Charlie Ragonesi Big Canoe Realestate's Blog: December 2009

As many of you know I do volunteer fire fighting here in the mountains. This time of the year is the worst for fires. They usually start around the Christmas tree, or a fire left to burn in the fire place with out being secure properly.

Lets talk a minute about the Christmas tree. Most people are careful about their lights as the bulbs get hot. But the tree can usually take a whole bunch of heat. Now you should not leave the lights on over night of course.

The real problem is the chords for the lights. The fires are mostly started by multiple strings of lights on extension chords. Eventually the chords short . The spark from the shorting chord is what sets the fire. So check your chords and make sure you do not over load them. This is the cause of most Christmas tree fires not heat from lights. Have a safe holiday

This week in the mountains we talk about the holiday time of the year. The mountians in Georgia are a great place for family and friends. It really is like living in a Christmas Card. We hope you enjoy our show broadcast every Thursday on WYYZ Radio here in North Georgia. Show will start at 2pm est

Let's face it the market is tough. Some one who says no problem I can sell your home you may need to run from. At ALL MOUNTAIN REALTY here is what we can do for you.

We will give you a good estimate of value based on research.

We will list you on over 30 web sites

We will talk about you on the Radio on the Mountain Real Estate Report

We will present you property at our local board meetings

We will put you on our company web site which has over 800 back links

We will blog about you on ActiveRain.

We will present your property, as part of our web site, often on the first page of Google.

We do not want to get to know you for a long time. But we do value and respect you. We do not want to say we have X number of listings. We do not, no offense intended, want to make you a fixture in our company profile.

We do want to work with so if you are considering selling in our mountains give us a call at 706 579 1098, or visit us on line at www.allmountainrealty.com. We have a proven track record and would be privileged to go to work for you.

We have a great new listing in Talking Rock Georgia. It is 7944 Ellijay Road. It is a great 3/3is  ranch. Brick and Hardy-plank siding. It is on 10 Acres !!! It has a 3 acre pond that is full of BIG fish . It is a dream for someone who wants to live in the country yet be close to towns for shopping  and activities. Asking is a market driven low of 499,000  It is on FMLS # 3987520

 

 

 

 

Can you just see yourself on this front porch looking out at your own pond sitting on your ten acre tract  ?

Inside the home is as nice as outside. If you are looking for a great deal in North Georgia visit us at www.allmountainrealty.com or call is at 706 579 1098

 

The Mountain real estate report is heard every Thursday on WYYZ Radio in our North Georgia Mountains. It is broadcast over the web and stored on our web site www.allmountainrealty.com. In addition we post it here. This week I was solo and covered many aspects of purchasing as well as selling a home. Hope you enjoy.

some times it is hard to get going in the morning. But when you can get up and look at these kinds of sunrises it is some how easier. I think it is interesting that in the winter it gets cold and the leaves are all off the trees. Yet in the winter we have the best sunrises. So God gives and takes and for the cold and the brown that we get , we are given a great start of day in return.

I don't know about you but I get up with my cup of coffee every day just to watch this happen. It gets me

going.

 

 

The wind is howling through the mountains tonight. It has done so for a last few nights. Last week we had snow.Is this a sign of things to come? It isn't even winter yet. If you are reading this post and live in the North Georgia Mountains please make sure your fireplace chimneys have been cleaned.

Also I was on a fire call recently and the home owner took the ashes from his fireplace, thought they were out, and scattered them in the yard. They weren't. Luckily a passerby saw the smoke and we were able to stop a brush fire from getting a lot bigger. I am curling up by our hearth tonight . Please exercise caution. I do not want to meet you for the first time in my fire gear.

The Mountain Real Estate Report is heard every Thursday on WYYZ Radio in the North Georgia Mountains. It is sponsored in part by Capital Mortgage and The Steve Moranos Allstate Agency. If you are in North Georgia looking for a good lender or a company that will work with you to get your buyers insured give us a call at 706 579 1098. We will put you in touch with these great folks During this show Linda and I talk about what it means to be a smart buyer. Look for Value not labels. Enjoy !

Today in the North Georgia Mountains it is chilly and a bit windy. The air is crisp and clean. Even though the leaves are off the trees it is still wonderful to look out at nature. The point here is if you are looking for a mountain retreat or a place to live full time consider the North Georgia Mountains. Why?

1 We have great gated communities like Big Canoe and Bent Tree.  These communities offer a full experience of nature and amenities.

2 We have rural land if you decide to go green acres

3 We have great schools and medical facilities.

4  Being on the Southern end of the Mountains we have milder winters than they do further North. We still have cool summers. I ran my A/C for about 9 days this summer.

Most of all, all this can be had at really affordable prices. Farm land can start as low as 8,000 an acre for tracts usually above 5 acres. Homes on 1 acre  start at 140,000. This is for quality homes and good land. Now in gated communities you may pay a little more.

Bottom line here is that North Georgia is a great place to live that will not cost you an arm and a leg. How long we stay this way , who knows. But for now we are a great place to be if you want, peace quiet and beautiful healthy mountain living.

 

The article below will appear in a newspaper in January in Big Canoe. I am hopeful that this is a regular piece. Each month we will do something to help either buyers or sells.. Any suggestions for future s will be greatly appreciated

 

 

 

Ask a Realtor

 

Are you and your home chasing the Market?

    By Charlie Ragonesi

 

One of the maxims in real estate is; houses priced correctly sell. In the listing presentation there is some times a tension between the Realtor and the home owner looking to sell. That tension often expresses itself in a difference of opinion over sales price. Sellers tend to forget that Realtors are usually paid a percentage of the sale and so do not want to leave anything on the table. Realtors often forget the sweat equity, the emotional, as well as financial ties, a home owner has in the home. The compromise is often reached with the words, “Let’s price it at X and we can always come down a bit later, or when we get an offer.” This strategy is called, Chasing the Market.

 

Chasing the Market is a bad strategy that will in the end cost the home owner money. A great study was done this (2009) year by Todd Emerson a Senior Vice President and Realtor. The study was done in the Atlanta market.  Todd looked at 115 single family home sales from January to April. 54 of those homes had price adjustments downward to reflect market conditions. These homes stayed on the market an average of 210 days. They also sold at an average of 81.3 percent of the original list price.

 

The homes that were not reduced sold at an average of 92.9 percent of the sales price. They also remained on the market for an average of only 129 days.

 

The conclusions Todd drew were that prices on homes that chased the market stayed on the market 3 months longer AND averaged 50,000 less at the closing. Todd did average all the prices and was comparing like priced homes.

 

 

Charlie Ragonesi is Managing Broker for All Mountain Realty. Along with Linda Carrig they can be heard every Thursday after the noon news on WYYZ Radio broadcasting the Mountain Real Estate Report in the North Georgia Mountains