Fall Home Maintenance MUSTS

Fall weather is perfect in so many ways. That’s why there are so many great festivals and outdoor activities happening all over the city of Atlanta. Not only is it a great time to spend with family and friends, but It’s also the perfect time to get to those home maintenance tasks that you don’t want to sweat to in the heat of the summer or freeze to in the chill of the winter. We recommend a couple easy tasks to make sure you get done this Fall.

Clean those gutters out! - It’s one of those things we only think about when we’re sitting on our front porch enjoying a rainy afternoon and we see water spilling over the edges of our home, leaving trenches around the yard and garden. It’s a little bit of work, but it will be a BIG payoff in the end.

Buy a hose bib insulator – while they’re still cheap! - This is super simple and something you should do every fall, before the freeze of winter sets in. Make sure to insulate your hose bib (outdoor hose faucet) to prevent the splitting, which can be a significant plumbing repair job.

Inspect your attic. – Now that it’s not reaching 100+ degrees up there, you will want to do a thorough inspection to check for things like rodent intrusions and cracks. Make sure to have those problem areas professionally sealed off, especially if you’re living in an older home.

Inspect your crawl space. – Another one you probably don’t want to do in the heat of the summer… or the cold of the winter for that matter. Head on in there and make sure your crawl space is secure from critters and cold. You’ll see energy saving benefits by screening necessary openings and covering huge openings with bricks or blocks.

Call for an HVAC checkup. – This is something that really should be an annual occurrence. Get a technician in to your home to check your gas furnace before you run into problems and end up freezing your you-know-what when the cold of winter rolls on in. The technician will want to check for leaks at joints, make sure your burners are clean & efficient and if you have a heat pump, a check to make sure it’s even operation should do the trick. If your home is 10 years or older, you’ll want to make sure to have an HVAC check-up once a year. Likewise, if you have a new HVAC system, you’ll want to do it to simply maintain the warranty. That’s a pretty expensive piece of equipment to neglect!

Check these tasks off your list this Fall and you’ll be ready to transition into Winter without any hiccups.

If you need recommendations on inspectors/technicians, we have a great inventory of those fixer-upper types here at Red Robin Group. Just give us a call @ 404-254-5206!

Red Robin Group Works Overtime

Red Robin Group is known for our innovative marketing, our smart selling strategies and our ability to network to get buyers and sellers to the closing table faster.

And we're not about to let the current market conditions get the best of us.

Marketing your home to its full potential is a top priority for us and we’ve definitely stepped it up to make your home relevant to today's buyers.

Here’s how:

• Agent Referral Incentives – We're currently offering incentives to agents who can connect us to other agents who may have buyers who may be interested in your home. Whew - sounds like a mouthful, right? Here's how it works: a a seller, you may have several agents bring buyers through your home over a period of time, yet not submit an offer. However, those agents may know OTHER agents who have clients that would be a perfect fit. So if that agent who showed your home can connect us to another agent, and we eventually get to the closing table as a result, we'll pay the referring agent a referral fee.

• Higher Commission Splits for Buyer Agents – Plain and simple, money talks. When we have a challenging property to sell -- like a home that has many substitutable equals at the same price, like a condo or town home -- one rabbit we're pulling out of the hat is a higher sales commission to the buyer's agent. Our theory is that agents will want to show your home over others like it if they’re getting a larger “piece of the pie.” And it works!

• Pocket Listings – We’re working more and more now with more sellers who want to do a "pocket" listing before jumping into a full-service listing. Basically, we sign a listing agreement then network with our current buyer prospects and other agents to generate interest. A pocket listing allows us to "try it out" for a few days while testing some valuable variables -- is our price too high, do we need to work on staging, or better yet, do we have someone who wants to buy it right away before it's listed? And while a pocket listing certainly does not allow us to expose your home to the widest audience of buyers possible, it may make your home appear much more exclusive to the few buyers that do come through.

