I just shot a video last week in the Summerhill and Grant Park neighborhoods. My client Dennis wanted me to check out a $45,000 house for him over on Connally.

I drove back through Grant Park to get home to Kirkwood, turned left off of Georgia on to Grant and lo and behold Winston Killingsworth’s house, the former home of a Union Officer, built in 1868, is for sale – for $1.6 Million. Winston is a Realtor with Re/max with an established Grant Park based practice.

The counterbalance between $45,000 and $1.6 Million in one zip code fascinates me.

I toured Winston’s house quite a few years ago on a Grant Park home tour and it is exquisite – a gorgeous Victorian with every square inch in impeccable shape.

The AJC completed an article on the restoration of Winston’s house – you can read it here.

I toured the $45,000 house here’s a video of the premises…

Here’s a photo of the $1.6 Million listing.

Here’s a quick driving tour that features the few minutes between these two significant portents of the 30312 submarket…

You can read more of my opinions about Grant Park at Trulia Voices, and if you want to do some more reading, then check out  some of the Grant Park specific Questions and Answers!

This post from January 2008 features my market analysis and a handy boundaries map for Grant Park.

If you want to grab lunch at Six Feet Under and take a tour of the 30312 with me, just email or call me and we’ll arrange.

If you are interested in selling your property in 30312, then I can help you – it’s 2010, and between $45,000 and $1.6 Million folks are getting their real estate on.

See you in the 30312!

I received a call from an experienced and talented real estate agent  today and I told her that my buyer client is reviewing financing options and that we have been discussing the terms and conditions of a contract.

A contract on one of her listings – a really nice property in a really nice master planned community in Intown Atlanta.

I told her that my client is probably going to make a “lowball” offer.

She knows what to expect for a win with her seller client, and so do I.

My client wants a win/win. He wants the seller to accept his offer, but he also wants to negotiate.

He thinks that the seller wants to negotiate.

Sellers really don’t WANT to negotiate.

So, I emailed my client and I told him that one way to help establish his offer as a serious offer that demands a serious response from the seller, and not just a toss, is to increase his earnest money offering.

Do you have a clear understanding of the role of earnest money in a real estate contract?

Do you see the role of earnest money from both sides – the buyer’s point of view and the seller’s point of view?

Read this link and this link, plus the earnest money section of my guidebook, if you want some deeper insight.

If you want my guidebook to purchasing real estate in Georgia, then call me or write me, OK?

Let me touch on a few other things about this offer and offer you the same advice that I offer my clients when strategizing a “lowball” offer.

My best advice is to consider the word “authenticity” when thinking about the role of earnest money.

Desires for what many buyers want their contract to look like at the closing table are very contradictory to what an experienced seller will accept in Georgia.

My second best advice with earnest money is to consider that the amount can play a “leverage” role. The leverage of MORE earnest money than a buyer might WANT to commit can help a buyer who is making an offer that might be considered outlandish and not worth even countering.

I do not want the seller to respond to my client’s offer with a simple, “hell no,” but I am confident that their current stance will never be a win for the seller.

Since it is the initial offer, it could also hurt my client, if the seller decides to be emotional and angry about the offer and think: “how dare they!”

Buyers never  want to insult the seller, and if my buyer wants this house, then he needs to choose his negotiation battles wisely.

Since my client’s current unwritten offer stance is so far away from a win with this seller, the only tactic that I can suggest to make it more “authentic” is to make the earnest money amount 5% minimum.

I would suggest 10% of the sales price as the Earnest Money amount for maximum effect.

He only risks this money if he defaults.

I will not let him default on any deadlines.

I also suggest a 14 day maximum for the due diligence period and a 21 day maximum for the financing contingency, since this is not an “as is” sale and my client is obtaining mortgage financing.

Right now, if my buyer gets the price that he wants, then this price is 74% of the original list price. That is below average for a sale of any property, even distressed property, in Atlanta. At this point, most sellers in this seller’s situation – unstressed and unmotivated to move – will just say “trash the offer.”

I see this all the time – 58.4% of all listed property never sells at all in Intown Atlanta. No wonder, right?

The mother of all Intown Atlanta real estate charts does not lie.

So in many cases, adding earnest money of at least 5% will help the “earnestness.”

Also, closing within 45 days will help the seller’s motivation.

I asked the listing agent, to receive my client’s offer as a serious offer. I also suggested to her that when she presents the offer, would she please ask the seller a question that I ask my seller clients who are similar to this seller, in this situation:

“If you knew that the market would be down another 10% in 6 months, how would this affect your behavior today?”

