Owner Finance Atlanta

Make Way for the NEW Housing Crisis!

You remember the housing crisis, don't you? Plenty of ink has already been spilled covering the Great U.S. Real Estate Bubble and the subsequent housing meltdown that continues to this day. Home foreclosures have surged nationwide, and in many ways Metro Atlanta was ground zero for the whole disaster.

Well, that was the old housing crisis.

What we’re seeing now is something very different and very relevant for those considering buying or investing in residential real estate. We're referring specifically to the Atlanta market and more generally about the South, but we’re seeing this playing out across the U.S.

Believe it or not, Metro Atlanta is now facing a housing shortage.

Why Waiting Won't Work

"I was thinking of buying a house in July but have now begged off because housing prices keep falling. Why pay $120,000 when I can pay $110,000 in a few months, or $100,000 next year?"

It's true: Home prices can (and probably will) drop a bit more over the next few months. Waiting for the bottom seems like the smart thing to do...

...except when it isn't.

Before you decide to wait, be sure you're looking at the whole economic picture. Make your decision with full knowledge of the financial winds that are blowing today!

There are three factors you should consider when making the decision to buy now (or pay later!): Interest rates, rents, and inflation.

The 3 Top POWER Moves for Serious Home Hunters

It's never been easy to purchase a home, but home shoppers today need an extra helping of guts and determination to survive in this scary, post-Crash environment.

If you've started looking around at houses to buy, you probably already realize that interest rates will soon be heading up, making now the perfect time to take advantage of the low prices and huge over-supply of single-family homes.

Even so, there are still plenty of pitfalls and hazards that can sideline your home search. Read on to learn the 3 best moves to make once you've decided to purchase a home. We call these Power Moves because they give you extra leverage and really set you apart from your competition for the best deals.

3 BASIC Facts Your Real Estate Agent Wishes You Knew

As the housing crisis wears on, one group that has really taken it on the chin is real estate agents. 

When homes aren't selling, agents can't earn a commission.  Even worse, behind every failed attempt to purchase a home, there is likely an agent who has put in serious time, effort, and money only to walk away empty-handed.

It's no wonder real estate agents have been abandoning the house business in droves.  The National Association of Realtors has seen membership plummet a whopping 21% since 2006!  And, since the Web and social media throw another monkey wrench into the mix, it's fair to say that there's never been a more frustrating time to be a real estate agent.

3 MAJOR Truths Your Loan Officer Wishes You Knew

If you want to buy a home, you'll need to get a loan. That means working with a home loan consultant to get qualified.

Like everyone else, you'll complete a loan application and then wait (anxiously) to hear back.

If your credit score has taken a serious beating lately (and these days, whose hasn't?), your loan consultant might report back that you need to do a little fix-up work before you can qualify for a loan.  No big deal: Happens all the time.

Having an experienced and motivated loan officer on your side can mean the difference between getting the loan and just giving up in utter frustration.  Loan consultants are the unsung heroes of the home buying process. We've seen some get very creative and work credit miracles to get deals closed.

But we've also seen purchases go down in flames because the home buyer didn't understand the role of the loan officer within the home mortgage process.

The ONE Thing You Can Do Today to Improve Your Credit Score

Three words: secured credit card.  Unlike their unsecured cousins, secured cards require that you put up a cash security deposit first. Then, you can use the card to make credit purchases up to the amount of your deposit.

Yes, it's credit on training wheels, but wait for the kicker:  When our clients do this one simple thing, their credit score goes up 20 - 40 points!

So, get a good secured credit card and use it wisely.  Here's why you need to do it now:

Fear is Not an Option: Two Utterly Bogus Reasons NOT to Buy a Home Now

So, are we all terrified of buying a home yet?

The headlines are positively hair-raising!  "Don't Buy a House – Yet," warns one.  "If You Think Home Prices Are Rising, Think Again," advises another.

If you are sitting on the sidelines, you've probably convinced yourself it's for a good reason.  And maybe you're right. 

Or, maybe you're just scared.

Bouncing Back from Foreclosure

Recently, The Miami Herald did a story on how families are surviving beyond foreclosure.  The article offers some good advice and suggests some useful strategies for getting back on track, financially speaking.

However, the article seemed to gloss-over perhaps the most critical move to make after foreclosure or bankruptcy or any other financial crisis: Self-examination.

Certainly, foreclosure is a catastrophic event, but after all the wailing and moaning is over, what matters most is what one learns from the experience.  And, it's always easier to misread our own poor personal finance decisions as just unavoidable bad luck.  But, failure to learn from our mistakes almost guarantees that we'll face them again and again.

3 Smart Lease Upgrades That Help You Own: Turn ANY Landlord Into Your Personal Home-Buying Helper

Say you want to buy a house, but need time to shine up your credit and build a larger down payment. So, for the next year or two you decide to rent.  Your landlord, on the other hand, would much rather you stayed their tenant ... forever!  How can you make an ally of your landlord while you shop for a home to buy?  By understanding what makes them tick!

I'm a professional property manager who's dealt with hundreds of tenants, most of whom want to own a home.  Many of my friends and colleagues are also landlords.  And I can tell you the one word that both motivates and terrifies every landlord: Vacancy!  In fact, every lease you've ever signed was specifically designed to minimize vacancy.

6 Sneaky Little Bad-Credit Blunders: "Harmless" Expenses That Keep You Renting Forever

Ask any tenant: The credit check is probably the most feared part of a rental application.  The credit report offers landlords a cold, impartial and unblinking view of all your major purchasing and spending activity over the decades.  Every financial mis-step is right there in black-and-white for all to see.

As professional landlords, my colleagues and I have reviewed hundreds of credit reports from applicants looking to owner finance or lease-purchase a home.  If you look hard enough, certain patterns emerge: Most unsuccessful home buyers get in trouble in just a few critical areas.  We see it all the time.  If tenants only knew which expenses to avoid (or at least control), then maybe they wouldn't start down the wrong path in the first place.

Now, I've made some of these mistakes myself: No one is born a landlord.  But if more than a few of these apply to you, you may be killing your chances of ever owning a home without even realizing it.  Here are the top 6 high-risk expenses we urge you to stay away from until after you've bought a home: