Decatur House For Sale GA

If you have been looking around at homes in the Atlanta area, then you know that the market is on fire!  We wanted to give you a heads up that this Decatur House For Sale GA is coming on the market this week and it’ll be less than $175K!   Where can you find a Decatur home with 4 bedrooms, walking distance to deerborn park and with access to charter schools!  It’s also walking distance to a Marta stop.

The yard is immaculate and has a batman like secret access door to the deerborn park. There’s so much room to do whatever you want here, and it’s got to be one the nicest homes under 200K in all of Decatur.  If you want more information, please contact us immediately, as this one will go fast!

- brought to you by: GA Homes Digest - Atlanta Real Estate At It's Best

If you been looking at real estate you probably noticed that the market is on fire!  However there are two groups that are really enjoying this market and both of them seem to be following the Dave Ramsey way of buying a home.

The buyers are obviously enjoying the low prices and low interest rates, however, those buyers that have 20% down and are in better shape to deal with the bumps in the road that seem to be popping up such as low appraisals, or inspection repairs that unexpectedly need to be made and sellers that cannot afford or are unwilling to do the repairs.  In some cases, these sellers don’t have the utilities on and a credit worthy person with a good amount of cash can easily navigate these items.

Now that the market has heated up, the buyers are not the only ones that are in a great position to succeed.  Sellers are now in position to move up while the market recovers if they put 20% down which is more than the market fell in many areas.  As the market continues to heat up, these savvy sellers can now take advantage of the market FIRST and get in while the market is still lower.

The market is back but some  things don’t change and good sound advice from Dave Ramsey still remains the best way to buy a home (aside from all cash).

- brought to you by: GA Homes Digest - Atlanta Real Estate At It's Best

Rent VS Buy House

If you’re out looking to rent a place you might have noticed that rent is expensive!  Sure there’s a few places to rent in Gwinnett County that range from the low $500 a month, but most of these places are either townhomes, duplexes or in the very worst school districts in town.  Statistically, renters aren’t as concerned about schools but they should be! While a good children’s education has value, it’s not as valuable if you don’t have children — HOWEVER, it does affect the over all prices of available homes AND it also affects the areas “quality of life.”  Areas with better schools typically have better parks, cleaner stores, less crime – you know lots of good stuff that your Momma told you to look for in a place. I digress, so where was I? Oh, rent is expensive and home prices are down, so let’s compare the age old question of buying vs renting a home in Georgia.

In our research we noticed that the average rent rate for a single family home in Central Gwinnett was about $800 a month (see below) while a home in a better school district like Grayson, Mill Creek or Peachtree Ridge was closer to $1,300 a month.

So let’s break out the calculator on our phone and compare notes. For those cynical folks out there, my calculation assumes you are putting 3% down and getting a fixed rate loan of 5% for 30 years [at the time of this blog post rates are as low as 3.8%]

Rent VS Buy A House?

If your rent is $500 a month you could buy one of these homes instead (we’ll start here because frankly rent this cheap is usually “mom’s house”)

How about if your rent is $800 a month, what can you get?

Let’s do two more: $1,000 rent a month, should Rent VS Buy A House?

Finally, we’ll stop a the $1,300 a month rent. If you’re paying this much in rent, why aren’t you buying – take a look!

- brought to you by: GA Homes Digest - Atlanta Real Estate At It's Best

GA Buyer’s Agent – What Buyer Agents Know About R.E. That You Don’t

It all started with this e-mail:

Josh, Hey I love the “Best Buy List” you are putting out but you’re not necessarily sending me homes in the area I want.  I’d prefer to do my own looking to, so can you tell me how you go about finding these great real estate deals?

- James

So I set about trying to answer his question by describing how I search for deals.  The trouble is, that only a licensed real estate agent can do this.  To make maters worse, you have to sift through the listings to see who is doing buyer baiting, or who has old information.

Here’s how I look for great real estate deals I’ll note what the buyer’s agent can do as well.

