Tucker, GA

Atlanta Real Estate - First Time Home Buyers in Atlanta GA

Once you've found your "dream home", you and your agent will write a purchase agreement. In Georgia, the purchase and sale agreement was written by the Georgia Association of Realtors. While much of the agreement is standard, there are a few areas you and your agent can negotiate:

The Price -- What you offer on a property depends on a number of factors, including its condition, length of time on the market, buyer activity, and the urgency of the seller. While some buyers want to make a very low offer, just to see if the seller will accept, this often isn't a smart choice, because the seller may be insulted and decide not to negotiate at all. It's definitely a fine line and one that you and your agent will have to discuss at length.

Closing Costs -- You are able to ask that the seller pay a portion of your closing costs -- usually up to 3% of the purchase price -- but keep in mind that the seller may not be willing or able to significantly reduce the purchase price AND pay the closing costs. When negotiating, you have to look at the situation from the other side (the sellers side) as well.

Example: If the listing price is $300,000 and you ask for $10,000 off the purchase price and $5000 in seller paid closing costs, the seller will net $285,000 ($300k - $10k - $5k). The seller views this offer as $15,000 off the listing price. The seller's main concern is usually their bottom line.

Due Diligence Period - In Georgia, this was formerly called the "Right to Terminate Period". Usually we can negotiate 7 to 10 days to inspect the property, conduct appraisals, negotiate repairs and if you aren't satisfied with the results, you are able to terminate the agreement without penalty.

The Move-in Date -- If possible, be flexible on the possession date. Remember that most sellers need to purchase a new home after they sell their home to you, so as the buyer, if you offer the seller 24 to 72 hours to vacate the home after closing, it will be greatly appreciated by the seller and most likely, they will choose your offer over others!

Additional Property Often the seller plans on leaving major appliances in the home, however, which items stay or go is often a matter of negotiation.

Typically you will not be present at the offer presentation; we will present it to the listing agent and/or seller. The seller will then do one of the following:

• Accept the offer

• Reject the offer

• Counter the offer with changes

By far the most common is the counter offer. In these cases, your agent's experience and negotiating skills become powerful in representing your best interests. When a counter offer is presented, you and your agent will work together to review each specific area of the counter offer, making sure that you move forward with your goals in mind and ensuring that your Buyer's Agent negotiates the best possible price and terms on your behalf.

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If you have any questions about the home buying process, please email or call me anytime.

KERRY LUCASSE :: ATLANTA REAL ESTATE CONSULTANT :: 404.432.1844

The Tucker area took a bounce up. This seems to be a statistical blimp in a longer downward trend. Next month's numbers will be very revealing as to where prices might be heading. There were only 13 transactions in February which is extremely low.

Total days on market shot up to 141 and the sales price to original list price ratiocontinues to trend lower, now below 90%.

The numbers below are for single family detached homes in FMLS area 41. Links to stats for other areas are at the bottom of the page.

Year over year, total transactions decreased from 24 to 13 (-46%)

Year over year, average sales price increased from $188,459 to $231,462 (+23%)

All data for graphs is taken from the FMLS statistics put out by Smart Numbers.

For other market areas as shown in the following map, please click on the links below.

All areas combined: Summary of all FMLS areas

Area 13: North Fulton, Alpharetta/Roswell West of 400
Area 14: North Fulton, Alpharetta East of 400
Area 131: Sandy Springs North of 285
Area 132: Sandy Springs Southe of 285
Area 21: Buckhead
Area 23: Midtown/Virginia Highlands
Area 31: South Fulton, West End
Area 33: South Fulton outside 285
Area 81: East Cobb, North
Area 82: East Cobb, Central
Area 83: East Cobb South
Area 72: South Cobb
Area 73: Cobb West Central
Area 74: Cobb West
Area 75: Cobb Northwest
Area 121: North DeKalb, Dunwoody
Area 41: DeKalb, Tucker
Area 42: DeKalb, Stone Mountain
Area 43: DeKalb South
Area 221: Forsyth East
Area 222: Forsyth Southwest
Area 62: Gwinnett, Duluth/Buford
Area 64: Gwinnett, Southwest
Area 161: Clayton County

As I stood in line, going down a narrow hallway with voters on both sides, waiting for the opportunity to cast our ballot, I approached a portion of the hall with restrooms and water fountains. As I watched a woman take a drink from one of the fountains it symbolized the road we have traveled as a nation and I began to reflect.

It wasn't that long ago where this picture told a story of where we were as a country. As I spoke to the Jamaican man in front of me; listened to a Cuban woman talk about how long it's been since her last trip to Cuba; and get bits and pieces of a conversation about eating at a Chinese restaurant between a woman originally from Louisiana, who loved her Cajun roots, and a Black man, it solidified how much I appreciate this great state of Georgia and the United States of America. Now by no means am I naive enough to believe that we all live in peace and harmony, but for those two hours I was in the middle of something that I felt was special. No matter who we planned to cast our votes for on a national, state or local level it didn't separate us as Americans. We all appeared to be in high spirits waiting on our moment to perform our civic duty.

I mention all of this to say, when you are out at the polls, maybe standing in a long line, take a moment to speak to the people around you and realize that their votes may not be in line with yours, but we have the privilege to choose.

I love my niche. I get to hang out with cars and the people that like them.

So, Tucker is one of the suburb communities here. It is small-town America... minutes from big city. And Main Street is only a few minutes from my house. One Saturday each month through most of the year, the cars gather... and their people, too.

On July 12th they will have the next Tucker cruise-in.

Even though there were severe thunderstorms that rolled through the area earlier in the evening (made me late for the event), there were still 20+ cars that turned out. Restorations, Rods, Rats, trucks, and customs.

On a normal Saturday event, there might be 80 or more rides there.