Tere Rottink

The weather in Hampton Roads

I think that weather is a little personal. While I am freezing and wearing two sweaters in my house my husband and daughter are in shorts and tank tops. My son is the in between person in the house.

The local weather today will hit a high of 55 with sun and clouds. Pleasant, very pleasant.

My mother came to visit one year in May, and it was in the 60's and low 70's. She wore a full winter coat any time she stepped out of the house go a cold. Hmmm. We decided our plans of her moving close to live with me were not going to happen.

We visit Minnesota my husband's home state every two years, and while I wear the full winter coat, and I feel being outside is painful, I have seen my nephews in 10 degree weather show up in shorts.

We get very little snow, and when it happens school close, ice form in the roads and there are so many accidents that unless you have injuries the police won't come to you. ( It happened to me last February)

Or the weather man says there is going to snow; schools close and we have a warm and sunny day. It happened a few weeks ago.

So back to Hampton Roads or: Or... Norfolk, Chesapeake, Virginia Beach, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Newport News, Hampton, Williamsburg, Surry County, York county and maybe more cities depending on who you ask.

January The mean (In Mathematics: Mean= a value that is intermediate between other values) temperature is 40°F degrees during the day. The highest temperature in record for the month of January is: 84°F in 1941 The lowest: - 3°F in 1985

February mean during the day: 40°F-45°F

Record high: 82°F in 1890 and again in 1997

Record low: 2°F degrees in 1895

March

Mean: 45°F - 53°F warming up

Record high: 90°F (1907)

Record low: 14°F (1888)

April

Mean: 44°F to 52°F

Record high: 97°F (1960)

Record low: 23°F (1923)

May

Mean: 62°F to 71°F

Record high: 100°F (1991)

Record low: 36°F (1966)

June:

Mean: 71°F to 78°F

Record high: 102°F (1874)

Record low: 45°F (1967)

July:

Mean: 78°F to 80°F

Record high: 104°F (1942)

Record low: 54°F (1979 and 1978)

August:

Mean: 79°F to 76°F. Cooling down.

Record high: 104°F (1980)

Record low: 49°F (1982)

September:

Mean: 76°F to 67°F

Record high: 100°F (1895)

Record low: 40°F (1888)

October:

Mean: 67°F to 56°F

Record high: 95°F (1954)

Record low: 27°F (1976)

November:

Mean: 56°F to 48°F Continuous to cool down

Record high: 84°F (2003)

December:

Mean: 48°F

Record high: 80°F (1978 and 1991)

Record low: 5°F (1917)

So, if you are wondering what the weather is like in this area, I have given you some basic information and hope that if you don't move here, at least come and visit. Make sure and say hi.

The numbers were taken from "The weather channel, Weather channel.com"

I will make this a series of why my husband and I chose this area as our home after he retired from the Navy.

•1) Retiring from the Navy we get the health insurance provided for retirees. We lived in a few locales where there wasn't a large military population. What we discovered was that when we tried to go to the doctor and make appointments they were never taking new patients. What we found out is that our insurance pays at the same rate as Medicaid, and that usually is not enough for doctors to pay the bills. So what good is to have almost free medical care thanks to 20 years of service to our country when nobody accepts it? Because there is such a large military population, I have only had that happen to us once in the 10 plus years we have lived here. Portsmouth Naval Hospital and the surrounding clinics have always taken good care of us.

•2) The weather. Mild and at the same time we get the change of all the seasons. We even had snow for a few hours yesterday on my birthday.

•3) Family oriented with friendly people no matter what city you are in.

•4) Fun, fun, fun, I will dedicate a following blog to describe different things that our family does to keep us entertained.

•5) The Beach.

•6) The school system. I will be specific to the one that my children go to, as I am familiar to it, but will describe others that have a great reputation.

•7) Diversity. Just like me (I am from Colombia, South America) there are people from all over the country and all over the world.

•8) History. Can't drive around much without seeing a historical monument to a battle, or some important event related to the history of these great United States of America.

•9) Between two families. My husband is from Minnesota and my closest relatives live in Florida.

And Last but not Least will come to me in the future.

I started working in real estate when my youngest son started the first grade. I worked part-time his year in kinder garden, as his was a half day school.

I see pictures of a lot of people crying because their kid went to school for the first time. Not me, I was glad to have some time for myself, and go out and make some money.

