Tim's Atlanta Real Estate Blog: November 2006

I keep hearing about all of the gloom and doom on the TV and radio.  I hear many agents in my office complaining about their listings not being shown.  But in the last month, we've had 3 buyers get beat out of homes by competing offers.  All of them were in no rush because they thought it was a buyer's market and they were in complete control.  All three of them waited just a bit too long and allowed someone else to come in a buy it. 

I've been also getting email inquiries on homes and then finding out they are under contract.  I have a feeling that the market is turning back up.  Interest rates are down, the stock market is up, the Democrats don't seem like they will do too much damage. 

The negative for the Atlanta market is the huge number of foreclosures.  There's been about 4000/month in the Atlanta area over the past few months.  That's a lot of inventory and banks are going to be pressures to start dumping some of them to get their ratios in line.

Also, if the other bubble markets get worse, people moving here from California and Florida will be delayed until their homes sell.  If they have to sell at a lower price, they'll have to settle on a lower priced home here. I have a few clients in that situation. 

A bad C.L.U.E. report can really mess up a transaction.  Imagine this.  A week before closing, your buyer tries to get home owner's insurance.  The seller has only lived there for 2 years and nothing was mentioned to him when he bought it about some water damage claims the previous owner had 5 years ago.  Just like points get posted to your driving record, insurance companies have a shared database where they make notes of all the claims filed on a property address.   Some insurance companies will not even sell you a policy if there has been any sort of water related claims on a property.  They have taken too many losses for black mold.  The standard contract in Georgia doesn't have any contingency in it about getting insurance at a certain price or getting insurance at all. 

 A home seller can obtain a free report every year or buy one for $19.95.  Choice Point is the company that has this database.  But only the home owner can order one.  So as a buyer, you need to write in a special stipulation requesting that the seller provide you with one.  If they refuse, that should be a red flag that something isn't right.  Or I guess one could make it contingent on the buyer being able to get insurance at standard rates. I would coach the buyer to look into getting the insurance set up as quickly as possible before too many other things start moving along.

Here's an extensive article with everything you ever wanted to know about CLUE Reports. 

Tim Maitski
Atlanta real estate
Atlanta real estate agent

Do you ever have a client who refers to areas using zip codes.  I know the zip code that I live in but I surely don't have any idea exactly where the boundaries are let alone the boundaries of any other zip code.  I found a great site where you type in a zip code and you get a Google map that has a zip code boundary overlay on it.  You can zoom in to street level. It's your typical Google map. Here's the link to the zip code map.

This should help a home buyer when using various home search tools or help them define a targetted home search. Many times searching on city names doesn't give you a well defined area as zip codes do.

 Whoever made this tool, thank you very much. It brings me a little joy every time I use it.

Tim Maitski
Atlanta real estate
Atlanta real estate agent

The late Milton Friedman popularized the expression "There's no such thing as a  free lunch".  By listening to some very popular radio ads by an Atlanta mortgage company you would think that anyone who willingly pays closing costs for a mortgage is either an idoit or is being ripped off.  This guy doesn't charge any closing costs.  His mortgages are "free". That guy has to be making a lot of money to pay for all those radio ads.  So where does he make money if he doesn't charge closing costs?

 Instead of charging closing costs to fund his company, he sells mortgages with higher interest rates that banks will pay a premium for.   It's nothing  special that no one else can do.  Ask any loan officer to quote you a no closing cost mortgage.  They all can. 

The question you have to ask is which scenario is most beneficial to you.  If you are going to stay in your home for less than three years then usually a no closing cost loan is better.  You'll pay extra every month because of the higher interest rate but it will take about 3 years for those higher payments  to add up to the savings in closing costs.

If you plan on staying in your home for over 3 years then it's usually better to pay closing costs up front in exchange for a lower interest rate over the life of the loan.

Closing costs aren't a rip off.  The rip off is a lender that only tells you part of the story to make you feel that you are getting a great bargain when in fact it might really be something that will cost you a lot over time.

I sell a lot of Atlanta real estate and have dealt with a lot of mortgage companies.  My advice would be to seek a loan officer that will give you some straight advice on what all your options are so that you can pick the one that's right for your situation.

 Tim Maitski
Atlanta Real Estate Agent

I never thought of Atlanta as a place that someone would want to retire to.  But in the last two years I've been working with more and more people coming from California, Arizona and Florida who are finding Atlanta as a great place to retire.  Most are impressed with the type of home that they can buy in the outer suburbs such as Forsyth county.  They don't have to commute so the traffic isn't a big deal.  There are some really nice golf club communities and the Mall of Georgia and North Point Mall are pretty close by.

The biggest incentive is the low property taxes.  In Forsyth county, you don't pay school taxes if you are over 65 years of age.  That is huge.  A $700,000 home would have property taxes of less than $1000 per year! 

I was working with a couple from Florida where taxes for a $700,000 are $15,000 and home insurance was an additional $15,000/year.  They couldn't believe how cheap it was going to be for them in Forsyth county.

 Cobb county also has a great tax break for seniors.

Tim Maitski
RE/MAX Greater Atlanta
404-216-0472
Atlanta real estate
Atlanta Realtor