Atlanta Real Estate | Atlanta Housing News for Real Estate

As of today June 29, 2008 there are currently 111 homes for sale in St Marlo Golf and Country Club in Duluth Georgia.  The high price of a home for sale in St Marlo Golf and Country Club is $6,500,000 million resale home with 7 bedroom 8 bath and 2 half baths with a finished terrace level and swimming pool and spa.  The low price for homes for sale in St Marlo Golf and Country Club is $484,900.  That home is also a resale home and features a finished basement, and 5 bedrooms and 4 baths and it is a bank owned foreclosure.  Since January 1, 2008 there have been 30 sales the highest sales price was for $2,022,250 that was originally listed for $3,000,000...it sold in 338 total days on market with the seller paying $27,510 in contributions. This new construction home had 4 finished levels. The least expensive home was sold for $399000 and it originally listed at $499,900.  It was a bank owned property that had a full daylight basement, and was on the market a total of 323 days on market.

As of today June 29, 2008 there are currently 56 homes for sale in Laurel Springs Golf and Country Club in Duluth Georgia.  The high price of a home for sale in Laurel Springs Golf and Country Club  is $1,150,000 million for an 5 bedroom 5 bath home and 1 half baths.  The low price for homes for sale in Laurel Springs is $414,900.  That home features a finished basement, and 4 bedrooms and 4 baths. Since January 1, 2008 there have been 16 sales - the highest sales price was for $895,000 that was originally listed for $1,095,000...and it sold for $895,000 after 814 days on market.  This home had an inground pool and finished terrace level.  The least expensive home in Laurel Springs was sold for $369000 and it originally listed at $399,900.  It had a full finished daylight basement, and was on the market a total of 253 days.

To agents in the Atlanta area breaking news stories are taking place at an alarming rate.  Atlanta new homes subdivisions are just sitting growing weeds, under contract signs are more of a gimmick than an actuality.  Incentives and price reductions have not spurred many new home sales in subdivisions that are awash with inventory.  Robert Harris Homes a few months ago offered 10% commissions on all home standing in inventory as long as the contract price was not 10% below listing price. Extras and closing costs with an approved lender were also available.  It was for a limited time only, but as we rode through some communites it did not seem like a great idea to buy.  As you drove through neighborhoods, there were seas of for sales signs, open house, and foreclosure signs all over the place.  One of the business newspapers also reported recently that Robert Harris Homes in the earlier part of the year that builder in particular had very high levels of recorded mechanic's lien filings.

The latest news that was reported recently in the AJC edition was that late this week Robert Harris Homes told most of their sales staff to pack their things.     Since the company could not be reached for comment, it will be interesting what plays out this week.  Robert Harris homes was the 135 largest home builder in the nation, and in 2004 was acknowledged by Builders Magazine as one of the nations fastest growing builders.  Robert Harris Homes are based in Acworth GA and built homes in the Atlanta area, TX and Florida.  They are a big player in the Altanta real estate market.

It is interesting to thing that foreclosures are the hot sales item in many real estate markets today, and yet no one speaks of the impact on our markets.  Unlike a normal resale property, when a resale closes... a loan is redeemed, and equity of the owner is freed up. The bank is also in a position to write another new loan. With that equity, the home owner can also purchase other property or properties.  It has a positive multiplier effect.  However, when a foreclosure or bank owned home is sold in the current market more often than not it is a loss. If a bank lent out 200K, and sells for 180K plus commissions and maintenance, they are not in a position to lend out more money.  As a matter of fact when a bank takes a loss their lending power reduces in multiples.  At the same time, since the property is owned by an institution, no other sales are made.  Unlike an individual resale, no other loans are made, and no other property is purchased.  I would rather help an individual seller than a bank that should not have lent the money out in the first place.

The downside of foreclosures is that they also wreck a neighborhood's home values.  Listing agents that assume that the appraiser does not use comps from foreclosures are dead wrong, especially when foreclosures become the norm.  Several recent foreclosure properties sales in one neighborhoodd can pull down property values many thousands of dollars.  That hurts other homeowners in several ways, one way is that their taxes are held to a higher level of last years sales, but the market value has already lowered. It is not fun to pay taxes on a 450K home if the market value is only 375K.  Another way that our markets are hurt by foreclosures is that many are purchased by investors as rental properties.  This may change the face of a neighborhood that once prided itself with owner occupied properties, and now is inundated with a large percentage of renters.  In condominium and town home units many lenders will not look favorably or make loans if the percentage of renters are disproportionate to the number of owner occupied units.