Years later: My son is now eleven years old. He still follows me around, and in general does as he is told. This past Sunday, at church we were waiting for the service to start, and he told me that he was going to get some water. Five minutes later when he didn't come back, worried, I got up to go look for him. He was sitting by himself in the back of the church, and when I asked him what he was doing there, he said "you are embarrassing me Mom"

He asserted his independence for the first time, and although proud of him, and I have always known that this day would come, it hit me so unexpectedly that when I went back to my seat, I couldn't help but cry. My son is growing up and there is nothing that I can do about it.

Somehow, I feel compelled to share this with whoever relates to it. Aghh, I just cried again.

With spring ahead my buyer business is picking up. Once again, I get phone calls from my buyers to cancel appointments that were made to go look at houses , and get the phone calls that we can go look at houses in a couple hours, as the buyer has for some reason or other extra time.

I have a three hour window. I call 10 listings and get through to three agents on the spot; leave 7 messages. Two of the messages are returned within the hour, two of them call me while I am already showing the houses. Three of them never returned the call.

If it is a vacant house, I have no problem showing the house, but if the agent has specified to call before you go, I make sure to make contact before I show the listing.

Where I am going with this, is that if we have been lucky enough to get the listing, we need to be willing and able to answer our phone during regular hours. For us real estate agents that includes weekends when most buyers are able to look at houses.

Recently, an agent from my office told me of an agent that had left a message for the listing agent of an occupied home and within the hour shown up at the door and tried to open the door. The owner of the home was there, and as you can imagine he felt his privacy had been violated. Whose fault did he think it was? The listing agent. Shame on the buyer's agent.

Another situation that bothers me to no end, is the listing agent that has so many REO's and other listings, that her/his phone is always busy. Phone calls are returned within 24 hours when I have been able to leave a message, and although these houses are vacant, the agent uses contractor lock boxes that make it impossible to show her listings. I wish the banks new how hard it is to show her listings, as unless the buyer request to see this listing, I no longer attempt to show them anymore.

So a couple of request and reminders to all of us.

•- Answer the phone

•- Return phone calls in a timely manner

•- Don't take more listings than your office can handle

•- Train your sellers to be able to leave the house with an hour's notice. ( I have gotten two contracts in that situation)

•- Tell your sellers to leave the house while it is shown.

•- Read the listing completely for showing instructions

•- If you have made an appointment to show a home and are unable to make it, have the courtesy to cancel the appointment. Sellers have gone to a lot of trouble to make the house presentable, and make arrangements to be elsewhere.

And last but not least, while you are under contract be available to the other agent and mortgage lender. Now that we have access to telephone, email, and texting there is no excuse to be unavailable for days at a time, once the house is in the process of being sold.

I may take a lot of heat for this post, but I am embarrassed by the lack of courtesy from some people in our profession. It makes us all real estate agents look bad.

In general, I love my tenants. They are good people that for different reasons do not neet to buy a house, are here for a short time......or cannot afford to buy a house. I am of the mentality that In most cases everybody should own their own home, " The American Dream." In a heavily military area like mine, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Suffolk and its surroundings we get a lot of people who will only be here for a short time. Then, we have the locals or people who just moved in to the area.

Where am I going with this?

Finding the right tenant. In most areas of my life, I follow my instinct, but when you are talking about giving someone you don't know your hard earned investment, it is a different story.

I prefer to have a vacant property, rather than to rent to someone who will not take care of it. The most recent dramatic cost was $16,000. It was a lovely home, and we had to sell it do to this crazy situation. The damage done to the property was vicious and malicious.

There is a national company that will do tenant screening. "National Tenant Network" http://www.ntnonline.com/ For a very affordable fee they can do a credit, criminal and tenant history check. (You have to call previous landlords yourself) Most of the money to pay for their services will come from the tenant application fee.

Every time that I have not followed their advice and rented to a less than qualified tenant, I have paid dearly. Not all tenants damage property even if they cannot afford the place. I remember the man who lost his job and couldn't afford the place anymore. He seemed and was a very nice man. He had four children and after three months of free rent he finally left to live in a one bedroom apartment. I did not evict him or went after the money he owed. NTN had recommended in their point system that this was a risky tenant. I followed my instinct and lost five months rent by the time I was done.

Our local office is run by Mary Saylor. 757.827.5775 (phone)