Here is our January 7th, 2020 Email Update about Real Estate in Northwest Atlanta (primarily Woodstock, Canton, Roswell, Acworth, Alpharetta and parts of Marietta.)
The two senate runoffs are finally over. We can now watch TV again without being inundated with ads and I am getting 50 fewer text and emails a day ☺
Covid is now the predominant discussion with a big hope that the vaccines will help us return to a new normal. We are seeing people just starting to get the vaccine shots. Hawks and Braves Games, Concerts, family get-togethers, churches meeting in person, etc.
Real Estate Stats and Thoughts. Contrary to what would have seemed reasonable, our residential real estate market performed extremely well during 2020, It looks like home sales in 14 metro Atlanta counties will top 100,000 for the year. We never expected this when we realized the pandemic would be affecting us all for most of 2020!
What caused this unexpected increase? Some of it was generally increased as the population grew. Atlanta is a growing metropolitan and as people shifted from working in offices to working from home, they realized their current homes no longer suit their needs. Owner suites on the main level, Home offices, outdoor living spaces and larger yards have all become sought-after features. Because remote working is probably here to stay – at least some of the time for some of the working population — home seekers looked for houses in less expensive areas where they wanted to live, versus areas close to their offices. As this desire to move increased, buyers were buoyed by extremely favorable mortgage interest rates.
Our primary area of service is below and it did exceptionally well also. Sales were up over 3%, the average price rose almost 9%, and the median days on market was well below two weeks.
Did a quick review of some investments our clients have made in the past 5+ years – pretty strong numbers. If you or anyone you know has interest in adding to your portfolio by buying a great investment let us know!
Things to do during the next few weeks:
Drive in Movie Theatres Some Not So Secret Lakes Rent a Cabin in the Mountains
Property Management Question of the Month:My tenant hasn’t paid their rent, what do I do?
First let us say that a proper tenant screening will avoid 95% of tenants paying rent problems. But let us assume there was a job loss or divorce and the tenant hasn’t paid. The current fiscal year 2021 federal appropriations bill contains $25 billion in rental assistance to be distributed by state and local governments. In this round, landlords can apply on behalf of their tenants and can cover back rent and up to three months in the future; check into it if your tenant is behind on rent. We have wrestled with this problem for several years balancing the rights of the owner, the legitimate reasons a tenant may have for falling behind in the rent, and the expense of taking action against the tenant. Communication (honest and tough) is critical. Based on our experience we have implemented an automatic series of letters sent certified and/or posted notices on the front door of the property. (Starting with a demand letter and ending with a notice of eviction.) This is fully implemented with and completed by the 15th of the month. We have found this system works well in getting the tenant to pay their rent and/or voluntarily vacate the premises without the time or cost of an eviction. We keep the owner informed of our actions and will stop the process at any point if so desired by an owner. With Covid we find each county has a different backlog of sheriffs serving eviction notices so we take that into consideration as well.
