Land

According to the Roanoke Times, a Chicago-based clean energy company envisions a wind farm of 15 turbines atop a portion of Poor Mountain in Roanoke County. Invenergy's power-generating windmills would be 443 feet from base to the highest tip of a blade and occupy ridge lines along what has been described as one of Virginia's windiest land-based wind power generation sites.  Bent Mountain resident Ed Elswick, a member of the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors, said he thinks the wind farm's development could be a good thing for the county. It would provide green energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and might even improve the appearance of Poor Mountain, he said.

Things are looking good for the Realtor^® Legislative Agenda as it makes its way through both chambers of the Virginia General Assembly. Read all about it in today's Capitol Connections newsletter.

VAR bills that have passed both houses:

Under all is the land... But run afoul of a recent change to NAR's Code of Ethics about land brokerage, and your career could be six feet under it.

Last fall, NAR amended Article 11 of the REALTOR^® Code of Ethics to include land as a real estate discipline that requires specialized expertise.  Aricle 11 expains that Realtors^® should not provide specialized professional services concerning a type of property or service that is outside their field of competence, unless they either engage the assistance of someone who is competent in a specific discipline or fully disclose to the client that they don't possess expertise in a particular area.

Good news for first time homebuyers! Now, more homebuyers may qualify for a VHDA FHA Plus or Homebuyer Tax Credit Plus loan that offers an affordable fixed rate and help with the down payment.

Income limits increased in all areas of the state and sales price/loan limits increased in most areas.

Visit VARbuzz.com for a chart containing a summary of the new limits and VHDA.com/loanlimits for complete details.

A camera is one of the most important business purchases a Realtor^® can make. With so many buyers starting their search online, poor-quality images just don't cut it. Digital cameras have come way down in price and offer some pretty amazing features. But how do you decide which camera to buy? 

This new buyer's guide from Realtor^® Magazine is a good place to start. And check out the September/October issue of Commonwealth magazine, where Andrew Kantor dishes out some awesome photography tips.

As Realtors® from across the Commonwealth arrived in Richmond for Realtor Day on the Hill last week, your VAR lobbying team was putting the finishing touches on advancing the 2010 Legislative Agenda (one of the most ambitious ever for VAR).

Here's where we stand on the bills:

Ready to get in to the new VARealtor.com? Watch this 4:40 video for a full tutorial.

For your first login VAR Members will need to use their e-mail address as their username and NRDS ID number (including any leading letters or zeros) as the password.

You can change your password at any time, but you must log in with the e-mail address on file with NAR. Go to VARealtor.com/NRDS to update your membership information with NAR. Changes will be reflected within 24 hours.

Log in now.

Dire news from from the Congressional Oversight Panel, which announced a new report yesterday concluding that a surge of commercial real estate loan defaults will hit small banks hard.