Carl Martens

About a year and a half ago I purchased my first home (pictured throughout this article). The home was also a foreclosure. Now a year and a half later I can say that I am almost finished with the rehab work on the house. Speaking from experience, I plan to provide you with 5 tips for buying a foreclosure in Atlanta.

1.) Hire a Knowledgeable Agent

Any Realtor holding a license in Georgia can write an offer on a foreclosure. However, working with a Realtor that is a Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE) will greatly improve your chances of not only identifying a great deal, writing a good offer, but ultimately get you to the closing table. It is important to not only hire an agent that is knowledgeable with foreclosures, but one that is also a local expert on the area of interest. This can make a world of a difference as more often than not news of a foreclosure catches the ear of a local expert before anything becomes official.

2.) Be Able To Buy Without Having to Sell

This is a bit of a segue into the next tip. Unlike typical sales contracts sellers (the banks) are not willing to accepts offers contingent on the purchaser selling his or her home. The banks want to get the foreclosed properties off their books as quickly as possible and there is no guarantee on when or if your home will sell…especially in today’s current market.

If you want to buy a foreclosure and your home is currently under contract with a firm closing date be prepared to obtain short term housing as a predictable negotiation and closing on an REO is very unpredictable.

3.) Submit a “clean” offer

Often times the lender on a foreclosure will have multiple offers on the same property so your offer needs to be clean. A clean offer is one that is simple and straight forward. The best clean offers are those that require little or no financing. Prior to writing the offer on my current house I had lost out on what I thought was a magnificent find to someone that made an all cash offer. I knew I was entering a multiple offer situation (I was the sixth party) and as such I submitted a very clean offer; full price (plus $101…just to be safe), minimal closing costs, and a quick close. I got the house.

When buying a foreclosure, make your best offer up front. This should be the offer that if you get the house you are ecstatic and if you don’t get the house you are comfortable knowing that it wasn’t meant to be. Take into consideration the cost of repairs and improvements and what the after repaired value might be.

Find out what the final two tips are by clicking here.

Any home built prior to 1993 must have low flow toilet and plumbing fixture installed before the new homeowner can obtain water from the county.

Effective June 1, 2008, sellers will be required to disclose the Dekalb County Ordinance when selling their homes. Before the new homeowner can obtain water service, they must provide written proof from a home inspector, licensed plumber, or a Department of Watershed Inspector. This certificate will be required with their application for water service.

Effective January 1, 2009, the same will apply to commerical properties & apartments.

Single family homes and condos will need to have the following:
1. Toilets can have a max of 1.6 gallons per flush
2. Shower heads can put out a max of 2.5 gallons per minute
3. Lavatory faucets can put out a max of 2 gallons per minute
4. Kitchen faucets can put out a max of 2.2 gallons per minute

Four Specific Exemptions to the new law:
1. Homes sold via Foreclosure
2. Homes sold to Family members, specifically spouse-to-spouse and parents-to-children

Read more about the Dekalb County Plumbing Retrofit Law.

A federal appeals court on February 5, 2008 ruled against an agreement that Georgia reached with the Army Corps of Engineers for water rights to Lake Lanier, handing Alabama and Florida a major victory in the states' years-long water wars.

The decision overturned an earlier ruling from 2003 that said Georgia could receive about a quarter of Lake Lanier's capacity over the coming decades as a drinking water source. The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Washington said that the 2003 agreement constituted a major operational change at the federal reservoir that requires congressional approval.

The agreement was challenged by Alabama and Florida arguing that Georgia doesn't have any legal right to the Lake Lanier's water supply which was initially built as a federal reservoir for hydropower. Had the decision not been ruled against the withdrawels could have meant the drying up of river flows into Alabama and Florida that support smaller municipalities, power plants, commercial fisheries and industrial users like paper mills.

A spokesman for Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue told the Associated Press that Georgia has not ruled out appealing the decision to the US Supreme Court, but added that Georgia will continue discussions with Florida and Alabama, mediated by the federal government, to reach a mutually satisfactory water-sharing agreement.

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I may not be a real estate expert, but I believe what is currently happening in real estate markets across the country is what people have long known would happen, but didn't want to admit. Up until recently real estate was a business in a field full of "part-time" licensed Realtors...it was a lucritive business relatively easy to be successful in even for an "average agent".

Nobody really cared to question mortgage lending practices. Nobody cared to ask the question of how a home could appreciate so much while minimum wage and salaried positions saw little increase. We knew the answers, but didn't ask the questions. Instead, people enjoyed the benefits of a "good" real estate market. A market in which people benefited from appreciation and took home equity loans and purchased vacations, cars, college education, etc. without thinking twice of the long-term impact.

The widely covered national news about real estate is just that...national news. My predictions focus on the local real estate market and I see quite a contrast when comparing the national real estate market to the local Atlanta real estate market.

First off, I am glad there was a housing slump in ‘07. I think ‘07 was a reality check for consumers and Realtors alike. Real Estate is a serious business, it was never meant to be a part-time job and ‘07 has uncovered this. The housing slump has forced many Realtors out of the business and those that remain are the individuals that have treated real estate as a business, not a hobby, and definitely not a way to make some "spending money", no sir, those that remain are the ones that rely on real estate as their sole source of income and that is why they remain.

Intrigued? I hope so, read the Full Article and please...leave a comment!

Johns Creek filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit by outdoor advertising firms against Fulton County in an effort to prevent a proposed settlement agreement.

Under the approved proposal by the Fulton County Commission, the county would approve sign permits for 74 billboards, including 31 in Johns Creek. In doing so, they rejected an alternative option of paying the outdoor advertisers several million dollars in damages.

Mayor Mike Bodker claims that the county is not authorized to act on behalf of the city and in doing so they have "abandoned" the citizens and sold away the community's "tranquility".

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If you drive the city's main thoroughfares, here's what you might be looking at - literally - as shown on this map of proposed billboard locations. You can also find out more about the companies and addresses of locations being considered.

Fulton Commissioners approved the settlement agreement by a 4-3 vote. See who voted how, along with commissioners' contact info.