Earlier this year, we started a new department: Short Sales. As with anything that the Bravo team decides to take on, it was important to begin this new short sales department with experience, focus, and talent. With the addition of Cindy Carter, our short sales team lead, we have the right agent to continue in our dedication of making client-centered decisions. She has been very successful in short selling at all price point homes. Being great in short sales requires perseverance, knowledge, and just plain old experience with doing a bunch of them. Cindy Carter is all of the above coupled with a strong moral compass. We are proud to call her part of the Bravo Team!

What does Bravo Group Real Estate bring to the short sales process? In short, Bravo Group brings talented agents who will tell you the truth about short sales in Atlanta. There are many things to consider when short selling your house, and it is not for everyone. But for many, short selling their home could be the best relief they have felt in years. There will be more posts to come about short sales. If you would like to talk with Cindy or one of our experienced agents about a short sale, please use this contact us link. We will be happy to discuss your situation.

I plan to write on my continuing adventures as a real estate investor, rehabber, construction manager, materials purchasing and management, quickbooks learner (I actually worked at Intuit for 10 years, go figure) and of course how to work technology into all that stuff.  Whether you read anymore will probably depend on if you thought that intro was boring or not….

For those that are still here, back to the headline of the blog post.  I grew up in Georgia and have lived in the Atlanta area for seven years after spending more than 10 years in Athens.  I started investing in Athens, a college town, and had great luck… when a job move brought me a little west into the metro Atlanta area, I assumed my investing would either be remote or fizzle out.  But, after two years of studying the south Gwinnett area, my wife and I decided to start purchasing again.  As you can image, I have seen the market change over the last four to five years, but the area still serves up good value, great tenants, and excellent return on investment…

The shocker here is why?  I’ve just recently started doing research nationally on markets and have discovered that Atlanta is very hot for many reasons.  One big one is demand for more housing.  It turns out even with the current recession we have been in and Georgia’s higher than average unemployment, people want to live in Atlanta.  2010 through 2012 census data show a trend of more and more people moving to the metro Atlanta area… great weather, access to lakes and mountains within an hour, a world class downtown, nationally recognized sports franchises, and cheap housing (buying or renting).  If you don’t beleive me, check out the following article from CBS Money Watch that lists the TOP 10 MOVING DESTINATIONS.

It turns out, I have probably just been a little lucky to live and invest in one of the top real estate markets, but as you look and research where you should spend your real estate investment dollars, you might want to consider the city of Atlanta also, no matter where you live.  More to come… Thanks for reading all the way to the end!

There is good news for the small guys and gals however. Because these larger firms are buying in volume, they have to use filtering models that are sophisticated to process data quickly. These filtering models will never be as good as experienced real estate professionals who have a finger on the pulse of particular areas or neighborhoods or even individual properties. We will always get the deals if we work hard enough and know our areas well. It is always wise to partner with professionals on the ground that know their markets and that you can trust. Just to emphasize, as a local investor, I knew 2 years ago that the capital firms would drive prices high. I tried my very best to tell every small investor I could what was coming and to buy as many properties as they could while the prices were still dirt cheap. Some listened. Others could not wrap their arms around what was coming.

There are 2 points to take away from this:

1. There are always real estate investment opportunities in any market, especially when you can foresee the changing market far enough in advance to capitalize on them.

2. Smart investors select experienced and determined local real estate professionals and investors to assist them while buying, selling, or owning real estate.

Salary and Benefits are competitive. 

After the Fed’s blockbuster announcement for a third round of quantitative easing at its last meeting, investors were anticipating no policy changes at Wednesday’s meeting. As expected, the Fed’s statement was very similar to the last one. Their assessment is that the economy is growing only “modestly”, justifying the current bond buying program.

Friday’s release of third quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the broadest measure of economic activity increased at a 2.0% annual rate, slightly above the consensus forecast of 1.9%, and up from 1.3% in the second quarter. Many economists feel that a 2.0% growth rate is generally consistent with a steady labor market, but that a faster pace is necessary to see significant improvement in the level of employment. A primary reason for loose Fed policy is to help boost economic growth and create new jobs more quickly.

The biggest US economic report next week will be the important Employment data on Friday. As usual, this data on the number of jobs, the Unemployment Rate, and wage inflation will be the most highly anticipated economic data of the month. Before the employment data, Personal Income and Core PCE inflation will come out on Monday. Chicago PMI Manufacturing is scheduled for Wednesday. Productivity, ISM Manufacturing, and Construction Spending will be released on Thursday. Consumer Confidence and Factory Orders will round out a busy schedule.

Thank you Shea Neely, a Mortgage Loan Officer with Southern Crescent Mortgage, for this contribution.

