The Cueny Team: 2012 By The Numbers

Are you looking for a real estate team that works hard for you? If you are, then The Cueny Team is where your search ends.  We are a team of 4 real estate professionals that work to find you the perfect new home and work hard to sell your existing home.  We closed 45 homes in 2012, that averages out to almost 4 per month! Our average listing stayed on the market for a mere 75 days.  The video below showcases some of the homes we sold and helped buyers purchase in 2012. It also gives more details of our increased sales volume throughout the year and other relevant sales numbers.

The video below showcases some of the homes we sold and helped buyers purchase in 2012 gives more details of our increased sales volume in 2012 .

If you are ready to get started looking for a new home or to list yours give us a call we would love to help!

You can browse current Atlanta inventory by following this link to the Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty website.

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The Cueny Team: Number One Team in North Atlanta Office Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty

Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty recently announced its top producing sales associates for 2011. The Cueny Team was the number one team in the North Atlanta office with sales exceeding $15 million.  Companywide, The Cueny Team was the number six team for 2011.

Congratulations to the top performers of Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby's International Realty in 2011. The #1 Team in the North Atlanta office is The Cueny Team!

We attribute our 2011 residential real estate success to the Sotheby’s International Realty brand, our powerful marketing program for sellers, and hard work and commitment to this business each and every day.  Our success in this market is simple . . . knowledge of multiple markets in metro Atlanta residential real estate!

The experience and understanding of multiple markets is from working with clients relocating here from around the world for business.   Buyers relocating to Atlanta and people who already live here often want to consider and explore real estate in the various pockets of Atlanta.

I feel fortunate to work and know many markets to help buyer and seller clients.  Atlanta has so much to offer and so many areas for a buyer to consider!

The Cueny Team includes Nicole McAluney, Charleen Thompson, and Eileen Hardison. The pdf below is a great way to learn about each of us and our accreditations!

Also, click here to view the most recent Cueny Team newsletter complete with market updates, news from the Sotheby’s auction house, and more!

If you would like to receive the Cueny Team newsletter by email, subscribe by sending us a quick note!

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Homestead Exemption in Georgia

Each year I like to offer my clients a reminder that you may be entitled to the Georgia Homestead Exemption if you owned and occupied your home as your primary residence on January 1, 2012.  For more information, visit this link from the Georgia Department of Revenue.

The Homestead Exemption could amount to a substantial property tax savings and must be filed by April 1, 2012.  If you do not file, you may be subject to penalties and your tax bill could be higher than expected.

You can apply by mail or in person.  If the application is not mailed to you by the end of January, you can go online to get the application from your county tax commissioner.

Please contact your Tax Commissioner’s office for further information.  The most commonly used numbers in Metro Atlanta are:

Fulton County         (404) 224-0102

Cobb County           (770) 528-8600

DeKalb County        (404) 298-4000

Forsyth County       (770) 781-2106

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Top Reasons to Sell Your Home During the Holidays

Currently listed: 3125 Gadsden Street in The Palisades. Click here to see this home for sale in North Fulton and access to full search capabilities for all homes for sale in the metro Atlanta area.

We’re getting close to the end of the year, which begs the question of whether it’s worthwhile trying to sell your home now. Is it a waste of time? Will it sit on the market and become shopworn? Should I take my house off the market for the holidays? Will the home-sale market be better for sellers in 2012?

The first question you need to ask yourself is: Are you emotionally prepared to sell? Selling is a challenge for most sellers, although some markets are better than others.

The next thing to consider is the condition of your home. Is it ready for the market? The most salable homes are those that are in move-in condition.

Most sellers don’t put their homes on the market during the last or first couple of months of the year. The inventory of homes for sale tends to dwindle during the winter months. Interest rates are low. So, if there are buyers in your local market, you may be at an advantage selling when most sellers are waiting.

Some sellers feel that if they’ve waited this long to sell, they should put the process on hold until spring and get the house ready in the meantime. Certainly, it’s not a good idea to put your house on the market until it looks great. But if you and your house are ready to sell, move ahead.

The market in general tends to slow down over the holidays. But rather than pull your house off the market and miss a likely prospect, change the showing procedure to require advance notice. And enjoy your holidays. A sale before year end could be a great holiday gift.

Article written by Dian Hymer, a real estate broker with more than 30 years’ experience, and nationally syndicated real estate columnist and author of “House Hunting: The Take-Along Workbook for Home Buyers” and “Starting Out, The Complete Home Buyer’s Guide.”

