homes in henry county: Mcdonough Tax Day 2018: Dread or Party? - 04/16/18 10:21 AM
The concept of “Tax Day” and “Celebration” aren’t often found in tandem—except for the sense of relief that follows after the past year’s federal returns are filed and done with. Tax Day falls on Tuesday this year, which gives even the most procrastination-prone Mcdonough filers among us an extra day or two to wrestle with the paperwork.
There is at least one website that makes the unlikely connection between tax time and party time. It’s moneytalksnews.com, which proposes that everyone celebrate. “Tax Time: Instead of Dread, Host a Tax Party” was its easy-to-ignore advice. Among the ideas to party down were … (0 comments)

homes in henry county: Buying a House in Mcdonough, First Step First - 04/13/18 06:33 AM
Once you’ve settled on the goal of buying your first Mcdonough house, it’s hard to resist getting out there and getting started immediately! No matter if you know how vital it is to stick to a realistic budget on a purchase that’s this substantial, as soon as you’ve begun to save for that down payment, you’ll be hard-pressed not to at least stop by whenever you see an “Open House” sign. Even if it’s in a neighborhood where you know prices are half again what’s in your price range.
There may be no harm in that—but realistically, only if you are already … (1 comments)

homes in henry county: Condo & Homeowners’ Associations: Differences Matter - 04/11/18 06:12 AM
If you have ever checked out the latest Henry County real estate listings, you noticed monthly expense items for some of them listed as “Homeowners’ Association” (HOA) or “Condo Association” fees. Both are the monthly sums that any new owner will be required to pay in addition to property taxes.
It’s easy to lump them both together in the same mental category because they are so similar in character: each represents an expense item that neighbors pay to defray common maintenance, repair and other expenses that affect everyone. But there are major differences between the two—and they’re not just legal fine points. … (1 comments)

homes in henry county: For Stockbridge Home Furnishing Decisions, Avoid Creepy - 04/10/18 11:40 AM
The majority of Stockbridge homeowners make most home furnishing decisions piecemeal rather than in a single remodeling blitz. Even when you move to a new home, for practical reasons most of your household furnishings come with. Favorite pieces of furniture, art objects, and décor items accompany you from place to place even if they aren’t than perfect matches with the new digs.
The topic arose last Friday in a light-hearted commentary on realtor.com’s “Home Improvement” pages. Author Jennifer Geddes identified pieces of furniture that today’s designers wish people “would never buy again— ever.” Her research could serve as cautionary guidance for … (0 comments)

homes in henry county: House Hunting in Henry County Can Offer Surprises - 04/06/18 08:08 AM
A couple of weeks ago the Realtor website ran a 90-second video about How to Buy with a core message that could be helpful to anyone who has set about house hunting in Henry County. The theme was about the value of compromise—not insisting on a rigid checklist of predetermined criteria to be the be-all/end-all for house hunting ventures. That’s practical advice to keep house hunting budgets in line with reality. The four requirements for which flexibility was advised were:
         Location          Space (square footage)          Yard size          Architectural style Although too much flexibility for all four would … (0 comments)

homes in henry county: National Press Close to Declaring a Sellers Market - 04/02/18 06:59 AM
“Circumlocution” —the hefty word for “beating around the bush”—describes what the national real estate news feeds have been practicing for a while when it comes to the state of the marketplace. Until recently, most analysts seemed reluctant to call this spring’s U.S. lineup a “sellers market”—perhaps because the phrase might discourage would-be buyers. That began to change last month.
As the week came to a close, Mcdonough homeowners who’ve been putting off their own decisions about whether to list their properties could find ample reasons for acting. Not only was that “sellers market” label showing up more often, but a host of … (0 comments)

homes in henry county: Mcdonough Home Loan Rules Show Signs of Easing - 03/29/18 08:08 AM
Mcdonough readers who perused The Washington Post’s “Real Estate” section recently found a most encouraging piece of information—particularly if they were among many the younger and first-time home seekers who worry about qualifying for a home loan. And by the article’s finale, there was even one conclusion that sober-minded observers might decide had exceeded simple optimism…
The headline article— Many lenders are loosening requirements for prospective home buyers—provided ample evidence of widespread easing of mortgage qualification criteria. Apparently, there is a common acknowledgment that many of the lending guidelines that followed the housing crisis were overly restrictive.
Among the tweaks to … (0 comments)