• Staging & Photography Consulting – At Red Robin Group, we pay a lot of attention to the little details that can make or break the sale of a home. And we believe that when it comes to showing a home at its best, there are two essential elements that go hand in hand: good staging and great photography. Now more than ever, we're getting serious with our sellers on staging advise to get their homes ready for market by giving them to-do lists, asking for progress reports and even connecting them with home staging consultants and all-out stagers. When the home is its best, we hire a professional photographer to do the rest. Afterward, if there's a room or two that's needs a little extra attention in the photography department, we may offer "virtual staging" to turn an empty living room or an appliance-shy kitchen from “shabby” to “chic.
• Full-Time Client Service Manager. For the past year, we've had a full-time client service manager dedicated to communicating with agents to help get our listings sold, as well as communicating with our sellers on agent feedback, market conditions and new strategies to get their homes sold. What's more, our client service manager is instrumental in "cross-selling" our listings: if a home didn't work out for someone else, maybe another one of our listings would be better.
  

• Early Intervention – In the old days (like, 2 years ago), a seller would call us just a couple of weeks before putting their home on the market to talk about pricing, staging and general expectations. Now we're encouraging sellers to call us months beforehand so we can help them prepare financially and "get their house in order” so that when it comes time to market it, everyone's on the same page.

If you have any questions about these and any of our other strategies that get homes SOLD, email us at info@redrobingroup.com or give us a call at 404-254-5206.

Add "Credit Score" to Your Fall To-do List

The changing of the seasons means your "To-Do" list is inevitably growing. It probably goes something like this: 1. Switch out summer clothes, 2. Paint the fence before it gets too cold, 3. Make holiday arrangements, 4. Check my credit score.... wait, what was that last one? Yes, check your credit score. Add that to the list now and you'll be good to go for the next 6-12 months. Here's how you can make sure to stay on top of your credit score...

Need Credit or Insurance? Your Credit Score Helps Determine What You’ll Pay
Ever wonder how a lender decides whether to grant you credit? For years, creditors have been using credit scoring systems to determine if you’d be a good risk for credit cards, auto loans, and mortgages. These days, many more types of businesses — including insurance companies and phone companies — are using credit scores to decide whether to approve you for a loan or service and on what terms. Auto and homeowners insurance companies are among the businesses that are using credit scores to help decide if you’d be a good risk for insurance. A higher credit score means you are likely less of a risk, and in turn, means you will be more likely to get credit or insurance — or pay less for it.

What can I do to improve my score?
Credit scoring systems are complex and vary among creditors or insurance companies and for different types of credit or insurance. If one factor changes, your score may change — but improvement generally depends on how that factor relates to others the system considers. Only the business using the scoring knows what might improve your score under the particular model they use to evaluate your application.

Nevertheless, scoring models usually consider the following types of information in your credit report to help compute your credit score:

• Have you paid your bills on time? You can count on payment history to be a significant factor. If your credit report indicates that you have paid bills late, had an account referred to collections, or declared bankruptcy, it is likely to affect your score negatively.


• Are you maxed out? Many scoring systems evaluate the amount of debt you have compared to your credit limits. If the amount you owe is close to your credit limit, it’s likely to have a negative effect on your score. A good rule of thumb is to always keep your balances at no more than 30% of your limit.


• How long have you had credit? Generally, scoring systems consider the length of your credit track record. An insufficient credit history may affect your score negatively, but factors like timely payments and low balances can offset that.


• Have you applied for new credit lately? Many scoring systems consider whether you have applied for credit recently by looking at “inquiries” on your credit report. If you have applied for too many new accounts recently, it could have a negative effect on your score.

How many credit accounts do you have and what kinds of accounts are they? Although it is generally considered a plus to have established credit accounts, too many credit card accounts may have a negative effect on your score.

Improving your score significantly is likely to take some time, but it can be done.

Credit scores and credit reports:
Your credit report is a key part of many credit scoring systems. That’s why it is critical to make sure your credit report is accurate. Federal law gives you the right to get a free copy of your credit reports from each of the three national consumer reporting companies once every 12 months (some state laws allow for you to get a free copy of your credit report 2-3 times a year). I personally recommend you check your credit report every 6 months.

