Atlanta Housing Source

Vanderbilt subdivision, Sugar Hill, Georgia is conveniently located in Gwinnett County off Level Creek Road north of West Price Road and close to E. E. Robinson Park. The neighborhood is only minutes from downtown Suwanee.

Vanderbilt is very close to outstanding amenities like shopping, fine restaurants, and Old Town Suwanee.

The outstanding local schools that server Vanderbilt are Level Creek Elementary, Lanier Middle, & North Gwinnett High School.

Home in Vanderbilt are typically priced from$225K to $330K, so there are homes in a choice of price ranges for any Sugar Hill or Gwinnett county home buyer.

Markim Forest, Sugar Hill, Georgia is conveniently located in Gwinnett County off Level Creek Road north of West Price Road and close to E. E. Robinson Park. The neighborhood is only minutes from downtown Suwanee.

Markim Forest is very close to outstanding amenities like shopping, fine restaurants, and Old Town Suwanee.

The outstanding local schools that server Markim Forest Are Level Creek Elementary, Lanier Middle, & North Gwinnett High School.

Home in Markim Forest are typically priced from$155K to $180K, so there are homes in a choice of price ranges for any Sugar Hill or Gwinnett county home buyer.

You can see all of the available homes in this subdivision by visiting our site.

We just got the banks acceptance of a short sale offer, which had been at the bank awaiting approval for four months.  My buyer is ecstatic. Think about it, four months to get approval and then we spend another 30 days with financing, appraisals and getting to the closing table.  Five months total.

Its almost the first of March and if you write an offer on a short sale home tomorrow, March 1 and it takes the four to five months to get  closed as we just experienced, if you are lucky, you are closing on the last allowable day, June 30, to get the $8,000 first time homebuyer credit from the federal government.  Miss that by one day and you miss the $8,000.

Now I’m not a gambling man and don’t know if you are, but, I wouldn’t risk the chance of losing $8,000 waiting on the bank.  There are thousands of homes out there for sale that only need the owner, Mr. and Mrs. Homeowner to sign and then you can close in less than 45 days from offer to move-in.

I am advising my first time home buyer clients to beware of short sales if they want to get to the finish line and collect $8,000.  While I know this news disturbs all the agents with short sale listings, the main reason is many agents don’t understand the short sale process and have not done the work to get the front end work done to speed up the process.

Likewise I have a couple of buyers looking to secure the $6,500 second home buyers credit and I am advising them likewise to beware of writing a contract for a new home that has not been started, up out of the ground.  With all the rain we have been experiencing there is a good chance of delays when digging a foundation, pouring concrete slabs and framing up a home.

Bottom line, there are risks with short sales where you can’t control the banks and new construction where you can’t control the weather.  To be sure to qualify for the first time homebuyer $8,000 and second home $6,500 write a contract that has a great chance of closing in time and don’t ride a deal down to the end only to run past June 30.

A few years ago we bought a new home and every Saturday and Sunday when we wanted to sleep in we were awoken with the rhythmic music of the tapping of hammers. Well that music of tapping hammers died a couple of years ago, when new home construction came to a near halt.

Like the line in the Don McLean song American Pie “some thing touched me deep inside the day the music died”, we were all touched when the tapping of hammers almost came to a stop in the last few years. Well I’m here to tell you that the music has resumed as I witnessed it with my own ears this week.

While searching the MLS for a home for transferee I found those listings we use to find, ones without a picture and only a sketch or rendering of what the home would look like. Well, my buyer and I ventured to see the development where the four sketches were being built.

Like music to our ears we arrived in a beehive of activity and red mud. There was raw dirt just recently exposed for multiple basements and the heavy equipment was parked on an empty lot down the hill. Trucks full of concrete were there with their loads spinning, waiting to pour down the chute to the carefully prepared forms.

There were vans and trucks of all shapes and colors parked along one side of the road. Back when we moved into the new subdivision I remember the traffic jams all the construction vehicles would cause and remembered complaining when they parked on both sides of the road totally blocking access. Now instead of complaints of traffic jams we welcome the confusion and congestion because it represents recovery for us all.

I just stood back and took it all in. Twelve homes under construction in one subdivision and five in another. There must have been at least sixty construction workers of some sort there. Think of it, sixty jobs when we are a country starved for jobs. And think of the other jobs the construction was creating through the ripple down to suppliers and subsequent trades to be on site during the building process.

Here was a ‘manned’ sales office with an agent on duty. When was the last time you heard that one. The builder was in his office, managing schedules of labor and materials. Everyone had mud on their shoes. It was great!

How sweet the memories that this experience conjured up, with the smell of freshly turned dirt, sawdust and diesel, Memories from years ago during the housing boom. It is amazing what once was an inconvenience is now music to my ears.

Folks, the music has resumed! The music of the engine that turns our world, housing and the jobs it creates. So listen in the distance for that heavy equipment moving dirt, the sound of trucks loaded with construction supplies rumbling down our road, the buzz of saws and that rhythmic tapping out of the hammers. The music is not dead, and it is touching each and every one of you.

FHA has announced sweeping changes that range from increased down payment requirement from 3.5% to 10% in certain cases, increased Mortgage Insurance Premiums (MIP) by half a percent and cutting allowed sellers contributions by half.

Read More:

                                          Washington Post Article

So you’ve decided the time has come to purchase a home. With the real estate market in decline, this can be an opportune time to purchase a property at a price well below market value. However, you will still need to make sure your credit is in order, so you can obtain a home at the best rate possible.

Your credit score will determine whether you can qualify to purchase a home, and will have a substantial impact on the interest rate you can obtain for a mortgage loan. A low credit score may mean that you will be charged high a interest rate on your loan, and in some circumstances, it may even disqualify you from buying a house altogether.

Before you even begin shopping for a home, it is a good idea to obtain your credit report from the three main reporting agencies: Experian; Equifax; and TransUnion. Lenders may use one or all of these agencies when determining if you qualify for a loan, so it’s important to know what the information is being provided by all three agencies.

You will also want to obtain your credit score from all three agencies. This score is not always included with credit reports, so you may have to purchase this information separately. Credit scores range from 300 to 800 – generally, mortgage lenders will want to see a minimum score of 650 before they will consider a loan applicant; most prefer a score of 700 or above.

If your credit score is lower than you expected, look through your credit reports for negative items, such as late payments and charge offs. If any of these items are present, make sure that they are accurate. If not, you will need to contact the reporting agencies to file explanations stating that these items are inaccurate.

If the negative items are accurate, only time and diligence will raise your credit score. In some cases, if an extraordinary event caused you to be late on credit card or installment loan payments, the lender will accept a letter of explanation detailing why these negative events occurred. However, this is the exception rather than the rule, so don’t expect the lender to be terribly willing to accept such an explanation.

Barring an explanation letter, you will simply need to re-establish a positive credit history to raise your credit score. The older a negative item is, the less it will impact your score, so paying bills on time and keeping loans current will help you raise your score relatively quickly.

If possible, you should wait until you have raised your credit score before you seriously begin looking for a home to purchase. Although there are lenders that will provide mortgage loans to applicants with poor credit, they will charge substantially higher interest rates, which can cost you thousands of dollars over the life of the loan.

At Atlanta Housing Source, we work with a mortgage company that can provide a “what if” scenario. What if I pay this balance off? What if I rearrange my balances more equally among all my credit lines? Etc. This allows our clients to know what to work on first and how long it will take them to qualify for the loan.

Peachtree Forest subdivision, located in the Peachtree Corners area of  Norcross in Gwinnett county, Ga.

Peachtree Forest subdivision, Norcross, GA.  is conveniently located in Gwinnett County near Jaybird Alley and Spalding Road.  The neighborhood is only minutes away from fine shopping and dining at the Forum.

Peachtree Forest is very close to outstanding amenities like activity/soccer field, playgrounds, tennis courts, Peachtree World of Tennis, and one of the newest of Gwinnett County’s Water Recreational Park. Peachtree Forest is one of Norcross’ most established and desirable neighborhoods.

The outstanding local schools that serve Peachtree Forest are Peachtree Elementary, Pinckneyville Middle, and Norcross High.  The school buses make stops throughout the neighborhood.

Homes in Peachtree Forest are typically priced from the mid $200’s to $400’s, so there really are homes in a choice of price ranges for any Norcross or Gwinnett County home buyer.

 SEE ALL PEACHTREE FOREST HOMES FOR SALE

 “We just won’t sell my home for that amount; it would be giving it away.”  

That is what the sellers says when the appraisal come in lower than the agreed upon contract selling price.  We have a willing buyer and willing seller but the appraiser holds down home values and won’t let the transaction go forward at the contract price.  How are we ever going to get out of this economic mess if this continues to occur?  How can home building start back with this narrow minded thinking? 

As an example, a half completed development was selling in the low $200s. The builder can’t pay his loan payment and looses all the remaining 12 homes to foreclosure.  The bank takes over and does a fire sale to dump them quickly.  The same home, same builder is selling 2 miles away in the $180s in the depressed market. 

