From the Fauquier Times-Democrat:
"County Administrator Paul McCulla’s fiscal 2009 spending plan calls for a 17-cent real estate tax rate hike.(In case you were wondering "where is that?"):
If Fauquier’s board of supervisors approve McCulla’s $233.4 budget proposal, the tax bill for homeowners would jump 26 percent.
The commissioner of revenue put the value of a "typical" Fauquier home at $417,000.
At the existing real estate tax rate of 64.5 cents per $100 assessed value, such homeowners pay the county $2,689.
Under McCulla’s proposed 81.5-cent rate, they would pay $708 more in real estate taxes, or a total of $3,398."
26 comments:
Couple new listings today:
10110 LOMOND DR
MANASSAS, VA 20109
asking $165,000
last sale $399,900 (09/25/2006)
9604 LAURENCEKIRK PL
BRISTOW, VA 20136
Price: $399,000
last sale $704,790 (05/02/2006)
And one crazy culdesac in Bristow:
10048 THREE SISTERS CT
BRISTOW, VA 20136
asking $499,000
asking price history:
Sep 10, 2007 $625,000
Dec 07, 2007 $570,000
Feb 29, 2008 $499,900
last sale: Aug 04, 2003 $487,800
bank takeover last summer?
10044 THREE SISTERS CT
BRISTOW, VA 20136
asking $539,000
last Sale: $670,000 08/10/2005
10043 THREE SISTERS CT
BRISTOW, VA 20136
asking $695,000
last sale: $518,026 10/17/2003
Tax increase combined with today's oil prices?!? What are they thinking with raising taxes? We have huge import inflation occurring.
Anyone know why the after the market FHA announcement? Why only CA? Ok, I know why as in "the market is stalled without a new loan source." But why after the market closes on a Wednesday days before the normal seasonal minimum inventory. Oh wait... inventory looks to be going up this year after a trivial dip on the 2nd/3rd.
Tabitha,
I'm being lazy. Are there any details on that crazy culdasac? Views, size of homes, etc. Obviously three homes for sale on one street kills the chance of getting that one last sucker.
Got Popcorn?
Neil
Tabitha,
Makes one think -
10043 THREE SISTERS $695,000
says "Best deal in town!"
Meanwhile,
10048 THREE SISTERS $499,900
has a bigger lot, is bank-owned, vacant, and looks fine inside from the pictures. But, it's definitely not as upgraded as the $695K. Still, over time that could be done.
Meanwhile, these same two "NV Homes" models are for sale in Warrenton in the mid 600's. (Been sitting there for over 2 years, now).
There has been mention of building supplies and their costs on the blog. My oldest daughter is the accounting manager for a division of one of Atlanta's high-end residential $1M + developers( $1M + in Atlanta gets you about 50% more in quality at 30% to 40% less in price). The company has been in business for about 40 years.
She monitors the costs of building supplies: lumber, brick, moulding, hardwood flooring, roof trusses and etc. She called today and said that because there is so little demand, the prices for the building products has plummeted. Their current housing starts are actually being constructed with better quality products than before because the prices are so cheap. Of course they have gone from 60 housing starts a month to 8. Wow.
Though her employer did finance many of loans, she says he didn't sell the mortgages and never offered creative deals to get anyone in. The communities were exclusive and he (being the snob he is) wanted to keep the "haves" separated from the "have nots."
What will happen to these all brick homes with the floating staircases? Kitchens with Viking ovens, commericial gas burners and Sub-Zero frigs? Some have Italian marble flooring in the foyers and kitchens. These places can sit empty for how long? Who wants them? Who cares? Many of these "exclusive houses" have been for sale from 5 to 18 months. Site agents tell her business is awful. The phone doesn't even ring anymore.
Sadly 50% of the company's builders have been let go. So far she still has her job, but she has started to look elsewhere. The company has gone from 3,000 employees to 1900 in 3 months. In all our phone conversations and during my visit at Christmas, she never mentioned there were any problems. I guess maybe she feared she would be in the 1st wave of layoffs and didn't want to tell me.
Tonight I helped her with her resume via email.
Hi Neil,
I know the culdesac well, because there is a house a couple culdesacs over that we have been contemplating for a long time. They're just your nice, tidy big home subdivision-type houses. The least expensive one does not have a finished basement, but it does have a finished attic, while the other two don't have attics. So that one could actually be the biggest, once the basement was finished--6000sqft versus about 4000sqft.
There was another "three houses on one culdesac" situation in a different Bristow subdivision. Two of the three went under contract recently. I am very interested to learn what they went for...they were all asking just over $500K, and they had all previously sold for the mid-$700s.
