Well, the Braves have moved from grading the site to slapping up walls. I took some pictures last week and here they are! For information on the finished product or season tickets, check out www.gwinnettbraves.com.

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Currently on the market in Gwinnett County we have 9952 homes. The lowest priced home is $40,000and the most expensive is $7,950,000. The average list price is currently $307,832. All data comes from First MLS.

In 2008, 3429 Gwinnett County Homes have sold for an average of $231,140. The lowest price has been $42500 and the highest price has been $2,080,816.

Taking a look around the county, home prices are being lowered with rampant regularity. If you are looking for a home and have a little flexibility, bargains abound. Here are a few of the recent price moves.

6227 Woodlake Drive NE in Buford is a 3337 square foot home on a 2000 squre foot finished basement on Lake Lanier. The lot is just over a third of an acre and the basement appears to be nicely finished. The price was recently lowered from $1,599,000 to $1,100,000.

4577 Ridgegate Drive in the Riverview subdivision in Duluth was reduced from $850,000 to $699,000. Built in 1973, this 3313 squre foot home on an 1847 sq ft basement features 5 bedrooms and 3.5 baths and over an acre of land.

This new construction short sale is located at 412 Nesbitt Street in Norcross. The price on this beautiful historic Norcross home has been dropped from $579,500 to $500,000.

2990 Ivy Brook Lane in Buford is a 2003 former model home located in the Estates at Ivy Creek. Featuring 5 bedrooms and 4.5 baths, this is a short sale property with a full finished 2478 square foot basement and 3788 sq ft above grade. At $425,000, the price is $100,000 less than it was three weeks ago.

3565 Lake Seminole Dr NE in Buford’s Morgan Crossing was reduced from $369,000 to $299,900. Nearly 4000 square feet on a 1270 sq ft basement and an acre of land, this 1995 construction is a 6 bedroom, 3.5 bath brick front 2 story.

One of the nicest subdivisions in Lawrenceville is Lakes of Old Peachtree. 1891 Dorminey Court was built in 2000 and features 4 bedrooms and 3.5 baths. Recently reduced from $319,900 to $265,000, this 3104 square foot home is a real bargain.

As new homes sit unsold, the carrying costs begin to strangle builders. New home prices are falling along with the rest of the market. In Stewart Ridge, 6268 Stewart Ridge, Buford has been reduced from $255,000 to $195,000. This is a brand new 4 bedroom 2.5 bath brick front home in the North Gwinnett cluster.

Saddlebrook Farms in Dacula is a subdivision experiencing some distress, but it is a great swim-tennis community and it will be a long term good bet. 3432 Colt Branch Way is a 4 bedroom 2.5 bath home on a 1312 square foot basement. The above grade space is 2914 square feet. This appears to be a short sale and is a nice price in the Dacula school system.

3708 Burel Mill Drive in Buford, located in the Ivy Mill Plantation subdivision was built in 2001. It’s 2191 square feet on a 913 squre foot basement and has 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths. A recent $50,000 price reduction has resulted in a current price of $175,000.

5642 Hammond Drive in Norcross is a foreclosure that has been reduced from $149,900 to $134,900. The 2784 square foot split level home sold for $150,300 in 2003. The large lot is perfect for the 3 bedroom 2 bath home.

Looking for a rental property? Here is a Buford home for less than $55,000, down from $96,900. This 3 bedroom 1.5 bath home needs work, but you could definitely end up with a great income producer!

Here is a beautiful property located across from Chateau Elan’s public golf courses and convenient to I-85, shopping and more. This home features 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths, upgraded appliances and granite countertops, a huge pantry, convenientgarage to kitchen access, an open free flowing floorplan, great community amenities, a large lot, Mill Creek schools and a very low price. The berooms are especially large and the home has two staircases for easy access. There is a large upstairs laundry room and a cool built in desk in the upstairs hallway. The Falls of Braselton subdivision is divided by the Gwinnett / Barrow line and this home is on the Gwinnett side.

Offerred for $202,900, this home is listed as a short sale and all offers will require lender approval. Call Chris Compton today at 770-682-7735.

In a recent post, I described the short sale process as a win-win-win situation, and it is. The lender avoids taking yet another property through foreclosure. The homeowner avoids the foreclosure process and the enormous credit impact associated with it and the buyer gets a great deal.

If the deal closes. If…

When you make an offer on a property being offered as a short sale, you need to understand a little bit about short sales and what to expect. The first thing to understand is that although these transactions are becoming more and more commonplace, there is an excellent chance that your realtor will not really know a lot about the process. Is this because they are not good at their job? No. Short sales are just not common enough for the average realtor to have come in contact with a lot of them and while your realtor is hopefully an expert in more common areas like property selection, valuation, negotiation, etc., this “newer” field may be daunting.

The second thing I want you to know is that the process is not fast. Your patience is going to be tested and if you are not ready to exercise extreme patience, maybe you should pass on this particular deal. From the time you submit your offer, you should expect at least 4 weeks before you find out if the bank has approved it. If they approve it, you are going to save thousands of dollars, so if you don’t have to move tomorrow, this might be worth your time.

