Central Virginia Land

Buckingham County,Va. Land Sales

2010-02-05T11:32:00.000-08:00

Of the 21 counties that I am recording sales data,Buckingham had the most arms length transactions of land tracts over 50 acres in size.In the 2 year period between January 1,2008 and December 31,2009 there were 57 sales. 33 sales occurred in 2008 and 24 in 2009.36 sales were of rtacts between 50 and 100 acres and 21 were of tracts over 100 acres.The first quarter of 2008 had the most sales with a total of 14. 8 of those sales were over 100 acres. 5 sales were to the adjacent landowner and 8 were less than the county's assessed value.Interesting stuff.Why is this so?

Land Sales in Prince Edward and Nottoway Counties

2010-02-05T11:00:00.000-08:00

It was nice traveling through central virginia yesterday looking at the snowscaped countryside.I went to Nottoway and Prince Edward to research land sales of tracts that are over 50 acres in size.The following data was based on arms length transactions that are on record at the clerk's office.These sales occurred from January 1,2008 through December 31,2009.

The following is what I found in Nottoway County: Nottoway had a total of 15 sales of tracts over 50 acres during this period.14 sales occurred in 2008 and only 1 in 2009.There were 9 sales of tracts between 50 and 100 acres and 6 sales of tracts over 100 acres.1 sale was less than the county's assessed value.

In Prince Edward County there were 19 sales of land tracts over 50 acres in size during this period.12 sales occurred in 2008 and 7 in 2009.13 sales were of tracts between 50 and 100 acres and 6 were over 100 acres.6 sales were less than the county's assessed value.

I am going to talk about Buckingham County next time.

Cumberland County Land Sales

2010-01-30T10:14:00.000-08:00

I am in the process of completing my land database of land sales for the past two years that are arms length transactions and are over 50 acres in size.On Thursday I visited Cumberland and Buckingham Counties.It was a beautiful and relatively mild(especially compared to today which is very cold-about 20 and snowy)winter day.Over the two year period from January 1,2008 through December 31,2009 there were 25 land sales that were over 50 acres in size.15 sales were of land tracts that were between 50 and 100 acres and 10 sales of tracts over 100 acres.The most sales occurred in the third quarter of 2008 with a total of six.Five of those sales were between 50 and 100 acres and one was over 100 acres in size.The sales price of six sales were less than the county's assessed value.Interesting stuff.I am going to find a few more ways to play with the numbers.I'm thinking that I may do some price per acre stats comparing 2008 with 2009 or county to county.I am almost done on figuring the Buckingham stats and will talk about that one later.

Anybody out there?

2008-10-31T08:12:00.000-07:00

It sures seems to be very quiet out there in real estate land.The phone has not been ringing. No sign calls or newspaper ad calls.No response to direct mail.It is probably this time of year which is normally slow anyway,combined with all of the bad news and upcoming elections.There are a lot of excellent properties for sale and many can be bought at a great price.If you are in the market you can make a great deal compared to the days of when the market was peaking.
The third quarter was not so bad for my company(a small land brokerage company).Three land tracts were sold for total sales volume of $1,805,000.These sales occurred in the counties of Chesterfield,Goochland ,and Prince George.You have read in the news everyday about how much more difficult it is to obtain financing from banks.That's true in general because of tightening of credit.(Banks do this in every downturn).But I am starting to see some owner financing on land tracts.So where there is a will there is a way.I'm looking at activity to start picking up soon especially after the elections and holidays.

New VDOT regulations

2008-07-09T09:52:00.000-07:00

New regulations for access onto major roads in the state are now effective as of July 1st. Spacing standards for Commercial Entrances,Intersections,and Crossovers for urban principal arterial roads with a speed limit of 55 mph are 2640 feet between signalized intersections and 1320 feet between unsignalized intersections.Partial access one or two way entrances have to be spaced 510 feet apart and generally limited to right in-right out entrances.Shared entrances are encouraged in order to limit the number of entrances and help traffic flow.
New regulations for secondary roads will become effective in 2009. You can view the entire regulations as well as a list of affected roadways on VDOT’s website at http://www.virginiadot.org/projects/accessmgt/default.asp under the heading “First Phase” and the paragraph beginning “On July 1…”

Mood of the market

2008-05-16T08:24:00.000-07:00

I have been in the middle of negotiations on two tracts of land for the past couple of days and still have not come to a final agreement on either tract. It seems that it has been a little more difficult to bring a buyer and seller to agreement in a real estate transaction lately.
The seller wants the '05 price when the market was at the peak and the buyer wants the deep discount deal.( I suppose that is understandable considering how the media has a story every day about how bad off the real estate market is. So that is what the public expects.)However, it is a different real estate market in land sales than it is residential sales. Usually, in a down market land values remain flat because there are fewer parcels of land available at any one time than there are residential properties for sale. Most landowners have owned the land for several years and have no debt. So in many instances, if the owner cannot obtain the price that he wants then he waits until market conditions are better.If the owner has to sell in a buyers' market,then negotiations are much more difficult.

