Atlanta Buckhead Midtown: Visit BBT/SunTrust B4 Truist Merger 2/18-21/22 In Atlanta, Buckhead, Midtown, the Westside and all over the Southeast, big changes coming this weekend. Merger day is just over the horizon! Whether you bank with BB&T or with SunTrust, go and finish your banking needs before the end of business on Friday, February 18, 2022.  Whether you bank with BB&T or with SunTrust, go to your profile page online, double-check your Login Information: Record your Name and your Password!  To assist bank clients, TRUIST published a QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE.  Go to the QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE for help.  For SunTrust clients, a list of instructions appeared at Login this week: YOU WILL UPGRADE TO TRUIST OVER THE WEEKEND February 18-21, 2022​1.  ​At first login, you’ll enter your Usernam... 02/15/2022

Atlanta Buckhead Midtown: Georgia Power Outage Direct Notification Text In Atlanta, Buckhead, Midtown and the Westside, many trees shade our homes. When flying into Atlanta, the tree canopy resembles a beautiful lush living carpet of green. Yet many trees means many limbs may fall during or after storms and bring down power lines. Often Metro Atlanta suffers from power outages when receiving heavy rain for several hours. After the storm ends, the tree limbs are heavy with water. If that added weight faces a temperature drop below freezing and heavy winds, it is a limb-cracking combination.  Georgia Power instituted an OUTAGE ALERT via text for everyone's convenience. One may register with Georgia Power online and from there forward, the information travels smoothly. Or, from a mobile ph... 02/14/2022

Ask An Ambassador: Which CRM Is The ABSOLUTE Best One To Use?  In Atlanta, Buckhead, Midtown, Westside and all over Metro Atlanta and most probably in many other cities all across the USA, REALTORS and other professionals ponder that burning question.Everyone wants to know which Client Relationship Manageris the ABSOLUTE best to use. Here's the DEFINITIVE ANSWER: the one you use consistently!The beginning of every year gives us the chance to put our new plans to their paces. Whatever we decided to do at the end of the past year can happen now! Using a good Client Relationship Manager helps keep in touch with Clients all year long! FYI - We use Ixact Contact as our Client Relationship Manager (CRM).             Look in the AR Product Reviews  to review the different CRM programs.Links be... 02/11/2022

Ask An Ambassador: Tuesday Techie Tidbit - Indenting Copy The Easy Way  Goal for Tuesday Techie Tidbit - explain small short-cuts or techniques that make posting easier so ActiveRain Members may focus on content.More or less a photo explanation!Indenting selected copyWhy? Perhaps to emphasize words without underscore,  bold or CAPITALS. Also possible to indent when using Gmail and perhaps other email options. 1.  Type what you want to say. Hope this doesn't make you hungry!    2.  Locate the INDENT arrow above    3.  Highlight the copy to be indented.     4.  One click on indent and they move.     5.  Left - added bullets and ONE indent  |  Right - added bullets and TWO indents     The bullets change from a solid dot to a circle with the second indent!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~... 02/08/2022

Atlanta Buckhead Midtown: Street Racing - GSP Available Late at NightIn Atlanta, Buckhead Midtown and ALL OVER THE METRO ATLANTA AREA, illegal street racing events are causing havoc at major intersections.In addition to death and dismemberment, what consequences do these participants risk? In the City of Atlanta, just being a spectator is breaking the law. Spectator penalties include up to a $1000 fine and up to six months in jail. In 2021, APD issued 661 Citations for Spectators under the Street Racing Ordinance between January and September. The State of Georgia legislation against illegal street racing allows suspension of the Driver License for up to one year and a $5000 fine. A Buckhead neighbor spoke to the Georgia State Patrol (GSP) on February 7, 2022 and was kind enough to post... 02/07/2022

Atlanta Buckhead Midtown: #1 Strategy to Sales Success - Jill Konrath  In Atlanta, Buckhead, Midtown, the Westside and all over Metro Atlanta as well as the rest of the US right now, daily pressure for locating homes for Clients who want to buy and helping Clients who want to sell is astronomical.As REALTORS®, we have multi-layered jobs. We must know our product, know the process, know the way to successful contracts and, most of all, we must work with empathy for our Clients. We "serve" them to enjoy success together.Imagine refocusing - listen to Jill Konrath for less than two minutes and you will learn the first step! She has excellent advice for increasing productivity! Jill Konrath is a business-to-business (B2B) sales expert whose ideas and insights bolster careers and boost compa... 02/06/2022

