The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Woody Fincham & Jerry Miller Were Live On “Real Talk With Keith Smith!"

Episode Date: June 13, 2025

Woody Fincham of Fincham & Associates, Inc. & Jerry Miller were live 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 Charlottesville Settlement Company, LLC, El Mariachi Mexican Bar & Grill, Fincham & Associates, Inc., Free Enterprise Forum, Intrastate Service Co, Mejicali and YES Realty Partners.

Good Friday morning, guys. My name is Jerry Miller, and thank you kindly for joining us on Real Talk with Keith Smith. An absolute pleasure to connect with you guys on the I Love Seaville Network. Keith Smith and Jonas Smith celebrating their wedding anniversary for one last weekend, ladies and gentlemen, in the Caribbean. So Keith, not in the studio, but we have welcomed the fabulous Woody Fincham into the program to fill the seats of Keith Smith. And Woody Fincham, ladies and gentlemen, is a talented appraiser. He is a man that lectures and teaches at a number of stops in our country. He is a known commodity. I'll say this. I'll embarrass the

man a little bit. He is a known commodity in the appraisal world across the country. I can say that with confidence and conviction. He is certainly a known commodity in Charlottesville, Almar county and central Virginia where his firm Fincham and Associates is the market leader at what they do. If you need anything from a consultation standpoint, an appraisal standpoint, a second set of eyes, we very much encourage you to reach out to Woody Fincham and his team at Fincham and Associates because they are masters at what they do. Judah Wickauer, my friend, if you could go to the studio camera and a two-shot for those that do not know you, Woody Fincham, a brief introduction and then let's get into the

nitty-gritty, my friend. I run a firm called Fincham and Associates. We're centered here in Charlottesville, specialize in consulting and real estate appraisal. Work all over the state doing trophy and luxury property and run of the mill everyday kind of residential real estate here. Also have a couple of colleagues that we work with

doing some commercial assignments and non-residential stuff. So staying pretty busy with that stuff. Market today, my friend, how's she looking? Start open-ended. Yeah, I mean, it's it looks great. I mean, who would have thought two years ago when rates changed the way they did that we would still have so much gas going and it's I mean, the foot still on the pedal, it's still going along. We're seeing a lot of cash buyers in the market, particularly in the higher end market. They're paying more than less still. I mean, it's amazing. A third

roughly folks of transactions in the car footprint, right around a third all cash. Cash continues to be king, which makes sense with interest rates north of 7%. Why don't we start at the top of the market that seems to be moving? What are you following trend wise at that top price point? And here's another question for you as we springboard into that conversation. What is now the luxury price point? What's the starting point for luxury now?

I mean, luxury is going to be in excess of three million now. I mean, with Trophy Properties, I mean, we've done a few recently around the region in the 10 million, 15 million dollar range. I mean, those are, you know, they're big estates though. the region in the $10 million, $15 million range. Those are big estates though. They're not your run of the mill real estate at all. The market continues to simulate the impact of the University of Virginia is obvious. We'll talk about that in a matter of

moments here. How about the entry price point? What are you seeing at the first time home buyer level, the entry level? Lake Monticello, where I live at, that subdivision, you know, it's a good place to watch for things like that. And you're still in the 2 to 250 range. If you can find them, if they hit the market, they're gone. Investors want them and they'll grab them in a second. But we are, most of your first timers are going to be out in the rural areas and you're going to be somewhere in the $300,000 range give or take. Live on Woody's Facebook page, guys, for the viewers and listeners that follow Woody Fincham,

put your comments in the feed. We will relay them live on air. Realtors watching across the board, which excites us. Let us know your questions, guys, and we will put them in the feed as well. Transactions and the car footprint. Speeding up, slowing down. They're staying constant. I'm just looking at my stats here, just pulling them up on the screen. Bear with me just one second. Sorry. It locked me out. I know we've had over 100 go on the market and we've had at least that many go off the market in the last week.

Let me get your numbers here for you. No problem. So the the the transactions guys, the sales staying constant in the car footprint, and again cash continues to be king with about a third of those being cash buyers. The the realtors, they're still moving. They're still moving the needle. Still coveted place to live here, Woody. Yeah, I mean for sure. I mean we're blessed to be here and, you know, folks want to come here and invest here as well. But the numbers that you're asking about, Jerry,

we're looking at 112 new and 102 sold. And that's going to be in the five county footprint. The inventory, guys, is uptick. And talk to us about the summer market. Are we going to see a drop or are we seeing a drop come summertime with families going on vacation and kids out of school? Well, traditionally, we normally do see a little bit of

a leveling out. But we were going slow into the summer market. April was a little bit of an anomaly in that it did kind of pump the brakes a little bit. I mean, mortgage applications I know went down. A few of the loan officers that I talked to around town, they were saying they didn't have anything in the pipeline. And then, of course, they're getting busy again. I think we've just had another spike in applications from mortgages. So

hopefully it means we're going to keep pumping along steadily. I hope the same. Why don't we talk rates. The expectation now is that rates are going to stay in this environment. They're going to stay in this environment and that upper sixes to low sevens range depending on your credit profile, the assets you have on hand throughout 2025 and some are saying into 2026. Do you think the expectation now from buyers is, hey, we know this is the environment and we're okay with it so we want to get into the pool? Yeah, I think so. I mean, it takes consumers sometimes a little while to get used to it. I mean, we're never going to return. I don't think we'll get back to that once in a

generation market we had with the COVID stuff. And I think folks were really happy with that, of course, but we're never going to return to it. I mean, if we move, you know, 50 basis points one way or the other, it seems like a lot right now. I think it's going to stay pretty steady. I mean, of course, international conflicts that are arising, who knows? I know petroleum is getting ready to go crazy, but I guess we'll have to wait and see how that affects everything else. If you just, you know, if you haven't read the news yet, I'll give you kind of the cliff notes of what's happening.

