Plenty of houses are old but how can a Sellers make his/her/their home look rejuvenated and not old and tired? The difference can be what makes a house sit or sell. Here are some tips to homeowners, even if they are not putting their homes on the market:

1. Green is good, but not if it is growing on the siding, bricks or roof. Many times, Sellers are focused on sprucing up the flowers and front landscaping, when what they should  be focusing on, is renting a pressure-washer and ridding themselves of that green, fuzzy stuff. 
2. Ivy growing up a home’s exterior walls may give it a charming cottage effect, but it speeds decay and should be removed. English ivy damages mortar and screens. Once removed, it may still be difficult to rid a home of the tracks and roots left behind.
3. Heavy, layered window treatments drag down a home into old-lady category. If a Seller can’t replace the window treatments, cut back on the layers of sheers or remove the valances.
4. A split storm door (glass or a screen at the top and aluminum at the bottom) dates a home. Either remove or replace the door.
5. Skinny moulding: nothing says the 1960′s like skimpy, skinny moulding. Replace it with larger, heavy crown and base mouldings.
6. Wallpaper: take it down, take it down, take it down! Unless it is subtle, rarely will a Buyer like the wallpaper and it dates the home.
7. Hollywood-style light strips in bathrooms: see #6 and take them down and replace them with more modern light fixtures.
8. Replace skimpy street numbers and door hardware with bolder, heavier hardware with a brushed nickel or black wrought-iron, 3-dimensional look. Replace that worn -out mailbox, too.
9. Worn carpet and flooring can make the whole house look tired. Consider replacing old carpet or laminate floors with tile, fresh carpet/pad or better yet, hardwood flooring, which can be sanded and rejuvenated often.
10. Gray, splintering decks should be maintained every two years with a clear sealant, to prevent swelling and shrinking.
11. Painted-over light switches are easy and inexpensive to change. Keep them bold, but plain.
12. Peeling paint looks bad and can damage a home’s exterior quickly, especially if the painted surface is on the exterior of the home. Dirty or thinly painted interior walls can damage a Buyer’s impression, often leading to a reduced offer.

Lately, I’ve noticed signs that Atlanta’s new-home construction is starting up again, and it seems to be starting in a big way. Hammers are pounding and saws are buzzing again, a sign that the home-building industry is slowly coming back to life.

In Georgia, we look to the West Coast and California for trends. How’s this one for a bell-ringer:

The Irvine Company, a Southern California development company, recently announced plans to built up to 2,600 homes in two new developments; workers have already begun to frame the new homes. This same company footed the bill 13+ months ago and financed its own foray into new construction. About 10,000 people showed up for the developments’ grand opening and the projects were sold-out in less than half the estimated build-time. By the end of 2010, more than 1,200 homes were sold.

300 Georgia companies are helping sponsor the 7th annual Construction Education Foundation of Georgia Career Expo (CEFGCE), March 17-18. It will showcase different career paths for architecture, construction, energy and facilitiies mangement to more than 6000 attendees.

I used to sell new-homes exclusively. Then 2007 hit and I reinvented myself. I don’t think that we’ll ever see the go-go days of new-home construction we saw in the early 2000′s, but I believe that we are about to see a resurgence in construction. Isn’t that a wonderful thing?

This morning, ABC’s Good Morning America reported the top 10 places to live, according to Zillow. The cities were ranked by affordability, their unemployment rate, their foreclosure rate and the area’s price increases. The “winning” cities are:

1. Utica NY. Utica has the lowest foreclosure in the US, with a median sales price of $104,000;
2. Oklahoma City OK: Prices are up by 3% and the median price is $117,800;
3. Rochester, NY: the median home price is $121,000. 91% of the homes sold in 2010, sold for a gain;
4. Pittsburgh, PA: Home prices are up and the median price of a home is $110,300;
5. Tulsa, OK: This was the most affordable housing market; the median home price was $112,300;
6. Albany, NY: This is a stable housing market with a relatively low foreclosure rate. The median sales price in Albany is $193,100;
7. Lancaster, PA: Lancaster boasts a realatively strong economy and low foreclosure rate. The median price in Lancaster is $179,300;
8. Madison WI: Prices were down in 2009, but rebounded in the last quarter of 2010, asking the question “Have we seen the bottom yet”?;
9. Green Bay, WI: The median sales price is $143,100 and their economy is improving: the unemployment rate fell 1% to 6.6%;
10. Lincoln NE: Unemployment is 4% (lucky Lincoln!) and the median price of a home is $104,000.

This is great news for these cities. Foreclosures are down and their local economies are improving. Can the rest of the country be far off from this reporting?

Recently, I wrote about an upcoming article in Atlanta’s local paper, the AJC. The series was published today and told us what we already knew: values are going down, counties are gasping for more tax dollars and home owners are caught in between the two. But they did offer a valuable insight of what to do, if you think your property is over-valued.

