Atlanta Real Estate from the Trenches

The current real estate market reminds me a lot of the events surrounding the dot-com bust--and I'm not referring to the bubble/burst aspects of either scenario, because the truth is the real estate bubble was concentrated in certain key markets (as I've said before, Atlanta is not one of them). ...

I've been saying for months now that we as industry professionals along with the media are creating our own down market.  Everywhere I go I hear agents, mortgage brokers, and reporters talking about how bad the situation is.  Clearly the subprime mess has created a lot of problems, and SOME marke...

I've never seen such unrealistic buyer expectations as I've been seeing in the last few months.  I keep telling buyers who want a "good deal" that the best way to achieve that is to find a property that's already priced aggressively--not to make an offer at 70% of the asking price!  If sellers we...

My colleagues and I have been discussing the future of listings, given the proliferation of flat-fee companies (like Real Estate Revolution here in Atlanta), and one colleague noted that it seems we're seeing two distinct groups of sellers.  One group clearly recognizes the value of a full-servic...

Who could have imagined a year ago that we'd see properties for sale in up-and-coming communities for less than $100,000?  Certainly I would not have predicted it!  What's happening is that in many of these neighborhoods there is a vast value difference between an old, unrenovated home and one th...

I have a listing where I'm attempting to negotiate a short sale for my seller.  For those who don't know the term, it's simply a process whereby we attempt to get the bank to allow a sale at a price that's less than the loan balance (the bank typically forgives the rest).  Most banks would rather...

There are plenty of so-called "experts" flooding the blogosphere with their opinions of the real estate market.  So why add my two cents?  Well, most of those self-described sages sit in an office all day analyzing data points and looking at graphs.  I, on the other hand, actually SELL real estat...