The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Jimmy Eavers & Gunner Cook Joined Keith Smith & Jerry Miller On "Real Talk With Keith Smith!"

Episode Date: February 20, 2026

Jimmy Eavers, General Sales Manager at Stanley Martin Homes, and Gunner Cook, Neighborhood Sales Manager at Stanley Martin Homes, joined Keith Smith of YES Realty Partners and Jerry Miller were on “Real Talk With Keith Smith” powered by YES Realty Partners and Yonna Smith! “Real Talk” airs every Friday from 10:15 am – 11 am on The I Love CVille Network! “Real Talk With Keith Smith” is presented by El Mariachi Mexican Bar & Grill, Fincham & Associates, Inc., Free Enterprise Forum, Intrastate Service Co, Mejicali, Ralston Law Group, The Scott Morris Team at Envoy Mortgage and YES Realty Partners.

So we're supposed to listen to them. Good Friday morning, guys. My name is Jerry Miller, and thank you kindly for joining us on Real Talk with Keith Smith. It's an absolute pleasure to connect with you guys through the I Love Seville Network on a show presented by Yes, Realty Partners, a name you can trust in real estate, a name that's been in the game since 1987. Yes, Realty Partners, a firm created by Keith and Yonah Smith, who are easily, easily accessible and always looking forward to connecting with. you and this buying and selling process we call real estate. Today's program is a good one. Judah Wickhauer is behind the camera.

He's the director and the producer, and we have a full panel on set today. Jimmy Evers is in the house. He is a known commodity in real estate, the general sales manager at Stanley Martin Holmes. Gunner Cook is in the house, the neighborhood sales manager at Stanley Martin Holmes. And if you want some insight on what's happening, new construction-wise in Charlottesville, in Almorel, in Central Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley, heck, Stanley Martin's footprint is extremely large. These guys have the barometer

or the benchmark for new construction at Stanley Martin. We encourage you, the viewer and listener, to join us in the conversation, shape the show, offer some perspective like the show. I will relay your comments live on air today.

Judah Wickham is behind the camera. My friend, if you can go to the studio camera, and then welcome our star, the Distinguished the Dapper, Keith Smith, my friend. Wow. I always have to follow that up with something witty, but generally. When he said Star, you looked back, and I was like, I'm pretty sure you're talking about

Kutner. I like Gunther. Well, so there goes my intro. He's funny. You mentioned he was witty. I told you. I gave you heads up. You know, I need to look in the dictionary what that actually meant.

Apparently it's his picture in the dictionary. Can I highlight something about Gunner Cook over here? The guy at one time Since when did I have any control Over it? This is an R.E. Lee graduate. This is a Liberty graduate. This is JMU MBA.

Yeah. Can I have one more thing. I'm going to brag on you here. This guy has the three point shots made for a single game record at R.E. Lee. Perhaps it's still standing. And the all-time three-pointers made in a career at R.A. Lee.

If it's still standing. If it's still standing. Is that R.E. Lee? It was. Yeah. He graduated 2016. Yeah. Wow.

So played for Jared Hatcher over there and had some good seasons for sure. So a program with a lot of storied history. He was talking about at UVA, he covered some of those really good teams. Yeah? So I was a bit intimidated about this panel, to be honest with you. And I don't intimidate too easily, but for a gentleman, the city that has an NBA, that means something, right? And you got that from JMU, right?

I did, yeah. So what do they say, bleed purple? live gold or something like that. I should know after that, but yeah, something like that. Well, I've invested in JMU's growth over the years with our youngest daughter. But anyway, let me do my intro, and then we'll do your intro, and we'll kind of get back on schedule a little bit here, or not. It's okay. This is month I've been focusing on new construction.

For those who don't know my background, I've been in the business forever, I'm a recovering developer and builder. So new construction kind of runs in my veins for the last 40 years. So I'm excited about this conversation. When we get into a little bit longer, deeper into the conversation, I really want to pick Green County apart

because we've been predicting this for a while and it's starting to actually happen that Green County is the pretty much the rock star in new construction as far as the number of units and so forth and so on. But I'm excited about this. I'm going to do a little thank you out to you guys. I'm going to put my hat on as the chair of the Piedmont Community Land Trust.

You guys helped us with three units at Colonial Circle. You showed up. You guys made it happen. These are extremely complicated transactions that get across. You stuck with us side by side. So I just wanted to publicly say thank you to you guys, and particularly you, because I know you were in the back kind of steering this and making sure that this was happened. And so I just wanted to look at you and thank you for doing that.

We appreciate your partnership for sure. We wouldn't have been able to do it without you, obviously. Well, that's what I was looking for you to say. Yeah, you guys working with us side by side is kind of what made it successful. Why don't we take an opportunity to have Jimmy and Gunner introduce themselves to the viewers and listeners that are watching the show? Jimmy, you got a lot of people watching. The show is yours. Yeah, I think you did a great intro for us both, but I'll take it from there.

I'm Jimmy Evers, General Sales Manager for Stanley Martin and Charlottesville. I grew up in the Waynesbury area, actually, so I'm local to the Charlottesville-Hersonburg-Wainsbury area. Been in real estate for the past five years. Been in sales for a long time, seven to eight years as of this year. Our goal at Stanley Martin, obviously, and Gunner and I was going, everybody on our team, and at Stanley Martin is just to provide a well-built house at a price that, you know, the general public can afford. That has a good mindset about their purchase, right? So that's what we look forward to doing every day.

That's what we're passionate about. And that's ultimately why we're here to talk through real estate and Stanley Martin and all the good stuff about Charlottesville. Connor, my friend. Yeah, so I'm standing born and raised. I actually live out in, my parents live in Swoke, Virginia, but Staden area. So have a lot of affinity for Stadden.

I think that's one of the best towns in Virginia, Charlottesville as well. Might kind of steal the do I love Stadden thing if I ever get around to it. But like he said, some of our builds, we're talking about, hey, this is a great investment, and that really is what it is. And when I talk to people that are my age, it's an investment. Certain things aren't meant to be your dream home. This is a stepping stone.

So when people come to us looking for information, oftentimes they get a lot of affirmation of, hey, this is a good choice. And sometimes it isn't. Sometimes it is. A lot of times it is. And that's our job to kind of help people decipher that when they come see us. Absolutely. So Stanton, as these things usually go, was on my radar yesterday.

