Atlanta Real Estate Blog - Jim Crawford REMAX Greater Atlanta

I Can't Work with You! My Lender is Assigning Me A Real Estate Agent!

Jim Crawford ~ Atlanta Real Estate-ABR E-PRO (RE/MAX Greater Atlanta) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:20:00 -0500

Years ago the Atlanta real estate agents more often than not was the first point of contact with a home buyer. More often than not, potential buyers would walk into the Atlanta real estate office, and tell you they were thinking of buying a home, and wanted to know how to begin the process. We'd sit down, and listen to their needs, and then take out a worksheet and ask them some preliminary financial questions, to get a vague idea of what they could afford to buy. At that time, we'd pick out a few homes in their price range and see if that me their needs, and then give them the names of several mortgage persons to further qualify them. Today, it is very different. The Internet has changed all the rules, and home buying has become very dysfunctional. It is no longer written in stone that the Atlanta real estate agents is the first point of contact with a potential buyer any longer. Many buyers find their homes through their mortgage lender.

Home buyers find lenders on-line under various web searches. Sometimes the hook is "FREE, NO MONEY DOWN!" "Credit repair" and yes, even "Win a free Vacation!" I've heard them all! Some of these buyers are scammed by fly by night fraudsters that get the buyers involved in the wrong deals. Inflated home values, and bait and switch loans at the closing table! Scams, real estate fraud, mortgage fraud, straw buyers and illegal kickbacks and yes even predatory loans. I can say this because over the years we've generated so many countless Internet leads. It is interesting what you find out when you engage in conversation with buyers. Many will tell us that they cannot work with us because they will be assigned an agent from their lender. To me that is red flag #1. Another is that if you went a little deeper in conversation, several buyers wanted to work with us, but also asked if we would do the same thing their lender and agents were doing. When you ask the caller what is that? The reply is kicking back 25K at closing! As soon as you say that is illegal, the phone call would end. I cannot help buy wonder how much of the real estate grief today was caused by true loan fraud! It is just too convenient for an agent or a lender to provide the client with all services, including inspections. It is sort of like being painted into a corner with a flamethrower. It's probably not a good position to be in.

Home buyers should be able to work with any agent they choose
Home buyers should be able to shop for the best mortgages
Homebuyers should be able to choose the lender they want to work with
Home buyers should be able to choose to pick their own home inspectors
Home buyers hould never feel pressured to use any one particular, agent, lender, home inspector....

My Atlanta Real Estate Agent Works, Can You Show Me the Home?

Jim Crawford ~ Atlanta Real Estate-ABR E-PRO (RE/MAX Greater Atlanta) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:30:33 -0500

More and more Atlanta real estate agents have taken up full time employment these days in a 9-5 job to pay the bills. I cannot blame anyone for doing so, but many of these now part time Atlanta real estate agents are now totally inaccessible to their clients during their working hours. You cannot have your cake and eat it too! That means buyers are going around calling up full time agents hoping we will open doors and show them homes. That is abuse of the worse kind. A gallon of gas is still over $3.50 a gallon, and the time spent with less than forthcoming buyers cannot be regained.

Brokers reciprocity has opened a floodgate of calls from neglected buyers that want to see something immediately, but do not want our real estate services. They already have an Atlanta real estate agent, but flood the lines and emails looking for free information and details about listed properties that our not our own. It is a unethical for their agents not to be doing the work that they will get paid for by putting the onus on others to do it for them. A recent story from a friend of mine shared and even crazier twist. A buyer called asking to see several properties, and mentioned their agent worked full time and was not able to do so. They mentioned they were in town on their buy trip and were staying at a hotel in town...and could the agent pick them up and show them the homes? They actually mentioned, they wanted someone only to open doors! When you mention they will need to provide a pre-approval letter, a copy of their drivers license, and sign a buyers agency agreement identifying the homes that you will show them...the would be buyers get really abusive and hang up. You have to stop and ask yourself, what are they thinking?

Seller's On The Edge! What's Your Home Worth?