Iran launched more than 100 drones toward Israel this morning after Israel's overnight missile strike on the country killed at least three of its senior military leaders. So Iran and Israel on the cusp of war here and of course, I guess in war I should say. Of course Ukraine and Russia is still ongoing. That's why if you're driving around town and you're like what the hell is going on, gas is spiked. In some cases I'm seeing on the gas tracking websites right now in our area, they've spiked 35 to 40 cents a gallon overnight. The impact that has on real estate, Woody. I mean, it makes the consumers buying power diminishes

because now the cost of goods are gonna go up. I mean, those trucks that are, you know, taking everything out to the stores and bringing food to the grocery stores, I mean, all that's gonna cost more for them. It's gonna make consumer goods go up. So that means that the normal consumers are gonna have less money in their pocket.

Does it soften any pockets in the car footprint, real estate-wise? I don't think so. Our market's got a lot of buyers and consumers with a lot of means. The statistic of having over a third of our transactions as cash buyers shows that. We're talking with folks that have a lot of money in the bank and they can pull money from investments and things like that. So they tend to, it doesn't affect us as much, but the folks that are working hourly jobs, it's certainly going to affect them.

Ladies and gentlemen, let us know your thoughts. Put them in the feed. We'll relay them live on air. Bill McChesney, welcome to the broadcast. We've got folks at the TV station down the street watching us right now. Barbara Bossick, she's in the feed. We'll relay them live on air. Bill McChesney, welcome to the broadcast. We've got folks at the TV station down the street watching us right now. Barbara Bostic, she's in the game. She's watching the show. Barbara, let us know your thoughts. Michael Plecker, hello. Carol Thorpe, hello. Thank you for watching the program. Katie Pearl, Dr. John Shabe, the owner of Pro Renata. Supervisor Jesse Rutherford, hello. Thank you kindly

for watching the program. Logan Wells-Claylow, Ray Kaddell, Tom Powell on the broadcast today. So the market reflective this year, certainly not of COVID period where it was bananas. Are we using 2019 still as the barometer, this market symbolic of what we saw in 2019? It's as close as we're gonna get, but I mean, our new normal is who knows? I mean, we're in uncharted territories

as far as being able to say what it's going to do. I mean, we got it, you know, Charlottesville for a long time up until COVID. You could pretty much figure out what was going to go on if you paid attention. You know, rates changing the way they've changed over the last two years. But again, with consumers normalizing to it,

that's probably a good way to look at it, but who knows? Do we think a portion of the buying population still is on the sidelines as wallflowers? Well, life happens, right? People that are going to have children, they need to move for work, things of that nature, that pushes people into the market. They have lifestyle changes or life event changes. So that's definitely going to make people get,

they'll normalize to it quicker because they have to. But I mean, like my wife and I, you know, we're 2.9% on our mortgage. I'm not going anywhere. I mean, we were talking the other day about, you know, as we get older, we might want a one story. But I mean, if I leave this house, I'm going to hold on to it. I mean, it's an investment for us at this point.

Vanessa Parkhill in Earliesville, thank you for watching the program. Folks, put the comments in the feed. We'll get to them here in a matter of moments here. Intriguing comment, how does the first time home buyer compete into this market? Thank you, Thomas, for that question. That's hard.

I mean, I've talked to a lot of realtors and I talk to them all the time. You know, if you've got a first time home buyer and they don't have the ability to have quite a bit of money to put down and they can't buy over, you know, 400, 500,000 dollars worth of home, they're really struggling to find it. So it's just a matter of, you know, finding a real estate professional to work with to represent you that is really good at bird dogging property, meaning they can find things that are maybe coming onto the market. We're starting to see a little bit of an uptick in rehabs and flips. Once you get out to the rural areas, you'll see, I mean, they're certainly going to be more of the first time homebuyer size,

900 square feet, 1,100 square feet, three bedroom, one bath kind of deal. But you're going to see more of that out in the rural areas and the extremes of the market which means folks are going to have to commute but if you need to get a house that's what you do. Questions continue to come in here. Is Woody seeing concessions, seller concessions in today's market? They still exist. It's common for concessions to be somewhere around 2.5 to 3 percent so it's not unusual

to see it but of course with the cash sales there's usually no concessions to be somewhere around 2.5 to 3%. So it's not unusual to see it, but of course with the cash sales, there's usually no concessions with those. This question's come in, are home inspections returning? Yeah, we're seeing a lot of that. I've had several appointments over the last several months either hold or cancel because of home inspection issues. They'll call us up and say, well, we don't want to waste the money on an appraisal

if we find something, so we're gonna put this off for a week or so and we'll get back with you kind of thing. So buyers are paying attention to it. Interesting comment here. To Jerry's point, does he expect softening in the outer counties or the other side of the mountain with gas prices going up?

I mean, if you're gonna work in Charlottesville and you want a home, you're gonna have to be in an outlying area. So if you're a first time home buyer, someone that's, you know, below that $500,000 mark. So I mean, you're gonna, those are the folks who are gonna get affected most by petroleum because, you know, they're gonna have to commute in

and because of that, it's gonna make life harder on them, for sure. Danielle Shreve, welcome to the broadcast. Thank you kindly for watching the show. Viewers and listeners, you know Danielle. That's my niece. Okay, thank you, Woody's niece, for watching the program. Put your comments in the feed, we'll relay them live on air, all offer some perspective

myself and then get to the comments that I'm seeing here. Did we see any stabilizing? We're now almost six months into Trump's second term here. Anything that you've seen from the Trump administration impacting real estate, Charlottesville, Almarlin, Central Virginia? I mean, business has kind of been trucking along the way it always has here.

I mean, I don't know if we're isolated or what. Our community is continuing to go strong as far as the real estate market goes. But I've not seen anything that really concerns me at this point. Do we see any concerns, you were the first to bring this to my attention and I've been following it closely, with some of the federal cuts with INGIC, with the government sector, Department of Government Efficiency, any impact on that locally? Yeah, I mean, if anything happens with the ground intelligence center, it's going to

affect people. But I mean, they're still there. They're still working hard. I mean, there's a lot for them to do right now in the world. And you know, we're not seeing any negative impact from anything to do with them. I mean, green has changed completely just because of that complex and all the businesses around it. So, you know, we're lucky to have them here.

