Melissa Savenko's Richmond Real Estate Review

Attention Sellers: Newspaper Advertising Does NOT Sell Houses!

Here's a great article from Steve Harney, real estate guru extraordinaire, about where buyers START the home buying process.  Sellers, take note:  Less than 2% of buyers start their search in the newspapers or other print media.

Where are buyers starting their search?  Mainly on the Internet (47%) or by contacting a real estate professional, either a real estate agent or a lender (27%). 

Print advertising is EXPENSIVE, not to mention short-lived.  My broker has reminded me many times that a newspaper ad is effective from about 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on the day of publication.  At about $100 an ad (minimum) in our local paper, that's a lot of money that could be otherwise allocated somewhere more effective.

So, what does this mean for a seller trying to sell their home in this very challenging market?  Forget real estate guides, newspaper ads, and those uber-expensive specialty magazines.  Make sure your agent has a strong Internet marketing plan.  Get it in writing.  And please, make sure they take great pictures and post the maximum number permitted by the local Multiple Listing Service ("MLS").  I'm constantly amazed at how many listings have only one or two exterior photos, and often terrible ones at that.  Good luck!

Carytown Verizon Development - MORE Controversy - Dueling Traffic Analyses

Alright, apparently there are two distinctly different opinions on the impact some sort of retail development will have on the immediate traffic patterns in Carytown around the Verizon building.  According to this article in today's Metro Business Section [scroll down to "Carytown Place Traffic"], the developer's traffic engineer says the retail development will mean LESS traffic at and around the site than the former Verizon commercial use generated.  Here's the quote:

...the evening peak hour traffic would drop 'resulting in an overall traffic reduction during the most congested period of the week.'

On the other hand, the opposition's traffic engineer says the developer's engineer used the wrong standards and the peak hour traffic will be 309% higher than that estimated by the developer's traffic engineer.  According to the article:

Instead of basing the traffic report on established traffic patterns for the type of business developers have asked to be zoned for, it [the traffic engineer] used the criteria for the current zoning.  [Emphasis added].  

Personally, I just don't find it remotely plausible that a retail use - be it Wal-Mart, Whole Foods, Best Buy, whatever - would generate LESS peak hour evening traffic than when Verizon used 10 N. Nansemond Street as an office building.  And with a number of one-way streets and single lane each way residential roads as access points, it makes even less sense to me.

But I am not a traffic engineer, nor do I play one on TV.  I DO think the  reviewers in the administrative process - whose responsibility is to represent the public, not competing commercial interests - should carefully review the analyses of BOTH traffic engineers and the standards upon which they are based.  It's no surprise that the experts for each side are reporting results which support the outcome their respective clients want.  But if the allegation by DRW Consultants is accurate, and there would be a significant increase in evening peak hour traffic, the community has a right to know that.  Decisions must be made on reasonable assumptions that are more likely than not to result.

Marketing Richmond, Virginia - Venture Richmond Should Hire THESE Guys

Okay, I know this is ancient in internet land, and I've previously posted it, but I absolutely love it.  In a 5 minute rap video,these guys manage to cover just about every area of urban Richmond and hit the highlights of what makes living in the City of Richmond super cool:

• Architecture
• The river
• Unique venues for music (the National) and movies (Byrd Theatre)
• Great restaurants
• VCU
• Vibrant nightlife
• History and museums
• Various cool and different urban neighborhoods, including the Fan, Downtown, Oregon Hill, Shockoe Slip, Museum District, Shockoe Bottom, Union Hill, Carver. 

[NOTE:  Granted, many of these neighborhoods are just covered as background or with a flash of historic landmarks, but at least multiple neighborhoods ARE covered, rather than the incessant focus on "Downtown" that we get now. And I know plenty of places were left off that are in the City, including the Near West End, Northside, and urban Southside, but I think these guys were covering "the City" as an urban environment.  All of those other areas noted about (Areas 20, 30 and 60 in real-estate-agent-speak) started as suburbs and were later incorporated into the City].

Folks, these guys GET. IT.  And they are absolutely the Creative Class that the City of Richmond wants so badly to attract and retain.  And they highlight almost every single important element that Richard Florida says the Creative Class WANTS.  Those elements are already here.

So I think Venture Richmond should watch this at the next meeting about the "RVA Downtown" brand.  Then maybe they will choose to reallocate that branding money to....promoting this video.  And funding programs in the City schools.  And re-producing a GREAT booklet that the City used to make, but no longer does, which catalogs and describes the characteristics of each and every urban City neighborhood, including the old City suburbs.  [NOTE:  I will scan and post that booklet sometime soon, hopefully today].

We need to promote what we ALREADY ARE that is really great.  How exactly does a logo or a slogan do that?

Don't Big Box Carytown, the Verizon Building, and the City of Richmond Master Plan

OK, I figured if I asked questions about whether or not the proposed retail development at the Verizon building in the Museum District was compatible with the City's recently adopted Master Plan, I better be willing to do that research myself.  Holy snikeys!  I've got a lot of reading to do!  It's hundreds of pages long!  But I'm going to read it...although it will clearly take longer than I thought.

Just in case you want to read it too, here's the link.  I will say a cursory review of the "Neighborhoods" overview gave me a few standards that I thought the proposed development was incompatible with.  But as with any document, the standards are going to be subject to interpretation.  Thus the developer's need for a legal and consulting team.  I welcome your opinions on the proposal's consistency with the Master Plan generally and the standards for that area ("Near West") specifically.

Don't Big Box Carytown, Part II

The saga continues over what to do with the former Verizon building on Nansemond and Floyd, at the top of Carytown.  Michael Paul Williams addressed the issues in today's column, titled "Development Could Cost Carytown."  He and I are on the same page on this one.  [OK, bad pun.]

As described in a previous blog post, an out-of-state developer has the property under contract subject to a re-zoning approval.  Word has been that the developer plans to renovate the property and lease the resulting retail space to Whole Foods. The developer and all its representatives (lawyers, real estate agents, various consultants) are being cagey about the ultimate anchor tenant, which makes some community members nervous.

I've said before, I personally think a fourth grocery store within yards of three other grocery stores is a dumb idea - whether Whole Foods, Trader Joe's or Dean & Deluca.  The franchise matters not.  If the rumors are true, it would probably be great for the developer, and great for Whole Foods, but in my opinion it's not great for Carytown and the larger City of Richmond community.  I just don't see how four grocery stores in the same circumscribed area are sustainable.  If that theory is true, some other business - be it Ellwood Thompson, or Martin's, or Kroger, or some combination of the three - will not make it.  How is that good for the neighborhood?  If retail is going to go into that space, how about some retail that we don't have in the City - maybe a home goods store, or sporting goods store, or specialty clothing store(s).  There isn't a decent shoe store in Carytown - Saxon Shoes, anyone?  Just ideas.

And why does the property have to be retail anyway?  How about residential?  Could it be an age-restricted, 55+ community?  I am sure that would be successful, with the ever-increasing number of downsizing Baby Boomers who really want to be in a walkable community but need parking and elevators.  Or what about just plain old apartments, for all the college graduates and other 20-somethings who want to live in a cool urban environment but aren't ready or able to buy their first home, particularly at Fan and Museum District prices?

Of course reasonable people can differ on this issue.  But my $.02 is another grocery store of any flavor in that location would be a bad idea.  Asbestos suit on, ready for incoming.