Atlanta Real Estate Blog - Premier Atlanta Real Estate

What's The Real Story? It's Probably Pricing!

Time and again, I come across a home listing that is well kept, with awesome features, in a great neighborhood... but it just isn't selling.

Buyers will ask, "why has is been on the market so long?" Sellers will ask, "why isn't my house selling?" 

And the answer is usually: PRICE.

My job, as your highly skilled real estate professional, is to do the research and give you the tools and information to price your home properly, or to make the appropriate offer on a property. To get that information, I look at factors such as style, size, features, geographic location, schools, etc. in comparison to comparable recently sold (in the last 3 - 6 months) properties. I don't set the price - you don't set the price - THE MARKET SETS THE PRICE.

The goal is to sell the property in the least amount of time for the most money. And your pricing strategy will have a direct effect on your success of selling for the most money in the least amount of time. Statistics show that if you price your property too high, you risk sitting on the market for months. And in the end, you will probably be selling for less than if you priced properly from the beginning, because you will need to do price reductions to offset the perception that there is something wrong with the property. Price your property too low, and you aren't maximizing the potential profit from the sale - and the bidding war you hoped to achieve may never materialize.

Take a look at the snapshot below which demonstrates the effect price has on sales vs. listing price and days on market. Getting the price right from the beginning, is your best bet for selling your home for the most amount of money in the least amount of time.

Are you ready to have a chat about selling your home? I would love to meet...

A Tale of Two Markets - Don't Be Fooled!

If you watch the news, read Facebook or know a real estate agent, you've probably heard abut how amazing this real estate market is and how much prices have gone up and it's a great time to sell. Did you also know that certain segments of the market are actually far more favorable to buyers than to sellers? Read on to learn what's really going on in the market...

The market really is actually split into two segments. For one segment, it's a sellers market and for the other, well, it's a buyers market. Do you know which is which?

There is a natural break in the real estate around the $500,000 home price mark. In large part this is because conventional financing in Atlanta goes up to $424,100. If you want to buy a $500,000 home and avoid a jumbo loan with higher rates, you need to put down $75,900 plus you need money for closing costs. This generally means that buyers must have a 20% down payment for loans on purchases over $500,000 and that limits the number of buyers and therefore demand and therefore prices.

The difference between the $500,000 and below market is staggeringly different from the $500,000 and up market. I'll show you 3 different markets in Metro Atlanta that point to this difference and if you jump into this market as a consumer, you need to be armed with this information because it could cost or make you 10's of thousands of dollars.

Point to Remember: If there are less than 6 months of inventory of homes, it is a sellers market and above 6 months of inventory it is a buyers market.

North Fulton

In North Fulton, it is a very strong sellers market below $500,000 and a buyers market for homes above $500,000. Let's look at the numbers:

Below $500,000:

  • Active listings - 335 homes
  • ...