Can't sell house in Vinings Estates, WHAT GIVES?? (Atlanta, Smyrna: appointed, transplants)

[atlantagreg30127]

Originally Posted by Robertpel9

HOA is 550

Maybe I'm out of touch with modern HOA fees, but that sounds way above average. What does it include?

Most folks I know who have HOAs in their areas pay anywhere from a low $90 to around $220 tops, except for one a good while ago who lived in a gated community that had a security guard 24/7 at the entrance, and they paid around $500 a month to have that, but again that included a staffed guard gate, plus some other luxury ammenities that most places don't usually have. Your HOA might be what's standing in the way.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by Robertpel9

HOA is 550

Is that per year or per month? Ours are 500/year for comparison, but all our HOA maintains is a common building, pool, playground, and a pair of unlighted tennis courts besides the common grounds.

[Topaz]

The buyers are totally in the driver's seat right now. We just sold our house in a terrible market in another state and in addition to all the standard things (professional cleaning, re-landscaping, interior painting, staging), we agreed to every single request the buyer made. Filling in the back yard with additional soil? OK. Premium home warranty over and above the one already offered by the builder? OK. Paying all their closing costs? OK. Lowering our already ridiculously competitive price? OK. We were willing to do whatever it took because we were relocating for a new job and we absolutely couldn't afford two house payments. We did end up losing money but not nearly so much as we would have lost if our house had stayed on the market for a year or so.

Our volume of showings went way up once we offered to pay all closing costs and used the phrase "Motivated seller" in the MLS. I know some realtors would violently disagree with this strategy but we really, really, really needed to sell that house.

Topaz

[gt6974a]

Well, I myself am looking for a house....

....now I'm not in your range, but if I was I could see you paid
$429,200 on 3/15/2005 and now you're asking 50K over that 2 1/2 years later....

...roughly a 5% appreciation rate, which I don't think you're going to get right now. Maybe you did some other improvements and I really don't know much about the $400k+ buyer but I'm just sitting around on foreclosures right now. And there are plenty in that range!

I'm looking at getting 225-250K homes at 170-190K right now.....

...it's just a bad time to be a seller and great to be a buyer

[gt6974a]

Just pulled up your zip and you only have 61 foreclosures in your zip, which is good, also none really in your range or nearby, so you're really not too bad off, just the inventory in your n-hood

[casualobserver]

gt, if it isn't a secret source of information, may I ask what website you use to access foreclosure information?

My first day of looking at Atlanta real estate was interesting. The builders are putting way too much into extra room buildout.........big sitting rooms off the master, two masters, media rooms upstairs, preframing basements into certain layouts, too many fireplaces for a warm climate, prebuilt inlaw suites, all the while forgetting fundamentals of selling premium homes..........3 car garages, large lots, tastefully sophisticated elevations. I still have a long way to go to appreciate the Georgia value equation. I might just have to buy a lot and bring a floorplan from somewhere more practical.

[gt6974a]

Originally Posted by casualobserver

gt, if it isn't a secret source of information, may I ask what website you use to access foreclosure information?

My first day of looking at Atlanta real estate was interesting. The builders are putting way too much into extra room buildout.........big sitting rooms off the master, two masters, media rooms upstairs, preframing basements into certain layouts, too many fireplaces for a warm climate, prebuilt inlaw suites, all the while forgetting fundamentals of selling premium homes..........3 car garages, large lots, tastefully sophisticated elevations. I still have a long way to go to appreciate the Georgia value equation. I might just have to buy a lot and bring a floorplan from somewhere more practical.

By way of my fiance(commercial real estate) I have a access to fmls to look at homes, doesn't really give much more info than other common atlanta sites except for foreclosures, I use it mainly for that but I can also see a little more information on the home and more history on homes....

However, several free sites will give you the same info such as square footage, tax info, last sale date and cost.

I use a combination of:

zillow -> sq footage, most recent sale date and price, pics N, S, E, W
trulia -> similar
coldwellbankeratlanta -> click smart search 2 times, search by neighborhood
homeatlanta -> general search

we're not supposed to post links but you can just add the url to the names above to get to them

most all foreclosures are listed on normal sites, you usually can't search by that though. They just turn out being alot cheaper...i.e. house I'm looking at now sold for 160K in 2001, built in 1992, foreclosure started at 209K in August of 2007, it's now 179K.

House has 2800 sq. ft, HOA n-hood, wooded lot, almost 1/2 acre. House next door is for sale for 235K, with 300 less square feet and sold in 2005 for 219K.....

....I'm a numbers guy, so its fun for me....

[casualobserver]

thanks, gt.....I'm a numbers guy as well. It's not so much that I need the bargain of a lifetime, just that I'd like to only pay for what I want and not what I don't want. Thanks for the almost-urls......I catch on.

I can confirm the VE HOA dues are 550 per ANNUM, not per month.......per their sales agent today.

[Merin]

Originally Posted by gt6974a

....now I'm not in your range, but if I was I could see you paid
$429,200 on 3/15/2005 and now you're asking 50K over that 2 1/2 years later....

I saw this too. I also where this poster bought it for around 100k more then the Original buyer paid for it in 2002. I am in that price range and would not consider a house without Granite, tile floors in the restrooms and would have a hard time with the bold colors in the kitchen. Finally when you look up the address it says Mableton, this could also be an issue.

[atlantagreg30127]

Originally Posted by Merin

Finally when you look up the address it says Mableton, this could also be an issue.

Heck, if it says Mableton that alone could be the reason it's not selling. While "a few" folks are moving into "a few" higher end places that are popping up in that area, Mableton as a whole by name still has a bad stigma attached to it for crime, etc.