My next little nugget is very important if you don’t want to waste your time. You can apply this technique to other deals as well - it is not restricted to the short sale arena. Negotiation requires both parties to succeed in order to be successful. If you try to steal the property, you are just going to wait for 4 weeks or more and get rejected by the bank. In a typical short sale transaction, the bank will send out realtors they trust to evaluate the property’s value. Then the bank will evaluate the offer to see what percentage of the property’s value they are going to realize after paying all of their expenses. If that percentage is 80 or higher, they will probably accept. If it is lower than 80, they will proably reject the offer.

What does that mean in English? If the property is worth $100,000 dollars, don’t offer $80,000. Sure, the home owner wll agree to it, but the bank won’t and four or five weeks later you will have to submit another offer or look for another property. Remember they need to NET 80% of the value. Offer 90% and you have a great chance. How do you determine the value? That’s where your realtor comes in. If you don’t have a realtor, you can call me, Chris Compton at 770-682-7735. I will walk you through the process and help you succeed.

Short sales are odd transactions because you are buying the property from another individual, but their lender has final say so on the deal. Make sure that their lender is getting what they need and you will find yourself in a great home for a great low price.

Hello sports fans. Currently on the market in Gwinnett County we have 9918 homes. The lowest priced home is $52,900 and the most expensive is $7,950,000. The average list price is currently $308,460. All data comes from First MLS.

In 2008, 2434 Gwinnett County Homes have sold for an average of $229,044. The lowest price has been $42500 and the highest price has been $2,080,816. Note that I previously reported a higher priced sale. I get the data from First MLS, so I assume that they have corrected an error since my last report.

During the week ending June 8, 173 homes sold in Gwinnett. 605 homes were listed and 657 saw their prices change with over 90% of those changes being in a downward direction (that is correct - they got cheaper.)

With so many price reductions, it is tough to pick out just a few homes to show you. The sheer volume of bargain basement real estate on the market is overwhelming. Feel free to call me to do a free search for the exact bargain YOU are looking for at 770-682-7735.

Here are four of the best:

The largest drop of the week was at 4921 Bill Cheek Road in Auburn. Dropping just over 15% may not sound like that much, but we are talking about over $200,000. This home is located on over 7 acres of land and features 5 bedrooms and 5.5 baths. Spread out across 6143 square feet and sitting on a full basement, this just might be the bargain you are looking for.

As you know, foreclosures are popping up like weeds in Gwinnett and nice homes get foreclosed on, too. This gorgeous River Laurel Subdivision home in Suwanee saw it’s price fall $112,000, more than 20% to it’s new asking price of $447,900. “Please take it off our hands,” the bank is screaming. The home is located at 4350 Laurel Grove Trace. It was built in 1998 and features 6 bedrooms, 5 baths and a full finished basement. Three years ago, this home sold for $590,000! The living area measures 4741 square feet with another 1732 square feet in the basement, according to tax records. Suwanee was recently featured in Money Magazine as one of the 10 best places to live in the US. Here is a picture of the home.

Think the builders are sitting on their hands? Think again. At “Reserve at Lakeside” subdivision, 1315 Martins Down Drive has been slashed more than 26% ($70,000) to $189,990. This brand new 4 bedroom 2.5 bath home is on a full basement. Come for the price, stay for the new home smell!

My favorite reduction this week is a doozy. The price on this home has beed reduced 99.175%, from $20,000,000 to only $165,000. So what’s the story? I tried typing $20,000,000 over and over and while I made a few mistakes, I never “accidentally” typed anything like $165,000. What was this realtor thinking of? Attention! She knows that there are people looking at price changes every day and the more attention she gets, the better! Good luck to her and her client. The home is at 4766 Lily Stem Drive in Auburn. It is a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath home in the Flowery Branch Crossing subdivision, built in 2005. It sold new for $200,300 and is being offered as a short sale. If you don’t know what a short sale is, read this article or call me anytime and I will explain. Here is the home.

That’s it for this week. Remember that I am here to help! Let’s go get a house.

What is a short sale? Have you ever heard the term “Short Sale?” Is that a home that is only listed for a month or is the owner less than five feet tall?

None of the Above.

A short sale is a special situation that has become increasingly common in the recent past. A short sale is a win-win-win situation for the seller, the buyer and the lienholder. A short sale is an opportunity for a buyer to get a great deal,for a seller to avoid foreclosure and for a lienholder to save tens of thousands of dollars in fees and costs.

OK, OK - in English?

Imagine that you own a home and you would like to sell it. You call Chris Compton, your favorite realtor in the whole wide world at 770-682-7735. Chris comes over to talk with you about selling your home. Durng the conversation you come to realize that his expert opinion about the value of your home poses a BIG problem. Chris wants you to market your home for LESS than you owe! And he wants you to pay a brokerage fee when the house sells! That is a problem.

Suppose you could make a deal with the lender who holds the lien against you home. You would sell the house for its fair market value, which Chris helped you determine. You would pay the brokerage fee from the proceeds of the sale and then give the money that was left over to the lender. They would FORGIVE the shortfall and you could move ahead with your life without the credit destroying, life altering, gut wrenching pain of a foreclosure proceeding. That would be fantastic, right? That is a short sale.

