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Lilburn, GA Real Estate News

 On February the 17th the nation is converting to digital television (DTV) and for most of us our lives will not change one bit.  But, for millions of Americans who were a sleep at the wheel it will be National Read a Book Day. The big " Why" question most people are asking is: Why do we need to switch to DTV? Under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the amount of spectrum given to television station owners was doubled. The policy rationale for this was to enable the stations to transition US consumers to DTV without interruption of analog broadcasts.  some TV stations were able to broadcast in both analogy and digital.  But after ten years of digital TV broadcasts, only a small number of US households have made the switch to DTV, delaying the return of valuable spectrums that could be...
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By Lane Bailey, Realtor & Car Guy
(Century 21 Results Realty)
There are a couple of things I have been working on for LilburnDwellings for 2009...  First will be to get into more listed properties to provide an unbiased look at the value of the property.   Because of MLS (Multiple Listing Service) rules and NAR (National Association of REALTORS) rules as well as GREC (Georgia Real Estate Commission) agency laws, I have to be a bit discreet when I talk about properties.  Basically, I can't identify and talk about a property I don't have listed without the permission of the listing agent (or the seller if there isn't a listing agent).  But I can talk about properties with my clients... So: I will be creating a Deal List of properties that I think are good deals at their listed prices.  I actually have done a few of these last year.  Of the four that...
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Today I was probably asked that question 10 to 20 times (it felt more like 100 to 200 times).  In my first 30 years of my life I tried to make meaningful resolutions each and every New Year's Eve.  I would try and try; but would fall short with in the first few months or so.  Then a First Sergeant of mine said something to me that is very true "Chess" he said "When you are ready to change something in your life you will change it".  That advice cost me 50 push-ups and after that I only made one more New Year's Resolution and it is the only one I have ever truly kept.  The follow New Year's Eve (1990) I made the resolution to never make another resolution. When you are ready you will do it - Thanks, First Sergeant!
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By Lane Bailey, Realtor & Car Guy
(Century 21 Results Realty)
Real Estate and some otherwise... For those that are interested, here are the predictions I made for 2008, as well as a wrap-up post about the results.  I was right on 6½ of the ten real estate predictions...  So here are the predictions for the coming year... I'm looking for slightly lower mortgage rates through the first half of the year, and then a rise starting by the third quarter.  Going WAY out on a limb, I would say that there will be rates under 4.5% (without paying points) at some point before July... Credit is going to loosen, but don't expect 2005...  It is actually moving in that direction already. I'm looking for the inventory levels to decrease compared to 2008...  I'd like to see them drop 20% from 2008.  I think we will hit that target through the first three quarters (...
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By Lane Bailey, Realtor & Car Guy
(Century 21 Results Realty)
I just ran a survey of the newly listed properties from the last 30 days.  I have to say that I am quite surprised by what I found... I was looking specifically for how the listings were presented.  We know from every bit of research done on buyer behavior that photos and virtual tours are among the most important things to the VAST majority of buyers.  Homes with few or no pictures are most often passed over... regardless of how nice the property might be.  Buyers want to see LOTS of pictures.  They want virtual tours, and they want both the pictures AND the virtual tours to be high quality. So, with that in mind I took a trip through the last 30 days of listings for Lilburn in FMLS.  In that period, there were 56 new listings entered.  I sorted them by how recent they were.  I was loo...
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By Lane Bailey, Realtor & Car Guy
(Century 21 Results Realty)
The commercials are driving me crazy...  I hear them constantly.  Two women talking about buying a house, and the one woman tells her friend that she paid $20,000 for this beautiful 4 bedroom home.  The announcer kicks in that there are actual listings for 4 bedrooms homes for under $20,000.  They cut back to the ladies, and the friend has now bought a house for $102/mo.  Ok, this isn't Detroit.  This is Gwinnett County, GA.  In Detroit there are homes that are overpriced at $500.  They need more work than they are worth, and even bulldozing it and building a new house is pointless because of the overhead inventory.  But that isn't the case here.  Any home in Gwinnett County that is under $20,000 is not going to be habitable.  There might be one out there...  But I wouldn't hold my brea...
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My parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on the 20th of December at 4 p.m. I can not begin to thank God enough for the blessing of being the son of these two wonderful and God fearing people.  In early 1958, my dad (to be) was walking along one Sunday night on a street in Knoxville, Tennessee in a heavy rain; when he was dragged into the front door of a church.  My grandpa (to be) looked at he and said something about being smart enough to come in out of the rain and every dissent man should be in church on a Sunday night.  Grandpa then invite my dad to sit with him and his family and the rest is a real love story at has inspired the people who know my parents.  GOD I thank you for your blessing on this couple, I truly thank you!!!!! A side note: It has been rumored that, on...
