Keller Williams Realty continues to rank number 2 in total sales of Condos, Townhomes and Single Family Detached Residences across Intown Atlanta.

Have you noticed how solid KW has become in just 10 years?

If you think it’s because of the special Kool-Aid that we drink, then you should try some.

Thanks to professionals like The Red Robin Group, Matura Homes, the C Group, Chuck and Marshall, Rick Hale, Rob Damman, and lots of other cool agency teams who work for KW’s Intown market centers, KW has done a remarkable thing with it’s Intown presence in just 10 years.

Look at Solid Source as an up and coming #5, up against Dorsey Alston, the remarkable Sanctuary, the stalwart Nine Mile Trolley, the always good Realsource, 14 West, Sotheby’s, Jenny Pruitt is still in business too … you name the boutique agency and you’ll find quite a few solid agents. There are too many good real estate agents Intown to mention them all.

CB and HN have fallen consistently for years, but they have some dominant agents in some submarkets, like Vijay Patel and Patty Junger and Travis Reed.

Altogether, check the activity, check the references, listen to the stories and you’ll find a large cadre of real estate professionals Intown who see structure, stability and strength in the Intown neighborhoods.

Just like we do at Rootdown.

We are charter members at Keller Williams Realty First Atlanta, and we get a lot of our strength from our association with this classy outfit.

This office chartered in 1999, the first KW market center in Georgia and the #1 performing real estate brokerage office in all of metro Atlanta this Summer.

There are certainly street by street, school district by school district, immediate neighbor by immediate neighbor comparisons to be made, but if you select the right realtor, then you know that you won’t have reasons to lose sleep at night on one of our lovely Intown streets…

At Rootdown, we can help you with cash investing, first time home buying, FHA financed purchases for up to $358000, mortgage financed purchases at all price points, selling all types of property, complicated flips, smartly staged showhomes, condos, lofts and townhomes and lots of them, site selection, construction and design projects with land, and lots of other simple stuff like opening lockboxes, doing market analysis and engaging in snappy conversation.

Intown is where it’s at for the next two decades – the suburbs will not see the demand that we will see in Intown Atlanta and Decatur for employed people under the age of 40 – those people will want to live in our best Intown school districts and neighborhoods and they will want to commute as little as possible.

Stay tuned for the latest intown charts in our forthcoming posts, or go back and read some old posts and make comments.

Remember this one called “My Card Says Real Estate Agent, Not Fortune Teller” from last week – here’s 3 highlights:

* June stats=30277 actives, 3125 sold, 9.7 months supply

* Correctly priced = 96.8% of list and sold in 24 days on market.

* Of the 41 sold out of 100, 31 only sold with a reduction, therefore 90 out of 100 listings are overpriced.

Will KW ever become #1 over Re/Max in Intown Atlanta? Agent populations have shifted and shrunk recently, so I say give it another 10 years and we’ll see if Solid Source is a true player, and if Re/max’s business model is still as popular as it has been since the 1970’s…

I have the latest stats from Chartmaster Chuck for Intown Atlanta and I’m throwing up a map slide so that we can engage on what’s Intown and what’s not Intown, in my opinion.

My broker pays for these killer stats presentations and quite a few of our agents use them everyday. If you saw the reports that I was buying for myself last year, then you can see that what Shaun Rawls is buying for his agents who work “Intown” is quite simply the best stats presentation available.

Let me know if you want to see them…

Chartmaster Chuck keeps outdoing himself!

However, the map above indicates that area 53 and area 32 – greater Grant Park and Ormewood Park, east Atlanta Village and the unincorporated areas southeast of the city limits, arguably a few of the hottest Intown neighborhoods, are not part of these stats.

The area of West End to Colllege Park is included.

I think that the missing 53 and 32 should be in the next report.

I think that area 31, The West End to College Park, is one of the most depressed markets in the United States, and until the decommissioning of Fort McPherson happens in 2012, nothing will lift over there.

I think that throws off the gorgeous magic of this particular set of second quarter 2009 Intown Atlanta real estate statistics.

Stay tuned for a ton of new information in the next few weeks and a few videos that will drop in 2 weeks.

Thanks for the cool reports, Shaun and Chuck – I’ve got the market area details reports to work with, so I’m good for now!

I am enamored with the real estate marketing power of Trulia.com…I always give Trulia.com a big “thumbs up” but take a look at a few “thumbs up” that I’ve received from real estate consumers on Trulia.com …

2 Thumbs Up for my answers to this question:

How long you should go without contact from your agent? I recently viewed several properties with my agent and she said she would get back to me with information on other listings we found…that was 22 days ago!

