Have you been outside lately? It is absolutely blistering hot! ☀️🥵 We are talking the kind of ridiculous heat that makes you rethink your entire weekend schedule.When the temperature climbs into the 90s, the absolute last thing anyone wants to do is drag out the lawnmower, string trimmer, and blower just to spend hours sweating over yard work. But what if you could permanently delete "cut the grass" from your summer to-do list?If you are ready to trade in the backyard chores for a stress-free, lock-and-go lifestyle, maintenance-free living is the ultimate way to go. And if you’ve been looking for the perfect, affordable opportunity to make that switch in Paulding County, I have some incredible news for you.Welcome to Easy Living at Darbys CrossingNestled right in the heart of Hiram, Geo... 07/07/2026

Do you really need a 20% down payment to buy a home in Hiram, Georgia?No. The typical first-time buyer puts down around 10%, and down payment assistance and 100% financing programs can get qualified buyers into a home in Hiram, GA with little to no money out of pocket.Here's the scenario that plays out far too often: a renter spends years trying to save what they think they need to buy tens while their rent climbs every single year.They're paying off someone else's mortgage and building someone else's equity, all because of one stubborn myth.That myth is expensive. According to a 2025 NerdWallet survey, 62% of Americans believe a 20% down payment is required to buy a home! In a market like Paulding County, where homeownership is still within reach, that misunderstanding is the single bi... 06/10/2026

If you follow the Wall Street Journal’s “Luxury Home” features you are familiar with the properties in U.S. metropolises that sell for more than $100 million. Although the number of such sales has been surpassing that mark, they are still rarities. Dallas median home prices don’t regularly carry that kind of price tag which could be why—like everyone else—most local Journal readers are curious enough to check out the details of those market-toppers.That made it interesting when last week’s WSJ luxury home article began by pointing out that one unfortunate community has “yet to cross the $100-million threshold.” Ever!“Why,’ readers may have asked themselves, “why point the spotlight at the unfortunate loser” community? Why put the downtrodden in this one town through such humiliation? Ne... 09/04/2023

If your idea of a gripping beachside summer read includes plots that revolve around real estate statistics, last week brought you a candidate. Was it the kind of megahit that would get you settling back in your folding chair, digging your toes into the sand, and becoming totally absorbed? For this latest would-be best-seller served up by the National Association of Realtors®—less-than-compellingly entitled, “Existing-Home Sales Housing Snapshot”—the answer is, ‘not so much.’The healthy part of what would actually happen next is that you wouldn’t have forgotten to limit your time in the sun. Instead of becoming absorbed in the plot, you’d have reapplied sunscreen after the two (or is it four?) hours, the way you’re supposed to. In fact, after a very short while, you might be inclined to ... 08/28/2023

“Do as I say, not as I do!” is the famous line sometimes imputed to parents, but always meant to indicate that the speaker eithera) is honest (and willing to admit making plenty of mistakes); or elseb) is a hypocrite.In that vein, for Dallas Realtors® like myself, this summer’s statistical inclusion of a key “tell” about residential real estate professionals can be taken as a point of pride. Among the “Highlights from the NAR Member Profile” is one statistic that indicates that we Realtors are—by overwhelming numbers—doing rather than just saying.The statistic under discussion was bullet-pointed under a heading dealing with the demographic characteristics of the nation’s Realtors. As a demonstration of “doing as I do,” American Realtors own their own residences: fully 89% of them do. Ad... 08/21/2023

Owners of Dallas properties with guesthouses may have investigated enrolling in Airbnb but might have worried that merely signing up would fail to bring vacationers flocking to their door. Like any other small business venture, competition is always out there. That is one reason why one guesthouse proprietor’s guaranteed success could be of interest—even though that guarantee is based on factors that most Dallas guesthouse owners don’t share.The successful proprietor’s methodology was publicized a week ago via an exclusive feature appearing on the World Real Estate News—and it stirred up a great deal of interest. The proprietress in question is Gwyneth Paltrow, the movie star and cosmetic/health product CEO whose face and voice keep finding their way into the popular press. Ms. Paltrow ... 08/14/2023

There’s no doubt that high mortgage rates are discouraging Dallas home buyers—which made last Monday’s Wall Street Journal piece about a “more popular option” of special interest to Dallas home sellers. The option under the spotlight was “an unlikely source: the seller of their house.” Although the story laid out various scenarios where that solution has been adopted, it’s still something of a rarity in residential sales. The Journal detailed some of the reasons why.The article was prompted by current conditions, including the interest rate climb toward 7%. “Seller financing has become strategic in recent months given our current state of the finance markets,” according to one risk manager. Even so, sellers who have financed a buyer’s purchase by taking back a mortgage “belong to a tiny... 08/07/2023

