I get it, for 25 years you've dutifully paid your homeowner's insurance and never made a claim.  Your neighbors just had some vendor knock on their door, had them view their roof from the street and now they're replacing their roof from the (I love this one) - hail damage.  Atlanta is an area where we haven't had moisture for ten years and suddenly, intermittently in the same town, wherever a homeowner was home that day, their roof has hail damage.  What a coincidence.  Hey, just get the check from your insurance company and go on that vacation you deserve.

Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange or CLUE is a database that records claims for insurance companies, pretty similar to CARFAX reports.   All of your home insurance claims are listed and kept for 5 years.  Everything is there, the date, type of loss, such as mold remediation.  If an insurance company decides that a CLUE report is too risky he can refuse to insure that home.  That means the lender won't lend to the prospective buyer of your home unless they can find an independent who will charge them (pardon the pun) through the roof.

Buyers and sellers should order the report and just deal with it up front as it's not insurmountable but may cost you in your sales price or some other concession as the buyer will have higher rates for some time to come.

Generalities on Atlanta Short Sales:

#1 rule for Atlanta Short Sales:  Patience, patience, and more patience.

No matter how many pages of documents you are required to fill out, initial, and/or date and sign, if you want the bank to even consider your offer, Nike - Just do it, don't question it.  The entire contract should include ALL paperwork (and some may come later), a copy of your earnest money check, a letter from your lender or a letter from your bank if you are paying cash.  If you pile on the special stipulations, ask for closing costs, give a distant closing date, or don't want the property sold in strictly "as is" condition, your chances of consideration are between slim and none.

The term "time is of the essence" will take on new meaning.  The bank will want you to jump when they say and then take weeks to get back to you.  No rhyme, no reason.  While the bank may have given themselves the ability to move the closing date, they will have a "take no prisoners" attitude should you want to change the closing date for any reason, valid to you or not.  Let your attorney tear the addenda apart at $200 per hour, send your changes to the bank and kiss the property goodbye.

Don't be under the assumption that a given foreclosure is the deal of a lifetime, most especially if there are two mortgages on the property.  I had lunch with a colleague yesterday who is in her 18^th month on a short sale (notice it's not "quick sale").  There's a primary and secondary mortgage and neither bank can agree on anything at the same time.  The other side of the coin-if you are willing to do all those repairs to the roof, systems, updating-you might want to look at a great deal with a builder or home listed at fair market value.

There's always that allure of "let's wait and see how far the bank will drop the price."  You'd be surprised at how long banks will hold on.  Other buyers may say, "let's offer half price and see what the bank says."  The bank will issue a resounding "NO!" or merely ignore your offer if the pricing is at market.  As the price may drop in the event the market price in the area drops, the powers that be at the bank already have the math figured out.

The coup de grâce  - all sides are seemingly settled in, all's right with the world and another offer comes in.

No Georgia homestead relief?  OOFFAAH!  It's like getting taken down by an NFL player you never saw coming, although you thought you heard he was in the neighborhood.  A friend of mine from Roswell called today, frantic that the tax bill had gone UP.  Something to do with that word homestead again.  Yesterday, another friend in Gwinnett had just returned from the tax assessor's office.  He doesn't want to escrow his taxes, he just pays them in person once a year.  SLAM!  $460.00 more dollars in taxes than he thought he owed, but he'd been alerted by snail mail and was vaguely aware the freight train was coming, he just ignored the crossing guard lights and bells.  So while the Georgia Homestead Exemption lives (for now), expect tax increases.  Doesn't that usually occur when property values go up?  That's what we all thought.

The Georgia Homestead has provided tax relief to Georgia homeowners in the form of a credit on their property tax bills for many years.   However, as in many other states and the the nation...falling tax revenues, rising unemployment has put an extreme burden on many states including GA.   The GA state government has scrambled to balance revenue-strapped budgets - Georgia lawmakers approved the repeal of the Homeowner's Tax Relief Grant (HTRG).  For most Georgian homeowners, this has already translated into an average increase of between $200 and $300 on each property tax bill.  Be prepared for the loss of homestead this year when paying your tax bill, higher mortgage escrows, less government service and higher tax bill in the future.

When you're ready to purchase a home in Atlanta (or a car for that matter) you should see a loan officer or mortgage planner first.  There are so many options and programs open to Atlanta home buyers that you may want some assistance in planning the best mortgage for your needs over the lifetime of your mortgage, especially if you plan to stay put.  If you'll be in Atlanta for 5 years, you may want to take a loan with a balloon coming due in seven years as opposed to an ARM, a fifteen or thirty year loan for example.  You may want to work with a lender that allows you the choice of paying your mortgage twice a month and save yourself tens of thousands of dollars over the life of the loan.   