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By Lane Bailey, Realtor & Car Guy
(Century 21 Results Realty)
I will admit I am an optimist. Usually... But I am also a contrarian. So, I generally tend to run counter to most, and I look for the good. Right now, anyone that finds anything positive in real estate is definately a contrarian. But I am starting to be an optimist. There are two big reasons... Some of the most successful investors are contrarians... like Warren Buffet. When every stock was a sure thing, he wasn't buying. Now he is loaded with cash and there are bargains to be picked up. At each swing of the market, it seems that the VAST majority are on the wrong side. The media, the popular sentiment, the analysts... Everyone is saying that techs are STILL set to rocket, that the stock market is going to keep tumbling forever, that it is on the way to 20,000, that houses ALWAYS go up....
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By Lane Bailey, Realtor & Car Guy
(Century 21 Results Realty)
I'm just tossing this out because I get a few questions about it on a regular basis. When I mail out packages to people or even when they look at my business card they see that my office is in Dacula. Granted, at least it is still Gwinnett County, but it isn't like it is nearby. But, here is the thing... I seldom visit my office. I certainly don't live close to it. I admit, I don't live in Lilburn... I live in Stone Mountain, but I am in the Gwinnett County sliver. I actually live within a couple hundred yards of Lilburn. So, I basically live my life in Lilburn... I even wonder why Lilburn doesn't annex this part of Stone Mountain. Gwinnett County forgets we exist (I have had trouble registering cars... They tell me I am really in DeKalb County, but I know who gets my property taxes). C...
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Well today is the day the Electoral College will vote for who will be the President and Vice President of the United States of America. The Electoral College are representatives who we voted for this on November the 4th and they are gathering today to cast their votes. The big question about the Electoral College is: Are they needed? I can see the agreement against the Electoral College after all we here about it every four years.  The reason I hear the most is that the College takes away our right to vote for the President we want.  Well, the Constitution does not give us that right. It is possible for a candidate to lose the nationwide popular vote, yet be elected president by winning only in eleven key states. Why would the Founding Fathers of our country in 1787 not want to give the...
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One of my favorite daily activities is to review political cartoons.  I enjoy the way they are able to cut to the heart of an issue and the best ones are more informative than most network news stories.  Whatever your political or social background they can lighten our day and even make us rethink our stance on an issue. If you do not read political cartoons - Start.  everyone needs to laugh at least once a day.        I love Political Cartoons
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By Lane Bailey, Realtor & Car Guy
(Century 21 Results Realty)
Markets are not nearly as logical as one would expect them to be.  The stock market, the commodities market... even the real estate market.  Don't get me wrong, the DO move based on logic and reason, and they appear to be very logical... but there is a HUGE component that isn't logical... There are two emotions at the base that move markets... Greed Fear Those are the base emotions to which markets react.  Let me illustrate... In a euphoric market, greed overcomes fear, and people buy.  This creates a bubble.  We saw it in tech stocks in the late 1990s and early 2000s.  Companies that didn't even have a plan for profitability were being run up because they were being run up.  We saw it in housing in the last couple of years.  "Houses ALWAYS rise in value", the NAR told us.  The most fam...
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By Lane Bailey, Realtor & Car Guy
(Century 21 Results Realty)
I wrote about a few deals in Lilburn a couple of weeks ago. On November 20th, I posts Lilburn Deal #4, which was a house listed at $314,000. And I think it was a GREAT deal... $75k in current equity. It just came up in my feed as "Pending Sale". Someone is scheduled to close on that home on December 23rd... and that is a SERIOUS Christmas present. The point of the post is this: I have dealt with a lot of buyers in the last few months that don't think properties are selling... they are. If you think the property is a deal, there is a good chance that someone else might be thinking the same thing. If you were thinking... Gee, that looks like a cool house... I'll look at it after the holidays... You might have just missed your chance. Even though it is the Holiday Season homes a...
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By Lane Bailey, Realtor & Car Guy
(Century 21 Results Realty)
There are a lot of wonderful Christmas traditions and events coming up in and around Lilburn and Gwinnett.  Better get moving...   A Christmas Story at the Red Clay Theatre in Duluth, Dec 4 - Dec 20, 770-622-1777 The Nutcracker presented by the Gwinnett Ballet Theatre at the Performing Arts Center at Gwinnett Center, Dec 6 - Dec 21, 770-978-0018 Breakfast with Santa at the Southeastern Railway Museum (reservations required), Dec 13 & Dec 20 at 9:30 and 10:30am, 770-476-2013...  Sounds cool, kids, trains, Santa! Breakfast with Santa at Killian Hall in Lilburn (no reservations required), Dec 13 at 8:30am, 770-921-9966...  My older son has done this a couple of times here and the food is great and it is a fun event. Magical Nights of Lights at Lake Lanier Islands, Now through Dec 30...  We...
