Chris Compton

In a recent post, I described the short sale process as a win-win-win situation, and it is. The lender avoids taking yet another property through foreclosure. The homeowner avoids the foreclosure process and the enormous credit impact associated with it and the buyer gets a great deal.

If the deal closes. If...

When you make an offer on a property being offered as a short sale, you need to understand a little bit about short sales and what to expect. The first thing to understand is that although these transactions are becoming more and more commonplace, there is an excellent chance that your realtor will not really know a lot about the process. Is this because they are not good at their job? No. Short sales are just not common enough for the average realtor to have come in contact with a lot of them and while your realtor is hopefully an expert in more common areas like property selection, valuation, negotiation, etc., this "newer" field may be daunting.

The second thing I want you to know is that the process is not fast. Your patience is going to be tested and if you are not ready to exercise extreme patience, maybe you should pass on this particular deal. From the time you submit your offer, you should expect at least 4 weeks before you find out if the bank has approved it. If they approve it, you are going to save thousands of dollars, so if you don't have to move tomorrow, this might be worth your time.

My next little nugget is very important if you don't want to waste your time. You can apply this technique to other deals as well - it is not restricted to the short sale arena. Negotiation requires both parties to succeed in order to be successful. If you try to steal the property, you are just going to wait for 4 weeks or more and get rejected by the bank. In a typical short sale transaction, the bank will send out realtors they trust to evaluate the property's value. Then the bank will evaluate the offer to see what percentage of the property's value they are going to realize after paying all of their expenses. If that percentage is 80 or higher, they will probably accept. If it is lower than 80, they will proably reject the offer.

What does that mean in English? If the property is worth $100,000 dollars, don't offer $80,000. Sure, the home owner wll agree to it, but the bank won't and four or five weeks later you will have to submit another offer or look for another property. Remember they need to NET 80% of the value. Offer 90% and you have a great chance. How do you determine the value? That's where your realtor comes in. If you don't have a realtor, you can call me, Chris Compton at 770-682-7735. I will walk you through the process and help you succeed.

Short sales are odd transactions because you are buying the property from another individual, but their lender has final say so on the deal. Make sure that their lender is getting what they need and you will find yourself in a great home for a great low price.

Hello sports fans. Currently on the market in Gwinnett County we have 9918 homes. The lowest priced home is $52,900 and the most expensive is $7,950,000. The average list price is currently $308,460. All data comes from First MLS.

In 2008, 2434 Gwinnett County Homes have sold for an average of $229,044. The lowest price has been $42500 and the highest price has been $2,080,816. Note that I previously reported a higher priced sale. I get the data from First MLS, so I assume that they have corrected an error since my last report.

During the week ending June 8, 173 homes sold in Gwinnett. 605 homes were listed and 657 saw their prices change with over 90% of those changes being in a downward direction (that is correct - they got cheaper.)

With so many price reductions, it is tough to pick out just a few homes to show you. The sheer volume of bargain basement real estate on the market is overwhelming. Feel free to call me to do a free search for the exact bargain YOU are looking for at 770-682-7735.

Here are four of the best:

The largest drop of the week was at 4921 Bill Cheek Road in Auburn. Dropping just over 15% may not sound like that much, but we are talking about over $200,000. This home is located on over 7 acres of land and features 5 bedrooms and 5.5 baths. Spread out across 6143 square feet and sitting on a full basement, this just might be the bargain you are looking for.

As you know, foreclosures are popping up like weeds in Gwinnett and nice homes get foreclosed on, too. This gorgeous River Laurel Subdivision home in Suwanee saw it's price fall $112,000, more than 20% to it's new asking price of $447,900. "Please take it off our hands," the bank is screaming. The home is located at 4350 Laurel Grove Trace. It was built in 1998 and features 6 bedrooms, 5 baths and a full finished basement. Three years ago, this home sold for $590,000! The living area measures 4741 square feet with another 1732 square feet in the basement, according to tax records. Suwanee was recently featured in Money Magazine as one of the 10 best places to live in the US. Here is a picture of the home.

