The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Katelyn Mancini & Tony Girard Joined Keith Smith & Jerry Miller On "Real Talk With Keith Smith!"

Episode Date: February 6, 2026

Katelyn Mancini & Tony Girard 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.

I think he actually, he finds it endearing. Judah. Do you really find this endearing? That's allowed to do this. I'm not talking right now. Really? You're not talking. Here you go. The three count. We're going to have fun, guys.

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 what is the source of the source when it comes to real estate, ladies and gentlemen. Keith Smith has been in the business since 1987. His firm, Yes Relility Partners, is successfully helping buyers and sellers get to the closing table and beyond online at YesrelityPartners.com. Today's program is a roundtable of pros pros. Caitlin Mancini is in the house.

She, my friends, is a top producer locally and has been for some time. Tony Gerard is in the house, another top producer who has the chops to back it up. And folks, we encourage you, the viewer and listener, to join us in the conversation, ask questions, and help shape the discussion. We'll highlight the Elmer's Glue of the I Love Seville Network, Judah Wickower, who is behind the camera. Judah Wickower, we salute you and we try to do it often. If we could go to the studio camera and welcome our star, Kew Smith, on a chilly Friday morning in downtown Charlottes. It is chilly, but I have good news, according to the weather app. We might be in the 40s of the 50s next week, so, you know, who knows?

that same weather app also said on Saturday morning wind temperatures below zero 55 degree winds 55 mile winds I thought I artfully dodged that portion of it but thanks for bringing me back there yeah but all I saw was 40s and 50s and I'm ready for it

me too Kaila there you go so we've got a lot to cover today so I will keep my monologue down to zero so we're going to let Jerry kick off and get you guys introduce yourself real quick and then we'll talk about your new builder. I'm excited about it. Ladies first, Caitlin Mancini, for the few who do not know you,

introduce yourself to the community. Oh, thank you. Hello. I'm Caitlin Mancini with Howard Hanna Real Estate. I've been doing it over a decade now, actually, here in Charlottesville. Oh, my God. So, yeah, I love it. I have a second generation realtor.

This is Minnie. She's a part of the brand. She says hello. I'll probably put her down, but for those who are watching or listening. I'm holding a dog and she's 11 now and I'm a new mom so I have a seven month old at home and he's absolutely wonderful so just navigating motherhood

and the business as it continues to grow and I'm excited. So thank you very much for having us. We'll get into that navigation a little bit later because I'd love to get you. Oh boy I'll take tips. Yeah so I'm Tony Girard. Thanks for having me. I'm with Howard Hannah as well. I've been in the Charlottesville Market for eight years. I love everything about the area. Something fun about me is I just became a grandfather. Seems like it was yesterday, but now it's 18 months in the making. And Lucas, my pride and joy.

So super thankful to be able to go see him back and forth from Austin, Texas to Charlottesville. So yeah, thanks for having me. So you fly out of Richmond or Charlottesville? I drive back and forth a lot, but I will also fly out of Charlottesville. So you drive from here to Austin? Yes. How long is that? God bless you. 18 hours. Okay. Do you have a go-to stop or two on the way?

Just depends on which way I'm going. If I'm going to stop my family, I'll stop in Louisiana. And then otherwise I'll go straight through Nashville and down. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah, it's great commitment. Crop's you. Isn't it the best thing ever, though?

The best. I mean, we could just do a whole show talking about it. You do sleepovers with him, right? I mean, it's like. Yeah, he finds himself in a crib often in our bedroom, just crashed and enjoying life. He's the best. How about Kaila Mancini? Parenthood, the best hardest thing ever.

Put it in perspective. How do I do that? It is the best hardest thing ever. I love it. I take every day. People have told me, and I kind of laughed about it, but the days are long and the years are short. 100%.

Yep, so almost eight months. This month is flying by with our little guy. Still managed to do north of $10 million. Kela Mancini. Incredible. Thank you. I sincerely props you. I appreciate it.

