Atlanta Real Estate | Atlanta Housing News for Real Estate

Have you ever taken one of those listings that you really had misgivings about...thinking it would never sell in your lifetime?  I mean every home has at least one negative feature.  There are power lines, homes backing to roads, below street grade lots, creeks in the back yard, homes with lots of wood rot, spiders, funky colors in every room, and yes more.  Rarely do we find that one home that has all of these negatives, but when we thought we've seen it all... you get a call to list it! 

These are the homes your head starts to spin and it would be great if you had a brown paper bag in case you start to hyperventilate or even if you started feeling sick.  However, you speak candidly with the home sellers, and have them make lots of notes as you walk through the home.  At the end of your presentation, even you are overwhelmed at the list that was compiled.  When you return to the safety of your vehicle and close the door, and start to pull away...you cannot help but wonder if the home seller will ever call you back.  You are not sure if you still want the listing.  These are the homes that text books could be written, however this home was a personal referral by a friend of yours in real estate.  They also depend on you to get the job done.  So there is another component of this potential listing.  Your reputation.

When you weigh all things our, a not so great home, a softening real estate market and a real estate friendship...I must admit your first thought could be letting go of the friendship!  LOL!  But the surprising thing about real estate is from the saying I learned many years ago from a real estate broker of mine in Southern Maryland!  He used to say all the time "One persons dump is another person's castle!"  There is a buyer for every home at a price, all you have to do is find that buyer.

Well this interesting thing is that most of these homes that I think I could never sell in my lifetime, sell.  It is always a surprise!  They also sell quickly at a good price without a lot of hassle if you work as a team with a seller that is willing to listen and work with you to overcome the objections.  These all have to be addressed one at a time, and then the home has to be priced to overcome those issues you cannot change!  It works!

I wrote my first Active Rain Blog on on 01/06/2007 09:08 PM.  Sometime this week I hope to make my first 100,000 Active Rain Points!  I do not know where the time went, but this past 7 months the Active Rain community has made a believer out of me of real estate Blogging!  I've learned a lot of new things, made a lot of great friends, and jump started my real estate business with a great new tool!  There were many times I thought of leaving Active Rain, thinking I should be devoting more time elsewhere...but I kept coming back! 

I've moved past the obsessive compulsive stage, and I'm now drinking he Active Rain Kool Aide!  First of all there are many stages you can go through in Active rain!  Since it is interactive, I would come back often looking for replies to my blogs, and feedback to my posted comments.  That input allowed me to gain a new perspective which afforded me a new opportunity to grow my business in a different direction.  Think about Active Rain it as an online mastermind group or a group brainstorming session!  The direction that the new ideas  pulled me the most in Active rain was localism.  I feel Localism is really underrated and a great tool for building new business, and closing more deals!  Yes I said closing more deals,  When I disappear from Active Rain occasionally it is to do real estate work!  A lot of my new work, and closed business...I will now give credit to Active Rain!
 

There is no doubt that the Atlanta real estate market is slowing, but the truth of the matter is that sales have not stopped.  There is one difference between us an other agents, With our experience, we are still selling our listings!  There are many agents and Atlanta home owners that call us up everyday for advice on how to sell their homes, and really unless the home is listed by us, it is unfair and unethical for us to tell a home owner the real secrets of how to get the sale done!  This current Atlanta real estate market has a few factors that are affecting sales and slowing them down. 

1. Supply and demand - Too many homes on the market - Not enough qualified buyers.
2. New home over building - Builder Concessions - Builder incentives
3. No corporate relocation into Metro Atlanta
4. Gas and Energy Crisis - Disposable Income - Homes Closer in Are Sought After
5. Lack of consumer confidence
6. Lack of real estate knowledge to guide consumers
7. Atlanta loan fraud - tightened appraisals
8. 100% financing has dissapeared - Fewer Buyers
9. Leveraged Home Prices and overpriced homes due to borrowing against homes future value

Recently we've listed several homes that have been sitting on the Atlanta market for quite a while, and we've gotten contracts on them.  This has stirred interest from other real estate agents that ask us how come our listings are getting contracts, and their listings are not even getting shows?  The reason is simple, we market differently!  Our Atlanta real estate marketing is mostly Internet.  For us that makes a lot of sense!  Potential Atlanta home-buyers can find our homes easily on any search on the Internet or from our Atlanta real estate blog or Atlanta real estate websites.  That is how the Atlanta home buyer will buy a home these days!  They will not pick up the Sunday paper and look for a Atlanta 3 BD 2.5 Bath home!  They want information and a lot of it!  They want pictures, virtual tours, maps, taxes, schematics of home, pictures of yard or neighborhood, but they do not want a black and white ad or a color real estate publication!

