Coweta Fayette Real Estate & Newnan Homes for sale blog by Richard Weisser of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Metro Brokers

Let me state up front that I could not work for me. After doing things my way for so many years I have become somewhat set in my ways.

I have always taken pride in the fact that I have the ability to put on so many different hats to get the job done. And I have always been reticent when it comes to paying for something that I can do myself.

But there are some days when I wish I could tell the “boss” to stick it where the sun doesn’t shine.

I am my own harshest critic. I demand a lot and my expectations are high. When I fall short I have a hard time letting go.

No one is perfect. We all make mistakes.

Easier said than accepted!

I remember the first time I ever …

Saw a color TV. It was at my great-uncle’s house. I was told that he was very wealthy!

Used a touch-tone phone. We all marveled at the fact that we no longer had to “dial” the phone number.

Ate my first piece of shrimp. I was eighteen years old. Back in those days, we didn’t get around much, and shrimp was not as readily available as it is today.

Warmed food in a microwave oven. We take it for granted now, but it was quite a revolution back in the day!

Used my first computer. It was an IBM 360 and I used a keypunch to enter my program via a cardreader.

Bought my first house. It was 1979 and was much easier than I thought that it would be. I saved up my down-payment and after signing a few papers, I had a brand new home with an FHA 245 negative amortization but fully assumable loan.

Was I apprehensive about taking the plunge and buying a house? Actually, not at all. Owning a home was the American Dream and although I was relatively naïve about the process, I have never looked back.

In the ensuing six years I purchased four different homes. I actually enjoyed moving in those days. Then I settled down and stayed in a house until it was owned free and clear.

There is nothing frightening about buying a house. You have to live somewhere anyway, so why not have complete control of your residential destiny?

As far as I am concerned, nothing matches the self-satisfaction that results from owning your own home.

Is it still the American Dream?

That’s up for each individual to decide.

But to me, the notion of living in a house that belongs to someone else is a nightmare!

If I were elected President of the United States the first thing I would do is press Congress into passing a law that would ban all importation of petroleum in ten years.

Ten years doesn’t seem like that long of a time. But it was more than enough time to initiate a space program and send men to the moon and return them safely with 1960’s technology.

How were we able to do it? The space program became a NATIONAL PRIORITY. The brightest and the best minds were assembled and funding was provided with one sole purpose:

Get the job done!

There are many cheaper, cleaner, and more readily available sources of energy than petroleum. The only thing standing in the way of energy independence is powerful lobbying from big oil and a lack of determination to wean ourselves from fossil fuels.

It should be a national priority. It can be done. I would love to see it happen during my lifetime!

And I pray that it will! 

I am by nature a very curious person. So when there is an occurrence that seems out of the ordinary I naturally want to know WHY!

One of the anomalies that I question is the sudden spurt of calls from a particular area in the country or about a subject related to real estate.

My first guess is that I am returning very high for a very specific search query which immediately results in an unusual amount of traffic directed towards that region or topic.

But trying to duplicate the exact long-tailed search string that might have been entered by a information seeking web surfer can be a very daunting task. And it is rarely a successful endeavor.

The best way to get to the bottom of the matter is to check hits from “referrals” to your site. A referral is simply a clicked hyperlink that that brings a web surfer to your site. Many times you will find a link that has been recently added that drives a sudden influx of traffic. But the most important referrals are those from search engines.

Referrals from search engines will contain the associated search string that was used to locate your site. Or if you use Google Analytics, the keywords will be ranked for you and presented in a very easy to interpret report!

Understanding what is working and why it works is the key to understanding SEO and site ranking. Once you know what is working you can make the necessary changes to transform the “spurt” into a free flowing river of traffic.

It takes some effort.

But it sure is worth it!

I get calls from potential buyers every day that would like to explore the opportunity of purchasing a home.

But the vast majority of these would-be home buyers are not qualified to obtain a loan. Many have either low credit scores, little or no down-payment money, or a combination of both.

Somewhere along the paradigm shift to a high technology society the basic principles of finance have been relegated to a low priority.