That's legit. I got to take, I was very blessed. I had some agents that covered business and I did things here and there, but I took about half a year off last year to raise our little guy. And thank you. And that was hard because my business was my baby before my baby baby. Well, it's interesting. A lot of folks, you know, the real estate business and, you know,

being a real estate professional, it's almost impossible to divide the business side or the professional side and the personal side. They kind of just blend always, always together. Well, kudos to you. That's a huge, huge vote of confidence and your ability to do what you magically do and take care of little people at the same time. But we're here to talk about a new builder that you guys are, and I want to kick this off of this new construction month with this new builder.

So I'll let you guys chime in. Tell us a little bit about Schumacher, right? Did I pronounce that correctly? Correct. Look at that. different than everybody else and then we'll just kind of pick up the conversation from there. Go for it, Tony. Yeah, so they are an unbelievable custom builder. They have showrooms in 14 different states. They're building in 14 different states, and we're welcome

them to the area now. They have a model house, or we have a model house on in Grange Commons Ridge. That's going to be open. A little plug today. It's going to be open from one to four. So come out and see me at 290 Grange Ridge Commons. But there are an incredible builder from start to finish. You get to choose everything. So if you have a vision, you bring it to the table. If you don't have a plan, there's plenty to choose from that they can modify and make it customizable to you and your family's needs. Yeah, they've built over 23,000 homes. They say no two are the same, which is pretty incredible. They have, over 50 model homes.

Like Tony mentioned, we have one north of town in Rutgersville, and there are two lots for sale right next to the model. Now, I say there are lots. You can pick the plan. The lot is there, and it will be sort of incorporated with the build, but

it is cool. Their motto is there's really no stop signs. There's no nose. We say the sky's the limit with this builder, and I'm excited. I mean, I've been doing this for a while in Charlottesville, and I haven't found a builder like this. So, And you said that you had done this. This was what?

Yeah, so back in the ancient days, that was what we used to do. This is the model that we used to build from, right? And it's exciting to see come back because, you know, as the time of great unpleasantness hit our market place, we kind of lost that true semi-custom, custom builder. Now you have custom folks out there, you know, which do wonderful work and wonderful jobs. and then we have our production folks, our Ryan, Stanley Martins, which are awesome, awesome folks.

But we've never really had this niche market since 2009, 10, and 11. There's a couple builders that might do it. But these folks, like, I can draw something on a napkin and walk in and say, this is what I want, and they'll take it from that to build, but not necessarily at the high-end custom number. So let's talk about how that process works a little bit on it Because they are obviously such a large company.

There's economy and scale and how that process works. So take me from the point of I've got a client as a real estate agent. They want to do a semi-custom. They may have a lot. It may not have a lot. So let's talk about how you can help them with that. And then kind of walk us through step by step how that process works. Yeah, so you find the land.

If you already have land, then you bring your idea to them. So like you can start with like you said, an idea on a napkin. If they don't have a plan that's within that wheelhouse, then they can draw one. They work with the industry-leading level, the industry-best architects. And so they're able to produce the drawing that you want. Then you go through the meeting, picking everything out. They have something that's called lot vision, so you can literally have the house and spend the house on the lot. so you can see, oh, I'd rather the sun come up on the, you know, I'd rather the sun come up on the

master's, the primary sweet side versus the living room side, and they could just turn the entire house around. And with that capability, they're able to see how it runs with the topography and everything else, you know, just the costs that are going to be associated with that. And then they produce the quote. And then once everybody agrees with the quote, then it's the, you know, it's the, you know, you go to the next phase, which is picking out all of the goods. That's right.

So Paul Schumacher, it's a family-owned business. His sister is also in the business, and Mary, and we stay in close contact with her. And it's really cool because they really truly want to make sure that this is your home that you absolutely love. I mean, from the smallest things of picking your doorknobs to how high the ceilings are going to be, it's really, that's up to you. and you can add and delete all these options. Right now they have, I think it's towards the end of the month, but they have up to $60,000 of an upgrade design selection credit that you can get.

So circling back, you can bring your lot, or we have lots, too, in Rutgersville that are for sale. And it's cool because I don't know, we talked about this, I don't know that there's a semi-custom builder out there that will do a build without a one in front of it. Yeah, yeah. And they can. So under a million.

