I recently earned my EcoBroker Certified® designation, having successfully completed a unique and informative training program on the energy and environmental issues that affect real estate transactions. I joined the movement of professionals pushing the real estate market toward energy-efficient, sustainable, and healthier design/features in homes and buildings. The “performance home” movement is getting a boost right now. EcoBrokers, like me, throughout the country are forging this market and creating competitive advantages for their customers. With national surveys indicating that 80% of consumers consider themselves “green-minded,” real estate professionals with the EcoBroker designation are in a better position to serve the real estate consumer. “I’m always looking for the best ways to offer my clients the best value. My EcoBroker training helps me ensure customer satisfaction, my number one priority. From windows to moisture control to energy savings, I now have more resources at my disposal to help my buyers and sellers make better real estate decisions. The EcoBroker designation doesn’t make me an energy and environmental expert, but it allows me to better understand the issues and to convey this understanding to my buyers and sellers.”

A humble real estate agent is one that’s just sold their own home in this market. My wife and I recently SOLD our home. I’m proud to say we did it in 3 weeks and got within 99.9% of the asking price. Our homes asking price was in the slowest selling price range in the Smyrna / Atlanta real estate market. I’ve had several astonished people and agents contact me to see how I accomplished the sale in the current market?

The answer is simple. I took my own advice. I had and appraisal from 2006, I knocked 6% off the top. Got my house in tip top shape and this smoked the surrounding Smyrna /Vinings competition.

I’ve been saying for some time now that price, condition and staging is the winning combination for maximum return. One without the others will not work in most cases. I have a great testimony to share with you. There was another home for sale across the street from mine. It was priced 14K under mine. I felt hands down I had the better home, as all homeowners think they do. In no way was the price enough to make a difference. But I kept noticing that home was getting much more buyer traffic than mine. I knew most of the showing agents so I called them to see why my home wasn’t shown. They informed me the buyers were looking up to a certain price and I was missing the top end price by 14K. I was like… holy, moly, 14 K difference…. give me a break!!! Make me an offer?? But with no showings, you’re not going to get an offer, plain and simple!! This is proof that being in the right price range or bracket is very important. You must consider what your home is worth and then research if buyers are in that price. You must be within that range to sell! If you’re not, then it’s like setting a baited fishing hook just above a school of fish. If you’re not a fisherman what happens is the fish never sees the worm. You have to drop it in their sight! Same difference!

You see it didn’t matter my home was bigger, larger lot, custom wall treatments, finished basement, etc. It was first and foremost about price. We had beautiful curb appeal but it just wasn’t enough to bring the buyers in. We made the downward price adjustment and it went under contract within days. I’m like every other seller out there, I wanted more but I wasn’t going to get it in this market. I feel your pain. It simple doesn’t work in today’s real estate market to start out high and think you’ll get an offer and negotiate from there. The only paper (contract) you’ll see is the AJC newspaper on your front door every day.

A recent survey by Zillow.com claimed 62% of the homeowners surveyed claimed their home had either appreciated or stayed the same in value over the last 12 months; the reality is 77% of those surveyed homes had decline in value in the past 12 months. The day when an agent priced a home just using the MLS comp’s are over. You need an agent that’s in the market everyday and can provide you with numerous facts and data to support the correct asking price to sell to today’s buyers. Pricing your home correctly is very, very important! The slightest adjustment may make things happen! I’m proof of it!

I’ve recently heard several people tell me they were just going to walk away from their mortgage. They said they were just going to move out, give the keys back and notify the mortgage company they can have the home back. Some claimed they were given professional advice telling them to move out and just walk away from the home. Claiming letting the bank have it back would be best and really wouldn’t hurt their credit as bad as a bankruptcy and it wasn’t the same as a foreclosure. It’s amazing how wrong these folks are!!