Think the builders are sitting on their hands? Think again. At "Reserve at Lakeside" subdivision, 1315 Martins Down Drive has been slashed more than 26% ($70,000) to $189,990. This brand new 4 bedroom 2.5 bath home is on a full basement. Come for the price, stay for the new home smell!

My favorite reduction this week is a doozy. The price on this home has beed reduced 99.175%, from $20,000,000 to only $165,000. So what's the story? I tried typing $20,000,000 over and over and while I made a few mistakes, I never "accidentally" typed anything like $165,000. What was this realtor thinking of? Attention! She knows that there are people looking at price changes every day and the more attention she gets, the better! Good luck to her and her client. The home is at 4766 Lily Stem Drive in Auburn. It is a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath home in the Flowery Branch Crossing subdivision, built in 2005. It sold new for $200,300 and is being offered as a short sale. If you don't know what a short sale is, read this article or call me anytime and I will explain. Here is the home.

That's it for this week. Remember that I am here to help! Let's go get a house.

What is a short sale? Have you ever heard the term "Short Sale?" Is that a home that is only listed for a month or is the owner less than five feet tall?

None of the Above.

A short sale is a special situation that has become increasingly common in the recent past. A short sale is a win-win-win situation for the seller, the buyer and the lienholder. A short sale is an opportunity for a buyer to get a great deal,for a seller to avoid foreclosure and for a lienholder to save tens of thousands of dollars in fees and costs.

OK, OK - in English?

Imagine that you own a home and you would like to sell it. You call Chris Compton, your favorite realtor in the whole wide world at 770-682-7735. Chris comes over to talk with you about selling your home. Durng the conversation you come to realize that his expert opinion about the value of your home poses a BIG problem. Chris wants you to market your home for LESS than you owe! And he wants you to pay a brokerage fee when the house sells! That is a problem.

Suppose you could make a deal with the lender who holds the lien against you home. You would sell the house for its fair market value, which Chris helped you determine. You would pay the brokerage fee from the proceeds of the sale and then give the money that was left over to the lender. They would FORGIVE the shortfall and you could move ahead with your life without the credit destroying, life altering, gut wrenching pain of a foreclosure proceeding. That would be fantastic, right? That is a short sale.

To be honest, short sales are complex. They require a very detailed package of information to be compiled and submitted to the lender in order for the lender to agree to the terms of the sale. Many short sales are disapproved. The majority of these disapproved sales are due to improperly submitted packages.

Luckily, you have stumbled upon a realtor who is immersed in short sale education and training. A realtor who has systems and strategies in place to make sure that your sale goes through if at all possible. A realtor who respects and cares enough about your family to do the work right and get you on your way.

If you are struggling to make your house payments, whether you have had a job change, a medical emergency, been the victim of a predatory loan or for any other reason - call me immediately! Do Not Wait. Every day you put this off reduces the chances of us helping you avoid foreclosure.

A short sale affects your credit. A foreclosure destroys it. If you are sitting around waiting for things to change, stop. Pick up the phone and let's change things together.

The Braves had their official groundbreaking ceremony last week, despite the fact that ground was actually broken quite a while ago.

I stopped by the construction site yesterday at 2500 Buford Drive in Lawrenceville and took a look around. They have done quite a bit since the last look I had. Here are some photos. As you can see, they have fleshed out the field. I was tempted to run the bases!

The picture above was taken from way behind home plate - well outside of the stadium.

The picture above was taken from just beyond the right field foul line.

They just added this sign to the site.

Above is a nice picture of the infield layout.

The picture above was taken May 18. This is where the diamond ended up.

Back on May 10, I reported on some price reductions in the Gwinnett County Real Estate Market. You can read that report by clicking here.

Of the five homes that I reported as reduced, three are still on the market at their reduced price. 2015 Lavendar Drive in Ivey Chase has been slashed again, this time to $229,900.

2926 Swarthmore Drive went under cntract on May 23, 2008.

There are lots of bargains out there. This is the perfect time to buy real estate. Prices are low and interest rates are low. Don't sit around and wait for a better time or you may find yourself out of luck due to a radical change in US banking policy or lending standards.

Remeber the old adage - "Pigs get fat, Hogs get slaughtered."

Call me today at 770-682-7735 and let's fatten up your portfolio!