I think because their secret sources, they have so many plans, if you take a look at their website, right? And I say, look, correct me if I'm wrong, I like this plan, but I want this kitchen this much larger, right, or my primary this much larger. They will make those changes, quickly budget them out for you. I mean, that's the quickest path, obviously, other than the design from the paper napkin. Come to the model. There's a two-story. This is the coolest. You haven't seen this.

There is a two-story walk-in closet. I don't know where my husband would put his clothes, but I just, it's really cool that there is a staircase up to a second level. So in the Smith household, it would be what Yona would put her clothes. Correct. Right. Well, I think that's what she said, yeah. What would I do with this?

Some people walk in and go, what would I do? I said, put your ski stuff up there. Put your Christmas, you know, put seasonal clothes. Rock climbing wall. Whatever you want to do it. people are like, I would never use this. I would go upstairs once a year. Delete it. And it's like, no problem. Delete the two-story, uh, the two-story walk-in closet. They have something called a messy kitchen. Um, it could be like, it's a glorified butler's pantry. There is literally an entire wall

of pantry shelving, but it has a second dishwasher, a second fridge, a second. That's awesome. I've seen those. They're great. Yeah. Messy kitchen. Put all your mess in there. Um, it's a really cool design feature again. And I stand corrected, Keith. You are the close horse. And that's what you are I'm living to. I stand corrected, my friend. You do always look very sharp, you know, I

was chair, I'm the chair of the Thomas Chefs of Planning District Commission. I was chairing a meeting yesterday and I got complimented on my attire and complimented on my lighting and I said, well, when I sit across from Jeremy Miller for like going, we're almost at the end

of our seventh year of doing this. I got a gas-em-up a little bit. Yeah, I don't blame it. This is significant what you guys are doing. Throw this to Tony. How does it feel bringing a builder into market of this prestige and credibility? What's the pressure like? What's the effort behind it?

You guys got a lot here. Yeah, it doesn't feel like there's a lot of pressure because the product is so incredible. So it's really easy to sell. It's just good to be about getting their name out there to the community. community. To piggyback off of what Keith was saying and price point wise, we wanted to do a listing in Waynesboro because there's a big increase of population headed over the mountain into Waynesboro. We did one in a subdivision where I lived and it started at 769, but in that house there was $165,000 worth of upgrades that can easily be trimmed down. You see everything in black and white what's on the quote, so you decide what you would have want to remove from that or change. But yesterday I made a call to one of their sales folks, and he was able to add two bedrooms and one and a half

bath to the house and a basement. And I was able to get a price back within minutes. And so that was really impressive to be able to say, yeah, you can do this for actually less money because we're going to remove so many of those other features and still get a walkout basement and two more bedrooms. I cannot tell you how many. conversations we've had with buyers because the reason I want to talk about new construction

this month it's it's certain jurisdictions are increasing certain are decreasing we can go into that data stuff later but from a practitioner's perspective we've got a lot well like i don't necessarily want a custom home because i don't want to pay that price tag but i need you to change a couple of things in the production side and and the way they're set up that just doesn't happen any longer And that's why this was exciting to me, is that, you know, you're somewhere between that price point and the production price point, which is a good thing. But now I can move walls around. To your point, what? You said at how many minutes?

Just a matter of, like, within 60 minutes, I had a full basement. Yeah, that's huge. Two more bedrooms. That's huge. That's huge. And a number and ready to rock and roll. Ready to go. Ready to sign.

Comments coming in for the viewers, for the panel, from the viewers. This is from Carly Wagner. She's an engineer. She's a realtor. She says, how much? leeway do they offer in terms of the technical performance of the home items such as insulation air water barrier selection window performance factors great question yeah let it go so I think that there is sort of a standard baseline that they work off of

there's not something that you could say oh if I wanted less insulation they just have a baseline of what it is in terms of code in terms of what is up to date today if you wanted extra insulation certainly blown in, again, another quote that they would just add on for you. Did I answer that question, at least in terms of that of leeway? Absolutely. Okay. Absolutely. I'm sure Carly is going to have a follow-up for you.

