homes in henry county stockbridge home search: A Single Piece of Advice from Buyer’s and Seller’s Agent - 11/30/17 05:49 AM
The dual nature of Henry County real estate agents is unlike most other professions. A medical doctor who is a family physician in the morning doesn’t switch hats and become a surgeon in the afternoon—any more than a lawyer who pleads in court for a defendant can decide to become a prosecuting attorney that afternoon.
On the other hand, Henry County Realtors® may begin any single day in negotiations representing a seller, then spend the afternoon escorting a buyer client through a series of Henry County home showings. I’m happy to say this isn’t evidence of a split personality disorder. It’s perfectly … (2 comments)

homes in henry county stockbridge home search: A Single Underlying Factor When Applying for a Mortgage - 11/16/17 07:27 AM
Every mortgage lender develops their own unique guidelines for evaluating the factors contained in a home loan application. These may change from time to time so that their portfolios stay “balanced”—that is, so that the cumulative risk represented by the entire batch of home loans do not exceed the level of risk they wish to assume.
Potential Stockbridge mortgage applicants are bound to be curious about which factors are more or less influential for that decision. Their curiosity is why you can find hundreds of “Top 5” and “Top 7” lists of “mortgage application factors”—and why home loan originators pay top dollar … (1 comments)

homes in henry county stockbridge home search: Mcdonough Sellers Evaluate For Sale by Owner Websites - 11/14/17 11:20 AM
It’s illuminating to visit For Sale by Owner websites from time to time to see if there are any new insights to be gleaned. True, as a licensed Mcdonough Realtor®, I’m not likely to learn much new when it comes to selling Mcdonough homes—but that’s not the motivation. Call it ‘opposition research:’ the reason is to uncover any areas where the services I provide aren’t superior to what a do-it-yourselfer can come up with on their own.
Here are some takeaways from the FSBO sites Google recently presented as the most frequently consulted sites. I’ve included my opinion about the pronouncements—either valid … (2 comments)

homes in henry county stockbridge home search: Henry County Real Estate Braces for a New Kind of Reality - 11/13/17 06:18 AM
Henry County real estate has greatly benefitted from one offshoot of “virtual” technology. Just click on a listing’s “virtual tour” button and a progression of two-dimensional views of the listed property parade across your laptop or smartphone screen.
Those Henry County listing virtual tours are real estate’s first step toward “VR”—Virtual Reality. VR is the more immersive version that allows viewers to move around within three-dimensional renderings of computer-generated environments. A current example is the TV commercials depicting delighted VR goggle-wearers experiencing animated fictional worlds. They demonstrate two things: 1) the people who don the goggles look as if they truly … (0 comments)

homes in henry county stockbridge home search: Your Mcdonough Homeowners Insurance Annual Checkup - 11/09/17 06:21 AM
It’s one of those Mcdonough documents most of us stash in a safe, out-of-the-way place—somewhere in the furthest recesses of a linen closet or at the back of a bureau drawer. Renters do the same: they don’t actually read the thing, but they know they want to keep it somewhere where they hope they’ll never have to find it.
The document that they value and simultaneously avoid is their Mcdonough homeowners or renter’s insurance policy—the thing they make sure to purchase and hope to forget. As much as I consider it my job to cater to my clients’ every wish, it is … (0 comments)

homes in henry county stockbridge home search: Buying Your Stockbridge House as Slowly as Possible - 11/08/17 06:12 AM
The goal of owning your Stockbridge home free and clear is usually thought of as the sunniest eventual outcome of the process that begins with buying your Stockbridge house. The vision of the day when you make that last mortgage payment is an attractive one: whether in retirement or sooner, a “free rent” future has great appeal.
So when financial planners argue against the wisdom of paying off your mortgage, it makes for interesting reading. One such planner is Ric Edelman, whose article “11 Great Reasons to Carry a Big, Long Mortgage” presents a laundry list of the possible financial benefits. … (1 comments)

homes in henry county stockbridge home search: World Series is Over: Your Home Selling Negotiations Aren’t - 11/06/17 11:22 AM
When it comes to appraising and developing appropriate responses to offers on your Henry County home, I’m here to offer counsel and guidance. Even so, you are the ultimate decision maker. Especially for Henry County homeowners without previous selling experience, becoming familiar with some practical pointers for home selling negotiations is well worth doing. Henry County sellers can find one rich source at the National Association of Realtors® web site. This month’s World Series finale undoubtedly inspired the title for a list of home selling negotiation pitfalls. Published the morning of Houston’s Game 7 victory, it dealt with errors in home … (0 comments)