1. Do the research and look at your property tax bill. Here are the several sites for the largest counties in the metropolitan Atlanta area:

• Dekalb County: http://web.co.dekalb.ga.us/taxcommissioner/search.asp
• Fulton County: www.fultoncountytaxes.org/fultoniwr/11_depts_property_taxes.asp
• Cobb County: http://www.cobbtax.org/Search/GenericSearch.aspx?mode=PARID   
• Gwinnett County: http://gwinnetttaxcommissioner.manatron.com/Tabs/ViewPayYourTaxes.aspx
• Forsyth County: http://www.qpublic.net/ga/forsyth/search1.html

     2.   File a property tax return. Under a new state law, assesors must send a Notice of Current       Assesment to all residential property owners. However, in some cases, the owner may want to file a return. Download and print the one-page return at: https://etax.dor.ga.gov/ptd/adm/forms/pt50r/LGS_TAXPAYERS_RETURN_OF_REAL_PROPERTY_PT50R.PDF.

     3.  Appeal your appraisal. Previously, you could appeal your properrty assesment only if you filed a property tax return or if the county changed the value of your property. The Georgia state legislature changed that, and beginning in 2011, anyone can appeal. For more information on appeals, check out: https://etax.dor.ga.gov/ptd/adm/taxguide/appeals.aspx .

Need more answers? Contact me for more information or help.

I am looking forward to this report. On Sunday, December 19, the Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC) will launch its “Property Tax Meltdown” series – an investigative report that reveals flaws in home property value assessments and their impact on metro Atlanta homeowners left with unreasonably high tax bills. The obvious question is: “What took you so long?” and why haven’t our towns, counties, town councils and elected officials realized this?

I believe 2011 will be the ‘Year of the Short Sale’. If you aren’t ready to handle this type of sale, you should be getting ready or finding someone who is! And make sure you know the tax implications of the sale for the buyer.

With the talk of jobs on everyone’s lips, are you curious where the United States stands in the unemployment line? Here are the new numbers:

 Unemployment Rates of the world:

1. Monaco 0.0%
2. Thailand 1.2%
3. Lichtenstein 1.5%
4. Singapore 2.2%
5. Malaysia 3.2%
6. Guatemala 3.2%
7. South Korea 3.7%
8. Switzerland 4.0%
9. China 4.1%
10. Austria 4.3%
11. Netherlands 4.4%
12. Luxembourg 5.0%
13. Australia 5.1%
14. Japan 5.1%
15. Taiwan 5.1%
16. Mexico 5.5%
17. Brazil 6.1%
18. Israel 6.5%
19. Germany 6.7%
20. New Zealand 6.8%
21. Denmark 6.9%
22. Argentina 7.0%
23. Czech Republic 7.0%
24. Iceland 7.6%
25. Peru 7.7%
26. UK 7.8%
27. Canada 7.9%
28. Philippines 8.0%
29. Italy 8.2%
30. Finland 8.5%
31. Sweden 8.5%
32. Chile 8.6%
33. Belgium 8.7%
34. Russia 9.2%
35. Poland 9.4%
36. USA 9.8%
37. France 10.1%
38. India 10.7%
39. Portugal 10.7%
40. Greece 11.0%
41. Ireland 13.9%
42. Spain 20.1%
43. South Africa 25%
44. Zimbabwe 95%

In today’s Sunday AJC, John Adams had a great column about the Atlanta’s housing market. As a Realtor, I am often asked the questions he asks in his column. The best of these questions is:

Will the housing market ever recover? Yes, it will, eventually. But if you asked John (or me) if we will ever see the day of  ”below construction prices” coupled with 30-year fixed rate loans below 5%, probably not. I (and John) think this is a once-in-a-lifetime event!

Don’t wait to enter the market. If you are thinking of buying, selling or investing in Atlanta real estate, call or email me. I get the job done!

The weather gets cold in Atlanta, but many homeowners do not adequately prepare for it. Homes in mild-weather climates are especially vulnerable to frozen pipes and those frozen pipes equal disaster. Why? Because these homes tend to have plumbing in exterior walls, attics, crawl spaces and other unheated or unprotected areas.

A pipe freezing in a cold snap, where outside temperatures drop below 20-degrees, can not only be expensive to repair, but also messy. When water freezes inside a pipe, it creates a blockage that causes pressure to rise. That pressure builds up and the pipe blows. Play it safe and follow these tips from The Institute for Business and Home Safety:

1. Wrap pipes with foam or fiberglas insulation.
2. Seal openings in exterior walls where cold air can get to unprotected pipes.
3. Disconnect garden hoses and place insulated covers over outdoor faucets. Better yet, install inside shut-off valves for outdoor faucets and drain water from the pipes.
4. Consider wrapping pipes with heat tapes or cable that use a small amount of electricity to warm pipes. Some come with built-in thermostats.
5. Leave cabinets doors open to let warmer room air get to the pipes under the kitchen and bathroom sinks.
6. Turn on faucets to a very slow drip to relieve pressure in the pipe. Make sure both the hot-and cold-water lines are open.
7. If you are away from your home during the cold-weather months, et your thermostat above 55-degrees.

If you or someone you know are thinking of buying, selling or investing in real estate, email or call me. I get the job done!

Sandy Springs is launching a smart phone application to allow residents to submit photos of potholes, broken sidewalks, downed trees and other problems that need to be fixed by city workers.

The app, called CoSSpotter, is free and allows residents to photograph and report problems they feel the city should address. Once a problem is reported, a resident may monitor the city’s response through the city website or by using the application, the city said in a press release.

The application uses a smart phone’s global positioning system to provide the location of the problem, the city said.

The application launches Dec. 1. It will be made available through the city’s website at www.sandyspringsga.org/cosspotter.