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#MemberMonday Meet Chad Hallett
The Fredericksburg Area Association of REALTORS® Member Spotlight feature allows members of the community to get to know each other before working with each other in a transaction. Each member answers a series of questions to reveal more about themselves as people. It is FAAR’s hope that learning about an individual may spark connections that blossom via email, phone conversations or in-person meetings at events and classes.
Name
Chad Hallett
Hometown
Ellery Centre, NY
Current Location
Spotsylvania, VA
Title
Loan Officer “Captain Mortgage”
Number of Years in the Industry
2
Why do you love working in real estate?
I truly love to help people realize the American Dream through home ownership. It especially brings me joy when I get to help fellow veterans and first time homebuyers.
What are you most proud of in your career?
Helping people and doing well enough to care for my family.
Do you have a special cause or volunteer your time? Tell us about it here!
Every quarter I make a donation to a veteran charity that helps with mental health. Also, just recently we’ve started donating our excess farm fresh eggs to local donation centers/food banks.
Fun Fact
Some of my agent partners refer to me as their “country lender” as one of my greatest passions is growing/raising my own food on the Hallett Family Homestead.
Check out the Rt. 1 corridor study!
FAAR Louder: Short Sales Essentials
Everywhere we turn, we are hearing about short sales. Today we talk about why the topic of short sales is so prevalent, how short sales today are a little different than 2008, and what you need to know to get started.
Interested in learning even more about short sales and how to be repaired to work with one? Check out Short Sales 101 at bit.ly/shortsales101
Transcript
Mackenzie Rathbun 0:01
Welcome to FAAR louder, your official Association podcast. Hey, FAAR listeners. Thanks for joining us. Today, we’re going to talk about short sales with Ali From century 21 Red Wood, and she’s gonna give us a little bit of the ins and the outs and why it matters today. So Allie, thank you so much for being here.
Ali Allen 0:20
Thank you, thank you for having me. I love short sales, I’ve been doing short sales for the last 13 years, I got into real estate in 2008. So all I know, was a depressed market. The last five years for me have been really interesting because suddenly everybody can afford their homes. So while she says I’ve definitely dwindled in the last five years, they are still out there. I recently just closed one that started out as short sale and because the market is so great actually wound up being a full payoff and the owners got money back. So even if you start with me as a short sale, if the money is there, we’ll put you into a regular sale, you don’t have to go through a short sale. So that’s been really fun for me to see the transition as the market comes up. And now that we’ve got the COVID and stuff possibly coming back down, but we’ll get into that here. But absolutely.
Mackenzie Rathbun 1:05
So to start us off, can you explain a little bit about what a short sale is?
Ali Allen 1:09
Sure. So if you’ve never heard of a short sale, you’ve been living under a rock or you haven’t done it forever. A short sale is basically when a homeowner owes more than the house is worth. So for example, if a homeowner owes us $150,000 in their mortgage, and we put the house up for sale for 200,000. After all the closing costs are reduced after the Commission’s are reduced title fees, etc. The payoff to the mortgage is now $100,000, or maybe 125. So versus 150, to the what they owe versus the 125, which is what they’re getting. We have a $25,000 shortfall. So we’re asking the bank the lender to wipe out and delete that $25,000 no longer collectible, no longer enforceable any of that. So a common misnomer is that the short in short sale or first time, but it’s actually the short payoff amount that we’re actually actually asking to reduce and wipe out.
Mackenzie Rathbun 2:04
So really, it’s just the bank saying we’ll forgive the debt for this amount, because we’re going to see our return now instead of a writer. So they’re going to
Ali Allen 2:12
basically they’re doing is they are getting rid of a non producing loan, again, at the height of short sales, everybody was in pain. So nobody was producing all these loans. They weren’t making the banks any money. So they get rid of those they bring in a buyer who is going to be called a producing loan, the person who’s going to continue making their payments was 30 some years. So that’s what you’re doing. You’re getting rid of a non producing loan for producing.
Mackenzie Rathbun 2:33
Absolutely. Okay, very cool. So we’ve actually heard kind of a buzz around short sales right now, you can’t really go anywhere without hearing people talking about seeing, thinking they’re going to see them come up. Yes, um, what, what are some of the factors that are leading into this buzz around short sales right now.
Ali Allen 2:52
So prior to COVID, so I’m going to take you back to 2019. Before all the world went crazy, um, the main top three reasons for being a short sale at the time were relocation, divorce and retirement. So it was no longer disguise falling my credits shot and losing my job. You have to remember back in the bubble, not only were the sellers losing their jobs, but the buyers that were buying the properties were also losing their jobs. So we were losing contracts right and left. Now overseeing like I said, is more divorce relocation. It’s the reduction in income, a lot of first name fall offs, but we’re still negotiating a short sale on maybe their HELOC. Right now with COVID. What I’m raising my alarm bells on the red flags that I’m seeing are these forbearance loans. The people who have not paid their mortgage, whether they started back in 2020, or 2020, all the way through now or sometime in between there, as you have one client who hasn’t paid since February of 2020. So she’s looking at possibly a one and a half year, non payment loss. And we don’t know what type of program the bank is going to offer her. This is completely uncharted territory, just like it was back in oh eight. So what we can do is prepare our clients with what’s called a business decision. If they are facing financial difficulty, it is a business decision to sell it now, while the property market is still so high, it’s so great, they might still have equity to offset the losses that they’re going to take in those forbearances. The other red flag that I see that I don’t know if anybody’s really asked I haven’t heard, please if you notice the answer, please call me Give me some some info. What I’m afraid of is that the people who took a forbearance and are not paying down their principal, the interest may still be collecting. So while you have the equity like my current seller just got an extra $50,000 equity. So you have this equity that’s building but if your principal is not being paid and that interest is coming up, eventually you’re going to miss that mark. That’s the red flag that I’ve seen. That’s what I’m worried about. I think that’s what everybody is kind of thinking the difference here between 2007 to two 2008 is that it is no long, it’s not that everybody is losing their job, everybody’s losing their savings, everybody, including buyers are going to be losing their jobs. No. Last year, there was so much free money in the market, between PvP loans, SBA loans, stimulus money, some people may have hand over fist and stocks. So for me, I think the craze of the buyer market may dwindle down a little bit now that all of that free money is kind of gone. And with the forbearance ending in June, we’ll see they extended again, along with the eviction and foreclosure. I can never say the word memorandum tutorial. Whenever that ends, that’s a big trifecta that is about to burst. And I think a lot of people are gonna fall through the cracks. They’re going to have programs just like they did in 2007 2008, they’re going to try to put money in here, we’ve got a landlord relief, we got renter relief, but you have to jump through those hoops to get it. And if you don’t know that you’re just going to sit in your house and kind of bury your head in the sand going, Oh, well, they can’t foreclose on me, they can’t evict me. That’s not true. They are evicted. They are foreclosing. If you have a property that’s been abandoned, and there’s nobody to effect, you’re at the front of the line. So please be careful on some of these things. When you’re talking to your clients, please make sure that they understand that it is a business decision, take the emotion out of it. I call it short term pain for long term gain. And I go over that here a little bit.
Mackenzie Rathbun 6:26
So I’m a little bit back on what you said, for these property owners who did own rental properties who maybe didn’t get a new tenant in there, they might be in a position where they need to sell the houses to come Yes.
