The Low-down on Zillow (and other public search sites)

A recurring discussion in my line of work - with both clients, friends, and other agents - is Zillow and the infamous "Zestimate" that they have marketed so brilliantly to the public.  There was a great article written recently about just this, which delves into what this and other public real estate sites can offer you.  I can't begin to tell you how many times a client has emailed me about a home they saw for sale on one of the public sites, only to find out when I look in our MLS that it sold weeks ago.  Or even more common - the Zestimate they see online is a widely inaccurate estimate of their home's value.

Don't get me wrong - the public sites are a good tool for many things. They are a quick way for a consumer to find out what a home last sold for as well as community information regarding demographics, schools, and crime rates. However, they are not particularly great at doing what they claim they are made for, namely helping the public to search for a new home. That's what a Realtor is for!

A good Realtor can quickly set you up with a custom search site that pulls directly from the MLS and therefore is both accurate and up-to-date. Likwise, the only way to get an accurate idea of the value of your home is to have an experienced and knowledgeable agent create a Comparative Market Analysis for you, which is specific to your unique property. Plus we can also provide everything the public sites are decent at with regards to community info, sales history, and market trends.

So all of this is to say: if you would like information about your home's value or you are just interested in what your neighbor's home sold for, contact a Realtor! We are more than happy to help - it's our job, after all!

My Recent Sales

Here's a quick peek at some of the awesome homes I have sold recently. My listings have all sold in under 30 days in the last 6 months and most of them sold at or above list price!

East Cobb

Duluth

Marietta

Smyrna

Grant Park

Roswell

Marietta

Roswell

Roswell

Woodstock

Cabbagetown

Old Fourth Ward

Midtown

Buckhead

Roswell

Smyrna

Woodstock

Sandy Springs

Marietta

Alpharetta

Woodstock

Thanks to all my amazing clients for following my extensive list of instructions to get their homes ready to list.  =)   It is a testament to all their hard work that these homes sold as quickly and for as much money as they did!

For Sale By Owner: Things to consider before going this route

Trying to decide between selling your home on your own as a for sale by owner or choosing a full service Realtor like myself? Do you have a potential buyer interested in purchasing your Atlanta area home? 

Before you make the jump and decide to do FSBO, ask yourself these questions to avoid costly mistakes: 

• Have you already met with an attorney to verify you are doing everything correctly? 
• Do you have the correct paperwork and forms to fill out for both seller and buyer or did you print random documents from the internet? How about mediation, what do you know about how this impacts your sale? 
• Are you familiar with the term "Seller's Disclosures" and know where to find them, how to properly fill them out, and what the law requires?
• Are you familiar with title companies, what fees they charge you and how they prorate taxes? 

If you answered "no" to any of these questions, you may want to consider hiring a professional Realtor who has knowledge in housing transactions. You may be thinking as a for sale by owner you will save money, but ask yourself: why are you not considering hiring a Realtor to help you? 

Here's the advantages of hiring a professional: 

• We have access to so many more marketing tools than you do. Here in Atlanta, we have not one but two MLS systems that all full-service Realtors use (this program feeds out listings to housing websites on the internet and other real estate companies in the area); as a FSBO you have no access to these systems and no way for other agents to find your home when performing searches for their buyers. In addition, I know that I personally spend thousands of dollars a year to make sure that my listings are promoted on every available real estate website, jump to the top of Google searches through smart search engine optimization, and are featured with beautiful, professionally designed marketing pieces. 
• My agency has money to advertise your home in the paper, magazines, brochures, local news, radio, and TV. RE/MAX owns the largest market share of TV and radio voice not just in Georgia, but nation-wide as well.
• Companies such as RE/MAX are more reputable and well known by prospective buyers, and people will trust a brand name agency over private homeowners. The RE/MAX Balloon is as recognizable as the Nike Swish!
• For sale by owners increase their chances of engaging in "dispute resolution" after the closing. What does this mean? If the new owner finds something wrong with the house (water damage, leaks, etc), they can sue you and take you to court, particularly if you mishandled that "seller disclosure" piece I talked about earlier. At this point, you will need to hire an attorney and pay out of pocket costs at your own expense. On the other hand, Realtors are insured and also have access to their company attorneys. 
• Convenience - what do you know about scheduling buyers to tour your home? How will they gain access and what security measures do you have in place? Have they been pre-approved for a loan to buy the house? If the potential buyer is not pre-approved for the price of your home, then they are wasting your time. 
• FSBOs historically are much more likely sell their property under value, both because they are unable to properly price their home from the beginning and because they lack the negotiation skills and training that a Realtor has spent years perfecting. According to the latest Keeping Current Matters article this month, for sale by owners sell their house substantially lower than if they worked with a Realtor
• Although you may be frustrated with paying for an agent's commission fee (the Atlanta average is 6-7% of the sales price, which is split between the Buyer's and Seller's agents), you still may earn more profit in the long run and it will certainly be a much easier and more stress-free process with a professional doing all the work.

