Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 7, 1991 TAG: 9104080359
SECTION: HOMES PAGE: E-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Sandra Brown Kelly
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Even before that, videos of new communities and more elaborate single properties had become a routine way for potential buyers to preview places before visiting them.
The latest high-tech approach to area real estate marketing is "radio Realtor," an idea from Tinaglia Realty Co.
The agency is trying to outfit each home it has for sale with radio transmitters so house-hunters can drive by and hear details about a property without actually touring it.
All it takes to get the inside scoop on a house is an AM radio and the ability to find 570 on the dial.
Joe Huddleston, who is in charge of the firm's marketing, said he has been working on the idea for a year. He said the theory is that a large number of people looking for houses ride by properties for sale. The radio gimmick allows the ride-bys to hear details about the home's interior.
Huddleston said only a few transmitters are in place and the for-sale signs carry information about how to tune in.
New state sanitation standards for the construction industry require twice as many portables toilets on construction sites than previous standards and also require companies to provide cold drinking water and hand-washing facilities for workers.
The standards, from the Virginia Safety and health Codes Board, call for one portable toilet per 20 workers, instead of the previously required one per 40 workers. Also, the standards call for one portable hand-washing unit per 20 workers.
Bill Churchill, owner of Churchill's in Roanoke, said the added cost to companies is about $25 a month for each additional unit. He said his company, which provides portable sanitation facilities, is spending $150,000 to buy additional equipment to meet the expected new demand.
The New River Valley was one of eight areas of the state showing an increase in home sales in February over the same month a year ago, according to figures released last week by the Virginia Association of Realtors. The monthly figures are compiled by the state's 25 Multiple Listing areas.
New River home sales were 60 in February 1991 and 46 in February 1990. Year-to-date figures for New River are lower for 1991, however, 88 against 120 in 1990.
Lynchburg had sales increases over 1990 for the month and for January and February combined.
Year-to-date sales for the state were off 13 percent from sales for January and February of 1990.
The Roanoke Regional Home Builders will hear more about several proposed Roanoke Valley-Virginia Tech links at its meeting Thursday. Dr. James McComas, Tech president, is to speak to the group about plans for Hotel Roanoke, for a satellite university in Roanoke and for a new highway between Roanoke and Blacksburg.
Dale H. Powell, chairman and president of Mod-U-Kraf Homes Inc., Rocky Mount, has been elected president of the Industrialized Housing Association of Virginia Inc. Allen Dudley of First Virginia Bank in Franklin County was named treasurer.
Powell and other officers and directors of Mod-U-Kraf were re-elected and two board members were elected at the annual meeting of the modular home and commercial building company. The new directors are W. Curtis Carter, Stuart, and J. Dillard Powell, Union Hall.
Jeff C. Sowder has been named director of construction for the Central Virginia division of Snyder Hunt Corp. of Blacksburg. Sowder, a Salem native, is a civil engineering graduate of Virginia Tech. He previously was as project manager for a 375-acre planned community that Snyder Hunt developed in western Henrico County and development manager for Waverly, a 130-acre community on Smith Mountain Lake in Franklin County.
The National Association of Realtors has advised its members to decline to answer buyers' questions about whether a seller has AIDS. The NAR said the information is irrelevant to the transaction and that providing the information may constitute a violation of the fair housing law.
An article in the April issue of the association's magazine "Real Estate Today" also recommended that agents be cautious about revealing information about what it calls "stigmatized" property, places that have been the sites of murders, suicides or any type of similar tragedy.
The association has been lobbying states to get legislation passed that would clarify disclosure requirements, and 14 states have passed some form of law dealing with disclosure of situations that could have psychological impact on a potential buyer.
by CNB