She's right. I'm a real estate agent and the number of headaches I've either heard or been directly involved with regarding solar are pretty numerous and I have never ever ever met anyone who came out ahead on cost savings with solar. If someone is into solar as a green alternative for personal reasons I get it, but the numbers just don't add up for 99% of people out there.

It is also absofuckinglutely infuriating dealing with solar companies when trying to sell a home. If you don't have the spare cash to buy the panels outright, do not get solar panels.

This is pretty spot on.

This is actually fairly accurate. I'd say the early to mid 2000s could be weird, but I don't think most people experienced it or would willingly go back to it.

Needle successfully threaded.

It's entirely "when I was in college I did super weird shit in strange places because that's what you do at 19 but now that I'm older and have different priorities Richmond is boring" based.

I got it though! I'm only 37.

Hey I'm right there with you. I've worked with a lot of people in your situation the last few years and it fuckin blows.

I was here for that and I don't think it's any more or less interesting than now. Maybe some of grace was uhhh charming but that's it really.

You could argue a lot of things Charles that's your hidden talent.

If the listings are priced artificially low (Which is most definitely happening here if you are looking outside of the city and losing) then you're going to need to cover that whole spread. When I am reviewing contracts with my sellers an offer 50k over doesn't mean shit if the buyer can't make up the difference should an appraisal come in low.

It's often more advantageous to go with a lower offer that will cover the whole thing if that number comes in just a bit above comparable properties. You really don't want a seller going wild for the higher offer only to have the appraisal come in low and the seller making out with less money than they would have.

I'm guessing it's a combination of both things here. Artificially low price and not adequately covering the gap.

edit: I should expand on something that gets missed often. When listing agents list low they're doing two things: One making themselves look like fucking heroes because they got "over list", and two they're baiting out people who do have the cash to put into the deal and weed out people who will rely more on financing. This doesn't mean you or anyone else are losing to all cash buyers, just people who can put more skin in the game. Both of these things are incredibly common and dumb and really only serve the listing agent on the deal and not necessarily buyers or sellers.

You're either getting catfished if they're going for that much over or something about the way your offers are constructed is off. Are you covering the gap in sales price vs contract price in cash?

edit: Not sure why this is being downvoted when it's the reality of the market right now.

If you're looking in the city limits you're going to keep running into this. Limited supply does that regardless of what the broader market is doing.

It just gets tiring hearing people whine about something that they either A: Were not a part of and didn't live through it or B: Don't even know how far back you need to go to get true gritty Richmond charm. It's like RVA MAGA or some shit.

Really wish posts like these could establish what the ideal amount of weirdness or charm was. Like give me a benchmark year. Are we talking Nancy Raygun to strange matter transition or highest murder per capita? Work with me here.

I use shaheen for a lot of my closings and that seems very bizarre.

Yep. You're going to be the support role and at first you will feel useless in comparison to what your girlfriend is doing. This is OK! Get meals squared away, make sure she stays hydrated and comfortable, and spend lots of time with her and the baby going "holy shit I'm a dad we are parents I would give my life for this poop machine this is nuts".

I've got a 3 year old and a 1 year old so I'm still relatively "early" in the Dad Game. I would repeat the following to yourself every moment you feel that inescapable rush of "oh fuck" barreling to the forefront of your mind:

We will be fine. We got this.

It can be tricky and taxing, but you're going to have the time of your life. Your girlfriend is in for quite a few ups and downs and it is extremely important you're giving her your full support before and after the kid makes their debut. She is going to turn into some hormone driven superhuman that can survive on 3 hours of sleep and you will feel feeble and weak by comparison. This is eye opening and normal.

I don't have any advice as far as support groups or anything like that, but it's not rocket science. You will figure it out. It's one of lifes greatest adventures.

> Some of those houses were upwards of 900k in the fall which blew my mind, so I hope it’s solid builder.

Those are for Lifestyle/Legault/some other builder I can't remember the name of off that do million dollar homes. It's in a different section north of the main community.

That's invite only and they verify whether or not you're either in the community or are under contract with a builder.

I'm an agent that have had quite a few people build with HHHunt over the years. They build a very very solid product especially for the price and I have been impressed with them on all of the builds my buyers went through as well as our own. We built with Hunt and live in River Mill. So if there is anyone more qualified to speak to your specific questions about their build quality in this particular neighborhood I can't think of who they might be.

Uh what? Absolutely not. I'm a real estate agent who has been involved in a lot of new construction and Hunt is probably one of the best builders in the area especially for the price. I've been consistently impressed with the quality of their builds. I was so impressed we built our home with them. Drawing a comparison between them and Ryan is not accurate at all.

They also are not one of the largest builders in the US what the hell are you talking about

> I just don’t get what people see in that area.

whole foods and homegoods.

Ok when and where is the AMA

I too hope the market crashes and makes the 3000+ sq ft 4 story townhomes with elevators "affordable".

Lung cancer is totally a scam perpetrated by "big lung".