Month: April 2008

Way back when the 21st century was young and the president was just a horse’s ass instead of a deceptive, calculating horse’s ass, I worked for a Realtor in Bethesda, Maryland—one of the top-selling Realtors in the nation, she’d have you know. And the first thing she did when she got yet another multi-million-dollar listing was send a professional photographer to spend an hour taking exterior and interior photos of the house.

When this particular Realtor landed a run-of-the-mill, three-quarters-of-a million listing, she sent me.

Sense something’s not quite right? In a transaction as big as a house sale, you should pay attention to those worrisome signs.

Granted, she was one of the best at what she did, and those six-figure houses sold just as well and as rapidly as the multimillion houses. This was, after all, 2001 in suburban Washington, D.C. The market was awhirl. But I should have been a walking red flag to those sellers that my boss wasn’t going to devote the time nor treasure to selling their houses as she was to those of her upper-tier clients.

Red flags in buying and selling homes aren’t necessarily deal-breakers, but they should get your attention. A soft market can tempt unscrupulous Realtors and lenders to cut corners or push deals. Here are things to watch for so you don’t get burned.

In both buying and selling, a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) is essential. This is a look at houses that are currently listed and have been recently sold, among other data, which Realtors pull from the MLS system. If you are selling your house and interviewing Realtors (you should interview them like a job applicant, not pick the one with the best headshot) and he or she doesn’t bring a CMA, that should be a red flag. Either that Realtor is not on top of his or her game, or they’re time-pressed and sloppy.

If you’re buying, the CMA should be a starting point to look at the local market. Don’t be pushed around or hurried by a Realtor. Make sure they understand exactly what you’re looking for and how flexible your price range is. If the Realtor feels overtly aggressive while you’re discussing these things, or if she or he doesn’t seem to listen, that should raise a red flag. Communication is key.

If you’re selling, your interviews with Realtors should be thorough. At what price will different Realtors list your house? Why? If a Realtor tells you he or she can sell your house for what sounds like an outlandish price (and doesn’t have the CMA to back it up), that should raise a flag. You want the hard truth, not an agent who’s willing to tell you what you want to hear to get your business.

Here’s a quick list of other red flags. They may seem obvious, but people keep ignoring them.

—Seller says there’s no need for a home inspection: New or resale, you need a home inspection before you close. If your Realtor disagrees, that’s red flag number two.

—Dual agency: When one agent represents both the buyer and seller, he or she can’t look out for both interests. Local real estate blogger Jim Duncan (realcentralva.com) is critical of dual agency. Listen to him.

—Realtor acting as loan originator: A California couple is suing their agent, who was also their mortgage broker, for selling them a house at an inflated price. Yup, sounds about right.

Individually, a red flag isn’t a reason to torpedo a deal or end a business relationship. But it’s a reason to ask a few questions, maybe toughen up your stance. A bundle of red flags, well, that’s something different altogether.

Sometime in the mid-19th century, a small village in southern Albemarle County known as Mount Israel took its official name from a leading resident, Roland Bates. By then, the town was already bustling due to its place alongside the commercial thoroughfare that stretched from Staunton to Scottsville. It was called Plank Road because the lush valley at the foot of the Blue Ridge necessitated the laying down of actual wooden planks to cover the mud.

“Batesville had the reputation that rough folks lived here,” John Pollock says. With grayed hair and the slight visage of Pierce Brosnan, the 60-year-old sports car restorer is the unofficial mayor of the town he moved to 16 years ago, after the roughs had left. 

Batesville is a true community, say residents, who have brought their village rather gently into the 21st century.

“Batesville has a really good feeling, and a kind of spirit that people like,” he says. To hear the mayor and its residents speak, the town on the National Historic Register is a serene spot located not in the outskirts of the county but somewhere in the ethereal hollows of the mind.

Minding the store

“Batesville is a very cool and unusual community, and it is a community,” says Cid Scallet, one of the purveyors of The Batesville Store. He is eating a delicious roast beef, cheddar, and potato salad sandwich prepared in the deli by his wife, Liza, “a world class baker.” By 1884, there were corn and flour mills in the tiny town, not to mention four general stores, including this one. Started by a family named Josephs, the store was purchased by the Page family in 1913 and owned by them for 90 years. Now it is run by the Scallets.