homes in henry county: Why Stockbridge Real Estate Agents Usually Get the Nod - 03/28/18 07:14 AM
Stockbridge real estate agents who happened upon last week’s Wall Street Journal feature might have been jolted by the headline, “How to Sell Your Home Without a Real-Estate Agent.” Why would the Journal—one of the most sophisticated observers of today’s business realities—possibly want to lead readers down the FSBO (For Sale by Owner) path? Don’t actual market results point to the opposite approach?
As it turned out, the shock turned out to be only headline deep. What seemed to be a how-to for homeowners intent on doing without the services of a Realtor® quickly proved to be the opposite. Stockbridge readers who … (1 comments)

homes in henry county: Existing Home Sales News Only Seems Contradictory - 03/23/18 06:29 AM
Can existing home sales slide at the same time they advance? Stockbridge real estate watchers who have heard similar conflicting accounts on successive news reports could be forgiven for deciding somebody is confused. They might be right about that, but in fact, both reports are technically correct.
The contradictory accounts may have originated from a press conference held a while ago by the National Association of Realtor®s’ Lawrence Yun, the group’s chief economist. At first, it sounded as if U.S. sales—particularly existing home sales—was a straightforward bad news story. “Contract signings were down,” was the main takeaway. A video of the press … (0 comments)

homes in henry county: “Amazon Effect” Reaches into Henry County Neighborhood Choices - 03/21/18 07:26 AM
Amazon—or, more precisely, the Amazon phenomenon—is bound to have an increasing impact on Henry County residential neighborhood preferences. The connection hasn’t yet been widely acknowledged, but it’s hard to deny the logic behind it.
The connection I’m pointing to isn’t the web behemoth’s rumored expansion into real estate. That was quietly floated last summer—and just as quickly abandoned. Without ceremony, Amazon had debuted a “Hire a Realtor” page under a “Coming soon” blurb—but took it down the next day. The Seattle retailer has been mum about the reason for the misfire—but it could well be its use without permission of the NAR’s … (0 comments)

homes in henry county: 6 Factors Shape Spring Selling Season in Mcdonough - 03/19/18 06:42 AM
This Tuesday, Mcdonough calendars mark the first day of spring: the vernal equinox. The onset of astronomical spring doesn’t quite coincide with Mcdonough’s real estate spring selling season, which most agree should be considered to start 12 days later, at the start of April.
Just about everything you need to know about why we expect Mcdonough’s spring selling season to be as active (some say “frantic”) as ever can be gleaned by a glance at the calendar. After the long winter, it explains why so many homebuyers seem to come out of the woodwork. Here are six of the calendar-based factors … (1 comments)

homes in henry county: Priceless News Item for Henry County First-Time Homebuyers - 03/16/18 06:47 AM
Last week’s short news item could serve as inspiration for future Henry County first-time homebuyers—especially for those who haven’t yet considered the possibility of owning their own Henry County home.
The item in question was news of the passing of the English athlete, Sir Roger Bannister. If that name isn’t familiar, it’s because Bannister’s story has long since faded from the headlines. But Bannister was a hero who changed the path of more than just sports history.
His triumph took place in 1954. A mid-distance runner, he had considered giving up the sport after his failure to win a medal in the 1952 … (1 comments)

homes in henry county: “Last Call” to Buy Your Mcdonough Home? - 03/14/18 06:41 AM
The question posed in last week’s Realtor.com article was certainly scary enough: “Is It Last Call for Low Mortgage Rates?” If you have been putting off getting ready to buy your next Mcdonough home, it could well have been a potent call to action. For the normally staid Realtor, it was an unusually pointed dispatch.
The article’s opening line, “All good things come to an end…” is what many Mcdonough home loan rate watchers have known to be true enough—yet for years now, when it comes to the financial benefits that accompany low mortgage interest rates, the prospects for losing the resultant … (0 comments)