So what does the bank do, they unload them in the $140s to sell quickly, and quickly they sell-  all under contract in a matter of days.  It makes sense, a lot of supply lowers price.  Then comes my seller and he is the only one for sale in the same complex as the bank sales were in. 

Now the supply is down to one home and a buyer writes an offer in the $150s.  So what does the appraiser do, well he continues to hold down prices by appraising our listing at the average price of the fire sale that took place. He forgets the supply is now limited and demand is up. 

If it were cars in demand and short supply the dealer marks them up over the manufacturers recommended price.  Collectables go up in value when the supply is small and down when the supply is large.  It’s basic Economics 101. 

So we have a chance to start to have home values increase when the willing buyer and willing seller agreed on a price, but the appraiser holds values down.  If this trend continues we will never have a rising market and home values will never change unless someone wants another fire sale and they go down. 

How can we get the government to stop the regulation that is stifling the home market recovery?  Here is the coming dilemma we are going to have to deal with.  At some point there will be a shortage of homes for sale, in the next few years. 

When we suddenly find that we haven’t built enough homes to meet demand and a builder goes into that community to build new homes he will have second thoughts.  The cost to acquire the land and build the same home as there now is in the $180s to $190s, but an appraiser will tell him he can’t sell for more than the $140s.  Who will build with a planned $40,000 to $50,000 loss? 

The builder will just walk away and not build.  So then when demand is screaming for more homes inventory to buy, will the values go up to the $190s over night.

Congress has extending & expanded the home buyer tax credit. There are several changes, so we wanted to share with you what will be in effect as soon as the President signs the bill.

New bill will be in effect until April 30^th 2010. Must have written binding contracts for the purchase on or before April 30^th.  Must complete sale by July 1.

First time Home Buyer Credit Amount

No Change – Up to $8,000 ($4,000 married filing separately)

First time Home Buyer Eligibility

No Change – May not have had an interest in a principal residence for 3 years prior to purchase.

Current Home Owner Amount of Credit

NEW *** Up to $6,500.00 ($3,250 married filing separately)

Effective Date for Current Home Owner Credit

Date of Enactment

Current Home Buyer Eligibility

Previous/ Current House must have been a primary residence 5 of the previous 8 years.

Income Limits

Increased from $75,000 – $125,000 for Singles

Increased from $150,000 to $225.00 for Married Couples

Additional $20,000 phase out still applies

Limitation on Cost of Purchased Home

The new bill enacts a limit of $800,000 effective the date of enactment

Anti-Fraud Rule

Do to the numerous people falsely claiming the credit, the new bill will require documentation of purchase along with the filing of tax return.

If you are interested in finding out more, please contact us.

We received the latest list of advertised foreclosures in the Barrow, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett, Hall & Walton counties only. There were over 6,100 advertised foreclosures and that did not include the other 5 metro counties like Cobb, Paulding, Cherokee, Douglas, & Dekalb. We reported back in August what we thought was a record which was close to 5,000, so this month’s numbers are very shocking. 

What we found when we look at the list this month was a lot more commercial properties which is also unusual.  Even properties that are highly desirable and have tenants are being foreclosed. We read about the new shopping center in Norcross – The Forum, narrowly escaping foreclosure last month. In that article, it forecasted that there would be additional commercial up for foreclosure, but I had no idea that the amount of foreclosures would be this high. 

So what is going to happen with this additional inventory coming onto the market? You probably remember your economics 101 class – more supply, less demand equals lower prices. Just when you think it can’t get even lower, we find that there is a near 20% increase into an already bulging market. 

While this is a great opportunity for some, it is creating additional challenges for those who need to sell. Someone recently shared with me the concept that sellers are under “house arrest” because there is nothing that they can do to liquidate their home without taking a large loss in equity. Most homeowners are counting on their homes’ equity for retirement and with prices falling at an alarming rate, it is going to take a long time to recover from this loss. 

So what is the upside in this? The only thing we can share is that if you are in the market to purchase, there is no better time to buy. If you can put up with the challenges of working with banks, there is great money to be made. Banks are realizing that there are not enough qualified buyers for their homes, so relatively reasonable offers are being considered and whether you are purchasing to occupy or put into rental service, the discounts are amazing.

If you want to take advantage of this great market, make sure that you are working with an expert real estate agent that understands how to work with the banks to get your deal accepted. Also, because the market is shifting, you want to make sure that you are getting the best information possible about a home and area to make sure that you are able to make the best buying decision.

Want to be alerted to the newest foreclosures on the market? Contact us or complete a short form and we will send you the newest homes on the market.