Yes I agree, that foreclosures are necessary to return a market to a healthy position, but as a real estate agent I know my buyers can often do much better purchasing a resale, or even a short sale.  I also bare less liability on an "AS IS" sale.

Atlanta real estate listings in our FMLS hit a new record today for Active Listings in our FMLS.  There are now over 90135 Atlanta real estate Active listings. This is due to lower sales, and foreclosures, and higher homes inventory.  Even though this listing number will fluctuate, it defines a trend of too oversupply and waing demand.  With rising Interest rates, and high gas prices buyers are now in scarce supply, and they are not qualifying to obtain a mortgage.  That becomes a sellers problem when tehy cannot sell their home for what they beleive it si worth.  The buyers market is still in full force except for one thing, there aren't many buyers out there.  For more information in your local Atlanta real estate market, please feel free to contact us for more information.

I am sure glad I made the switch to Internet marketing over 10 years ago, and decided this was the model I wanted to conduct my real estate business. I was sick of advertising, designing marketing materials that had limited returns, classified ads that did not work, exorbitant color magazine ads with limited shelf life, printing costs, photography costs, labels, flyers, paper, postage, and the rejection in cold calling, and most of all the expense. So in the late 1990's I built AtlantaBestHomes.Com and immediately started to do an incredible business. The percentage of our business closed from the internet started to grow, and believe it or not the cost factor for hosting started to decline big time. The cost of hosing a website and server space became a lot cheaper. It was now only costing $50 a year to host my site and about $9 for the domain. This was a time when we broke new ground and were allowed to list more than a brochure, more than my broker’s listings, we were even able to host and show over 80,000 shared Atlanta home listings. Buyer agency was never so good.

The major benefit of focusing on the Internet as a source of lead generation was the amount of time it freed up, and the diminished marketing costs. The Internet allowed the potential clients to call us, instead of us initiating the marketing call or printed materials. The Internet was one of the best possible tools I could have employed to have an incredible career in real estate. I have satisfied buyer that like the ease to find homes, and my sellers like how quick their homes sell. How do you view your website?

We get over 750 - 800 unique visitors a day.

You cannot have your cake and eat it too!  For those that are looking to buy a home or real estate, now is the time.  This is the bottom. You have cheap money, and cheaper homes, and that translates into an unbeatable value. If rates rise higher, it will cost you more to carry less home.  You need ot consider a purchase before yuo realize what opportunities you had!  There is an old axiom in real estate that seems to have been all but forgotten, and many would like to sweep under a rug.  The truth of the matter is that axioms tend to demonstrate their worth.  In the boom times from where we have just emerged, low rates meant exorbitant appreciation.  We have still leveled of with very good mortgage rates that are in the low 6% range, and historically considered very cheap.  One problem that arises with lower interest rates is that they fuel inflation.  The only way inflation is curbed it to raise interest rates.  The slight bump we have seen in the 30-year fixed mortgages isn't bad at all, and I hope it dies not rise further.  But as the effects of the increased energy costs permeate the economy as they did in the late 70's, the Federal Reserve will have to curb the demand for easy money.  There is only one way to fix runaway inflation, and that is to tighten credit, by raising rates.

The most important angle of inflation is that money will be even harder to get, and here is the reasoning.  Banks do not want to lend out money at 6% for a 30 year fixed rate mortgage if the inflation rate is over 6%, or high enough to erode any profit.  The math does not work!  Banks should not be in the business to lend money at a loss, they are leaning this lesson rather quickly now, and trying to be much more prudent.  Lets all hope that the softening economy does the work for us rather than the Federal Government coming in and pushing the rates higher, that will not be good for anyone in real estate either making living, buying or selling a home.  The buyer will pay more mortgage, and qualify for less, the seller will have to get used to less money for borrowers, and deal with a lower price scenario, and for us in an already troubled business it would be better to be on sabbatical.

New home sales statistics are bogus. I know a lot of you do not like to hear numbers because it upsets your day, but in not hearing the truth, or hearing the wrong numbers does it ever upset you?  Last week I had started to write a Blog, but with all the errors on ActiveRain, the idea was lost until I thought about it again today.  There was an interview on CNBC with Bob Toll of Toll Brothers Builders at the Bank of America Builders Conference last week.  He was very disturbed at the Commerce Dept. news that new home sales had picked up, but when he looked at the numbers they were all wrong.  He personally called up the Commerce Department to question the numbers, and asked them if they had included cancellations of new homes contract...they replied "No!"  They never include them.  His comment was you should because our cancellations are running much higher than the normal 4-7% and have been holding at over 30%.  30% is a major mis-statement and overstatement of sales numbers.  Some would call it a lie!  It is interesting that a major builder gets it, and the government wants to spin a different picture.