Assessed Values for Land In Goochland County

2008-05-06T06:58:00.000-07:00

While researching sales of vacant land of parcels in the 30-75 acre range in Goochland County recently, I noticed that there have been several sales in recent months that have sold for less than the county's assessed value. All parcels of land are unique and different in some way and there is no locality that I am aware of that inspects every parcel of land in the county. Usually the county hires a firm that does "blanket" appraisals.( a generalization of value for land parcels usually of similar size within the county )Sometimes it seems a value is derived from one sale. Although I understand why it is not practical time -wise for these firms to do an in depth appraisal,it seems that they should at least recognize a trend that sale prices have leveled off or may have declined slightly from a couple of years ago. Oh well, maybe that will be reflected in next year's assessment

Goochland County

2008-04-18T07:26:00.000-07:00

What a beautiful time of the year! Particularly if you are driving through Goochland County, Virginia. The topography is rolling and very similar looking to other areas that are in the foothills of Virginia. Yet close to Richmond. I recently was walking a tract on the James River that has prominent bluff views of the river below. The views are second to none.

Water in Waverly (Sussex County, Virginia)

2008-03-12T06:59:00.000-07:00

Waverly,Virginia is a small southside town along the Norfolk and Western line. It is an incorporated town within Sussex County and lies to the southeast of Richmond about 45 miles. If you are driving through you will notice a water tower(typical look for a small town).Water supply for the residents and industry is lifeblood for a town's survival.

Up until now,little consideration has been given to water resources.But with the world population growing,water is becoming more precious.The Wall Street Journal in the March 11th edition,had an article about how Australia has improved the efficiency and affordability of the desaleanation process and is using it on a wide scale.The article goes on to say how this process has become an important part of Australia's water supply since typical sources of water such as lakes have been low due to low rainfall in recent years.

As for Waverly, it is currently seeking approval from the DEQ(Department of Environmental Quality of Virginia) to expand their current water supply by increasing the quantity of water drawn out of the acquifier. (Of course there are other localities that are on the same acquifier and are probably making the same request.)This request has been in the process for more than a year with a possibility of an expansion of capacity within another 30 days. ( This may not be correct now since I was told this by the mayor in the beginning of the year.) When I learn of the latest news on that I will let everyone know.

With this expansion, the town can attract more industry and commercial businesses to serve the local population and economy, which is important for a town's survival. It also affects potential of land values and how the land can be used.

Water is a resource that has pretty much been taken for granted in the past but it appears that is changing rapidly.

"Paying for Public Infrastructure"

2008-02-25T06:02:00.000-08:00

This is the title of the op/ed page in The Times Dispatch on Saturday February 23, 2008. The page had a view from Virginia Sen. John Watkins and a contrasting view from Chesterfield County supervisors Art Warren and Dan Gecker. And what a contrast.
Sen. Watkins is introducing a bill that would eliminate the cash proffer system, a system where the locality attaches a cash amount to lots on land that has been rezoned to residential since about 1989 in Chesterfield. The cash has to be paid to the county before a building permit is issued. This cost ,of course is passed on to the homeowner, which increases the cost of their new home.Sen. Watkins is proposing an impact fee that would replace the cash proffer. This fee would be lower than the proffer but would apply to all new homes regardless of whether or not the subdivision had a cash proffer imposed on the land when it was rezoned. Sen. Watkins does a good job of illustrating how the impact fee if it had been in effect would have brought in more money to the county and been a more fair tax rather than taxing people in select areas of the county.
I did not think Mr. Gecker and Mr. Warren's argument for the cash proffer was as compelling.They basically said that the current system is fine because each case is different. I would agree that each case is different so why are they using a one size fits all system such as the cash proffer system and targeting homeowners who at some point in the future will move to specific subdivisions in the county?
The way I see it is that it is easier to tax future homeowners in the name of slowing growth rather than face the current constituents and raise taxes when and where needed and to cut spending . It is kind of like the progressive income tax scale where a few are taxed the most to benefit a larger number of citizens who pay less.The politician gets more people on his side that way.
What Sen. Watkins is proposing is a more fair and equitable tax and benefits the county more than the cash proffer system. It still is a tax on the new homeowner but it is more fair in that it is not specific to any location, is much less burdensome, inflates the values of properties less,and makes housing more affordable.
What it doesn't do is give the politicians as much power as they have over land owners and developers and forces them to be more accountable and responsible to every citizen.