Walkaway trends started where many homeowners found themselves upside down on their loans, owing tens of thousands more than the current market value of their homes. If they did 100% financing or have very little invested in down payments, some owners reason, continuing to make payments, even if they can afford to, may be throwing good money after bad. These people better beware its going to hurt their credit maybe worse than a bankruptcy or default foreclosure would. Why, first of all walkaway’s will have IRS tax liability. Last year federal legised that allows homeowners who negotiate loan modifications or Short Sales with lenders and have portions of their principal debt eliminated to escape tax liability for the amount forgiven. Walkaway borrows, by contrast, have nothing forgiven, and the IRS may demand taxes on the mortgage balance they never paid. This can be a substantial sum of money. In many cases filing bankruptcy or short sales may be a better route. It may have a faster turnaround time for buying another home when you have things straightened out. I’m by no means giving legal advice; I’m just letting you know you need to discuss selling your home as a Short Sale first before you consider just giving the keys back or waiting on the bank to foreclose. It could save you in a number of ways.

I want to warn people that there are a lot of people out there that are taking advantage of people’s hardships. Web sites are now advertising “I can repair your credit” for $495. Some say they will show you how to hold creditors off and avoid the due process and collection all the other broke folks go through?? Another company is offering, “Send them $995 and they will send you instructions on how to live free for a year and not pay any mortgage payments”. There is nothing legit about these magical offers. They’re rip off’s!!

The best avenue for anyone behind on their mortgage payments is to try to work something out with the lender first. An experienced professional real estate agent can help you prepare you for what the lender will require. Then there are consumer counseling services and attorney’s that can advise you on what’s best for you in the short and long run. Your goal is to make things where your credit lines come back as quick as possible.

I recently read that when applying for a new mortgage after a foreclosure, mortgage underwriters tend to be more sympathetic down the road in regards to people that faced genuine financial hardships leading to the past foreclosure or bankruptcy. Walkway

Some of you may be aware that the amount of water in your toilet has been on our local governments mind lately. That’s right, if you buy the right new low water volume toilet you’ll receive anywhere from $50 to $100 back from many metro counties. Some counties even wanted to mandate that certain age homes would be required to retro fit to the new low volume toilets.

Here’s the stat’s on the water savings published in the AJC March 7, 2008.

Average home savings 30 gallons a day!!!

Metro Atlanta would save 6 million gallons a day!!!

There’s an estimated 425,000 old toilets in the region.

Are these huge savings? Yes, but there’s a huge flaw in this equation ….. THEY TAKE MORE THAN ONE FLUSH TO WORK!!!

My good friend Chris called me this week. All I heard on the other end of my cell phone was “What’s up with these new toilets?? I just purchased a $500 toilet, and paid $100 to have it put in my new basement bath and it will not handle business”. When I told him his contractor wasn’t trying to pull something over on him he was very upset the government was in his bath room. We both agreed we may be using more water because the new toilets don’t work properly or in any fashion we’re all accustom to.

We all know water is an issue and will continue to be as Atlanta grows. I strongly feel there are a number of things the average family can do to save lots of water. Like stop washing the dishes then putting them in the dishwasher or running the shower as you’re also waiting for the iron to heat up, then ironing your cloths before entering to wash yourself. Quit letting the water run when shaving or brushing your teeth. Also quit using your toilet as a trash can. Simple things like this will conserve our water resources. I believe the media and government needs to do more in the way of education that will change some old habits,not changing out some old porcelain.

I think a new hot business could be on the horizon folks! It’s going to be in designer plungers. If there is an estimated 425,000 old toilets here then multiply that by say $9.99 to $29.99(Martha Steward deluxe model), you’re looking at possibly doing 4 to 12 million dollars in sales your first year just in Atlanta sales. I assure you the old natural wood, round stick, stuck into that odd black bell shaped rubber end just isn’t going to get it. Your going to need something attractive, quick and handy. It will become as important as the TP holder!

Some say the new campaign is like throwing money down the drain. In this case I promise you it will take 2 or 3 attempts to make the money go away if your trying to flush it!!

I usually only write one blog a month but after writing my most recent blog about the Sub-Prime Interest lock the government is proposing I decided to research more areas surrounding Atlanta to see the ratio of foreclosures by counties.

I always hear conversations about the person that just bought a 600K home for 400K. Sounds great doesn’t it? In reality it very rarely happens! In most cases the person is quoting you the asking price vs. what he paid for it. Or the best one I hear is someone saying they got a 600K home form 400K, it needs 200K but they can get it done for 100K. There’s more to these stories than you’re ever told.

