Charlottesville downtown mall, as nice as the pictures? (Staunton, Waynesboro: home, neighborhood)

[saramarie56]

Originally Posted by jtees4

So I have been talking about moving from Long Island NY to C'Ville area for a number of years....AND I DID IT FINALLY! Moved in on the 16th, bought a house in Charlottesville in the county, not the city. So far, so good....just so busy still living out of boxes. I will further report on The City, I have been there a couple of times and things seem relatively good....I have not walked the mall yet. I was at the Farmers Market at IX Art Park last Saturday, very nice people and nice market too!

Congratulations on your move and new home!!! Great to hear you are liking it so far. I look forward to hearing more about your new life in the Charlottesville area. I’m planning a trip to visit the area with my niece in late May or June. The housing market is insane right now, but that’s pretty much everywhere. Would love to hear if you have any realtor recommendations since it sounds like you just bought your house, did you build or buy existing? We will be looking in the $500,000 range and also want to be outside city limits. We’re open to being within 30 miles of Charlottesville. Would love to have an acre or two, but not counting on it given the current market.

[Bigfoot424]

Originally Posted by saramarie56

Congratulations on your move and new home!!! Great to hear you are liking it so far. I look forward to hearing more about your new life in the Charlottesville area. I’m planning a trip to visit the area with my niece in late May or June. The housing market is insane right now, but that’s pretty much everywhere. Would love to hear if you have any realtor recommendations since it sounds like you just bought your house, did you build or buy existing? We will be looking in the $500,000 range and also want to be outside city limits. We’re open to being within 30 miles of Charlottesville. Would love to have an acre or two, but not counting on it given the current market.

If you want to be close to C'ville you should look at Crozet. 20-25 minutes to C'ville and maybe the best hidden small town in VA. I drive on 250 to C'ville when I visit which keeps me off I-64. I saw the sign for Crozet many times but not until I made an appointment with a specialist Dr did I need to go into Crozet. Cute little town.

[saramarie56]

Originally Posted by Bigfoot424

If you want to be close to C'ville you should look at Crozet. 20-25 minutes to C'ville and maybe the best hidden small town in VA. I drive on 250 to C'ville when I visit which keeps me off I-64. I saw the sign for Crozet many times but not until I made an appointment with a specialist Dr did I need to go into Crozet. Cute little town.

Definitely want to explore Crozet. It looks interesting, although most of the homes in that area seem to be on small lots, close together, and now they are developing the “Villages”. Great concept, I would be fine with that but my husband wants more privacy.

[Bigfoot424]

Originally Posted by saramarie56

Definitely want to explore Crozet. It looks interesting, although most of the homes in that area seem to be on small lots, close together, and now they are developing the “Villages”. Great concept, I would be fine with that but my husband wants more privacy.

I have not explored it all that much but there but I'm sure outside of the town limits may have some homes with some land. The Beaver Creek Reservoir looks interesting and the surrounding area is located in some nice country.

[jtees4]

Originally Posted by saramarie56

Congratulations on your move and new home!!! Great to hear you are liking it so far. I look forward to hearing more about your new life in the Charlottesville area. I’m planning a trip to visit the area with my niece in late May or June. The housing market is insane right now, but that’s pretty much everywhere. Would love to hear if you have any realtor recommendations since it sounds like you just bought your house, did you build or buy existing? We will be looking in the $500,000 range and also want to be outside city limits. We’re open to being within 30 miles of Charlottesville. Would love to have an acre or two, but not counting on it given the current market.

Thanks. I would highly recommend Bradly Pitt with Jamie White Realty. I worked with a few good realtors since I had been seriously looking since February 2020. BUT we put the looking on hold for awhile in March when Covid hit NY hard. We looked online every day and really had a good idea where we wanted to be based on being here numerous times since 2014 when my son moved to the area. We actually bought our house online, we did come down the day of closing...but did the entire transaction online which went great! Basically we just had to walk through the house and say "yes" everything is as promised...which it was. Over the year+ we looked at fixer upper homes around $225 to homes around $500K, both in and outside the city. i never really wanted to be within city limits, but we did want to be walking distance to some stores and near busses for our daughter (adult developmentally disabled). We can walk to many stores where we are, the bus is within a block and my daughter got a job that she walks to...which is great! You sound like you may be looking for a bit more rural, if you don't care about having things within walking distance I can recommend Barboursville, especially if you want a few acres (or much more). My son lives there, works in Charlottesville and has a small family farm on two acres. If I were younger, The market is crazy! There is a shortage of homes for sale in C'Ville area and that does lead to bidding wars. The amazing thing is, the market was even hotter where we lived in NY...we sold our house above asking price in one day! That's because we lived about an hour from NYC and everyone was fleeing from there...we had an open house and had lines all day. You can still get a nice home for $500K or less in the C'Ville area, and less as you move away from the city it seems. Good luck.