1. Experience Based – Because we show a ton of properties we know the market.  So when we see a deal, we naturally know it’s a deal.  Anything under $250K is a steal in Hamilton Mill for instance.  While this particular way of searching isn’t exclusive to MLS data, it is harder to stay on top of as big an area as a GA Buyer’s Agent, so start small and pick your favorite neighborhood.   You can be an expert in a small area without MLS.
2. Reduce Pricing Analysis – A trick of the trade is that when a bank owned home drops it’s prices it’s ready to move the property… more than before and willing to look at lower offers than before.  The challenge of this is that most searches available online to do not offer this and in the case of homes dot com and realtor dot com you’re  faced with 2 or 3 week old information.  The MLS is best to not miss out on this one.  Also, you run the risk of running into Buyer Baiting from short sale listing agents.
3. Known “Dealers” – There are just some listing agents or “sellers’ that always have good deals. HUD homes typically fall into this category.  This comes from experience as well.  HUD homes HAVE to be purchased through a real estate agent, so if you are  DIY-er you’re out of luck.

If you want the best deals and the most up to date information, contact us today! 

- brought to you by: GA Homes Digest - Atlanta Real Estate At It's Best

GA Home Buyer Baiting

You know me for my factual information on the Atlanta Short Sale market, but what you might not know is that in the world of short sales there is something I am calling, “BUYER BAITING.”

The simple explanation of this is dropping the price of a home so low that any buyer in the market would want it to generate an offer.  This doesn’t sound like a bad thing unless  you know how short sales work.

See, short sales are basically a traditional sale with one difference.  The bank is lowering their payoff to approve the sell.  How does the bank know whether or not a deal is a good one or not?  That’s a great question – they do their own appraisal or something else which is called a Broker Price Opinion (aka BPO).  In short the bank pays someone to tell them the value of the home.  Here’s where the problem arise… consider this scenario.

A home owner is facing foreclosure, the new real estate agent not knowing exactly how to do the short sale, decides to list the home at a ridiculously low rate in order to attract a buyers offer.  So far so good – until 60 days into the short sale process (the seller is happy because now they are living mortgage free and have not been foreclosed on) the bank has done their evaluation and they find that the home is 5K, 10K, or 100K over what the offer  is for, yes even a full price offer.   To be completely fair, this could happen to anyone in a short sale, but more often in this situation.

What happens in this situation?  If the bank is wrong on the price then you can fight them, but more often, the buyer loses because they were searching based on their expectations and price range.  Let’s stop here and consider this example home.

The home below is a great example of Buyer Baiting.   There’s all kinds of problems with this one, but original list price was $190K, then the reduced price all the way down to $95K.  That’s actually not too far off from market value but the when the bank comes back to this home and tells everyone that their minimum is $105K and your maximum offer is $100K, you’re out, you’ve wasted all your time and it’s time to start over and begin looking again.

We’ll go into this more in the coming weeks.

Want to prevent getting taken by this kind of thing?  - Contact us today! 

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # 3177074 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

- brought to you by: GA Homes Digest - Atlanta Real Estate At It's Best

Most people know that that Jarvis Team is the premiere short sale specialist in Atlanta GA, but our main site (this one) caters to buyers.  After discussing a few issues with my team and explaining what makes us successful on the short sale side, it turns out the same skills on the short sale side apply to the buying side as well.

When helping a seller through a short sale, it’s very stressful for them.  So preparing them what to expect such as how the bank will react to offers, how to postpone the foreclosure, will the bank come after, what about taxes and how soon do they need to move are all questions we as a team have to answer.  For a buyer we found it’s very similar, most buyer need to know a few things.  I thought it would be good to cover the 3 key expectations for you:

1. Expect Multiple Offers on homes under $150,000 – This is pretty much true of all of metro Atlanta except Clayton County.  Take a look at the median price point, whatever below that is selling and selling very fast.  In Gwinnett County, homes under 150K are selling in 2 weeks if priced appropriately.
2. Expect to have your financing in order – If you are planning on making offers on short sales or foreclosures, then you need rock-solid financing options.  This doesn’t have ANYTHING to do with your credit score but rather that you got with a lender.  If you are approved to buy a home, it doesn’t matter what your score is, you’re approved, period.  However, without the approval, you’re not even able to play the game for 99% of the homes. It doesn’t matter whether you’re offering on a $50,000 fixer upper or a Sugarloaf Country Club mansion.
3. Expect to jump through a few hoops – In today’s market if you are wanting to buy a foreclosure or short sale you need to be willing to “bend” a little. With foreclosure properties you’ll likely have to sign contracts based on their terms and live with their attorney, per diem charges for missing a closing date and even getting pre-qualled by their preferred person.  In short sales, you can expect delays, and even expect not getting the home due to the seller messing the deal up or the listing agent or the bank!