What jurisdiction are you doing most business in? Well, we specialize in oddity stuff more than regular stuff. But in the most of the regular stuff we're doing, I'm doing quite a bit over in the valley because I'm one of the few VA appraisers over there. And but we're still really doing a lot of work at Lake Monticello. We're doing a lot of work all around and our litigation work takes us all over the state as well. So I mean, I've got assignments now in Virginia Beach. I've got something in Williamsburg, working at something in Fockier.

So we're kind of all over the place right now. Viewers and listeners, let us know your thoughts. We'll relay them live on air. We'll give some props, ladies and gentlemen, to John Blair. Love when John is on the show. I've been highlighting the tax environment in Almar County of late. I think we have a significant election that's happening

in the Jack Jewett district with Sally Duncan and Dave Shreve. Duncan has indicated that she wants to significantly uptick density in Almar County if she's elected housing density. And she's indicated in campaign material that she's not opposed to additional taxes to fund housing affordability. And she's of the mindset that additional rooftops in Elmora County will generate more revenue

for the county. A lot of folks are concerned about that, me included. I don't think Dave Shreve is a perfect candidate. He's her opposition. He's far from perfect, but he's of the mindset that the county does not need more density. He's also the mindset that additional taxes is only gonna impact those that are financially strapped, retirement, concerned about being gentrified out of Alamaro.

Curious, open-ended question for you here, how this tax environment in Alamaro County is impacting housing, real estate, and people affording to live here. I mean, it's definitely gonna push people out. I mean, I sit on the Board of Equalization for Fluvanna County, and I'm not speaking on behalf of the board whatsoever, but you know, that's a concern that a lot

of our citizens had coming in for challenging their assessments this year. You know, these's a concern that a lot of our citizens had coming in for challenging their assessments this year. You know, these are older folks that are living on fixed income and you know, they on average and flu Vanna, we went up 27% and if you have a house that's under 1300 square feet, which is the most competitive niche, they went up almost 40%. So I mean, if you're on a fixed income, that's a big hit to your household budget. So it is gonna push people out. I mean, if we expand the development corridor

in Albemarle, which, you know, all of us real estate professionals think that's a great idea, but it has to be done with intention to harm as few people as possible if you do that. More people mean more resources that the county has to have to provide for them. So I mean, it's got that money has to come from somewhere.

Expanding the development quarter, he means the 5% allocated for development in our county. Right now development can happen in 5% of our county. You think that is a good idea? I think that if it's done in a way that stays along the development corridors that we're got, you're never going to get into Ivy too far. You're never going to get out past Whitehall and places like that. I mean, most of that real estate is under conservation easement. So unless the state would come in and say, we're going to take it for eminent domain purposes, like there's a big case like that getting ready to happen in New Jersey.

You know, it's a farm in the middle of a place that's got nothing but industrial and commercial. And the states come in and say, hey, we're going to take this because you guys won't sell it. And that could happen here. I'm not aware of it ever happening in Virginia, but as that becomes more of a finite thing. And to your point about 5%, Jerry, actually it's less than 5%. Yeah, because of the topography. All the property in that 5% zone can't be developed or some of the property won't be developed because people don't

want to develop it. Right. And he's 100% right. That 5% is not a full 5%. Topography is an impact. Impacting that 5%. Michael Pruitt has kind of floated the idea of subbing out land acreage that's not in the development area for acreage that is in the development area that cannot be developed. He highlights Rivanna Village which is that Glenmore area, the area around Glenmore, the neighborhood outside the gates where the community inside the gates of Glenbor fought to have a lot of development happen.

And he said, well, if we're not going to do development here, why don't we sub out this for some other piece that's outside the development area and then we can start developing there to solve a problem. Your thoughts on that? It's gaining some momentum with the board. I don't know a lot about it, but it sounds like almost a sound plan. But again, there's always unintended consequences with that kind of stuff. So I'd have to know a little bit more about it to really tell you what I thought about it. I wish Fluvanna would pick up some more. I wish Louisa is development friendly, but it's taken them a while to get any more. Spring Creek's getting ready to dry up, and that's not exactly affordable anyway.

So... I mean, Spring Creek, one of the hottest neighborhoods in central Virginia. It is. I mean, houses I was appraising for less than a half a million are selling close to a million now, and that was just a few years ago. It baffles me. I'm getting old because I'm looking at stuff going, it's not like it used to be. Thank you for sharing the show, guys, for those that are doing that.

Comments, put them in the feed. William McChesney, we appreciate you sharing the show around McIntyre Road. I've touched on this and we'll break some news on the I Love Seville show. We'll kind of tease it now. The six luxury brownstones on 303 Alderman Road, Evergreen Builders and Developers, were going to ‑‑ they purchased a brick rancher in the Lewis Mountain neighborhood for north of $800,000. And their idea was to do six luxury brownstones in the place of this brick

rancher. They had a sign up on the front of the brick rancher, six luxury brownstones coming. That sign taken down yesterday, completely taken down, the six luxury brown stone sign coming soon. Maybe it's an indication that Evergreen with the Lewis Mountain neighborhood is not going to pursue this plan anymore. We also have some clarity in the new zoning ordinance lawsuit. June of next year is when it goes to court. So this zoning ordinance is an absolute standstill. More than a year before this gets some time in court here. Charlottesville first open

added then we'll get to zoning. What are you seeing with the city of Charlottesville real state wise? I mean it's a hot commodity. If you want to be in town you're going to spend a lot of money to be here. Everything that goes on the market and it's priced well usually sells for more than it's been listed for. I mean it's amazing to me how many folks are coming in and willing to pay more. And it's nothing that the real estate agents are doing wrong either. It's just it's a really hard market to really to quantify and really it's going to come down to what the buyer and the seller really want to do. Have you seen any impact at all from zoning in Charlottesville? I mean, there's a lot of folks that are floating around that are on the investor side.