Jim Crawford ~ Atlanta Real Estate-ABR E-PRO (RE/MAX Greater Atlanta) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 11:48:16 -0500

There isn't much that can prepare you to deal with the current real estate market we are in. The double digit mortgages of the 1980's, WRAP mortgages and the early 1990's when in many markets appreciation took a holiday! The current real estate market is a credit crunch that is testing everyone patience! We have would be home sellers that purchased homes with no money down and borrowed against future value only to find out there was no appreciation. There are home sellers that purchased with money down, but tapped into the equity to maintain their lifestyle - cruises, trips cars and purchasing second properties easily comes into mind. The hard thing to explain to many homeowners is that just because they owe a lot of money, it cannot come out of their home. The solution to a home seller's problem is not a for-sale sign. Many agents will accommodate the seller by placing a for sale sign on a property with a price of $450K in a $350K neighborhood because the agent cannot bring themselves to tell the truth. How does that help the homeowner if the home never sells? The reality is that home prices are set by the laws of supply and demand. Real estate agents cannot just pick the price out of the air. Property values must be justified via appraisals. If you borrowed against your equity - I hope you put some aside for a rainy day!

Not every home increases in value.
Some homes can decrease in value.
Some sellers have to bring cash to closing to pay what they owe.
What improvements have you made to the home in your ownership?

PS. Paint, roof repairs, replacing leaking hot water heaters do not count! That is maintenance!

Do You Believe Homes Sales Increased? Good News or Bad News?

Jim Crawford ~ Atlanta Real Estate-ABR E-PRO (RE/MAX Greater Atlanta) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 22:24:53 -0500

Good news or bad News? I guess I am almost numb to believing any more housing news or stats anymore. Positive stats are retracted and adjusted in a month or so and end up being revised with numbers on the other end of the scale. One side of the stats tell us sales are up, but prices are dropping. Where is the good news? The word "Spin" comes to mind, but a math tally does not carry the same weight with me any longer. The newspapers, media and NAR seem to be more interested in playing the numbers for their own advantage. Today's NAR numbers seem no different. I find it hard to believe that in the few markets I have first hand knowledge I am seeing double digit drops in home sales, and certainly not even marginal increases that are not coupled to some incredible shifts in price drops. I recently wrote a few Atlanta real estate blogs based on our most recent sales statistics that were just released Friday August 22 Atlanta Home Sales Decline July 2008 that did not show any increase of sales in our FMLS Atlanta home sales drop! In fact over last year they dropped quite a bit 39% from the market peaks, and now prices are dropping also!

So how is your market fairing? Are sales rising, prices holding or increasing? I've already shared my stats!

Atlanta Home Sales Decline July 2008

Atlanta Absorption Rates Atlanta Homes - Atlanta Real Estate Inventory Single Family Detached Homes July 2008

Jim Crawford ~ Atlanta Real Estate-ABR E-PRO (RE/MAX Greater Atlanta) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 22:25:28 -0500

Atlanta Absorption Rates Atlanta Homes - Atlanta Real Estate Inventory Single Family Detached Homes July 2008. I've been looking at the new Atlanta real estate data that was just released today for Atlanta homes (Detached - Single Family Homes) and noticed a very interesting trend. Since Atlanta single family homes inventory levels are at all time highs, and Atlanta homes sales are dropping, it is interesting to see the trends that are emerging. It seems that once homes go over 250K in price that the time on the market grows substantially. The average time to sell a home in relationship to the available inventory is a basic one of supply versus demand. Once we go over 250K the months of inventory rises dramatically and starts at 18.7 months of inventory for homes between 250K and 299K. Atlanta homes over 750K it grows even more substantially to over 45.1 months of inventory available before all listed Atlanta homes in various price ranges can be absorbed. If sales of Atlanta homes stall further, and inventory grows...these absorption times will increase even more so.

Selling Time For Atlanta Homes Increases in July | Atlanta Marketing Time Increases - Days On Market to Sell Atlanta Homes Increases 36 Per Cent!

Jim Crawford ~ Atlanta Real Estate-ABR E-PRO (RE/MAX Greater Atlanta) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 21:36:03 -0500

Selling Time For Atlanta Homes Increases. Atlanta Marketing Time Increases - Days On Market to Sell Atlanta Homes Increases 36%! I guess I am not telling you something you do not already know about selling Atlanta homes. It is taking longer to do so. In fact the marketing time to sell an Atlanta homehas increase 35% since July 2005. In July of 2008 the average time for a single family home on the market before it receives a contract is 126.8 days on the average as compared with 93.8 days on market for Atlanta homes in July of 2005. In my own opinion, these numbers can be much more deceptive since many of the statistics for days previously on the market can disappear after a specified period of time. That means that in our Atlanta MLS(FMLS) certain numbers for solds, expired listings, withdrawn listings are purged from our data system at certain specified times. Some previous listings can also be removed from the system if a hardship is is requested from the Atlanta MLSsystem. I would personally say that in comparison to the early 1990's Atlanta homes are now on the market for much longer periods of times.

