Home Selling
{ Tuesday, May 8th, 2012 }
Client Testimonials
I’ve recently asked previous clients to review me on Zillow.
It was not something that I was initially enthusiastic about.
I’m not sure why I had avoided it for so long. Perhaps I felt uncomfortable asking, or maybe I just didn’t think it was that important. Regardless of what was holding me back, I decided to just make the plunge. We’re all becoming increasingly reliant on peer review web sites, and I realized that it was about time that I stepped up and asked those who I do business with every day to tell the entire world what they thought of me.
So far, so good- I’ve posted all of the reviews on my Client Testimonial page. I receieved the review below yesterday. One unintended benefit of reviews like this is that it reminds me of why I do what I do in the first place, and why I enjoy what I do so much:
My husband and I have purchased property in New York City, upstate NY, Los Angeles, coastal Maine…and In-Town Atlanta with Jon Effron in 2011. He is hands down our favorite and most impressive real estate agent to date.
With his help we were able to purchase a short-sale home in Lake Claire. This was a complicated deal that took nearly five months to complete. There were numerous entities to be negotiated with…including the original owners, the bank holding the mortgage and their foreclosure team, multiple attorneys and other agents, etc.
It was a nail-biter of a deal, and honesty we didn’t think it would go through. If it weren’t for Jon it might not have.
He stayed invested and informed during every stage of the process, was uniformly liked and listened to by all parties involved…and despite the fact that it was a shaky deal from start to finish he maintained a positive attitude that made things go smoothly and in our favor. And when we were considering other houses to purchase instead…he advised us to stick to going after the house of our dreams, despite how difficult it was.
And we got it.
We give him the highest recommendation possible.
Whether you list with him, or shop for your next house with him…you’ll most likely get what you want…
{ Monday, April 30th, 2012 }
The Return of Bidding Wars
Bidding wars are back.
I’ve been involved in several multiple-offer situations this year, as have a number of my colleagues. It’s not uncommon right now. A quality house in a quality neighborhood – priced to sell – is going to garner immediate interest. It’s just the way it is. Unless you’re viewing the market through the prism that Case-Shiller puts out every month.
Just last week, Case-Shiller reported that Atlanta was at a 16 year low. Case-Shiller is designed for people that view Atlanta as a single real estate market, evidenced by the fact that it’s based on a 28 county analysis. It’s really odd, when you think about it. It’s like telling Ritz-Carlton that they function within the same hospitality market as Comfort Suites, or explaining to Mario Batali that the $30 plate of fennel pollen dusted sweetbreads that he’s plating up at Babbo are in the same dining “market” as an extra value meal at McDonald’s.
Of course, they are. But they’re really not.
If you offered me one million dollars to name 18 metro Atlanta counties, I probably couldn’t do it. 28 metro Atlanta counties? Not a chance. Why we still accord any value on a housing index based on a 28 county area masquerading as “Atlanta”, I’m still not sure.
All of that being said, I was thrilled to recently read an article in the Wall Street Journal about the return of the bidding war. You should really check it out, it’s a far more accurate depiction of the Atlanta market that I’ve been getting to know these past few months.
A little taste:
Competitive bidding in the current environment isn’t producing huge price increases or leaving sellers with hefty profits, as occurred during the housing boom. Still, the bidding wars caused by tight inventory provide the latest evidence that housing demand is starting to pick up after a six-year-long slump.
The Relevant Linkage
Maybe it’s time to start thinking about selling your home. Find out how much it’s worth.
Check out one of the counties that Case Shiller is referring to as “Atlanta”
{ Friday, April 20th, 2012 }
Pricing Your Home To Sell
Most home sellers are focused on two things: selling their home for as much as possible, as fast as possible. Pretty simple, right?
Yes. And no.
I was just reading a recent blog post from my Broker, Christopher Bennett. In addition to being ridiculously smart, Christopher is exceptionally talented at distilling complex concepts in to very clear, concise thoughts. So when it comes to the two primary goals of most home sellers, Christopher really nailed it. A quick excerpt, to give you a feel on putting marketing and pricing in perspective:
The only thing marketing does is make a buyer aware of a home, after that, the home must meet the buyer’s needs and the buyer must find value relative to his other choices in the same market. Today’s buyers are more price savvy and price conscious than ever. They tend to do a tremendous amount of research online before ever looking at a home, so by the time they get in a home they have a pretty good understanding of its value relative to other choices.