homes in henry county stockbridge home search: After Halloween, Buying a Home in Stockbridge isn’t So Scary - 11/02/17 06:27 AM
While we’re still in Halloween Scary Things mode, we might as well address the fear factor when it comes to buying Stockbridge homes. First-time Stockbridge home buyers aren’t the only ones who experience at least some degree of trepidation as they go about such a major purchase. The prospect of buying a home can be so intimidating that putting it off seems the easiest course of action (actually, inaction). The problem is that if that delay happens to fall during a period of rising home prices or mortgage rates­, it’s going to seem self-defeating in retrospect.
But unlike the scary Halloween decorations … (0 comments)

homes in henry county stockbridge home search: Timing Your Mcdonough Home’s Sale - 11/01/17 11:23 AM
Hardly anyone decides to put their own Mcdonough house up for sale without wondering whether there wouldn’t be a better time to do so. There are a couple of different ways to look at the timing of your Mcdonough home’s sale—but only one of them is controversial.
Controversial: timing by the calendar. A good number of real estate commentators think that the optimal timing for any home’s sale is during the spring/summer season. In the residential real estate lexicon that’s the “peak selling season.” Statistics validate their point. Since the majority of transactions are in fact initiated during the good weather months … (0 comments)

homes in henry county stockbridge home search: For Mcdonough Real Estate, Halloween Marks a Turning Point - 10/27/17 06:17 AM
Fa la la la la, la la la la: it’s carol time again!
Not quite? You can’t almost hear those sleigh bells ringing? Well, brace yourself. Halloween is next Tuesday—and nowadays, that means that by Wednesday, holiday advertising will be with us for the duration.
Whether we admit it or not, the Thanksgiving start of the holiday season is a thing of the past. Hallmark has already launched its “Countdown to Christmas;” Mcdonough mailboxes are filling with gift catalogs; store windows are only weeks away from being transformed into snow-sprayed winter wonderlands.
As far as Mcdonough real estate is concerned, a couple of … (0 comments)

homes in henry county stockbridge home search: Now’s the Time for Henry County Landscaping Tweaks - 10/25/17 07:27 AM
Henry County gardening enthusiasts already know this—but for those whose thumbs are anything but green, right now is a special time of year where landscaping is concerned. It’s Henry County’s high season for planting and transplanting!
You don’t have to intend on listing your Henry County home anytime soon to have a vested interest in maximizing your home’s curb appeal. After all, year in and year out the plantings in front and back yards can make all the difference in the kind of impact your property makes—it’s a pride of ownership fundamental. Neighbors and casual passers-by may not realize how much of … (0 comments)

homes in henry county stockbridge home search: Most Homeowners Now Predict Gains in Home Values - 10/23/17 07:05 AM
More than half of U.S. homeowners expect their home’s value to rise in the coming year. For Stockbridge real estate watchers who track public sentiment as a market indicator, the news comes as a welcome addition to other reports of rising consumer optimism regarding the economy as a whole.
The finding comes from a national telephone and online survey conducted earlier this month by the Rasmussen Reports organization. It signals an acceleration in a year-long trend of rising expectations among U.S. homeowners. A year earlier, fewer than 40% had predicted that their own home values would rise in the coming year. In … (1 comments)

homes in henry county stockbridge home search: How To Become Your Own Mcdonough Refi Warrior - 10/19/17 05:53 AM
Back when Mcdonough mortgage interest rates plummeted by 46% in less than four years, it precipitated a sort of refi tsunami. The volume of Mcdonough refinancings was nothing short of enormous. For the first time in a long time, the benefit for homeowners who could lower their Mcdonough mortgage interest payments had become all but irresistible to everyone whose home loan predated the plunge. Lenders were swamped—and they loved it!
The current climate for Mcdonough refi’s is much calmer and considerably less well publicized. Nonetheless, it still holds out the prospect of real savings for homeowners whose current Mcdonough home loan terms … (0 comments)