Ali Allen 6:38
So that’s the other reason why we’re seeing our rental market explode right now. or similar to our buyer market. Why there’s no rentals is because all of the people who held on to their properties in 2008 2009, when the market dipped it became landlords are now suddenly seeing their gains that if they held on to the property, so now they’re selling them for top dollar. And now that rental property is now gone. And we have several of those, I do some work with some property managers here were probably a good handful of the owners have decided not to rent and decided to sell instead. So it’s all sort of, you know, symbiotic and all connected with short sales and people’s business decisions in the market and all of that. So if you have to remember back in, oh 708. When people lost their homes, it’s because the adjustable rate was so high up. Okay. So somebody who paid interest only on $17,000 a month, suddenly had their arm adjusted. And to add in the principal, their new payment was like, say 20 $200 a month. So they made the business decision to sell that as a short sale, and they went into a rental as 17 $100 a month. So rentals became super popular because all of those homeowners now suddenly became renters, those guys now are at a position where they should be able to buy again. So those guys are buying, they’re now in the pool. And those rental houses are now being sold. So it’s all intertwine from way back again, 10 years ago, and here we are again in the same position. So for me, I’m just preparing everybody, I don’t want this guy to fall, I don’t want you to have to sell your house because of COVID or because of financial difficulty. But we are here for this purpose so that they don’t fall into foreclosure. You don’t want that the short sale is always going to be better than foreclosure in the state of Virginia.
Mackenzie Rathbun 8:26
Absolutely. So definitely, knowing how to be an agent to service those needs would be very important. What are some things that I would need to know as an agent looking to maybe start working with short sale perfect. So
Ali Allen 8:39
as a listing agent for a short sale, you have to qualify the homeowner first before you even take the listing. So these are not going to be their typical listings where you’re negotiating your commissions your negotiating condition compared to other comparables with short sales, when you do your CMA, you can generally discount about 5% off of that, because you know that it’s going to take a long time for the buyer to sit there and wait, you have a lot of work to do as the agent. So again, before you take the listing, you’re gonna have a one on one, sit down with them. And you’re going to ask them what’s going on, the more truthful your owner is with you, the better you can help them on the back end, it’s all going to come out. Okay, there’s no hiding insurance sales, the bank’s gonna pull a credit report, the bank’s gonna pull a title report, we’re going to know if there’s extra liens or judgments on there, we’re going to know if they have extra debts that they’re not telling us about you cannot hide them short sale. So it is better for you as an agent and the customer to tell us up front what is going on. And we can put that information in our back pocket and use it to our advantage later down the road. So what I mean by that is if you’re going through a divorce, and somebody ran off with all the money, don’t be ashamed by it, just let me know where the money went and went went. I need to know that it was on this month and this much was taken and this is how much I lost. I don’t need to know that they ran off with so and so and you know, the whole emotional side of maybe the facts of the case, you just need the facts. Okay? So the reason being is that when you submit all these documents to the bank, all the banker sees his word on paper, right? They don’t have this emotional connection that we do over sitting across from them. I’ve had homeowners cry, I’ve had homeowners who have had death in the family, the borrower, it’s very difficult. You’re dealing with somebody who’s very angry that they have to sell. The banks don’t want to work with me, they just want to foreclose, no, they don’t, they don’t want to own your home. They’re not in the business of owning homes. They’re in the business of making money with mortgages, right? So you are doing a lot of psychological issues with the homeowner in this type of position. So go in and and just ask those questions. Why are you facing foreclosure? Questions a foreclosure? Why are you facing financial hardship? What drove you here was a divorce? Was it relocation? Was it COVID? Does it excessive credit? Do you just not have any more credits to be able to pay your debts? On top of that, then, once you get the financial statements, you want to make sure because the bank is going to ask for three months of back pay stubs. And they’re going to ask for three months of back bank statements. A good negotiator will then go through and say, okay, based on your income expenses that you’ve given me, for the previous month that I did, I will go through with a highlighter, and I will do my own budget. So I can see if you’re actually telling me the truth. Or if you’re not, because the bank will also go through your bank statements line by line, what they’re looking for are your other bank accounts that you haven’t given us. So they’ll go through and they’ll say, Oh, well, you transferred this bank of america account to bank account. 1234 $500, where’s bank account? 123. Again, you cannot hide. So being very, very upfront with that with the listing agent side. The other thing that you want to know is who is on title, who are you actually dealing with? Way back in the beginning, I had a husband who tried to sell a property without his wife’s knowledge. been super fun. So she called me all upset. I had no no no idea. But we did the title for and sure enough, she’s all title she’s allowed, she has to be able to contract. That is a big common misconception to that our question that I get, if husband is on title, but husband and wife are on the loan, okay, husband and wife’s that documentation needs to be submitted to the bank. But you only have to worry about getting everything signed, title wise with the husband, or vice versa. So husband and wife, we’re on title but only husbands all alone, you would only need the husband’s financial documents, but husband and wife have to be able to contract in the listing agreement. Wow, that’s a lot to juggle there it is. It’s a lot of information. So that’s why we talk about commissions. That’s usually why listing agents get a little bit more is because we do have to do so much on the back end of collecting documents and who we’re actually selling a property for. Another common thing to ask is if they are currently facing foreclosure. With a foreclosure stay right now, that’s not been a big question or common thing. But as we get into June and pass that when foreclosure start again, possibly. You want to ask if there’s a foreclosure sale date within the next 30 days, the reason being is nine times out of 10. Most short term lenders will not take a short sale file, if there is a sale date within 3030 to 31 days. The reason being is that there’s just not enough time to get documents together, get it listed, get an offer, get documents to them, get an appraisal done and get back to find out if that offer nets them more than the open market.
Mackenzie Rathbun 16:20
So obviously, there’s a different timeline for every closing when it comes to short sales. But is there a general overview of a timeline that you can give us that maybe we could know where we would be in the process? Yes.
Ali Allen 16:34
So generally speaking, short sales, the only thing that changes in short sales are the sellers financial situation, everything else generally is the same. So you’re going to have the same 30 day window for document collection 30 to 60 days is going to be your appraisal timeframe. So the phrase being ordered, returned, reviewed, and then the next 60 to 90 days is going to be the final investor review. So no matter if you’re on the listing side, or you’re on the buying side, your timeframe should be somewhere between 75 to 90 days, 30 days for docs, then 30 days for the appraisal another 30 days for the investor review.
Mackenzie Rathbun 17:08
Okay, so what are some of the steps that go on in each of those segments.
Ali Allen 17:13
So depending on the loan type, we talked about FHA being different than conventional VA. So I’m going to talk about FHA first, and then we’ll talk about conventional and VA. FHA, they have what’s called approval to participate. It’s called ATP for short. What that means is that the seller is pre approved to be determined to be eligible for short sale. So when you have the listing, and you’ve got the listing going, it’s active on the market, you’re going to submit the listing agreement, an authorization, and the initial financial documents to the bank. I’m just gonna use Bank of America as our example. So I’m going to submit everything to Bank of America, Bank of America is then going to issue me a phone number, the seller calls and does an interview. Once that’s complete, the seller to RCV Bank of America then determines are the sellers eligible for short sale and they issue what’s called the ATP, the ATP will have exactly what the value is that they’re looking for, it will have the exact net they’re looking for. So the payoff that they want, how many days that you have to get that and if there’s any money going back to the homeowner, again, back in the heyday of short sales, and we had the half of credits and all of that ATP is delegated the homeowner about $3,000. To move out on that it dropped down to 1500 by a certain date and then zero to another date, I think it is now completely zero. Once the ATP is issued, any buyer who meets and or exceeds that minimum that requirement, their offer should be approved, pending review. So an FHA short sale, they are guaranteed 1% in closing costs for FHA buyers, conventional and VA, you will have to ask for what’s called a variance request. If you’re asking for the full 3% on FHA buyer, you will have to ask for the variance request anyway. Then you have the final approval for the contract. So you have two part approval on FHA, you have the seller approval, seller side only approval with the ATP, and then you have the contract approval. And you start FHA when you list the property, conventional and VA short sales, you will start the short sale once you receive an offer. Once you receive the offer, the bank knows how much they’re going to get and their payoff the value they’ll do their bpos, all of that. So that’s the only difference between FHA and conventional. The same thing that happens so this one, FHA starts the 60 days prior when you start listening, these guys start when you ratify and then those 30 6090 days start, okay. So FHA starts just a little bit ahead of everybody else.
