DON'T LIVE A MORTGAGE NIGHTMARE

Hi folks, Tom Sachs from Coldwell Banker Residential brokerage back with you, when you decide that you want to purchase real estate and you require a mortgage to do so, you must deal with a mortgage professional that actually KNOWS WHAT THEY ARE DOING.
I cannot stress this point too strongly, when I was selling real estate in Florida, I had one of the best mortgage brokers I have ever had the pleasure of working with, lets call her Cindy.
Cindy had been in the business for 20 years and she was a people person as well, she made people feel comfortable dealing with this very stressful situation, often the mortgage cycle has a domino effect, all things need to fall in place in a very structured way and this requires total competence on the part of the Realtor and the mortgage person.
Since it is football season, I will use this analogy, the Realtor is like the quarterback, they mastermind the play and start the chain of events, the mortgage person is like the trusty, sure handed running back, the Realtor places a lot of faith in them and expects them to gain ground without fumbling, Cindy was that rare find, she always delivered and never dropped the ball, she knew the playbook backwards and forwards and never disappointed at the time of closing.
I cannot over emphasise the importance of having a mortgage person that understands all of the different programs, can work within deadlines and constantly tells the truth.
A good closing attorney is also an important part of the process, the attorney needs to be a COORDINATOR, they need to be vigilant and make sure that all applicable paper work is accounted for, they must be in constant contact with all concerned parties to the point of nausea, really.
My point is this, an incompetent mortgage person is the scourge of the home buying process, whether they are lazy, unorganized or just plain stupid. You will be well served to ask around, an especially shrewd move would be to ask a top notch Realtor, such as myself, we always seem have a Cindy that we can trust.

WWGD....WHAT WOULD GOMEZ DO?

Hi folks, Tom Sachs from Coldwell Banker Residential brokerage back with you, I know that it sounds crazy but I was watching an episode of the Addams Family the other day and I decided that I was going to try to be a little more like Gomez Addams, and heres why.
Sometimes it seems like the more convoluted seemingly ordinary situations get, the more irrational we become in dealing with them. Gomez always seemed to have a far fetched solution to even the simplest of conundrums.
The point that I am trying to make is that as we see our values, privacy and rights being trampled on in the name of progress and political correctness, the more we need to keep a silly grin on our faces and bewilder and befuddle those that would try to throw us off track of what we know is right, I like to be obtuse and blunt with those that try to weasel out of commitments and obligations by reminding them that they could be easily replaced, this upsets some folks but it also makes them look over their shoulder to see who is about to pounce.
You too can harness this feeling of power as long as you do it in the spirit of Gomez Addams, with a silly grin on your face.

IF YOU TRY TO "TEST" THE MARKET YOU WILL FAIL

Hi folks, Tom Sachs from Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage back with you, if you are serious about selling your home it is imperative that you price it correctly right from the beginning, the first 30 days are make or break for the seller, the reason is that buyers and agents are watching the new listings like a hawk, in fact the Internet has made the data so easy to get that buyers are educated like never before.In the "old days" sellers could go in a little high on their asking price and negotiate their way to a deal that is equitable for everyone, this is what "testing" the market means, today in a market that is so top heavy in favor of the buyers that luxury is no longer affordable. The smart seller will actually price the property a little in front of the curve, this gives them an advantage over other sellers in being that they will get more showings and the listing will have a longer shelf life because it will actually remain relevant long after comparables are overpriced by thousands.When you are in the process of interviewing listing agents and its time to identify the listing price, in reality all agents get their data and comps from the same source, so the listing price among multiple agents should be very similar, you must know that there are lots of agents that will tell you anything they think you want to hear and inflate the listing price in order to get you to sign, if a particular agent comes in with a listing price thats way higher than the others, you need to quiz them on how they arrived at that price, if they do not have the figures on paper to show you how they came up with that price....well you know the rest of the story.

Congressional Cowards & Senatorial Sissies

As usual, the politicians, those lilly livered spineless cowards that continue to pillage America for their own personal gain, are using exceptionally poor judgement and scare tactics to skew the election year economic cycle so that they can make the other party look bad. The real estate market is not in nearly as bad shape as the slanted and biased media would like you to believe, the fact of the matter is that home prices got artificially inflated by the likes of speculators and a booming economy, many people have never witnessed this type of anomaly before, they thought that it would never end.....well it has, people are not buying homes because they cannot sell the one they have. If you bought at the top of the market you probably paid too much, you probably got questionable financing and you may have over extended yourself from buying TOO MUCH house. Here are your options, you can ride it out and wait until the smoke clears to see where you stand, you can try to break even or take an acceptable loss or you can start building equity at an accelerated rate and end up in the black when you sell or have your home paid for in 8 to 12 years by getting involved with United First financial.These politicians are angling to put you on the road to dependence, if any executive ran a company the way the politicians are running America, not only would they be fired but they would also be put in jail. Wake up my fellow Americans, get out of debt as quickly as possible.

FIRST TIME BUYERS BONANZA

If you don't have a home to sell and you qualify for favorable financing, now is the time to get a fantastic deal on much more house than you could have bought in the last 10 years.Hi, Tom Sachs back with you, 2008 will go down in history as probably the best year to BUY a house or condo in the last decade, please contact me and let me put the power of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage behind you, I'm sure that you can find exactly what you are looking for in the area you desire.

FORECLOSURES ARE A GREAT SOURCE OF REVENUE

Hi folks, Tom Sachs from Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage back with you, after living in Florida for 6 years and after a visit to Chicago, where my best friend and my nephew are both brokers, you start to realize just how scarce land is. In Florida and the Chicago metro area the answer is to buy an older house that is in a good location and tear it down and put up a new house, its the only way to get within 30 miles of the downtown areas, well I have been doing research on the practice here in Forsyth & Gwinnett counties and IT WORKS.There are bargain properties in great locations that are ripe for a tear down, some can even be updated and used as rental properties that can deliver a positive cash flow right off the bat.I also believe that new houses can be built with either pre-cast concrete, poured concrete walls or the old reliable concrete block, energy efficiency and ranch style homes are going to be the houses of choice in the coming years and most of the good tear down properties are NOT in subdivisions, what a concept.Please contact me and lets make an appointment to discuss the endless possibilities.

TEAR DOWNS MAKE SENSE

Hi folks, Tom Sachs from Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage back with you, after living in Florida for 6 years and after a visit to Chicago, where my best friend and my nephew are both brokers, you start to realize just how scarce land is. In Florida and the Chicago metro area the answer is to buy an older house that is in a good location and tear it down and put up a new house, its the only way to get within 30 miles of the downtown areas, well I have been doing research on the practice here in Forsyth & Gwinnett counties and IT WORKS. There are bargain properties in great locations that are ripe for a tear down, some can even be updated and used as rental properties that can deliver a positive cash flow right off the bat.I also believe that new houses can be built with either pre-cast concrete, poured concrete walls or the old reliable concrete block, energy efficiency and ranch style homes are going to be the houses of choice in the coming years and most of the good tear down properties are NOT in subdivisions, what a concept. Please contact me and lets make an appointment to discuss the endless possibilities.