2 Thumbs Up for my answers to this question:

My husband and I want to purchase rental property in the Atlanta area. We reside in Louisiana. What areas should we consider to increase the chances that the home is rented out most of the time? We can only spend about $30,000. We are looking at predominantly foreclosed properties, but just aren’t sure which area to choose?

3 Thumbs Up for my answers to this question:

Area Around Bessie Branham Park – Good Kirkwood Neighborhood? I’m interested in buying a home in Kirkwood and from my knowledge it’s really a street-by-street comparison process. I’m currently looking at the area around Bessie Branham park and specifically several streets next to it (Delano Dr, Norwood Ave, Bates Ave, Ridgedale Rd, Kirkwood Rd). I’m wondering if anyone can provide some insight on these streets in terms of desirability, crime, neighbors, etc, compared to other Kirkwood streets and nearby neighborhoods such as Oakhurst and Decatur. I drove by those streets yesterday and they seem really nice with people busy renovating their houses, etc. Any opinion will be appreciated.

Every week I answer questions on Trulia Voices, particularly questions about Intown Atlanta and Decatur real estate – in less than 2 years, I’ve answered 461 questions, I have 226 “Thumbs Up” and quite a few of my answers have received “Best Answer.”

You can lend your expertise, ask questions particular to your real estate goals, read through tens of thousands of other questions in a searchable database, and meet cool people, all on Trulia Voices.

I’ve been a Trulia Voice since December 17, 2007, and I get more web traffic for my listings on Trulia.com than I do at realtor.com or at any of the 40 + other websites where I list property.

Thanks to all of you who gave me a thumbs up. Thanks to all of my clients and my friends and family who refer business to me. And, thanks to Trulia.com for introducing me to so many cool people.

The Atlanta real estate market is in a very interesting place.

That’s a quote from a letter that I got this morning from my friend Shaun Rawls, my mentor in the real estate business since 1999. In 1999, he was one of my pre-license real estate school teachers at the Homebanc Institute of Real Estate Studies, a school led by the one and only Kay Evans.

Y’all remember Homebanc?

Aaahhh, the halcyon days of mid-1999, before Shaun and Kay led Keller Williams Realty to become a real estate brokerage stalwart in Georgia.

Thinking back, I was probably in a “crash course” for my licensing test, it was this time of year ten years ago when I was “fixing” to get my real estate license…what a long strange trip it’s been!

This is most of the content of Shaun’s letter that he wrote to his team today, a team of about 1000 people who work in Atlanta area real estate as part of The Rawls Group of market centers.

I believe that Shaun’s words deserve a little broadcasting:

…“Things” are generally improving, numerically.  Although there’s no guarantee that they will continue to do so, these improvements should be a real wake-up call for buyers who continue to wait for prices to continue to decline. 

As we move forward, the very best deals of the economic downturn are probably going to be seen through the rear view mirror.  The “fact of the market” is that inventory is decreasing, prices are rising and the good properties that come on the market at the right price are selling faster than we’ve seen in a long, long time. 

In fact, the statistics show that in 39 FMLS Areas in Metro Atlanta, there is less than 11 months of inventory on the market, the median sales price is $162,000 and the median Days On Market (“DOM”) for properties that sell without a price reduction is 24 days (Compared to 252 days on market for properties that have to reduce their price before they sell!). 

For quite some time now, buyers have had the luxury of not having to fight for, or compete for, homes for sale.  Those days are gone, or at least they are fading fast.  It’s almost as if there is a “Seller’s Market” for great homes at a great price while there is a “Buyer’s Market” for average to below average homes on the market.

For Sellers, it’s critical that they realize that these improvements in the market in no way give them a green light to be cocky or overly confident.  There is a fine line between a good listing and a great one, and a tremendous difference in the results that are realized for each. 

One of the “Aha’s” that I have had for sellers is this:  Seller’s that “don’t have to sell” are disadvantaged in this market.  The HUD-1’s are going to the sellers that have to sell, not to the sellers who don’t.  In fact, if a seller doesn’t “have to sell,” then they should know that they have an immediate and obvious handicap in the selling process.  Those sellers that do have to sell can and will do whatever it takes to sell their homes, and thus have an “advantage” over most other sellers. 

In this market, Sellers that DO have to sell DO sell, and sellers that DON’T have to sell DON’T.

One of the most important things that I see going wrong for listings in this market is that sellers and agents are spending too much time focusing on determining what a home is worth, rather than determining the listing price that will most certainly generate offers from buyers in the market place. 

Appraisers determine the value of a home. Real estate professionals determine what the sticker price needs to be in order attract offers that can begin a dialogue of successful negotiations that will result in a successful closing. 