Mackenzie Rathbun 19:36
Okay, so you get you get approved, and then you have all of these. So what do you do when you start getting offers like, what do you do? Okay,
Ali Allen 19:46
so the same thing will happen okay, takeaway in this short film is the name short sale when you have multiple offers because it’s a crazy market, right guys? multiple offers. You want to do the best that’s the best for your client and what’s going to be best for the bank. Okay. Nine times out of 10, you don’t want to take a ridiculously low offer, okay? This is not the sky is falling, we’re going to take it off for like, say 50 $60,000 under list, okay, in this crazy market, I highly doubt that would still happen anyway. But being realistic, okay, this was not the crazy market that we’re going through this is a normal market. If you list a property at 200,000, do not accept offers lower than I would say 175. Because now you’re trying to cover a gap, right? The bigger the gap, the more disappointment that buyer is going to have, the more disappointment the seller is going to have, the more disappointment and frustration you’re gonna have, because you’ve done all this work, and it just fall out. Right. So if I have an offer for 200,000, and I see that the listing agent has ratified an offer for 150, that just hurts my heart, because we have a $50,000 gap between what you as the listing agent said the market value was worth and what you ratified, don’t do that to yourself, you have the opportunity to counter even before the bank sees it. So you get a ridiculous deal offer counter, if they can’t come up to that price, then don’t waste your time. Okay, a $25,000 gap is much easier to cover that $50,000 gap. So if I’m using that example, offer price at this price is 200,000. buyer maybe offer up 150. Say the bank counters at 180. Well, we’re only $20,000 off this price. But we’re $30,000 off this price. So the buyer has to come up so much more than what the bank wants, well, maybe the bank counters at 190. So you seem to think that you’ve got to cover all of this began. Don’t do that to your buyer. Don’t do that to yourself. Don’t do that to yourself. So be smart about your pricing. If you think even as a short seller, you’ve taken the condition and how long this process is going to take into consideration. And the property value is 200,000. Don’t deviate too too far from that. I would only say 25 to $30,000 off list. Because the bank is going to do their own appraisal, their BPO and all of that. So don’t set yourself up for failure. Don’t set your buyer up for failure. Okay, don’t don’t let them do that to you.
Mackenzie Rathbun 22:05
Be realistic. So there is a lot to know when you are being a buyer’s agent. Yes. Or when you’re being a seller’s agent, what do you need to know when you’re being the buyer’s agent? In those situations? What’s kind of different about
Ali Allen 22:17
it? Okay, so you have to take the knowledge that you have as a listing agent for short sales and put it to the task of buyer’s agents. So you have to know where you are in the process as a buyer’s agent. So as I said, All short sales have the same 3060 day 90 day window. As a buyer’s agent. The first question that you’re going to ask is if it’s an FHA short sale, as I said, FHA short sales can begin at the time of listing. So if you have an FHA listing, and they haven’t started, then you know, automatically that your buyer is going to have to wait an additional 30 to 90 days on top of the original 30 to 90 days, they’re short sale review. There’s not a whole lot they can do other than wait, the first 30 days is just Document Submission. So you’re just calling up every week. Hey, is there any change? No, Cool, thanks, keep rockin. Once you get to the 60 day mark the 45 days 60 day mark, that’s when you want to start asking about the value being ordered a negotiator being assigned. So I know in the earlier I use the equivalent of the roller coaster. So you have to think like here’s your listing. Here, now we’ve got a contract. So our first 30 days, we’re going up the roller coaster, the value is here we’re crushing the roller coaster, and then the investor with you to the final decision, we’re coming down the roller coaster. So basically, once your your value is in, now you’re just waiting for it to come in. And that final investor review. Okay, those investor reviews take anywhere from 10 to 30 days. So it’s all downhill once that value is in you should now 10 to 30 days, I should have a final decision. So as a buyer’s agent, and you cannot call the lender, you cannot call the foreclosure attorney, you really have no power, you don’t have the information that you need to get past the recordings. To get your authorization to do all of that, the best thing you can do is sit tight, and wait and reassure your buyer that the first 30 days of no updates is normal. And remember, 30 days is 30 business days, not 30 calendar days. So when I tell you 10 business days, that’s two weeks and calendar days. So remind your buyer that hey, today is only day three of 10. Today is day 25 of 35 more days. So the more that you’re open with your buyer that this is normal. Hold on, don’t panic, the more they’re more confident that things are progressing, even when they don’t seem like it on your end because the back end, they’re doing all kinds of stuff. As a buyer’s agent, just make sure that you haven’t missed any initials. Make sure you’ve got your ratification date, make sure you’ve got a closing date. Make sure your pre approval letter is dated within the last 30 days and just hold tight.
Mackenzie Rathbun 24:50
That’s really as a buyer’s agent. It really is important to know everything the sellers agent knows though but yes, it is that process and knowing and having the confidence To tell your buyers, hey, it’s been 30 days and we haven’t heard anything. It’s okay. He says, This is the process, yes. And to be able to come with that authority to it. So you don’t
Ali Allen 25:12
have to know all the ins and outs like a listing agent or like myself, you don’t have to know the lingo, certain lingo. But you do want to have a basic understanding of where you should be within your file review. I have had buyer’s agents come to me in my office and say, hey, I’ve got a short sale Is this normal? Where the listing agent has told us very whoever you’re talking to? Please stop? No, I’m going to ask these questions, because I’m going to ask very in depth questions to know where it’s at. That particular buyer’s agent got a printout of the timeline of everything that was happening, I reviewed it, I said, Yep, this is normal, it’s normal. These are your next steps. This is what you should expect. It went off without a hitch hereby or close within four weeks. So just be reassured if you need help, call me I will help you I will help you with the questions that you need to ask to actually get you understanding of where you are in that process for a buyer’s agent, because like I said, it can be very daunting to not know especially if you’ve never done them, you don’t know what questions you should be asking to get the information that you need to give yourself and the buyer the confidence to stay on the contract.
Mackenzie Rathbun 26:13
So in a market, where we are definitely seeing that short sales are going to be coming back where sellers agents are going to need to know and buyer’s agents are going to need to be aware, fully there was a place there where they could take a class about no Yeah, my gosh, like the fire academies class short sales 101, which will be July 16. And anybody interested can register at Bit.ly/shortsales101. The link will be in the description for the podcast today.