I’m contacted every week by someone looking for a deal on a foreclosure. It’s understandable that everybody wants a deal on a home, but so far it’s been pretty hard for me to find plenty of foreclosure deals. I can find foreclosures but they are not deals!

However, I did find one this month. The buyer purchased this home for 225K which was about 25% less than the average home sold in the last 2 years in that subdivision. The home needs about 13K to 16K in cosmetic improvements and stripped appliances. This client has long term plans to live in the house. Thus making this a deal compared to the current market and county which was Cobb. The transaction took over 45 days from binding agreement to close!!

After doing some research I discovered why I’m not seeing all these foreclosures the media keeps talking about. I mainly work within Cobb and North Fulton County’s and these numbers tell my why I’m not seeing all those great foreclosure deals!

Below is the foreclosure rate per households in the following counties.
Cobb County - 1 in 597
Fulton County - 1 in 122 (Majority South Fulton)
Gwinnett County – 1 in 311
Paulding County - 1 in 164
Douglas County 1 in 260
Forsyth County 1 in 553
Cherokee County 1 in 396
DeKalb County 1 – 252
Rockdale County 1 in 207
Fayette County 1 in 368

So if you’re looking for a deal you might want to start in the counties with the most foreclosures. I want to make people aware that you have to do your homework when buying a foreclosed property. It’s very tricky and I recommend you hire a seasoned real estate agent to help you negotiate with the bank. It’s takes lots of patience and time to get foreclosure homes under contract and to the closing table! Banks are simply overwhelmed by foreclosure volume in general. They don’t pay any attention to the dates you want to close, etc. Be prepared to wait on all responses from the bank every step of the way. If you do your due diligence you may end up with some instant equity. If you don’t, your deal today will be a deal for someone else tomorrow. My dad used to say “figures don’t lie, liers figure”!

Call me I would love to discuss real estate opportunities!

If you have a sub-prime mortgage on your home with a escalating interest rate then you may soon get some needed help from our government. If you’ve got one of those adjustable rate mortgages, you may qualify for a rate freeze under certain conditions. Standard fixed rate mortgages will not be affected.

The bailout is really designed for homeowners who are into trouble because their mortgage payments keep going up making it impossible for them to pay their monthly payments. If you have sufficient funds or income to pay your mortgage even if your payments have gone up then you’re not eligible for the rate freeze. You have to live in your home to qualify for the rate freeze, second homes and investment properties will not qualify for this program. You have to have taken the loan out between 2005 & 2007 with rates set to increase between 2008 & July 2010. You have to have less than 3% equity. You must be current on your mortgage payments or no later than 60 days. You have to prove you can handle the locked payment but not the higher payment. Analysts estimate this will help between 240,000 to 250,000 people out. That’s a huge number of homeowners with sub-prime mortgages. And there are many more homeowners with sub-prime mortgages that will not qualify for the rate freeze. This bailout is a half fix at best! Unfortunately many of the people that this rate freeze is trying to help out will eventually end up in foreclosure. We need a plan for other with a sub prime mortgage with diffirent curcimstances.

The current Bush administration is concerned about the fallout from the housing slump. The repercussions of the high rate of foreclosures will have a series of problems for the housing industry. Ten of thousands of American could be forced from their homes. This will slow consumer spending hurting the economy overall. All of this will cause home prices to fall even more.
This bailout deal will add some stability to the housing market, but it will not stop all the problems we face in the real estate industry right now. The same day Bush announced his plan, the Mortgage Bankers Association said that foreclosures had reached a record high in the third quarter. Mortgage foreclosures hit a record .78% up from the previous high of .65%. At the same time, delinquencies for all mortgages rose to 5.59%, from 5.12% in the second quarter. So we still have more people out there that will end up in foreclosure as time moves on. As I stated in a earlier blog, we haven’t hit bottom yet.

The Atlanta real estate market has had its share of higher than normal foreclosures this year. However it hasn’t drastically affected home prices in the North Metro Atlanta area. Supply and demand has softened our home prices more than anything else so far. It’s projected that we’ll get over million more people moving to the Atlanta area by 2011. Our job growth looks good. Atlanta will fair pretty well through this real estate downturn in the long run. The national news media wants you to think all the flood gates are open and look out below. The truth is the majority of the foreclosures are happening in three states, California, Florida and Ohio. Folks in these states will have a long journey back before they can say the word equity!! Reports claim some homeowners in these states have homes that are worth 37% to 40% less than 2006. Be glad you own a home in Atlanta. We’re actually project to have a slight increase in home values this year! But certain areas of Atlanta have been hard hit.

