Archive for the 'Buyers' Category
Image and Attitude Adjustment for Realtors | Confronting the Implied Accusation
categories: Buyers, Self Promotion, Stuff I like to talk about
One of the things I like least about being a Realtor is the negative stereotypes that the profession has. Heck, I even had them and still have them to a degree. My wife certainly has them, as she starts too many sentences with "I’m not talking about you, but Realtors … "
Greg Swann at Bloodhound Blog tackles the problem of Realtors’ bad image and attitude head on. (Make sure you read to the part where he discusses The Implied Accusation.
Greg says it much better than I ever could, but I’ve definitely thought and felt it.
Here is The Implied Accusation in real estate: “Realtors are stupid.” “Realtors
are corrupt.” “Realtors are lazy.” “Realtors are self-serving.” “Realtors will
say anything to make a deal.” These ideas are epidemic, a cultural undercurrent.You know these charges are untrue, but what do you do about them? To leave The
Implied Accusation unnamed, unaddressed is to seem to confess to it, or at least
to plead no contest. Your clients begin their relationship with you with
unstated doubts about your integrity, and you hope to counter those attitudes by
your behavior.
I know for a fact that I have saved more clients more money and put more deals together for them that would not have otherwise have happened than I have probably earned in commission. I will state for sure that my perception of a competent Realtor has definitely changed since I became one: I have much more respect for the goods ones and much less respect for the not-so-good, which there are still far too many of.
It also reminds me of speaking with a man recently who mentioned that he had had very little respect for Realtors until his wife became one and he saw just how much time, work and expertise in negotiations it took to get a deal done…and "she was on the phone all the time." Not to mention that Realtors don’t get paid unless the deal closes, so unfortunately sometimes you work for free.
I’ll also add one more to Greg’s list or implied accusations: Realtors are technologically incompetent.
I became a Realtor to make a living, first, but also to provide clients what I thought was missing in the market: Real estate consultation that was professional, informed and used technology to make the process of buying and selling easier and more efficient.
I believe that the real estate market is changing both with the advances in technology and the downturn in the market driving the "old guard" out. We still have some reputation repair to do and it is to our advantage to address head on what so many people think about Realtors but won’t say to your face.
Buying and selling a home is a major deal; you want to make sure you don’t make a mistake, particularly when moving from out of town and you don’t know the area very well. I have potential clients ask to speak with my references, which is fine, but I’d rather kick the Implied Accusation in the teeth right up front, so make sure you read Greg’s post. Now if we make any accusations, they won’t be implied anymore and easier to deal with.
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently 2 Comments »
FHA Loan Opportunities for Alpharetta Home Buyers | 100% Financing is Still Available
I wanted to make a quick post regarding a subject near and dear to many of you, and one that has in the past, sent shivers down your spine. Yes, I am alluding to the infamous FHA loan. With the tightening credit market and many of the true 100% loans gone by the wayside, more and more borrowers are turning to the FHA loan as a way to get into their new home.
But don’t let these deals scare you!
- Most lenders have beefed up their FHA underwriting staff. We can close most FHA loans in 5-10 business days;
- Loan limits in the metro area are as high as $346K;
- The 3% down payment requirement still can come from a gift or a down payment assistance program for the 100% loans;
- Seller contributions on FHA can go as high as 6% of the sales price;
- The Monthly Mortgage insurance cost about 30% less than conventional loans;
- Rates are excellent with yesterday’s 30 year fixed around 5.75% for the 30 year.
FHA loans are great for first time home buyers. We have at least 10 lenders who offer FHA loans. If you have ANY questions regarding FHA procedures or policies, please drop me an email. With the market bottoming out, don’t let financing be a problem in achieving your home ownership goals.
Ted Fithian, Home Town Mortgage
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently 1 Comment »
Searching Online for a Home in Alpharetta? What Would You Like Your Search Engine to Do?
categories: Buyers, Stuff I like to talk about
I was online last night looking at various home search websites, comparing and contrasting and trying to determine what works best. I stumbled upon the Real Estate Book and while it is not that different than any other online home search engine it has some nice features.
