The North Fulton Blog

As you can probably surmise, we're right in the height of the Spring buying season.  We're also in the last week of the Federal Tax Credit program.  If you're not under contract by April 30th, you're too late!  And for those of you that have a seller signed contract, make sure you get the loan approved and close the transaction before June 30th.  If you do those things you should get your tax credit. 

The local market is performing well.  There are a lot of listings that are selling and a lot of buyers that are buying.  The numbers look pretty good.  But, home values continued to slide downward in January of this year by 1/2%.  (The reason I'm going back to January is that the Case-Shiller Home Price Index has a 2 month lag time).  It doesn't sound like a big number but it indicates that we may not yet have hit the "bottom". That would not bode well for the market in the near term.  I also don't want to sound like the "doomsday predictor" or Chicken Little, but many observers are wondering what's going to happen to the real estate market after the tax credit goes away.  There are many realtors that are very unsure of what the future months holds for them and their clients.  I guess we'll have to wait and see how things play out. 

I want to talk a little about another aspect of the real estate market that is super important.  That's the Distressed Property market.  All of the foreclosed properties and the short sales, both on the market now and those that will be on the market soon, are included under this mantle of Distressed Properties.  A recent analysis conducted by the Mortgage Bankers Association painted a pretty scary picture.  Basing their analysis on 44,600,000 mortgages currently active, 4.58% are in foreclosure and 10.44% are in default (more than 30 days late).  That translates into more than 6.7 MILLION Distressed Properties!  That is a huge number of homes that potentially will be on the market during the next 12 months.  This is where the new market will be.  If you are a buyer, chances are you'll be purchasing a distressed property.  If you're a seller, chances are you'll be upside down on your mortgage, even if you are current on your payments.  That means you'll need to do a short sale.  In those cases you only sell if you absolutely have to sell. 

Over the past 5 years I have listed and sold a lot of foreclosed properties.  I have completed a large number of short sales, too.  During that time I have gained a lot of experience as well as a different perspective.  As I've listed various foreclosures, I've often wondered about the "story" behind each foreclosed home... a family got into trouble for one reason or another and couldn't continue to pay their mortgage, fell behind and eventually lost their home.  Their lives were changed forever, both financially and emotionally.  They were embarrassed because they couldn't keep their home.  They felt guilty about failing to keep their financial obligations, breaking their word to a lender that funded their loan.  The parents felt both guilty and embarrassed to their family for failing to "keep a roof over their heads".  It's not a pretty place to be in.  Trying to dig themselves out from the hole that they've dug is a long process, one filled with despair, desperation and depression. 

Over the past several months, I've been wrestling with the state of the real estate market and the direction of my business.  I've recently decided to shift my focus and re-invent my real estate business to focus on the Distressed Property market.  I've just completed a course of instruction leading to my Distressed Property Expert designation that has provided me with the tools to succeed. I've started to build my distressed property business with 4 new short sale listings.  Over the next several months I will begin changing my website to reflect this new market focus.  I'll be using a new domain name and a new email address, but I'll let you all know before I change it.  My new goal is to help those homeowners that are facing foreclosure and don't know what to do.  I intend to do my part to help educate them so they know that there are options to avoid foreclosure and to know that they are not alone.  Maybe together we can begin to overcome this foreclosure nightmare, one home at a time.