I'm helping a couple of young first-time homebuyers in this $250,000 to $300,000 range. And that's where the market is, right? Unfortunately, you know, if they're working in Charlottesville, it's a bit of a drive. Yeah. To go over there. But Stanton's a cool little town, right? It's got a really awesome downtown vibe and is kind of making a shift a little bit. And you're starting to see, you know, the Stanley Martins and the builders starting to

grow there. I know I wanted to talk a little bit about Green County, but since you brought up Stanton, so, you know, that's kind of your back door. Tell me what's going on in Stanton and how you see the market moving there. I think you nailed the price point, and a lot of that has to do with what are the monthly payments right now, and I think for a lot of people, that makes a whole lot of sense. And I'm a big proponent of, hey, if you can stay under budget, do it. So I think that's a good way of, hey, you know, take that extra money, put it in the 401k, do all that stuff, and see this as an investment as well. if they're looking in that 250, 300 range, potentially be a great rental, build equity. But yeah, that stand in market is kind of, we talked about if we ever went over there, if and when we do, I think it would do really, really well with the Valley. That whole corridor is exploding, that whole Waynesboro through Stanton, through Stanton to Harrisonburg.

I know we want to talk to car footprint, but you're going to start seeing a lot of growth if you already see it happen. manufacturing, like Storrs. Draft, Virginia, that Waynesboro State and area, like all the jobs that are provided there, like Northrop Grumman is moving over there. So when you have that, you've got people looking for homes that can afford the homes. And like he said, you know, we're trying to build homes that people like and can afford. I like the approach, you know, most people buy homes by the monthly payment. Yeah.

Not necessarily by that. I'll tell you a little thing about quick before we pivot on that side of the hill. The buyer profile is me. So I'm the boomer at the table, guys. So I'm the old dude. But you're starting to see that grow a little bit there because the intersection of 64 and 81 and some of the medical availability is down there to go and do this. So what do we got going on in our local region?

What does the local real estate agents? What does the local market need to know what Stanley Martin's got cooking right now? Yeah, I think it just needs to know kind of what's already out. there, right? Our neighborhoods that are currently out selling what we're focused on, and we've touched on that a little bit already. But, you know, as far as we are concerned at Charlottesville and Stanley Martin, you know, we are trying to hit the nail on the head with what we currently have going. So that's, you know, our neighborhoods in Croix, our neighborhoods out in Green County that you were going to touch on. Neighborhood out in Fluvanna County. And then, like any other

builder, we're just looking for land wherever, whenever. And I think that's the hot commodity right now, right as land. Well, one of the things of what Stanley Martin does better than most is the fact that you do both sides of the house, right? You do the acquisition and development and then you do the building. Most national builders don't do that. Yeah, they outsource it. So talk a little bit about that, that process. Yeah, I mean, that separates us a lot, right? When we talk about competitive advantage between builders, that's one major thing we have control over. When we go and to develop our neighborhoods. You know, when a builder, you know,

there's nothing wrong with outsourcing, obviously, but when you outsource it, you have less control over costs, less control over say what goes into the neighborhood. And it could create a layover and kind of what we've been seeing in some other neighborhoods of different phases and sections. So for us to be able to control the cost, the narrative on the land side, to be able to have that direct input, and then also not have any layover for our next phase, right,

to be able to offer those, homes at a great value to our customers consistently over the board. That's one thing that definitely sets us apart. So back in the prehistoric ages when I was doing development and building, that's what I did. I acquired. I created my lot inventory and then we built very different product type and different era at the time to go ahead and do that. But the beautiful thing about what you guys do from a corporate perspective is you get to control your inventory and lot inventory is what makes the difference. Got to talk to me a little bit about Pleasant Green

and what you're doing in Crozay. That's a pretty hot market and tell me how that process is going and how you guys are doing over there. Yeah, so Crozay is definitely a lifestyle. You know, when you can walk everywhere, I enjoy walking over through old trail to downtown after work when the weather's a little better.

But yeah, that's more of our core product. And then some of our Fluvana County community and our Green County community is our essence line. What that is, is you've got the fingerprint of a great builder, but kind of that price point in mind. So I'm selling more of our core product.

We have one single family left. So if you're listening and want a single family, comment below or whatever. We've got one to go. Schedule showing. But Prozay really... All me, and I'll be more than happy. There we go.

We're plugging here. We're plug in. Yeah, so we've got kind of a variety for everyone across our three communities, not only geographically, but as far as the products that we offer. So, all kidding, so I call the trusted advisor, you're a real estate agent that you prefer to work with and get on it. I've personally sold three or four units in Pleasant Green, so it's a great little community. He's got Taylor Monk Foo Fix, giving them props, Jacob Puffin Barger given on props.

G.W. Is it Lassie? Yes, that was my high school baseball coach. Giving you some props right now. Matt Nees who's in the game is given some props. We got brokers and agents watching from, let's see, Real Estate 3 from Yes, we're already partners, from NEST watching the program, from Logan Foster. We got brokers and agents at Loring Woodruff watching the program right now.

We got folks at Howard Hanna watching the program right now. The feed is popping right now, gentlemen. I'd love to highlight what is next, or give us the transition of what happens when you close out or sell out a community. What happens next? Yeah, I would not touch on that. Really, we are always looking for the next project, right? I kind of touched on that earlier where land's a hot commodity right now and every builder

searching for land. Previous to us closing out, we're really focused on, you know, one, the main goal is closing that neighborhood out, offering those affordable floor plans, making sure that we, before we exit the community, we do all of our due. We come back through and make sure all the amenities are top tier, the roads, etc., are top tier, while we're looking for that next piece of land. But as we close out, you know, we're focused on, you know, where do we go next? I think that's the obvious question. Part of my job in that is where does our staff go, right?

And part of that is just keeping in tandem with our land team, you know, our management team, making sure that we have the land coming up to make sure that our staff can go to that next opportunity so that we can. continue offering and building what we're building here in Charlottesville. I don't know if you have anything to add to that from your perspective on the sales floor as like the actual close out what we look for. No, as we close out, you know, we continue, we've got that core product and like I said, you know, we kind of offer the gamut for everybody. So I think when we do close out something of, okay, what box haven't we checked that maybe there's a buyer for?