In both of these subdivisions, there is a LOT to choose from, for wildly different prices. By Three Sisters, two 4-story houses whose backyards touch are at $504,000 and (recently) $649,000 (down from $699,000). Cheaper one's a foreclosure with a basement that needs carpet to be finished, but it's on a culdesac. More expensive one is super-upgraded, to be sure, but it's on a busy road. Take your pick...
Harriet:
I think I see a direct correlation between wildly overpriced listings and their assurances that they are "the best deals in town"...
A few points:
Our agent called this morning to say that the "short sale" seller ended up signing everything and wants to send it off to the bank after all. Question: since we officially withdrew our offer Monday, what status does our offer have, now that they signed off on it anyway?
Of course, now that they've done that, I'm a nervous wreck, thinking it must be a bad idea...
2) Didn't someone say a while back that houses with land were impossible to find at decent prices in PWC?
11117 STAINSBY CT
BRISTOW, VA 20136
List Price: $489,900
Beds: 5
Baths: 3.5
Sq. Ft.: 3,502
Lot Size: 10.49 acres
Granted, the basement apparently has water damage, but still...
9901 MOOR GREEN DR
MANASSAS, VA 20112
Price: $469,900
Beds: 5
Baths: 3
Sq. Ft.: 3,079
$/Sq. Ft.: $153
Lot Size: 6.49 Acres
Right by the Manassas Airport, but hey, that's close to the VRE...
3) The Manassas Journal Messenger had a front page story today about city vacancies that contains--I think--a wild inaccuracy. After saying that one small townhouse neighborhood, Georgetown South, has 171 vacant properties, it said "there are approximately 248 foreclosed homes in the city." According to RealtyTrac, there are 283 preforeclosure, 605 auction, and 732 bank-owned houses in zip code 20110, which is Manassas City's zip. Perhaps the actual city boundary is not for the entire zip code? If so, that is still disingenuous.
And there was a front page story yesterday about home assessments going down 18.5%, which is close to the 20% I guessed. Townhouses, 20.7%, condos 14.4%. In 2007, residential property assessments dropped 4.3%, and in 2006, they rose 34.4%.
Tabitha-
I think the short sales deal is dead since you officially withdrew it.
I would come back at them with a LOWER offer, that is if you all even want to mess with it again at this point.
BUT - I would sure do it for LESS since they fiddle-farted with you.
Just my 2 cents
Spunky
Tabitha,
When you say "officially" withdrew the offer, what do you mean? For the recession to have been official, it would have had to have been in writing. Did your agent write up something for you that they then delivered to the sellers' agent?
Alternatively, if the sellers came back with any change to what you offered, that is considered a counter-offer and the ball is back in your court to "accept" or "not accept" the new offer.
If you told your agent you wanted to withdraw and they didn't prepare the paperwork to do it officially, then you might have action against the agent. But you would still be "officially" bound by the unconditional acceptance of your offer. (I say "officially" because your agent would probably wisely find a way to get you out of this if you let it be known that you would hold them responsible for not having officially withdrawn the offer upon your instructions.)
btw, that was supposed to be "rescission" and not "recession". Sometimes spell check is not your friend!
Lance, I think she meant that the contract offer had a deadline.
Just guessing though.
"Lance, I think she meant that the contract offer had a deadline. "
yes, most RE Contracts are dated & have expirations
Typical - increase taxes 26% for home owners instead of just REIGNING IN SPENDING. Just one more reason to rent until prices get back to normal.
What is the justification for raising the tax rate and what do they plan to do with the money? If I was a tax payer in that county, I would want them to explain it to me. I take the attitude if they tax me, take the money, then they answer to me and the rest of the tax payers...
"Lance, I think she meant that the contract offer had a deadline. "
"yes, most RE Contracts are dated & have expirations"
That probably is true, but even if the deadline had yet to come up - Lance is still pretty much on the money with his analysis. Even pre deadline, an offer submitted by the buyer may be withdrawn prior to the seller's acceptance.
From Tabitha on another thread written on 3/3/08 about the Short Sale:
The owners came back and said they wanted the full asking price, no concessions. We said our offer stood til today. Today, they still said "full price," so our offer was withdrawn.
Tabitha - I just looked back to your earlier entires and found this:
"So we made an offer on a house advertised as a legit short sale. Our offer was 10% less than asking, and we were petrified that we were offering too much. The owners came back and said they wanted the full asking price, no concessions. We said our offer stood til today. Today, they still said "full price," so our offer was withdrawn.
Only wrinkle: their agent asked our agent if we minded if he sat down with them tomorrow and tried to explain again how bad their foreclosure would be for them (it is imminent), and how letting the bank see our offer does not mean it will be accepted, but does mean they get a little more time before the foreclosure is a done deal. Since we have no other offer we want to make this moment, we said OK."