Does your real estate photo send the message you think it does?  Years ago before real estate became such a self promotion business your personal image wasn’t so critical as it is today.  A portrait or studio pose was just perfect for all your ad slicks.  But times have changed. Real estate competition is now on exponential steroids.  Each day we compete for our share in the real estate arena with countless other agents vying for the same business.  Some agents even have their image professionally branded!  Think about this, you are now competing with Madison Avenue for your little market share in your neighborhood or city!  Every day we are inundated with impressions of real estate agents in various poses on billboards, business cards, brochures, home ads in real estate books, shopping carts in our super-markets, cable TV ads and yes…the Internet!  Since real estate is an industry that is also built upon creativity, and self promotion, I was wondering if anyone has done any real research into the effectiveness of the poses we are in these marketing images.  I mean face it, when we all had profile pictures we all looked the same.  That is no longer the case!  We moved beyond the image of the agent in the office pose in the 1980’s with cell phone and fax to show cutting edge in technology, from pagers, to cell phones, and now iPods.  For the time they were taken, the photos were impressive and effective.  Today I see a lot of power shots, but are the photos all wrong?  Are they sending the image we intend to send?  Or are they taking away business.
 
Recently I became curious about an agent photo that personally turned me off.  That thought became the focus of this real estate photo blog.    Some of the photos that I’ve come across recently do not come across as friendly!  When I see two persons back to back I personally see insouciance.  In my own opinion, there’s a disconnect in the appearance that the agents in the pose could give a flying flip about me as a consumer!  So is the pose counter productive, does it send a different message that exudes sarcasm, or an air of disdain?  I think so.  I did a little research and looked up a few terms that I thought describes a lot of the real estate poses that are very common today.
 
Since body language is now encapsulated in the photo, it is important to examine and rethink the subliminal message we may be sending. If a photo can send an image of friendliness, it can also send other messages.  Dominance, indifference, or even a message that I dislike you and think you are stupid!  Some of these messages may be unintended but it is how the images are universally perceived that we are concerned about. So here is the pose that started me off on this blog. Two agents in strong business attire arms folded, back to back photos no real smiles.  First of all because the attire is business as opposed to casual it has narrowed the field of prospective clients and excludes the first time buyers.  They are certainly are not doing land deals or farms!  In body language the way I understand it represents defense posturing and disdain!  What are your thoughts?  Here is one of the sites I found some information on. 

• Body Language What Message are You Sending?

• Arms Crossed
   

There are a lot of Atlanta homes homes listed for sale in the Atlanta Multiple Listing Services or MLS.  We have 2 Multiple listing services in Atlanta.  In GAMLS they are reporting 115052 Active Atlanta home and condos listings and FMLS is reporting 84986 Properties Found.  That is an awful lot of listings for this time of year. So that does not explain why we had so many listing calls in the last few weeks of home owners calling us to list their home for sale in late July.  It doesn't make sense. Since the Atlanta real estate market is mostly a local real estate market and is now void of any major corporate relocation...it does nto make sense to sell a home with school starting in just a few weeks.  When I mention that we had a lot of calls to list homes, it is more than just a few homes, it was almost 10 homes we were called to for price opinions and evaluations.  We took only one listing out of the ten, because believe it or not only one home seller was realistic about selling their home.  This is not the type of real estate market to pad home prices, or to list homes where home sellers mention..." I am not a serious home seller, I'm not in a rush, if I get my price I will sell..."  That is not a motivated seller.  There is no need there other than price.  Serious home sellers that have taken a job out of state, or that are downsizing because of job reversal will listen to the real estate professional lay out the market conditions, competition, and offer strategies to sell their home. Sellers such as these  will at least stand a chance of selling. Other home owners will deceive themselves into thinking a discounted commission and a sign in the ground is all they need.  This is not a strategy, but a formula for dire consequences.

When placing a home on the market in the current Atlanta real estate market we are in right now, pricing is critical to getting a home sold.  It is critical to select the correct listing price!  Homes are still selling everyday in Atlanta. However, you may only get 1 chance at bat so it is wise to start off with the right price.  So how do you choose the right listing price?  New agents and ones without any experience will make the

Fatal Home seller pricing mistake # 1 keying into current listed prices in the neighborhood.  If you start your process here, you are doomed to failure.  Correct pricing is not the price you want to get for your home, it is the number derived from what your neighborhood homes are actually selling for. 