And maybe that's, we step it up a notch and they're higher level finishes or, hey, you know, our price per square foot, we need to be more cognizant of that. So I think at a high level, I haven't been in all those meetings. I'm at the meetings with him is about as high as I go. But yeah, I think that's something that we take into consideration. Yeah, no, that's a good point, seeing what worked and what didn't work and trying to make that better for Stanley Martin, but also trying to portray that to the end user as well, the purchaser, the buyers, the agents.

We work really close with the agents, and we take a lot of feedback from our close agent partners of, you know, this is what worked well in our current neighborhoods that we're working to close out. What are your, you know, customers, what are your clients saying that we're good about it? What do you think we can improve on? And we're really taking that feedback and applying it to whatever our next project is, right? And like Gunner alluded to, we tried to diversify our products so that we can offer, you know, our essence line, which is a very straightforward, simple process. It's a new home that's very affordable, all the up to our core products that we look to that are more so pleasant green and some other projects

that we have coming out in the area in the next year. And I would say Jimmy's great about, you know, we have our one-on-one meetings every week and we have a Linux model, which is 1,700 square feet, but a 16-foot-wide product. Well, the cabinets in that, they're ones that are a little darker on a day like today doesn't show very well. We've got lighter cabinets that kind of open up the space. So we kind of, we fall in like with stuff. I don't think we ever fall in love. with any of our designs that way it's a little easier to move off stuff that doesn't work so in my time here that's something that i like that we do of hey i like it i don't love it if people feel the same way let's do something different yeah so um i did my 2025 analysis of the market versus

twenty twenty four and my catch line for the twenty five is the market went where the inventory was right and we're talking about two jurisdictions right now or two locations to green county and flavana which happens to be my home county since 1987. But back on the colonial circle, I just took a look at it. You guys are at roughly 88 units, right? I think you have about 200 cap over there. So you're pretty close to your 50% mark and close out. So I think from at your pace that you're going right now,

you're getting close to close out and all that stuff. So by the way, I just took a look at what your median sales price over there. is it's 316. So back to your essence and back to you seeing the market and hitting it and going ahead and tackling where meeting the market where the market is

was very commendable on that. Talk about process, right? I'm a real estate agent and I've got a client that's interested, let's say in the essence product of colonial or in Green County at Creekside.

Tell me how that process works. Yeah, the process really just starts from, you know, on the agent side, the MLS, right, making sure, you know, that we're visible in MLS. But as far as actual process coming in through the door, you know, we have our on-site sales managers like Gunner here. We've got a whole team full of rock stars in Charlottesville. So getting in contact with those sales managers first, either through, you know, the model coming in in person, you know, giving us a call or we do have an awesome online sales team as well, as well. that will help field any questions, help get the agent or the customer comfortable coming in the door, help answer some preliminary questions before they even get there to make sure this is a really good fit, right? The one thing that we're conscious about in our whole team and can attest to this is we, you know, we want to make good use of both of our times, both the agent, the client, the customer, and Stanley Martin. So doing that due diligence before they come in is a big part of our process. But setting that initial meeting up with one of our neighborhood sales managers is going to be key.

the neighborhood sales managers really hold all of the details to each individual in our neighborhood. You know, Gunner knows way more than I do about what's going on in pleasantly. He says that regularly, by the way. He should. I commend him all the time. Not in front of me. I know he says it. That's all the time. Keep that on the down low. Yeah, yeah. But that's really, you know, that's really our whole team. Nobody's watching. It's okay. No, that's right. We're acting like nobody's watching. So, but really that's our whole team, right? That's how we empower, you know, our neighborhood sales managers to take that and run with it, right?

So getting in contact with them, getting some information, scheduling a time and appointment to come in. And really that conversation, you know, makes it human. We want to understand what you're looking for so we can have things prepped before you enter the door, right? So that when you come through the door, we kind of already know what you're looking for, what you've been through. You know, if you missed out on a couple of resales due to, you know, failed inspections or got out bid or whatever it may be, you know, we want to help, you know, align that with what we have in. current inventory. From there, really, the neighborhood sales managers take it. You know, what I'm focused on and what the team now is focused on, what they always have been. But one thing we've been hitting big on is just really figuring out the human behind that person coming

through the door. We want to humanize the experience. It's not just a transaction for us, right? And that's true. We preach that in our sales meetings every Monday. Well, I can speak to that personally, right? We had a land trust, back to the land trust transaction. These are extremely complex. complicated and you guys hung in to make sure that the client got what they wanted. Yeah, and that's always the main focus, right? And you know, we are a business and we have to operate like a business and they're, you know, we want to be in tune with the customer all the time and sometimes, unfortunately, that doesn't happen.

But we do what we can and where we can, right, especially with our valued partners here. But taking that in and then just really communicating with the neighborhood sales managers, letting them sort through and help you through the process of what does it look like to buy a home, right? And for us, we have a lot of move-in-ready inventory. In some neighborhoods, we're also, you know, a couple months out to build from ground up. So sorting through those details and really just giving the full picture of what the customer wants and what we offer there and trying to connect those dots. I'm sure you have much more detail being on the sales floor than that.

Yeah, so when people come in, it's really your first, finding out why they're moving, that's most important. Then it's, you know, what space do you need? What are you coming from? You know, maybe a lot of people, they're looking for more space, some people it's less space. So you ask some good questions, hopefully get some good answers. And like he said, when you come out, we're not trying to go through every single thing that we have. We're trying to go through every single thing that we have that makes sense for you. And that's going to be different for everybody. So you start with some good questions, kind of come up with game plan execute that. That way you don't kind of get fatigue of me dumping numbers, and it's more of,

hey, you have to decipher between these three. So I'm going to get into that size and square footage. Then we'll see if Jerry has. Yeah, comments are coming in quickly. Caitlin Mancini is watching the program. She's in the game. She's a realtor. She says, I built with Stanley Martin and have it as a rental now. My tenants absolutely love the home. Comments continue to come in all over the feed. We'll highlight some of the viewers and listeners and get to some more of the comments. Kathy Everett Ballou, who's a realtor with Nest Realty Shandoah Valley. He's watching the program. Loving the show right now.

