Lane Bailey - REALTOR & Car Guy

I ask myself all of the time...

• How good are my market reports?
• Are they compelling?
• Why should a buyer or seller read MY market report instead of one of the hundreds of other reports out there?
• Am I providing value?
• What do consumers want in a market report?

I am specifically NOT leaving a link to one of my market reports in order for everyone to grade it. Rather, I would love to hear about what YOU think makes a great market report... whether you are an agent, broker, consumer or vendor.

What makes a great market report?

Those of us that live in the Atlanta Metro area are all pretty familiar with Buckhead. And I have lived here for a little over 22 years... but I have a connection that goes back WAY before that.

I lost my father in 1997, and he never lived here... but he did visit Buckhead... LONG ago. He visited me several times after I moved to Atlanta in 1989, but when he was still a kid, he was passing through Buckhead with a few teammates. He was a student at the Columbia Military Academy in Columbia, TN, and on the Rifle Team. They had just completed a competition in South GA, and were passing through on the way back to school. It would have been around 1946... and my father would have been around the tender age of 14.

The driver of the car stopped in Buckhead for a short break. While he was out of the car, my father made a quick run into one of the local bars (yes, there were bars there then, too...) and bought a beer. He was in his Military Academy uniform, and the bartender probably assumed that he was a soldier...

So my dad had his first beer in Buckhead.

True to his nature, we drove down to Buckhead one day... probably around 1995 or so... and he was able to show me the exact place that they were parked, as well as the bar where he got the beer. It wasn't a bar then, and now it doesn't even exist as a building, but we found an old picture... and he was right on point.

Oddly, my dad was never really a beer drinker. He joked that if he'd bought a 6-pack at that time, it might have been a lifetime supply.

Image by lane.bailey via Flickr

I have been pulling Gwinnett County Real Estate Market Data, and I'm not done with it yet. But, I have been seeing a few things.

• Listings are down markedly from where they would normally be. This can be either a positive or negative, depending on your outlook.
  • On the Plus Side, fewer listings means that Absorption Rates are better. There is less inventory to get sold... it tilts the table back toward sellers. It has been largely tilted toward buyers for quite a while.
  • On the Minus Side, it shows that there is pessimism in the market on the side of sellers. They aren't confident about the market. That lack of confidence has carried over to buyers... sales are also slowing.
• Sales are down... like I just mentioned. Even though Absorption Rates make the market look better... the sales just aren't there.
• Results are mixed. There are a few cities that are doing well... and there are a few price segments that are doing quite well. Others are VERY weak.

Related articles

• Norcross, GA, Market Report, April 2011 (lanebailey.com)
• Buford, GA, Market Report, April 2011 (lanebailey.com)
• Lawrenceville, GA Market Report, April 2011 (lanebailey.com)
• Sugar Hill, GA, Market Report, April 2011 (lanebailey.com)
• Let's take a break from Market Reports in Gwinnett County, GA (lanebailey.com)

Image by lane.bailey via Flickr

Kind of odd that for a "Wayback" post I would talk about an upcoming car show... But the show happens around the first Saturday in May each year... and so THIS Saturday is the day.

Smokerise Baptist Church is having their 11th Annual Smokerise Car Show on Saturday from 9am until 3pm. Registration runs from 9am until Noon... so there might be a few cars that don't show up until late. Judging runs from Noon until 3pm.

And check out this link for pictures from last year's show. There were some pretty cool rides on hand... and that was with showers threatening all day.

BTW, the other car show mentioned in that post, Mud4Blood, will be on May 28th. That one promises to rock, too...

Image via Wikipedia

Dear Builder,

I've NEVER had a buyer client tell me that they thought the garage was too big. Granted, most of my buyers are "car people", so the deck is a bit stacked, but not all of them are. In fact, I've had clients with little interest in cars... and they still wanted a garage that was just a little bigger.

You see, lots of people use their garages for a lot of different things. Many of my clients like to build cars or weld something back together in their garage, but others just want to be able to fit two cars and their riding lawnmower. Some people might want to move the cars out and build a nice piece of furniture. Others need a place to store their camping equipment while they are back in civilization.

Of course, square footage is valuable, especially as margins are squeezed, but homes with more generous garages might also sell a bit quicker. And that helps the margin, too. Turning over inventory faster lowers carrying costs. And while we're at it, can we have a couple more outlets in the garage? I've seen too many garages lately that only had one outlet (aside from the one for the garage door opener). One. Even my 40 year old house has four outlets...

Related articles

• Photo Friday... What are YOUR Garage Needs? (lanebailey.com)
• Wayback Wednesday... The Builder Forgot to Add ___ (lanebailey.com)
• Wayback Wednesday... Make YOUR Garage Cool... (lanebailey.com)
• Some Cool Garage Homes in Gwinnett County, GA (lanebailey.com)