Tim's Atlanta Real Estate Blog: July 2007

At the beginning of the year, the big scare was the subprime mortgage meltdown.  But many people downplayed that and said it was just a small piece of the market.  But Countrywide just came out with their most recent numbers and the numbers are looking pretty bad.  Delinquencies for prime home-equity loans shot up dramatically from 1.77% to 4.56%. 

The reason isn't because of interest rate increases either.  They attribute it to people losing their jobs.  This seems strange since the stock market is making new highs.  If business is really as good as the stock market might indicate, I would think that they would be hiring, not firing. 

I pasted the main parts below that I thought were the most interesting.  I haven't seen these problems in my small part of the world yet.  I hope this is just a small blip and nothing that continues to get worse.

Countrywide said 4.56 percent of its prime home-equity loanswere delinquent at the end of the quarter, up from 1.77 percent in the year-ago period. Some 23.71 percent of its subprime loans were delinquent, up from 15.33 percent.

The company said the delinquencies were not due to borrowers struggling with mortgage interest rate resets, as many had expected.

Instead, the delinquencies have been largely due to people losing their jobs or similar factors, the company said. Those homeowners have been unable to refinance because the value on their home has fallen and the credit crunch has cut off other borrowing options.

"We are experiencing home price depreciation almost like never before, with the exception of the Great Depression."

I found this email exchange to be pretty funny this morning.  It reminded me of the old Saturday Night Live with Gilda Radner doing the  Emily Litella bit where she rants and raves about something and then finds out that it is a bogus issue and then quietly says "Never mind".

I'm part of a Ron Paul Meet Up group and we're all on an email group.  There are about a hundred emails that go back and forth throughout the day. 

This is the message that made me laugh this morning.

Nevermind, sorry.  This account belongs to my friend who apparently was using my computer and didn't log out.  I thought this was my email account since it's my computer.

I apologize.

Joel

On 7/20/07, John <j******@gmail.com> wrote:

Take me the f**k off this list.  I never subscribed and therefore can't unsubscribe on the link below.

To whoever is running this, I will take legal action for invasion of privacy if you don't discontinue this spamming sh*t immediately.

........................

Even if he got on this list by mistake, firing back with that kind of language and showing such a temper is pretty stupid.  There's probably over 100 people who got his email this morning.  They are all thinking that Joel is a real hot head.   Wouldn't it be funny if Joel was a minister or judge or something.  Mild mannered on the outside but ready to fight at the drop of an unsolicited email.

I tell my eight year old son that before he hits his sister, he should stop and count to ten.  Before you hit send, count to ten.

Do you want to know what Google considers a synonym for, real estate, homes, MLS, and other terms?  If you knew what Google thought were similar terms, you'd be able to write more natural copywhile being certain that Google knew what your site was about.  There are only so many times you can stuff real estate and homes into your copy before it really sounds awkward.

The simple technique is to use the tilde sign (~) before the word that you are searching.  Do a Google search for "~real estate" or you might also do "~real~estate".  I'm not certain if the tilde needs to be before each word for a phrase.  Just try out both and look at the results.

Notice all the terms that Google has in boldfaced type.  These are words and phases that Google thinks are highly related to the specific term that you searched for.  I don't know for certain, but I would think that it would be good to use as many of these terms as possible if you want your article to be considered relevant for that word.  It also might be good to create specific pages that focus on some of these terms.

Here are the things I found as Google synonyms for the following terms:

Real estate

• homes for sale
• homes
• property
• MLS
• apartments
• realtor
• land for sale
• MLS#

Homes

• real estate
• rentals
• houses
• construction
• properties
• builders

MLS

• homes
• real estate
• multiple listing service
• major league soccer
• microwave limb sounder
• realtors
• homes for sale
• board of realtors
• master of library sciences
• marketing library services
• mass layoff statistics

Sell

• for sale
• auction
• used
• seller

buy

• purchase
• store
• shop
• price
• for sale

agent

• agency

realtor

• realty

real estate agent

• realtor
• land for sale
• property
• home
• MLS
• apartments

house

• floor
• home
• housing

Atlanta

• Atlantic

Most of the terms are obvious but using "land for sale" and "apartments"  in an article abour real estate agents might not be obvious.

The synonyms for MLS are kind of funny.  Does anyone know what a microwave limb sounder is?  I'm not sure if working that into your copy would be of any benefit.

I bought my Little Giant Ladder over 10 years ago and it brings joy to my life every time I use it.  After thinking about it, this ladder has a lot of qualities that I admire.  Some day I hope to be as good as my ladder.