King and Queen County Sales

2008-02-21T11:35:00.000-08:00

I spent a little time in the clerk's office yesterday and picked up a few recent land sales.One thing about King and Queen is that it is so quiet,even at the courthouse. I came out of the administration building and you could have heard a pin drop. Not too many places in Central Virginia outside of the government centers where the silence is very obvious. One of my favorite places to go. Anyhow,back to what I was going to say. Here are a few land sales:

Lynchburg Land Investors Llc from Forestree GM LLC ; 263 Acres ; $785,000 ; Deed dated 6/28/07 ; near Shacklefords ; fronts the York River

Nature Conservancy from Church View LLC ; 2 parcels ; 209 and 22.94 Acres ; $540,500 ; Deed dated 9/20/07 ; Dragon Run

Mapledale LLC from James R. Owens and others ; approximately 206 acres ; $550,000 ; Deed dated 9/17/07 ; long road frontage on Route 619 ; Newtown district

New Kent Real Estate Sales- Large Tracts

2008-01-30T06:49:00.000-08:00

I have been working in New Kent County recently. Since I am in the business of listing and selling large tracts of land in the Richmond Area, I noticed that there were no tracts that are greater than 100 acres that transferred in New Kent County in 2007. There were 2 sales close in size to a 100 acres, a 90.1 acre tract that transferred 4/27/07 in Deed Book 500 on Page 168 for $350,000.00 with no improvements and located off of Rt.606 near the Hanover line.The other was a 96.5 acre in the East Slaterville Development with no improvements and a 50 foot deeded right of way. The development is located on New Kent Hwy east of the courthouse. The property transferred for $347,882.50 on 9/11/07 and is recorded in Deed Book 510 on Page 695.
Indicative of the real estate slowdown? - I guess. I thought that was interesting.

Chesterfield County's " Levels of Service" Proposal

2008-01-30T05:55:00.000-08:00

In my last post , I quoted Midlothian District's Supervisor, Dan Gecker, from his interview with the Chesterfield Observer in which he said that he hopes that the developers get together to put in the infrastructure (roads,schools,etc.) before development occurs. He is essentially asking for the private sector to do what the government should be doing.I seriously doubt that anything would ever get done this way.These public facilities should be the government's iniative and so far I don't see any real leadership here.
In the January 23rd edition of the Chesterfield Observer, there is a commentary by one of Richmond's busiest zoning attorneys, Mr. Jim Theobold, chairman of the law firm Hirschler Fleischer (www.hf-law.com), who spoke to the Observer in January about his views on "Levels of Service"standards.
He says that " It's not enough for a government to say you can't develop here because there aren't the necessary public facilities without the concomitant obligation for local government to provide it.Otherwise that's a moratorium." He goes on to say, "The obvious solution is determining the needs and floating bonds to provide for them,but that's probably naive to think that could happen. Local governments are there,and we pay taxes so government can provide those services. But the development community should help mitigate those impacts.[ However,] some governments are trying to shift that responsibility to the private sector, and now we've reached a point where the math doesn't work."
I say, "Well said, Jim".

Real Estate Blogsite

2008-01-24T12:37:00.000-08:00

I am a member of the Richmond Association of Realtors. I received an e-mail from them the other day and it had a link to their real estate blogsite (www.richmondrapport.com ). There are several posts by Matt Barber who is a real estate appraiser. He writes on news of what is going on in Central Virginia regarding changes in government policies,affordable housing,conservation easements,cash proffers,commercial real estate and more. I have found what he has to say to be very interesting and informative. If you want to keep up with real estate in Central Virginia, I invite you to go to this site and read Matt's posts.
I invite to make your comments to Matt's posts and to mine. Be sure to visit www.jettlandandrealty.com to see what is for sale.

Shields Jett
Jett Landand Realty LLC

Chesterfield County - "Levels of Service"

2008-01-11T12:46:00.000-08:00

I recently read an article in the January 9th Chesterfield Observer regarding a "Proposed growth tool" called"LOS Standards". The way the article reads is the county will approve rezoning particularly residential zoning only if the "level of services" available ( schools, roads, libraries, parks ) are adequate. Sounds good doesn't it?
First question - Who will build these new services? As Tyler Craddock spokesperson for the Richmond Homebuilders Association pointed out," LOS is an end run around the General Assembly, which has told localities they don't have the power of adequate public facilities". Is the county going to build a road to nowhere and wait for the people to come. I don't think so.
This article also quotes Dan Gecker, newly elected supervisor to the Midlothian district, as saying " I hope developers will get together and figure out ways to share infrastructure costs".
Second question - How will that work? Since most developers don't buy the property until the property is rezoned and each project is engineered by an engineer who is hired by the developer, I don't think that this will be practical at all. In my humble opinion this is way too much control in the hands of your local government. It is not an efficient way to do business and will cost the consumer more money and reduce raw land values.
If you are a landowner in Chesterfield, it may be in your best interest to speak up at the January 15th meeting of the planning commission.

