On the first of October 2009 a new face appeared on the real estate horizon of Historic Fredericksburg Virginia.  Fredericksburg Realty is in business.  The company was founded and operated by yours truly.  Another Active Rain blogger, Dawn DeGroff, joins the company in its new location at 910 Princess Anne Street.

If you are a consumer and would like more information about buying or selling a home in Fredericksburg, VA or the surrounding area (Stafford County, Spotsylvania County, King George County, or Caroline County) please visit us on the net or at our office.

OK, the housing market in the USA is in a major hurt.  OK, sales prices continue to spiral down.  OK, the government is stepping in to assist homeowners who are staring foreclosure in the eye.  OK, new home starts are down.

The decline of the market is something that is reality!

Why aren't buyers buying?  The values appear to be there.  Interest rates are good.  Blame it on the economy?  Unemployment is up but not in statistically significant numbers.

Most that I talk to think that buyers are waiting for the market to bottom.  I tend to agree with that analysis.

Question - when it bottoms where will it be.  Some predict the 2006 prices.  Others predict 2004.  Some predict even earlier.

Here is your chance gurus of real estate.  When the market bottoms, at which year's prices will it be.  Let me be the first to make a prediction - 2004.

On June 9th, 2008 my wife and I will celebrate our Fiftieth Wedding Anniversary.

We married in Corning NY the day after I graduated from Alfred University in Alfred New York.  My wife Carol was attending nursing school at Alfred and was studying at Corning Hospital.

We left NY state and have been all over the world since then.  We have lived in many states and many countries over the past 50 years and are now settled (for the time being) in Fredericksburg VA.

Lots have changed in 50 years and I am afraid my classmates will not recognize me.  Fifty years have resulted in many biological changes and some physiological ones too.

As a result, I have embarked on a strict regimen of exercises.

However, I don't think that they are working.  I fear that many will say "Who is that?"  Can you imagine, they will not recognize me!  I don't think I look much different.  A few more grey hairs and about 35 pounds.  Gravity has taken its toll and my barrell chest has become a rubber tire around my waist.

Folks there is not much time left.  I need some help.  Please oh Please let me know what I can do to keep from being so embarassed at my appearance.  It has to be quick though.  Only a few days left.  Help me.  Please help me.  I may become depressed and have a breakdown.

Earlier in the week I was asked to attend a meeting at the Fredericksburg Area Association of Realtors® conference room.  Was told that a group was meeting to discuss a blogsite for the Association.  Apparently, there were some that thought that my presence on Active Rain indicated a propensity for blogging.  Naturally, the blog would focus on homes for sale in the Fredericksburg VA area.

If the truth were known they would realize that my blogging is inversely proportional to the amount of real estate business I have.  Oddly enough, I am quite busy now but do not want to let "my public" down.  Therefore, this blog.

At the meeting some were explaining how "good" the market was.  Plenty of listing appointments and plenty of listings!  Personally, I have less than what I consider a manageable (spell check is not working!) number of listings.  I do not consider this a "good" market at all.

The "Real Estate Trend Indicator"  for the period 04/01/08 - 04/30/08 published by the Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, Inc. gives me reason to believe that the market has yet to improve to any great degree.

There were 3735 Active Listings at the end of the month and there were 310 homes sold during the month.

The median sold price between 2007 and 2008 was down 14.6%.

The total units sold during April 2007 was 343 and last month (as shown above) 310 homes sold.

The Average Sale price as a percentage of Average List price was 94.41% in 2007 while in 2008 it was 89.16%.

The figures I give are for the City of Fredericksburg VA, Stafford, King George, Spotsylvania, and Caroline Counties, VA.

Oh, wait!  If you are working with buyers this is the time for you to get moving!  There are lots of bargains out there if you can find them.

Maybe it is a "good" real estate market.

Last Sunday evening I departed Fredericksburg VA for a meeting of the CyberProfessionals which was to be held in Pittsburgh PA.  For the first time in a long time I was not driving.  I had a wonderful chauffeur; fellow Active Rainer Jim Crawford.

Energized.  That's how I feel.  Energized!

The last time I was in Pittsburgh was when, as college students, my wife Carol and I went with two other students down to Zelienople, PA to spend a weekend at the home of one of our parents.  On Saturday night we all went to visit the city of Pittsburgh.  Needless to say I was impressed.  This was, by the way, in 1956.  Yes, I am that old!

Never have been back to the Pennsylvania "burg" since then.  What a surprise was in store.  We stayed at the Sheraton Station Square Hotel which was right across the river from beautiful, downtown Pittsburgh.

