtors want to talk to you. The City wants to talk to you. Why? Because we have space available for you. We have big spaces and little ones. We have open ones and closed ones. We have street front retail with tons of glass and we have funky and quirky spaces … [Read more...]
Understanding the Interest Rate
Disclaimer - this is a blog post and not a dissertation on interest rates. There are an almost infinite number of inputs to the pricing of rates and only a simple model is being discussed here... I once had a professor tell me the secret to predicting the interest rate. He told us that interest rates have a tendency to either go up or down typically at some point in the … [Read more...]
The Downtown Richmond VA Condo Market is Poised for Recovery
Statistically speaking, the Downtown Richmond VA Condo Market is as poised for recovery as any segment in the Metro. We maintain a website at RichmondVaCondos.net that tracks available inventory by market segment and project. It also tracks much of the sales data that is illustrated below. The following screenshot shows overall market inventory count the entire City of … [Read more...]
Is Richmond a $1M Condo Town?
If the recent market activity is any indicator, then the answer is 'YES.' Is it a $2M condo town? It is getting closer... In the past several months there have been several instances of condominiums or town homes selling in the upper $900's to well over $1M. These sales are mostly occurring in the two projects that one would expect (Vistas on the James and Rockett's … [Read more...]
The Townes at Cary Place
The Townes at Cary Place, located along Cary Street (1700 block across from the Cary Mews), is an amazing example of both 'Pre-Bubble' and 'Post-Bubble' architecture side by side in the city. StyleCraft builders, a suburban home builder, built Phase 1 of the project (2009) as if the market had no limit to their collective budget. Phase 2, which began in late 2011, was built … [Read more...]
Summit Lofts
Developed in 2009 by the partners of Monument Construction, the Summit Lofts project was a trailblazing concept in that it offered a FOR SALE product in the Scots Addition neighborhood west of Boulevard. It was the only For Sale WAREHOUSE styled project west of Boulevard at all and it began to open other neighborhoods to the possibility of residential uses. Summit Lofts is … [Read more...]
Converting Apartments to Condominiums
This is not a how to or step by step guide in turning an existing apartment complex into condominiums. For the most part, any decent real estate attorney can help you draw up 'Condo Documents' and have them registered with relative ease and for a reasonable fee. For less than $10,000, you can convert apartments to condominiums and suddenly have 6, 12, 25 or more units for … [Read more...]
Avoiding Mistakes
** 6/20/2013 - I should note that since this article was written, Nolde Bakery began a sales effort of the remaining developer owned units. I had labelled Nolde as 'avoid at all costs' but that may no longer be the case. If the developer has made the commitment to sell the remaining units and a 'warrantable' financing situation can be attained, then Nolde will become a viable … [Read more...]