To order your free annual report from one or all the national consumer reporting companies, and to purchase your credit score, visit http://www.annualcreditreport.com/, call toll-free 877-322-8228, or complete the Annual Credit Report Request Form and mail it to: Annual Credit Report Request Service, P. O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281.

For more information on credit scoring and how it could impact your ability to purchase and or refinance a home contact Brandon Byrd with LoanSouth Mortgage at 404-915-8252 or by email at bbyrd@loansouth.com.

Source: MyFico.com and FTC.gov

More Money. Sell Sooner. 5 Tips to Make It Happen

The dog days of summer are behind us. No more 90-degree weekends, vacations and summer camp. It's back to the usual fair-weather, get-it-done grind. So, if you're looking to get your home on the market soon, now's the time to knock out a few things.

Before we get into the good stuff, let's take a step back and share some stats. According to First Multiple Listing Service's July report, the average "days-on-market" (DOM) from the point a single family, metro-Atlanta area home is "listed" until the day it goes "under contract" right now is 84. Let's say you put your home on the market tomorrow: at 84 DOM, add a few extra weeks for your buyer to get their financing in order after you go under contract, have inspections done and have the home appraised, you'd be looking at mid-January before you back the moving truck down the driveway.

Our goal at Red Robin Group is to beat the Atlanta DOM average by half. If we help you price the home right from the get-go, and we work together to get the place spruced up, we're creating a better opportunity to get your home sold in half the time.

Time and time again, our statistics have shown that in order to get your home sold, you need to be in the bottom 25% of price competitiveness and in the top 25% of showing condition to get the home sold.

In the past, sellers could make up for average or poor showing condition by lowering their price. Unfortunately, that just doesn't cut it anymore. Today, buyers expect your place to show like a million bucks before they even consider submitting an offer. And you can't reasonably begrudge them: buyers are still faced with an over-saturation of inventory (there's just too much too see), they still have insecurity about the housing market (not sure if we've reached the "bottom" yet) and buyers have no disposable income after purchase to restore, renovate and remodel a home that needs help. They want something move-in ready or they'll go down the street, skip to another neighborhood or even cross county lines to find the most home in the best condition for the money.

With these challenges in mind, here are a few suggestions that always seem to make a tremendous difference when it comes to getting your home in its absolute, tip-top showing condition without breaking the bank:

1.Shine that floor! If you have hardwoods, heart-of-pine, parquet or any other type of wood floor that's painted or stained, the absolute, hands-down best product on the market to freshen them up is Rejuvenate. We've used this on our own floors and it's simply incredible. It's cheap, it works, it's easy to use. Every time one of Red Robin Group's sellers uses this product, we ALWAYS get comments on the incredible "refinish job" on the floors from agents and potential buyers. Clean, shiny and "new" looking floors make buyers feel like you've cared for your home from, literally, the floor up. And this is why this product is at the TOP of our list when it comes to home fix-up tricks.

2. Paint those walls and paint that dirty trim! You may have liked that lavender living room when you painted it a few years ago, and your 6-year-old may have really wanted Barney-purple in his room, but it's not 1992 anymore and your kid's in high school now -- what's more, Fido and Fluffy have done a number on the baseboards and door molding over the years. More important, when you're getting ready to put your home on the market, it is absolutely essential to create a sense of unity in the interior structure of the home. The best way to create that is to pick one consistent, neutral wall color and compliment it with a light-colored, gloss enamel for trim, doors and windows.

Our buyer agents consistently hear feedback from their clients that when the interior of the homes they see are painted one consistent, neutral paint color, they remember it as more spacious, cleaner and brighter. Plus, they tend to actually remember more about the house, which is important if they need to mentally "flag their favorite". For houses with different wall colors in every room (especially darker, disparate colors), they tend to remember less about the home, including the floor plan, the size of rooms, and they may even forget altogether some of the rooms they saw.

