Pricing property to sell!

Boy I love Clark Howard!This was in Clark Howard’s advice column this morning:
Oddball pricing strategy works in down real estate market

Selling a house is a turbo-challenge right now. Clark’s mom recently put her condo on the market. Figuring out the price point was the most difficult part. Everyone’s perplexed by the question of price point these days. Here’s some advice: Don’t look at comps from a year or 2 ago; look at today’s comps. Know that if you overprice, you’ll likely get less in the end than those who price realistically upfront. You lose your initial marketing thrust when you overprice upfront. Listing your home at a realistic price will lead to less angst, a shorter time on the market and possibly a better price.Clark and Christa have a mutual friend who was selling her home last year. Clark advised the friend to price her home at a totally oddball figure, something that ended in $XXX,552.27, for example. Everyone laughed at him at the time. Now financial writer Jonathan Clements reveals this pricing strategy actually works. When you throw out an oddball figure, people think 2 things: First, that it’s a bargain. Second, that’s there is carefully thought out reason behind it. But whatever you do, do not overprice your home!

Great advice for any Atlanta Real Estate seller!

To view the today’s column in it’s entirety, click here

Easy East Point~ Atlanta’s best kept secret?

I’m always learning new tidbits about Atlanta communities.
While on an appointment in East Point last week, I got to chatting (as you know I do!) with a seller about the community.
I asked, “What do you love most about living in East Point?”? He replied with, “There are so many reasons, let me just write them all down”.
Here is his open letter to you, potential East Point resident.

“Thanks for letting me be a spokesperson for East Point.  Let me start off by saying that my wife and I have both lived in Atlanta for the last 12 years (most of which we didn’t know each other).  Between the two of us we have lived in Buckhead, Emory, Decatur, Grant Park, Vinings, Smyrna, North Lake, Alpharetta, East Lake, and Midtown. 

Here are some great reasons to live in East Point:

1. Ft McPherson.  This is actually the reason we moved here in the first place.  The closing of Ft. McPherson will result in a massive redevelopment of 480 acres of land between downtown and the airport.  That’s 5 times the size of Atlantic Station.  I have attached two links that show the final draft of the plans for the reuse.  The first one is a very large pdf that has lots of detail.  The second is a smaller file that shows that our house will be within 1/4 mile of mixed use and high density retail area with restaurants and shopping as well as 1/4 mile from park space.  In the pictures you can see our house is right between the fort and Langford Parkway.  In a few years, this land will be easily one of the best places to live.  If we weren’t moving to Indiana to be closer to my wife’s family, we would live here for a very long time.  It actually makes me a little mad to be moving.
http://www.mcphersonredevelopment.com/documents/FINALDRAFTReusePlan.pdf
http://www.mcphersonredevelopment.com/documents/FtMc-newsletter-Oct2007-v6.pdf

2. Small town life.  The city of East Point is just plain cute.  Once you et off Langford Parkway you feel like you are miles and miles away from the city.  They have a very small town feel – you should come and see their fireworks display on the 4th of July.  It’s not as big a Lenox, but it is infinitely more intimate and family orientated.  They also have little fairs and markets right downtown throughout the year.  City Hall, the fire department, police station and the library are all within 100 feet of each other (and trust me, going to East Point city hall is so much nicer and easier than City of Atlanta’s).  There is also a park and a great recycling center.  You will often see lots of people riding their bikes along Main Street in the summer because it’s so flat too!

3. Locally owned and operated.  East Point doesn’t have many chains, other than the gas stations and a Taco Bell.  Every store and restaurant is locally owned and operated.  Taco Pete is fantastic – it looks like a little hut, but their food is great and the people are so nice (they actually remember you).  Thumbs up Diner, Q’s, El Roccio, Chick a Loes are all great places to eat.  If you drive down a little further into College Park you can also go to the Brake Pad – a favorite of local cops which is always a good sign for a great place to eat.  East Point also just opened some art store or gallery.  I haven’t been in yet, but I will.

4. Marta.  I work up in Sandy Springs in the king and queen building.  So I am able to take Marta to work every day.  It’s only a 5 minute walk which isn’t bad even when it’s cold or raining.  We were even able to sell one of our cars and live with just one very easily, which was so nice.  $53 per month vs. a car payment, gas and insurance?  I did enroll in the flex car program, so if I NEEDED a car, I would have easy access to one.

5. East Point Corner Tavern.  I was going to add this to the list of locally owned and operated places, but I feel it deserves it’s own number.  This place epitomizes why I REALLY love East Point.  Every where I have lived in Atlanta, there has seemed to be unspoken friction between groups.  That doesn’t happen in East Point.  I promise.  Go up to East Point Corner Tavern on a Saturday night to see Karaoke, or Friday for ‘Adult Trivia’.  You will see men, women, old, young, black, white, straight, gay, rich, poor, hip and square… everyone all getting along and hanging out together.  And that’s true just about everyone in East Point.  Everyone coexists in harmony.  It sounds corny, I know.  But to actually see it in action is a wonderful thing.  This is something that I never experienced in any other part of Atlanta.   I can’t tell you how much I will miss this place when I move.  On a side note, the staff is so friendly, relaxed, and attentive.  Oh, and their food is out of this world – upscale bar food, so they offer salmon burgers but no wings.