• It's solid as a rock.  Even when it's extended to it's limits, it's very steady and allows me to reach things that I never thought possible. 
• It looks deceptively simple but can be used for a variety of tasks.
• Tough as nails.  After 10 years of stress and abuse, it hasn't broken down.
• It creates raving fans.  It is so awesome that people can't stop talking about it.
• It travels well.  It fits into most people's cars.
• It costs a little more than a generic ladder, but you have less chance of getting hurt.
• I trust it with my wife and kids.

Try staying steady at  the top step of an ordinary step ladder.  With my pole pruner, I'm cutting branches that are around 20 feet up.

If I put the ladder in a more vertical position, I can get to the top of two stories.

It condenses down to less than six feet tall.  It's easy to lend to others.

I use this as an example that some things are really as good "As seen on TV".   Click on that link and you'll see some amazing video demonstrations.  The ladder is every bit as good as they say it is. 

I'm thinking of giving these out as closing gifts.  Maybe I'll but a sticker on there with something like,"I'll be there when you are ready to make your next step up" or maybe "Take your next step up with the solid support of your REALTOR"

With all of the various things that someone could ask me about real estate, the question that I answer several times per week is "What does pending sale mean?"  I guess when I look at it with fresh eyes, it might not seem obvious.  So I thought I'd take the time to explain the terms that are used in the FMLS to indicate the sales status of a property in the Atlanta area.

1. Active: This means that it is available to be shown and the sellers haven't negotiated a contract with anyone.
   
    
2. Contingency Other:  This means that the sellers have a signed contract with a buyer but they have at least one item that the contract is contingent on, usually financing or inspection.  If those contingencies are met, the home will sell on the date specified.  There's always a chance that something will go wrong with the contingency and in that case it will probably go back to Active status.  Sometimes a seller will allow their home to be shown during this contingency period.  Sometimes they don't want to be hassled by any additional showings at this time.
   
   
3. Contingency with Kick-out:This means that they have a contingent contract(usually contingent on the buyer's home selling) on their home but the seller has retained the right to kick-out the buyer if another offer comes along that is more desirable to them.  Usually the buyer has negotiated a 24 or 48 hour window where they can remove their contingency and still remain in the contract.  Usually the seller is agreeable to having their home shown.  They usually want another buyer to come along who can purchase their home without it being contingent on the sale of another home.  If you are the other buyer, you won't know whether you have a deal until the kick-out period is over.
   
   
4. Pending Sale: This usually means that there is a contract on the house and there are no contingencies outstanding.  The buyer's financing is approved and the inspection has been done and repairs have been negotiated.  All that's left is for the closing attorney to put together all of the closing documents for the buyer and seller.  Usually very few transactions fall apart at this stage.  There might be a few sellers who will still allow their home to be shown and take a back up offer just in case.
   
   
5. Sold: This is just what it says.  The money has changed hands and the buyer is now the owner.  Sometimes it takes a few weeks for the MLS to change the status in the database.  Sometimes it takes a few months for the sales information to be recorded at the county courthouse.
   
   
6. Expired:  This means that the home was listed for a certain length of time(usually 90 days) and has failed to sell.  Many times the home will be re-listed, sometimes with a different agent and sometimes at a lower price. Some times these sellers are open to offers before they put their home on the market again.
   
   
7. Withdrawn:  This means that for some reason, the seller has taken their home off the market before the listing period has expired.  Sometimes people change their minds.  Many times something like a job transfer fails to materialize.
   

Until the home is sold, no one in their right mind will tell you what the negotiated price is.  If the deal falls apart, the seller doesn't want any other potential buyer to know how low they were willing to go on their previous offer.  That's usually the next question I get after I tell someone that the home is pending sale. Trust me, the listing agent will not tell me the price if I can them.

I live in a small subdivision in Sandy Springs, Princeton Square.   There are about 150 families, many with kids.  Every 4th of July they have a little breakfast party down by the pool club followed by a parade around the neighborhood.

The kids decorate their bikes, scooters and wagons trying to win prizes in the various categories.

I don't know who is responsible, but the Sandy Springs Fire Department sends out a firetruck that leads the parade around the neighborhood. 

After the parade, the firemen usually open up a hydrant and set up a huge geyser that is great fun for the kids.

Unfortunately, this year our area is experiencing a drought and there are strict watering restrictions in place.  The kids were pretty disappointed but had a blast just swimming in the pool instead.

I had a nice and relaxing fourth of July.  Hope you all did too.