Tony, you want to jump in? Yeah, I mean, again, it's the, from the engineering standpoint, they can do anything. There is no, we said it a little earlier, no, it's not an option, there's a way around everything, and they figure out how to get to the solution of whatever the client is wanting. Michael Guthrie, giving you guys props, says you're representing Howard Hanna very well.

Always excited to support you guys and wants to highlight a family-owned business much like the firm Howard Hanna is family-owned and operated. Comments continue to come in.

I see my friend Keith Smith wants to add. Yeah, I'm trying not to geek out on the whole builder thing in my builder brain and tone that down. You totally should. Tone it down a little bit. But yeah, so what Carlis is talking about

and if you read there, information, which I did. I spent a lot of time studying it, you know, if you want an increased R value, and I think that's what we're talking about, right? Or if you want a triple pain window versus a double pane window, you know,

they have the ability to do that, and they have the ability, apparently, to do that and price it quickly, which is an exciting piece of information. Instead of saying, well, I'll get back to you in a few days. It sounds like you can do that. And I'll just talk about our conversation the other day,

because it kind of rocked my world when you said it. You guys are willing to fly people somewhere. Tell that story. So this is cool. Because they have a plane, right? Yes. Tony's been there. I have not been there, but in Akron, Ohio.

This is really cool. They have six model homes, one next to the other. Tony can speak to this because he's been in there. Their showroom is a 25,000 square foot showroom. It's really incredible. They also have one in Greensboro. But yes, if you want to go and see Design Center, mega design center picking everything, go for a long weekend, and you can have it all done and picking your selections and that kind of thing.

And yeah, they'll get you out there and they'll put you up to see what they have. Because this is so visual. I mean, I am so visual. When you were building, many people have to actually. see the fixture. That kind of thing in person versus saying. I mean, same with like a slab of granite or piece of stone. You have to see it in

person because it's hard to say something that's on the internet that what's actually in person. Must be true. It's on the internet. I mean, it's a very impressive center and the fact that they're willing to fly you out there for the weekend, put you up just to give you a

first class service to make sure that you're getting everything that you want and that they can deliver I got to ask this question. Is that at all price points? I don't know that it's going to be at all price points, but I would imagine that they can, again, no is not an answer. No is not an answer for them, so they're going to figure out how to get it. They're going to problem solving and make it happen. So talk to me a little bit about financing options, right?

Because the big production builders always offer these discounts. You guys are offering upgrades on the home. Do we have any financing opportunities through the company? Schumacher finance, or Schumacher Mortgage, I should say, it's on my mug here. Schumacher Mortgage offers, which is really incredible to build a home FHA programs, VA programs. There are incredible incentives for an agent, too. So if you were a realtor watching this, if I was watching this, listen to this. This doesn't exist.

Once the financing is approved, once the loan has been finalized, the realtor gets paid. Before you break ground, before not to the end of the build, which can be six, eight, nine months sometimes, just depending. So that's really, really cool.

And yes, they do offer incentives towards closing costs. A lot of builders are like that. You know, a lot of mortgage loan officers can't touch the incentives and the closing costs and the perks to use there. That's because there's an ownership component there and all that stuff.

Yeah, yeah. So, with that. Comment coming in from, Mike Rogan, watching the program right now, believe VP and regional manager over at Howard Hanna. He says, Tony and Caitlin, two of the most professional real estate agents in the business,

watching the program right now. You got some heavy hitters at Schumacher watching the show as we speak right now. Awesome. Hi guys. Viewers and listeners, put your comments in the feed. We will relay them live on air. This is an interesting comment.

I think it's a good one. It's a good question. Why the Charlottesville market? Why the Charlottesville market? Why not the Charlottesville market? I mean, it's beautiful. We have incredible scenery with mountain views and just, it's just a great place to live.

So I think that they were able to identify that and wanted to come and be part of this community. So it was a great place for them to invest and to break ground and to start heading this way. We're surrounded. They're surrounded by, you know, they're everywhere around us, so why not Virginia as well? So I'm going to ask Kateman take a deeper dive into it because it's not just Charlottesville. It's multiple counties.