What sounds good to a new agent without much experience is to allow a person into your home before settlement.  At first it may seem accommodating and may even compliment your religious or spiritual beliefs, but the downside could be down right unexpected.  It is not about the emotions, but rather about the principles of business.  Objectivity should rule the day, not your emotions!

The most common scenario for a request in pre-occupancy is a "Dry closing" where mortgage funding is supposedly waiting on additional paperwork or authorization, or approval from underwriting.  The purchaser or agent may request the key to the property in the meantime while they wait on wired funds or that final approval.  It is not wise to do so.  Per contract, the buyer had a specified period of time to get their financing together before closing.  A late delay without notification does not make you a bad or evil person to advise your seller to say no!  It is not your problem that the moving truck is parked outside, your seller has already moved their things out!  You must think of whom your job is to protect!

The complications that can arise could be an unintended tenancy, an accident, personal injury, destruction of the property without insurance coverage to protect the owner or parties, and yes, even fraud.  A broker recently advised me that this is one of the more common frauds being perpetrated at this time.

There was a scam in the Atlanta area several years ago where a person posing as a buyer we get a pre-occupancy of the property, and the owners due to local laws were unable to evict the inhabitants.  In one case it took over 2 years to evict the parties. 

As real estate agents, it is wise to understand the issues, advise parties to seek legal counsel, when in doubt....call your broker for advice, sign a temporary occupancy agreement spelling out the terms, fees, and penalties, and above all if the parties proceed have a "hold harmless agreement" to protect yourself and your career should the parties deiced to move ahead with a pre-occupancy against your advice!

I was reading the news today on the falling home prices in the nation from the Case Schiller Index that reported all 20 cities in the report have dropped in price.  It is one of the steepest historical drops in price.  That may not seem like good news to most in real estate, but it is.  We are now on the sure road to real estate recovery.  When homes and real estate start to come down from extraordinary highs, there comes a time when they are again sellable. Lower home prices will start to draw buyers out of hibernation.  The time is near when buyers want to buy and hold real estate, not buy and speculate on the future value.  For us that make a living in real estate that is a good thing.  The recent value of real estate appreciation we saw in recent years was anything but normal, and totally unsustainable.  While most persons in real estate denied the possibility of the existence of a real estate bubble that was going to burst, none are denying that event any longer.  The Case Schiller index is now predicting this will all come to an end at the end of 2009 bringing a correction of national real estate values another 15% to 20% lower where they stand today.  The story goes on to say that the value of real estate will at that time will have corrected  30% to 35% peak to bottom drop.  In some ways that seems dramatic, but in some areas where the appreciation was more pronounced the correction may be greater, and in other areas some real estate will not give back all the gains.  Lower prices will start bringing out the buyers again!

There is a major lesson here to be learned.  In many ways ignorance is not bliss, it is just a no sale!  If in real estate we take away the funny money financing, we stop making sub-prime loans that cannot be repaid....then the extraordinary high home prices are now impossible to afford.  Home sellers have yet to embrace the idea that the average home owner cannot afford to purchase a home and pay $3500 to $4000 a month mortgage payments. Those buyers, and the financing they once used to do this are no longer available!  Rising food costs, runaway inflation, a credit crunch, and increasing foreclosures are bringing home this once unaccepted reality.  Those holding high end real estate are still under the false assumption that these rules do not apply to them.  They're wrong.  They do!  It is as bitter a pill to swallow as the cancer patient that finally comes out of a long denial stage.  The sooner home sellers realize that they are holding on to a false hope...that their home cannot be purchased and paid for my any consumer - they will have taken the first step to housing recovery, and begin in earnest a strategy to move forward with a real solution.  These are conclusions that I can draw based upon my own real estate experience and observations, both business and personal.  It is a difficult task trying to explain the current market to a seller that has not accepted the prognosis the physician has offered.  For them, the clock ticks away each day, and procrastination and denial are the biggest obstacle to recouping the equity slipping away.

A link to the Article is below:

"Four years of gains in home prices wiped out Case-Shiller: Prices fall in all 20 cities in past year...."

By Rex Nutting, MarketWatch