I mean, I've got a few clients right now that are looking at trying to figure out if they want to hold and wait for this lawsuit or if they want to just go ahead and do something now because if the lawsuit comes out in their favor or for the folks that want to have more density, they will be able to build way more units per lot than they would be otherwise. So what they're trying to figure out, my carrying costs right now, can we wait two years to do something? And in those situations, what we're doing are hypothetical values, just looking at, well, if the new zoning was in

effect right now, what would the value be versus what's the value with the as is zoning. Of course the value would be much higher in that situation. So in Arlington, I learned this yesterday, our guest Jerry Cox, an attorney from the Forerunner Foundation who is following zoning all over the commonwealth, he was our guest on the I love Seville show. He also lives in the Lewis Mountain neighborhood. So he's actively following zoning in the city. And Arlington, the county of Arlington lost its zoning play. Homeowners sued the county, said they didn't

do the proper due diligence with this new zoning ordinance that Arlington County put into play. Multiple judges recused themselves of being involved in this case. Finally, the third judge said, you're right, Arlington County is wrong. The folks that are suing the county are right. Arlington County is since appealing the judge's decision. So it's in appeal right now. There are homes that were built under the new zoning ordinance in Arlington County. And are homes that were built under the new zoning ordinance in Arlington County. These homes are now trying to be sold. In the language of the contract, in the listing of the contract, it says look, you can buy this house, but if the appeal doesn't go through,

you may have to tear it down because it's not criteria, does not fit the criteria of zoning if this case does not go the way of Arlington County. And the attorney that joined us on the show yesterday said anyone that's considering doing building in Charlottesville under the new zoning ordinance, thinking the new zoning ordinance is going to survive, should look at what's happening in Arlington County because the realtors are having to list houses that were built under this radical new zoning in Arlington saying if it doesn't go the way that Arlington County wants, what you're buying here may have to be torn down.

And that just boggles my mind. Yeah, I mean, that's a lot of liability because everybody involved in the transaction in that situation, if they've got to tear it down, they're going to sue the real estate agents involved, they're going to sue the appraiser involved, the home, everybody's going to get sued. The title company will get sued. So I mean, anybody writing title work on that, anybody wanting, you know.

Well, how do you even write title work on that? I mean, that's my guess. And, you know, as an appraiser, if I'm appraising something like that, I mean, I have to call that out on the report. And that's a very risky position for a lender to be in too. I mean, you're gonna. How would you even lend on that? I don't think they should. I mean, whether or not they will or not, that's another question.

Louis Delgado watching the broadcast yourself. Hey buddy. So how do you characterize then what's happened in Charlottesville? I mean, we have plaintiffs suing the city. We have a third party law firm representing the city because they don't have a city attorney that's misfiling deadlines. The plaintiffs are now saying to the judge who lives in the city and is a homeowner,

whose wife is a housing activist who openly was petitioning, protesting, proclaiming that the new zoning ordinance should materialize because she's a housing activist. The plaintiffs are screaming conflict of interest here. Missing filing deadlines potentially in default. I mean, has nothing really materialized? This is a soap opera. I mean, not to talk about federal politics, but I mean, look at the Supreme Court. We've got a sitting justice there with a wife that's

kind of a loose cannon. And they've continued to say that it's not a conflict of interest for them to write opinions on the court. So does that filter down to our local courts? Maybe, maybe not. I don't know. It's definitely not my will house or expertise. But that I've had a few investors reach out

wanting us to do some consulting with them like I was talking about. That tells me that people are trying to act as prudently as they can because you know you don't want to lose everything you've you've put your money into because you can't forecast exactly what's going to happen. So your your wife Laurie Fincham watching the she says, how can someone even get a loan on a property like that house in Arlington that has the language and the listing? Well, what will end up happening is it won't be in the contract. You'll get an out of town appraiser to come in that doesn't understand it. And the retail mortgage company won't have any idea what's going on because they're

from, they're headquartered someplace else. And so it's easy for stuff like that to filter through, unfortunately. Unbelievable. And to his point, this is why you use local professionals, local lenders, local appraisers and real estate agents and realtors that know the market. Kevin Yancey, welcome to the broadcast. He lives in Waynesboro. How about a snapshot of Waynesboro to Augusta County for Kevin Yancy?

It's doing well. I mean, it's still, we do a lot of work over there again because of the VA panel and just some regular conventional work as well. I mean, I'm getting ready to do two different partial release assignments over in Augusta County, which is where people are taking larger pieces of land and they're selling off a portion of it. And if they have a mortgage, I don't have to understand what the impact of the value is going to be. So I mean, it's still pumping along the way it always has. I mean, it's a strong market. Logan Wells Claylow, questions put them in the feed. James Watson, hello, thank you for watching the program. Holly Foster and Henrico. Stephanie Wells-Rhodes watching the program

and Keswick, we love when you guys watch the show. Comments coming in here. We'll relay them to Woody Fincham. This is an incredible question that I'm sure you get all the time. And by incredible, I mean, I know you hear this constantly. Does he expect rates or is he hearing that rates are going to drop which would stir even more activity into this market? I don't think rates are going anywhere right now. I mean, there's nothing indicating that we're going to see a rate drop. Miklos Los Perros watching the program in Mexico. He's giving you some props right now on your Facebook page.

Hey, Aaron, how you doing, buddy? Oh, was that a nickname he's got? Yeah, yeah. He goes by Aaron. Hello, Aaron. This comment's come in. What's up with all the price reductions that are going on? You know, the market, some sellers are still a little zealous. I mean, we know that in our firm because we get hired to do a lot of pre-listing appraisals for agents who are dealing with difficult sellers.