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By Lane Bailey, Realtor & Car Guy
(Century 21 Results Realty)
Friday on BlogTalkRadio, the question was, "Is now the time to buy?" I was on the show for the last 20 minutes or so talking about it with Ken Cook, the host. The full broadcast is about an hour long, but I can hit the high points... It is a tough question to answer because there are SO many variables. Region. Personal ability. Purpose (living in it or investment). The individual property. Risk aversion. The biggest point I made had to do with the NAR (National Association of REALTORS®), and their repeated cries of "Now is the best time to buy". They have said it as the market went up, topped, went down, bottomed and started it all again. With interest rates high, low, whatever... Like the little boy who cried WOLF!, they have become irrelevant. It doesn't matter if it really is the tim...
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One of the biggest problems we have in this country is our government (public) education system. And the number one enemy to education is Teacher Unions. Here is a clip by teachers about these unions: The Truth about Teachers Unions from Union Facts on Vimeo. The teachers in this clip are repeating what I hear from the teachers that I know. The teachers unions are only about power and control, not about educating our child. The best solution for our children and parents is the privatization of our schools in conjunction with a voucher system. Here is an example: 1. Atlanta's public school cost last year was around $14,000 per child. 2. If them issue a voucher to the parents for say 80% of the $14,000 = $11,200 and the City's Education Department uses the remainder for administration cos...
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By Lane Bailey, Realtor & Car Guy
(Century 21 Results Realty)
Something leaked...  We don't know who leaked it, but there is a plan being considered by the Treasury Department to give a boost to home sales.  Basically, the plan is for the Treasury to push rates down to a target 4.5% for a 30 year fixed mortgage. From what I am reading around the internet, it would only be for purchases of new or existing homes, not for refis of current loans. So, let's do a little stacking here... Ken over at Novation has some 95/5 programs available... so, 100% financing - check The government is offering a $7500 refundable tax credit for first time home buyers... so, cash for expenses - check Treasury floating the idea of 4.5% 30 year fixed mortgages... so, butt-kickin' mortgage rate - almost check I have come across some properties that are offering closing cos...
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By Lane Bailey, Realtor & Car Guy
(Century 21 Results Realty)
I get that question a lot.  I've lived and worked in the Atlanta area now for almost 20 years... Let me give a quick bio for those that don't really know me...  1965-1966 - Upstate NY. Doesn't count for much since i was only a year old when I left... 1966-1976 - Jackson, MI.  Also keep in mind that my grandparents lived in Midland and we had a cottage near Onaway... I spent a lot of summers in MI. 1976-1983 - Newport News and Hampton, VA.  I made a comeback for a few months in the summer of 1984... and my mother is still there, but I don't get back as much as I should. 1983-1989 - St. Paul and Minneapolis, MN.  I loved living in the Twin Cities.  It was my first exposure to big city life... compared to Hampton, it was huge... 1989-Present - Atlanta, GA area... So, I have lived a few dif...
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By Lane Bailey, Realtor & Car Guy
(Century 21 Results Realty)
There was a lot of attention paid to this a few months ago when it was first introduced, but everyone has kind of let it slide to the back burner since then... and that is a shame because this is an interesting time to be in the real estate market as a buyer. First, let me cover a few basics: While termed a "First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit". it really isn't any of those things... If you haven't owned a home for 36 months For more on this, visit LilburnDwellings.com
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By Jim Crawford, Jim Crawford Broker Associate Fredericksburg VA
(Long & Foster)
Here is the Lilburn Georgia FMLS Update for Lilburn single family detached home listings for sale as of today Saturday November 29, 2008 in Gwinnett County GA.  This is for the current inventory activity of single family detached Lilburn GA homes for sale: Active - 458 Properties Found - Lilburn Georgia homes for sale Contingency w/Kickout - 0 Properties Found - Lilburn Georgia homes for sale Contingency - Due Diligence - 3 Properties Found  - Lilburn Georgia homes for sale  Contingency - Other - 0 Properties Found - Lilburn Georgia homes for sale Pending - 47 Properties Found - Lilburn Georgia homes for sale
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