Unknown Speaker 26:42
But um,
Mackenzie Rathbun 26:44
what else can we expect to learn in this class that we maybe didn’t cover here today or couldn’t go in depth on so the
Ali Allen 26:49
people that have taken the class prior have told me that it’s like drinking water from a firehose, even talking with you and our little break here, you said that you learned just a little bit tidbits from the little drips that I’ve given you. We are going very, very in depth. So we’re going to talk about why people short sale, what to expect with COVID, what to expect the forbearance options, what questions you need to ask to pre qual during the financial interview, what documents you’re going to need to collect at the listing stage. There are case studies so that we really hone in on what the ATP is what that actually means that we go over what happens if a borrower is deceased, and they’re facing foreclosure in those 30 days, if there’s an active or close to bankruptcy, if they’re an active divorce. We’ve even done ones with active military overseas, how we do that over zoom, and DocuSign, all of that. And then the back end of that is how to buy a short sale, what to expect what questions to ask the listing agent terminology to know so that you know the lingo and what they’re actually asking for and what these abbreviations and all these acronyms actually mean. And then we do some case studies. So the very last case study, you will see why I’m so adamant about not seeing approval until you actually have it in hand. You will see how that played out and why that case probably would have lost to a lesser agent if they didn’t know what they were looking at.
Mackenzie Rathbun 28:13
Absolutely. Well I’m personally very excited about this class. I learned a lot today and I hope you guys have as well. Please check out the far website if you’re interested in taking profit again the link in the description. Thank you for joining us today and I catch you guys on the next episode.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
To learn more about short sales, take our Short Sales 101 class at bit.ly/shortsales101
Local Real Estate News: Hear it first from FAAR in the FAARside Newsletter
The wait is over! The latest edition of the FAAR real estate newsletter is back with more information for your real estate business and ideas for the next steps in your career! Take a peek at what’s inside!
You’ll find
- A message from FAAR President, Carrie Danko
- Details on running for the 2022 Board of Directors
- an update from the Fredericksburg REALTORS® Foundation
- Welcome to our new Affiliate members
- Congratulations to our 2020 Award Winners
- Next steps for Association Healthcare
and more!
Grab a digital copy here or pick up your print copy from the FAAR office!
FAAR Louder: Serving Our Community’s Housing Needs
There is a need in our community, right outside our own doors. Many people are struggling to find permanent and even temporary housing. This week we sit down and talk with leadership in Micah Ministries and talk about how those needs can be met. If you are interested in getting involved with the ministry, please reach out to Josie Ramos at josie@dolovewalk.net. This episode was made possible by the FAAR Technology Committee. To learn more about committees and how to get involved, check out faarmembers.com.
Transcript
MacKenzie Rathbun 0:01
Welcome to FAAR Louder, your official Association podcast. What par does for both its community and the agent members wouldn’t be possible without
our great committees. Today, we’re
going to talk to Michael Branon, the chair of the tech committee to learn a little bit more about what they offer and how they’re a resource for you. Thank you, Mackenzie, I
Michel Brannon 0:22
appreciate you having me on the FAAR louder podcast.
MacKenzie Rathbun 0:25
Yeah, we’re really excited to have you and to learn more about the tech committee. So can you tell us a little bit about what that is? And what you guys do?
Josie 0:33
Certainly. So a group of us gather once a month. And then we talk about technology, obviously, what our goal is to try to make things useful for the committee, and ultimately for the community at large.
MacKenzie Rathbun 0:51
So you guys have done like specific things like covering how to make videos, but you’re also covering some new topics, interviewing local officials, right? What are you guys doing with that recently?
Josie 1:02
That’s right, we have been talking with various county officials about their broadband plans, as well as what they’ve done so far, in trying to increase the reach of broadband to bring it to more people.
MacKenzie Rathbun 1:14
Absolutely. And that’s more necessary than ever. So it’s probably been really helpful for your businesses to know what broadband is available, where and what they’re planning to do in the future. So thank you so much for helping move these issues forward.
Josie 1:29
Yeah, you’re right, man, it’s great to help our business. So we know exactly what areas habits so we can communicate that to our clients. But we also want to, to push the county if that’s the right way to put it to try and get these things done sooner rather than later.
MacKenzie Rathbun 1:44
Yeah, it’s absolutely necessary. Everything is online now or becoming more virtual every day. That is,
that is so true in every capacity.
So did you have any of the meetings that were like your favorite topics to cover?
Josie 1:59
I mean, I love talking about technology, new technologies. Specifically, we get in there we talk about the latest apps, and not just the new ones, but the ones that were using maybe using definitely, or the new features. You know, there’s a few Well, I won’t shout out any of them right now. But we talked about those and how to use them in your business, the strategies to best implement those technologies, as opposed to just here’s another piece of tech have added. We try to help people use those technologies to the best of their ability.
MacKenzie Rathbun 2:30
Yeah, as a hands on committee, you usually have your committee meetings, but then you usually have like a tech time afterwards. It’s kind of built into that, right?
Josie 2:37
We do. We have a great tech time. And we have a calendar, as you can see on the far website to see what topics are coming up. But we’d like to join in the tech time but also feel free to come to the tech committee so that we can increase the diversity and figure out more of what our members want to to learn about.
MacKenzie Rathbun 2:58
If you’re interested in getting involved or learning more about the tech committee, email. Lauren’s is at El Sousa at bar members.com so be able to help you get started and to answer any questions you might have. Up next we have a great segment with Kim McClellan, our public policy director, and she interviews some leadership from mica ministries. One I am Kim McClellan,
Kim McClellan 3:19
the Public Policy Director here at far and I am very excited to be joined today by two fabulous ladies with Micah ecumenical ministries who are doing wonderful housing work in our community. First we have peg Phillips who is the home development leader I think I got that right from my get unpacked, just tell us a little bit about what that means. What do you really do every day?
Peg 3:42
I am in charge. Good morning. First off, I am in charge of the case management with Mike administration as well as the housing locator Josie. I also wear the hat of the income I’m in charge of the income department for for mica so basically what that means is I oversee anything and everything to do with housing from landlord landlord liaison to case management of clients to to locating the property that we need for the clients going into housing. Just all over housing.
Kim McClellan 4:27
Great. Josie is the Community Housing locator. So Josie Josie is no stranger to far. She has been a mortgage and mortgage and it was a member of far. So nice to talk to you Josie. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about what you do for mica you’re still on mute Josie.
Josie 4:49
Sorry about that. Good morning. Well, you gotta love zoom. Good morning as the Community Housing locator, who services mica ministries as well as the stable homes Partnership, which is the umbrella under mica ministry, Sturman Brisbane, shelter, losing hope house as well as empower house. So as their housing locator It is my responsibility and my job to partner with landlords, property managers, private owners, basically locate housing the inventory itself for our communities, to service and partner with case managers, which peg Phillips manages, as well as the other leaders of the other agencies are servicing our homeless community. So I really am a support person to the teams to make sure that for one the landlords have been updated on educating them on the programs that we have, as well as being an advocate to our community, neighbors, and such as our clients as we call them in real estate. They need someone to make sure that they’re being guided towards fair housing, make sure that they know what area they’re going into. So I consider myself the non official realtor to our homeless community. And I take that very seriously, as well as the communication and the relationship with the realtors and property managers and landlords and all that good stuff. Yeah, well, your
Kim McClellan 6:29
job must be incredibly hard these days, because inventory is obviously an issue all across the board. Okay, this is going to be a really interesting conversation for our property managers. So I know we were talking before we started recording that the last year has been a very uneasy time for everybody. But specifically to landlords, you know, am I going to get that rent check that will allow me to make my mortgage and pay for the maintenance on this home. So that has been fun, front and foremost, for a lot of our property managers over the past year. And what I love about these programs is this is so appealing, I think for property owners be able to work with an organization like yours to have that dependable stream of tenants who come with support, both financial support and with those sort of wraparound services. So I know we’re sort of talking that inside baseball. So let’s kind of go through the programs that you all offer, and what that might look like for the homeowner and the property manager to work with this program. So I’ll let either one of you decide who’s going to start talking.