Sometimes that question helps sellers to be less resistant to any offer.

I would hope that they would counter regardless of the amount, terms and conditions of any offer, but hope is not a strategy.

Heavy earnest money is a solid tactic that a strategic agent and a savvy buyer would deploy, to cushion the blow of a “low” ball offer…

So, the first thing that you may notice is that I have helped more buyers than I have sellers.

So what?

Well, the strength of my business going forward will be based on my ability to help a few more Intown Atlanta and Decatur sellers, as well as buyers – Sellers need help, many sellers have been misled, and many sellers are looking to hire a real estate service provider who can actually produce.

I can cause the sale of property – I am a sales professional with a 22 year resume’ – The numbers in the fifth column reveal a tremendous success story with the sale of my listings. The fact that I have helped more buyers than I have sellers in the past 6 years of full time agency is advantageous, right now, in this market. Why?

1. I have intimate “product knowledge”

2. I have intimate Intown neighborhood knowhow

3. I have built a reliable network of over 700 real estate professionals who serve the Intown Atlanta and Decatur submarkets and I can market directly to these salespeople

That being said, I met with 12 sellers in Intown Atlanta and Decatur in 2009 who did not hire me – 9 sellers who did hire me sold their properties within an average time period of less than one month.

Those 12 sellers who chose to hire someone else…NONE of them sold in 2009.

If you would like to meet, then please call me or email me – I love helping people and I believe that I will help 22 sellers, maybe more, get their property sold this year.

Sellers need good help – I’m that good help. My US Army logistics career, my background in construction sales for most of the 1990’s and my technical savvy that I’ve been cultivating over the past 15 or 20 years, all combine to make me a very effective Listing Agent.

Will you be one of my clients this year? If so, then see you at the closing table!

The Wall Street Journal’s Nick Timiraos analyzes the 5 issues that he believes are critical to the housing industry and to the entities that revolve around it. Click here for a link to his article from today’s WSJ.

He states that there is “an uncertain outlook for the year ahead, one filled with questions about what policymakers will choose to do and how markets will react to those decisions.”

He quotes Ivy Zelman, chief executive of Zelman & Associates, a housing-research firm who states that “The can has been kicked down the road…”

Ivy’s firm studies the big builders, the large building trades firms, and the home center businesses, like Lowe’s and Home Depot.

So, Nick and Ivy are coming at these issues from a broad, established perspective and at this point in history, if you focus on the stock performances, the outlooks and the various profit centers of these multi-million $ and billion + $ operations, you see a period of history that is marked by pain, blues and agony!

Regardless, we are all moving on – I’ll attempt to break these 5 issues down to the Intown Atlanta street level:

1. Mortgage rates – the limited demand in our submarket is part of a nationwide repositioning, but our limited demand has been fueled by the lowest rates in 50 years (see a recent Intown Insider POV here) and by government intervention. Nick writes: “Whether the private market is ready to fill the gap when the Fed exits is one of the hottest debates between economists, investors and analysts. The Mortgage Bankers’ Association says that it expects rates to rise by around one-quarter of a percentage point, but others say rates could jump by as much as a full percentage point.”

Intown Atlanta Sellers – if you really want to sell, then strike while “consumer demand” is hot and well fueled in the next 5 months. All bets are off after that.

2. Fannie, Freddie and the FHA – Lamentations abound for these troubled quasi-government entities. What a trainwreck, but all 3 are the recent vehicles that have saved the housing industry. Nick writes: "Nearly nine in 10 mortgages are now being backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage-finance giants taken over by the government, or government agencies such as the Federal Housing Administration. The future of Fannie and Freddie remains nearly as uncertain now as it was one year ago, but the White House has said it will offer its recommendations on how to remake the U.S. housing-finance infrastructure early this year. The FHA, meanwhile, has suffered from heavy losses that could lead to a taxpayer bailout, and it is set to announce a series of measures in the next few weeks to tighten its standards. The New Deal-era agency, which offers loans with minimum 3.5% down payments, backed half of all sales to first time home buyers during the peak April-June buying period.”

You do not need an MBA in economics to understand the upheaval that is coming.

Intown Atlanta Buyers – now is the time!

3. Loan Modifications – Nick states that “The Obama administration launched the most ambitious government effort to date in February to modify loans for troubled borrowers. That program, however, has been off to an underwhelming start because loan servicers, which collect loan payments, have had to rapidly build staff and systems to administer the program.”