The average consumer is more concerned about having the latest and greatest gizmo or whirligig than securing a roof over their head. I have encountered families with monthly wireless expenses which exceed $600.

If you throw cable or satellite into the mix, many are paying more for technology services than they are any other single household expense.

Discretionary spending is directed towards upgrades and faster speeds. Apparently as a culture, we need to be entertained at higher and higher rates of data transfer each and every day.

As a result of this cultural swing saving money for the purchase of a home or controlling one’s income to debt ratio is not nearly as important as being able to watch a video or making birds angry.

With record low interest rates and great prices, nearly anyone can afford a house in today’s market.

It just takes a little financial discipline and a determination to “set aside” a little every month!

Business is cyclical. Marketing is not! A good marketing plan must be consistently implemented over time to be successful.

Too many businesses ignore marketing while they are busy, and then splurge on it during the slow times.

But pushing peaks of marketing against the troughs of weak business is reactionary and results in a significant lag between marketing and new business.

Consistent, dedicated marketing over time acts a damper that mitigates the extreme cycles of business and governs the fluctuations into a manageable flow.

So even the busiest of times demands an allocation of resources for marketing. It’s the best way to prepare for the inevitable downturn.

And steady business is a lot mare manageable and a lot less frustrating!

It’s 2012, prices are down and interest rates are at historic lows. So why in the world are we still writing 30 year mortgages?

Thirty year mortgages were popularized during the days of 18% mortgages and inflated home prices. The purpose was to offset the abnormally high cost of borrowing money.

The problem with the thirty year loan is that in the first ten years, the principle balance is not significantly reduced. The ONLY way to build equity was to sit and wait and home that property values went up.

In today’s market, a 15 year loan monthly payment is still a LOT less for the average home than a 30 year loan was for the same property just a scant five years ago.

Negative equity is killing home ownership. Shorter loan terms are the only CERTAIN way to build equity quickly.

Eliminating mortgages over fifteen years is one way to speed up the housing recovery. Will it take some people out of the market? Not necessarily.

They may have to buy less house, but at they end of the day, they will be better off with a lower par rate and a larger portion of their first payments being applied towards the principle balance of their loan.

It sounds too simple to work.

But it just might be the right fix at the right time!

We often have complaints from our clients who are in the process of getting a loan about the incessant demands for documentation from their mortgage company.

Likewise we hear the same rumblings from loan officers about borrowers that resist every plea for additional paperwork.

As a real estate broker, I have often conciliated the pangs of animosity between the two that seem to fester on nearly every deal. And I usually tell the buyer to buck up and deliver regardless of how petty the request seems to be.

But now I am on the other side of the fence. I’m trying to take advantage of record low interest rates by refinancing my home.

As a self-employed contractor, it’s not just a matter of whether or not I WANT to comply with every request for documentation; it’s about whether or not I CAN comply.

To me it all seems so highly illogical from the get-go. I have been paying a mortgage payment for many years without so much as a single late payment, so why would it be more difficult for me to pay a lower payment?

The loan to value ratio is about 50% even in today’s market. It seems like a no brainer,

I am being asked to jump through hoop after hoop, and I am getting frustrated.

But the lure of an interest rate in the “threes” is just too enticing. So I will continue to meet each new request with proper diligence.

But I now have a new appreciation for buyers that are squeezed through the wringer.

And I will be a lot more empathetic from now on!

Martin Luther King Day is unique in the roll of national holidays. It’s not a day of celebration as much as it is a day of remembrance and reflection, and a time to assess our current dedication to the tenet of civil rights.

We are not talking about ancient history. The Civil Rights Movement occurred during my cognitive lifetime. The images of discrimination and racial bias are seared into my brain.

Housing has always been a hotbed for discrimination. Although most so called “enlightened” sellers and landlords claim to be free of prejudice, many employ subtle tactics with the intent of discouraging protected classes from leasing or purchasing property.

Fair Housing is NOT a principle to be adapted at the discretion of sellers, landlords or real estate brokers.

It is the LAW. And it has teeth.