“On any given day you don’t know who’s going to come in,” Cid says. At the counter behind us is a world-renowned National Geographic photographer, surfing the web on the store’s free wi-fi. “We like to say we’re the urban core of Batesville.”

In 1994, Batesville almost lost its commercial center when the Pages decided to shut down. The post office that shares the building remained open, but the small grocery went dark for nearly three years until Pollock and some other residents decided to open a Christmas craft store in its place. Anything to keep it alive.  

Ten years after shutting it down, the Pages finally sold the store to a local resident, who leased it last April to the Scallets, former teachers and Batesville residents since 1986. “We just went for it,” Cid says. “We could do whatever the hell we wanted as long as it was for the community.”

The town has gradually become largely a place to retire rather than to work.

Where grocery shelves once sat is a rustic meeting space with wooden tables. One is for playing chess. The deli sits catty-corner from there, its shelves holding all sorts of delicacies. “For the most part, our business is with people who live five miles from here,” says Cid. One of those is Pollock, who lives four houses down from the country store in a two-story white house with a tin roof that dates from the early 20th century. The wooden floors and molding around the doors are all original but a room that perches 40′ from a running stream behind is not. Pollock and his wife added that as a sitting room to look out on the pasture and hills that stretch out from his idyllic spot. 

Changing faces   

Across the road is the old Methodist Church, built in 1861, and still put to use every Sunday, unlike the Odd Fellows Lodge that used to be where the church parking lot is now. “I seen a man get cut right there, yes-sir-ree,” Danny Mawyer says. A longtime carpenter at UVA, the 66-year-old Mawyer moved to Batesville when he was only 11. He was just a little kid when he saw the fight at the lodge, and he was only in his teens when it shut down. For the last 25 years he has lived in a 100-year-old, one-story house only yards away from that violent spot.

After all these years, the town where he raised his son has not changed much, except for the people who live here. All of the mills shut down years ago and many of the old-timers have either died or moved on. “The community used to be a lot closer, because when I was a kid you could walk up the street and everybody knew you,” says his son, who is now 37.

Now, when he hikes up to the store or to check the mail, he knows hardly anyone. The same goes for Violet Mawyer (no relation), the 84-year-old owner and operator of The Little Market two miles up Plank Road. In 1967, she and her husband bought the little country store. Less than a year later, her husband dropped dead and she was left with a son and a store to run. “The customers took us under their wing and helped us out,” she says.

As Batesville and the surrounding area have transformed from a work town to a place to retire, her clientele has changed, but in surprising ways. In the last two years she has been robbed twice but remains undaunted. Time is her only enemy. “What’ll happen to [the store] when I retire—I have no idea,” says Mawyer.

Perhaps it should become a museum dedicated to the little country store, circa 1980. “One time I started to do some changes and a customer said no, leave it like it is,” Mawyer says. Flints and bullets are still for sale in here. The beer looks fresh, although the sausage biscuit on the counter does not. “And I said, well, if that’s the way you want it, that’s the way it’ll stay. So that’s the way it stayed.”

At a glance

Distance from Charlottesville: 16 miles

Elementary School: Brownsville

Middle School: Henley

High School: Western Albemarle

Average list price of homes on market: $306,333

Average sale price over last two years: $486,100

Important days: Batesville Day on third Saturday of May; Apple Butter Day on third Saturday of October

Sources: Multiple Listing Service, Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors

Last time we took a good look at the ecoMOD house in Fifeville, it had yet to be transformed into the high-concept dwelling designed and built by a team of UVA students. Back then, it was a ramshackle mid-19th-century home that had narrowly escaped demolition. So when it caught our eye this time—looking urban and spit-polished—we didn’t recognize it at first. In this month of thinking green, it’s a welcome reminder that the neglected but worthy can be gracefully incorporated into what’s cutting-edge—sustainable, indeed.