Homes that were previously too expensive for small investors to buy are being purchased by capital firms. These capital firms are more interested in volume than they are maximizing returns on any one house. This allows them to have a higher total cash outlay on any house than the smaller investors are willing to spend. Therefore, these capital firms are adding to the rental vacancies with often times more expensive homes in nicer neighborhoods. The net result is increased rental inventory, decreased inventory for potential home owners to purchase, and sligtlty rising home values, especially in the homes less than $150,ooo.

As a property owner of a vacant rental home, what can you do set your home apart from others and get it rented quickly? There are several key factors to renting homes. We will briefly touch on a few here. In the coming weeks, I will post an entire blog on each of these items as they are that important!

(1) Rental Price:  The most important factor to a home sitting on the market is it being marketed at the wrong rental price. When the price is too high or low, it can have problems renting. “Market Price” is what a home should be marketed at. That sounds cliche, but is very true. How do you set the right price? These days you have to investigate all ways homes are being marketed and rented. Check the local multi-listing services, Craigslist, signs in the yards, section 8 housing offices, and many other online sites to create your price. Also knowledge of the local market can really help when setting price as well. When a home sits 2 weeks with little activity, it usually needs a price adjustment. Do not let it sit too long. Go ahead and adjust the price. Vacant homes are in danger of vandalism and theft of appliances, copper, and hvac systems.

(2) Curb appeal:  If I pick the one place to spend $300 on a property, it will be on the landscaping and items that affect the front of the house appeal. Pinestraw in the beds and a properly maintained lawn can have significant impact on how fast a home will rent. Add in there a freshly painted front door and trimmed hedges, and your home can look altogether different and better.

(3) Paint choices:  When your vacant rental home sits in a neighborhood where there are many other similar homes, what will distinguish yours? At Bravo Group, we have chosen to paint splash colors on a wall or two in every house we do the rehab on. This creates a custom feel to the house and separates your house from all of the vanilla-looking houses yours is compared to. You would be shocked at the difference that a Rust-Red splash color on a dining room wall will make to your pictures on the internet, which is where 90%+ of the prospects are looking at your home for the first time.

Hopefully, you can see that the choices you and your property manager make can and will have impact on the rentability of your home. Make sure you choose those wisely and stay tuned as we will discuss more of this in detail in future posts!

As a “green” investor, I did not realize the complexity of rehabbing a home. There are lots of things to know about including processes that need to be followed, checkpoints to ensure quality, training of expectations, verifying licensing, handling change orders, determining warranties, and NEGOTIATING PRICES, etc. I used to think the most fun job of all was negotiating the pricing. I now have a different mindset….

To answer the title question in short, “Is it worth it to battle with contractors over pricing,” YES – but realizing that there are always consequences. What are these consequences?

(1) The quality of the work may suffer – The contractors very often will agree to lower pricing while knowing the places where they can cut corners to lower their costs. This can result in poor performance, which not always means the that the contractor does not have the ability to perform well. Contractors many times need the work now, so they will agree to do the work for less money and make the cuts behind your back in quality. A worst case scenario is that they may not finish the job for lack of funding, so be careful in your negotiations.

(2) You may put your contractor out of business – Often times a large client who expects exceptional pricing may very well get it from its smaller vendors. The problem can be that the vendor struggles to make a profit and often times will not tell you or even know if they loss money to tell you. Everyone has heard the cliche, “rob Peter to pay Paul.” That is very prevalent in the contracting world. Be careful to give lots of business back to back to the same contractor. I have been burned more than once when they took the first draw of a new project to fund the finish of a previous job. I did not know it until I didn’t give that contractor another job for a while. Then BAM! Jobs are sitting and they have no money to finish. There are solutions to that. Do not fund draws before work is performed….. I have not gotten burned one time since I made that policy decision.

(3) Your relationship with contractor may suffer - If your contractors believe that you do not care about their best interests in the transaction, then they very well may not care about you in the project. Maintaining good relationships with your contractor will pay off. You should always treat your vendors with respect and want them to succeed. The goal should be to treat them as you would want to be treated. This instills trust in the vendors and  contractors you work with. When you earn their trust, you will in turn get great quality work and at fair prices.

I could keep writing, but I think you get the picture. Consider hiring a Project Manager to manage your project. A project manager’s experience will offer you confidence and deliver you a great product. A good project manager forges solid relationships, which tends to lower pricing and raise quality. Good luck!

Some of the major benefits to having Bravo Group Real Estate manage your construction projects include: getting a consistent, quality project on time. Our experience of managing nearly 1000 rehabs goes along way towards protecting our owners and tenants throughout the term of any lease or investment.

With the addition of the new PM, we expect to create an even more comprehensive checklist, standardize pricing on major items, subcontractor consolidation to improve pricing, and intensive scheduling improvements. These are just a few of items that make Bravo Group rehabs a cut above the competition. Add the fact that we spend your money like it is our own, and choosing Bravo Group as the best rehab project manager in Atlanta is a great choice when buying your next investment property or rental home.