Atlanta Buckhead Midtown: First-Time Buyers Are So Much Fun In Atlanta, Buckhead, Midtown, the Westside and all around Metro Atlanta, working with First-Time Buyers is so much fun! First-Time Buyers have unending numbers of questions and lots of enthusiasm. The best part is their eagerness to learn. I guess next would be their hope to exercise control on all the factors of their searches!I'd rate them the "Perfect 10" class of Clients.Curious - if you would be so kind to answer in the comments - what do you think is the MOST IMPORTANT first step to take with First-Time Buyers?What does Atlanta Homes ODAT Realty suggest?Most important first step for our company is that all Buyers pull their own Credit Reports and see if they agree with what they see there. Every state is different but he... 02/05/2022

Atlanta Buckhead Midtown: Buckhead City Talk - ATL Senate and HouseMap courtesy of Buckhead Community Improvement District (CID). My neighborhood - little dot in the left map. In Atlanta now, a group of people with real concerns about serious matters - crime and punishment for one and distribution of tax money for another - are trying to split the City of Atlanta in two pieces which they think will solve the issue. The effort is reminiscent of the story about the King's New Clothes.Where is Buckhead in relation to Atlanta? Map above.  The 'Buckhead' designation includes a coalition of 22+/- different neighborhoods at the north end of Atlanta. Midtown Atlanta thrived with neighborhood unity. Uniting to bolster up the area, the neighbors made it happen! In the 1970's, our family lived in ... 02/01/2022

Atlanta Buckhead Midtown: Atlanta Police Merge Doorbell Home Videos  In Atlanta Buckhead Midtown and the Westside, Home Doorbell Cameras record videos and connect owners to their homes whether the owners are at home or far away from their place of residence. Now, the Atlanta Police Department offers owners access to the FUSUS system. In their continuing effort to enhance public safety in neighborhoods throughout the City,  Atlanta Police Department allows the public to register and share at home camera footage of incidents, regardless of brand, with them at the APD.As well as residential home cameras, businesses also may integrate the footage from their cameras into FUSUS. Thus, in addition to collecting information, FUSUS can share information, providing complete inbound and outbound i... 01/31/2022

Atlanta Buckhead Midtown: IRS Asks For 2020 Returns To Be Sent Again  In Atlanta Buckhead, Midtown, the Westside and every other part of the USA, a letter from the IRS attracts attention.In January, people began receiving letters asking them to send their FULL DOCUMENTATION FOR THEIR 2020 INCOME TAX FORM 1040 again.WHY???Well, it seems that the IRS has a backlog of unprocessed filings. As of Dec. 4, 2021, the IRS said it has a backlog of 6.7 million unprocessed individual returns and 2.6 million unprocessed amended individual returns. Taxpayers who filed 2020 returns by paper and the regular mail now say the IRS wants them to send copies of their returns, even if the payment check was already cashed a year ago. (1)Guess someone there had an idea that duplicating the submissions as reque... 01/30/2022

Atlanta Buckhead Midtown: Snow And Still Have Electricity! Great Combo In Atlanta Buckhead Midtown and the Westside, snow is beautiful. When the flakes begin to melt and then freeze into ice, the trouble begins!The storms this weekend gave us the beauty of the snow dusting without coating either the trees or the streets with ice. Life proceeded as normal - people out walking and running and having fun in general albeit a bit colder outside - like 28 degrees instead of the usual balmy 45 degrees of January days! And one other lucky break - the winter flowers stayed in full bloom - no ice to kill them!   01/29/2022

Atlanta Buckhead Midtown and EVERYWHERE USA - NEW TAX Requirements  In Atlanta Buckhead Midtown Westside or any other place in the United States, a TAX REPORTING CHANGE is here now and could effect real estate professionals. There are now three forms which have different usages and will be due to the IRS at different dates.   Beginning with the 2020 tax year, the IRS will require business taxpayers to report nonemployee compensation on the new Form 1099-NEC instead of on Form 1099-MISC. Businesses will need to use this form if they made payments totaling $600 or more to a nonemployee, such as an independent contractor.  (intuit)   Perhaps real estate professionals will now receive Form 1099-NEC. Form 1099-MISC will be used to report miscellaneous compensation such as rents, prizes and a... 01/28/2022

Atlanta Buckhead Midtown: Google Cloud Training FREE Sign Up B4 1.31.22In Atlanta Buckhead Midtown and the Westside, Google offers many technical advances for worker to use in their workspaces. How about a FREE course?Sign up by January 31, 2022 to unlock free access to the “Getting Started with Google Cloud” learning path on Google Cloud Skills Boost. You’ll have an opportunity to learn through hands-on labs and earn skill badges to demonstrate your new cloud knowledge. Learn how to: Migrate from other cloud providers Write gcloud commands Use Cloud Shell Deploy virtual machines Run containerized applications on Google Kubernetes Engine  While the material in this path is mainly for aspiring Cloud Engineers and Cloud Architects, others may learn as Google presents the fundamentals of G... 01/25/2022