It's John Mark Glito. I hope I'm not messing up his last name. He's given props to the show. This is an interesting one that's come in. Can the panel put into perspective Stanley Martin's footprint? It's pretty impressive how big this company is. Yeah. Yeah.

So we span really the East Coast right now. We're from Maryland all the way down into Florida. Like I said, I touched on it earlier. We're always focused on buying land where we can, when we can. But our footprint is expansive. And from what we're hearing, it's just going to continue to expand. We are a growing company. I think that's obvious in our region, the Richmond region,

which we are also like a brother-sister to. But the company as a whole. So going basically the whole East Coast, we span from Maryland all the way down to like the tip of Florida right now. So that's interesting. I saw an ad, a Facebook ad. You guys are looking for a land acquisition person down in Florida. And I'm thinking, hmm, I don't like the cold. I'm of a certain age.

Hey, there you go. Right. I'm pretty good at finding land. It's like, hmm. And my wife said, no. No, she shot it down. Jerry and I were talking about that before the show. How old I was?

I'm going to go. I'm going to spring training with my dad in March. We're talking about, you know, we're in Tampa now. And I said the same thing on days like today. You're like, man, if I had shorts on and some palm trees, my mood would be up here. Yeah, but it'll flip around August. It will.

July August, right? It will. Yeah. So I want to dive in, particularly on what you're seeing coming into the centers, just sales centers, right? what are clients looking for right now, right? So I'm going to talk a little bit, some numbers about Green County, about size of homes. But from your perspective, you know, what are buyers most interested in other than price at this point?

And if I could dovetail into this, this comments come in from Richmond. I love the show, guys. It seems like the homes that are trading the quickest on the resale market have first floor masters. There you go. Can you talk to that? I'll pivot the word master to primary. and then dovetail into what Keith Smith has to say of what the marketplace is looking for when they meet you at a house, at a mile hole.

Yeah, I'll go to my first two months with Stanley Martin. I was actually in Colonial Circle in Fluvana. So we have a Hensdale model that's about 1,500 square feet, but it's got, it's one floor, it's a ranch. And that checks the box for so many people, and it doesn't matter the age. It's just a convenience thing. It's interesting you should say, I've interrupted for it, but the buyer profile is two things. Yeah. It's me, and it's the Gen Z.

The Gen Z wants this one-level smaller square footage. I'll let you. And it's just the overall flow. There's something that's not tangible, but it's just a feeling when you walk in a home with this feels really segmented. And that's a model that I think Stanley Martin knocked out of the park as far as the flow goes. So when people, one, it's the model, it's the first thing you see, it's decorated, you fall in love with it. But the flow was great. It's got that first floor primary.

So I think that is a significant one that you see. So Green County, just to talk about size, because it matters. I'll leave that late. If anybody jumps into that, just do it out there. See if anybody was willing to jump on it. Oh, well. That was a dad joke there, Keith's a. That was totally a dad joke.

I've been watching, what is that commercial where the buyers becoming their dads? It's a state farm. I think it is progressive. These gentlemen are smart. They got nearly two dozen Stanley Martin team members watching the program. I have a feeling somewhere on the vertical ladder here of professionalism. Just forget about we went there. We'll go something different.

You can comment. So just so this knows, in 2025, right, the average, the existing square footage of a home purchase was 2,248. That's the average size. And new construction was 1948. This is in Green County. And so far, year to date, as of yesterday, that's pretty much holding. You're about 2254 square foot in existing, about 1765. So people are buying new construction.

Oh, by the way, they're more expensive, right? They're buying new construction that's a little bit smaller and a little bit more expensive because why? I think we utilize space as well. And this is going to be a small thing, but it makes a lot of sense. And if you ever come look at a townhouse, I'm going to point it out, and if I don't remind me, of under the steps, like most closets are like a straight down stop. We utilize the space all the way down the steps for storage. So that's small, but hey, if we've got this to work with, like I talked about flow, that has a lot to do with the thought that goes behind.

How do you use the space? If I'm living in the space, what actually makes sense for most people? It's not going to make sense for all people. But I think there's higher level meetings that I've never been in. I imagine that's how they think, because that's how I think. Tell us how you really feel. Yeah, so I think that makes a lot of sense. So we do utilize space really well, and I think we talked about the Hensdale.

If you walk in that model, it's 1,500 square feet, it doesn't feel like that. So from our practitioners perspective, you're spot on, right? Yeah. So usually the older homes and even like the McMansions in the 90s and the 80s, it was all about size, right? Square footage, square footage, square footage, square footage. Now it's more about what can I get, what is more efficient on it. And in a new construction environment, right, you've got, you know, Earthcraft, you've got all these green features that are now in your home.

So your home is more efficient, functions well and looks a little bit like the 20, what's sensory we had, the 21st, that's 202nd? Are we 22nd? Yeah, we're going to the future. Yeah, whatever century we're in, whatever century we're in, it's a, about, you know, kind of living forward into it. So, you know, you guys are, you're hitting it right. But people are prepared to pay that extra money. Yeah, I think you hit it right. It's, you know, the energy efficiency that you might not get with a resale home. So like in Green

County or Fluana, it's very prevalent that most of the market is either new construction or resale. But the resale is aged, right? So you get homes that are built in 1980s and 70s or 90s like that, that were built by, you know, unknown, right? Unknown builders, just somebody that, you know, had a license that came in that knows how to construct homes that's been doing it for a while. And those homes are, you know, solidly built, but they don't have the same energy efficiency or green characteristics that our homes do, right? You know, difference in insulation, difference in build process, right?

They stick built at that time where, you know, some of our builds are, you know, done on site, but some of them are pre-fad before then, right? Well, that's what you're doing, and what the building codes have migrated to over these years, right? You guys always been a little bit ahead of the curve, and I apologize, as gunner. I mispronounced the name earlier, so my apologies.