That would be me. Also, I have, I have, I mean, a whole buffet of programs that I can offer. It really depends on the the interest and the availability. But let’s just start with because peg Phillips, my leaders here, specifically with the mica ministries, or our singles and talk about singles, split that down singles and families. So with our singles, we have a lot of different programs that are funded, locally, federally, as well as state. And those would be such as for our singles with some disabilities and things of that nature or need more permanent long term care, we have our permanent support housing, through mica ministry specifically, it’s very different but is very special of the invoice very fortunate to work on that this year with Miss peg. And our permanent support housing is a program where we offer services to a certain demographic of people in our community that need have been disabled or having need of housing or community services for long term. And we offer where we will put the lease in our name. We want to go ahead and service that client ourselves with mental services, health services, income services, but most importantly, what a lot of permanent support housing, the lease would be in their name, you know, you become their landlord. With this permanent support housing specifically, you’re our land that we become their landlord, but we rent to you as a property manager. So for one, the rent is guaranteed 100% no have to worry about collecting that. The utilities are also in our name. So we really 100% are on board financially as well as committed to the client as well.
Yeah, so I think that cannot be stressed enough. So it was just to make sure I understand. You are partnering with mica for this program is permanent supportive housing, housing program. Mica as the agency is the lease, not the individual relationship that contract relationship is with is with a nonprofit, not with the individual Cobra is amazing. I mean, that kind of connection and commitment from mica has to put property owners minds at ease, if they’re working with maybe a more challenging client who’s coming out of The hospital or incarcerated or something where you can work so directly with that landlord, and then that landlord has a problem or question they can call you all right, you are eligible for that kind of communication.
Correct. Now, I’m just one person that you’ve got a team of. But most importantly, there’s some things that you are restricted as a landlord, you can’t tell them they can’t have company after 9pm. You can’t tell them they can’t have overnight guests. That’s why it’s so important to partner with an agency that supports you and supports that client and the best that they can. And that’s what this program allows us to do. Miss peg is leading this program and her whole staff is very well educated, equipped, and they’ve been doing this for many years. And they’re so successful that when the state gave out extra funds, after all of this COVID, Fredericksburg was named specifically for this program to receive additional funding to the state. So I feel really confident that this program is not only successful has been successful. But through this COVID time, as a landlord, I know that you’ve all been burned with people just camping out at the house or not paying and this cares act, you really weren’t protected the whole time. If you had this program, you would have never gone through that. Miss peg Phillips would have never allowed that. And we as an agency don’t stand for that either. We take care of our community, and that includes our landlords as well. So that’s just powerful. So that’s just one of the programs. You also have a rapid rehousing, which under Rapid Rehousing, I service families as well as individuals, and also victims of domestic violence. And that funding is the the funding is really specifically meant to be used for getting someone out of their situation, which is homelessness as fast as possible, and then get them through our services, our community, we get them the services they need, get them to where they’re independent, as fast as possible as well. So that funding for that client can be anywhere from three months to two years. And we disclose and we will communicate with the landlord every three months letting them know how much of a subsidy we’re going to give them 100%. And it can change because you know, we become their community as as housing, if they fall short if an illness comes about, unlike other tenants that don’t have a mom or dad to bail them out. They have us not that we bail them out, but where they’re supporting system, where the ones that come in, and if a child is sick for two weeks, you can’t help that. But they shouldn’t be in this dash, right, they shouldn’t have to choose their child’s health or their or their rent. So we are their support system. And again, we were very successful through COVID. With that program, we had the keys for Christmas. We house. We didn’t quite hit 95 homes in 90 days. But we were close. And we did that as a community. I was very proud. As as my second year going into as a housing locator. It was really, really a proud moment to see how together we came and everyone was supportive. And those families stayed inside through the holidays and after the holidays and they’re still inside.
It’s really exciting. And that’s the other funding program that I have. And I recently have been partnered with other leaders in my servant, leader making Cotter, she, Brainiac and she gets us involved in so many projects. If it has to do with the community. We’re there. And I’m now part of a team to help assist with section eight vouchers, specifically our youth vouchers. That’s a little different funding. That’s not too Rapid Rehousing, but it is through housing through HUD program. And we are familiar with all with section eight. Who makes me excited about this section A program is for particularly or a group of demographic of people that are between the age of 18 and 25, Kim, and these people have had to have been in foster care before. So they were in foster care, they turned 18. And we all know if we don’t have a family and a community behind us, it could be hard to imagine being a foster child, then you come out to the world at 18 years old without a village without a backing. That’s where we come into play. And we say we’ve got a voucher for you for the next three years. And it’s not just a regular section a voucher, we’re not just going to inspect the property, send you in there, pay the rent, and then hope you got it in three years. doesn’t work that way. We’ve all know that that’s not been very successful. So what we’re doing now is we’re promising agency backing with each one of these voucher recipients and mica Hope house and other agencies are owning these individuals, and we’re becoming their village. I mean, it’s a beautiful thing. But as you know, inventory short, yeah. And they don’t need just a one bedroom. Some of them have, you know, been married, some of them have started a family. So we need all scopes of inventory. So
yeah, absolutely. And I think that it, you know, when you think about a bin not obviously involved and the Housing Choice Voucher Program, but he’s been close enough to it for years to know that these vouchers do not come around at the time. Somebody who comes in and says, Hey, I’m interested in it, and it seems years long wait, this is really incredible than slow having these. And I know that, you know, I think about myself at 18, would I have been able to just start my life without my family and my friends his support? No, I mean, this is on you think about yourself at 18. It’s hard to do that. And this is such a great opportunity. So that brings me to a question about inventory. Obviously, this is not something that the realtors need explanation on, they are feeling it every day, with every buyer that they have, but specifically for you all, what kinds of housing, are you looking for size? Right? Where are they sharing homes? Are they all together? What
what kind of homes are
you looking for? And is there a specific geography so some of our property managers are listening can maybe be thinking about their property owners that they represent. And you know, might this be a good fit? So kind of those two things, what kind of homes and then Where are you looking? If there are any specifics?
