About Cobb County, GA

Atlanta Country Club is located north of downtown Atlanta, in East Cobb County. This beautifully landscaped 260 acre golf community was founded in 1964 by a small group of prominent Atlanta business leaders, intent on building a world class golf course to attract a PGA tournament to the Atlanta area.

Real estate in Atlanta Country Club encompasses large private luxury home sites including many golf course lots. Residents attend the highly desirable East Cobb School District, Sope Creek Elementary School, Dickerson Middle School, and Walton High School. Residents of the community enjoy golf course and club access, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, four clay and four hard surface tennis courts and full-service fitness center with a complete range of exercise equipment. Casual and fine dining can both be enjoyed at the clubhouse, along with special events, such as small gatherings and large weddings, receptions and banquets.

Visit Marietta Real Estate site and view real estate listings in Marietta, Georgia including Marietta Foreclosures and Marietta Short Sale listings.

Nestled 15 miles northwest of Atlanta and just south of the North Georgia Mountains, the City of Marietta, Georgia, offers residents the charm of a small city along with a stimulating urban environment. Close to I-75 and the Galleria, city of Marietta offers a unique blend of small-town values with big-city opportunities.

Marietta has a beautiful and vibrant downtown square filled with restaurants, antique shops and the fun-filled Glover Park. As the county seat of Cobb County, Marietta offers her residents and visitors beautiful parks, quaint streets, Victorian homes and historic sites. Area shopping and progressive businesses are found here as well. Multiple local attractions, sporting events, festivals and industry provide visitors with many exciting things to do and business to conduct.

Marietta Real Estate includes a wide variety of new housing developments and redevelopments including new homes, townhomes, flats and condominiums are springing up, most within easy walking distance of the lively Square.

County: Cobb County

Marietta ZipCodes: 30008, 30060, 30062 , 30064 , 30066 , 30067 , 30068

How We Sold This Marietta Georgia Home in 5 Days

In fact, not only did we get a contract in 5 days, we had a bidding war between two buyers with another two other agents preparing to write offers as well.

For the sellers, this wasn't just good news, it was great news as their home had been on the market for two years prior.

So, how did we sell this Marietta Home in 5 days?

• They used an incredible Marietta REALTOR. Her name is Kirsten Conover with Prudential Georgia. I've had the great pleasure of working with Kirsten for over three years and she is perhaps one of the hardest working real estate agents I've met.
• I provided the homeowners with a home staging consultation. More on that subject below.
• Kirsten hired Iran Watson - perhaps Atlanta's best real estate photographer, to capture the beauty the home had to offer.

Here's what the home looked like prior to the home staging consultation:

The fireplace, which is a feature of the home is not even pictured, and resides to the far right.

Here's the same room after re-arranging their existing furniture.

Photo taken Atlanta Real Estate Photographer, Iran Watson.

As the home stager for this home, I knew it was important to create a more warm and inviting space, which was accomplished by re-arranging the furniture. I had also recommended that the fireplace, which was black, be painted white which elevated the look and feel.

As you can see, it took a team to help sell this Marietta home in 5 days. The combined efforts of the agent, the home stager (me) and having incredible photos truly does make a difference.

Originally posted in AtlantaHomeStaging.net

The City of Atlanta now requires owners of vacant property to register with the city. Please read the attached link below for more information and what you should do in regards to your property.

http://www.abr.org/Governmental-Affairs/news-page.aspx?ItemPath=%2fGlobal%2fNews+Content%2fGovernment%2fATL-VPRO-Effective

It took a while but it seems that home buyers are finally beginning to tire of the real estate owned (REO)/foreclosure nonsense. Here in Atlanta, lender or “corporate” owned (the industry desired more appealing term than foreclosure) homes are a major part of the inventory. Statistics on this issue can vary widely but suffice it to say that REO's and short sale properties will continue to impact metro Atlanta for years. Investors and speculators make up the majority of distressed property purchasers, focusing mainly on the under 200K price point - close to 50% of sales in 3rd quarter '11 were considered distressed. But the wise primary residence buyers are learning stop wasting time and to steer clear of distressed and foreclosure property.

We're seeing buyers finally understand that these REO properties are not usually worth the aggravation. The reasons are many and it’s taken a while for the realization to sink in due to the media making it appear that banks and FNMA are all but giving them away. They’re not – at least not where most folks want to be. The list below hits some of the main reasons and it assumes that we’re talking about homes in the desirable Atlanta real estate markets.

Why foreclosures aren't the bargain everyone thinks they are – in no order:

• Many times there are other parties involved that need to approve a price/sale (mainly mortgage insurance companies).
• These homes are appraised and broker price opinions are prepared. Appraisals are targeted at 90-120 days out so typically these homes are listed with the expectation of being reduced.
• Reductions are a scheduled process. At regular intervals, price will be reduced. This often is done independent of actual market trends.
• There is always going to be a narrow range that will be considered acceptable for offers. If a home is 100K, there may be a 3%-5% variance off of that. If the offer doesn't fit, it’s rejected.
• Asset managers rarely concern themselves with current comps, trends or anything else – if it’s not something that fits into the charts, they move on.
• Many asset managers carry over a hundred properties, are usually remotely located and don’t regularly communicate with listing agents. Almost everything is done via the web so quality interaction is minimal
• REO agents deal with a myriad of requirements when listing these homes, this is a pure business. They are paid to move homes, get more homes based upon performance so don’t expect them to limit availability to avoid wasting time.
• Many of the REO homes don’t follow “typical” protocol. While you can have inspections, not all will complete repairs; some will not move if appraisals come in low; most will mandate terms of the contract and most important, you buy it – you own it.
• Speaking of owning it – you have no idea of what that home looked like before acquisition. There might be fresh paint and carpet, but what’s inside the walls, HVAC vents and in other areas that you can’t see. And homes sitting, buttoned up, in the hot humid Atlanta area…MOLD. Several foreclosure videos that you might find helpful.
• Since these are sold “as is-where is” and you are required to sign a blanket release of seller liability, if you have issues down the road, you own them.
• Speaking of owning, consider potential title issues (remember the robo-signing?) and the fact that most of these homes transfer with deeds below the quality of a warranty deed. Remember, the seller has no knowledge of anything before they took possession. In some cases, getting title insurance has proven to be a challenge or ridiculously expensive.
• And what happens when it’s time for you to sell that home? Will the next buyer be accepting of the potential for a “zombie” title or deed issue?

This list is based upon my experience both inside the "system" and from outside occasionally trying to get a deal done. The bottom line? Why are you buying a home? If it’s to live in, then buy the home that you like in the area that you like. Once you find it, deal with the circumstances that present themselves – better deals are often made with owners than with banks. As always, successful buyers are prepared, work with skilled agents, have a clear objective and act decisively when opportunity presents itself.