Renting out your Marietta home instead of selling could cost you the capital gains exclusion if you wait past the two-of-five-year window. Here's the math to run first.
Metro Atlanta Real Estate
Ask ten real estate agents whether buyers or sellers have the advantage right now, and most will hand you the same unsatisfying answer: it depends. That's not a dodge. It's the honest read on where things actually stand.Nationally, sellers currently outnumber buyers by more than fifty-one percent, and roughly eighty percent of major U.S. markets are now leaning toward buyers. But a countrywide average...
Mortgage rates just touched their highest point in a year, and if you've been holding out for relief before making a move, there's a specific number driving that outcome that almost never gets mentioned in the headlines. Once you understand how it works, you'll see today's rate environment for what it actually is, and stop waiting on a shift that likely isn't coming anytime soon.There's also fresh data on...
Fresh national data just dropped that changes how sellers should think about pricing right now, and at first glance, it looks like bad news. Home prices are genuinely declining. But once you understand the mechanics behind that decline, it becomes something entirely different: a real opportunity for sellers who read the situation correctly, and a costly blind spot for sellers who don't. None of this is...
Picture this: your buyer’s offer gets accepted, paperwork gets signed, and for a moment it feels like the hard part is behind you. Then, a few weeks in, the lender’s appraisal comes back well under what your buyer agreed to pay, and suddenly the entire deal is up for renegotiation.This isn’t some rare fluke reserved for other people’s transactions, it’s becoming more common,...
For a lot of sellers, capital gains tax is the thing that quietly worries them most, even before the home ever goes on the market. If that sounds familiar, take a breath. I’ve dealt with capital gains as a real estate investor myself, and I know it can genuinely hurt in the wrong situation. But investment property rules and primary residence rules live in two completely different worlds, and the...
A phrase I hear on almost every listing consultation: “What if we price it a little high, just to leave room to negotiate?” On the surface, it sounds reasonable. In practice, it’s one of the costliest pricing decisions a seller can make, and most don’t realize the damage until their home has already been sitting for weeks, going stale, with no clear explanation...
Eighty percent. That’s the share of home sellers right now who expect to get their full asking price, or more, when they sell. When I first came across that number, it stopped me in my tracks, because the data on what’s actually happening in the market tells a very different story. I get where the expectation comes from. For a few years, that really was the market. But a lot has changed since...
Almost every seller I work with faces some version of this question before they list. The home has things about it that aren't perfect — maybe it's dated in places, maybe there's deferred maintenance, maybe the kitchen hasn't been touched since the previous owner. And the question sitting in the back of every seller's mind is: do I put money into this before I list, or do I just sell it the way it...
Let me be upfront about something: the commission question is one that every seller thinks about, and it deserves a straight answer. Not a defensive one, not a rehearsed one — a real one. Because the truth is, if you don't know what you're actually paying for, you can't make a good judgment about whether it's worth it. And that's not fair to you.So here's a transparent, detailed breakdown of what...