Have you or someone you know recently purchased a foreclosed home? If so, you may be entitled to a refund from the county in which you live. Please know, I do not provide this service, merely the information that can help you get what is rightfully owed to you. There is a little known exemption that very few people know about and is rarely taken at closing.
On a $300,000 purchase you may be able to receive up to $300 back from the County.
We wanted to pass on another new listing coming to market in Hamilton Mill on May 1st.
This home is located in the prestigious “Cambridge” section of Hamilton Mill and will not disappoint. Priced below $700,000, this home is a great value and in “Like New” condition.
Spectacular upgrades adorn this offering and no detail has been missed. Huge Chef’s kitchen, keeping room, master on main and so much more.
Keep an eye out for more details coming soon or give me a call to discuss in more detail.
In recent months, I have been talking to you about the “window of opportunity” when it comes to mortgage lending. As I type this post, rates are within a half a point of the lowest rates in country’s history. If you have been sitting on the fence waiting for 4% interest rates, here are a few items to be mindful of:
1) I have reviewed key components of Obama’s Stimulus Package – and nothing in the plan guarantees 4% mortgage interest rates the media keeps talking about. In fact, as Fed Chairman Ben Bernacke alluded in his March 15th “60 Minutes” interview, the Fed’s long term plan is to raise rates as the economy shows signs of recovery.
2) Lenders are continuing to tighten guidelines, which means:
a) Credit scores needed to qualify have increased significantly in the last 30 days. I expect this trend to continue.
b) Many lenders are asking borrowers for larger down payments than in recent years. Fortunately, Signature Lending Group is still offering programs with as little as 3.5% down on FHA loans.
Again, my message here is that we are very likely entering the late stages of our “window of opportunity”. If you or someone you know are wondering if the time is right to purchase a new home or refinance an existing one, please call me immediately. I promise to give you the straight answers that will help you make the most of these chaotic economic times.
The US Department of Housing and Urban Development has recently awarded Diamond Dwellings Realty the coveted approval for the listing and sales of homes offered by HUD. This is a very stringent process and to have received HUD approval is a milestone for the company.
I have been selling HUD homes for a number of years and to have the new approval is another step in the process of contuning the excellent reputation and strength of the company.
If you or someone you know is looking to purchase a HUD owned home please feel free to give me a call to discuss your options.
Not every real estate company or agent has the opportunity to offer these services so make sure you check to see if your real estate agent is approved to help you find your dream home.
Did you know that some of the best deals in Gwinnett County and our surrounding areas are not bank owned foreclosures? Sure, there are a number of current inventory homes that are priced to sell but not every foreclosure is a deal. I can tell you that we just put a foreclosure under contract that is a new home and it should/could have sold a year ago for close to $300K and we got it for under $200,000. This is a great deal and if you want to know where it is located let me know. There are a couple more homes in this subdivision and the bank is willing to deal.
Over the past year or so more and more buyers are regularly calling me and asking where all the bargains are in foreclosed and or short sale homes in Gwinnett and surrounding counties. Well, the simple answer to that question is to start getting an email list of homes that I can provide that shows what homes are currently bank owned and ready for a great bargain if you know what to do and how to get the best deal.
How do you do that you might ask? Get a qualified agent to represent you in the transaction. If not me, fine, get someone else, but do not try to get into a dual agency situation on bank owned homes. This is not a time to try and go it alone. Honestly, if you do not feel I am the right person, no problem, I will be happy to refer you to any number of fellow real estate agents out there that are ready, willing and able to assist you.
For the past couple of years there has been a neighbor of mine that has been a Christmas Angel for a number of local area children and families.
Janie Morris, a Hamilton Mill resident and school teacher at Atha Road Elementary school in Monroe Ga. has come to the aid of numerous families during the Christmas season. With her zeal for helping the needy and donations from numerous Hamilton Mill residents she has been able to provide Christmas toys, clothes and other items to those in need.
I have been so impressed with her thoughtfulness and generosity that I asked her to give me a little insight as to what she does and why she does it. It goes without saying that the families she helps are grateful and thankful to have such a special person in their lives.
So here is Janie’s responses to a few of the questions I asked.
What I do and Why I do It:
As a child Christmas was always such a special time. Although we were fairly poor my mother always made Christmas special. It was the one time of year for me when we knew we would get a new toy and new pajamas. Giving to children and their families at Christmas is a way to share blessings. Christmas was always special to me as a child and I want to help make it special for children who otherwise would not have gifts on Christmas. The thought of a child, regardless of age, waking up to no presents under the tree breaks my heart! This is my way of keeping the spirit of Christmas alive!
Recipients/Location of Families:
The families consist of children who Atha Road Elementary and their siblings from newborn through the 12th grade. When possible we also give a little something to the parent(s) guardians. Atha is located in Monroe, Ga. in Walton County. Each year the classroom teachers are asked to submit names of students to the school counselor who they think may need help at Christmas. The counselor contacts the parent / guardian and confirms they need help. If they do, a form is sent to the parent to complete. Information such as clothing size, shoe size, hobbies, and toys with a list are completed on the form. The counselor assigns each child a “number” (for confidentiality reasons) and people are asked to “adopt” a child for Christmas. Those of us who adopt the child (shop for them) do not know who the children are. The families remain anonymous to the shoppers. All gifts are put into black trash bags, tagged with the number, and taken to the school where they await parents to pick the gifts up on pick-up dates.
This will be the third Christmas the residents of Hamilton Mill have helped. I post on the message board asking for people to shop for a child and the responses have been great. This year Hamilton Mill helped 90 kids. One homeowner made it possible to shop for 63 of those kids! The generosity is amazing. ”Goodwill towards Men” is alive and well in Hamilton Mill.
So there you have it, a Christmas Angel living in our midst. My wife and I “adopted” one of the children and allowed our kids to help pick out the presents and clothes we provided and they had a lot of fun helping us.
If you would like more information or would like to donate to a needy child/family, email me and I will pass your information onto Janie. It is not to late to help a family in need.
As many of you know the Gwinnett Braves will kick off their inaugural season in Georgia in April of 2009 and I cannot wait til opening day.
As a high school student in Chesapeake Va. I used to go see the Tidewater Tides who used to be the NY Mets Triple A team play and while in college at East Carolina University we used to travel to Kinston NC to watch the Kinston Indians play single A ball. Minor league baseball is an awesome experience and one I cannot wait to share with my three kids.
The crowds will be manageable, the parking should not be a problem getting in or out of the stadium, the food and beer should be relatively inexpensive, the drive to downtown Atlanta is eliminated and the atmosphere will be awesome. These kids who we will get to watch are fighting for their careers and will be working hard to make it to the pinnacle of the sport, the major leagues.
This past Saturday night I was fortunate enough to have dinner and spend time with Bill Blackwell, the Assistant General of Operations for the Gwinnett Braves who recently moved into Hamilton Mill. Bill has been in baseball for 32 years and recently moved to the Atlanta area after the Richmond Braves relocated to Gwinnett County. In my discussions with Bill it was obvious of his love and passion for the game of baseball and his overall knowledge of what it takes to make the day to day operations of the team run smoothly.
I was extremely impressed with all of the behind the scenes work that is done to get a baseball team from one city to another as well as serving as good hosts to visiting teams that will be coming to visit Gwinnett County along with ALL the other duties of his job. Bill and I talked about the day to day aspects of his job and the extremely long hours he puts in expecially during the season.
As the stadium continues to take shape and the coming of minor league baseball approaches we all should be excited about the upcoming boost to the local economy and embrace the opportunity in front of us. Get out there and purchase season tickets or single game tickets. There is no better place to be than sitting in a ballpark on a hot summer afternoon watching America’s pastime.
According to the Washington Post this morning, the Treasury Department is considering intervening into the mortgage market. This intervention would dramatically force down interest rates. They are actually talking about driving rates down to an interest rate of no more than 4.5%. The National Association of Realtors feels this would definitly boost the housing market. In the meantime, if you are considering refinancing your current residence, DO NOT wait for the rates to drop. You need to go ahead and get your application in and ready to go with a target in mind. Signature Lending Group has been ramping up thier staff for months in anticipation of the huge influx of applications. The time is now. Do not hesitate or you may miss the opportunity of a lifetime.
It is interesting to me that in the recent months I am seeing less and less homes that are being marketed as “For Sale By Owner” (FSBO). Hopefully home owners are starting to realize that simply sticking a sign in the front yard, place a classified ad in the Gwinnett Daily Post and wait for the phone to ring is not feasible and it does not get results. Homes that are offered as FSBO’s eventually list their home with a real estate agent 85% of the time.
Time is money and money = time.
Thereʼs only one way to get houses sold in a todayʼs tough real estate market and that is to offer your home for sale with a qualified real estate agent (hopefully a Diamond Dwellings Agent).
Just put yourself in the buyerʼs shoes. If you were going to be searching for a new home today, how would you begin your search? Youʼd probably go straight to your computer and type something into Google or Yahoo or MSN to find houses. Youʼd probably search for something like “Gwinnett Real Estate” or maybe youʼd search Realtor.com or Zillow.com (or one of the many other real estate portals).
Did you know that 82% of all persons who are looking for a home start their search on the internet. Of those, 93% look at homes with multiple photos first. That is why we place homes on over 100 international websites. The FSBO websites that are out there are hard to find, offer little information and typically cost a pretty penny to get a home “listed” on.
Hereʼs the point…
“Great Internet Marketing is the only way to sell your house today” Diamond Dwellings is a local Gwinnett real estate brokerage with BIG, global internet presence. If you want your home sold, please call us today!
Weʼll get it done fast. Weʼll get it done right. Weʼll just get it done.
For more information, please visit www.GwinnettDwellings.com
Recent information from Standard and Poor’s Case – Shiller Price Index shows that the Atlanta/Gwinnett Market home prices MAY have bottomed out?
For three months now, resale prices of single-family homes in the metro area have been inching up, according to new data from the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index.
“Atlanta, Dallas, Minneapolis and Tampa showed improvements in their annual and monthly returns, but all four are still too close to their recent lows to determine if the markets have stabilized,” S&P says.
Over a year’s time, prices in metro Atlanta are down 8.2 percent. This decline is considerably lesss than the 20-city composite average of 16.3 percent.
That index and S&P’s 10-city index both show record annual declines, but the month-to-month change has slowed which is probably good news for us in Gwinnett County and all of the Atlanta market. Now what we need is Buyers and Sellers to make the decision to move, price the homes accordingly and realize that not all homes are distressed sales. From May to June, home prices fell 2.2 percent, whereas from February to April the pace of decline was 6 percent.
“There are signs of a slowdown in the rate of decline across the metro areas, but no evidence of a bottom,” said David Blitzer, chairman of S&P’s index committee. Personally I feel as though the “bottom” is either past us or we are in it currently. Maybe in December/January prices will decline slighty but that is a normal correction in my opinion.
Atlanta’s prices have increased 1.3 percent since April. The June to July change was an increase of 0.4 percent.
Home prices nationwide peaked in June 2006. Las Vegas, Phoenix and Miami have been the worst performers over 12 months. Prices have fallen 28-30 percent in those cities.
Now is the time to start to look into buying or selling real estate. Do not wait until we are past the bottom.
Recent information from Standard and Poor’s Case – Shiller Price Index shows that the Atlanta/Gwinnett Market home prices MAY have bottomed out?
