jeeponrock's Blog: All Categories

Garages are a specialty. Oddly, after deciding that I really wanted to focus on fellow gear heads, I find that there is more of a need than I thought. Personally, the garage has always been one of the first places I went to when looking at a house. I guess I enjoy it in the same way a cook enjoys the kitchen, and a movie buff enjoys the media room.

And then I catch a news story that garages are the new exercise room, kinda like pink is the new black. It seems that there are a lot of people like me that enjoy the time out in the garage. The garage make-over business has become huge. There are tons of products to enhance the storage, clear the clutter and generally beautify the garage. Of course, after getting it cleaned up, there are about 300 different…

I was out showing a house to a contractor for a buyer the other day. As they toured the house and sized it up for renovations, we spent a lot of time chatting about the market, strategies for prospering, and building wealth through real estate.

While I'm not enough of a typist to cover everything that we said, I would like to pass along a few of my impressions of the conversation. Keep in mind that I am the agent of the seller, and therefore not working "for" this buyer.

As a little background about the property, it is a nice entry level home in a suburb of Atlanta. It has a pretty good sized yard, and reasonable location. It has been partially remodeled, but some of the work is a little less than desirable. The kitchen was done a bit too cheaply,… Read Full Post

As promised, I wanted to delve a little deeper into this subject.

The first thing we need to get out of the way is the "Myth of 6%". Since the VAST majority of sellers that are going unrepresented (FSBOs) offer to pay 3% to a buyer's agent, we can cut that number down to 3% (the remainder).

Let's start with an average house, perhaps something around $250k. That 3% is $7500. The next thing we need to do is go after the listing fees that one might pay with a limited service broker or other broker through one of the popular FSBO companies. The MLS fees for metro Atlanta are generally $499.95 and then .25% ($625 for our example). So, let's knock $1125 off of the "profit" for a savings of $6375. Add a virtual tour, and a little advertising (if you want… Read Full Post

As I watched TV recently, I noticed a commercial for a very popular "By Owner" company. There were a string of people giving testimonials about how much money they saved using this company's services.

Then, earlier today I saw that there was an article in the NY Times about how unrepresented sellers (FSBOs) in one city, Madison, WI, when studied between 1998 and 2004, sold their homes for about the same price as represented sellers.

Interesting. I already am familiar with data from the National Association of REALTORS that shows that the median price of MLS listed homes is 16% higher than non-listed, FSBO homes. I also know there are a couple of holes in the NAR data that are big enough to drive a truck through. The glaring issue that I have with the… Read Full Post

I was out showing a house to a contractor for a buyer today. As they toured the house and sized it up for renovations, we spent a lot of time chatting about the market, strategies for prospering, and building wealth through real estate.

While I'm not enough of a typist to cover everything that we said, I would like to pass along a few of my impressions of the conversation. Keep in mind that I am the agent of the seller, and therefore not working "for" this buyer.

As a little background about the property, it is a nice entry level home in a suburb of Atlanta. It has a pretty good sized yard, and reasonable location. It has been partially remodeled, but some of the work is a little less than desirable. The kitchen was done a bit too cheaply, but the… Read Full Post

I had a new experience today. Not that I am new to real estate, but I just hadn't had the occasion to hang out for one of these. I attended an eviction. The clean-out crew, locksmith and Sheriff's Deputy we all scheduled to arrive at 1:00. I got there a few minutes early. My job was to take a look at the property, and put on a lockbox with the new key.

The rest of the players arrived, and the deputies entered and cleared the house. There was nobody inside, there were no guns, cash, drugs or other things that needed to be secured. We all walked into the house, and the clean-out crew began to take a few pictures. Very little remained, and most of what was left was piled in the garage. It was first staged to the driveway, then loaded into a trailer for…

Not too long ago, I had a friend and client tell me that he and his wife were "stalking" a house.

Around the corner, in the same subdivision they were in was a house that they loved.  In their case, they were friends with the owners, and joked that when their friends moved, they wanted the house.  It got me thinking... always a dangerous act. 

My wife and I have been stalking a house, too.  We don't know the owners.  We just admire it as we drive by.  Every day.  Several times.  OK, the route to my son's daycare goes right by the house, so each time we go to take him or pick him up we drive right by.  There is a beautiful front yard.  We are talking about a golf course quality yard.  I'd have to hire someone to keep me from killing it.  There is also a…

My wife and I are thinking of buying a new house.  So, we've been out looking at houses.  It's tough.  We like our house (like, not love) and we really like where we live.  As we look around, we wonder if we really want to move.  We definitely want more space.  We have a three bedroom house and would like to have a four bedroom house.  We have a two car garage, and really need more space there (I could fill a six car garage).  The yard is a good size, and fenced, like we need it.  Enough about that.

What it comes down to is that we are thinking about and talking about renovating vs. buying a new home.  We have pretty much ruled out adding a new master suite, which would be perfect but expensive.  The neighborhood will only support about $30k in… Read Full Post