- brought to you by: GA Homes Digest - Atlanta Real Estate At It's Best

Your Atlanta Area’s Best Buy in Real Estate List

You gave us such great feedback regarding our best buy list (you know our list of homes for sale that are amazing deals?) – that we decided to drop 4 deals on you.  Actually, we didn’t drop these, this homes did.. and boy did they drop it… drop it like it’s … OH you know.

Are you not on our exclusive list?  Join Us Today.

1620 Omie Way

A whopping $50K Price reduction!  The area suggests this is a little low and it’s likely offer baiting because it’s a short sale.  So while we think this is an awesome steal, we do caution your excitement because, well short sales that aren’t being done by the Jarvis Team, are like that box of chocolates.

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # 3167991 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

Are you not on our exclusive list?  Join Us Today.

75 Rivershyre Court

OK Mr. Tully (the listing agent) you made us look.  This home had a $43K price reduction, but the description tells me that Mr. Tully doesn’t do a bunch of short sales.  So here’s another one of those great deals on the market, but it’s not without a bunch of unknowns.  *HINT* – Call us today to help mitigate those risks!

75 Rivershyre Cir, Lawrenceville, GA 30043 (MLS # 3132196)

SELLER MOTIVATED! PLS BRING ALL OFFERS! IMMACULATE LG TRDTNL IN GRT SWIM/TENNIS N'HOOD, FORMAL AREAS, SUNRM, CORIAN CTRS IN KIT & MSTR BATH, TREY CLGS, FENCED YD,

Property Type(s): Single Family Detached

Price History

Schools

Features

The data relating to real estate for sale on this web site comes in part from the Broker Reciprocity^SM Program of GAMLS. All real estate listings are marked with the GAMLS Broker Reciprocity^SM thumbnail logo and detailed information about them includes the name of the listing brokers.

The broker providing these data believes them to be correct, but advises interested parties to confirm them before relying on them in a purchase decision.

Copyright 2012 GAMLS. All rights reserved.

This IDX solution is (c) Diverse Solutions 2012.

Listed with

(view all details for MLS #3132196)

Are you not on our exclusive list?  Join Us Today.

1376 Wind Chime

This is the deal of the … week.  Hey, a $50K price reduction on an REO means, TAKE ME NOW!  So if you got $209K to spend on Lawrenceville Homes, then you should be looking at this beauty here.  Nothing but good things to say here, except the listing is lacking photos, but what do you expect from your avaerage foreclosure agent.  At least he took this photo with his cellphone.  Afterall with a price like this there’s no need for photos.

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # 3166929 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

5655 Cole Road, Sugar Hill GA

This next home takes the cake!  A $500,000 price reduction, (for those football fans out there, that’s more money than Victor Cruz made last year for the NY Giants!) This is an estate home with acreage and how.  So if you’re ready to live like a mogul, athlete, recluse or whatever you want, not only do you get a great home but you’ve got plenty of space to go with.  We think we can out negotiate anyone in town, so call today to get the very best deals!

5655 Cole Rd, Sugar Hill, GA 30518 (MLS # 2768688)

BREATHTAKING 9+ ACRE ESTATE FEATURES 100 YR OLD PECAN TREES, 2 OUT BLDGS, POND, GUNITE POOL&SPA WITHIN 1 MILE OF LAKE LANIER, 3 MASTER SUITES, ATTACHED GUEST

Property Type(s): Single Family Detached

Schools

Features

The data relating to real estate for sale on this web site comes in part from the Broker Reciprocity^SM Program of GAMLS. All real estate listings are marked with the GAMLS Broker Reciprocity^SM thumbnail logo and detailed information about them includes the name of the listing brokers.

The broker providing these data believes them to be correct, but advises interested parties to confirm them before relying on them in a purchase decision.

Copyright 2012 GAMLS. All rights reserved.

This IDX solution is (c) Diverse Solutions 2012.

Listed with

(view all details for MLS #2768688)

Are you not on our exclusive list?  Join Us Today.

- brought to you by: GA Homes Digest - Atlanta Real Estate At It's Best

It’s a pretty common question among buyers, “How hard is it to buy a home” or “Can I buy a home with a credit score like mine?”   First let’s get something out of the way all together.

What’s A Credit Score?

A Credit Score is simply a measure of how well you can get yourself into debt and pay that debt back over time.