But that's also part of the changes, and to your point, as one who's built 600 back in the 80s and the 90s and all that stuff, I can testify to that way. Yeah, no, I mean, it's, you know, again, And kudos to Stanley Martin, they are forward thinking in that. They're ever evolving, you know, those characteristics of green energy efficiency,

trying to make the home as efficient as possible. But also, I think we touched on this a couple times, just meeting the market where it's at, right? Like, we don't need to build 6,000 square foot houses anymore because that's not what the market's calling for. Those are less energy efficient at the end of the day. You know, a lot of people are budget conscious, monthly payment-wise, and also out-of-pocket, right? Down payments nowadays, you know, those have, you know, win up. up three and a half five, ten, twenty percent of a purchase price, that's a lot for a first-time home buyer. They're not going to be able to afford that right off the

rip. They're going to have to buy a town home or a starter home and migrate to that. So all of those kind of come to a head when we talk about why individuals are looking for new construction, right? It's the value you get for the price you pay based on the resale that you're looking at that's across town that's same or, you know, similarly priced but not as energy efficient that you'd have to spend more money on to renovate more money out of pocket where you could just move into a new construction home and it's turnkey, you know, hands clean. Go ahead.

That and what Jimmy was talking about as far as that out of pocket, you know, saving up for a down payment is impressive enough and something to be proud of, but these resales, obviously you do your due diligence as far as inspections, but you never know when you're going to have to come out of pocket for other things. And hopefully with us, and I know with us you've got some peace of mind of, hey, we made the down payment, enjoy the home. you know, it's going to be some time before you have to put any money into it. Obviously, we have warranties, but with having something new,

that's, you've saved up, patch yourself on the back, being a homeowner or something to be proud of. This is literally the conversation I'm having with these two first-time home buyers that if you find something in the market that's at the price point that they want to be, it's going to need a lot of work, right, at some point. Versus if we can find something that new construction at that price point or a little bit higher than they're willing to go to on that price point is that you're buying everything new, brand new HVAC system, brand new refrigerators and appliances. Talk about incentives.

What do we got floating out there for incentives right now? Yeah, I mean, incentives, really, every builder has incentives that go into it. I think for us, it's really how you use it, right, really how you market it. We, again, kind of where we price our homes and what we look at in the market, we meet the market is where it's at with incentives as well, right? So we take a look at what is our purchase price? What is our average purchase price? What has it been?

What type of buyer profile are we getting through our doors? What are there qualifications behind the scenes, right? We don't know the ins and outs, but we have an idea of having those discussions on the sales floor of how much money are you comfortable with spending on this home, right, out of pocket. How much do you have? Does your family giving you a gift, that kind of thing? We really take that into key, and that's how we form our incentives, right? A lot of incentives that you'll see nowadays just across the industry are, you know, rate buy down incentives.

You know, monthly payments are a big key right now, and it's a big marketing tool. So getting in as low as rate is a big incentive, you know, that we're focused on. You know, plugging our lender here for Heritage Mortgage, they're a great partner. They allow us to do that. We work in tandem with them and they give us all the resources that we need to do to be able to market that along with, you know, our whole corporate team. but I guess same sentiment that I just covered like we're meeting the market where they are at with incentives they fluctuate to be frank with you for a month and month depending on the market the market's hot you know we kind of shift the market's a little slower we shift in that regard too so so talk about buy downs how is that working for you guys yeah buy downs you know for first time home buyers they've been really exciting I guess is the best word for it for the first time home buyer they walk into the door and and they think, oh, this is really out of reach, right? You know, $2,500 a month versus $2,000 a month that I'm paying for rent right now.

That's a huge gap. Sure. That buy down really helps close that gap. And they can use some of our incentives that are available to help, you know, purchase that buy down to help close that monthly payment gap. So the process is we have an incentive of some sort, right? Exactly. And then you use and utilize. You get to use that with heritage to say, okay, I'm going to use X amount of dollars to prepay because that's how this works.

to buy down a rate from whatever low six to potentially high fives or whatever it turns out. And that hopefully closes the gap a gap a little bit. It definitely does in the mind of a buyer. If you're thinking about rent and say the rent just slightly cheaper, which oftentimes we're seeing is really it could go either way. You're going to own the thing. Like this is an investment. That is the word that we use.

This is an investment. And, you know, when you have rent, you can kiss it goodbye and hey if it's $100 more to own it, that's a no-brainer to me. It should be to other people too. I had a client yesterday saying, exact words, I'm tired of paying for my

landlord's boat. Yeah. That's exactly right. Comments continue to come in. Cody Persinger of his brokerage, Real in the Valley's watch of the program, giving you guys a ton of props right now. You have 11 different real estate firms that have interacted with the program right now.

Unique real estate firms on the program right now. And I see our heat map that is all over the Commonwealth, into Maryland, into North Carolina, all over Richmond right now. Rosey, Charlottesville watching the program. I want to speak from first-hand perspective. I used to live in the Glenmore neighborhood

in Keswick, and a front of my wife's had a fantastic Stanley Martin home, and this is one of the bigger homes, probably in the neighborhood of like, you know, 5,000 to 6,000 square feet. And the quality of this house, the finishes, the fixtures, the

layout was just top flight. So I think what you guys have done extremely well is that entire spectrum of housing type, from the town home to the rancher to the five bedroom, four and a half that's on a basement that's finished. Like you guys, the company has the talent to execute on all those, which I found impressive. I'm curious, and it's a question for both of you,

has the tempo of traffic into the models, and into the communities upticked, is it flat? If you can compare and contrast it to say maybe year over year last year, rates have certainly gone down. I also think we're in a marketplace where the consumers realizing that this rate environment is going to be around here for a while. There was this mindset maybe 12 months ago, 18 months ago, where folks were on the sidelines, hey, maybe they're going to drop.

I think that mindset is now in the rear view and now consumers and buyers are much. more forward-looking. Anywhere you guys want to go on that? Isn't the saying, you know, marry the house, date the rate, right? Absolutely. So I think people, you know, thanks to this podcast, thanks to a lot of things, have the information at hand of, when you hear people say that have been successful in the real estate space, well, I can do that too.

So I've seen an uptick of people that, you know, their parents give them sound advice. They've heard sound advice from people like you guys. So I've certainly seen that in recent months, an uptick, I think the general sentiment of rates has driven people to the model homes as well. Yeah, and I think, you know, like any marketing, right, like if you open your email and you see something you're really interested in and you see, you know, the price of this car went down, right? Similar to the price of rates or the interest rates going down, that ultimately will bring individuals off the sidelines. So with that news really prevalent just out in front of people's faces, we definitely have seen an updick in traffic coming through our doors. Because we've been the lowest we've been in years. I think it's the last three years.

