Atlanta Real Estate Blog - Property Lines: Conversations About Atlanta Real Estate

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NAR Convention

An annual event that is both energizing and draining! I have learned from the blogging masters (Pat Kitano) and marketing geniuses (Seth Godin).
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FAQ: How’s the Market?

How’s the market? No matter where I go or who I meet, as soon as someone identifies me as a Realtor I am asked this question. With today’s housing market being national news, the question is asked even more often.

Here in North Atlanta, the number of houses on the market indicate a “buyer’s market” for sure. However (and this is the good news) prices are remaining stable. Unlike other parts of the country - Boston, Las Vegas, California and Miami - we are not in a state of free fall. Even within our market area of north Atlanta suburbs, the supply and demand is quite varied.

The chart below shows the current absorption rate in four geographic regions of North Atlanta. The amount of time required to absorb the current inventory has increased in all four regions since we last reported in the North Atlanta Real Estate Review in January. In East Cobb the rate increased from 5.4 to 7.7 months; North Fulton increased from 5.6 to 8.3 months.

The absorption rate reflects supply and demand. By calculating the number of homes sold over a specific period of time and the number of homes currently for sale, the absorption rate produces the average number of months that it will take to sell the current supply of housing inventory. It is important to note the chart is an average of broad geographic regions. There is significant variation in rates across price ranges.

Email Me | See Atlanta Homes | What’s My Home Worth? | North Atlanta Real Estate | 770.321.4005

Technorati Tags: real estate market, Atlanta, absorption rate, buyer market

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Reality Check for Home Sellers

ECONOMISTS and other humans don’t always see eye to eye. “Economists tend to think people are crazy because they won’t sell their houses for less than they paid for them — and people think economists are crazy for thinking things exactly like that,” said Professor Christopher Mayer, director of the Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate at Columbia Business School and an authority on real estate economics.

With house prices falling in many markets around the nation, this particular quirk of the human psyche might end up costing the economy a great deal. Click here to read the entire New York Times article.

Email Me | See Atlanta Homes | What’s My Home Worth? | North Atlanta Real Estate | 770.321.4005

Texting Across the Ages

This week I had the honor of being interviewed for an upcoming article in The Residential Specialist, a publication of the Council of Residential Specialists. The focus of the interview was my decision to target market efforts to the Generation Y first-time home buyer.

At the conclusion of our interview Michael Fenner, Director of Communications and Editor, The Residential Specialist asked if he could contact some of my younger clients for their comments. The results of that contact not only affirms our marketing efforts; it gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling.

How did you communicate with Kathy throughout the home search process (email, text message, phone, etc)? What is most convenient for you?

This was one area that totally surprised me. People of my generation (Generation Y) rely so much on email and text messages, both for the sheer convenience and the time-saving ability. I was totally shocked when Kathy sent us a text message. This wasn’t necessarily because of the age difference, but more so because of the generational difference. Just as I don’t communicate with my parents through texting, I didn’t expect Kathy to even know how to send one. Throughout the entire process, we communicated by phone, email, texting, and comments on her web page. Whatever was easiest for us, Kathy obliged.

How important is it for you that your Realtor is “always on,” or always accessible? What other qualities or skills should a good Realtor have?

Communication is vital. The more avenues that are available to conduct this communciation, the better. Her ability to text, email, etc. allows Kathy to send you information at any time. She was always available in person as well. We looked at homes during the afternoons, evenings, and even the weekend. She even sent me a text message once after 11 PM on a Friday night with some numbers that she had been crunching. Her “always on” attitude, allowed us to expedite my home buying process to a very successful conclusion. Besides accessibility, I think a good Realtor needs to be extremely personable and catering to the particular buyer that you are (young vs old, first time buyer vs seasoned buyer). Kathy was all these as well.

It sounds like you were looking for a specific kind of home (one that included a basement for the big-screen and the pool table). Did you spend much time searching online for potential homes, or did you rely primarily on Kathy to suggest likely properties?

At the beginning of the process, we did look some on our own with disastrous results. The houses either ended up being in bad areas or didn’t look anything like we thought they would. Kathy took all the major points that we wanted (basement, price range, location, etc.) and presented them to us on a personal mls portal. This made looking at houses much easier because we knew that if they were on the website, then they already met all the major criteria we required. Kathy helped tremendously on the searches and is the reason we found the house that we ended up deciding to purchase.

Email Me | See Atlanta Homes | What’s My Home Worth? | North Atlanta Real Estate | 770.321.4005

Zillow and the Real Estate Industry: Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing?

Zillow is now offering a “great deal” to agents: you can post your listings for FREE! What great exposure, and how kind of Zillow to offer such a wonderful service to agents without taking a dime-what a nice company!