January Challenge: Internet Opened New SOI Horizons For Our BusinessWhen I think of changes from the Internet, I think of how the magic of connection on the ​Internet Opened New SOI Horizons For Our Business. For an independent, boutique real estate company, the "big guys" loomed large in the 1980's and early 1990's. They had dozens of agents and mega-offices and even had lawyers on retainer! Very intimidating for sure.My vision of what the future of our industry looked like changed as I watched the future Buyers TEXTING to communicate. They didn't answer calls to their work phones or cell phones. They only interacted with emails and texts.I will never forget a very successful agent at a "big guy" firm telling me that if those potential Clients texting her wanted to work with her, they ... 01/24/2022

Atlanta Buckhead Midtown: Beware - IRS RMD ChangesNow In Effect In Atlanta, whether you are in Buckhead, Midtown, the Westside or elsewhere, the RMD calculations from the IRS have changed. Each of us need to review how those changes may effect us. Or, perhaps no effect at all!Ah- ha - what is an RMD anyway? An RMD is the minimum amount of money you must withdraw from an IRA or employer-sponsored retirement accounts such as 401(k) and 403(b), known as a tax-deferred retirement plans, on which you will pay ordinary income taxes after you reach a certain age.  (Not Roth IRAs.) Disclosure: I am not an accountant nor attorney. Check with yours.First, new Tables for Mortality have been adopted by the IRS. Second, before the 2020 implementation of the SECURE Act, RMDs became a requirement once... 01/23/2022

Atlanta Buckhead Midtown: Happy 50th Birthday Rodney Mason Mortgage PRO Fun items behind us at Rodney Mason 's 50th Birthday Party tonight.The shelves are full of theater souvenirs from Rodney's favorite live performances.  One could see several different times Rodney had enjoyed the same shows and many items carried autographs!  Forever home for Rodney now. We met here on ActiveRain many years ago and sponsored several Meet-Ups together. Wherever Rodney worked, I suggested my Clients move over to where he was at that time. He has been wonderful with all the Clients I send to him. Right now, our experiences with him average out a five stars plus! And our Clients are not the only satisfied ones. From his online page...Whether you are in Georgia or Alabama, Florida, South Carolina or Tenn... 01/22/2022

Atlanta Buckhead Midtown: GREAT NEWS! Trash Pick-Up January 21, 2022 In Atlanta Buckhead, Midtown Westside and CITY-WIDE -- employees missing work for Covid-19 related illnesses caused unintended disruption in Solid Waste Collections since the end of last year. Fortunately, many are better and collection is beginning again. The Solid Waste department is offering advice as well:Even supplied three options! Welcome back! Looking forward to seeing you on Friday!   01/20/2022

Ask An Ambassador: Tuesday Techie Tidbit - Spell Check Advances Every Ask An Ambassador: Tuesday Techie Tidbit post is a BRAVO to the developers working so diligently at ActiveRain. Spell Check Advances are one of the best new offerings on the Blog Editor.NOW a word not spelled correctly has the squiggly red line underneath!So easy to spot what needs to be reviewed! The earlier Blog Editor looked like this:                Note the "ABC" Without the graphic color signal, one had to check every post to see if any thing was wrong. Kind of like asking someone how to spell a word and then getting the response "Go look in the dictionary."  Hard to do if you don't know the spelling!As of January 2022, the Blog Editor sported a streamlined new look:            No more "ABC" With the technical b... 01/18/2022

The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. - An Original Musical Tribute   In Honor of The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.  2022Please enjoy listening to this Original Musical Tribute, "Towards Justice", written by Eliana Light, and sung at  Anshe Emet Synagogue, Chicago, Illinois, by Senior Cantor Rachel Brook and Cantor Elizabeth Berke. Let the words serve as an inspiration to us to seek justice for all. And one more musical tribute for Dr. King -“It looks like it might be a hard road, but I’m gonna walk it with you.” "Such an important message of solidarity for Martin Luther King Jr. Day and an amazing collaboration between Shul Sisters (Cantors Laurie Akers, Rachel Brook and Rachel Goldman) and Tyrell Belle, Zuumah Gayeman, and Ian Johnson. The song was written by Brian Clafin and Ellie ... 01/17/2022

Atlanta Buckhead Midtown: Closings Due to Snow for January 17, 2022  The video above is from:Osborne Road NE in Brookhaven and from Ben Hill Road in East Point.Check these links for details:School and Business Closings AlertsFulton County .       Gainesville, Braselton and Buford.        Covid Testing.        Winter Storm Photos. Stay home if you can! 01/16/2022