Price is king in this market. 

Remember:  “The right price overcomes any objection.”  If you’re not the best listing at the best price in the market, then you won’t get offers.  In 20 years in this business, I’ve never shown property to a buyer who said, “Let’s make an offer on the third best house that we saw today.”  Never.

The other issue that is plaguing our market is ineffective price reductions.  Simply put, if you reduce the price of a home to a price that doesn’t put the home in front of a new pool of buyers, then such a reduction is typically a waste of time. 

We have to remember what price ranges we put into the computer when we search for homes, and when we need to make a reduction to re-position the home on the market we must introduce it to the buyers who are searching for homes in the next lowest price point.

These are interesting times.

These are, indeed, interesting times.  They are interesting mostly because of how they are shaping us and because of what they are helping us to become….”

I am so honored to be a part of Keller Williams Realty First Atlanta, and I consider it a privilege to have a mentor like Shaun Rawls.

Together, we are focused on building our business in a learning based, productivity specific environment that insures that we provide the very best service in the real estate industry.

And this is what we believe in…

Win, win…or no deal.

Integrity…do the right thing.

Customers…always come first.

Creativity…ideas before results.

Communication…seek first to understand.

Commitment…in all things.

Trust…begins with honesty.

Teamwork…Together Everyone Achieves More.

Success…results through people.

That’s the logo of my real estate agency practice at Keller Williams Realty First Atlanta.

I think it’s funky.

Keller Williams Realty First Atlanta is the #1 real estate brokerage office in the entire state of Georgia for dollars sold this year!

That’s beyond funky.

My real estate brokerage is a 10 year old whiz kid centrally located in Sandy Springs and Keller Williams Realty First Atlanta is lead by Shaun Rawls, Jeri Moran, and Steve Kout.

It’s a tremendous “place to work” and those three are all very funky.

And, they let me co-brand and build my own unique Intown Atlanta and Decatur practice all within the safe confines of a smartly run brokerage.

And, they let me call it The Rootdown Group.

That’s a funky one.

I can thank Greg Ruis, The Pricemaster, for also being the Chief Logo Officer at The Rootdown Group.

He spent about 6 months coming up with our funky logo.

I wish that he would blog, but he doesn’t blog…yet.

So, instead of collaborative blogging with my Business Partner, Greg Ruis, a massive consumer of blog content, yet not a writer of blog content, yes, that Greg Ruis…

…instead of collaborating with Greg, I’m forced to collaborate with the one and only Bootsy Collins on Twitter.

Now, he’s funky. He’s from the Mothership of Funk.

He proves that you can not fake the funk.

The following collaboration occurred on Twitter last week:

I asked, “@Bootsy_Collins How big of a funk are we in?”
Bootsy responded: “@intowninsider I’ve got the biggest funk around! Bootsy Baby!”
I asked Bootsy a follow up question: “@Bootsy_Collins I know you’ve got the biggest funk around, but how do we measure the funk?”
Bootsy replied: “@intowninsider they haven’t found out N E thing that matches the size in order to measure. Bootsy Baby!”

It’s my funkiest moment yet.

For me, Office Manager Joan Holloway on Mad Men is just one of my pursuits of happiness…

So, if you hang around Keller Williams Realty long enough, you ingrain a Mission, a Vision, your Values, your Goals, and your Beliefs into your real estate agency business.

Sometimes, among some agents, it’s all talk and no action. It’s lots of classes and limited application in the field.

But, the 80/20 rule applies and the 80/20 rule reveals that most, 80%, fail in real estate agency.

The washout rate is 50% a year.

Replenishment of the ranks is less frequent now, but talent arrives every week – young and old, rich and poor…some with brainpower, some, not so much.

But 20% are always going to do 80% of the business. That’s sales.

I started the Intown Insider blog on January 1, 2007 and since then, my business has changed for the better.

The title, the headline, states: “To life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…” kind of like a stake in the ground marking my property.

I just helped a client who lives in California sell his first Georgia property on Monday and then on Friday make his next offer on 1598 Liberty Avenue.

The street name has been resonating with me in a positive way all week!

Just so the world knows, we want to close a week from today, as is and with all cash. I make a 2.5% commission and we drive on to the next one.

If I had a few more clients willing to write cash offers like that, I believe that I could do about 15-16 more transactions, in addition to about 12-13 others, before the end of this year.

He’s going to buy 10 or more properties before the end of the year.

If a few of you out there want to join him, then earning your business would be a definite pursuit of happiness for me.

If a few of you out there are thinking about buying houses with cash, then know that I offer a Non-Exclusive Agency Agreement and some brainpower with Intown Atlanta and Decatur properties.

Call me.