Well, right now, if you look, I mean, I’m sure it was a US as professionals, or one, the average one bedroom is like 15 $100, here in Fredericksburg, that’s a lot of money. And, you know, my leader, peg Phillips has taught me that, if we can get right just a little bit lower, we can help just one more person to more people. So affordable housing is hard for permanent support housing, those are for individuals or Mike, or any single person, we need a one bedroom with Miss Phillips has led her program that has been successful when they’ve been one bedrooms for our premier support housing, so we can truly focus on the healing of that person, and be structured that way. So a one bedroom is needed as like I said, One bedrooms are hard to find right now, we just don’t have a lot of them. You know, we keep building new construction, but there’s not many one bedroom studios in there. So one bedrooms are definitely needed. We like to keep our our guests who don’t drive close to the bus line. And not only close to the bus, not just think about the community that we’re giving, we have mental health services. So we need to be close to the you know, maybe the health department or rcsb I need to be close to the to the hospital. So with that being said, again, two to 4012 to 4072 to 408 some parts of Stafford might be okay, we just don’t want to send them all the way like to Caroline, because there’s just not a lot of transportation out there. That could be a barrier and you know, public transportation until we can improve that we definitely want to keep them close to the city of Fredericksburg, which is where most of their doctors are farm. And we want to make sure we still keep them in there, their services. So that’s very important. Um, and for our families, two and three bedrooms, we really don’t need large homes. We just need you know, again, two to three bedroom that could fit a family of three to four, you know. So we do have some singles that through Rapid Rehousing because they don’t all have permanent support housing that do become roommates. So some of those two bedrooms would be for our Rapid Rehousing individuals that are not married or have children. So again, from a work from a studio to a three bedroom, and some of our section eight voucher recipients because they are younger, and that not all have children. I’ve spoken with the housing specialist over essential housing, and she has educated me that a basement can work as well. So if you have a home and maybe you’re in law suite, or children went away to college and didn’t come back, and you have a basement with a kitchen, it just has to have a kitchen, a full bathroom, a living room with a window and a bedroom with a window. They can’t pay like a percentage of the utilities, it has to either be included or have a separate meter. So, for example, I’m speaking to an owner right now a private owner that is able to do the basement and she says I’ll just include a flat rate for the utilities. And I said yes, ma’am. And she said, Well, I have a door that goes upstairs. Oh, that’s easy. We just have to do came to see you don’t have access to the basement, because we want to, you know, HUD specifies that the housing unit has to be theirs, and only they have access to what they need.
Josie 20:11
That’s right on that property. That’s
Kim McClellan 20:13
right. But I remember raising four kids, I always had an empty basement, it was their hangout spot. So hi, you’re COVID if you want extra income, and you don’t have to wait months to get qualified to be a landlord partner, to Central Virginia, those ladies are the sense of urgency is just as well and equally, you know, portrayed because they’re, they’re approving people a lot faster. I have a specific person in Central Virginia that if I have a landlord, who has never rented to section eight, I can make an indirect introduction, and it’s taking care of it’s no stress whatsoever.
So that brings, that’s a great segue into my next set of questions is, let’s talk about some of these processes. I know sometimes people may think this is a hard process to get involved in, it’s going to take a long time for my house to get inspected. You know, once I’m in the program, do I still have autonomy over my units? And do I still get to you know, you know, how does that the tenant application process working and walk us through a little bit of that?
Yeah. So the tenant application process in reference to All Programs in
general, or would you? Anyone in specific Can I think that we talked a little bit about Mike is program, currently the Housing Choice Voucher Program.
Okay, so the second, the vouching choice, the house, I’m sorry, section eight voucher, I’m a butcher that name I apologize. So that process, if you are interested, so we have to first make sure that you are an approved landlord, and that your property can be approved. So we have a team essential Virginia, that we have the paperwork, we email it to you, it’s very touchless, even in this in this time that we’re in, have a full package, we show interest, we get your property approved and get you approved. And then once you’re approved, then the tenants filled out whatever application you have, just like everyone else, if you have an application fee that will be granted. If you have a residential application, that will be planted as well. And we work together with the client to apply for that. So it can take anywhere from a week to two weeks, it does not take longer than that. And that’s for we have to schedule the inspection of the property, we want to make sure it’s compliant. And we want to do that right the first time. So once the property is approved, then the client applies. And then we get it get done. The fastest one I’ve seen done is about a week and a half. And that works from inspection application to inspection to a check in the email check ready to give in hand to move the person?
Unknown Speaker 22:55
Yeah, that’s a very reasonable timeframe. Okay. Absolutely. And we like to,
Peg 23:00
I’d like to add about the inspections. Because if I were a property manager or a homeowner, I would probably be a little bit a little bit wary of Oh, my goodness, what are they going to find in my property. And I guess where I stand for that is that perhaps you’ve had tenants for for years and have had different tenants in your property for years, you may not even be aware of what problems there are in that house. So having a fresh start with, with their inspection, which is is quite detailed from what I understand that that is the property management and the owners. Really good way to look at it is that you’re getting a really good set of fresh eyes on your property, so that you can address the problems that are there before they become big problems. So
Kim McClellan 23:58
yeah, that’s a great point. Yeah, that makes sense. Know what you’re dealing with having another set of eyes and inspection and have it done in a timely manner and get you know, get a tenant in the re.
Peg 24:09
That’s right. Yeah,
Kim McClellan 24:11
that’s great. Okay, and what about you how your programs work through my MLS, or
through mica as well as losing losing hope house I don’t want to make it seem like every because he’s only like, we just happen to have the only Raider for Miko right now we have a great partnership. So with those units, if a landlord has interest in renting to us, they will come to me or any of our other housing Okay, as me specifically I inspect the property myself. My leaders have given me a standard and a checklist that I go by. I also do visual inspections in reference to lead based paint and we’ll instruct if you know anything comes up in that manner. I work closely with my landlords so if I do see something, my process is a little bit different. So I have a checklist and Some things come up that don’t comply to our standards, we’ll have a conversation. I have tiny, it’ll be something simple like not enough smoke detectors or the windows don’t lock and they didn’t even know it. Like Pegg said, sometimes you just don’t even know you don’t know the house, you don’t live in it, you just own it. So I go through it, make sure that you know the filters, okay, make sure that everything is working order. I’m not looking for granite, stainless steel berber carpet. I’m not looking for HGTV perfect home, I’m looking for habitability. I’m looking for comfort, safety for our clients, um, their eyes, and they trust me and so do the agencies to make sure that we’re putting them in habitable and safe home.
Absolutely. Yeah, that makes sense. I think that that you know, resonates with our property managers too. They even though they don’t work for the tenant, they work for them when the landlord, but they do have a relationship with that tenant, they’re the ones often they’re going in and inspecting and, you know, doing the move in and move out inspections, and it’s getting the call from the tenants if there is something wrong. So they often you know, develop a relationship with those with those tenants. And a lot of times the owners are not, they’re not local, they don’t live here. So to know that there’s no yet another set of eyes and yours in that facility in that unit, you know, making sure that it’s a spam, check their investment. That’s That’s great.
Kim, I haven’t mentioned a very important part of our team. And I don’t think people talk about them enough. And it’s our housing navigators. We also call case managers, they’re not social workers, they are case managers, housing navigators. They walk beside me. And beside me the whole time, from the moment that we we locate an individual to I inspect the home, that we go and show the home to the client and meet the landlord. They’re not quite there without the client, so they kind of decline. That’s why I’m going to I really want to brag about him right now. Because I don’t think people talk about them enough. They are the ones who are holding hands. So when they first move in, and they have that five day inspection, you know, the five days to find something wrong, or they have five days to do it. A lot of people don’t even practice that or take advantage of that time because they don’t know how to. That’s why housing navigators come into. They help them with that they become the advocate, when they have questions that they feel that they should ask the landlord, the housing navigator comes in and says, Wait, let’s talk about what we’re going to ask him. See if we can answer that ourselves. See if Josie has that answer before we go and take that extra step truly teaching them not only how to be a good neighbor, a good tenant, but just to just understand the process itself. We we equip them with education. So utilities How do I turn the pilot on just t hose phone calls that you receive as a landlord that you’re just like me and I wish I wish their dad or Where’s their
realtors get those questions after people buy the house to
Josie 27:59
No kidding, I
Kim McClellan 28:00
remember we’re not all born knowing how to have
as homeowners we know the struggle. And these are these are renters and they haven’t rented in a long time. So our our house navigators are angels on wheels, man, they really come in, they help with the utilities. They make sure that if if nobody’s answered the phone at the door, and nobody neighbors have seen anybody come out, let’s have somebody go out there and check on them. That’s their, that’s their fiduciary obligation. That’s what they do. They make sure that our guests are okay, they make sure that no one that’s not on that leaves is staying in that home. I mean, they’ve got tricks to the trade that they’ve taught me, I’m talking about how many toothbrushes are in that bathroom. I know somebody’s smiling right now, that’s me that trick. And I couldn’t be successful, I couldn’t wear my my head on strong in this community. If it wasn’t for their work on the field, we wouldn’t be successful without them. So I really want to stress them to stress the fact that they are on board and they are part of this process.
