About This Site and Who Runs It
Program and regulatory figures verified September 19, 2026. Details change; confirm your scenario with us.
A lender's site about a Virginia problem that is mostly good news, plus one decision that is genuinely technical and almost never raised.
Why the site is shaped this way
Most writing about buying before selling comes from the real estate side and focuses on the offer. That is their expertise. What usually decides whether a Virginia move-up buyer can act is the financing, and here there is a wrinkle that rarely comes up: the same equity, reached three different ways, is taxed at three different rates when the instrument is recorded.
That is not obscure trivia. It is in Va. Code § 58.1-803, it applies to every deed of trust recorded in the Commonwealth, and knowing it before the instrument is drafted is worth real money on a larger loan.
And the part we are happy to say plainly
Virginia is currently the most favourable state we build for on this strategy. Every metro except Danville went pending faster than the national benchmark for the month ending August 2026, and values rose in every metro tracked.
We spend most of our time warning people about overlap risk. Here the numbers do not support much warning, so we say that instead. A site that manufactures urgency where none exists is not worth reading.
Two claims we checked and did not publish
The first is the four-unit VRLTA exemption. Several published summaries say an individual landlord owning no more than four single-family units and not using a management company is exempt from most of the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act. We read the current text of § 55.1-1201 and that exemption is not in it. It is not on this site.
The second is locality-specific tax relief thresholds. Summaries quote Fairfax and Arlington income and asset limits freely. Those are ordinances, they change, and there are 133 Virginia jurisdictions. We publish the structure and send you to the office that administers it.
We also avoid citing § 58.1-3211, which was repealed in 2011 and still appears in a lot of published guidance.
What we deliberately do not do
We do not advise on purchase contracts, contingencies or offer terms. We are lenders, not licensed real estate agents or attorneys. We do not determine the recordation treatment of a specific instrument; your closing agent and the clerk do. We do not administer local tax relief; your commissioner of the revenue does.
Reach us on the contact page, or start with the Virginia guide.
Frequently asked questions
Are you a real estate agent?
No. Mike Certo is a mortgage loan originator, NMLS #260555, with Cornerstone First Mortgage, NMLS #173855. We finance the purchase; your agent represents you in it and handles the contract. Different licences, different jobs.
Can you tell me what my recording tax will be?
We can show you the statutory rates and what each route costs at your loan amount. The determination for a specific instrument belongs to your closing agent and the clerk of court, who apply Va. Code § 58.1-803 to the document actually being recorded.
Do you lend throughout Virginia?
Yes, Virginia statewide. The financing rules are the same across the Commonwealth, but conforming limits split sharply between the seventeen jurisdictions at $1,249,125 and the rest at $832,750, and real estate tax relief is a local ordinance across 133 jurisdictions, so your specific locality matters.
Mike Certo · NMLS #260555 · Cornerstone First Mortgage NMLS #173855 · Equal Housing Lender. Educational content about financing, not a loan commitment and not legal, tax, or real estate advice. Local tax relief ordinances, recordation treatment, and landlord obligations change and depend on your facts; your commissioner of the revenue, your CPA or a Virginia attorney, and your real estate agent each handle their own part. Loans are subject to borrower and property qualification.