Fatal Home seller pricing mistake #2 If you added a new hot water heater, a new roof, replaced the kitchen appliances, and changed out your HVAC units when they broke a few years ago... you cannot add them to the price of your home!  They are maintenance items!  What would your home be worth if your hot water heater leaked and did not work, what if you never replaced your leaky roof or the Air-conditioner that does not work?  Chances are your home is work a lot less.

Fatal Home seller pricing mistake #3  Is the mistaken belief that upgrades and improvements of the property will be recouped 100%!  It does not work that way.  We are not watching Flip this house!  The real world in real estate is very different than an altered reality TV show.  If you put 20K into a kitchen, it may only return 10K.  This will vary from price range to price range.  There is no written law that guarantees you will get full price back on the granite counter-tops you just installed!  However, those improvements may be the key that actually allows you to sell your home!

Fatal Home seller pricing mistake # 4  Too many improvements in the wrong neighborhood may preclude you from making any profit!  It really is not smart to have the 350K home in the 200K neighborhood!  Sorry, you made a big blunder!  You will have to sit down and really strategy's how you can exact out the highest possible price given current market conditions!  It is not your agent, it is not a reflection or a statement on your home, it is a fact.  People do not mind paying, but a cautious buyer wants to make sure they are buying correctly! 

Fatal Home seller pricing mistake # 5 is the mistaken believe that a buyer will want your personalized decor!  They don't! Neutralize your home for the average buyer. 

Fatal Home seller pricing mistake # 6 is thinking you know more than your Real estate agent.   Listen to what they have to say, and then do it!  Chances are you've sold 1 or 2 homes in a lifetime, a good real estate agent may sell 30 or 40 homes a years.  That is what is referred to as experience!  Don't make a fatal mistake when selling a home in Atlanta.  Before you list your home, contact Jim and Ellen Crawford of www.AtlantaBestHomes.Com

Selling a home in Atlanta?  What is the right price to list your home at?  Setting a home's listing price is key to selling in this current real estate market.  You have to choose the right price!  Sometimes it is a catch 22 of trying to educate a seller and a buyer in this current Atlanta real estate market.  What does the agent know about real estate?  Plenty if you'll just listen!

There are a ot of very good deals for both home buyers and home sellers in this Atlanta real estate market if only they listen to the advice of a seasoned professional!  The big mistake Atlanta home sellers make is they want to overprice which is a major mistake.  Theirfatal mistake is that they assume they will get low offers, so they pad the price of their home thinking they can negotiate to the price they really want!  Boy are they wrong! Pricing the home to market is the best strategy!  A wrong hunch can make their opportunity slip by when they wait for that perfect buyer!  But what about the buyer?  They think real estate prices are going to fall.  That is the buyers fatal mistake!  Overpriced homes may come down in price, but they were priced incorrectly!  Good homes that are priced right sell very close to what they list for as long as they are clean, and show well.  The right home in this market is selling for very close to list price, and will close without a lot of seller concessions.

When I get wound up like a clock sometimes the only thing that I really enjoy is having an ice cold Chocolate Egg Cream Soda!  There is nothing better to take you back to a time when there were ice-cream parlours that made real home made ice cream, and had fantastic fountain drinks like a 2 cent plain, a cherry cola, an ice cream soda, a malted, a cold glass of tutti fruitti or a chocolaty egg cream soda.

A chocolate egg cream soda is an ice cream soda with out the ice cream.  It is made of Chocolate syrup, ice cold milk, and ice cold seltzer that is stirred rapidly as you add the seltzer.  The chocolate syrup was almost always Fox's U-Bet or Hershey's Chocolate syrup!

Some of the things that I miss most while living in Atlanta, are the comfort foods I used to find so easily back in New York.  I've given up trying to find a lot of this items in the Atlanta area, so for Chocolate Egg Creams I can make it myself.  It sure beats getting on AirTran to get it out of my system!  LOL!  For those of you that have never tried a Chocolate Egg Cream, you haven't lived until you do!  So here is the recipe.  Get back to me and let me know what you think!  What foods do you miss from back home?

The Original Brooklyn Egg-Cream

• Take a tall, chilled, straight-sided, 8oz. glass

• Spoon 1 inch of U-bet Chocolate syrup into glass

• Add 1 inch whole milk

• Tilt the glass and add seltzer while stirring briskly to make a big chocolate head

• Stir, Drink, Enjoy