Access to Virginia Roads

2007-12-26T10:17:00.000-08:00

This post is in response to an article that I read in the "Richmond Times Dispatch" last week. I apologize for not responding sooner, but I got caught up in the Christmas Holidays. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas.

Anyway, this article explained a proposal by some lawmakers to have the Virginia Department of Transportation approve access to any Virginia road before any development can occur. On the surface this may sound innocent enough,however,it overrides authority of the approval process from the locality the development is taking place. Let me try to explain it.

The way I understood the article, Virginia Department of Transportation would have the last say in whether or not access would be granted to a property (whether or not the locality has approved the property for rezoning ). This places the authority to allow development into the hands of the state. Folks, this is not good. The counties should allow development to occur and approve the design of the development to incorporate VDOT standards.

With the state controlling growth this way and not the localities it will slow the process,reduce property values,and inflate costs to the consumer. This is just a backdoor way for Mr. Kaine to push his adequate public facilities agenda through. Economically,this does not work.

The article also went on to say how many were unaware this was "flying under the radar".

For property rights this is not good. I don't care if you own a lot in a subdivision or a tract of vacant land.

King & Queen County

2007-12-13T06:40:00.000-08:00

As an afterthought to my last post (a few minutes ago ) you may also want to check out www.middlepeninsula.com if you are interested in that part of Virginia. What a great part of the state!

King & Queen County, Virginia

2007-12-13T06:11:00.000-08:00

Gotta go to King & Queen today to pick up a land book. I am looking forward to the drive. K&Q is tucked away between Essex County and King William County.To get there, you go through Walkerton, a town on the Mattaponi River, hang a right by the sod farm and go out to Route 14. The courthouse is off of Route 14 on 631.It is so quiet there! Except for the new courthouse that was built a few years ago,it's like you have stepped back in time.
An interesting locality to say the least! A county that stretches about 60 miles from it's eastern tip, which is east of West Point to the Beasley area of Caroline County.Being an old middle peninsula county, it is full of colonial period farms and residences.Yep, can't wait to go!

Central Virginia Local Elections

2007-12-11T12:19:00.000-08:00

It has been a month since we had our local elections. In many counties in central Virginia new boards of supervisors were elected on the slow growth platform.
I have often wondered how a governing body can slow growth. Population growth is a natural factor and imigrants are coming here legally or illegually by the millions. So, people have to live somewhere.
Localities need to have better land use policies that plan for future growth. Land use plans should allow for higher densities which will reduce sprawl and infrastructure costs.
I find it ironic that these "slow growth" boards are most always elected immediately after a real estate boom and take office during a slowdown or recession in the economy when no one is interested in buying any land for development, in particular,residential development. Chesterfield County,Virgina comes to mind. The recent election and the one in 1991 have been compared as being similar in that the candidates ran on a slow or stop growth platform.1991 was in the middle of the S&L Crisis and a recession and today we have the "subprime mortgage housing crunch". So for the immediate future , the economy is what will slow growth not the government

The Fed Cuts Rates!

2007-12-11T11:57:00.000-08:00

I just read the news that the Fed cut the lending rate to banks to 4.25%.That's good news for the economy and the real estate business.
Of course, the idea of it is to stimulate the economy.I am in the land business and for land that is used for residential development this should be good news.Many developers have more land than they can say grace over at this time. Eventually, the lower Fed rates will mean lower mortgage rates and that will stimulate residential sales which will reduce lot inventories and bring many more residential developers back into the land market.
As this segment comes back into the land market, market pressure will push land prices up.For right now in Central Virginia,I see land prices holding steady.

Land Sales 4th quarter

2007-12-06T11:34:00.000-08:00

Who says the real estate market is suffering. I guess it depends on to whom you are talking. Personally, I have had a good 4th quarter in land sales. Oh, I guess I should tell you first that I am a licensed real estate broker and I list and sell large acreage tracts in the counties that surround Richmond, Virginia. I go out about 50 miles from Richmond in 16 counties or so.I have been doing this for about 27 years.But this is my first blog and maybe one of these days I will be as good a blogger as Jim Duncan , a realtor in Charlottesville, Virginia. You can reach Jim's blog at www.realcentralva.com.
I have listed 4 tracts this fall and have sold 3. Two of them have closed and the third is set to close soon. That doesn't sound like a lot but land does not turn over as often as houses do. One was a 118 acre tract in Chesterfield County that sold for $1,000,000.00 (no utilities near by), a 69 acre tract in King William County that sold for $126,000. The third is a tract in Amelia County listed for $395,000.00 and is under contract. I should be adding some more listings soon. Please check my web site from time to time (www.jettlandandrealty.com ) to see what's for sale.
My goal is to write about my experiences in my profession, particularly about my specific area of real estate.
Talk to you soon.
Shields