Tim's Atlanta Real Estate Blog: July 2008

Google recently revamped their keyword search tool and it is so much better than it used to be.  I used to love using the Overture keyword tool but they've discontinued it.  The Google Keyword tool used to just give graphs showing relative search volumes.  Now it gives specific numbers.

Some big Internet marketing gurus seem to think it's a big deal from what they've posted on some of their forums and blogs.

Play around with it and learn the details.  It will be well worth your time.  One big thing that I noticed is that it now shows plurals along with singulars. 

Here is something that caught my eye:

Atlanta realtor:  6,600
Atlanta realtors: 90,500

But look at:

Atlanta real estate agent:  74,000
Atlanta real estate agents: 9,900

So more people are searching for the plural "realtors" while more are searching for a single real estate "agent".  I wonder why that is?

If this is true, one might want to optimize for "realtors" and "real estate agent" vs. their singular or plural.

This is a really fun tool to play around with.  I'm going to spend endless hours messing around with it.

One thing that blows me away is that it says that the average monthly search volume over the past year for the term "Maitski" was 140.  I'm very curious as to who is doing those searches.

Here's a seller's dilemma, especially with a vacant home.  Do I save on energy and lower my carbon footprint and not run the AC very much  or do I keep it extra cool in order to impress potential buyers?

I've been showing a lot of homes recently, many of them have been vacant.  In the middle of summer, a home without air conditioning is really tough to stay in for more than a few minutes. What a relief it is to then step into a home that has the AC all the way down to 72 degrees.

Sometimes people go half way and keep it around 80 degrees.  Many buyers will think the worst case scenario and just assume the the AC is old and not working well.  Right away they begin thinking about how much it's going to cost to replace. 

If I'm selling a home in the summer, the first thing I would do is get my HVAC guy out there to make sure my AC is working really well.  You don't want an inspector to put any doubts into the buyer's head about the possibility that the AC unit is on it's last legs.  Get it in tip top shape and then keep it noticiably cold.  Make sure people notice how well it's working.

You also might want to keep some cold water in ther refrigerator with a note on the outside telling people to help themselves.  Shoot, while you're at it, welcome them to take an ice cold beer while they are there.  This will keep them in the house longer and make them feel at home.  They might then remember your home as the "beer home".  How cool is that?  Hopefully then when they are home and they crack open a beer while they are deciding on which home they might want to pursue, it will trigger the memories of your home.

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words.  When I get asked about Atlanta real estate prices, I pull out this graph and let it speak for me.

Click on the image to see a large image.  It shows home prices in 20 metro areas from 2000-2008. 

Atlanta is the fourth line from the bottom.  It's one of the very flat lines.  What didn't go up much, probably won't fall much.

I used to envy the people I met from Miami. Their homes had appreciated so much.  Now I count my blessings that Atlanta got bypassed by the real estate bubble that is now being deflated in many areas across the US.

I've been experiencing the joys of helping people try to buy foreclosure deals.  Having utilities on for inspections has never been a big deal.  I've never really had to bother too much about it.  The sellers just took care of it and I never really got involved.

This week I learned that when the power is turned off for an extended length of time, it can be complicated and costly to get the power back on in order to do an inspection. 

I'm seeing more and more bank foreclosures state upfront in their special addendum that they will not be responsible for getting utilities turned on in order for the buyer to do their inspections.  This week I had one where they also only allowed a 7 day inspection period along with not having the utilities on.  Of course, they will not allow any changes to their sacred special addendum.  You either find a way to deal with it or you move on.

Before moving forward with this deal, I tried to figure out if it was possible to get the utilities turned on and get the inspections done within a seven day time period. It was a real learning experience.

Electric companies will actually remove the electric meter at the house after a certain period after termination of service. 

• Before they will put it back and turn on the power, they need to have a county inspector give them the OK. 
• Before the county inspector will go inspect the meter post and give the utility the OK, someone has to pay a permit fee. 
• If you are not the owner of the property, you need to have a licensed electrician go to the county and pull a permit for you. 
• Since the electrician will be liable if the house burns down due to an electrical malfunction, the electrician will insist on doing a full electrical inspection.  
• In order to do an electrical inspection, they will need to bring a portable generator out to the house in order to test the wiring system.  Sounds expensive, doesn't it?

Of course, the electric company will charge a connection fee because they have to send someone out to install a new meter.  They also will need to run a credit check  on you to determine how much of a deposit they will require from you.  With bad credit, you might have to give then a $300 deposit in the form of a certified check.

All these costs add up very quickly.  It might cost $300 for the electrical inspection, $200 for the electrician to pull the permit, $75 for the actual permit fee, $40 for the electric company hook up fee.

All this just for the opportunity to do a regular inspection. There's a good chance that there will be a deal breaker of a problem that the bank will not even deal with.

The water isn't that complicated but there's a high probability that before the water will be turned on, any unpaid water bill will have to be paid by someone.  The home I checked this week had a unpaid water bill of $590.32.  This home happened to have some water stains in the ceiling below a bathroom.  Without the water being turned on, there's no way of telling whether the stains  were from active leaks or from some past accident that has been corrected. 

After spending the afternoon doing this detective work, my buyer decided to pass on the opportunity.  It's a shame because it looked like a great deal. It was a $280,000 home selling for $225,000.