Atlanta Home Prices Decline in July 2008 | Atlanta Homes Price Declines 9% - Single Family Detached Homes Values Drop

Jim Crawford ~ Atlanta Real Estate-ABR E-PRO (RE/MAX Greater Atlanta) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 20:15:55 -0500

Atlanta Homes Decline in Price July 2008. Atlanta Homes Price Declines 9% - Single Family Detached Atlanta Homes Decline in Value. Everyone said it would not happen in Atlanta that home prices would actually drop. Maybe it isn't such a good idea to write things in stone. Yes it is true that Atlanta home prices never experienced the run up in Atlanta homes values as we have seen across the nation, but we also had a lot of speculation in new homes construction flipping and most importantly no money down financing. That 100% financing was our undoing here in Atlanta. The chart below is pretty much a self explanatory chart that shows a July comparison of Atlanta home prices from July 2005 to July 2008.

Atlanta Condos - Atlanta Town Home Sales Decline in July 2008 | Atlanta Condos and Town Homes Sales Report July 2008

Jim Crawford ~ Atlanta Real Estate-ABR E-PRO (RE/MAX Greater Atlanta) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 19:32:47 -0500

Atlanta Condos / Atlanta Town Homes Sales Decline in July 2008. Atlanta Condos and Town Homes Sales Report July 2008 - Atlanta Condos and town homes continue their decline from the peak of the Atlanta condo market in July of 2005 when Atlanta Condos and town homes saw over 1011 sales. In July 2008 we saw Atlanta Condos and Town Homes come in with an anemic 674 sales for the entire Atlanta FMLS coverage area. That is a 33% drop in the amount of condos sold in July 2008.

Again, I have created a comparison cart of the same period of sales in July of 2005 to July of 2008. July is pretty much a tell tale month in the sense it tends to be a peak sales season. For Atlanta Condos sales to have dropped this substantially that is not a great sign. In our Atlanta MLS(FMLS) Condos and town home sales in this class are attached housing both fee simple and condo class. It includes both new and resale units.

Atlanta Home Sales Decline July 2008 | Atlanta Home Sales Continue to Decline - July Single Family Detached Home Sales Atlanta July 2005-2008

Jim Crawford ~ Atlanta Real Estate-ABR E-PRO (RE/MAX Greater Atlanta) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 19:05:12 -0500

Atlanta Homes Sales Continue to Decline in July 2008. Atlanta Homes Sales Continue to Decline - July Single Family Home Sales Atlanta July 2005-2008 In new figures just released to day from our primary Atlanta MLS it is clear that the number of single family homes in Atlanta (Detached) are still on the decline. Compared to the peak in previous July's - July 2008 saw a 39% drop in detached single family homes. The peak of Atlanta homes sales in July of 2005 was 6203 versus 3803 in July of 2008. The numbers speak for themselves. By creating this comparison chart, I have enabled the viewer to compare 'apples' to 'apples'! It is always easier to step back and take the larger picture in, and grasp the trends that are taking place.

Atlanta Real Estate August 2008 Home Sales Report | Atlanta Home Sales Report July Sales for Atlanta Homes Sold

Jim Crawford ~ Atlanta Real Estate-ABR E-PRO (RE/MAX Greater Atlanta) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 15:39:01 -0500

Atlanta real estate report August 2008. The Atlanta real estate market report was just released today Friday August 22, 2008 by our First Multiple Listing Service. It shows the Atlanta real estate market continues to decline both in sales of Atlanta homes sold, prices, and days on market. There were 4,477 closings for all Atlanta single family homes in July 2008. This includes 3803 single family detached Atlanta homes and 674 condos/ town homes. Sales of single family homes are lower than July of 2000.

Average price for single family detached Atlanta homes was $252,878 versus $276,919 for July 2007 - 9 %
Average price for condos & town homes was $187,250 versus $199,640 for July 2007 - 6 %

YTD average prices for condos & town homes are below 2003 and YTD average prices for single family detached homes are just slightly ahead of those in 2004

The average sale price for all single family in July was $242,998 - down 8.3% from July 2007 and approximately the same price as in July 2004

ATLANTA REAL ESTATE AT A GLANCE:

3,803 Atlanta homes sold - single family detached homes
674 Atlanta condos / Atlanta town homes sold
7,112 Expired listings
Days-on-market was 88.9 in July 2008
14 Months supply of Atlanta homes
Original List Price / List Price Ratio 88.3%
List Price / Sales Price Ratio 94.9%