If you have been thinking about selling your home (or have a neighbor interested in purchasing it), contact me today to discuss what I can do for you, and how the services I provide will help you to sell your house with the least amount of stress possible while also achieving your financial goals!

Millennial House Hunters Say Forget the Pool—How About a Backyard Pizza Oven? ​

Every generation has different wants, needs, and priorities when it comes to home shopping. Here's the scoop on what Millennials are looking for:

If you’re looking to upgrade your backyard this spring with an eye toward putting your house on the market, millennial house hunters might have an unusual request.
“They’ll ask, ‘Where’s your backyard vegetable garden?’” said Mary Hutchison, a real-estate agent with Better Homes and Gardens Realty in Kansas City, Mo. 

While homeowners customarily have taken advantage of good weather in springtime to add such backyard upgrades as patios or pools, Hutchison said millennial owners and buyers are going in a different direction. “They’re making their own pizza outdoors with vegetables they grow in their garden,” she said. 

About 32% of millennials plan to buy homes over the next two years, compared with 25% a year ago, according to the American Express spending and saving tracker, which surveyed 1,800 adults in February. 

In addition to landscaping and other backyard improvements, popular items this year with millennials include smart doorbells with cameras and electronic exterior locks that can be accessed only with a code and remotely locked and unlocked via smartphone, according to Sabine Schoenberg, a real-estate agent and luxury builder in Greenwich, Conn. 

Of course, it’s not just the 23- to 34-year-old generation that’s upgrading backyards and exteriors this spring; according to Houzz.com, an online database for residential design, 75% of all homeowners who are planning outdoor projects in 2016 will start in the backyard.

Read the rest of the article here!

5 Housing Trends That Will Dominate 2016

This year may have marked the best for housing since 2007, but the market will likely get even rosier in 2016, according to a recent real estate forecast by realtor.com®. One of the main drivers behind the brighter 2016 is the projection that employment will continue to grow, which will add to consumers’ wallets and allow them to purchase their first home or upgrade to a new one. Realtor.com® highlights the following housing predictions for 2016: 

1. ‘Normal’ is coming. Expect a healthy growth in home sales and prices – at a slower pace than in 2015. “This slowdown is not an indication of a problem—it’s just a return to normalcy,” writes Jonathan Smoke, realtor.com®’s chief economist. “We’ve lived through 15 years of truly abnormal trends, and after working off the devastating effects of the housing bust, we’re finally seeing signs of more normal conditions.” New construction and distressed sales are expected to return to more historical levels, and home prices are expected to follow at “more normal rates consistent with a more balanced market.”  

2. Generational buying trends shape up. Young adults’ presence on the housing market has been largely predicted for years, but 2016 may finally be the year they make a move in a larger way. Millennials represented nearly 2 billion sales in 2015 – one-third of home buyers. They are expected to continue to be a major buying pool in 2016 with the majority of buyers between ages 25 and 34 expected to be first-time home buyers next year. But two other generations will also have a big presence in 2016: financially recovering GenXers and older baby boomers who are entering retirement, realtor.com® notes. “Since most of these people are already homeowners, they’ll play a double role, boosting the market as both sellers and buyers,” Smoke notes. “Gen Xers are in their prime earning years and thus able to relocate to better neighborhoods for their families. Older boomers are approaching (or already in) retirement and seeking to downsize and lock in a lower cost of living.”  

3. New-home construction focuses more on affordability. Builders have been faced with higher land costs, limited labor, and concerns about the demand of the entry-level market. As such, they have shifted to constructing more higher-priced homes, which has caused new-home prices to rise significantly faster than existing-home prices. In 2016, they likely will shift to more affordable product to cater to the entry-level buyers. “We are already seeing a decline in new-home prices for new contracts signed this fall,” notes Smoke. “In addition, credit access is improving enough to make the first-time buyer segment more attractive to builders.”  

4. Higher mortgage rates. Mortgage rates will likely be volatile in 2016. But the recent move by the Federal Reserve to guide interest rates higher should push mortgage rates higher in the new year than the historical lows they have been at for years. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage will likely end 2016 about 60 basis points higher than today’s level. “That level of increase is manageable, as consumers will have multiple tactics to mitigate some of that increase,” Smoke says. “However, higher rates will drive monthly payments higher, and, along with that, debt-to-income ratios will also go higher.” The markets with the highest home prices will see the effects from the higher rates the most.  

