Monthly Archives : March 2020

As we navigate through this uncharted territory, please know that my team and I are here as a resource to you and your family. We are here to listen and to offer guidance, support, and care, and to provide you with insight into the current housing market, and its potential trajectory.

Just as restaurants are increasingly offering delivery services and many businesses have adapted a work-from-home model, the real estate world is making many transitions.

Specifically, The Curtin Team is pivoting in the following ways:

Holding Our Home Selling/Staging/Home Prep Workshops Virtually
Rather than meeting in-person, you can grab a pen, paper and your favorite pair of pajamas and join us online to gain insight into the home-selling process. We will discuss the market and what we can expect it to look like in the coming months, how to prepare your home for sale, staging tips, which repairs, if any, are worth making to your home, and much more.    

Offering Virtual Buyer and Seller Consultations
FaceTime listing consultations are business as (un)usual. Using a cellphone, sellers can walk through each room in their house, just as we would have during an in-person appointment. We advise on how to prepare the home for sale and create a detailed plan to follow and update us on through cellphone photographs. 

Conducting Video Walk-Throughs
Our buyer specialists are not only conducting virtual buyer consultations, but they are also shooting personalized videos of the homes that may be a fit for their buyers. It goes without saying that our team is doing the same for the list-side.

Taking on Exclusive Listings
As we are now in the Spring market, there are a number of qualified buyers who are eager to make a move. Understandably with everything going on, many sellers wish to wait before putting their home on the market, though they still hope to sell during the summer. With this in mind, we are prepared to sign more “exclusive listings,” rather than doing a full MLS listing, where the home would accumulate days on market. For our exclusive listings, we connect with serious buyers through our Realtor and Consumer database networks. Using video walk-throughs, interactive floor plans, and professional photography, we hold our “first showing,” which weeds out the unserious buyers, or “lookers.”

Embracing Change As A Team
In our conscientious efforts to embrace the “new normal,” we have grown even closer as a team. Like many of you, our agents and employees who have children are homeschooling, while also working flex hours from home. Video conferencing has since become our best friend, as it allows us to collaborate and continue helping you all while practicing social distancing. As leaders in our market, The Curtin Team serves as a guide to the Real Estate Community. As such, we are thoughtfully developing and tweaking our practices to reflect the market, while prioritizing our clients and their safety. 

Providing Resources
In the coming weeks, we will continue to watch our world alter, which is no easy task, but we are ultimately defined by how we deal with such changes. As you hopefully find yourself with downtime, I encourage you to read the short story, “Who Moved My Cheese?” as it reflects the extended metaphor for how we react to change, even when it is unwelcome. 

Below is a list of some resources and tools to make things a little easier during the COVID-19 outbreak:

• Managing Expenses for Small Business Owners Webinar – Register Here To Join Us Online
• The Secrets to Wealth Webinar – Register Here To Join Us Online
• Curtin Team Cares application; if someone needs help, you don’t have to be a client
• Local resturants are delivering for free
• Free Peloton yoga, meditation and workouts
• Free advanced Google Hangouts

Please let us know how you’re doing and again, don’t hesitate to reach out with anything you may need, real estate related or otherwise:
Joanne 404.729.5872 or Tom 404.729.5862, jc@curtinteam.com. 

The Curtin Team values people above all else and I sincerely mean it when I say that we are here for you. 

Here are just some of the things we’re doing to rise to the challenge of assisting clients in these uncertain times.

With more social and economic restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus, our daily lives have become filled with uncertainty. We’re waking up to a different world, and what’s really happening here is an economic shift—but shift happens. 

Keller Williams has been around for 40 years and has endured four different shifts. We here at the Curtin Team were led through the last recession by the company’s excellent culture and effective business models. 

I don’t need to rehash everything that’s uncertain; instead, I’ll tell you where the certainty lies: The Curtin Team is here for you. We’re on the phone all of the time, doing what we can to ensure our No. 1 priority is met and that everyone’s health and well-being is considered. 

Keller Williams has been around for 40 years and has endured four different shifts.

Recently, we had nine groups of buyers move through one of our open houses, a testament to the fact that money is still moving around and the market is active. 

Here are some guarantees when it comes to your mindset: If you decide to take your home off of the market right now, we can  guarantee that it won’t sell. Or, if you’re preoccupied by the fear that your home won’t sell, then it definitely won’t sell. 

Shifts can seem scary, but keep your perspective grounded. Unless you make a bad decision, history says that you’ll be golden if you stay in your home for the average seven to 10 years—and we simply don’t make bad decisions on behalf of our clients. 

Here are the six things we’re working on right now to help our clients, friends, and family in this crisis: 

• Virtual open houses. 99% of all transactions out there can be done this way. As long as everyone’s willing to be slightly inconvenienced, we can make the process happen in the safest way possible. 
• Tenant check-ins. We’re calling all of our tenants just to check in on their health and see if there’s anything we can do for them. They’re very appreciative of this. 
• Events. We’ve been putting a lot of our focus into education recently, and we plan on continuing all of our great educational events. 
• Consulting appointments. We can change these from in-person meetings to phone calls or video conferences. Only the process is being altered, not the value we offer. 
• Phone editing. If you’re serious about not having anyone in your home—not even a photographer—then we’ll help you edit your iPhone photos through Photoshop and/or other programs available to us. 
• Alternatives to showings. We can use our expertise to shop instant-offer companies for you so you can find the best way to sell quickly without the need to show your house. 

Now is the time to be thankful for everything that is still going right, and it’s also the time for opportunity. Look for opportunities around you! As always, reach out by phone or email if you have any questions for us.

Our market is a great climate for buyers and sellers at the moment.

 
Can buyers and sellers take advantage of our current market? Before I answer that question, I want to thank you for supporting our buyer and investor workshops, and for supporting Curtin Team Cares. We’re proud of the community we’re building, and we appreciate you being a part of it. 

As far as our market goes, home sales in the U.S. rose 7.9% in January—the fastest pace we’ve seen since the Great Recession. The national employment rate and GDP are also up, which is a good sign. Additionally, the annual mortgage rate is hovering around 3.9%. The historical average is around 6.5%, so if your mortgage rate is 4% or higher, I recommend refinancing your house now. In general, it’s a fantastic climate for buying and selling. 

Home sales in the U.S. rose 7.9% in January—the fastest pace we’ve seen since the Great Recession.

Here are a few hot spots of note in our local marketplace:

• Sandy Springs (below $1 million)
• Alpharetta/Milton (below $1 million)
• Roswell/Johns Creek/Cumming (below $750,000)
• Woodstock/Canton (below $500,000)

Now for a public service announcement: Did you know that when searching for properties on Zillow, Relator.com, and Redfin, your data is being sold to the highest bidding Realtor? If you click on a property on these sites, the agent representing it probably hasn’t even seen it yet. Also, there are a ton of companies using this data to target you with ads. 

This is why I invite you to shop for homes, research neighborhood statistics, and look up home valuations privately through our new app that we’ll be launching soon. Stay tuned for the official release date!

In the meantime, if you have questions about our market or are thinking of buying or selling, feel free to reach out to me. I’d love to help you.