East Cobb Homes for Sale - Just Listed

The newest listings for homes in Marietta - East Cobb are updated through our new rss feed. Houses included here are priced $400,000-$500,000.

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$429,900 :: 3135 Indian Hills Drive, Marietta GA

Why Isn’t My House Selling?

Interested in knowing why your house is not selling? If you are feeling up against the wall, there's hope.

Yes, the real estate market is slow. Yes, the economy is in a DHED. And yet, houses are selling and people are moving.

In this series, we are going to look at situations that give you - the Atlanta seller - a better idea of what it takes to sell your home in today's market.

How many photos of your home are listed in the multiple listing service?

Do you know what the photos look like?

RISMedia has published a report relating the number of photos a multiple listing posts to the number of Days on Market (DOM). The findings show that mls listings with more photos sold faster.

This is the shake down on the photos to Days on Market (average) analysis.

• 1 photo = 70 DOM
• 6 photos = 40 DOM
• 16-19 photos = 36 DOM
• 20 photos max - 32 DOM

And listings with fewer photos sold for less. The Closed NET Price as a percentage of the Original Price also showed a direct correlation. (These findings are based on 2006 numbers and are again estimates.)

• 1 Photo = 91.2% of Original Price
• 6 or more = 95% of Original Price

According to these findings, a $600,000 home, sporting only one photo, could sell for as much as 3.8% LESS or a loss of over $22,000, just because there was only one photo accompanying the listing.

More amazing is the fact that only 12% of agents posted the allowed maximum photos. (NOTE: Our multiple listing service allows 12 photos plus a photo tour.)

What can you do to better position your house for sale?

1. Ask the listing agent to inform you when photos will be taken.
2. Prepare your house before the photos are shot.
3. Insist the maximum number of photos allowed be uploaded to mls.
4. Review photos after they are uploaded to the multiple listing service.
5. Take photos yourself, and send digital images to your listing agent.

The internet is the most powerful tool you can use when selling your home.

Well crafted photos do sell real estate. Pay attention to the online images of your house. You stand to gain by:

• Generating more interest
• Attracting more viewers/buyers
• Receiving higher offers
• Negotiating a higher selling price
• Enjoying a faster sale of your home.

This all translates into less stress and a greater peace of mind.

Photo by Spoon 

Staging Homes for Sellers - What NOT to Do

Selling your home in a slower real estate market is competitive. Many real estate agents recommend "staging" houses. 

Today, I heard this story.

Three years ago a real estate agent attended a seminar on staging homes to sell.

She decided being a "staging expert" would be the value proposition setting her apart from the competition.

The agent worked with investors who bought "fixer uppers" in older parts of the city, so most of her listings were vacant.

To stage the houses for marketing, the real estate agent purchased items for staging vacant properties.

The agent started with small stuff- vases and pictures in the living area, towels in the bathroom, lots of light fixtures in dark rooms. Over time, purchases included a sofa here, a table there. One or two carefully placed pieces to define a space. 

The "staging expert" agent and her real estate assistant moved stuff from listing to listing themselves as properties sold.

Investor clients began to demand more and more furniture in all of their listings.

Now the competitive staging agent rents a storage facility for $250/month, and pays movers to transfer the big items - sofas, chairs, beds - to the investment property listed for sale. All at no expense to the sellers.

When the market shifted, low quality rehabs in the city were hit the hardest. No amount of staging is helping them sell in a reasonable time frame. 

Want to know her answer to surviving in a slower market? Take more vacant investment listings.

This week, one of the vacant investment properties was broken into; the staging props stolen.

Long story short, this agent is selling furniture in a down market.

If you want more information on staging your home to sell in a down market, just ask us using the contact form on the left.

Living Through Today’s Real Estate Market

How are you handling the real estate market slowdown?

Are you hanging on by a thread? Eating rice and beans or finding new opportunities?

I believe the answer lies within each of us - real estate agents, Atlanta sellers, buyers, mortgage lenders - at the core of our being. How we handle adversity is shaped by our culture, our family, our life experiences, and our faith. Our response to changes in the Atlanta real estate market echoes our response to other challenges.

Do you:

• Pretend circumstances aren’t as bad as they are?
• Stay busy so you don’t have to think about the market?
• Get depressed or sick?
• Feel controlled by events and people?
• Blame, threaten, coerce, beg, or bribe?
• Feel terribly anxious about finding buyers and sellers?
• Feel angry, victimized, unappreciated, and used?

Are you confident and assertive? Or compliant and dependent?

I’ve seen many North Atlanta houses for sale listed by agents too frightened to be honest with sellers. Real estate agents working out of fear and desperation can not serve the best interests of their clients.

Putting a for sale sign in the yard of an over-priced listing is wrong on many levels.

1. It gives false hope to a seller.
2. It wastes the time of buyer agents and their clients.
3. It is misleading advertising.
4. It enables an inexperienced real estate agent to look busy.
5. It fosters the belief that real estate agents can not be trusted.

Saying ‘yes’ to overpriced listings in saying ‘no’ to new opportunities.

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