So can you list off real quick the areas that we're building in at the moment? So, I mean, in the Charlottesville footprint, if you will, they have gone as far as Richmond. They're going down south towards Roanoke, north of town. Like we had the model home in Grange Commons to 90 Grange Commons. Ridge and that's in Green County, expanding certainly into Albemarle County. My understanding is that they are looking or were looking. All up and down the East Coast, they went to a lot of different markets. And these, the two lots that they secured here, they're really cool. I think Judah has some of the images to, some aerials, if you want, of what they put here. He says they're on

screen now. Oh, cool. Yeah. So the viewers of listeners are seeing what you're talking about. The viewers of you're talking about if you want to give kind of a play-by-play? Sure. So if you're seeing these lots, there are aerials. You don't get that everywhere. You have mountains in the background. You have a stream in your backyard down a little bit of a bank, and you have a silo in the background.

I don't know what market offers that on a 10-acre lot for under a million dollars, if you wanted to. Million-five is what the lots are priced at right now to build, but I don't know where you get sort of that sweet combo, at least in that. Charlottesville area so I think they saw that as a real cool opportunity. Albumar county 24 to 25 million dollars in up new construction 700 units were built so this gives you an idea that there's room for that below it just so that you know Albumar nelson Rockingham green Madison Gutson orange Flavanna Hanover louise and augusta county yeah according to website sorry

I didn't get your Waynesboro in there Augusta county but we said it west of town and they'll fly you somewhere I mean, I think that's the coolest thing ever. Comments continue to come in. This one is from, you might have to help me with her last name here. Logan is it, Matt Keithen? McKeithen watching the program. She says, glad to listen on this and fantastic new construction.

Highlights that, is she watching the DMV? I believe she's watching the DMV. She's given some props to you guys. I genuinely think there is 90, different real estate firms watching the program right now to talk about this. Carly highlights that she's excited to have a new builder in the area. She thinks competition is great, and she highlights watch out Peak and Craig. Carly loves to throw those singers in there. That's one of my favorite things about Carly over there. We need to welcome Carly back on the show. Sure. She's always welcome.

Dana Evers Cross, Tony and Caitlin are awesome. We at Schumacher Holmes are excited to be in the Charlottesville area. I think it's a, it's just a guy that, you know, has a microphone over here, thinks it's a very smart move for Schumacher. It is an area that is growing in population. It's an area that's growing in its median family household income. $125,900 was the last median family household income metric. According to HUD, that number will certainly increase. We are now a part of this biotechnology Beltway.

Astra Zetica is investing $4.5 billion into Almaral County and is going to welcome 600 new hires at $125,000 average income for those 600 hires. This is a great spot. And this is why new construction this month is so important for us to talk about. And I'm again, excited to kick off with you folks and talking about Schumacher is, you know, if you guys track some of the stuff that I've been posting over there, the 2024, first 2025. We've had nearly in Almar County for sure 23% increase between a million

dollars sales and the median price. So we're growing the medium sales by almost a quarter year over year. And with all these folks coming in here, they're going to be looking for homes that kind of meet their needs, but

somewhere south of that number. And I think the struggle, and this is what I really want to talk about, is where we're going to find the lots, guys? Well, yeah. And can I add a little color to that and then answer that. The car fourth quarter report came out, Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors. In the fourth quarter, there were more homes sold for $1 million plus $86 than homes that sold for less than $250,000, $73. I mean, that, think about that. Think about that. Now, the Lott's question for Caitlin and Tony.

Because that's the biggest struggle, right? I think we find the dirt. I think you've got the builder, right? So now I've got a client, and where can they live? Where can we buy a lot, 10 acres, 2 acres, because subdivisions are out because they're going to have HOAs, right, particularly, which is not a big problem into itself, but generally the bigger subdivisions, the larger developers kind of chunk up the lot.

So where am I going to find a lot here? Dunn, done. It's very clear to me it's going to be the other side of the mountain, Chando Valley, Augusta County, Rocky Amt County, Waynesboro area. Clearly, it seems green counties at capacity. Seems Almaro counties does not welcome the development.