Hard to forget the scenery like that but I had to.  Two full days of seminars with some very talented and brilliant members of the group.  Active Rain's own Linda Davis a Kristal Kraft were there to keep us abreast of blogging while Tim Kinzler lectured us (and some of us really needed it) on staying healthy.  Sharon Simms (another AR contributor) and her daughter Tammy added a great deal to the group.  Terri Isner (who amongst us does not know Terri) shared some valuable information with us all.

The bad part about all of this is that I am nowhere near being as valuable a member of the group as they and so many others.  You feel sort of inadequate among the giants!

Am sure that I received more than I gave at the meeting.  For that I apologize to the others.  Don't know if I will ever be able to soar with those eagles!  Thank you all for all that you are!

Am sure that many of you have seen the programs running on TV recently where some homes had beautiful (and very costly) Christmas decorations in their yards.  As a matter of fact some would probably not define there yards as yards!

Well, the other day Dawn DeGroff and I were traveling around the Fredericksburg VA area making videos of some of the communities.  We are in process of posting them to the Fredericksburg Realty website.

While doing this we came upon a home whose owner had decorated their yard in a very remarkable manner.  That gave us an idea; why not have a contest here on ActiveRain?

Hence, this post.

All you have to do is vote.  Vote for your favorite.  Dawn and I will then present the winner with our "Christmas Decoration of the Year" award.  We will tell the winner(s) that they are receiving an award based on a national poll.

And the nominations are (drum roll please):

                                                         Number 1

                                                             Number 2

                                                            Number 3

                                                            Number 4

                                                           Number 5

There, wasn't that easy.  Be sure to vote!

Thanks and Happy Holidays to all.

Lately, I have been looking at tons of videos added to real estate listings around the country.

Some are really impressive and look like they were done by professional videographers (and some were) while others look like the ones I have done (and that ain't good).

Folks, that is not the purpose of this blog.

To start out with, I know that kitchen sinks are not appliances. My reference to the kitchen sink was just to get your attention (hope it did).  I want to talk (OK write) about appliances.

Here in Fredericksburg VA appliances normally convey with the sale of a home.  In some cases (usually foreclosures) they do not.  But in foreclosures you don't get things you might expect to get and often get things you did not expect to get!

How about your little corner of the world . . . do appliances convey with the sale of a home?

Truthfully, there are not too many people involved in the real estate industry here in Fredericksburg VA that have been around much longer than I.  However, one of them is William M. Scaife, Jr.  I say involved but that is not quite true.  Bill Scaife retired from the law this year.  In so doing he sold the building in which he had practiced (for more than 50 years) to my new landlord.  Yes, I had rented office space (for Ed DeChristopher, Inc.) from Bill Scaife for many years.

This morning he came up to my office and asked me to walk over to the window in my office that overlooks a small parking lot.  On my way over I asked "What have you done, bought a new car?"  That was really a shot in the dark.  Bill and Sylvia Scaife have been driving the same cars for at least 20 years.  "Just look" he replied.  When I did there it was.  A "new" vehicle for the Scaifes.

OK now, I have done the work, tell me, what make and model car is this?  How about the year?

There have to be some antique car afficionados out there in AR Land!

When I began my real estate career here in the Fredericksburg VA area in 1989, it took me only a short time to realize that I had never seen so many split foyer homes in my life as I did after only a few months here. In particular, there were many of them in Spotsylvania County; more in fact than in the City of Fredericksburg or Stafford County. These are the three most densely populated areas in the region.

Our family lived in different parts of the country and world prior to our moving here. New York, Oklahoma, Texas, Kentucky, Germany, Georgia, Panama. My mother's family was from New Brunswick Canada and we visited there many times.

One of the very intersting parts of living in such geographically diverse locations is realizing that architectural style of homes varies between those regions. In some locations a one story home is called a rambler while in others it is called a ranch or rancher. Some use the term split level and split foyer synonymously.

For the sake of clarity, here are a few styles of homes seen here in the Fredericksburg VA area.

Colonial -   Split Foyer -

Rambler -   Bungalow -

Tri-Level -  Cape Cod -

What is the most prominent style home in your neck of the woods?    Here in Fredericksburg it it the Colonial Style.  Please let us know the area in which you are and the most prominent style of homes there.  If we have not shown that style here, please insert a picture for all of us to see.

My friend Teri Isner has an interesting blog talking about technical tips.

Just read through it.  Gave me an idea (amazing how bright people can stimulate dull ones - thanks for the inspiration Teri).

Rather than posting your technical tips in reply to this, why not point us in the direction of your favorite technical tip of the day?

Or, if you prefer, why not point us in the direction of a source of many technical tips?

Let me start this off by recommending that you check out Kim Komando's site.  I have found it to be an abundant supply of tips.  Also a great place to find free programs.