Archive for the 'Buyers' Category
Easy Search for Alpharetta Homes by Neighborhood
categories: Alpharetta Real Estate, Buyers, Stuff I like to talk about
A few days back, a reader of this blog suggested that a search feature he liked was the ability to quickly find homes by neighborhood.
He specifically mentioned that the Coldwell Banker Atlanta website has good capability for this with an implementation that allows you to simply switch the name of the neighborhood you are interested in by editing the url.
To satisfy this reader and not to be out done, I wanted to make sure that he understood the search engine I use can search by neighborhood, too - and give you some additional capabilities to add search criteria. To check out this solution, go to this page:
Search for Alpharetta Homes by Neighborhood - With Bells and Whistles
If you are a power user and want a really simple implementation like Coldwell’s, I built a Quick and Easy Home Search by Neighborhood page. To try that, go to the Quick and Basic search below. This search defaults to the Crooked Creek subdivision. To search other subdivions, just edit the url for the subdivion you want.
The advantage of using the Bells and Whistles search is that you don’t have to know the exact name used in the MLS for the subdivision because you can pick from a list. With the Quick and Basic search you have to know (or guess) the name. Some subdivision names can be tricky, like Atlanta National. Is it called Atlanta National, Providence at Atlanta National, Providence @ Atlanta Nat’l, Providence @ ATL National? I’ve seen all these derivations because the MLS does not normalize the subdivision names. In that case it is best to consult me directly because I do have the ability to do "wild card" searches directly on the MLS to minimize this problem.
Search for Alpharetta Homes by Neighborhood - Quick and Basic
I appreciate the suggestions and feeback as I’m always trying to make searching for homes online more efficient, powerful and easy, which are sometimes opposing objectives. For instance, I was one of the first realtors in Georgia who implemented map-based searching for homes, which I still maintain is one of the best ways to search for real estate online, particularly with $4/gallon gasoline.
Try it out and let me know what you think and what else I can build to make it better for you.
PS: if you are not already registered on my site, it is FREE but you will have to quickly register to use the search features. Sorry, that is just a policy I implemented years ago that has proven to work well so far.
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently No Comments »
Mystery Million-Dollar House in Milton reduced $200k
categories: Buyers, Luxury Homes, Milton Real Estate
I don’t get it: the listing broker told the agent managing this house not to blog about it. Why not? Are they afraid the additional exposure might actually cause a buyer to step forward? I suspect that they are still just stuck in a pre-Internet mindset and don’t appreciate the power of the new media. Or, maybe they do appreciate the power and they fear it. None the less, I have decided to exercise my constitutional right to blog about it anyway. I don’t believe I’m breaking any laws here; just try to help my readers and sell some real estate!
I’m not going to do full disclosure on the house mainly because I was told not to blog about it, but I am going to give you enough information so that if you are interested you can (1) figure it out based on my clues; or (2), just contact me and I tell you.
First off, the house -shown distorted on the right so as to protect its identity ;-> - has been reduced by $200,000, which is what caught my eye. On June 30, they reduced the price to $1.150 million dollars. They started on the market last September at $1.348M.
But even before this last price reduction, I thought the house offered the most value in that neighborhood, which has two words in its name, one of which is the name of a local community and the other that rhymes with what many people thought that Richard Nixon was.
Frankly, it is a killer house. Tons of space (8,000 heated square feet), trim, light fixtures, five stacked stone fireplaces, decked out gentlemen’s study, 4-car garage, outdoor covered porch and fireplace, six bedrooms and six baths … I could go on but the house rocks. Argh! My kids’ vocabulary is rubbing off on me!
Did I mention gated-community? That is a big clue!
The same floorplan - with a slightly different elevation - sold last year for $1,234,500 and had been listed for $1.3M, so the price on this house purely represents the motivation of the builder to get it sold in this market, not the cost or potential value of the house in the grand scheme of things. The house is actually advertised at "below builder’s cost," and while I’m never quite sure of the builder’s actual brick and mortar costs, this house does represent a very good opportunity for someone looking for a discounted million dollar real estate.
Did you figure out where it is?
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently No Comments »
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 »
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