3. Clean that grout! Remember what you always hear on HGTV? "Kitchens and baths sell houses." So if you can't remodel, then give buyers a kitchen floor, a bathroom floor or a shower surround that they can eat off of. The trick? A grout pen. It's no more than 10 bucks, it comes in many colors, there's a million different kinds, and they make your bathroom floor or kitchen back splash look clean and new. These things are like magic. All of us have had that tile wall or floor that we just can't get any cleaner, and we give up. Well, guess what? A buyer knows you've given up when they see it, and its not a project they want to take on, either. So whip out this pen and make some miracles happen.

4. Plant those flowers! We've said it before and we'll say it again: a buyer makes a decision about a house within the first 10 seconds of pulling into the driveway. Tons of blooming flowers and lush, fresh ferns sure do help create a positive first impression. It shows that you have pride in your home, and that's what buyers are buying - pride. Whenever our buyer agents take their first-time buyers out to a house, if there are no flowers and no nice landscaping out front or (heaven forbid) half the plants are dead and dying, the VERY first question they ask before the ubiquitous "How long has it been on the market?" is "Does anyone live here?" Don't go cheap on this one - get some decent, fully-grown, blooming plants that would make a buyer say "WOW!" before they open the back passenger door and step out of their agent's car.

5. Declutter & stage! This is where most sellers need our help. We know your personal belongings are pretty hard to see past. You place more value on your stuff than a buyer would, and that's understandable: that's why it ended up in your living room and not theirs. And that's why, when we get geared up to list your property, we're going to walk with you from room while making a list of the things that should stay and a list of the things that should go. Bottom line, a buyer needs to be able to visualize their life in the house and not be bombarded with items that cloud that personal image. Some hints? TVs on top of dressers, out. Large wall paintings, in. Anything more than a dining table and four chairs in a 10'x10' dining room, out. Fresh cut flowers, in. From time to time, Red Robin Group may even have some extra staging items to help, and we'll go over all of this in detail when we do our staging walk-through together.

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Take a look at all the photo of the home below where our sellers took every one of the above suggestions to heart...

See that shiny floor? That's the Rejuvenate. The three pieces of furniture, large wall painting and the fireplace screen? Pared down from about 15 other items.

Now CLICK HERE take a look at a slideshow of the entire home, inside and out. You'll see that the grout pen, the staging advice and landscaping tips all came in handy, too. It took the couple 3-4 weeks to get their house ready. Once it hit the market it was under contract in two weeks for more than we originally planning on listing it for.

They got THOUSANDS more and sold it faster by following the five suggestions above.

And who doesn't want more money and less time on the market? All it takes is someone to give you the right suggestions, then when you put in a little elbow grease, good things happen!

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For more tips on how to get your home ready for market this fall -- including color choices, the right decorative items and affordable amenities that are in season for 2010 -- contact a Red Robin Group listing agent at 404-254-5206 x2 or email agents@redrobingroup.com.

Downpayment Assistance From The BeltLine

Wondering if there's any progress happening with the Atlanta BeltLine? Well maybe those parks, trails and transit plans are still way off, but there has been some movement with the BeltLine's affordable housing plans.

The BeltLine Affordable Housing Trust Fund (BAHTF) has been created to offer downpayment assistance of up to $50,578 to homebuyers looking at properties in the Beltline Tax Allocation District.

BAHTF provides homebuyers with downpayment assistance of up to 20 percent of the sales price at a zero percent interest rate as a soft second mortgage. There is no first time home buyer requirement for borrowers moving into the incorporated city limits of Atlanta, but current residence must be sold prior to closing on the new home. You can check out all the guidelines associated wth this program here.

Red Robin Group currently has 3 listings that fall within the Beltline Tax Allocation District and are being offered under the maximum purchase price limit of $252,890. Check them out:

600 Warwick Street, 3/2, $228,900


558 Mead Street, 3/2, $215,000


457 Stovall Street, 3/1, $189,900


Please give Red Robin Group a call at 404.254.5206 if you or sombody you know might be interested in one of the above properties.