Yeah. You know, from a math perspective, it's not moving the needle terribly much, but it's a psychological needle. That's what makes the difference. I think you're going to start seeing, and we're going to have a couple loan officers come on at the end of this month. I think you're going to start seeing, you know, the mortgage rates bounce between a high five and a low six. It's not going to be a huge spread, but it's going to be bouncing back and forth. And that's just going to get people off the couch, off the couch and start looking at these two young first-time homebuyers. That's exactly what it was, right?

I'm tired of paying rent. I want to get in the game. And they're in their late 30s, so, you know, we're getting close. Comments continue to come in. I'll get to the comments. I have a few of my own here. Can you put into perspective? This is one for Jimmy here.

It seems like the new development upside, potentially maybe for Al Morrow, is maybe at its ceiling. Curious of your thoughts on that. Curious of where maybe the new development may happen in central Virginia. It certainly seems like the Shenandoah Valley, Augusta, Rockingham, the Waynesboro area

is extremely ripe with development. And there's this biotech, technology Beltway that's being built. Eli Lilly, $5 billion in change being invested in Goochland County, 4.5 billion invested in Northern Almara County by Astroseneca,

billions invested in Augusta with Merck and the former Governor Yon talking about the Beltway connecting all these jurisdictions together that's going to yield a boatload of new jobs. You guys mentioned Northrop Grumman coming to the

Waynesboro area as well with the factory. Can you just talk of where you think the development is heading, how it applies to Almar and how it applies to the other side of the mountain? Yeah, no, that's a great question. We get that all the time. That's a major question that I get Gunner gets. Everybody in the industry gets, right, from every builder. But, you know, my thoughts are kind of what you alluded to, right? Like I think, and I mentioned this a couple of times that, you know, land is the hot commodity. and Albemarle land is ever, you know, shrinking, right? So I think it's going to hit its cap. I don't necessarily think it's at its cap right now, but it's just harder to find those land deals for new construction that make financial sense. So when, you know, any builder goes in to look at a land deal,

they say, you know, what's the cost, what's the average cost of the lot? That directly correlates to the end purchase price in a sense. And if that doesn't make sense, then the land deal doesn't make sense. we're seeing a little bit of that in alabamaro county just because of the cost of the land itself but that's kind of why we are pivoting to you know green county in the outskirts right it's the land's a little bit less expensive the land deals make more sense so i think we're going to see the new construction industry and a whole kind of go towards the outskirts of all those you know metro areas there's bigger areas right um so like the guchelin areas that are on the perimeter of richmond um you know there's a reason those

big companies are buying land out there because it makes sense you know business on their homework exactly they've done their homework right and i think for us specifically in you know albamara we see that transition happening where you know some bigger builders are going into the valley on the other side of the hill right because of those reasons the land costs the development and then the second side to that and i've been preaching this for years is red tape into green tape some of these jurisdictions are a little bit red tape and i'm being kind by using the word little bit red tape heavy which you know according to the National Home Builds Association 25% of all new constructions is due to red tape regulatory things so if you can

tweak that a little bit you can try to get the numbers down but you're spot on you're you know I've been I've been saying this for years you know I track what the national builders do they've got their pulse on the market better than anybody does and and that's what I keep a close eye on because as there moving their product type and where they're looking to go. They're generally ahead of the curve of the market, and you want to go ahead and track that. Gunna, you want to add anything?

Like you said, when big companies are investing that much, and they have done their homework and then some, and then have the resources to do really good due diligence on those processes. So, yeah, it's nice when other people kind of do the homework for you. You make your own judgment on what they've already decided to put their money where their mouth is and their research is. so yeah I see a lot of people just following suit with that

I mean if you think about this guys and the viewers and Jimmy and Gunner absolutely know this Keith knows this but the viewers and listeners I want you to consider this Merck is investing $3 billion into a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility

$3 billion ladies and gentlemen which is going to create 500 jobs in Rockingham County 4 and a half billion is being invested by Astroseneca and Northern Almaro. So that's three and four and a half. We're at $7.5 billion.

The Astrosenica is 600 jobs. 600 plus 500 is 1100. Eli Lilly is investing the most, and I'm going to have to Google this to get the exact number. Eli, Lilly, we looked this up yesterday. $5 billion in Guchland County and 650 jobs. I mean, you guys are better at math than I am. 650 jobs, 600 jobs. That's $1,250 plus the other $500 is $1,000.

750 new jobs plus $5 billion, $4.5 billion and $5 billion. We're talking nearly $15 billion being invested in the next 24 months within 60 miles of each other? And the average income is going to be... It'll be all six figures. Multiple six figures. Multiple six figures. I mean, this market is just absolutely on fire on both sides of the mountain. This is a comment that you guys will appreciate from Angie Schoop.

She says, I just closed on a Stanley Martin one level at Essence at Cree. side earlier this month. They were awesome to deal with and purchases are extremely happy. GW is your biggest fan over here. He says Gunner Cook is fantastic. The future of the business, Gunner Cook over there.

G.W. giving you some love right there. He was always great, so I'll tell you a little story. You also sent me a friend request, so I feel special here. We were playing Storch draft in a playoff baseball game and it was going well for me. I look at a time. But I

But I balked and he walks out and he said, if you balked one more time. So he's the biggest encourager. That's the only time he really got on me. But going back to that $15 billion investment, I'm so glad you did the math. I was just going to say, that's a lot. So like you said, it goes to if these companies that are in pharmaceuticals that have, you know, as much money as anybody do that research, we're going to follow suit when you're small. So you follow that. You follow your national, regional builders, and then you start, one and one starts equaling two.

This is not the time to talk about this, but I did a post this morning. There's three bills going through the Congress, through the Virginia Senate right now in the House and legislature. General Assembly. General Assembly, that was the reason why we do this. General Assembly. That won't move the needle today, but we'll move the needle a little bit longer as far as availability. if it gets passed as they're currently written on it. And we'll talk about this on a future show

when we bring in some local county board of supervisors to talk about it. So all this stuff is starting to stack up a little bit. And, you know, like I said earlier, I follow you guys and other national stuff pretty closely and then what Jerry is listening. And I think you're going to start seeing the inventory needle, new inventory needle moving.