Keep in mind this rate freeze is really going to be a problem for the mortgage industry. Investors will think twice about backing mortgage programs that have been big money makers in the past due to uncertain returns. I don’t want to see anyone lose their house in foreclosure but Wall Street and many such firms have invested in securities that back your mortgage – there also tied into pension funds as well as mutual funds. Their clients include all sorts of people like you, teachers, fireman, policemen, etc. So……some people will have lower payments which are good……but other people will not have the kind of return on their investments which is bad for their retirement. We need much more of a fix to help the housing industry.

I’ve don’t believe the average person has any idea how many people are involved in the home buying process and the supply chain involved. The current mortgage problems are undermining what made America great! Long term financing!!

As many of you know I’ve been very optimistic as to how far home prices in Atlanta will fall and how long it will take for values to start moving up again. I still strongly feel there isn’t a bubble in Atlanta that’s just waiting to pop. Right now we’re going through a market correction. Atlanta’s population growth has us positioned for major housing needs in the very near future. But overall the US real estate market has had numerous issues and factors that’s compounding and causing some unexpected new problems that hurting the already troubled real estate industry. It’s not all because of the collapse of Sub Prime loans and that’s a fact. FHA will now finance homes up to 346K and has filled the Sub Prime void pretty well. Thursday the US government reported that new home sales hit their lowest point in seven years. Let me repeat…..seven years???

Builders are slashing new homes prices 7.5% on average in the US. With a bloated supply of new homes for sale it’s clear it’s a buyer’s market. The Atlanta Builders have clearly realized this and are making the price adjustments and concessions to try to stimulate sales. But the resale home market isn’t following this trend. Thus leaving the new home builders without many move up buyers.

I recently attended a Re/Max of Georgia Platinum Club meeting. The format was town hall, round table, questions and answers. During our time together a very successful agent made the statement “without listings your dead”. I replied “No sir, the fact is without good listings your dead”. Listings and good listings are two totally different animals.

I’ve been fortunate to have had a steady flow of business this year and I’m very thankful for people putting their trust in me. However, most of my commission checks this year have come more from buyers I represented, not sellers I’ve represented in 2007. I’ve always consistently had equal buyers to sellers in the past. But this year representing buyers has kept me alive. However, buyers are struggling to find good homes to purchase in the Marietta, Smyrna, Powder Springs, Acworth, Kennesaw, Roswell and Alpharetta areas. Over my 15 year career my average buyer looked at 17 homes before buying. If we looked at many more than 20 homes I would scheduled a meeting with the buyer to analyze what the problem was. Could it be that I’m not be listening to them? Or was it the fact their dream home didn’t exist within their limits??

Today my buyers are having too view 25 to 40 homes before finding the one they may consider buying. Nothing is knocking them over right now. Why can’t these buyers find homes? A huge percentage of the resale homes on the market have either pricing problems or neglected maintenance issues. Surprisingly most don’t have as much of a home pricing problem as they do with neglected maintenance issues. I don’t blame the sellers in regards to this situation. I fully blame Atlanta Real Estate agents for not telling the sellers the right price and the condition a home has to be in order to sell.

Regardless of what you’re selling, whether it’s a car, playground equipment, or a house, the consumer has to see the value. Something they feel good about. Something that will make them say “I’ll take it”!! Nobody pays full book value for a car with a dent in the fender and a busted tail light; nobody pays full retail for a swing set missing a sliding board. So how are you going to sell that house that needs paint and carpet?? You’re not!! If you cannot sell your home stand back and take a good look at the things you would do if you were going to stay in the home. Then do them!! Don’t wait!! Real estate agents need to be honest with their sellers and let them know buyers want move-in condition. Inside and out! We will all see a significant upturn in the market if the median priced home inventory looked better. If this price range home begins to move faster, then the dominions will start falling and higher priced homes will have buyers that sold the median priced homes. I believe one of the reasons the Atlanta real estate market has slowed is because the median priced home inventories aren’t in the best selling condition!!