homes in henry county stockbridge home search: Henry County Investment Property Owners View Top 6 Repairs - 10/17/17 06:11 AM
When you first look into whether an investment property in Henry County would be a suitable addition to your own portfolio, the positives leap out. Henry County investment properties can throw off positive cash flow even as they appreciate in long-term value. What’s not to like? But there is one area that may hover as a wildcard: the maintenance issue.
Because tenants are part of the picture, Henry County investment properties undergo varying amounts of wear and tear, so keeping them in top shape does require at least some degree of attention. Veteran landlords learn how to handle maintenance and repairs … (0 comments)

homes in henry county stockbridge home search: Stockbridge Real Estate Braces for Amazon.com Incursion - 10/16/17 06:06 AM
Amazon has invaded the realm of real estate—but you couldn’t say it’s happening in a big way.
It’s happening in a tiny way.
Last week the improbable news arrived that the web’s 400-pound gorilla had made its first foray into the realm of real estate. Since Stockbridge real estate (like all real estate) is by definition local, its very nature would seem to preclude the buying and selling of homes as a mail order enterprise. But since Amazon.com has succeeded in other industries where failure had been assumed (high-end fashion, for instance), could local Stockbridge real estate soon be monopolized by a … (3 comments)

homes in henry county stockbridge home search: Stockbridge Homes for Sale: Pet-Friendly or Not? - 10/04/17 05:58 AM
“Pet-Friendly” is a term that used to be confined to the Stockbridge Homes for Rent ads and a few open-minded hotel chains. Given the 84+ million American households which now include pets as family members, Stockbridge homeowners who plan on listing their property anytime soon might include those animal census numbers in their thinking.
There may not yet be an official “Pet-Friendly Home” seal with stringent qualifying requirements, but it might not be such a bad idea. What research there is indicates that most prospective home buyers don’t at first concentrate on their animals’ needs—yet when you add the 36% of dog-owning … (0 comments)

homes in henry county stockbridge home search: Henry County House Design Idea Summed Up in a Single Word - 10/03/17 06:01 AM
There’s news in the world of house design—for a change!
Those who keep in touch with the house design innovations that Henry County buyers are currently favoring know one thing is for certain: they don’t change overnight. True innovations are rare.
Fads occasionally come and go (remember “industrial décor” and barn door sliders?)—but by definition, fads don’t wind up making much of a dent in how most Henry County homes are built or remodeled. That’s a good thing: overexuberant style-chasing can be expensive to correct once a clever style has come and gone.
I bring this up because it looks as if there … (0 comments)

homes in henry county stockbridge home search: Business Real Estate Strategy for Stockbridge Entrepreneurs - 09/28/17 07:09 AM
 Most Stockbridge small businesspeople will recognize this post-startup scenario. It’s the moment when the whole idea of long-range planning first starts to make sense.
Although everyone who stakes his or her claim in a new business hopes for success, in the beginning, that outcome is far from certain. Throughout the early going, the first order of business has been simple survival—and that’s been a full-time job. You work your tail off 25 hours a day, tackle all the expected (and unexpected) challenges, and if the best happens, see the bottom line begin to brighten. And then, the reality dawns: your brainchild … (1 comments)

homes in henry county stockbridge home search: Henry County House Prep Starts with Capturing the Visuals - 09/27/17 06:50 AM
Some key preparations for the marketing of any Henry County home actually start well before the first showing or open house: they take place in the hours before the Henry County listing photos are taken. Those Henry County listing photos will become the definitive beauty shots—the equivalent of the glamorous depictions that grace product packaging.  
Manufacturers know very well the import of how their product looks on the carton, jar or bag. It’s why top commercial photographers rely on “product stylists” (they’re the experts who sort through 100 bags of potato chips to come up with the two or three that … (1 comments)

homes in henry county stockbridge home search: 4 Simple Home Buying Steps: Good, but a Bit Too Simple - 09/22/17 12:14 PM
What a simpler world it would be if Henry County home buying could be reduced to anything like a simple 4-Step process. Even better if those were four easy steps. Actually, without actually coming out and saying so, that’s the tantalizing prospect hinted at on radio financial guru Dave Ramsey’s web site’s “Home Buying Process Made Easy.”
Ramsey is the likable media expert in household budgeting and financial planning. A good deal of his guidance could be summed up in just 2 steps:
1) get out of debt (except for mortgage debt) as soon as humanly possible; then,
2) stay out.
Since that’s not bad … (1 comments)