You can search for foreclosures (there is an integration with RealtyTrac) and you can search for "new listings," although it doesn’t tell you how new. What would you like in a search engine that you haven’t been able to find to date?
I’m not exactly sure where The Real Estate Book is getting its listing data. However, it provides a database of over over 400,000 homes for sale in the US, which is an over kill for me but I guess if you want to price things around the country it could be useful. It is showing 654 listings for Alpharetta homes for sale.
I picked a larger city for my area, Atlanta homes for sale, and it allowed me to check other nearby towns by hovering my mouse over the city tags. For example there are 356 homes for sale in Roswell. However, it didn’t allow me to select cities like Johns Creek or Milton from the list. I know these cities are new, but I think what we have is a generic solution built for Anywhere, USA and it fails to understand the local housing landscape and political boundaries. Guess you have to rely on me for that ;-> and perhaps a more local solution.
Unbelievably, there seem to be lots of people who are not using the Internet as the Free Real Estate Book magazine still has a distribution of over 8.5 million copies. This is the same Real Estate Book that all the agents in my office used to advertise in religiously but which I haven’t heard a whisper of in a loooooooong time. It looks like they are switching their strategy to online. Duh.
Please let me know which are your favorite online home search engines. I’m always looking for ways to improve the way people can search for homes and my own website search engine. Remember, one of my latest projects is working with the guys at softrealty.com on their new search engine. It is still in beta but has a lot of promise.
Let me know what you’d like to be able to do, but have a hard time doing currently when searching for a home online. What would be your killer application?
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently 5 Comments »
Examples of Brick and Stone Architecture in Alpharetta Real Estate
categories: Buyers, Luxury Homes
I’ve received a lot of questions and interest in these pictures that I innocently posted months ago, so I thought that I’d repost them this time using Next Generation Gallery and Piclens so that you can view them more easily. If you don’t have piclens, GET IT!
Stone and Brick elevations on homes are increasingly popular in Alpharetta and the surrounding areas. While I like a lot of the stone and brick combinations, I also think that it is the cedar timbers that make the whole thing come together.
Of corse, it is also possible to make some terrible mistakes when combining brick with stone…it can be like wearing stripes and plaids together, and it is not like you can just change the paint color if you don’t like the look. I should start taking pictures of the bad combinations, too! Ah, another project…
I took these pictures at The River Club, which is technically not in Alpharetta, but just over the Chattahoochee River in Gwinnett County. None the less, they are representative of this style of home being built today in Atlanta and the northern suburbs.
PS: These houses are all a million dollar and up. However, you can find brick and stone homes for a lot less if you like the style but don’t like the price ;-> Just call me and I can tell you where to look depending on your price preference.
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently No Comments »
Pictures of Estate Home in East Cherokee | The Shoals at Arbor Creek
categories: Buyers, Cherokee County, Photography
This is a gallery of pictures I recently took of a million-dollar home in The Shoals at Arbor Creek, Cherokee County, GA.
This home was custom-built by Chatham, is on over an acre and features many upgrades.
I wanted to show you these pictures, not only to interest you in the home, which is for sale, by the way, but not on the "open market," but also to give you the experience of viewing the pictures with piclens.
If you don’t already have it, get the piclens viewer from www.piclens.com; that way you’ll get the full experience of viewing these photos on a 3D "wall of photos." Then make sure to click on the View Awesome 3D Slideshow link below the pictures below. [Note: If you don't get the piclens viewer, you can still view the photos, you just won't get the full effect.]
I believe that piclens is the future of viewing photos on the web and how every home should be displayed and marketed. Let me know your thoughts about it by leaving a comment: Were you able to get it to work? Was it easier and better than traditional methods.
PS: I want to give a tip of the hat to Shack Dougall for writing the piclens plus plug-in for WordPress and for helping modify it to perform for my purposes. I couldn’t give you this functionality without Shack’s help. Thanks, Shack.