My friend in the Boston real estate market, Mollie Wasserman, writes in response: “I do not understand why, like lambs to the slaughter, we continue to support and build entities that will put us out of business. Third parties like Zillow cannot (yet) compete with the MLS because they don’t have the property information. So, wa-la, they ask agents to supply it for free (cause we love free and will do anything for exposure) and we provide them the very thing that will seal the fate of the MLS.” Read the rest of Mollie’s article…

Email Me | See Atlanta Homes | What’s My Home Worth? | North Atlanta Real Estate | 770.321.4005

A New Powerful Movie

I recently discovered Simple Truths, a company founded by Mac Anderson dedicated to publishing great gift books that reinforce core values. On April 8th the Christian faith will celebrate Easter. So, for those who are Christian, I wanted to share their newest inspirational movie based upon the beautiful essay written by Dr. James Francis over 80 years ago, titled One Solitary Life.

The simple, but thought provoking words, remind us that making a difference with our lives might have nothing to do with education, wealth, or power, but, everything to do with love, kindness and serving others.

To view One Solitary Life click this link.

Learn How to Speak a Foreign Language in Less than 30 Days

Less than thirty days ago, after reading this great article by Jason Benesch, I decided to create a new real estate market niche in my business… that techno savvy young first time home buyer the media likes to label Generation Y, Echo Boomers, Google Generation, MyPod Generation (a fusion of MySpace and iPod), among many others.

It wasn’t a coincidence that Jason’s article caught my eye. After attending the CyberStar Summit with my tech savvy real estate buddies in January I was focused on getting my online presence into the 21st Century via a real estate blog. This has taken me down a creative path I haven’t enjoyed since I designed my first real estate website in 1994.

I have since created a basic MySpace that is so boring I can’t stand it. (gotta admit, I do like the R.L. Burnside mp3 I have embedded.) Once upon a time, I saw the customization button…. just haven’t been able to get back to it. My fingers are busy clicking on all the sites I stumble across as I learn the lingo of this new market:

• Twitter: designed to answer one simple question; What are you doing?
• Tumblr: no fuss blogs for spur of the moment quotes and pics
• Social Networking: goes way beyond YouTube and my sociology classes
• Digg: stuff about stuff that rivals the Discovery Channel
• del.icio.us: look at their blog to confirm spacing of random periods
• Technorati tags: clouds, and tags, and links; oh, my

My clients are busy teaching me about their world. In return, I am teaching them what they need to know before buying a home.

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Email Me | See Atlanta Homes | What’s My Home Worth? | North Atlanta Real Estate | 770.321.4005

Caffeine, Technology and Today’s Workers

Earlier this week my friend, Ira Serkes from Berkeley, forwarded the link to an article written by San Francisco Chronicle staff writer, Dan Fost. I was hooked in the first paragraph:

A new breed of worker, fueled by caffeine and using the tools of modern technology, is flourishing in the coffeehouses of San Francisco. Roaming from cafe to cafe and borrowing a name from the nomadic Arabs who wandered freely in the desert, they’ve come to be known as “bedouins.” (read more)

I have a real office where I work most of the time. But, somedays working from Starbucks or Panera Bread is simply where I’d rather be. Something that Starbucks Chairman, Howard Schulz, refers to as the “Third Place” calls my name. I don’t want to be at home or the office - and yet, I want to be working. All these emails from clients looking for Atlanta homes are expecting immediate responses. So, I order my favorite latte and a muffin and settle in for a few hours of focused real estate marketing.

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Email Me | See Atlanta Homes | What’s My Home Worth? | North Atlanta Real Estate

Top 7 Tips for Single Women Buying First Homes

Okay, maybe it’s simply because I’m getting older… But, it seems to me that more and more single women are buying their first homes at an earlier age. My last two home buyer transactions were with young women who recently graduated from college and are employed in their career of choice. Each of them recognized that purchasing a townhouse or condo was a much wiser investment than returning to apartment living after college graduation.

There are common themes in their home preferences: proximity to the Vinings and Buckhead areas for entertainment, convenience to major highways to ease the Atlanta commute and, young and fresh designer trends and colors. In short, they want a property that echoes their lifestyles - not their parents. And, certainly not their grandparents!

The floor plan is also important to these single women. Being young, they need the social and financial security of roommates. The young women buyers, however, want the bedrooms to offer privacy; preferably divided by the common living area. A two-bedroom two-bath condo priced under $200,000 is not ideal if the secondary bedroom shares a common wall with the master suite. And, scooting across the hall from the secondary bedroom to get to the bathroom is not conducive to attracting a roommate.

At some level (usually parental) security is an issue. Gated communities are attractive features.