[jtees4]

Originally Posted by Bigfoot424

If you want to be close to C'ville you should look at Crozet. 20-25 minutes to C'ville and maybe the best hidden small town in VA. I drive on 250 to C'ville when I visit which keeps me off I-64. I saw the sign for Crozet many times but not until I made an appointment with a specialist Dr did I need to go into Crozet. Cute little town.

We decided to stay close to route 29, so we didn't go nearer to Crozet....BUT many people say Crozet is really nice, many people recommended it to us....so I'm sure there is truth in what you are saying...plus I believe you can get much more house for the same $ there!

[Bigfoot424]

Originally Posted by jtees4

We decided to stay close to route 29, so we didn't go nearer to Crozet....BUT many people say Crozet is really nice, many people recommended it to us....so I'm sure there is truth in what you are saying...plus I believe you can get much more house for the same $ there!

I would imagine you could. I likely would have never driven into the town had it not been for a new Dr I was seeing who has an office in Crozet. Certainly not a big town but that was the draw to me.

[CapsChick]

Originally Posted by saramarie56

Congratulations on your move and new home!!! Great to hear you are liking it so far. I look forward to hearing more about your new life in the Charlottesville area. I’m planning a trip to visit the area with my niece in late May or June. The housing market is insane right now, but that’s pretty much everywhere. Would love to hear if you have any realtor recommendations since it sounds like you just bought your house, did you build or buy existing? We will be looking in the $500,000 range and also want to be outside city limits. We’re open to being within 30 miles of Charlottesville. Would love to have an acre or two, but not counting on it given the current market.

Sara, contact Erin Hall. She's great!

[saramarie56]

Originally Posted by jtees4

Thanks. I would highly recommend Bradly Pitt with Jamie White Realty. I worked with a few good realtors since I had been seriously looking since February 2020. BUT we put the looking on hold for awhile in March when Covid hit NY hard. We looked online every day and really had a good idea where we wanted to be based on being here numerous times since 2014 when my son moved to the area. We actually bought our house online, we did come down the day of closing...but did the entire transaction online which went great! Basically we just had to walk through the house and say "yes" everything is as promised...which it was. Over the year+ we looked at fixer upper homes around $225 to homes around $500K, both in and outside the city. i never really wanted to be within city limits, but we did want to be walking distance to some stores and near busses for our daughter (adult developmentally disabled). We can walk to many stores where we are, the bus is within a block and my daughter got a job that she walks to...which is great! You sound like you may be looking for a bit more rural, if you don't care about having things within walking distance I can recommend Barboursville, especially if you want a few acres (or much more). My son lives there, works in Charlottesville and has a small family farm on two acres. If I were younger, The market is crazy! There is a shortage of homes for sale in C'Ville area and that does lead to bidding wars. The amazing thing is, the market was even hotter where we lived in NY...we sold our house above asking price in one day! That's because we lived about an hour from NYC and everyone was fleeing from there...we had an open house and had lines all day. You can still get a nice home for $500K or less in the C'Ville area, and less as you move away from the city it seems. Good luck.

Thank you for the realtor recommendation. Pretty amazing to think you were able to purchase your home entirely online, although I’m sure it’s becoming more common. What would have been your liability if you did your walk-thru and changed your mind?

Right now we are not seeing much even remotely close to what we’d like due to the extremely limited inventory. But hoping that could improve even just a little this summer. May also consider new construction. We may end up being like you where it will take a few visits to explore and then keep watching online. I don’t care as much about having stores/businesses in walking distance but would definitely like good walking trails.

Any thoughts on Barboursville vs Stuart’s Draft vs Louisa vs Palmyra? I might put it out there on another thread!!

[saramarie56]

Originally Posted by CapsChick

Sara, contact Erin Hall. She's great!

Thank you!!