It is very sad that such an obvious moral principle needs to be legislated and enforced.

But we as a nation have come a long way towards Dr. King’s dream of a society based on character.

Today we officially pause, and reflect, and move forward.

And never forget.

O’ take me to that sheltered cove
Alee from blustered Arctic’s howl,
To pause by red-eyed embers glow
To thaw the bone-chilled weary soul.
                       (R Weisser 2012)

The real estate profession is very time-demanding. Time that is not spent helping clients is usually relegated to finding new customers.

It’s a never ending cycle of “closing” old clients and “converting” new prospects. The pipeline must be maintained and flowing freely at all times.

But like everyone else, real estate brokers still have to maintain some semblance of a “normal” life. But since we are in control of our schedules many cursory tasks are routinely deferred to the realm of “when I have the time to get around to it.”

There are even those times when sleep is placed on the back burner. And as I get older, it’s getting harder and harder to recover from those nights spent burning the midnight oil!

So I have only one query for those of my ilk:
Is there ever a time for rest without guilt?

As a result of readily accessible information about property listings, many buyers like to search listings based on one criteria: PRICE

And we do have many value-priced properties for sale in Coweta County Georgia. And buyers want to see all of these properties in hopes of finding the “perfect” combination of price and livability.

The problem is that many, many buyers are looking for the same thing. And so the good properties sell very quickly. As a result the casual weekend property seeker is very unlikely to stumble upon the right house at the right price.

A good real estate agent can be an invaluable asset in overcoming this dilemma. We see new properties every day and can alert buyers when a “hot” one shows up on the market. It is no longer a matter of being in the “right place at the right time”

Finding the right house at the right price is not a lottery.

Rather it is a calculated strategy for getting an offer submitted on a great house before it is too late. 

Take the rose from the withered field-worn hand
That neither drought, nor tempest daunted from the land
The servant's toils are tempered by a deep rooted faith
In troth, and passion, and loving grace.
                            (R Weisser 2012)

Sometimes even the most well-intentioned overtures can have undesirable side effects. And when emotion takes precedence over logic and common sense, it’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Because true passion goes hand in hand with caring and deep affection.  It is very hard to rile anyone that really doesn’t care or has no love lost on the matter.

But when a “nerve” is struck, it is often due to rousing feelings and emotions that may have been buried deep within the soul and which suddenly erupt and spew forth without interdiction.

And so which is worse? To offend no one because nobody cares, or to ruffle some feathers because there is deep rooted love and concern about the particular subject that may provoke an emotional response?

Call me an old fool, but I’ll take the latter any day.

Stealth can be very useful under some circumstances. Selling real estate is not one of them.

The real estate “Secret Agent” may be highly skilled and knowledgeable, but may have lost sight of the ultimate mission which is to engage as many potential clients as possible.

In the real estate marketing arena, consumers rarely seek technical proficiency. In the overwhelming majority of cases, visibility is the number one reason a buyer or seller will call a real estate professional.

Interestingly enough, developing a dominating presence is no longer the purview of the wealthy. Anyone willing to roll up their sleeves and work can devise a plan that is both effective AND inexpensive.

A regular blog post should be part of any marketing plan.

Is it time consuming? Yes. Does it get results? Yes. Is it expensive? No.

It’s “Sweat Equity Marketing” and it works!

There is a natural human tendency to “den” during the Winter months. Thousands of years of agrarian programming has instilled natural rhythms in our biology that coincide with the seasonal changes in both daylight hours and climate.

Overcoming these instinctive traits requires proactive intervention. It is not easy, as human nature is a powerful controlling force that left unchecked dominates our behavioral patterns.

It takes will power and extra determination to keep the machines of commerce oiled and the furnaces of industry fired during these days from solstice to equinox.

And if  you are just sitting around waiting for something to happen something will …. NOTHING!

Is it time for a moratorium on foreclosures? It’s an idea that rears up from time to time, and there are plenty of opinions on both sides of the debate.

And although I believe that a total moratorium on foreclosures would have a very positive short-term effect, I believe that the long-term effect would be disastrous.