5. Rents to go up even higher. Rental costs are skyrocketing, and the costs are likely to only go up in the new year. More than 85 percent of the nation’s markets have rents that exceed 30 percent of the income of renting households. “Rents are accelerating at a more rapid pace than home prices, which are moderating,” Smoke says. “Because of this, it is more affordable to buy in more than three-quarters of the U.S. However, for the majority of renting households, buying is not a near-term option due to poor household credit scores, limited savings, and lack of documentable stable income of the kind necessary to qualify for a mortgage today.”

ROI - Best and Worst Home Improvement Projects

I get asked all the time by clients "How much value will this add?" with regards to a home improvement or remodel. Generally speaking, I let them know that the only improvements that they will truly get all of their money back for when selling are new paint and new carpet.  These are relatively inexpensive items with a large impact - they immediately make a house seem fresh, bright, and new! 

Homeowners may have a long wish list of home renovations and projects, and sometimes it seems as if the work is never done. While return on investment (ROI) may not be the biggest consideration in a homeowner’s mind when deciding which projects make it to the top of the list, knowing which projects see the highest returns may be helpful in the decision-making process. If you have been thinking of making some changes to your home, you want to consider the following data when deciding where to put your money.

Happiness in the home can be a part of the ROI, but other cost vs. value factors vary by region and even by room. ROI, as defined in Remodeling’s 2015 Cost vs. Value report, can be broken down as the percentage of the estimated average cost of a renovation project that is projected to be recouped in resale value, as aggregated from real estate and appraisal estimates.

Been thinking of selling? Now is the time!

If you have considered selling in 2016, NOW is the time! With inventory levels at their lowest mark in over 10 years, listing your home for sale before the busy spring buying season will give you the most exposure to buyers and allow you to get the best price for your home.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) just released their latest Existing Home Sales Report on Friday. Read more HERE. Contact me today to get a FREE Comparative Market Analysis of your home and decide if it makes sense to list!

Lending regulations for condos

Thinking about buying (or selling) a condo in 2016? Here are some guidelines to determine if you will be able to secure financing (Fannie/Freddie only, for FHA the entire complex must be FHA approved) compliments of one my favorite lenders, The Moore Team.

1.  We will need a completed condo questionnaire from the HOA or management company VERY soon after going under contract. Please be sure we have a contact for that. This usually takes 2-3 weeks to get back from when we order!

2.  The project must be Established. This means 90% of the units are sold to individual purchasers, the project is 100% completed and is not subject to additional expansion or phases & control of the HOA has been turned over to unit owners.

3.  There is no current litigation in which the HOA or developer is named as a party to the litigation. (This would not include instances where the HOA or developer is solely the plaintiff in a foreclosure or for delinquent HOA dues)

4.  The project is not an “ineligible” type for conventional financing. (I.E. condo hotels, 

timeshares, houseboat, multi-family dwelling unit, legal (but non-conforming) use of land, common interest apartment or community apartment project)

5.  Commercial (non-residential) space cannot be greater than 25% of the project.

6.  At least 51% of the total units must be already sold and closed as primary residences or second homes. Foreclosure units that are currently for sale can be counted as owner occupied primary residences.

7.  No more than 15% of the unit owners are currently more than 30 days delinquent on their HOA dues.

8.  No single entity owns more than 10% of the total units in the project.

9.  HOA budget must have a line item for “replacement reserves” that equals no less than 10% of the total budget. (It is nearly impossible to approve a complex that does not have this!)

10. There are no restrictions which would limit the free transferability of title such as right of first refusal, other deed/income restrictions.

11. Having proper insurance coverage to meet Fannie/Freddie Guidelines

Half bath or full bath?

If you are thinking of renovating or adding on, but don't have a ton of space, consider this:  Data shows that an extra half-bath can boost a home's price as much or more as another full bath.  A half bath can be added in as little space a 2' x 4', while a full bath needs quite a bit more room, so these findings can be significant!

The median price for single-family homes with one bathroom was $85 a square foot, according to a survey of listings on realtor.com in late July. With an extra full bathroom, the price climbed 15%, to $107 a square foot, while an extra half-bathroom added 10%, or $93 a square foot. 

Read the full article here

It's been a busy year!

2015 has been a banner year! 

Here is just a quick glimpse of what I have been up to!

Roswell Country Club

Roswell

Marietta

Smyrna

West Midtown

Old Fourth Ward

downtown Decatur

Smyrna

Sandy Springs

Woodstock

Roswell

Indian Hills Country Club (East Cobb)

West Midtown

Berkeley Hills Country Club (Duluth)

East Atlanta

Norcross

Woodstock

Burckhead

Indian Hills Country Club (East Cobb)

Marietta

Horseshoe Bend Country Club (Roswell)

Brookhaven

My listings have been selling for over 99% of list price and in less than 20 days. 

Thinking of selling? I would love to help!