We may not think about it often, but as the median age of the country’s population creeps steadily higher, it has many effects on the daily lives of all of us—regardless of age. It would be shocking if it weren’t so, given the size of the shift: the median age of the U.S. population in 1920 (Boomers’ parents’ era) was 25.3; today, the Census Bureau says it’s 38.9!Since Americans’ life expectancies have risen spectacularly over the same period—from 53.2 to over 78, it’s important to recognize how great an effect it has on our housing choices and how we plan to pay for them, for most, Dallas home loans are a great part of that discussion.Earlier generations rightly felt that “they were in the last inning” of their lives much earlier, so they would have approached home loans from a radical... 07/31/2023

For Dallas parents who have yet to experience the wonders of Disneyland or Disney World, despite the expense and the line waits, there’s a good chance you will come to agree with the majority takeaway: the memories are worth it. Even so, the corporate powers-that-be at the Walt Disney Co. have never relied on word of mouth to keep the crowds coming—and now they have come up with an amusing promotion that includes a real estate twist.As World Real Estate News wrote last week, this attention-getting gambit sounds like it came “from the leave-no-stone-unturned school of marketing.” Disney decided the moment had arrived to add their landmark Haunted Mansion to real estate site Zillow’s national listings. For veterans of the eternally popular ride, the joke is a fun one.The “property” is sai... 07/24/2023

The exclusive story topping Thursday’s Weekly Real Estate News really shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise to Dallas listing watchers who have kept up with 2023’s real estate currents. But for those who’d been lulled into a year-long impression that the U.S.’s residential real estate industry was doomed to remain mired in a slow-moving but pronounced downturn—the headline would have seemed like a bolt from the blue:“Redfin: Average Home is Selling Above Its Asking Price Again”That would hardly make sense to anyone who has been seeing stalled sales volumes as evidence of a pending tsunami of foreclosures. If your mental image of would-be buyers is purely that of frustrated consumers frozen in place until mortgage rates drop back to historic lows, the news that the average home sale ... 07/10/2023

Among life’s problems most people wish they could have is a challenge faced by sellers of Dallas’s luxury properties: the task of developing an asking price that attracts the sophisticated, value-conscious buyers who qualify as legitimate prospects while still taking advantage of the “favorable market currents” reported in this month’s North American Luxury Review. As described, this is now a U.S. market that has “resulted in a consistent increase in the demand for luxury properties during the first five months of 2023.”Taking advantage of any market often depends on developing a market-conscious asking price. In that connection, here are three widely agreed-upon pointers:· For starters, if the nature of the property includes substantial features for which no true comparable sale has re... 06/26/2023

If you’ve been checking into the Dallas listings from time to time, you might be puzzled by the number of experts who refer to a ‘housing market downturn’ or ‘real estate recession.’ The Dallas listings regularly show new properties coming onto the market—just as they record those that go under contract and, later, join the ‘SOLD’ group. With asking prices that aren’t exactly in buyers’ market territory, the ‘downturn’ characterization could be confusing.Last Thursday, when Realtor.com’s chief economist Danielle Hale appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box program to discuss the latest housing market news, the discussion provided some clarity on what today’s ‘downturn’ means for homeowners and prospective buyers. A large part of the ambiguity stems from how the term ‘housing market’ is understood... 06/20/2023

As U.S. middle-income households find it harder to find or afford suitable properties, denizens of the ultra-high-end of the income scale are, as usual, facing different issues. From the West Coast to the East, the top end of the U.S. housing market’s wealthy clientele has had hit-or-miss sales results over the past couple of decades. But as Broadway’s Evita once advised, “Don’t cry for them, Argentina” (or anywhere else on the planet) because the mega-wealthy usually do eventually manage to weather even wild market gyrations.The Wall Street Journal explored the current situation for the group of Manhattan’s super-tall condominium towers. Known collectively as “Billionaire’s Row,” these Central Park neighborhood structures are often more than 1,000 feet tall. They serve as the haunts (a... 06/13/2023