It's a five to 10 year needles, move, right? Because this business is very long term on it, but I think it's starting to go in the right direction. Yeah. No, I mean, that's a good point. When you think about it from a new construction point, too, you know, it takes multiple years to get a land deal done. So over the next five to ten years, we're not sure how many land deals are going to get done and where they're going to get to. So those timelines kind of match up with each other. And one point I wanted to hit on before, we kind of pivot to that was, you know, along with a lot of the businesses that are coming to the area, We've seen a lot of relocation happening in our area, too, from Florida, from North Carolina, from really everywhere,

but a lot of it's coming from northern Virginia and D.C. because of how expensive the market is up there, right? And the ability to work from ISP digital nomads. Exactly. So that's great. So thank you for bringing that up. It's on my notes. We unfortunately can't track this in our Paragon and our... These guys can. But you can.

So where are you? Where are you seeing the, you know, mostly coming from? And maybe, you know, high level, what does the demographics kind of look like? Is it my age? Is it a little bit younger? Yeah, no. I mean, you know, most of our business is local, right? Meaning wherever we're building at, that's where we consider local.

So for us, it's obviously Charlottesville, Alamara, on the surrounding area. But we do get a lot of a big portion of our business, you know, percentage-wise, I wouldn't be able to put it one right off the top of my head. But, you know, just at Pleasant Green, for example, like, we've. had multiple people relocate from multiple different areas that are 100 miles-ish away, right? And the buyer profiles are, you know, from, you know, move up first-time home buyers all the way to kind of those downsizers, right? A lot of individuals that we're seeing that are moving from that Northern Virginia, D.C., are the

downsizers, you know. Well, that's to Gunner's point, right? Yep. Yeah, I would say in the fall, I kind of had a string of sales where it was kind of young couples moving from northern Virginia that had to maybe be in the office one day a week. And it just made sense for them to start their life in the Charlottesville area of, hey, I can make that drive to at least own something. Because if we stay where we are, we're going to be renters for a long, long time.

So they've made that decision, but it was definitely the fall of young couples starting life together. Well, part of that is putting your roots down, owning something, starting a family, which is this is a great place to do that. Yeah. I think the allure too is the area there specifically. Like you have the mountains. You have quick access to Waynesburg, quick access to Charlottesville. You've got wineries, breweries there.

So I think a lot of individuals are seeing those, you know, there's commodities that attract them, and then they see the price, and then they start to view, see in their mind the lifestyle that they can build. And then, you know, Gunner helps connect the dots for affordability when we're on a sales floor. And then magic happens. 100%. It's an amenity-rich community. and region that we live within. And another aspect, and this could be,

I think, another tailwind for your business, another positive, is the Charlottesville-Almorrow regional airport is on the cusp of brokering a deal with direct flights with Boston. And Boston is the epicenter of biotechnology, financing, and frontline work. And what they're trying to do is connect to Boston to Charlottesville, Almorra, in the Valley,

with this flight, which would just further drive more traffic and potentially allow Bostonians and we're very deep pocketed to live here hop a flight to Boston while maintaining a lower quality of life or a higher quality of life but a more affordable quality of life here go ahead key so back on the market where the market's going and I just did some quick math here so from a year to date you are at 33 new construction units in Green County that are either closed or in the pending which usually when you're pending a new construction is going to close. It very rarely falls apart. But it's interesting.

The existing versus a new construction spread is much tighter. We are now just the first, you know, a month and a half, a little bit more. The existing median sales price is 399. New construction is 409. So it's gotten tighter. It went from a 399 to 441, spread at the end of 2025. So that's what's happening. As you're getting more inventory, your products is getting a little, a little bit tighter. I do have a transactional question to ask, but I want to see if Jerry had any... No, go ahead. Go ahead. Yeah.

We hear on the practitioner's side, and I just want to get this on the table and get this rumor off, that the buyer is not allowed to get a home inspection. Can you please let people know that they do? Yeah, you could probably tell about my reaction there. That is absolutely not the truth, right? And talk about how that works.

Yeah, I think they're... I don't want, I'm not going to loop every builder into this or single anybody out. Let's just talk about Stanley Martin. Yep, yep. Yep, but I think some people are hesitant to let inspectors see behind the door where, you know, Stanley Martin, we are just open, right? We're confident. We know what we build. We know our process.

We know our quality. That's why we are able to offer what we offer and help as many people out that we can, right? So we are always open to home inspectors. there is a little rigidity to that where we want to make sure that if a home inspector is brought in and they want to do an HVAC inspection or plumbing, that roughen inspection or even a final inspection, that that house is at that point. We've done our own internal inspections, checked off all the boxes before we let them in there, just so we're all talking the same language.

As far as process goes, it's really when our neighborhood sales managers meet with individuals. go through the contract process, sign the dotted line, do the earnest money deposit. At that point, we have a really deep discussion one. Are you going to use a home inspector? Then you have a list, right? We have a list of individuals that we work with, absolutely, but we're not limited to that list, if that makes sense. So we're open to really any inspector that a customer wants to use.

So going to talk about the pre-dry wall inspection process. Yeah, so I was going to touch on, it's always advised to do your pre-dry wall, then you do when your final walkthrough before you move in, and then also a 10-month inspection. At the beginning of this, we talked about our warranties. Well, we have a one year, which is basically, you know, to sum it up a bumper-to-bumper. Go ahead and do a 10-month,

and I know some inspectors that have a package deal of we stand by our product, and we want you to love where you live because if you do that, it's going to lend ourselves to more business, more happy customers. So we don't push for just the pre-drywall. I know when you come in,

I say, hey, do it. a 10 month too of do all your due diligence when everything's paid for because like jimmy said we stand by our product our products and we want to get it right so as a practitioner i'm talking to my home inspector that's going to do a new stanley martin a new construction unit and i'm going to ask them to give us a price for three inspections right pre-drywall final then 10 months okay cool yeah i think it's prudent to do that and i've seen inspectors that haven't done that in the past have started to have that package deal. And I think it's a win, win all the way around.

Yeah, I've done enough of them with you guys and never had a problem. You know, we send a list. You've got your field guys get it knocked out. We usually get an email back saying, this, this, this is done. There's pictures of them of all the work. And it gets sent off to the client and the inspector. And then we do a final walkthrough. The 10-month thing is new.