6. Utility bill.  City of East Point has you electric, water, sewer and trash on one bill.  Even in the summertime, I have never paid more that $160 in a month.  And I like air conditioning a lot.  Also, you can just put your yard waste along the road and a truck will come by and suck it up and turn it into mulch for the parks.  Obviously it’s nice to not have to bag leaves.

7. Location.  Minutes from the airport (or you can take marta).  You can take back roads to downtown and get to CNN in 10 minutes (my wife worked there, so that’s not an exaggeration).  Langford parkway can either take you to the Connector or to 285. 

If I can think of any more reasons, I’ll let you know.  I really think that East Point has something special going on that people should want to be part of. ”

Now, if THAT isn’t a testimonial for East Point, Atlanta, I don’t know what is!

Three Candidates- Three proposed “solutions” to current housing and mortgage issues

Housing and mortgage issues have become a strong topic of discussion during the Presidential primary campaign.  Though McCain, Obama and Clinton all support efforts to help defaulting subprime borrowers by refinancing into less costly replacement mortgages, such as FHA, the candidates’ similarities end there.  Three different solutions are sketched out below:

John McCain supports the Bush administration’s private-sector hypothetical cure to the foreclosure problem — efforts like the Hope Now Alliance and the recent Project Lifeline concept that offers distressed borrowers an extra 30 days to work things out with lenders before they lose their homes to foreclosure.

Hilary Clinton wants to clamp a 90 day moratorium on all foreclosures, in addition to a freeze of subprime adjustable mortgage rates for a minimum five years. Obama proposes the creation of a new $10 billion federal “Foreclosure Prevention Fund”. The Fund would be designed to help people renegotiate loans with their current lenders or to short-sell their homes.  Not to be outdone, Clinton says that $10 billion won’t be eonugh, and promises that her version of this fund would be three times the size of Obama’s.

Barack Obama also would promote a change to federal bankruptcy laws that lenders say would force them to raise rates.  In addition, Barack wants to empower bankruptcy judges to reduce borrowers’ mortgage debts to lenders — something the banking industry is now fighting desperately on Capitol Hill.  Obama also wants to create a new write off program for lower and middle-income homeowners who don’t currently itemize on their federal taxes. This plan would include a “universal tax credit” for 10 million borrowers that may save them an estimated average of $500 a year.  I’m not trying to advocate for any one candidate, I like parts of each candidate’s proposed plan of action. Just want to present a simple boiled down view…

How affordable is Atlanta- city comparison

Most of the information below is taken from the Atlanta Development Authority newsletter, 2/5/08.

When someone asks, “How affordable is Atlanta?” what they mean is, “What is the cost of living in Atlanta?” One method of determining the cost of living is to measure and compare the prices of good and services from metropolitan areas in the United States. The Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER) developed an index to measure cost of living differences across urban areas. Formerly known as the American Chamber of Commerce Research Association (ACCRA), the ACCRA Cost of Living Index (COLI) is a widely used tool for cost of living comparisons. The composite index uses 57 weighted measures including such indicators as mortgage rates, home prices, phone bills, apartment rental costs and the costs of ground beef, dry cleaning, doctor visits, electricity and gasoline. COLI is one of the most reliable, most quoted sources for city-to-city comparisons of key consumer costs available among researchers.
COLI is recognized by the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CNN Money and the President’s Council of Economic Advisors. COLI data and methodology is continuously reviewed by academic researchers and government officials and is referenced in the U.S. Census Bureau’s statistical abstract of the U.S.
The COLI does not measure inflation (price increase over time). Because each quarterly COLI is a separate comparison of prices at a single point in time, and because both the number and the mix of participants change from one quarter to the next, COLI data from different quarters cannot be compared. For inflation data, contact the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) at www.bls.gov.
Using a measure of 100 as the national average for the third quarter of 2007, Atlanta has a composite index score of 98. That means Atlanta’s cost of living is 2 percent lower than the national average.
How to use the ACCRA Cost of Living Index
According to the COLI, for the 3rd quarter of 2007, Atlanta has a composite index of 98.0 and Orlando has a composite index of 104.6. If you live in Atlanta and are contemplating a job offer in Orlando, how much of an increase in your after-taxes income is needed to maintain your present lifestyle?
The Atlanta to Orlando calculation is:
100*[(Orlando – Atlanta)/Atlanta] = 100*[(104.6-98.0)/98.0] = 100*(.0673) = 6.73 percent, or about a 6.7 percent increase
Conversely, if you are considering a move from Orlando to Atlanta, how much of a cut in after-taxes income can you sustain without diminishing your present lifestyle?
The Orlando to Atlanta calculation is:
100*[(Atlanta – Orlando)/Orlando] = 100*[(98.0 – 104.6)/104.6] = 100*(-.0631) = -6.31 percent, or about a 6.3 percent reduction
The following table compares COLI scores for several metropolitan areas:
CityCOLI
New York (Manhattan)213.0
Oakland 147.0
San Diego 138.9
Washington, D.C. 137.0
Boston 136.8
Seattle 123.3
Minneapolis 110.4
Denver 105.0
Orlando 104.6
Phoenix 100.9
U.S. 100.0
Jacksonville 99.4
Atlanta 98.0
Albuquerque 97.8
Pittsburgh 94.2
Charlotte 92.6
Cincinnati 91.8
St. Louis 90.6
Nashville 88.1
Houston 87.6

Source: ACCRA Cost of Living Index
3rd Quarter, 2007
http://www.coli.org

For more information on COLI, go to the council’s website at www.c2er.org or to the COLI web site at www.coli.org.