Archive for April, 2006

Living in Atlanta: a glimpse at CPAs

Friday, April 28th, 2006
When you relocate to Atlanta some of you will be moving to fill a job or else will need to find work when you arrive.  One of the industries that has been changing a lot within Atlanta recently has been accounting.  Effectively, to make a long story short, this line of work was devastated by rife corruption that was somehow epitomized by the scandal involving Enron, where ultimately, a tower of shadows, collapsed.  For the first time in a long time, we relearned that the use of deceit really can be “extremely bad”, and can have a very nasty impact even on a large organization. Accountants, mostly in their role as auditors lost a great deal of public trust.  This was worsened when greed and sales drove people working in the field to go so far as to use auditing simply as a means of upselling customers on additional services. 

For you who are moving to Atlanta the bottom line on this is simply that smaller firms, having up to a 100 individual work team, are getting a lot more business, and the giant companies are re-injecting ethics into their corporations to safegaurd against further loss and destruction.  If this is your line of work, or you need CPAs in Atlanta, this tells you a lot.

To get idea about Atlanta real estate visit atlanta-homes-guide.com a Atlanta Georgia real estate agent.

Quick Look at an Atlanta Condo. by Miriam Pia

Thursday, April 27th, 2006
Today there is more good news!  Let’s have a quick quiet conversation about an inexpensive townhome located at 2023 Oakview Rd.  #b221.  The outside is really humble.  However, like with Indiana geodes and many English townhomes, the insides are fantastic.  They are not ‘ritzy’ but well decorated these make very nice homes, modest though they may be. 

Another great feature of this set of homes is that it is within Atlanta.  So far, I have intentionally avoided giving you information about the suburbs.  Suburbs can be fine, but I feel you shouldn’t be forced into them or shunted off from the city itself.  Atlanta has a lot to offer, and this is true for people for if not all, then at least for the vast majority of economic levels.

If you are looking for new homes in Virginia Highlands, visit us at atlanta-homes-guide.com a Atlanta homes real estate agent.

 

Affordable Condo-townhomes within Atlanta by Miriam Pia

Tuesday, April 25th, 2006
Yesterday, we talked about water.  Today, it’s having a closer look at where to find such a home within the city of Atlanta.  Well, the good news is: I found something!  The bad news is that they are so new, so next year, that they are advertising with photographs of homes that have not even been built yet! 

The place is called the Villages of Cascade.  The townhomes within the gated community are running under $150,000 so clearly that are not trying to ‘put off’ people with modest salaries on these.  Each has a nice garage and two bedrooms.  This one, unlike many of its kind, genuinely resides in the city of Atlanta and is right near I-285.  There is a pool and a cabana, but sadly I cannot be certain whether or not there is also a manmade pond or lake.

For more information visit atlanta-homes-guide.com a Atlanta real estate agent.

Condos on the Water: Urban Lights in the Sky by Miriam Pia

Monday, April 24th, 2006
Clearly, there is an assortment of features which can lead us to interest in a particular home.  Well, one of these is proximity to water.  Homes on the water are associated with steep prices.  However, if you find a good little summer home type of place, the place may be more affordable than you might think. 

The other main alternative are condominiums.  Even townhomes are being devised nowadays with some ‘area waterways’.  Still, the most accessible and affordable are those apartment buildings with pre-planned surroundings that include manmade ponds, streams and even lakes.  While it may make you feel like a beaver, to move into a place with a lake others of your own kind created, they still give a set of condominiums a marvellous atmosphere at a sensible price.

There is more than one of these within Greater Atlanta, and that’s simply good to know.  Some of the quiet of the countryside with easy access to the highways, to MARTA and to all the glitz and nightlife of the big city Atlanta really is.

If you are looking for new homes in Spring in Atlanta, visit us at atlanta-homes-guide.com a Atlanta homes real estate agent.

First time? Prioritize! by Miriam Pia

Friday, April 21st, 2006
Once you have made the decision to buy a home for the first time you may be faced with a more complicated situation than you had initially expected.  If you are lucky, then you may have a whole different scenario which is already knowing the house or condominium that you intend to buy.  Doubtless, you will most likely have found this home when you were not really planning on purchasing a home.  In this sense it is like those couples who aren’t really intending to marry one another at all when they first meet but then they get into it and for some reason decide to.  You could even already be living in a house that you wish to buy. 

However, most of you are not in this type of circumstance and have another motive altogether.  The main points of clarity needed are: why are you going to buy?  Many do so simply because paying rent ceased to make sense to them.  Others do so out of possessiveness. For some it is the desire to control.  There are those who buy because they feel it is expected of them.  People even buy homes because they’re friends are doing it, and so it feels at right to do as getting potty trained, or going to school or going and getting jobs.  Lastly, there are folks who do it as an investment.  This kind may or may not dwell in the place he, she or they buy. 

Once you know what you’re in it for, you can then determine what it is that you most want.  Is it to have a fully detached home?  A place in a fancy neighborhood?  A fireplace and full basement?  Somewhere lovely yet still inexpensive?  High ceilings?  Three bedrooms or enough bathrooms so that every offspring gets a bathroom and a telephone thereby shunting off numerous domestic arguments.

To get idea about Atlanta homes visit atlanta-homes-guide.com a Atlanta real estate agent.