They still think they're in, you know, just the COVID mindset, you know, that they can get whatever they want for their properties. And in certain segments of the market, yes, things are going to sell more than list and other parts, they're not. So I mean, if you're in a middle class market or thereabouts, you're, you know, you're going to see some adjusting because folks are trying to hit it too aggressively. You touched on this comments come in, you touched on flipping is coming back, can you put more perspective into why flipping is coming back? Well, I mean, there is more, not more, but you know, there is foreclosure inventory out there and there's always, you know, the older folks, some folks will pass away and they

don't have air. So that, you know, gets into a situation where, you know, very, and people that are going to bird dogging property can really find them. I mean, I've got, I must get 10 emails a day from various agents and investors around and they're just sending the blasted emails out to everybody, hey, if you know anybody who's got a piece of property that they need to sell because of grandma going in their retirement home or something like that that needs repair, we buy those all day. And they're looking for those because they want to get them and flip them and we're not seeing as many folks wanting to buy them and hold them for rent anymore. It seems like they want to flip more.

The investment opportunities and that deal flow is certainly coming across my desk as well and where I'm seeing a lot of those investment opportunities is not necessarily in Elmora County. The point that he made is it's kind of on the outskirts of central Virginia where the houses are priced more affordably for purchase. Yep. And then the investment opportunities that I'm seeing, the folks are, I don't want to say lipstick on a pig,

but like the cosmetic work. And then turning around and trying to do a quick flip is what I'm seeing. This question's come in. Can you offer some insight into multifamily in the area? Multifamily's not really my specialty. I know that with the university here, multifamily does have a strong market,

but the real estate appraisers who do that, we actually, I don't think we have anybody in town that really specializes in multi, most of it's folks from other parts. So I'm not the right guy to really answer that question, sorry. No, no problem. How about commercial? I know that's not your specialty either, but you do could do some commercial. I do some. Most of the commercial I'm gonna work on are gonna be things like equestrian hobby farms or working farms that have residential components with them.

Conservation easement work, that kind of stuff. That's not usually what a normal residential appraiser would do. I know my colleague Heather Placer-Moll. She's watching and just like the show. Yeah, Heather's busy. I mean, she's always running around doing stuff appraisal related and brokerage related because she's also a broker. But all my colleagues on the commercial side are staying really busy. Viewers and listeners, let us know your thoughts. We'll put them in the feed. This question we get all the time, it's come on the feed again.

Why are there not more condo sales in this area? Condos are gold. I mean, if you've got a condo unit that you wanna live in, great, but most of them, not most of them, but a good amount of them are rentals. Someone gets ahold of anything around the hospital or the university, I mean, that's immediately

gonna be a great option for a rental. And we're seeing a lot of midterm rentals, meaning, you know, traveling nurses and things like that, they're going to be there not for, you know, short term is going to be less than 30 days, not like the Airbnb model. That doesn't really work in that market, but it does work for midterms where they'll have three or four nurses or whatever, each will have a room inside of a condo and they can walk to the hospital. Though those things are really strong.

That's why people aren't selling them because they're cash cows. This question's come in, Woody Fincham, you said you live in Lake Monticello. We've seen some properties stay longer on the market at the Lake Monticello. What's going on there? Mr. Pricing.

I mean, either that or there's something going on with the property itself. Is that what you've seen as well? Yeah, I mean mean if you've got a bad foundation on a piece of property, I'm not speaking about anything specifically of course But I mean or you know a property that's really torn up That stuff won't qualify for V or FHA and a lot of conventional programs won't allow a torn-up house either They're gonna want some repairs being done to it and you know, it's just not something that lenders want to deal with And if they over priceice them, of course, folks are not going to buy them.

Questions continue to come in. People like when Woody Fincham is on the show. I'll highlight some of the viewers and listeners and get to this question for you about acreage. The question on acreage, as you can get thinking about this one, is how is acreage valued by one acre or less, or the, so I'm gonna have to paraphrase this for the viewer.

I think what they're saying is, if you have a house that has multiple acres on it, do you take what one acre in Alamora County is selling for and times that by the acres you have? And I can answer that for them. It doesn't work that way. It doesn't. Maybe you can offer that perspective there. I'll highlight Lauren and Ivy that's watching the program.

I'll highlight Evan that's watching the program. Poles, thank you for watching. Colleen Tyler's in the game. She's watching the program. G Milo, hello. Jehu, hello. Michael Pruitt, hello. Watching the program.

Scott Thorpe, hello. Dave Warwick, hello. So the acreage question for you. So acreage is one of the most difficult things to appraise. It's difficult to do because you have to understand highest and best use analysis. And I'm not going to get into an appraisal lecture here, but what I will say is that the most valuable part

of any piece of acreage is going to be the actual home site. So depending on where you're at in location, your home site is going to be somewhere between two to five acres. Anything beyond that side they're going to be what we classify as excess or surplus acreage. So the bulk of your per acre value is in that home site. Anything excess to that or surplus to that and the difference between excess and surplus, excess means you can do something else with that. You can subdivide it and make it even more valuable. But surplus just means it's just additional land that goes along with it. As you have more of that, it diminishes in economies of scale. It's

going to diminish in value. It's all worth more in most cases, but it's not going to be worth as much per acre as that home site is going to be. And that's what a lot of folks, every time a piece of land sales, they want to talk about what the per acre price of it is. And that's an easy way for us to all think about it. But I mean, there's going to be as you know, your first five acres are going to be worth a whole lot, your next 20 acres going to be worth less. And then when you get 20 or 50 acres out from that, that's going to be worth even less.