First thing to do is check your credit report.  In Georgia, you can check your report for free twice a year with all three credit reporting services (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion).   Credit is very important these days, and the rate you get when buying a home will be a reflection of your credit score.  A poor score will mean a higher rate.

1. Always check for errors which are very common and can take a long time to correct.  If you monitor your reports, you can catch mistakes early.
2. Please make all your payments on time.  This will result in your getting the very best rate and keep your score high.  Why pay sometimes hundreds of dollars in fees?
3. Old accounts count!  Even if you don't use certain cards much, the length of your credit history is a portion of the factor in your credit score.
4. When you spend your accounts to the maximum, you'll bring your ratios way over the top.  If you have your credit card debt alone at half your credit limits, it's factored into your ability to purchase.   Happy house hunting and enjoy the extension on the $8,000 tax credit and you still have time left on the Georgia $1800 tax break.  

One of the items that most buyers have no idea on how it really works is "Lease purhcases!"  Let me go over some very basic concepts of today's lease purchase, most especially because these purchasers also don't understand that at the end of the term, they must buy the house or vacate, and forfeit their earnest money and applied monthly escow.  A lease/purchase contract is not an "option to buy contract" where you put down non-refundable money and at the end of the term if you don't like the house, schools, neighborhood, or whatever you opt, you don't have to go through the final purchase process:  

1.  The deposit money is nonrefundable because no one else can purchase the property during the term of the contract.

2.  The buyer cannot assign the lease purchase agreement (unless the seller approves and they won't).  This is not a rental sub-lease.

3.  Buyers will generally be responsible for maintaining the property and paying all expenses which includes taxes and insurance.

4.  The buyer is obligated to buy.*  

*If the buyer defaults, the buyer will not receive any portion of the option money (deposit), the portion of the lease payments that were paid which would have gone toward down payment, and the seller has the right to sue for specific performance and report your default to the credit bureaus.

“Spring a head, Fall Back” is the way I used to remember which way to set my clock twice a year as we move to and from Daylight Savings back to Standard time. What’s great about the Fall, is that we get to turn our clocks back 1 hour and we get to sleep in an hour later tomorrow morning. Many persons including myself forget to reset all our clocks as the time change takes place at 2:00 am on the first Sunday November 1^st for the United States. If you are in business or have an appointment, it could be a disaster or at least you end up being super early for once in your life.

Many Atlanta homeowners are waking up to the fact that perhaps buying a home in a flood zone wasn’t a good idea. This comes after Atlatna has just come through a record drought.  Maybe buying a home from an Internet portal wasn’t a smart idea since it did not tell you the home you were purchasing was in a flood zone.  The website did not have access to tax maps and flood maps that identified the flood maps and associated hazard.  If you were working with an experienced Atlanta buyers agent, your agent could have easily informed you of that fact, that is if you had an agent.  The sad fact is that it really doesn’t matter if the home is in a 100 or 500 year plain.  Today after record rains in Atlanta... that is just degrees of wet! Many areas of Atlanta over the last few days were inundated with anywhere from 5' to 20 inches of rain in a few days.  It was unrelenting.

An Atlanta Georgia real estate agent who represents a prospective purchaser in a Georgia real estate transaction with a signed agency contract is known as a buyer's agent.  Because members of our Atlanta real estate team hold the ABR designation (Accredited Buyer's Representative), we have additional training and documented experience to afford you a higher level of competence.  We don't just assist you in determining how much you want to spend or can afford, we listen to your needs and desires and locate specific properties.  While we can preview properties for you, we suggest accompanying you while you shop because we can get a better handle on what to tweak in our search parameters.  It's important to identify any criteria you may be considering such as proximity to highways or shopping.  We advise you in forging a contract offer, assist in counteroffers and develop a negotiating strategy.  We have a list we've compiled over the years of qualified inspectors, attorneys, mortgage planners, and miscellaneous vendors suggestions which will help you transition to a smooth closing.  If you'd like a copy of the Georgia Association of Realtors "ABC's of Agency," don't hesitate to email and request one.  This two page brochure explains and helps you understand brokerage relationships in Georgia.  If it's been a while since you purchased a home, you may find this a tremendous help.  It will be our pleasure to assist you!