Yeah, I think so. What’s really you know, been very strong for me over these years learning about your programs is that you’re not just signing a contract in a lease you are joining this community of those thrilly you know, doing great work and and really making a huge difference. So yes, there are huge advantages for landlords in terms of you know, very little downtime on the market. If you have a client that’s moving out. You don’t need to sit there and worry about getting you know getting the photos putting on the MLS doing all this you can say hey, Josie, okay, these are the hours you have a client for me and have very little downtime, which is huge. Right Time is money when you have absolutely, that’s a big deal for the landlord.
Absolutely. If I can keep some of your marketing budget down on advertising. If I do my job correctly as my leader is expected of me, you shouldn’t have to call me and tell me you have a free unit coming up. I should know and Even if you tell me no, this year, I just rented it out in June. And I’m gonna call you next year and say, Hey, I remember that when we talked about a year ago, we are that much in need of of inventory. So yeah, you’re right, please allow me to, you know, I
don’t want to take the the revenue away from the property managers. That’s not what I’m trying to do. We don’t run a property management company. But I definitely want to partner where there’s no vacancies. We have zero gap of tenants in there. But what a great thing to tell your owners, right? I’m I own this property, you know, somebody who’s managing it for me and be able to say, Hey, I have made a connection in this community, I have created a partnership with, you know, the mica and the other agencies to keep your unit rented to the maximum capacity that you can. And that’s the selling point. Yeah,
absolutely. Can I like to brag a little bit on if people will be like, why are you talking about that, but can you share your story, we had a tenant, a client, who we had housed. And unfortunately, the tenant was displaced, for legal reasons. And the home, in a regular situation, that landlord would have been, would have had to clean up the apartment, take all the things out, and make sure they hire crew to get all that stuff done. And the spec will take about a month. Well, our team jumped on board immediately. We not only made sure all personal things were taken care of and given to his family. But we went on, we went ahead also cleaned out the apartment, and thought and put another family in there. That did not cost the landlord not one penny. They did not have to clean out they did not have to paint. We made sure we took care of everything. And we handed them a new tenant without any gap of time. I like to think that’s a success story right there. Oh, absolutely. Because in doing COVID mentioned doing COVID, right, and I and that’s what we stand for. We not nobody gets left behind nobody, right? And when from a property management
perspective, when we think about evictions, they’re time consuming. They’re stressful for for all parties involved. But certainly, you know, for the tenants. One of the benefits, I think, with this program is that you can you work to actively avoid that outcome, you address those problems before you’re getting to the point where you’re three months behind on rent, and, you know, maybe sure you can handle terms in the lease, these are things that you can deal with upfront, those individuals have support. So if they do experience a life event, like a car breaking down or medical issue, you can help them before it becomes a problem. And before it becomes destabilizing for that tenant to That’s right. Moving around is does not provide a stable environment for anybody at all families and children and betrayals. It’s really a great benefit for both sides.
Absolutely. I mean, a lot of us are working from home, our neighbors our home more often. So we want to make sure we have good neighbors, and we’d like to be a part of that process.
So before we leave, I want to make sure that if people are interested in talking with you, even if it’s just having an introductory conversation, just say hey, I don’t know that I have any properties right now. But I know that I haven’t coming up in August and my homeowner is interested. How do they get in touch with you? What is the best way to find this information and to reach out to you?
Yes, ma’am. You can contact me via cell phone. My direct number is 540-760-3310 My email address is Josie as my first name j o s i e at do d o l o v e w a okay do love what that net and that’s my email address and also our we have stable homes. partnership that peg Can you help me Is it that org for that net? I apologize. That stable homes partnership that org We are under our program is under the continuum of care here in Fredericksburg. But best thing to do just call me. Let’s have a conversation. I’m asked me anything. I do come with references property managers, private landlords, and private owners and landlords, even apartment complex. We have a good reputation and we have a great team. So no question is a dumb question. So just give me a call. This is get started. I love coffee so we can have a conversation over coffee on zoom.
Yes, yes, I ran into Josie at Italian station. So I mean, that’s right there. Great though. Hey, Josie, this was great information, we will make sure that it’s out to our members. And we know that this is such a challenging time on the inventory side. And maybe if you know we’ve got some folks who have some homeowners who are interested in participating, we can just make that full landlord she’s a little bit bigger for you all to be able to reach him to.
Awesome. Thank you so much him and everyone have a blessed one.
Peg 35:07
Craig’s did a good job Josie.
Josie 35:10
Thank you.
MacKenzie Rathbun 35:12
Thanks for listening to this episode are far louder, find more resources at faarmembers.com
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Masks no longer required in the FAAR office
Per updated CDC and Commonwealth of Virginia guidance, FAAR will no longer be requiring masks for vaccinated individuals. Members are welcome to continue wearing a mask at their discretion. The FAAR staff is fully vaccinated and eager to see smiling faces again! All capacity and distancing requirements will sunset as of June 1. Please check out the FAAR calendar for great upcoming virtual and in-person events at www.faarmembers.com/calendar.
April Sees More Real Estate Market Acceleration
Despite rising interest rates and dwindling supply, the real estate market continued its acceleration with increasing total sold volume, median price, and units sold and decreasing days on market and available inventory. Total sold dollar volume was up over 35% in April of 2021 posting more than $288 million in sales compared to $213 million in April of 2020. Median price was up $20,000 from just last month, coming at $384,075, a more than 5% increase from just March. Units sold increased from last year by more than 121 units, coming in at 719 properties transacted compared to 598 in April of 2020, a more than 20% year-over-year increase.
“The housing market in Caroline County is rockin’ and rollin’ for the month of April,” stated FAAR Board of Director Lynn Lenahan. “Like our neighboring counties, existing homes are receiving multiple offers which means increasing prices and fewer demands by buyers in an effort to win the offer. In the past several years, Caroline hasn’t had a huge amount of new construction like our neighboring counties, but that’s not the case today. Even with the increased cost and demand for materials, new construction is happening in both the Bowling Green side of the County as well as the popular Ladysmith side with its proximity to I-95. With buyers struggling to win the offer while in competition with sometimes 10, 15 or 25 other offers, building sure begins to look attractive.”
Days on market, the time it takes from when a listing enters the market until it receives a ratified contract and is removed from active status on the multiple listing service, fell nearly 52% with houses averaging a scant 14 days on the market this April compared to the also very low 29 days last year. In practice, many homes are coming onto the market with sight-unseen offers already made so it is possible that days on market could appear artificially high without controlling for that phenomenon. A full 81% of homes on the market were sold in less than 10 days, demonstrating how quickly decisions need to be made in this market.
