Archive for the 'Photography' Category
Cornucopia of Alpharetta Fall Real Estate News
categories: Alpharetta Real Estate, Announcements, Foreclosures, Local Market Conditions, Lots, Luxury Homes, Photography
ALPHARETTA - Nothing symbolizes November any better than the cornucopia and the turkey. And since I am "theme challenged" today, I thought that I’d just throw all the random thoughts that are bouncing around in my head into one big cornucopia of a post. So forgive the scatter-brainedness of this post, here’s my cornucopia of thoughts:
Wild Turkey Spotted in Windward Parking Lot
Since it is November, let’s start with the turkey. Believe it or not, I actually saw a real, live wild turkey walking across the parking lot near Windward Parkway and Northpoint Parkway the other day. Don’t believe me? I have proof!
I grabbed my camera before she pranced away. Here she is as she goes in front of my car; she was headed east towards the dining room tables of Windward!
The Price of Education
Fulton County Schools reportedly paid $318,000 per acre for the 64-acre site for a new high school site on Cogburn Road. This land was purchased from Chatham home builders who had purchased it a year or so ago for a residential development. At that time, Chatham paid a reported $204,000 per acre and since that time had done site planning and grading and installed streets and gutters, all of which will likely be torn out when a new school is built. Apparently the school board is still exploring ways to gain direct access to Highway 9 from the new site.
New Amenities Underway at Crooked Creek
Crooked Creek obtained financing for its amenity renovation. I’m told that progress is commencing on the $4M project that will include two new pools, eleven tennis courts, a playground and clubhouse. No further word on whether Crooked Creek will be able to gate the neighborhood. Would love to hear from some Crooked Creek residents on this one. Please comment to this post if you would.
Two Home Starts in Lake Haven
Two custom homes are currently in the process of being built in Lake Haven. One should be finished by the end of the year. These are the first two and are being built by Southern Home Properties , the same company who built Lochstone Manor , on Doris Road.
There are 58 one and two-acre lots remaining. Reportedly the commencement of construction has brought about a lot of renewed activity in Lake Haven, although no further purchases yet. All in good time… Lake Haven has the potential to be a very special place to live.
White Columns Foreclosure Sells
OK, not THAT foreclosure , that I’ve been talking about incessantly. The other one. 715 Scarlet Oak Trail, is the big brick house in the cul-de-sac with a finished basement that included two full baths and a second kitchen. It was listed at $515,000, reduced to $489,000 and sold for $469,000 in 133 days. That is a ton of heated square footage for the dollar and the house required only minimal repairs.
Foreclosure Sales Statistics
The National Association of Realtors has reported in August that nationally 35-40% of all homes sales are foreclosure properties. I read elsewhere that 42% of all September sales were foreclosures. NPR reported this week that we can expect 5-7 million more foreclosures ! Certainly I can’t dispute the widespread interest in foreclosures; I’m getting a ton of inquires myself regarding foreclosures in Alpharetta.
That got me to thinking: What percentage of our sales in North Fulton since January 1, 2008 have been foreclosures? A quick scrub of the data shows that 11% of sales were technically foreclosures - owned by the lender. It also means that they were properly identified in FMLS as foreclosure properties. This does not include short sales or "pre-foreclosures" as they are called.
So, if 11% of sales are foreclosures (and I would argue that this is the most competitive part of the market), what percentage of active listings are identified as foreclosures? The envelop please: 4% in North Fulton (Alpharetta, Roswell, Milton and Johns Creek). This says that a foreclosure is about three times more likely to sell than a non-foreclosure.
Good Bye Reading Tree
I’m sorry that downtown Alpharetta was not able to support the Reading Tree bookstore , which recently closed. It lasted about a year and a half. It is tough being a retail business in downtown Alpharetta; the area seems better suited for small service-based businesses that don’t require retail traffic.
The good news if you are a bibliophile, though, is that the library referendum passed so we will someday get a better library in Alpharetta, one that befits a city of our quality. Just make sure you continue to oppose the political trophy called the central downtown Atlanta library and keep the funds flowing out to the suburbs where the readers are.
One Last Salute to Fall Colors in Milton
I had posted a nice Fall photograph the other day and thought I’d publish just one more if you’ll indulge me. I’m a sucker for the Chamber of Commerce picture in the Fall. The light and color is just too good to not get out of the car and take the picture.
The last one was in a residential area of Crabapple. This one is a little further north in Milton off Benthany Bend road. The area is decidely more rural. I hope this captures the flavor a little bit. I sometimes post my pictures to Google Earth Panaramio, too, so as to not bore you too much here.
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently 4 Comments »
Birmingham Elementary Walls Start to Go Up and Septic Closed
categories: Photography, Schools
MILTON - The work at Birmingham Elementary is continuing and I’m continuing to chronicle it with my camera.
I took some more pictures, so for the latest GOTO THIS POST .
To see the entire photo gallery so far, GO HERE .
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 »
No Picture Available | How Not to Market a House for Sale
categories: Alpharetta Real Estate, Photography, Sellers, Stuff I like to talk about
No Picture Available. Like shown on the left, that is what is displayed in the MLS when, duh, the agent has not loaded any pictures.
Pictures increasingly tell the story in our visual age. That explains why home buyers who are browsing homes online are frustrated when they come across a listing with no pictures. Can the seller even be serious about selling if they don’t post a picture? Are they trying to hide something?
Would you be surprised if I told you that in February of this year, of the 65,663 Residential and Condominium properties listed in the Multiple Listing Service for the Atlanta metro area, 5,023 had no photos at all? On top of that, 11,474 only had one photo, when the MLS now allows you to post 12 photos per listing.
I’m not sure if it is malpractice or laziness, but it is unforgivable for a listing agent to not have at least half a dozen well-taken, well-lighted, well-cropped photos of the home they are marketing. And solid quality photography should not be reserved only for million-dollar homes. Digital photography is too inexpensive and easy to learn for every house for sale not to have a photo.
Additionally, the way that people and agents search for homes these days is with "saved searches." Buyers have predefined searches (if you want one, just contact me and I’ll set you up) that automatically notify them of new homes on the market that meet their criteria. If there is no photograph when that buyer gets the notification, that buyer is likely to never consider your home again. You missed your shot.
Photography is a mini-hobby of mine and I take pictures of all sorts of things besides houses, but I’m always looking for ways to take and display house pictures better. One of the coolest new tools I’ve found is piclens, and you can see an example here of some home photos I’ve taken of an awesome home for sale just north of Alpharetta in East Cherokee county.
As time permits, I’m also adding "face shots" of Alpharetta real estate to Zillow. I don’t sweat every detail of these photos, but do post them to Zillow so that people using that service from out of state and relocating to Alpharetta can get a better feel for what the properties look like. They might even call me when they are ready to move…if they like my style ;->
Lastly, I have a collection of what I call lazy realtor photos. I’m not sure if these are humorous or sad. For more on bad real estate photos, check out Athol Kay’s MLS Bad Photo of the Day. Athol has carved a name for himself in the real estate blog sphere just by cataloging other realtors’ photo atrocities.
My Collection of Atlanta Real Estate Photos by Lazy Agents
Agent is either too lazy to get out of the car or doesn’t know how to crop a photo.
This agent can get out of the car, but doesn’t know how to park on the street.
This agent was (too) short ;-> Nice roof, though.
This agent went to art school before real estate.
This agent can’t see the houses for the trees.
This agent was actually a fencing contractor!
So, which is worse, a bad picture or no picture at all? You should never have to find out.
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently 1 Comment »