If there is even a sliver of a chance you will add your home to the Dallas listings any time within the foreseeable future, there is one key feature that’s all but impossible to improve quickly when it comes time to sell: the lawn. Even though it can be key to framing your offering in a positive light, when your attention is focused elsewhere on your home’s myriad décor and mechanical features, the lawn is easy to overlook until you’re ready to stage the hero shot: the curb appeal photo. It frames the presentation. If it conveys neglect, it can spoil the show. This month began with Realtor.com recognizing a lawn’s importance with a short video with the accusatory title, “Here Are All the Ways You’re Sabotaging Your Lawn.” It’s aimed at preventing some of the all-too-common ways homeowne... 06/05/2023

The web has long since upended the public library as the principal dispensary of the latest research on publicly accessible information—so much so that the libraries themselves rate their offering of free computer access as one of the prime reasons why “Going to the library” is “the most common cultural activity in America” (if you find that hard to believe, check out this Chicago Tribune explanation).When Dallas real estate data, like the latest local trends and activity, become a central point of inquiry, the internet’s easy 24/7 accessibility would seem to offer a giant step forward. In some respects, that can be true—but always with the proviso that the trustworthiness of online data should always be confirmed by multiple sources and they should be checked to confirm that those sour... 05/29/2023

Last week, reporters for Long Island’s Newsday reported an Oyster Bay real estate item that attracted national attention due to its sellers’ identity. Singer/songwriting legend Billy Joel had put his “Middlesea” estate on the market, listing it for a nifty $49 million.That sum would purchase the 5-bedroom, 8-bath, 20,000 sq ft mansion, as well as a 3-bedroom beach house, bowling alley, in-ground swimming pool, and the helicopter pad that enables avoiding those irritating Long Island summertime traffic jams. But a quick sale may be far from a done deal. BJ once tried to sell it for $10 million more than the $22 million he paid for it in 2002, but Newsday writes “no one would put bread in the Piano Man’s jar” back then—so it was withdrawn from the market until last week.The scarcity of re... 05/25/2023

The advantage that is tapped into when an owner decides to engage the services of a professional Powder Springs staging firm has been demonstrated time and again, so you’d think that most sellers would choose to claim that resource. Although no one tracks the Powder Springs statistics, you can bet that the majority of local sellers don’t even interview a professional stager, despite the proven value their service brings. That fact will come as good news for those who do—it creates an advantage that puts them ahead of the crowd.The reasons may include reluctance to grant the power to make decisions about how the property is to be presented to the buying public. After all, it’s THEIR house, not the stagers’! But most owners will agree that the whole point of hiring a pro is to take advant... 05/25/2023

Dallas real estate observers got a welcome end-of-the-week boost from Friday afternoon’s USA Today housing market report. Although its headline included a question mark (“Housing market on the rise?”), there was little question that some of the factors that had been weighing down national activity were shifting in a positive direction. Singled out in housing and economy correspondent S. Ramaswamy’s report:· Mortgage bankers’ latest numbers showed “both mortgage and refinance applications” increasing over the previous week.· Average rates on 30-year fixed mortgages dropped for the second week in a row—a “welcome departure” from previous trends.· From Freddie Mac, a finding that inflation’s rate of growth has moderated “and is expected to decelerate over the remainder of 2023.”· Elevated ... 05/15/2023

 Traditionally, the asking prices that headed Dallas listings represented the seller’s idea of their property’s reasonable value—an acceptable amount that a buyer would (hopefully) consider to be fair. However, during much of the recent seller’s market conditions that prevailed across most of the U.S., it was not unusual to read eye-opening tales of bidding battles that resulted in closing prices that were significantly higher than the original asking price. Dallas listings may not always closely follow what’s going on throughout the rest of the nation, but they do tend to be influenced by major tidal shifts in the nation’s economic fortunes (as well as the public’s perceptions of them). Lately, as reports of bidding battles have faded from the national press, local buyers might reasona... 08/27/2022

This beautiful home sits on a corner lot with a large landscaped front & back yard that includes a front porch you'll have to pull yourself away from. You'll be blown away by the oversized Master Suite boasting a vaulted ceiling, fireplace & additional space for an office or den area. 4 spacious bedrooms upstairs; a large den and living space to enjoy your privacy or entertaining guest. This is a must see that won't last long. Only one owner, never rented and carpet has never seen shoes. Please remove shoes upon entering and/or wear shoe coverings provided. Homes Close to Where You Work Follow This Home Free Home Values Schedule a Showing/Request Info Presented By: Showing Agent: John Thomas Associate BrokereXp Realty770-650-9300Licensed In: GALicense #: 179339   04/16/2021