What A Credit Score Does Not Tell You:

• Whether you paid in cash
• Whether you paid it off in a lump sum after incurring the debt
• Whether you pay off your card completely
• Whether or not you are “good” person
• Whether or not you can buy a home

It actually does  a few of the above to differing degrees, more on this..

Basically if you make an income and you are not consistently late on your bills then you likely can get into a home.  In most cases, if you have poor credit by the bank’s standards, a healthy down payment can offset this.

If you have questions, just contact us and we’ll point you to someone who can help!

- brought to you by: GA Homes Digest - Atlanta Real Estate At It's Best

Home Pricing Guide

After studying 8 in demand cities located in Georgia’s rising suburban towns, it became very obvious that there were statistical trends that almost all home buyers were likely not conscious of, and thus needed a Home Pricing Guide. Just for the record, we reviewed the most recent 6 months of information in 2011. Each data set had between 120 homes and 500 homes that had sold.

Why Getting It Gone in 30 Days Matters

Many of the home sellers we’ve talked to didn’t want to price too aggressively, perceiving they are leaving money on the table. However, from our research study it actually determined that to be a MYTH!

In 5 of the 8 cities, homes that sold in 0 to 30 days sold for 98% of the listing price or more. In 2 cities (Norcross and Duluth), homes that sold in 0 to 30 days sold for over 100% of listing price. No city performed worse than 97%.

What Happens After 30 Days

This is where it starts to get scary. In all 8 cites, homes for sale in Georgia sold for between 94% and 97% of the listing price with only one exception, Duluth which sold for 99% (down from 102.26%). So selling your home just better than normal actually cost home owners around 3%!! This was true of all market, Lawrenceville Real Estate behaved the same as Marietta or Buford Homes.

Average

Contemplating about offering for sale your home in a 90 day period of time? That’s actually the bulk of the homes that sell, sell in this time frame. Unfortunately, those sellers who’ve done typical, have only netted around 95% of their listing price. Even Duluth, our outlier in this report is down to 97%, a whopping 5% from the potential of selling for 102% of asking.

After 120 Days on the Real Estate Market

If you’re unfortunate enough to have a real estate agent that wasn’t “real” with you or maybe you were too headstrong to recognize the market — whatever the case may be, if you home languished for 120 days or more, you’ll be getting on average 90% of your asking price.

So Now What

It’s obvious that you should goal to be one that sells your home initially and within the first 30 days. Thefact is that each single buyer in the price window will be aware of your home for sale if adequately marketed within the first 2 weeks.

Some may argue that this just shows the natural development of price reductions from sellers who don’t sell – that’s right, but see the significant 10% reduction after 120 days. Notwithstanding, had a Duluth home owner who knew the market priced his/her home at 95% of market value, the data show that they would have obtained at least 102.26% of asking or rather 97% of market value, vs a person who wished a little more at 100% or more of fair market value and had to reduce it to 91% of market value to get it sold.(Plug in your numbers on your home to see How much money this is!)

Real Estate Market High Points

• Duluth Real Estate showed the most strength of all cities tested with 102.26% of the list price if sold in the first 30 days.
• Surprisingly Alpharetta Homes For Sale did the worst, coming in at 97.09% of asking price if sold in the first 30 days. However, Alpharetta, also wavered the least as time went on.
• One interesting note is that homes that sold in the 90 to 120 day time frame increased on average around .75%.
• The average home in every one of these cities was a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom home.

- brought to you by: GA Homes Digest - Atlanta Real Estate At It's Best

Number One Question Your Real Estate Agent Should Ask The Short Sale Agent

We’ve done videos  for sellers to interview short sale specialist before, trying to teach people to actually ask questions like “How many short sales have you closed and represented the seller?”  Of course, the tough part is to get the seller to actually interview the agents.  I think that if the home seller of a short sale actually interview the agents they hired then at least 25% of the short sales would be closed by different agents.  (I’m trying to account for slick agents that can answer tough questions even though they have no business doing short sales).  This makes your job as the buyer 10 times harder, because your agent (hopefully the Jarvis Team!) has to prequalify all the seller’s listing agents on every home.

So what’s the “Number One Question Your Real Estate Agent Should Ask The Short Sale Agent”

Contact us today to have us represent you in your purchase!

- brought to you by: GA Homes Digest - Atlanta Real Estate At It's Best