Allowing the problem to fester will not make it go away. How much better to treat the root cause of the disease than it is to deal with the pathology of failure?

Unfortunately, the issues are complex and every borrower’s situation is different. A lot of people CAN’T pay anymore, and there are others that WON”T pay. There are as many victims of circumstances as there are those trying to profit from the debacle.

And who is to say which one is the former of the latter?

But at the end of the day, there has to be a clear understanding that debts need to be repaid. It’s a simplistic principle but it goes to the very core of our mortgage system.

If there is no expectation of repayment, no investor will consider mortgages as a viable equity.

Like it or not, our societal view of obligation v. option has dramatically changed. And it is NOT a good thing.

Short-term fixes are not the answer,

It’s time to make the hard decisions to protect the future of home ownership in America.

Four or five times a week, I get asked by a potential homebuyer if this is a good time to purchase real estate. But before I answer the question, I ask one of my own:

“Why are you considering a purchase?”

Because there are as many answers to that question as there are houses for sale. And knowing the reasoning behind the motive can help me answer the question with facts instead of the emotion of a salesperson!

Is the potential buyer looking for investment property? Or does a new addition to a family dictate a larger home? Has the buyer’s financial situation changed requiring downsizing?

Each different answer to the “intent” question demands a unique strategy for action. And not every market scenario benefits every buyer.

But buying opportunities abound for the right kind of purchaser, so I recommend that buyers that are sitting on the fence contact a knowledgeable local agent and ask the question.

Because the answer may be that NOW is a good time to buy for you!

After the first full week of 2012 it looks like a “reality” check is in order.

After all, numbers and letters on a calendar have no real effect on life in general other than reminding us of looming deadlines or impending age milestones.

Success, after all, is independent of most external measurements. We all have the opportunity to set our own standards and may define our own benchmarks for achievement.

My goals for this year include spending more time doing the things I love to do and taking time to pursue my outside interests.

Life is to short to spend it all on the job.

It’s time to see what else there is for me to discover  in whatever time I have left!

From the earliest days of the industrial revolution technology has always directly affected the way that business is conducted,

As a matter of fact, the proliferation of capitalism was due to the expense of placing new systems and tools in place to remain competitive with others in the industry.

However, in those days, progress was lot slower and so it was more likely that return on investment could be calculated based on a timeframe of many years. Once a tool or system was in place, it could successfully produce for a long, long time.

That is not the case today. The exponential rise of new technologies can render a product or service obsolete in as little a one year.

In addition, societal changes in both how we conduct our trade and how consumers purchase products place increased pressure on businesses to adapt quickly or perish.

As more and more resources are consumed by just “keeping up,” the opportunities for growth are severely hampered.

The days of entrepreneurship for the LONG term are nearly gone. Most new businesses will NOT reach their fifth anniversary.

There is no end in sight. You snooze, you lose.

And there is no getting around it!

On Tuesday morning the phone started ringing and it hasn’t stopped since. It seems that after a very long holiday season a lot of real estate sellers and buyers are ready to get back to business!

And although it is more of a predictable pattern than it is a portent of things to come, it’s still nice to know that the systems in place are working and that consumers are still interested in real estate as a commodity.

On a semantic side note, “off the hook” is an archaic expression that dates bank to the box type crank phones in which the receiver rested on a hook, and the mechanical bell was so strong that it could indeed shake it off with some intense ringing.

So our smart-phones really can’t ring off the hook.

But they can vibrate off of a desk!!!

Lately I have heard more and more professionals tell me that they are unhappy with their current work situation and are ready to make a change.

But during tough economic times, there is more than the usual amount of anxiety associated with charting a new course on the journey of life.

And so many would-be career shifters choose to “wait it out” until the economy rebounds and the potential downside of such a move is less tenuous.

As a result, the feeling of being trapped by uncontrollable external forces only leads to less satisfaction and more unhappiness.

There is NEVER a perfect time to make a change. Life is too short to be miserable each and every day.

Are there risks? Of course there are! But life itself is a risky business.

And generally speaking, rewards are always commensurate with the risk taken!