If this is correct, an argument (not necessarily a good argument but an argument) could be made that by telling Seller's agent it was "OK" for him to plead with his clients to reconsider, your offer was not withdrawn.
At the same time, the documents they signed could have contained a deadline that has now passed in which case its validity is in question. Also, it is important how much of this was in writing or not, as agents do not always do a good job with documenting where things stand.
That said, there is "legality" and there is "reality". Since so much of this is factual, and (absent writing) depends upon peoples recollections of what was said, and when it was said there is certainly the possibility for misunderstanding here.
Given that you know the signed contract is on its way to the bank, I think it would be wise to quickly determine if you want the bank to consider this offer or not - and then have your agent communcate this to the sellers in WRITING.
In my experience, so much of what drives arguments is party expectations. Right now, the sellers "believe" that if the bank
accepts their offer, you will buy the house. If you want to maintain that perception, then go ahead. However, if you do not, it is probably a good idea to nip this in the bud now, rather than allow them to continue to keep thinking this for the weeks to come.
Yes they may be mad at you, but think of how much more mad (and possibly willing to litigate) they will be if weeks from now the bank has accepted, and then you tell them - too late our offer was withdrawn.
Thank you so much for the astute analysis, my blog friends.
I suppose the best person to answer these questions is our agent, who I will be talking to tonight--he is at a settlement this afternoon.
The offer is not on its way to the bank yet. He said we need to sit down with the paperwork again and sign/initial it again--and that we need to comb it over to make sure everything in our initial offer still stands. Since he was driving when we talked, I did not want to pester him for further details.
I grabbed a babysitter so we can go out tonight and sit down and talk this over one last time. According to what I have read about short sales (special thanks to Frank), it is still unlikely that this is going to be approved by the bank (especially with the seller's concessions we wrote in). And we wrote two addendums to our initial offer: first, we can withdraw at any time if we have not heard from the bank, and second, there is a "drop dead" expiration date to the offer in the first week of April. So even if we go forward, there is still some wriggle room...besides the inspection contingency, the HOA contingency, etc. etc.
The decision I see before me right now is not so much the particulars of this offer, but whether we want to buy now at all. I hate to let our agent down by not buying anything for the moment, but that is the most important decision of all.
But thanks for helping me see the subtleties of the nature of the offer as it stands now. I will be absolutely sure to understand what our obligations are before we let the offer continue to the bank.
And I'll keep y'all posted!
harriett, while some may find this tabitha debacle exciting, i find it frustrating. she has like two blogs, cant she conduct her business there? yes it is housing related, but never related to the articles you cite. perhaps she should have her own post on here and everyone that cares about it can comment there?
gt,
I personally really like to hear stories about what's happening in our local market. It's also instructional for some to hear about the nuances of real estate transactions.
I can understand about the format of the blog, though, and how it can be tedious to wade through off-topic posts. I propose to steal shamelessly Ben's HBB idea, and every day I'll post a "Northern Virginia Bits Bucket" for those (including myself) who wish to post about their local house searches, local MLS finds, and off-topic ideas.
[blushing violently]
Please forgive me for my blog etiquette transgressions. I look forward to containing myself in Harriet's brilliant new format.
One last violation, before I bow out: talked to our agent, the seller changed some of the provisions, so it is now an official counter we need to mull over...all further saga details will be found in the special "miscellaneous" posts.
Spunky/CRT,
Real estate offers and acceptance must be in writing. Verbal communications (for example the ones you quoted) can be used for intentions, but they don't count as far as determining if an offer is made, countered, or accepted.
"Real estate offers and acceptance must be in writing. Verbal communications (for example the ones you quoted) can be used for intentions, but they don't count as far as determining if an offer is made, countered, or accepted."
Ahh yes - I forgot about the ole statute of frauds. Good pick up Lance!
Tabitha - Lance is right, the written word is all that counts for any contract involving the sale of land.
Duh Lance-
EVERYONE knows that verbal RE negotiations are totally worthless.
According to the Statute of Frauds, Real Estate sales agreements must be in writing to be valid.
spunky, you obviously didn't before you read my post ...
spunky said...
From Tabitha on another thread written on 3/3/08 about the Short Sale:
The owners came back and said they wanted the full asking price, no concessions. We said our offer stood til today. Today, they still said "full price," so our offer was withdrawn.
i.e., said is not "in writing".
Take your time when you begin looking. Your real estate agent can make appointments for showings and you can browse through the ones you choose. A good activity to do while you look is to make notes.
bristow homes for sale
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