Charlottesville City is done right there. Maybe there's a smidge in Louisa, and you can go after the Eli Lilly $5, 6 billion dollars that's being infused into Eli Lilly, the pharmaceutical giant. But it seems to me the low-hanging fruit is Augusta and Rocky. So I'll play develop. a little bit here.

There's a great opportunity here because most of the jurisdictions have kind of wound down their by-right subdivisions. So take Fulvana County, for example, they've gotten rid of their cluster development, and all you can do in Fulvana County now is five-lot subdivision on any size parcel. So where I think you guys are going to fit into this context of the business going forward, There may be a rise of developers that are willing to go out and buy 100 acres, slice it up into 10 lots or five lots or three lots, and then that's where you guys are going to shine, right?

And that's where I think the relationship building needs to go next, right? Because if you've got this tool to create this great product, but where in God's only name are I going to put them, build them? So I think if I was you guys in Schumacher, that's the conversations. I'd start having about is, okay, what jurisdiction and what location in these counties can we start carving up these spyrite subdivisions and start doing it? And certain counties are primate. Green is locked up for the big, larger PUD plan urban development projects.

But it's ripe for these smaller three to five lot subdivisions, and that's where you guys are going to shine. So if Schumacher is listening, that's why I start. Chumacher is listening. Multiple people from Schumacher are white. watching the show right now here. That's where I'd start doing some of my business planning. Do you guys want to touch on that? Rockham County, Augusta County, and what he's talking about?

Augusta County for sure. I mean, there's definitely land available. You know, I have a parcel that I'm meeting with someone that's a 15 lot parcel that we're going to most likely be putting it on the market before the weekend, which is today.

So there is definitely land is out there. It's just that we have to do our We have to do our drop and find it for these folks that are wanting to build with them. So the larger developers are going to stay away from those particular projects. Sure. They have to have water and sewer on them. The runway is so long and so difficult to get through.

The density has to be there to go ahead and get work. The path here is the by-right subdivisions and start looking at all the jurisdictions and going, okay, what is the by-right subdivision in these jurisdictions? and start making relationships with folks that are prepared to do that. Make their money on the dirt, sell the dirt to you guys or to your buyer. You build it, and they move on. I'm starting to rethink my development career again. You should.

We have a good builder that we could. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've heard. Just don't tell Yona that. No, no, no, I think I just got divorced. Caitlin, I'm sorry, go ahead. No, it's all good. I was just going to circle back about the lots that we have. that are available, they are for sale,

and they scoop these up, one, they're at the end of a cul-de-sac lane. And these two, we call them ghost listings. You can put, you know, one of probably 20 different, I mean, they have 80 different floor plans of these from award-winning architects, but you could put a variety of different floor plans on them, and that's what's so cool,

because if you have a lot, I have a lot that was a piece of land for some clients that was just sitting. It just wasn't the right time to have somebody bring whatever. We were going to try to revamp, and that's a thought to, again, come on the market maybe soon, but to put a proposed, detached home on it, to give people, again, that visual. You're talking to paper house. Paper house. Paper house, exactly.

Yeah. Ghost listing, that kind of thing, which is so neat. So if you have a piece of land or you are looking at that, and you're an agent out there and has a piece that isn't selling, Again, that's a thought to do that, to put a paperhouse on it, to really put that context and sort of put the visual to the piece of dirt, like with the lot vision at Tony mentioned. Absolutely. They have 184-page Home Builders Guide. So if you were to want to get your hands on one of those, I would say come out to them on home, visit me today from one to four again to 90 Grange Commons. I think that it will explain the whole process.

You can go to their website. It's a very detailed website. It explains everything. But if you have a client that has dirt that wants to build custom, it could be arranged from the sky's the limit with them. Comments continue to come in. Go ahead, Keith. I'm back on this by right because my brain is just moving.

here. Just looking at a parcel of land, adjoins Lake Monticello, it's 43 acres. I won't save the price because I think it's a bit overpriced. Put that aside, if you can acquire that for the right price and carve that up to five lots with a by-right subdivision, you don't have to go through Board of Supervisors, you don't have to do anything. It's just you go through the subdivision and the site plan process. That'd be a great place for five semi-custom homes. I think they've done it. I mean, this has been, when they're built in 14 states to say that this is a possibility for Schumacher, I would say this is, you know, in their sleep, yep, we've done this.