Changes to FHA Premiums, Coming in October!

Its official: FHA was just given authority to change the amount charged to borrowers for both the Up Front and the Annual Mortgage Insurance premiums...and change them they did.

The new premium amounts will be effective on all FHA case numbers assigned on or after October 4, 2010 – so borrowers that already have an FHA transaction in process won't be impacted, but new FHA clients who come into process on or after October 4th will be subject to the new guidelines.

Here's what you need to know:

The Up Front Mortgage Insurance premium is now 1.0 % for all standard FHA programs, including on purchased money mortgages. This is a significant change from the 2.25% Up Front Mortgage Insurance premium typically in place on FHA 30 year Fixed Rate transactions.

... But don't break out the party hats just yet ... the Annual Mortgage Insurance premium is now .90% for LTV's greater than 95% on 30 year loans...and this is also a significant change from the .55% we've been accustomed to using when calculating the monthly payment. Based on a loan amount of $250,000, that is an increase of $72.92 a month!

There are different annual premium amounts for lower loan values and for 15 year terms, so call Brandon Byrd with Loan South Mortgage for more details if needed (see contact info below). And by the way, FHA now has the authority to raise the Annual Mortgage Insurance premium “at will”...up to 1.55%...so Brandon will be keeping closely tuned to any changes and will be sure to keep you informed.

So, what does this all mean for you, the borrower?

Right now you have to pay a bigger upfront premium and a smaller monthly premium. Under the new guidelines you will pay less upfront but more each month and it will take roughly 43 months before the bigger monthly premiums outweigh the lower up-front premium.

The bottom line is if you think you will be in your home for less than 43 months it could be worthwhile to wait until after October 4th to obtain FHA financing. Otherwise it would be cheaper in the long run to apply for your loan before October 4th.

If you have any other questions about how these changes will impact you, call or email Brandon today!

Brandon Byrd: Loan South Mortgage (404) 915-8262
BByrd@loansouth.com

Is Now The Right Time to Sell My Home?

At Red Robin Group, we hear the same question almost every day. Sellers know the real estate market is still slow and they want to know if now is the right time to sell their home, or if they even can sell their home right now. The answer to these questions is… maybe.

It’s true that this is the worst real estate market for sellers (the BEST for buyers) that we’ve seen in quite a long time. There is a lot of inventory on the market and many sellers have resorted to drastic price reductions to sell homes – builders and investors in particular continue to put out good product at very competitive prices. It can be really hard for a home owner to compete when it comes to selling their home.

To be sure, a seller must have a strong level of motivation to put their home on the market in the current real estate environment. What might constitute a high level of motivation?

1) A job transfer. If your company has mandated that you move or you have a great opportunity for a new job in another city or state, you are likely in a position that you have to sell your home, no matter what it means for the bottom line.

2) Loss of a job. Unfortunately, in this economy, some people have lost their jobs and have been unable to find other employment in a timely manner. Getting out from underneath a mortgage may be necessary to make ends meet.

3) Children starting school. Many sellers find themselves searching for homes in a good school district for their children.

4) Trading up. One of the strongest motivators we see for sellers in this market is the phenomenal opportunity to “trade up”. While it’s not the best time to sell a house, it is a FANTASTIC time to buy a house. We are still in a strong buyer’s market in Atlanta, which means prices are low and there are a lot of homes to choose from. And, interest rates are at an all-time low. So, many sellers are willing to take a hit on selling their home in exchange for being able to buy a house that they wouldn’t be able to afford in a better real estate market. A better neighborhood. A bigger house. A great equity position. All of these can be great reasons to take a loss on the sale of a house.

If you are wondering if you should sell your house in the near future, call Red Robin Group at 404-254-5206 or email agents@redrobingroup.com for a complimentary consultation and market analysis. We can provide you with information to help you decide if now is the right time to sell your home.