Halloween and real estate make fall really exciting in the Atlanta area. Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. There's so much to do around Atlanta, and real estate is always busy. Atlanta is one of the top five relocation cities for major corporations, so sellers may see a lot more corporate relocators looking at their homes. You may not have 20 or 30 people making offers, but those who are coming are very serious. You should decorate your home at this time of year if you're selling. It makes your home more welcoming and friendly. Here are some of the fun things to do around Halloween ..read more

Dear Friends and Clients, Our market is on fire, and it isn’t even spring. Low interest rates have spurred demand, but there aren’t many houses for sale, meaning sellers have less competition. Supply is hitting an all-time low, so if you’ve been sitting on the sidelines, it could be time to finally list your home. Total inventory was down 28% year over year in January, and new listings were down 9%. Why aren’t people listing their homes even though they can get a fantastic deal? According to Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com, “Factors like omicron uncertainties could be causing sel ..read more

Friends, The 2021 holiday season has officially begun! We hope you are as excited as we are. We’d like to take a moment to express our gratitude to all of you this Thanksgiving. We have met some truly wonderful people, and we’re proud to have helped so many reach their real estate goals over the years. We wouldn’t be where we are today without all of your support. Enjoy your Thanksgiving dinner—that’s what we plan to do! In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you have any real estate questions. We would be happy to help you. Happy Thanksgiving, Cynthia Pierce ..read more

Our recent appraisal discussion with Mark Durden from D.S. Murphy. Today I have the pleasure of being joined by Mark Durden, a certified appraiser and consultant from D.S. Murphy & Associates, to talk about his background in the appraisal industry, the path that led him to where he is now, and all of the different appraisal challenges people are facing in the market. Cited below for your convenience are timestamps that will direct you to various points in the video. Feel free to watch the full message, or use these timestamps to browse specific topics at your leisure: 0:40 — How long has M ..read more

Here's my advice for homebuyers who are on the fence about purchasing. Are you or is someone you know frustrated by the current real estate market? I’m seeing three distinct scenarios out there: 1. Some sellers love the market and are selling very quickly. 2. Some sellers are sitting on the fence and waiting on the sidelines to see what happens. 3. Some buyers are waiting for cooler and calmer market conditions. Interest rates are still unbelievably low. The average right now for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage is 2.86%. The three major housing industry entities, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and th ..read more

Craziness in a Realtor’s life doesn’t always come from the market! You might think that the real estate market is wild and crazy, but today I’m here to share a few scary (and also funny) stories from my life as a Realtor. Dealing with the market is only one aspect of our job; sometimes we have to deal with wild and crazy people—even their pets! "I was previewing a vacant house for a client when I went out to my car to retrieve something, only to find that I had fleas all over my legs!" For instance, I was once locked out on the deck with my clients! The door had automatically locked behind us ..read more

Here are some key tips for homebuyers from my feature in USA Today. Recently, I was featured on USA Today for helping a young couple buy their first home in today’s crazy market. It’s a wonderful story, and I think there’s a lot to learn from their journey. I want to share some key home-buying advice I used to help the Picchiottino family buy their first home: Be prepared to pay over asking price. In today’s market, sellers often underprice their homes in order to drive competition among buyers. If this works, home listings can resemble an auction more than a traditional sale. Because of this ..read more

Here’s what buyers and sellers need to know about home inspections. Many homeowners haven’t been through a home inspection in a long time because they’ve lived in their homes for so long. That’s why it’s important to remember that if you’re going to sell your home, a buyer will have a professional home inspector take a look under the hood, so to speak. If you’re a buyer, you might not know that inspections will take between two to five hours, sometimes more. Even more shocking is that the inspector’s report might be 30 to 60 pages long! The thick document can look somewhat scary to people when ..read more

Here are some ideas for renovating your home in 2021.We all spent plenty of time in our homes in 2020, which means some of you might be wondering what the top home renovation projects are for 2021. According to a recent survey done by Axiom, here are the top six most popular projects homeowners are looking forward to doing this year:1. Landscaping/yard work: 35%2. Bathroom remodeling: 31%3. Kitchen remodeling: 27%4. Bedroom remodeling: 26%5. Deck or patio remodeling: 25%6. Office renovation: 16%My interpretation of these results is that many people want to create their home oasis. When you com ..read more

Here are some things you should keep in mind when selling your house. When I compare the peak buyer’s market in 2009 to the seller’s market of today, I’ve found some interesting statistics I’d like to share with you. The number of active listings in 2009 was over 31,000 in metro Atlanta. By June of this year, we only have 4,583 homes available right now. The current supply of inventory is less than one month. We consider a balanced market to be six months of inventory. This is impacting the availability of homes for buyers. The median sales price of homes in 2009 was $143,000. Now it’s $400,00 ..read more