So it diminishes as you get bigger. That's a good explanation. Try. That's a very good explanation. Andy Austin. That's a good explanation. Try. That's a very good explanation. Andy Austin giving you props on that explanation. AA. Lawrence Sparrow giving you props on that explanation. Another niece. Like and share the show guys. Put your comments to the feed. We'll relay them live on air. Folks are highlighting, Kevin is, that Augusta County is the potential goal. That there's so much land and a jurisdiction that's eager to develop. Any thoughts on Augusta County is the potential goal, that there's so much land and a jurisdiction that's

eager to develop. Any thoughts on Augusta County? I mean, it's a great location. My son and his wife live there. That's where they had their first home. They're now in Chesterfield. I don't disagree with what he's saying. At some point, leadership's going to look at it and see if it's sustainable to continue

to allow a lot of development, but land's expensive even over there. I mean, you know, all the development that we've got going on right now by the national builders, like NBR and some of the other regional and state level builders, is because they bought cheap land back when the market crashed. You know, they were buying things with pennies on the dollar compared to what it was, what the previous owners had it for. And so there was a lot of land that they could get that was actually affordable. Land's not affordable anymore and no one's going to just give it away. So it's going to become a challenge over there too at some point.

Does he see, do you see any development happening in Charlottesville? In the city or? Yeah. I mean, there's not a lot of places to develop. You see a lot of redevelopment I think that's gonna become the flavor more so than anything else But a lot of that's gonna really hinge on how this case comes out I mean if the courts decide that they don't like the new zoning then that's gonna change a lot of things

We have Roger voice in a and Richard price On Wednesday show they're the developers behind Woolen Mills. Roger is a great guy. So we're going to talk about that with Roger and Richard on Wednesday's show. Comments continue for Woody Fincham. Does he expect this is an interesting one. Does he expect tear downs to happen in the city because there's nothing left to develop? When it makes sense, sure. It's got to be a financially feasible situation.

I've worked on a couple of projects where people were paying quite a bit for a home that was okay, but the anticipation of the new zoning, they picked it up thinking we can buy this and put four units on it or five units on it or some of the zoning will allow you to keep the original structure and you can get density behind that as well. So it really, it has to make sense for someone to do it. I mean, no one's in the business to try to lose money. So they're going to look at it and see, construction costs is still really high. Materials have not gone down really. So, I mean, it's really going to have to be a piece of property that someone can acquire at almost a discount and then, you know, have some room to make some improvement to it to make money.

Interesting comment here. You said that you do a lot of the quirky or unique work in appraisal business. And this viewer wants to know what that exactly means. That means anything anybody else doesn't want to do. I had a mentor many years ago that said, you know, do work with people that want to work with you and not with people that have to work with you. And it's good advice. A lot of appraisers in the residential part of the business, they want to be in a very defined box.

They're comfortable in forest lakes. They're comfortable in Lake Monticello to a large degree. But when you get out into large acreage and you get out into properties that are struggling with condition and things like that, that's stuff that folks often want to pass on. I often have private clients reach out to me and say, hey, we've caught three or four appraisers in the area and they also had to call you because they don't want to do it. Which is a wonderful compliment and I always make the joke when I'm teaching that my firm is kind of like the old life cereal commercials. Mikey will eat it. We'll do it if nobody else is going to do it.

Our youngest son we've monikered, give it to Mikey. He'll eat it. He'll eat absolutely everything. My grandson is the same way. That made me chuckle. He'll eat everything. Business is the same way. That made me chuckle. You literally will eat everything. So business is humming for you. Yeah, I mean, we're doing well. I mean, we're not making the revenue that we were during COVID. But no one is.

Yeah, right, right. But we're kind of phasing in a different direction too. I mean, I've been building my business now since I started this business in 2019. I've been doing it 26 years. And when we started this one, 2019. I've been doing it 26 years. And when we started this one, you know, my son, who's 30, is my business partner. He likes all this commoditized work. He likes working for mortgage companies. He's still young. And he likes

to run. I'm getting to the age where I'm looking at it going, you know, I'd like to slow down a little bit and play with my grandkids. And so, you know, I have a bunch better return working on litigation assignments and things like that. Because we can build by the hour rather than, you know, doing the come out of ties work for lenders. I still love working for lenders, but I mean, you know, it's just, it's one of those things, you know? This is a comment from a past show.

Lori, by the way, says, our son, Zach, is Mikey. Yeah, Zach's definitely Mikey. Our son is called Zach as well, and he's also Mikey. But Lori, the interesting thing is your son, Zach, is with a K. We did Zach with an H. That's same names right there, and we both call Mikey. All right, this question for you. You mentioned in past shows that there

was drive-by appraisals happening, including some Uber drivers that were moonlighting as appraisals or appraisers or doing appraisal work. Is that still happening? Yeah. I mean, there's a big push because of the cost of appraisal. A lot of lenders look at appraisers as a speed bump in the transaction, and it's just a box that needs to be checked. And I don't mean individual loan officers. I mean, this is how the corporate corporate structure thinks. So what they're trying to figure out is how can we make more money or charge the borrowers less money so they'll come with us. So what they're doing is they're not drive by appraisals. If you're doing a drive by appraisal, you are an appraiser

usually. What I was talking about more specifically is what's called a hybrid appraisal. And what that is, is they'll send someone out to a piece of property and they scan the property. What that means is they take a device like this, put it on a tripod, and they're going to scan the outside of it, it measures it with LIDAR, they go into each of the rooms, it does a 360 degree spin, it's kind of like the Matterport stuff. Yeah, Matterport stuff.

Which is pretty awesome actually. It really is. I mean, the technology is wonderful. But what they're doing is they're getting folks that are not appraisers and saying, hey, we'll pay you $100, $75 or whatever, go out and spend three hours doing this. And they get to take that out of it. Then they'll go to appraisers and say, well, okay, we're going to give you an inspection report that you are 100% responsible for and liable for,

if that person didn't do it correctly, and use that information to write an appraisal and we'll give you 100 bucks for it. So, it's not a great thing and a lot of agents don't like it, that have dealt with it because, you know, they don't want just anyone in there. These folks are oftentimes, they are definitely not credentialed by the state and whether or not the corporation they're working for is doing background checks or not, I can't say. But to be an

appraiser you got to be fingerprinted, you got to be background checked and you got to have credentials to do it. So, you know, of course, it's competition to me so I'm not very friendly to it. And I recognize that I've got a bias there, but I just don't think it's prudent. I mean, this real estate appraisal is complicated, you know, and the people working in it should be competent that are doing it. We talked about this before the show. Artificial intelligence in the appraisal world.