And this could be, since they're listening, it could be piquing their interests as well. Well, I mean, you've got folks literally positioning opportunities in the comment section right now, like this comment. There's 400 acres for sale right now by the airport. I don't know how many division rights there are. I'd hate to see two acre lots there, but something similar to phrase grant, mostly 21 acre lots. All estate quality homes would be lovely there.

I see literally half a dozen people trying to position opportunities on the feed here so we can talk about it because they realize that C-suite at Schumacher and executives at Howard Hanna are watching and listening to the program right now. Remember, we all work for commission here. I work for flat feet. Comments continue to come in.

Folks want this question as a topic. How would the panel characterize the real estate market right now? I guess just for me personally, I'm going to say, I think it depends on the area that you're in. I think that it is still a very hot market here clearly with those price points that you were saying where the market was for the fourth quarter. It's like that says that we're still a hot market. And, you know, I think it's with listings coming on, spring seems to be wanting to come early. If we can get it there. if the snow would melt and some green would pop through.

I think it was 10% every year over year. The fourth quarter market report came out that there were 1,000 sales year over year. So it's showing that we are still growing. If we could get some more inventory back out there. Again, wrapping around to interest rates. I think if they were just hovering in the sixes, gosh, if they dipped under six, I don't know what you all think,

but I think we would be. sort of in flight there for buyers to come off the fence. You put a five handle on the 30 fix. I think you would see a lot of folks that are golden handcuffed with the two or three percent rate secured during the pandemic. They would unleash that inventory. That inventory would come on market. We'd tap into ridiculous equity that's been accrued.

And I think you'd have a really hot market. Yeah, we'd have a COVID-COVID. We'd get the COVID-2.0. Yeah. They'd pull some rentals and put them on the market. Like, it doesn't make sense to have them, you know, as a, I have a, I have a, you know, I am one of those investors that did that. So, yeah.

There's so many folks that may not be happy in their home currently because it doesn't fit their current need, but are unwilling to get off a generally low or generationally low interest rate. And if we can drop the rate, that only... We've been enough years outside of the unicorn years of 2%, right? Yeah. And if it cracks consistently,

has a five handle in front of 5.99. It doesn't matter. It's not about the math. It's about the psychology, right? People will stop jumping into going and do this. And I've been tracking the market week over week. You know, I kind of stay on this a little bit ahead of everybody else. The spring market has sprung. We're running about a 1.3 pending versus active every seven days. So we're absorbing more every week than what's going on the market. which in my mind defines a so-called hot market. But if you take a look, and Jerry and I are going to spend a lot of time next Thursday where I got about 14 slides. And we preempted one of it. Yes, we did climb up 24 versus 25 in number of sales, but we dropped so much between 2020 and 2024 that that little uptick is good, but it's substantially below.

below where we were at our peak of 21-ish something along those lines. But look, I've said this on the show multiple times. I said it last year, I'll say it again this year. I have not been this excited about the real estate market in decades. It takes pros like the two that I'm looking at right now to actually navigate this and help people get from, hey, this is what I want to do to the finish line. And those of us that are pros in the business will continually do well. and just will rock.

Unfortunately, when you start looking at a million, almost 23% increase in a million plus, the people at the lower end of the price point is what's getting squeezed out. That's the big concern that I have. What market segment do you see really driving a lot of momentum? Tony and Caitlin. I mean, I think it's in the,

from price point 600 to 900 is where I think the sweet spot is. for me personally. Yep, a little above six. I mean, they have some incredible pricing. If you look on their website and you're going to say, wait a minute, starting at 500, that doesn't exist in our market. But, of course, that didn't include the dirt. But I agree.

