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Atlanta Real Estate: Atlanta Foreclosures - Not All They're Cracked Up To Be

It use to be that if you heard about an Atlanta home going into foreclosure, that you wanted to jump all over the opportunity of getting the best deal in town. Well that may not always be the case these days. Foreclosure statistics are astounding for the Atlanta real estate market today. In April alone there were 7,271 foreclosures reported by national foreclosure research firm Realty Trac LLC. And believe it or not, that number was down from the previous month, which boasted 11,047 (nearly a 45% increase from February)!

Yes, foreclosures are coming fast and fierce in the Atlanta Real Estate market – but what does that mean for you? Does that mean you should rule out non-foreclosure Homes For Sale in Atlanta and solely wait on a foreclosure to come up in the neighborhood you are wanting? Or does it mean you shouldn’t narrow your search to a specific Atlanta neighborhood or community at all, instead searching for any and all foreclosures around metro Atlanta...

Read More in My Atlanta Real Estate Blog Article:
Atlanta Foreclosures - Not All They're Cracked Up To Be

Atlanta Real Estate: Village Place Brookhaven & Brookhaven Village

Although everything about Atlanta feels like home to me, I can’t actually claim it’s where I grew up. I’m actually born and raised a “Yankee” from Boston, Mass. I definitely don’t miss driving to school in –10 degree weather, or shoveling snow every Saturday morning, or the dirty slushy mess it turns into around April every year. Yes, in deed, I love the change of seasons in Atlanta! What I do miss, though, are the quaint towns of the Northeast. The town square where your local shops and restaurants thrive. We use to walk “downtown” every day after school. I tried and tried to replicate that in Atlanta, but found it few in far between when I first moved here in 1992. Well times are a changing!

Welcome the new Village Place Brookhaven and Brookhaven Village, two new mixed-use communities with a mass of new shops, restaurants, and residences...

Read More in My Atlanta Real Estate Blog Article:
Atlanta Mixed-Use Communities: Village Place Brookhaven & Brookhaven Village

Also, Read My Atlanta Real Estate Blog Article:
The Atlanta Luxury Homes Market - Better Than Ever!

Atlanta Real Estate: Inflated Appraisals - A Thing of The Past

Imagine my excitement when I listed a home on March 29th and had a close to a full price offer 3 days later! Not to mention, there were two other buyers that wanted to submit an offer as well. In Atlanta’s real estate market, selling your home so quickly is virtually unheard of today! I took pride in the fact that my clients had “spruced” up their home in line with our advice and that our marketing efforts had really paid off. We were under contract by April 2nd and my sellers were ecstatic!

We made it through the inspection period with very few repair items…. the only contingency remaining was the appraisal. Who would have dreamed that a home with this much interest would not appraise? So imagine my surprise when the appraiser called and said the appraisal was coming in $7,000 below the sale price! What?!

This situation is becoming fairly common in Atlanta’s real estate market. The contributing factors being a surplus of inventory, a record number of short sales and foreclosures, and buyers wrapping their closing costs into their loan thus inflating the sales price.

Such was the case in this instance; the only home that had sold in their neighborhood in the past 6 months was a foreclosure. The foreclosure was driving the house values down considerably. Plus the buyer wanted to add $6,000 of closing costs on top of the sales price. As a buyer in today’s market, you need to consider ALL comparable properties because foreclosures are so common they may actually dictate the new value of a neighborhood.

Whether you are the buyer or the seller, if you find yourself in the situation of a low appraisal there are options:

• Closing Costs: If the buyer is adding closing costs to the sales price, it would be best to remove that value and each party plan on paying their own closing costs in cash.
• Foreclosure/Short Sale: Speak with the Appraiser and see if you can provide other comparable properties that may be more accurate than a “distressed sale”. Submit that list to the underwriter and ask for a review of the appraisal.
• Order a Second Appraisal: First, ask the lender for a list of approved appraisers. Either the seller or the buyer can pay for the second appraisal. Sometimes the second appraisal will come in higher than the first, especially if the first appraiser was inexperienced or made mistakes.
• Renegotiate the Sales Price: Once you are under contract, both parties have vested interest in making the deal work out. It may be wise to try to find a happy median that both buyer and seller feel is a fair price.

Our situation ended up having a happy ending, as I was able to present different comparables to the appraiser and we removed the sellers' closings costs. In the end, the appraiser did agree that the old saying, “A home is worth what a buyer is willing to pay for it” seemed to ring true.

But sellers beware. Listen to your agent when they are describing market conditions and the true value of your home. In today’s real estate market comparables are only relevant about 3 months back, last year prices are NOT today’s prices! Inflated appraised values are a thing of the past. Going forward, it is absolutely necessary for the health of the Atlanta real estate market to ensure an accurate appraisal. In the long term, it will benefit everybody – buyers and sellers alike.