Not unexpectedly, inventory across the region remains at historic lows. In April of 2020, there were 1,220 homes on the market. In April of 2021, there were just 505 homes for sale, representing a nearly 59% year-over-year decline. However, new listings coming onto the market showed a sizeable increase from March, with 27% more new listings coming on the market this month compared to last month. In March, there were 944 new listings on the market compared to 1,197 in April. The 5-year average of new listings is 1,054 so the number posted for April is much more in line with historical trends than we have been seeing over the last year.
New pendings posted very strong numbers, indicating continued high buyer demand. In April, the market saw 1,395 new pending contracts compared to 1,135 in the month of March, representing a 23% month-over-month increase. Some agents have expressed a concern that anything other than a conventional or all-cash offer is not competitive right now, but the statistics indicate that VA and FHA loans remain a sizeable part of the market. In April of 2020, VA loans made up 29% of sales, FHA 20%, cash offers 5%, and conventional financing 36%. In April of this year, those numbers have shifted modestly with VA loans accounting for 24% of sales, FHA 17%, cash offers 8%, and conventional financing 43%. While VA and FHA loans are seeing a smaller market share, there are still many properties being purchased using those types of financing.
Apply for the 2022 Board of Directors
Would you like to be part of the decision making as FAAR moves into the post COVID-19 new normal?
Does a leadership role in FAAR interest you?
Are you ready to give back to the REALTOR® community?
-Pat Breme, CIPS, RCE
CEO
If you have answered yes to one or more of the questions than you might be interested in running for the 2022 FAAR Board of Directors. The Nominating Committee is accepting applications until June 4.
The Board is a hard-working body of 13 people who set policy for the entire association. The group meets monthly to ponder issues, solve problems and keep the association financially solvent by carefully managing funds and investments.
A new Director commented, “ I had no idea the Board did so much.” A lot of deliberation is given to each topic on the agenda. The reoccurring question asked? “Is this good for the membership?”
Affiliate Candidate
The members voted in 2017 to add an affiliate member position on the Board of Directors. Affiliate members are welcome to submit an application. The Affiliate Director has full voting rights, serves no longer than a two-year term and may not serve as an Officer. Affiliate members applying for consideration follow the same application and vetting process (interviewed by the Nominating Committee) as an agent member would follow in applying to run for the Board of Directors.
Affiliate applications are reviewed by the Nominating Committee and those persons who meet the basic requirements of service to the Association, exhibit leadership characteristics and a willingness to dedicate time and energy will be considered for an interview by the Committee. The Committee can recommend all the applicants, one or none, but not more than three may be placed on the ballot. The affiliate candidate getting the highest number of votes receives the position.
Application Below
Below is the application for a new director and the Leadership Code of Conduct forms. Return the completed forms to me at pbreme@faarmembers.com on or before June 4. Selected applicants will be notified of an interview time.
Questions?
Please contact me, Pat Breme via email at pbreme@faarmembers.com with questions you might have. View the contact information for the 2021 Leadership Team at faarmembers.com/leadership. Each would be happy to answer any questions you might have about serving.
The terms are either for 2 or 3 years. Is the Board a clique? Yes, if you define the word as a group of people with common interest. The common interest is YOU!
NAR Concerned About Tax Hikes in Biden’s Jobs Plan
From Realtor® Magazine…
President Joe Biden addressed a joint session of Congress for the first time Wednesday night to outline his American Families Plan, the second half of an ambitious infrastructure agenda focused on social programs that Biden would pay for with a host of tax increases.
NAR President Charlie Oppler sent a letter to the White House on Thursday outlining concerns with several tax provisions in the proposal and how they could affect the broader economy and access to affordable housing. Oppler pledged to work closely with the administration in the coming months, while NAR’s advocacy team is cautioning the road to passage is a long one.
“This is an opening bid by the administration. What could become law months from now will likely be very different,” said Shannon McGahn, NAR’s chief advocacy officer. “We will be actively engaged with lawmakers of both parties as this bill works its way through the legislative process, as we were with all of the major COVID-19 relief bills.
“Real estate makes up nearly one-fifth of the entire American economy, and we will continue to vigorously educate lawmakers about how these various tax policies could impact the market. Both residential and commercial real estate have very unique needs at the moment, and disruptive measures could have far-reaching consequences for access to homeownership,” McGahn continued.
The first half of President Biden’s agenda-dubbed the American Jobs Plan-was released at the end of March and focuses on traditional infrastructure spending. Oppler thanked the president “for emphasizing housing availability and broadband internet access” in the first proposal and said he “looked forward to working with Congress and the administration to ensure these proposals are funded responsibly.”
Virginia’s Commercial Real Estate Market Resilient Amid COVID-19
From the Virginia Realtors®…
Richmond, VA – According to the Q1 2021 Commercial Market Report released by Virginia REALTORS®, the commercial real estate market in Virginia has been surprisingly resilient, despite concerns about a serious downturn as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Virginia’s office market has seen a modest rise in vacancy rates. Office rents have risen or remained stable in most markets across the state, and mid-sized and suburban markets have been performing best. In the 1st quarter, the fastest rent growth occurred in Charlottesville and Roanoke.
One key reason behind the resiliency of Virginia’s office market is growth in several key office-supporting sectors. Virginia REALTORS® Chief Economist Lisa Sturtevant, PhD, says, “In the commonwealth, the economy has gained back all of the jobs that were lost in the important Professional & Technical Services sector. In addition, the Finance & Insurance sector has remained steady throughout the past year.”
The impact of COVID-19 on Virginia’s retail market has not been as severe as expected. Despite early predictions, there has been no major fleeing from retail spaces in many Virginia markets. While retail vacancy rates have increased over the past year in Virginia, vacancy has remained fairly low—under 6%—in all markets across the state. Retail rents have declined modestly in Northern Virginia and Richmond, though there has been rent growth in some smaller markets, including Hampton Roads and Roanoke.
Industrial real estate has outperformed all other property sectors, benefiting from the pandemic’s fallout, rather than being set back by it. Growth in e-commerce sales has been a key driver of the strong demand for industrial space, particularly warehousing and fulfillment centers.
Virginia REALTORS® publishes quarterly reports on the commercial real estate market. These reports summarize trends in the office, retail, and industrial markets in nine regions across the state, and provide an outlook for future commercial market conditions. Click here to view the full Q1 2021 Commercial Market Report.
Press Releases
A Statement from the 2020 FAAR President and FAAR CEO
REALTORS® are passionate about helping people find a home. A safe place free from discrimination, fear, and pain. As we become more accepting of our differences, FAAR is committed to supporting our members and the community by renewing its focus on promoting Fair...
Local Real Estate Market Surges Despite Significant Restrictions
While continued governmental restrictions shutter businesses and completely change the way Americans operate in their day-to-day lives, the local real estate market bucked national trends and posted increases in volume, sold price, and units sold. While national news...
FAAR Releases 2020 1st Quarter Home Sales Report
How things have changed from January and February! COVID-19 crashed into our market in mid-March and virtually ground life as we know it to a halt, so how did that impact the local real estate industry? The first quarter of 2020 was strong, with increasing volume...
FAAR Endorses Mary Katherine Greenlaw for Mayor
The Fredericksburg Area Association of REALTORS® (FAAR) announces its endorsement of Mary Katherine Greenlaw for Mayor of the City of Fredericksburg. The general election was scheduled to take place on Tuesday, May 5, 2020 and also includes seats for At-Large City...