I think we're inching up from the six to six and a half to nine and a half, 650 to 950, I mean. The Louisa County, we have a house at Lake Anna on the warm side. It's our 21st year, actually, having a house there, which we love. But Louisa County, we have seen change. much. I think it's really growing that way because we're pulling sort of the triangle of the Northern Virginia, Richmond Market, certainly from Charlottesville, but looking for for areas out there. And then, of course, your house stays rented at Lake Anna. I see, I see you positioning it on social

media. It's impressive. We love that house. Yeah. We do. It's a great waterfront property. And, you know, of course, it's slower seasonally now, but that's where we can do some, some home improvements inside and out. And yeah, Lake Anna is, it's incredible the market out there, too, how that is grown. So this middle section that we're missing, $1 million in the lower median, which is around 448, something like this, this product that you guys are bringing to the table fits right in the middle, which is the sweet spot. You're also going to see the rest of the new construction start hitting that middle, middle mark in some of the production guys, and we'll talk to those the end of this month are starting to tailor their product to kind of hit that mark,

hit that price point because the buyer pool there is huge. There's just nothing for them to buy. So you guys are going to be usually successful with this and particularly this semi-custom niche that I think is desperately needed in the market. You're going to be successful. Your friends at St. Martine are watching the program right now? Cool. Thank you.

Watching the show. We have folks that are watching the program all. over the Commonwealth of Virginia, all over Charlottesville, Elmore County, Crozay, Ivy, Louisa, Orange, Green, Northern Virginia, Southwestern Virginia, the Roanoke Valley, Richmond watching the program, Hampton Roads, folks in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee watching the program as we speak. See the Akron heat map on our, on our heat map, our IP heat map right here. Comments continue to come in. Before we head to the finish line here, I always offer an opportunity for the panel. Anything we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're we're missing that we have not covered. That should be highlighted, Tony. I mean, I think that seeing is believing, so I'm just going to say one more time, come out to the model house, schedule an appointment, get your eyes on the actual product so you can see how spectacular it is,

and seen as believing. So I'll be there today again for one to four at 290 Grange Commons Ridge and Ruckersville. So come check it out. Yeah, I will echo that. I mean, you really, again, the visual of having Schumacher in this neighborhood in our sandbox, if you will. You may see a big billboard on 29. Bring your lot, Schumacher. And reach out to Tony and I, and if you have any questions, we'd love to talk to you.

And really, go check out the model home. You can see their attention to detail. And they really are, again, the family-owned business is nice just like Howard Hanna, because it puts sort of the personal on there. Whereas there's certainly a niche. that a production builder hits. Schumacher also hits this niche of really wanting to make it your perfect home, which is really, really awesome. And we have some great builders in this area.

I love working with a lot of our builders, but I think this brings sort of that medium, and it is I'm excited that it's a new product. What they do is they bring the buying power of a production national builder, right, and those cost savings into the semi-custom slash custom world, which is difficult to do as a small builder, obviously. Large builders, they, you know, Ryan buys train loads full of lumber, so forth and so on. So that's the interesting thing.

They're bringing that buying power and they're passing it along. Yep, yep. To the buyer and to the folks that they're trying to build with them, which is a unique model. I don't know of anybody else doing that in the marketplace. You have a busy schedule plan for Real Talk. I do, I do. thank you for bringing that up.

We're focusing on new construction this month, but next Thursday, next Friday, Jerry and I are going to tear into all these slides I posted, tear into a little bit of the car report, see where I think they got it right, they got it wrong kind of thing from my perspective. Oops, that I'm supposed to say that. Oops. And then

I've got Stanley Martin coming in later in the month, and then we've got Ross Envoy Mortgage with Scott Morris come in to talk a little bit about this 5% and what we're going to do. And next month, I'm excited about it. We've got a political roundtable. I'm calling it mayors and chairs, and we're going to have three

elected chairs from the board of supervisors here to talk about housing and how we can get more housing for us to sell and help our clients. This is Real Talk with Keith Smith, the show archived at real talk with Keith Smith.com. I thought Keith

Smith, Caleb Mancini, and Tony Jarrett did a fantastic job today for the viewers and listeners that want to watch the full interview, find it online. The I Love Seville show is up at 1230, and folks, we have some content at 1230 that you are not going to want to miss. That is going to have an impact locally of significance. Judah Woodcower is behind the camera. Thank you kindly for joining us. So long, everybody. Thanks guys. Thank you, guys. I told you it, Flo. Thank you. Thank you. Good luck today.