The Shenandoah Valley real estate market is showing signs of change. The market has suffered five years of low inventory and an abundance of buyers. That scenario creates a seller’s market where multiple offers flood available listings often in the first days and buyers can overpay and often decl
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07/12/2022
On this Memorial Day weekend, I would like to thank all of the men and women who have defended this country from its inception to the present day. It is not without great sacrifice and dedication that you have put your lives in harm's way for the promise of a peaceful return to a more simple lif
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05/29/2022
Late Monday afternoon I received a text from a local property management company asking if I could take a look at a problem at one of their units. I dropped by and the main breaker at the meter stack would not stay engaged. The maintenance man had turned off all of the breakers in the main panel
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05/24/2022
I had a revelation a couple of weeks ago, and it explained a lot to me. I'm sure all of you brainiacs have thought about this before, and I have to a point, but I finally realized that real estate buyers do not have a clue how a real estate agent gets paid. I have been a pretty steady listing age
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05/19/2022
On any given day I may be showing houses, taking listing photos or saving a house from burning down. Today was the burning down day. The photo below shows a receptacle that Jon (my electrician son) and I discovered when a past client complained that her lights weren't working on her screened in p
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05/12/2022
The digital world has changed the way we do the real estate business, and I love it. With that said, let me encourage you to not completely ignore older forms of media. About a decade ago, I started sending the local newspapers a blog on a quarterly basis that explained what happened the previous
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05/11/2022
Winchester, VA 1920s. This was just too much fun to pass up. This is my entry in the Getting to Know "Mike Cooper" post.1. What was your first job and what did you learn from it?I was a paperboy. What did I learn? Discipline. The paper had to be delivered no matter what my day was like.2. How lon
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05/10/2022
Shenandoah Valley, VA 1st Quarter Real Estate Report 2022The Shenandoah Valley, VA real estate market showed a series of conflicting numbers for the first quarter of 2022. Sales prices were up in all the localities, including Winchester City, Frederick County, Clarke County, Warren County and She
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04/24/2022
As Realtors, we're all familiar with mandatory CE credits. All of us have to do it, and that's a good thing. It's important to keep up on the real estate industry, but I have another CE credit you should keep up on. What about continuing exercise? A healthy strong body makes it easier for us
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03/27/2022
If I could offer any advice for you to build a successful life, it would be "Be a sponge." The one thing a sponge is known for is it's ability to absorb. The world around you is full of teachers who are sharing information for you to absorb. Not all information is good information, but you can al
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03/09/2022