Serious delinquencies are surfacing, month by month. White collar unemployment is a sickness. Intown Atlantans are in a much more stable market than some cities, but this problem can be a cancer on any given street…

4. More Loan Resets – as my friend and fellow Trulia Voice, Hank Miller would say – BOHICA (click on this link to look up this military acronym). Neighborhoods with $400,000 plus properties are going to feel the effect of loan resets in a bad way over the next 3-4 years. More loan failures are coming and sellers in Intown Atlanta’s more expensive neighborhoods will compete with distressed properties.

I ask this question often when I’m confronted with a potential listing client who is stuck on the “wrong” price.

“If you knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that the market would be down an additional 10% in 6 months, then how would this impact your sales stance today?”

I sometimes don’t get hired because other agents will list overpriced properties. Overpriced properties are addressed in this recent Intown Insider POV.

Nick remarks that there will be “more pain for mid-to-upper end housing markets that began to show more signs of stress in 2009.”

5. Tax credit and home sales – Nick writes: “The tax credit led first-time buyers to compete with investors on lower-priced homes, and prices posted six straight months of modest gains through October, according to the Case-Shiller index, which measures home prices in 20 cities. While it wouldn’t be surprising to see prices tick down again during the winter, when home sales are normally cooler, there’s still a good deal of debate between housing economists and analysts over whether a “double-dip” could lead home prices to fall below the bottom that was set last April. Meanwhile, housing analysts expect to see an uptick in short sales, where lenders allow homeowners to sell for less than they owe on the mortgage.”

Short sales are in season, and sellers must confront their bottom line goals if they want to sell in the hyper-competitive Intown Atlanta market. Short sales can work for many, many sellers. Yes, your credit will be affected. If you want some perspective, talk to your accountant.

If you want your Intown Atlanta property sold, short or not short, call me.

In the next few months, the time is now for sellers. Hesitation could lead to more frustration.

In the next few months, the time is now for buyers. Hesitation could lead to missing out on the absolute best purchasing terms and conditions, and the absolute best prices that we will likely see in the next 50-100 years.

Please call me if I can help you with your next real estate steps!

There’s a saying in the real estate business that states: “pricing is an art, a science and a skill.”

This video and the following comments about Intown Atlanta’s Adair Park are not just the rainy day ramblings of a dude who did not shave.

I’ve just watched one particular Adair Park property drop in sellable value from $150,000 to $35,000 in 2 years, and this video tells you the story…

So, recently the City of Atlanta put a cool new sculpture in Adair Park, but that is about the most beautiful investment anyone is making in Adair Park, lately.

Somewhere around 2006, the “disinvestment” and “mortgage fraud” trends hit the 30310 zip code…HARD.

30310 had and has the distinguishing weakness of real estate speculation gone haywire.

Houses that would have sold for $150000 in 2007, now will not sell for more than $50000…

You really should check out Historic Adair Park’s website – the Adair real estate dynasty of the early 20th century built an accessible, middle class neighborhood. If that’s what you are looking for, then look no further!

The good news is coming in a decade or two – “Murphy Crossing” at the proposed Beltline and MARTA crossing near the West End, will be the “Lindbergh” of the Southside. It’s all here on this detailed Beltline map of the SW side of Intown Atlanta…

So if you want to live in classic Morningside style and era Brick Tudors, or well built 20th century craftsman style bungalows, less than 10 minutes from Midtown, then check out Adair Park, Sylvan Hills, Capitol View and Perkerson Park.

Try to live near the parks, on a quiet tree lined street, and away from the major roads and railroad lines.

Nearby, on the way to Turner Field, Mechanicsville and Pittsburgh are much more blighted, but improving. They seem more compromised by rail and highway, so be concious of those neighborhoods if you are seeking property down this way.

Regardless, for $25,000 to $50,000, there are some pretty cool options for first time, sweat equity, value buyers.

Get Your Real Estate On just 10 minutes from Midtown – FHA 203K loans and cash offers, widely accepted!

Sellers – if you need help, please call me. Short sales are in season at every bank – in 2010, the season will continue.

Here’s a look at what’s positive about Intown Atlanta real estate through the Summer of 2009. Look for some updates coming soon based on the recent Q3 2009 statistics and charts…

Next, check out this video, live from “English Avenue” on the Westside – just 2 minutes from the Georgia Dome. If you stand around long enough, you’ll probably attract a heroin addict, so let this video be your guide to the the “downward gravitational pull of foreclosures” in Intown Atlanta…

That’s a wrap for the second quarter – stay tuned for newer, fresher video reports, coming soon!