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Under Contract and Sold in The Manor in Milton, GA

In less than 60 days, my partner Rhonda Haran of Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty, and I have helped our seller clients to come to an offer, contract, and sale on their home in The Manor in Milton, GA. We are finding that homes that are professionally staged, priced competitively, and marketed aggressively are selling.

Originally listed for $2,400,000, this home at 215 Lake Manor way has 9 bedrooms, 9 full baths and 2 half baths.

Click here to see more images on a previous post about the crown moldings in this home with incredible attention to detail.

An extraordinary private estate known as Marioposa was sold in Milton, GA, in less than 60 days by Andrea Cueny and Rhonda Haran of Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby's International Realty.

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Figuring the Fuzzy Math of Online Home Values

Jason Gonsalves worked hard to turn his 6,500-square-foot stucco-and-stone home in the suburbs of Sacramento into the ultimate grown-up party pad, complete with game room, custom wine cellar and an infinity-edge pool overlooking Folsom Lake. When interest rates fell recently, Mr. Gonsalves, who runs a lobbying firm, looked into refinancing his $750,000 mortgage. That’s when he got startling news—the home had dropped more than $200,000 in value while he was renovating.

Or at least, that’s what one real-estate website told him. Another valued the house at only $640,500. And these online estimates left him all the more confused when a real-life appraiser, assessing the house for the refinancing loan, pinned its value at $1.5 million. “I have no idea how those numbers could be so different,” Mr. Gonsalves says.

Right or wrong, they’re the numbers millions of consumers are clamoring for. Web-driven companies like Zillow, Homes.com and Realtor.com are reshuffling the deck, giving home shoppers and owners estimates of what almost any home is worth. People have flocked to the data in startling numbers: Together, four of the biggest sites that offer home-value estimates get 100 million visits a month, with web surfers using them to determine what to ask or bid for a home, or whether to refinance.

But for figures that can carry such weight, critics say, the estimates can be far rougher than most people realize. Valuations that are 20% or even 50% higher or lower than a property’s eventual sale price are not uncommon, as the sites themselves acknowledge. The estimates frequently change, too—sometimes by hundreds of thousands of dollars—as sites plug new data into their algorithms.

All of the competitors make it clear their numbers are guesstimates, not gospel. “A Trulia estimate is just that—an estimate,” says a disclaimer on that site’s new home-value tool. Zillow goes a step further, publishing precise numbers about how imprecise its estimates can be. And every major site urges home-price hunters to consult appraisers or real-estate agents to refine their results.

Click here to read more from The Wall Street Journal.

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Top 4 Tips: government regulations and closing on your new home

1 – If the homebuyer is financing the property, these new regulatory and investor guidelines will impact — and could even dictate — the closing date.

Historically, homebuyers and sellers would agree on a closing date, and then service providers – including lenders – would work as best they could toward meeting that date. Going forward, purchase contracts can still be written with a specific closing date in mind, but all parties need to take into account that the earliest any home purchase transaction can close is 7 business days after the homebuyer is issued his or her initial mortgage disclosures from the lender.

(Note: At Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Saturdays, with the exception of federal holidays, do count as a business day for the purpose of disclosures only.)

2 – Upfront fees cannot be collected by the lender (except for a credit report fee) until the initial disclosures are received. If the disclosures are overnighted, they are considered “received” the next business day — (excluding Saturdays) allowing the fees to be collected on the following business day.

Historically, upfront fees could be collected immediately at the time of application for both in person and phone applications. Moving forward, the homebuyer must receive his or her initial disclosures before upfront fees can be collected. The only exception is the credit report fee which can be collected at application.

3 – The homebuyer must be provided with a copy of his or her appraisal a minimum of 3 business days prior to closing.

To help expedite the process, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage has elected to have a copy of the appraisal issued directly to the homebuyer — and the homebuyer must receive the appraisal at least 3 business days prior to the mortgage closing. If the homebuyer believes the 3-business-day required review period is not necessary for whatever reason, he or she has the right to waive that requirement.

4 – An increase of more than .125% in the Annual Percentage Rate (APR) from the initial Truth in Lending disclosure (TIL) requires the TIL disclosure to be revised and reissued to the homebuyer. The homebuyer must receive a revised TIL disclosure at least 3 business days before closing, providing the homebuyer with the time required to determine if the homebuyer is comfortable with his or her loan choice. If mailed, the TIL disclosure is considered “received” 3 business days after mailing.

A more typical contract date may be 30-45 days — or possibly longer (such as with a new construction loan). Considering that many things occur and may be changed or finalized throughout the course of the transaction, there are a number of things that can impact the homebuyer’s APR. Therefore it is critical on the front end to ensure that estimated fees are as accurate as possible.