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently No Comments »
Market Indicator: Bowen Homes Sells 12 in 14 days
categories: Buyers, Forsyth, Local Market Conditions
With so much doom and gloom in the real estate market, I thought that I’d share some market news that I got from none other source than my barber. Hey, barbers know what is going on around town.
Bowen Family Homes has sold 12 new homes in their Stonehaven subdivision in South Forsyth in the last two weeks.
The neighborhood will ultimately have about 500 homes in the $200’s and has a 10-acre recreation area. There are currently about 300 homes built.
I suspect that a lot of these buyers are first time buyers taking advantage of low interest rates and not having to sell a home before they buy.
Just wanted to let you know that it is not all doom and gloom in the Alpharetta (and Cumming) real estate market.
Now, if you need the best haircut in Alpharetta, go to Gino and Jacksons at Hwy 9 and Windward Parkway next to La Parrilla.
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently No Comments »
New Tool from SoftRealty for Searching Alpharetta, Roswell, Milton & Johns Creek Real Estate
categories: Alpharetta Real Estate, Buyers, Real Estate Industry, Schools
The world of Real Estate Search is changing. Two years ago, I was one of the very first Realtors in Georgia to offer my website users a map-based search engine.
People flocked to it. It was cutting edge at the time - and still remains the best way to search for homes online - but it is time to introduce more and better search features.
Therefore, today, I’ve started offering my website users the option of using a new search tool from an Atlanta-based company named Soft Realty.
Click on the picture above to try a sample search or CLICK HERE to go directly to a search for Alpharetta Real Estate between $300k and $800k.
I need your feedback regarding how you like it - particularly compared to what I already have, which is pretty good, I think.
The new solution has some advantages for me, namely that it is free, as its revenue model is ad-based. (The solution is still in beta and no ads are showing yet, but would you mind if they were? It would be like Zillow or Realtor dot com, that both have ads.)
For you the advantages are more features. The current beta solution doesn’t have all the features yet, but from what I’ve seen so far, the promise of better usability and fuller features for you, the real estate searching public, is just around the corner.
As a real estate agent, I must use a third-party vendor to provide the home search feature for web clients. There are only a handful of such providers to choose from and most of them offer solutions that are woefully inadequate. These vendors are catering to the lowest common denominator, and I don’t want to be the LCD.
I don’t want you, my client, to have to settle for average when we have so many ideas to make home searching better and easier. Getting someone to implement them is the hard part; if we were allowed to do it ourselves, believe me we would.
For instance, my existing solution does not allow you to view all homes in a specified school’s attendance zone, if you can believe that. With Soft Realty, I can do this as basic functionality.
Basic Searchs for Alpharetta Homes by School Attendance Zone
For example, CLICK HERE to see all homes for sale in the Crabapple Crossing Elementary attendance zone (there are 94 as of today); or CLICK HERE to see all homes for sale in the Alpharetta High School attendance zone (there are 245 as of today).
My hope is that the Soft Realty solution will allow us to implement more of the features we know that you want and differentiate our search solution from the lowest common denominator agents.
For now, there is no registration required to use the solution. I won’t know who or if you are trying it, so I’ll rely on you to contact me if (1) you like the solution and/or have some feedback; and (2), if you want to see any of the houses in person.
After all, that is the primary purpose of online search: To find houses to actually go view. So, when you are ready, please reach out to me - you might consider leaving a comment to this post - and let’s not be the lowest common denominator together.
Happy searching.
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently 3 Comments »
Buyer Beware! Sellers of Alpharetta Real Estate Don’t Need to Disclose Potato-Throwing Neighbors
categories: Alpharetta Real Estate, Buyers
There is an attention grabbing real estate case going on in Phoenix where a new home buyer is suing the seller for not disclosing that the neighbor is a dingbat.
Stories of crazy neighbors are fairly commonplace - and funny, like this Utah resident shown in the picture giving his neighbor the finger with his exterior modifications.
