Didn’t Your Mother Teach You Anything?

Two phrases come to mind when describing the state of the real estate market lately.

 

The first I attribute to Dan Forsman, President of Prudential Georgia Realty, which goes like this: “As the pieces of the pie get smaller, the table manners get worse”. I cannot recall so many people, both real estate professionals and their clients, having such a bad attitude toward other people. Just because it’s a “buyer’s market” does not give anyone the right to forget what their mother taught them about common courtesy. (more…)

Posted In: Commercial Property, Investment Property, Mountain Living, My Listings, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Real Estate Values, Uncategorized, foreclosure, land, mortgage, short sale on June 30, 2010 Comments (1)

Mortgage Rates - Interesting

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A couple of weeks ago, I made a statement reflecting analyst predictions that interest rates would reach 6% by year end. I’m not even sure the ink is dry on that one, and now interest rates are trending lower. Now before you make fun of me, I can explain. (more…)

Posted In: Commercial Property, Investment Property, Mortgage Protection, Mountain Living, My Listings, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Real Estate Values, Uncategorized, Unemployment, foreclosure, horse farm, land, mortgage on June 5, 2010 Comments (0)

Bye-Bye Tax Credit – Hello Reforms

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So as of last Friday, the home buyer tax credit can rest in peace. I never got the feeling that it ever really took off like we expected. I had some clients that took advantage of the $8,000 credit to provide or beef up down payments, but I think they would have purchased a new home anyway. The credit just helped them along. That means that in many cases, all we did was spend tax dollars for a non-stimulus, which is typical of government intervention. Now that we have a largely unpopular healthcare reform bill in place, we are moving on to “financial reform”. It seems to be a popular notion that we need to hack up the rules regarding lending practices so the “fat cats” don’t rip us off again. At the risk of taking an unpopular position on this, I disagree. (more…)

Posted In: Commercial Property, Investment Property, Mountain Living, My Listings, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Real Estate Values, Uncategorized, foreclosure, land, mortgage, short sale, tax on May 4, 2010 Comments (2)

The Cost of Waiting

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I’ve been doing a little reading lately, and a little listening too. There is this guy named Stephan Swanepoel, who is supposed to be the Grand Pooba of real estate forecasting. Most people have never heard of him, which makes him even more mysterious. Like most of the gurus, he never seems to remember when he was wrong, but he is right most of the time. There is another guy named Dan Forsman, who happens to be the CEO of our company, and is also a CPA and pretty shrewd number cruncher. If you pay attention to them you can learn some things. (more…)

Posted In: Commercial Property, Investment Property, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Real Estate Values, Uncategorized, foreclosure, land, mortgage, short sale on February 20, 2010 Comments (1)

Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

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I was going through some papers last week (okay, I was cleaning up my junk pile) when I came across an article written by John Adams in the AJC. It was called “Inside Advice” and titled “2008 prognosticators show existing home sales going up”. (more…)

Posted In: Investment Property, Mountain Living, My Listings, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Real Estate Values, Uncategorized, foreclosure, land, mortgage, short sale on December 12, 2009 Comments (1)

“OK … Now What’s Your Excuse?”

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Our job as professional Realtors® these days is to listen to all the excuses people use to put off buying a new home. “The market will keep going down. The interest rates are staying low. The windows are a little dirty. There is no reason to hurry in a buyer’s market. I’m looking for a $350,000 home for about $140,000.” I’m sure my fellow agents can come up with a few more. It would be hilarious if it were not so tragic, watching people wring their hands in “analysis paralysis” while the deal of their lives slips away before their eyes. (more…)

Posted In: Investment Property, Mortgage Protection, Mountain Living, My Listings, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Real Estate Values, Uncategorized, Unemployment, foreclosure, horse farm, land, mortgage, short sale, tax on November 9, 2009 Comments (1)

Making Home Affordable

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If you, like many people today, are faced with a mortgage which is delinquent or about to become delinquent, you may qualify for help from Uncle Sam. The Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) was enacted in February 2009 (more…)

Posted In: Investment Property, Mortgage Protection, My Listings, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Real Estate Values, Unemployment, foreclosure, land, mortgage, short sale, tax on October 24, 2009 Comments (0)

Governor Perdue Severs Georgia ACORN Contract

state seal

STATE OF GEORGIA

OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

Sonny Perdue
GOVERNOR

For Immediate Release                                               Contact: Office of Communications

Thursday, September 17, 2009                                                                               (404) 651-7774

Statement of Governor Perdue Regarding the Department of Human Services Contract with ACORN (more…)

Posted In: Commercial Property, Investment Property, Mortgage Protection, My Listings, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Real Estate Values, Uncategorized, Unemployment, foreclosure, land, mortgage, short sale, tax on September 20, 2009 Comments (0)

“HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM”

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        The most astute appraisal of President Obama’s performance to date. If anyone sees an error or an exaggeration in the below please bring it to my attention.

One of Bob Oster’s CEO friends wrote this. Bob respects him highly. (For those on this list who don’t know Bob: he was CFO of Oracle when it went public, also CFO of Syntex, and holds a Ph.D. in economics from Berkeley. Since 1987, he has been an angel investor and private VC. He is on the Board of Overseers at the Hoover Institution.) (more…)

Posted In: Commercial Property, Investment Property, Mortgage Protection, Mountain Living, My Listings, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Real Estate Values, Uncategorized, Unemployment, Water Front, foreclosure, horse farm, land, mortgage, short sale, tax on September 17, 2009 Comments (0)

Home Valuation Compliance Code Is Here

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The implementation of HVCC (Home Valuation Compliance Code) went into effect May 1. It is the new appraisal requirement negotiated by FannieMae and FreddieMac with the New York Attorney General in settlement over a pending lawsuit. (more…)

Posted In: Commercial Property, Investment Property, Mountain Living, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Real Estate Values, foreclosure, land, mortgage, short sale on August 31, 2009 Comments (0)