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Atlanta Realtor Andrea Cueny Featured on Wall Street Journal’s web site

Click on the image to go to the story on the Wall Street Journal's web site about luxury laundry rooms. In the article, Atlanta realtor Andrea Cueny is quoted.

Through an exclusive relationship with Sotheby’s International Realty, the Wall Street Journal selects high-profile and top-producing real estate agents throughout the world to comment on real-estate related topics. 

Sometimes articles are broad strokes about the market, or a private view of an extraordinary homes.  Other stories, like the one featuring Andrea Cueny of Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty, focuses on a “micro”  - but important – element of the home….the laundry room.

An excerpt from the article on WSJ.com:

First bathrooms became sumptuous spas. Then closets turned into wardrobe showplaces. Now, laundry rooms, among the last frontiers of domestic utility, are getting their due. They are moving out of the realm of the purely pragmatic and into the high tone company of granite, crystal and travertine.

According to Miele, the premium appliance manufacturer, the average person spends at least six hours a week in the laundry room, so it’s not surprising why a homeowner would be reluctant to spend those hours cocooned in a dingy corner of the house.

Andrea Cueny, of Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty, says at the luxury price point, “which we consider anything over a million,” laundry rooms are designed to impress. The finer the home, the more luxurious the appointments. “People are spending more time at home and they have more help in the home–au pairs, in-laws, nannies. They want to make these rooms nicer with more high end finishes,” Cueny says. Many homes in her territory have two laundry areas, one centrally located on the main level and one by the bedrooms.

Please click here to read the entire article about luxurious laundry rooms from the Wall Street Journal.

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Technology in Real Estate: Social Media Presence

Click here to Like my Facebook Fan Page

This is the sixth post in a series on using Technology in Real Estate.  Please click here to see other posts about technology.  

Being connected online is one of the main avenues for staying in touch with clients and, especially, helping new clients to become familiar with me.

I have presence on  Facebook, LinkedIn, my blog (you found it!), my personal web site, and as I like to eat food (a lot), I have my own profile on Urban Spoon.  By having this presence and more, I can inform clients and customers easily about new home buying opportunities in metro Atlanta, what it is like to live in metro Atlanta, and how to sell a home in metro Atlanta.

Click here to see my LinkedIn Profile

Click here to visit Andrea Cueny's Web Site

Click here to see Andrea's restaurant reviews on Urban Spoon

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Interview with Jenny Pruitt, CEO/Founder, Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty

Jenny Pruitt, CEO/Founder Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby's International Realty

I recently had the extraordinary opportunity to interview Jenny Pruitt, CEO and Founder of Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty.  Jenny is an incredible leader and visionary.

AC: What is a benefit of the Sotheby’s International Realty brand to clients who are buying or selling a home under $1 million? Over $1 million?

JP: One of the greatest benefits of the Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty brand is the power of our multi-million dollar marketing at all price points.

Whether your home is $200,000 or $2,000,000, we recognize that your home is your mansion. We utilize our professional, superior marketing strategy and pieces to successfully market your home regardless of price. Each one of our listings receives the same extraordinary marketing and representation from Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty.

AC: Looking back at your time in residential real estate in Atlanta, what changes would you say have happened in the way buyers buy a home now compared to the past? Seller?

JP: I think now more than ever, buyers are looking for a good deal. They are waiting on the fence longer in an attempt to find rock bottom pricing. However, that is not always the best strategy. The Atlanta market is continuing to improve and interest rates will not stay as low as they are forever. Those buyers that are still on the fence might look back in a few months and realize this truly was the time to buy. It is always important to factor not only price into a home buying process but also the interest rate.

In regards to sellers, I think overall everyone is becoming more realistic. It is imperative to list your home for sale when it is absolutely ready. Gone are the days of “testing the market.” Sellers must have the home in its best condition and price the property right from the start. With so many homes on the market, buyers have plenty of options. As a seller, it is more important today to ensure your home stands out – and in a good way.

AC: What is something you enjoy about your role as CEO of Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty? 

JP: I love to see other people succeed and know that I had a small part of their success.  One of the most exciting things about being a part of this great company is to see how marketing and global branding can become such a compelling story to the consumer. The visual impact and exposure for our listings is the best in the industry.

As the CEO Founder of this company it is so rewarding to grow a company with such extraordinary people!

AC: As someone who has purchased and sold many homes in your lifetime, what are a couple of important tips you may have for helping a family to feel at home in their new space?

JP: Moving into a new space is often both an exciting and stressful experience. I find that no matter where I am, as long as my husband, Bob, and my two precious Shih Tzus, Molly and Murphy, are with me, that I always feel at home.

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