That's something we're going to start in corporate. That's a great idea. So thank you for sharing. Yeah, it's also a new problem. Center for the inspector to drive more deal flow for his or her business. I think that's a great idea. This comment's come in. This one's from short pump Richmond area. Can they speak about green and energy efficiency? That's important to my husband and I, green and energy efficiency with their product types. Yeah, I think specifics to green and energy, it's really

taking a look at how we make it more energy efficient first and what products are out there and pairing that with our build process. Some of that goes into like energy efficient windows, you know, the difference in insulation in different areas in the house, right? Because your addict's going to be insulated different than your walls are. You know, and just new construction standards in general, making sure the house is tight, breathable, but also, you know, the new H-FAC systems and new plumbing systems. They're all new, so they're all going to be energy efficient. A really just easy example is like a smart thermostat that's in the home that's programmable, right? I know a lot of people probably have those nowadays, but those, you know, you can go in,

program the settings and say, you know, if it's warm out, then I want to kick on the AC at this exact temperature, where previously those weren't available. That's just a really small example on the scope. So a great tool, and you've guys done this before for some of my clients, that were interested in, and you walked a client through a home that's pre-drywall and pointed out, okay, our bands are formed, foamed, excuse me, yada, yada, yada, sealed ducks working and pointed everything out. So I would encourage whoever this is to go take a look at whatever sales model they're looking to do and ask to walk through a pre-term.

By the way, my daughter graduated in 2018. I just got there we got. Thank you, very much. You're a phenomenal father. Yeah, yeah, my problem. I know I'm done paying for it. That's all. Yeah, that's all that.

Yeah, in the rear view. I think with that green stuff, too, I know we kind of keep tabs on the process once you've bought a home with us of sending you calls or text messages of, hey, this is the stage that it's in. So you kind of have a time lapse of your home. One thing I always point out is our construction manager, Lenny, out in Pleasant Green. He's got an orange foam can. So if you have a light leak, not only do we do our check the boxes. He really comes over the homes of goes the extra step of eyeballing stuff. What you catch stuff that sometimes you won't catch by just checking a box.

So we go the extra mile to stay green, to stay efficient. So much so we have a fresh air intake system. That's what I was about to say. Homes are so tight you actually have to bring in fresh air. Yeah, I'll just think, you know, I explain it to people of, you know, if you're driving and you're just recirculating, your air in your cabin you don't want that and you definitely don't want it in your home either so we always point that out april air is the product that we use that fresh air intake system

so we have to do it because of how green we are and i know you guys can have this conversation with the buyer at the table but something to look at from an efficiency perspective and and actually how much it costs to live in the home versus something that is built in the 80s or whatever particular a year, there is a value there. It's not a month, you know, mortgage value, but there is a long-term value in living in your home where your electricity bills are less, your water bills are less because you have high efficiency valves and faucets and toilets and stuff like that. Exactly, yeah. Guys, the show is awesome. An hour and 10 minutes in, as we close the show and wind down with

Judah giving me the thumbs up over there. Why don't we offer an opportunity to Jimmy and Gunner to offer closing thoughts on anything? Stanley Martin related, Charlestonville related, Almore related, Central Virginia related. Got a lot of people watching the program now. I think it's the sentiment that we've been talking to, right? It's, you know, we stay in tune with the market. We want to build, you know, quality homes at a price that everybody can afford. And to be able to just stay within the market, meet the market where it is.

And really, we're just in tune with the customer base, the agent base that's out there. It's very prevalent of how many agencies are on right now listening to us. Gunner and I have a lot of good relationships in the industry with different agencies, different brokerages, but just really staying in tune with everybody. And just to let everybody know that, you know, we're not the scary salespeople. We really are here to help. We really do care about, you know, our agents, our team members, the customers that come through our door. We really want to make sure their life, you know, the quality of their life is improved.

approved when we end our process with them at the end of the day. Yeah, and I'll take it from him of not being the scary salesperson as far as my advice is buy real estate. Yeah. You know, be it it's with us or not, I think it's a smart investment. I think when you come to see us, my job is to give you the information. Hopefully it makes sense with us for a lot of people it does. I think if you really think about it, it does. There's my little sales pitch.

But buy real estate, because it is an investment if you're just starting. it's a way to build wealth. That's why these people from Northern Virginia are making that drive to come down here because, hey, this is a start, this is an investment. Build wealth, plan for the future. Future you will thank you for doing it, even if it takes being a little uncomfortable and not, if you've been a renter for a long time,

kind of look in the mirror of, hey, how much money have I paid for somebody else's? And like you said, somebody's boat. Time to save up for your own boat. you want that. So I think with us, our products make sense. We have the whole gamut like we talked about earlier in the show of whatever you want. We probably have a box to check,

but buy real estate. Well done. You just showed off your MBA. Nice job. There you guys. I mean, this was fantastic. We're way over. I just want to say thank you guys. Thank you guys. I'm passionate about housing specifically new construction, so thanks for showing up guys. And have yourself a good

weekend. Go sell some houses. Yeah, we are. Thank you guys. Thanks, Keith. Thanks, Jude. Our pleasure. Our pleasure. Judah Wickcar, give you props. Thank you.

Gentlemen, I think the show is fantastic. The viewers and listeners that are asking, the show is archived anywhere you get your social media and podcasting content. I think you should give a preview of what you have in store for real talk with Keith Smith. Yeah, so the third Thursday of March, third Thursday, third Friday of March, I've got Ned Galloway coming in, Tony O'Brien coming, in Jesse Rutherford coming in and help me out. I lost the fourth name. No, that's the three names.

Coming in, we're going to be talking about housing. We're going to be talking about local politics. And this is going to be a time for you to go ahead and get your questions out there. So thank you. Yeah, absolutely. The I Love Seville Show, guys, is up at 1230. We appreciate the viewership and the listenership. You see what we're trying to do here.

It's just long-form content about the community where you, the viewer, the center can ask people that are experts, questions that are on your mind. That's the whole premise of the network. We will see you in approximately one hour on the I Love Sevo Show, so well. Thanks everybody. I told you that was going to buzz by. Yeah.