I discovered that parking lots did not rank lower than private garages. Remember, these first-time buyers are accustomed to campus and apartment living. If you have never had the luxury of bringing in groceries without getting drenched in a downpour, a garage is simply, “Oh, that might be nice.” Same thing goes for stairs… I’m not at all interested in climbing flights of stairs on a daily basis; or, hauling bags of groceries (much less a sofa) up stairs. But, then… we’ve already established that I’m old.

What I do know - as a mother, an older woman, a Realtor - is these young first-time home buyers must have buyer representation. Yes, they will have parental advice; however, parents generally don’t have the experience in real estate to fully protect the interests of their children. It always surprises me when buyers attempt to “go at it alone” because of the possibility of mistakes. A good Realtor is invaluable to a buyer, and can be the difference between a wonderful transaction, and a nightmare.

1) Full Access to the MLS

(No Registration Required)

The Multiple Listing Service (MLS) is a powerful tool that only Realtors can access. When listing agents market a home for sale, they typically allow any Realtor to present the home to potential buyers, and to present contracts for purchase. The MLS is a database of all homes listed by Realtors, and represents roughly 99% of the homes for sale in any given market. As technology advances, so does the MLS. It has evolved into an extremely powerful search engine that allows your buyer’s agent to enter in search criteria, and returns only homes that match those specific parameters. Buyers can find a lot of this information online through IDX feeds available on many websites; however, this information is a “watered down” version of the MLS and don’t return as detailed profiles as the MLS.

2) Maximize Your Time

While driving through neighborhoods is an excellent idea to help you decide which locations you prefer, it’s not a very efficient way to find your new home. Gas is expensive, and your time is valuable. Your Buyer’s Agent will listen to your needs, make fantastic suggestions based on your likes/dislikes, and provide you with a list of homes that ALL match your wants and needs. Your Buyer’s Agent has helped MANY new homebuyers through MANY purchases, and will help you better organize your decision making process – saving you valuable time.

3) Representation

Listing Agents enter into legally binding agreements that require them to ALWAYS act in the best interest of the seller. They are the seller’s “coach” and will make sure that their clients’ best interests come first. Luckily, your Buyer’s Agent is there to make sure YOUR best interests are given equal weight. With your expert Buyer’s Agent in your corner, you can rest assured that you’re on, at least, even ground with the home seller. A football team would be at a pretty significant disadvantage without a coach – just as you would be without a Buyer’s Agent.

4) Negotiating Power

The MLS maintains a record of, not only all homes listed by Realtors in a given market, but also the sales price of those homes. Your Buyer’s Agent will run a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) to determine a prospective home’s Fair Market Value (FMV). In simpler terms, your Realtor will look at similar homes in the same neighborhood that have sold recently. This way, you will know whether or not the seller has their home priced fairly. If the home is priced over Fair Market Value, your Buyer’s Agent can present your “under asking price” offer with plenty of firepower – and a greater chance that the offer will be accepted.

5) Experience

The average person buys 3-5 homes in their lifetime. A good Buyer’s Agent will assist in 3-5 home purchases every month. What might seem complicated and intimidating to you is fairly common and familiar to your Realtor. Your Buyer’s Agent will know what to expect, and will know when to alert you if anything out of the ordinary occurs.

6) Industry Contacts

It takes a lot of people to close a real estate transaction – Buyer’s Agent, Listing Agent, Loan Officer, Inspector, Appraiser, Insurance Agent, Builder and sometimes more! A good agent will come with a strong closing team that has performed in the past, and will continue to perform. A transaction is only as strong as its weakest link – with your strong Buyer’s Agent and their closing team, you can rest assured that you will have plenty of support.

7) Piece of Mind

If you are like most people, your home is the largest purchase you will ever make. The average person spends around 1/3 of their total monthly income on their home. This is a big decision and you don’t want to go at it alone. When you use a trusted Buyer’s Agent, you know that your best interests are accounted for, and that you can feel confident in your purchase.

Purchasing a home can be a fun and exciting process. However, the home buying process can be intimidating, and mistakes are possible. A Realtor who specializes in working with Buyers can help alleviate the fears and possibilities for mistakes. Make sure to use a Buyer’s Agent on any real estate transaction, and you will help ensure that you are making the right decisions.

Thanks to Eric Bramlett, Broker and co-owner of One Source Realty in Austin Texas, for the great tips. Eric currently invests, renovates, and develops real estate in the Greater Austin Texas Market. He spends his time working with select clients, helps his new agents get started in their real estate careers, helps his experienced agents progress their careers to the next level, & when he has time…he takes his dogs to the lake.

To learn more about Today’s 1st Time Home Buyers check out this great article by Jason Benesch.

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Technorati tags: buying first home, college graduate, real estate agent, Atlanta Condos

Email Me | See Atlanta Homes | What’s My Home Worth? | North Atlanta Real Estate