The Giant Home Trend in Atlanta by Miriam Pia

Wednesday, April 19th, 2006
There are some new trends in real estate.  One is that many affluent people would like to be strategically placed amidst a great neighborhood.  Rather than closing themselves off from the others, these folks are like friendly people in a school with people of many economic classes.  There is a good chance they want to be your friend anyway, and this is so true that they’d like a suitable house on your block.  

Right now, these kinds of places exist in Atlanta, although it is harder to find them than it is to locate expansive homes in an economically homogenous neighborhood.

If you are looking to buy one of these new, then you had better get ready to shop now and buy soon.  The builders are running into more and more objections to these, and real estate experts are delivering the message ‘that was a twenty year trend that is coming to an end’.

If you are looking for Homes for sale in Alpharetta, visit us at atlanta-homes-guide.com a Atlanta homes real estate agent.

Atlanta’s Southeastern Quadrant by Miriam Pia

Tuesday, April 18th, 2006
Today we’re going to take a look at the situation within the Greater Atlanta highway loop.  This time, let’s check out the South again.  In this terrain, separate villages have at times been swallowed whole by Atlanta.  One place that has it’s own name is Candler-McAfee.  This is a village that is to the far East but just under the ‘North-South dividing highway line’.   

One of the greatest attributes of Candler-McAfee is that it is affordable to those who felt put-off by many of the other homes we’ve looked at.  There are over 9000 homes in this village and on the average they are valued at just over $80,000 a piece.

Another noticeable feature of the area is that the largest percentage of homes in the area have three bedrooms.  This is great news if you are a family or plan on becoming one and would like to live well on a modest salary.  So don’t give up if high prices were scaring you in many of these posts; Candler-McAfee could hold your dream home!

For more information visit atlanta-homes-guide.com a Atlanta real estate agent.

Foreclosured Homes: A Great Deal? by Miriam Pia

Monday, April 17th, 2006
Throughout Atlanta, there are foreclosed homes.  A big question for bargain hunters is: are these the dream come true they appear to be?  The real answer is that in some cases they are, but in other cases they are not. 

You have to make sure the paperwork is clean and clear on foreclosure homes.  The next step, is to examine whether or not they need work done on them.  If you are a “Mr. or Ms. Fix It” and you have a powerful budget that you are able to work with, then it may well be worth it.  Here’s a simple example.  You find a house that has been foreclosed that is going for dirt cheap at only $25,000.  You have a look at it, and you can see that even if the neighborhood does not improve, that if you make the house perfect, it will be worth at least $60,000.  The thing is, that it needs at least $15,000 in materials plus labor.  Well, if you can afford all $50,000 inlcuding unexpected and predicted labor costs and don’t mind putting in the effort then it will be a good buy for you.  If you can’t, or won’t invest that much into it, however, it would be a bad idea.

When you decide whether or not to look into foreclosed homes, you need to put your budgetting hat on, and keep in mind the diversity of tasks that may well need doing and how to budget for all of them.  Then it will be much easier for you to make a wise set of decisions based on your reality.

If you are looking for Homes for sale in Ansley Park, visit us at atlanta-homes-guide.com a Atlanta homes real estate agent.

Atlanta’s Parks & Home Location by Miriam Pia

Friday, April 14th, 2006
When looking for which home you buy in Atlanta, you may want to know which public park it is nearest to.  This year is the 75th Anniversary of the City’s Parks.  

There is a new drive on this year.  We can all thank FDR for his hand is promoting the public parks system.  The city of Atlanta wants to have a commemorative statue built to express this.  The fundraising is going on throughout the park system.

Real Estate is available that edges to some city’s parkland, but of course this is all about timing.  If this is what you want simply make a point of it to your real estate representative.  You may have to be somewhat flexible in your approach to other aspects of the housing issue if ‘positioned beside a local park’ is a high priority for you.  Most likely you will still have a good selection based on qualities of the home, but you may have to sacrifice rigidity regarding whether the home is newly constructed or has been around for a few decades.  Prices will most likely be higher than elsewhere in the surrounding neighborhood if you get a good buffer of trees and forested land. Even so, with enough adaptability to your plans, you will probably get what you want.

To get idea about Atlanta homes visit atlanta-homes-guide.com a Atlanta real estate agent.

Atlanta: Attitude & Athletics by Miriam Pia

Thursday, April 13th, 2006
Atlanta’s theme is encapsulated by the following three words: Optimism, Opportunity and Openness. This reveals the city’s forward thinking attitudes towards life and the over all experience.    

One of the city’s previously unmentioned features is it’s hosting of professional athletic teams.  Just as we have the three words for the attitude Atlanta has the fabulous Atlanta Falcons football team, and it also has the glory of winter sports: ice hockey’s Thrashers.  Just to make Atlanta a year round dream come true for the lovers of sports entertainment, the city also hosts the Atlanta Braves professional baseball team.  Doubtless, this combination of physical prowess and enough stadium space to show them all off makes Atlanta extremely appealing to those looking for a place where they can be live fans.

As always, the games make great outings.  You realize that you may need to leave the car at home.  Also, when you do live there, you’ll have to tune into local radio so that you can work around the effects this has on the city’s traffic situations.

If you are looking for Homes for sale in Brookhaven, visit us at atlanta-homes-guide.com a Atlanta homes real estate agent.