Yeah. Go down that road. It's wonderful. My son, again, 30, he's young enough to really get into it. I mean, we create our own spreadsheets and a lot of stuff like that that we like to use. He'll run it through one of the bots. And it actually will tell you, you can efficiently program this differently and do a better job with it.

But I mean, my market analysis stuff, some of the stuff that I'm writing for classes, I'm running it all through large language models. And sometimes it makes it a lot better. Most of the time it makes it better. And it's very efficient. I'm sitting here the other day, I'm working on a white paper now, and it's a pretty complicated topic. So I'm just throwing it in there. It will give me an idea back and I can expand and expand on this point and expand on that point. It's just giving me all this different stuff. It helps me think a whole and much faster because I mean

something that would take me hours to research in a book. I mean it pulls it. You do have to watch it though. There's this thing that it's called hallucination and sometimes AI will make stuff up. Particularly when they're sighting something. I mean if you check the if you're using it for anything check whatever it's sighting because sometimes they just make up the links. Viewers and listeners, let us know your thoughts. Put them in the feed. We'll relay them live on air. This is one for me personally. Then we'll get to these comments. Does Woody think

or for me, Woody, do you think that we will continue to see transactions happen above appraised value? How many are happening above appraised value? In that scenario they need appraisal gap coverage where they're bringing cash out of pocket to the deal. Right. Yeah, with all the cash purchases we've got here locally and again over a third of the market's cash, they will pay more than list price usually. And they'll pay more than the property's worth. And that's an economic concept called

stretch pricing. And what that means is, you know, one buyer is willing to pay more than what it may be worth in the market. Now, that one sale may end up being a catalyst to changing the market. It often is. Because, you know, the next sale that happens is going to rely on that as a comp. So, I mean, we're seeing it a lot, particularly when you get up into the markets where folks can buy pretty much whatever they want. Comments here. This is one from multiple viewers and listeners that are on the comment section of my page. They're talking about the cost of labor when it comes to construction and

how it's escalating, which then is passed down to buyers. Labor and new construction and escalating costs the topic for you. Yeah, I mean, it's definitely making it difficult for builders to build and developers to develop land that builders want to build on because everything is so expensive. I mean, I'm aware of construction crews that are coming from places where they're not busy, like up in Pennsylvania or Ohio. They'll get a bunch of folks into a van and bring them down and they'll stick six people in a hotel room and every day they go out and work and send their money back home wherever they're from. It's a necessary evil right now for them to have to do

it because we just don't have the tradespeople here to do it. The amount of volume we've got going on and of course, the more supply and, just they can get a lot of wage right now for that. What are we going to do when, and UVA has been emphasizing this number a little more, when a few thousand additional people move to this area? We're going to pay more for real estate is what we're going to do. I mean, it's going to, everything's becoming even more finite because there's more buyers out there. The new biotech executive director, he's touting to the media that he's going to make Charlottesville the biotech capital of the country much like technology is in Silicon

Valley. He says his push, his mission with the Paul Manning Biotech Institute is to make it what Silicon Valley is to technology right here in Charlottesville. So he thinks he's gonna be the next Steve Jobs, okay. He thinks he's gonna make biotechnology that influential here. I mean that's gonna have a significant impact. I hope he's right. I mean you know anything that's good for the community but there's always with anything like that there's also gonna be some bad things that come along with it and again housing supply is one of those things. As long as we have municipalities that are

anti-development or they're not willing to try to accommodate it in a sustainable way, you're not going to have, there's not going to be a good outcome for people. I mean, at some point, we're not going to have people making lattes for the folks that are working in these places. It might be there now. Yeah, I mean, we're approaching it, for sure. We're not to the same level that like Vale or some of those communities are. But we've got to come up with some more creative ways of helping folks that work for an hourly wage have a place to live. Steven Roach says, costs don't drive prices. They drive residual land values down and rendered projects infeasible. If the costs automatically drove prices, they drive residual land values down and rendered projects infeasible. If the cost

automatically drove prices, then everything could get built because they would just pass on the costs. Steve Roach is one of my good friends and I consider him a mentor, San Diego guy and one of the most respected instructors out there doing what we do. The guy is the Mickey Manilow of what we do. Break down what he's saying. He's getting into the finite stuff that appraiser and real estate nerds talk about. I wasn't really listening. I was gushing a little bit that Steve was even watching. One more time. He says costs don't drive prices. They drive residual land

values down and rendered projects infeasible. If the costs automatically drove prices, they drive residual land values down and rendered projects infeasible. If the costs automatically drove prices, then everything could get built because they would just pass on the costs. Right. Well, that's true to a point, I think. And Steve's much smarter about this stuff than I am. But I would say, too, that at some point, the consumer can't continue to buy because wages are not the

key thing up with cost. But I don't disagree with what he's saying and concept. So watching in San Diego huh? Yeah well Steve could be anywhere in the world I mean I assume he's at home right now. Thank you for that comment Steve that's a great one. Pockets of Albemarle County that are doing well this question's come in. I don't know any pockets that aren't doing well in Albemarle. When you get down into Schuyler and that area, there's still some stuff down there that's ready to probably be redeveloped. Just a lot of old family property. And I'm talking about the smaller stuff, not the large estates.

Might be a good place to look. But I mean, it is a bit of a drive to get back into town for a lot of folks. But with good internet everywhere now, you can almost live anywhere now. But yeah, everything's hot. I mean, Forest Lakes, every time I work there, I mean, things are just booming along. And I mean, North Point's still coming along strong. I mean, we've got, we're doing a bunch of pre-construction land out there now. So yeah, it's, everything's kind of going well.