homes in henry county: Spot House Improvements Yield Disproportionate Rewards - 03/09/18 07:01 AM
You don’t have to be planning to sell your home to enjoy the benefits from what you might call a few ‘strategic spot improvements.’ These are limited renovations aimed at specific areas of a house—improvements that might not seem essential to Henry County homeowners after years of living with them, but which fresher-eyed visitors see as evidence of a property in need of renewal.   
Spot house improvements can be most necessary in living areas that whisper, “I’m a refugee from the 80’s.” Examples are rooms with popcorn ceilings; with faded green or pink bathroom tiles (really more like refugees from the … (2 comments)

homes in henry county: 2 Factors Sometimes Shape Mcdonough Mortgage Loan Outcomes - 03/08/18 06:46 AM
Whether you are about to embark on your first Mcdonough home search or your umpteenth, unless you’ve managed to save enough to make you a cash buyer, soon you’ll need to secure a mortgage loan from a bank or other lending institution.
To understand what lies behind any home loan decision, just do what any good business negotiator does: put yourself in the other guy’s shoes. Getting a yes (and a low interest rate) from Mcdonough’s lenders starts with demonstrating a history of responsible debt handling. That’s been made easy by the major credit information gathering agencies, who’ve been collecting data … (1 comments)

homes in henry county: Future Stockbridge Home Prices Subject to Scrutiny - 03/07/18 09:12 AM
When Stockbridge homeowners sit down to plot out their household’s long-range financial plan, the value they ascribe to their Stockbridge home usually deserves a leading role. As research firm Pulsenomics puts it, “changes in single-family home values can have profound impacts on consumer balance sheets.” Yet it’s often the case that homeowners assume that their home’s value is its apparent equity—the home price they paid less their mortgage’s remaining principal.
Stockbridge homeowners will be pleased to find that using that measure is almost certain to result in a substantial underestimate. Since the historical norm is for residential home prices to rise, if … (0 comments)

homes in henry county: 4 Tricks the Pros Use for Mcdonough Open Houses - 02/07/18 09:56 AM
Since bright, sunny days can’t be counted on for Mcdonough open houses scheduled in February, the most common recommendations at this time of year deal with light. Everyone points out how doubly important it is to open the drapes and make sure all lamps and overheads are working. Where necessary, it’s also a good idea to brighten dim corners with higher wattage bulbs.
There are also any number of fine points that homeowners planning Mcdonough open houses might not have heard about. Familiarity is a handicap in that respect. Being able to view a property’s rooms with fresh eyes is one of … (1 comments)

homes in henry county: 5 Reasons for Buying Your Stockbridge Home Now - 02/05/18 07:54 AM
There’s no challenging that ancient fable about the boy who cried wolf—which boils down to a simple story about why false alarms turn into more than minor irritants when a real wolf shows up. I can’t think of a comparable fable for the opposite situation, which is when an opportune circumstance has been ballyhooed so often that a surefire opportunity is allowed to slip by.
Too bad there’s no fable that covers that situation—because I think we’re exactly there right now.
The opportunity in question is for Stockbridge residents—particularly those who aren’t currently homeowners, or who are mulling over a future … (0 comments)

homes in henry county: The “My Mcdonough House Will Sell Itself” Contradiction - 02/02/18 06:11 AM
You might think that when your house is in terrific shape, that’s all you need to guarantee a quick, successful sale. Just because it is located in a desirable Mcdonough neighborhood on a great street populated with conscientious neighbors—and just because it has most of the features and attributes that today’s buyers seem to want—that it’s a cinch to draw a raft of top-of-market bids from a clamoring flock of eager prospects.
It often turns out that the result was not inevitable. The reason is that “My Mcdonough house will sell itself” thinking was allowed to take over.
Now it is … (0 comments)

homes in henry county: The Super Bowl and Stockbridge Real Estate’s Top 7 Parallels - 01/31/18 06:17 AM
Readers who check in here regularly know that every once in a while I’m moved to relate Stockbridge real estate matters to various hot issues that are claiming the popular imagination. Such topics used to be called “water cooler talk” (but that was before we all started carrying water bottles around all day). So despite the fact that we may not gather around water coolers anymore, the odds are that the leading topic of conversation won’t be the State of the Union or Stockbridge high school basketball. I’m guessing that (especially as the weekend nears) that other topic will rule.
So, … (2 comments)