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Listing to sell in Intown Atlanta

February 29, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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Many submarkets of Intown Atlanta and Decatur are seeing very low levels of inventory for sale. The latest numbers in many of our markets show inventory levels down 25% - 30% from last year. The mix of properties is changing as well. For the 20-county metro area, short sales & foreclosures were 60% of the total transactions last year. But remember that real estate is local and many markets are different. We are now seeing lots of markets where short sales & foreclosures were only 20-25% of the transactions. The market conditions are improving for sellers, and resales are going to drive sales in 2012. The conditions that drive sales are improving so it might be the right time to get your house ready for showing. If you want to attain the highest market value for your property, you must have exceptional marketing. Exceptional marketing - That’s where I come in. Remember, you only get one chance to make a great first impression - so curb appeal INSIDE AND OUT is … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Eastside, General Information, Market Analysis, Northside, Really Great Real Estate Marketing, Southside, Westside

Fannie Mae Homepath and the new online offer system

February 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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Fannie Mae was founded in 1938 at the end of the Great Depression. The Federal National Mortgage Association plays an even greater role in the housing market today as our nation recovers from the worst housing crisis since the Great Depression. Making an offer to purchase a Fannie Mae HomePath property is now quick, easy, and entirely online! Beginning February 2, all offers on HomePath properties must be made using the HomePath Online Offer system. More good news - you can set up your own profile on their site and search all you want, nationwide - it's a feature rich site, and the bid process is way more efficient than many other methods of real estate purchase and sale today. All offers for HomePath properties must be submitted through a licensed real estate broker/agent, so that's where I come in! … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Eastside, General Information, Market Analysis, Northside, Really Great Real Estate Marketing, Southside, Westside

Free parking in downtown Decatur

February 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Free parking for my guests. My office is located at 315 W. Ponce De Leon Avenue Suite 100 Decatur, GA 30030. That's in downtown Decatur, at the corner of Ponce De Leon Place, in a tall, white office tower called "Decatur Court." We have free parking for my guests - the spaces marked "Keller Williams Guest" are parallel spaces, along the eastern side of the building - those spaces are accessed by pulling into the driveway that leads to the Wells Fargo teller lines on the Eastern side of the building. If you have trouble finding those spaces, just park and come in - we are located on the first floor. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Architecture, Eastside, Fun Facts, General Information, Greater Decatur, Really Great Real Estate Marketing

The cavalry ain’t coming to your expired Atlanta listing

February 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment

But a US Army logistics officer named Lee Taylor is. I met Chris Gardner yesterday – the guy that wrote the book, “The Pursuit of Happyness.” He’s a remarkable man. He says some things in his recently published book “Start Where You Are” that should resonate with Atlanta sellers who really, truly want to sell their houses in 2012, even if their attempts at being ON the market haven’t worked so far. Chris teaches a lesson that should resonate with you if you are among the more than 50% of all listed sellers in the past few years, that failed to sell. Chris learned this lesson from his Mother one night while they were watching an old Western TV show – “The cavalry ain’t coming!” Here’s a further look into what that means, from page 33 of his recent book: “yes, I can speak to factors outside of my control and blame them for the predicament or make excuses about why things didn’t work out like they should have…maybe it’s all true, but that doesn’t … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Eastside, Market Analysis, Northside, Really Bad Real Estate Marketing, Really Great Real Estate Marketing, Southside, Westside

2012 will be better than 2011

February 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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Zillow, with all of it’s pitfalls, can’t be all wrong. Whenever someone tells me about a Zestimate, I just say, please speak with a Zappraiser about that. I’m in the business of selling houses, not zestimating. Metro Atlanta’s home values fell 12.9 percent in 2011, according to Zillow ’s Real Estate Market Reports. The area’s home values averaged $109,100, which was down 37.9 percent from the market’s peak several years ago. So, with the fourth quarter numbers in, here’s a little bit of a forecast for 2012: “…Fortunately, against a backdrop of modest further declines in home values, we expect that home sales will pick up briskly this year as affordable prices bring more buyers to the table, especially investors and second-home buyers.” Zillow does not forecast a definitive national bottom until 2013 and predicts a national decline of 3.7 percent in 2012. Click here for more….” … [Read more...]

Filed Under: General Information, Market Analysis

Under contract but in limbo

February 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

One of my clients is under contract on a short sale, but thinking about placing an offer on another property. There are two things that my client needs to know if they decide to do this. 1. they could be under contract on two properties, but they would be violating a clause in contract #1, and before they get a preapproval for contract #2, their lender would want to see a termination of contract #1, unless they didn't tell their lender about contract #1, so that means that they do indeed need to be working with two lenders who don't know about one another - they could do this if they want to put two earnest money checks in play, and as long as they understand the other legal risks. They might lose their earnest money(ies), and/or they might get sued if they don't protect themselves. 2. they can obtain enough cash to buy both and move forward without consequences … [Read more...]

Filed Under: General Information
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