No, this question's coming about Crozet. What is Woody Fincham's thoughts on Crozet and over development? I mean, I don't live there. I mean, it's definitely different than I remember it being as a child. I mean, I used to just be a railroad town, you know, and now it's this very dense, almost suburban sprawl kind of place. I mean, if you like living in that, that's fine. There's nothing wrong with it I mean, I keep my personal taste out of how I look at real estate because of what I do

Some folks out there really don't like it I mean I have that conversation with clients out there all the time They dislike being in an area where they're building that much or have built that much and it's just not the same place that it was You know 15 years ago, but you can say that on about any place anymore, you know same place that it was, you know, 15 years ago. But you can say that on about any place anymore, you know. My concern with Crozet for the viewer that's watching is that the transportation and the roads in particular are not set up for this kind of density. And you really see it folks with

Western Amarillo and Henley when they get let out of school and they start going to school. It's a backup. Oh my goodness, the backup significant. Steven says I'm home and I watch you guys whenever I can. Always truly a great conversation when Woody Fischam is on the program. So he's returning the positive praise over there to you. This comments a very good one. Alamaro County from a development standpoint, where is it gonna happen? That's a good question. I mean, that 5% or less corridor that we keep talking about, they're going to need to push out on it.

I mean, if we're truly going to allow development to happen. I mean, land is finite. And we're not a community that's willing to go up in density as far as skyscrapers go. We're not going to do that here. That'll take away from the Jeffersonian overlay, but you know We've got to figure something out because I mean we're bursting at the seams almost Dan Pettit watching. He's a

Realtor himself. He says why do the condos and townhomes not get prioritized more with development? Why aren't we seeing more of those? That's a question for the folks that control the development process. I mean, whether or not they're willing to do it. I mean, certainly, if they're going to put a project like that on, they would definitely get filled and get bought. I mean, there would be no, no, no problem selling them. I wish more of them would come on. Are condos in town homes difficult to appraise?

No. I mean, there are there anything in real estate can have aspects that are difficult about it. But, you know, the big thing with condos when you're doing mortgage financing is understand whether or not it's approved for conventional and FHA financing, because the investor ratio in the complex or community rather, is over 50% lenders won't lend on it, you can get hard money for it, but you can't get you know, traditional mortgages for that. on it. You can get hard money for it, but you can't get, you know, traditional mortgages for that. Laurie says the infrastructure in Fluvanna can barely handle the homes that are currently built, but they keep building. That's the same thing that's happening, Laurie, and Crozet, and it just completely boggles my mind. Yeah, I mean, we live at the lake, and I go past that new development at Colonial Place every day, several times a day. Colonial Circle? Yeah, thank you. Colonial Place is in Norfolk, it's where I grew up. I don't mind it so much, but it's definitely changing. And those apartments now are about 50% leased out,

so there's going to be even more stress. Miles Hammerick, Sr. giving you some props right now. Miles. Miles, thank you for watching the program. Put the questions in the feed. I love this up-tempo version of the show here with Woody Fincham who handles it with ease. Does he think the back half of the year

will be as strong as the front half? Seasonally, we usually are gonna be strong going into the summer. The spring markets usually are strongest. And then when you get over to the fall, folks that have children don't like to move as much. Especially if they're to move school districts, it upsets the kids.

So usually we're going to see our stronger part of the market before then. But I mean, we've been pretty strong even. I used to be able to take a week off in December and I can't do that anymore. So, you know, that's a way to answer it I guess. How about this question for you, trends or storylines that no one's not no one's talking about That we should be following

In the real estate market. I don't know man. I don't know Jerry anything that you can think of what's intrigued you The most that's come across your desk over the last year. Oh goodness, I mean Anything that's just out of the ordinary, I'm interested in, because you have to sit down and think through the process. I mean, working on regular stuff in a subdivision,

there's nothing wrong with it. You make money doing it. But that's just, it's humdrum after 26 years of doing it. I particularly like working with clients who have got some problem they've got to solve, whether it's litigation or it's something like that. That's what really gets the juices going for me. My son, he's really good at helping me with that stuff and our researcher as well.

That's the kind of stuff that I think about. Truly a family business guys, Fitcham and Associates, you could find them online. Closing your final thoughts for the viewers and listeners? I mean, thanks for participating today, everybody, throwing all this stuff in. It's always interesting being on the show, because I start thinking about things that I don't normally think about.

Because usually your head's down working in my business. But, you know, I mean, we're very fortunate to be where we are. I mean, everybody seems to want to be here, and real estate's a very hot commodity now. And I think it's going to want to be here and real estate is a very hot commodity now. I think it's going to continue to be. Those of you that are concerned about development, talk to your politicians. The local government is super important. I can't stress that enough. Neil Williamson, a good friend, he comes on the show occasionally. I know he talks about it all the time. It's super important that you get out and share

your concerns with your politicians that you're voting for. They will listen to you. And the most vocal people are the ones they hear from, and those that aren't willing to talk to them, of course, they don't know what you think. So participate. I love it.

Fitcham and Associates, where can they find you? You can get us. I mean, if you Google Woody and appraiser, I'm pretty much the only guy that will pop up. But I mean, Google is a good way to find us. Woodyfincham.com is our website. I need to change that because it's embarrassing. But yeah, that's a good way to get us.

And finding my phone number is not hard. So just if you Google it, you'll find it. Woody Finchamch him guys, finch him and associates, the best of the best guys, finch him and associates. Thank you. Appreciate it, Jerry. Yeah, absolutely. Judah Wickhauer behind the camera, thank you to Judah. We appreciate you guys watching Real Talk with Keith Smith.

Keith back in the saddle next Friday. I Love Seaville show at 1230, where we'll break a little bit of news, guys, when it comes to that brownstone development in the Lewis Mountain neighborhood. Get ready and giddy up. Thank you kindly for joining us. So long, everybody. Hold on. It was up tempo..