What makes the Phoenix case stand out from the crowd is that the neighbor in question is a little crazier than usual: she’s been arrested for throwing potatoes at the dog, has answered the door with a shotgun in hand, place 701 calls to 911-emergency herself in one year alone and can be often found barefoot in the street talking to herself. She has lived there for 23 years.
The new buyer is now suing because he feels the seller should have disclosed the nuisance. The seller is claiming the buyer just has buyer’s remorse and wants out - the property has dropped about $35k in value due to the market.
Arizona’s property disclosure has an item asking whether the seller is aware of any neighborhood noise or nuisance and the seller either left it unanswered or checked "no," I’m not sure. None the less, the buyer feels deceived and the seller feels relieved.
What makes matters even more interesting is that both parties are realtors. The seller is COO of Realty Executives and the buyer a commercial real estate broker. These guys should know better, you’d think.
Observers are anxious to see how the courts rule in this case. As it was put in the Phoenix New Times: Should the seller be required to diagnose the neighbor’s mental health?
Is this any different than having to disclose that a sex offender lives next door, which you do NOT have to do in Georgia?
If a seller has to disclose this, does the neighbor have the right to effectively devalue the seller’s property by their mere presence and peculiarities?
Buyer Beware in Georgia
You’re not likely to find a case like this in Georgia. First of all, Georgia is a Buyer Beware state, which means it is the buyer’s responsibility to check out any problems with the property, neighborhood or surrounding area. Post closing, the seller is not responsible for anything you discover on your own.
Furthermore, the Georgia Purchase and Sale Agreement clearly stipulates that it is the buyer’s duty to inspect the neighborhood:
Buyer acknowledges that: (1) in every neighborhood there are conditions which different buyers may find objectionable and (2) Buyer has had the full opportunity to become acquainted with all existing neighborhood conditions (and proposed changes thereto) which could affect the Property including without limitation land-fills, quarries, high-voltage power lines, cemeteries, airports, prisons, stadiums, odor and/or noise producing land uses, crime, schools serving the Property, political jurisdictional maps and land use and transportation maps and plans. It shall be Buyer’s sole duty to become familiar with neighborhood conditions of concern to Buyer. If Buyer is concerned about the possibility of a registered sex offender residing in a neighborhood in which Buyer is interested, Buyer should review the Georgia Violent Sex Offender Registry available on the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Website at www.state.ga.us/gbi/disclaim.html
Residential real estate in Georgia is purchased with a Due Diligence period of usually 10-14 days when the buyer can inspect and do any other sort of investigation that they may wish and have the option to cancel the contract up to the end of the diligence period.
Assaying the neighborhood is perhaps the hardest thing to do in the process. All the better reason to have a local expert as your buyer’s agent to steer you clear of troubled situations.
What I recommend to my clients is to check out the neighborhood at different times of the day, specifically when the school bus drops off in the afternoon and on Saturdays. Most families are curious to know how many other kids there kids’ age are in the neighborhood. The school bus is a good indicator and you’ll also likely see other parents and have a chance to strike up a conversation. Just make sure they don’t think you are stalking the children getting off the bus!
Visit the neighborhood at night to see how dark or quiet or loud or busy it is.
I also suggest that clients "do the commute" from the proposed new home. Actually do the drive at the same time you would normally leave to get an idea of how long it will take should you buy that house.
Shop at the local grocery store if you want or have dinner at a local restaurant.
You can also knock on the neighbor’s door and actually introduce yourself and interview your potential neighbors. Remember, they are interviewing you, too, and are often as anxious about who their new neighbors might be as you are about who yours might be.
Additionally, there is a new website called Rotten Neighbor you can go to check out, but there are no rotten neighbors currently posted for Alpharetta, GA. Now that is certainly not the case; I’ve personal testimony to the contrary!
Finally, there’s Google. No one can hide from Google. Do a tax records search on the neighboring properties, or have your Realtor do it. Get the owners’ names and Google them. You might just find where your future neighbor works, went to school, all sorts of interesting tidbits.
And remember, good fences make good neighbors.
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently 3 Comments »
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