85% of getting a home sold is pricing it correctly for its market. The rest is about making the buyers and the local real estate agents aware of the home. If you don’t get the first part right, the only thing good marketing will do is make more people aware that a home is over priced, which results in both buyers and agents ignoring the home even once the price is adjusted into the correct range thus reducing what a seller is likely net.
Read all the entire post- it’s a great read. Of course, if you’re interested in chatting about the post further as part of a more in depth conversation regarding selling your home, just give me a holler.
{ Wednesday, April 11th, 2012 }
What Should I Disclose When Selling My House?
A promotional still of Michael Douglas from the 1994 film Disclosure. If his characher, Tom Sanders, was selling a home, he would disclose everything.
If you’ve bought or sold a home before, then you should be pretty familiar with the Seller’s Property Disclosure Statement. In Georgia, it’s typical that a seller fill out this form prior to listing their home, so that potential buyers can review it prior to writing an offer. and when a Buyer writes an offer to purchase the home, it’s attached to the contract as an exhibit. It features questions running the gamut from the relatively straight forward (Has there ever been any flooding on any part of the Property?) to the much more, shall we say, obscure (Are there now or have there been any landfills, graves, burial pits, caves, mine shafts, trash dumps or well on the Property?).
Even when armed with the Seller’s Property Disclosure, many home sellers still wonder “What Should I Disclose When Selling My House?” The answer, according to the Georgia Association of Realtors:
Sellers have a duty to disclose latent or hidden defects in their properties that are not readily apparent from a reasonable inspection of the property. Whenever possible, disclosures should be in writing and incorporated into the purchase and sale contract to avoid any questions regarding whether or not they were received. You cannot avoid disclosure obligations by selling a house in “as is” condition. Known hidden defects must be disclosed.
Fairly straightforward, right? I have my own reasons for encouraging complete honesty when it comes to disclosure:
1. It’s the right thing to do. Period.
2. If you conveniently “forget” to disclose something, and it’s later revealed by a home inspector, you lose all credibility with the buyer of your home. You never know when you’ll actually need that credibility over the course of the transaction, so it’s best to everything in your power to perserve it.
3. She Seller’s Property Disclosure is included in the Purchase and Sales Contract as an Exhibit. As a general rule of thumb, I would not encourage anyone to knowingly deceive another person in a legal document. Bad Idea Jeans, if you ask me.
4. See #1.
{ Thursday, March 8th, 2012 }
Atlanta Real Estate Reality Check
I recently took a quick snapshot of this real estate “sign topper” in Grant Park:
The sign belongs to fellow Keller Williams Realtor Tony Raffalovich. The day Tony put his sign up, he received an offer. Within 48 hours, he received three more offers. The home is, understandably, now under contract to close.
It’s just one piece of anectdotal evidence, but it is indicative of what I’ve been seeing in the market. It is not, however, reflected in what I’m reading about the market.
Last week, we were treated to our monthly “10,000 foot perspective” of the Atlanta housing market: The Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Home Price Indices. Case-Shiller is the leading national measurement tool of the U.S. housing economy, a much-watched report by economists, pundits and politicians. With regards to Atlanta, Case-Shiller basically takes everything it can find in Atlanta- single family homes, condominiums, foreclosures, south of the city, north of the city, you name it- and wraps it all into one (not so) pretty picture. This month, a sampling of what we learned (courtesy of the AJC):
1. Metro Atlanta home prices fell to the lowest point since 1998 as a mass of foreclosures and short sales continued to batter the market
2. Home prices in Atlanta fell for the fourth straight month in November, with a 2.5 percent decline that followed a 5 percent drop in October
3. “Atlanta continues to stand out in terms of recent relative weakness,” said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Indices
For me- and most Realtors that I know- the strange irony is that these headlines have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the market that we’re experiencing right now. Barely two months into 2012 and I’ve already been in six multiple-offer situations. Together the relatively low inventory levels intown (in areas with “better” public schools specifically), and increasing home buyer confidence has really started to heat things up. This might not provide a lot of comfort to the underwater home seller, but it’s becoming an emerging, highly underrported trend that’s hard to miss for those of us working in the industry.
Atlanta simply can’t be viewed as one single housing market. In reality, it’s hundreds of sub-markets.