To be honest, short sales are complex. They require a very detailed package of information to be compiled and submitted to the lender in order for the lender to agree to the terms of the sale. Many short sales are disapproved. The majority of these disapproved sales are due to improperly submitted packages.

Luckily, you have stumbled upon a realtor who is immersed in short sale education and training. A realtor who has systems and strategies in place to make sure that your sale goes through if at all possible. A realtor who respects and cares enough about your family to do the work right and get you on your way.

If you are struggling to make your house payments, whether you have had a job change, a medical emergency, been the victim of a predatory loan or for any other reason - call me immediately! Do Not Wait. Every day you put this off reduces the chances of us helping you avoid foreclosure.

A short sale affects your credit. A foreclosure destroys it. If you are sitting around waiting for things to change, stop. Pick up the phone and let’s change things together.

The Braves had their official groundbreaking ceremony last week, despite the fact that ground was actually broken quite a while ago.

I stopped by the construction site yesterday at 2500 Buford Drive in Lawrenceville and took a look around. They have done quite a bit since the last look I had. Here are some photos. As you can see, they have fleshed out the field. I was tempted to run the bases!

The picture above was taken from way behind home plate - well outside of the stadium.

The picture above was taken from just beyond the right field foul line.

They just added this sign to the site.

Above is a nice picture of the infield layout.

The picture above was taken May 18. This is where the diamond ended up.

Back on May 10, I reported on some price reductions in the Gwinnett County Real Estate Market. You can read that report by clicking here.

Of the five homes that I reported as reduced, three are still on the market at their reduced price. 2015 Lavendar Drive in Ivey Chase has been slashed again, this time to $229,900.

2926 Swarthmore Drive went under cntract on May 23, 2008.

There are lots of bargains out there. This is the perfect time to buy real estate. Prices are low and interest rates are low. Don’t sit around and wait for a better time or you may find yourself out of luck due to a radical change in US banking policy or lending standards.

Remeber the old adage - “Pigs get fat, Hogs get slaughtered.”

Call me today at 770-682-7735 and let’s fatten up your portfolio!

10 weeks ago I started running. Well, not really running, I guess. I started walking and it progressed to running. I don’t have a great deal of patience, so walking always progresses to running for me at some point. Anyway, ten weeks later I found myself in a crowd in the middle of Dacula Road at 8:30 AM on Monday morning.

If you know me, you probably know that I am portly or rotund (insert your own nice word for big belly). I don’t have the classic runner’s physique, shall we say. Yet there I was with several hundred of my friends and neighbors. It was a lot more exciting than I would have imagined. The starter made some announcements and then cried, “Runners - take your marks! Go!”

And they went. Me, not so much. My goal was to run the entire 5000 meter (just over 3 mile) course without stopping, walking, crying or bleeding. I was not in a hurry.

I jogged leisurely down Dacula Road, turned onto Wilson, enjoying the downhill start. As I made the next turn I saw a huge crowd of people running through Dacula’s old town district. I was not even remotely close to that part of the course and we had only just started. Good thing I was only competing with myself!

I trudged along, feeling like I could pick up the pace but knowing that the second mile of the course was uphill. I started to break a pretty good sweat at the bottom of the hill and soon thereafter some kind folks were handing out icewater. I managed a swallow and got my cup into a trash can without breaking stride.

The next hill was the best part of the course. It was steeper and ran right next to the cemetery at Hebron Baptist Church, a perfect sobering reminder that we were running on Memorial Day. I enjoyed the time for reflection, but I won’t lie to you, I was pleased when the hill flattened out and I knew the rest of the course was fairly flat.

As I passed the starting point I was talking with a fellow racer and I realized that I must still have a lot of energy to be able to carry on a conversation while running mile three. I guess that was my proudest moment.

As I started to turn towards the finish line and the long downhill, I broke into my version of a sprint and managed to carry it through the line, finishing in 34:09.3. I achieved my goals, no walking, no blood, no tears, but quite a bit of sweat.

I never thought I would enjoy running, but I am beginning to.

Competitively, I am in trouble. My 34:09 time doesn’t stack up so well against the other runners. In my age group, 40-44 year old men, I was 32nd out of 34 runners. 2 10 year old girls finished ahead of me and 2 women in their 7th decade did as well. The overall winner could have run twice before I was done. He cruised around in 15:58.7.

At least I didn’t cry.

It’s Friday and here is a look at the Gwinnett County Real Estate picture.

9934 properties are listed for sale, according to First MLS. The most expensive continues to be 8,500,000 dollars and the least expensive is $53910. The average list price is $312,149.

So far in 2008, 2353 properties have been sold in Gwinnett County. The sold properties ranged in price from $42,500 to $3,028,817. The average sale price has been $232,991. The average market time has been 102 days.

Of the properties that have sold, 17 have sold for $1,000,000 or more. 87 have sold for $500,000-$999,99. 110 have sold for $400,000 to $499,999. 217 have sold for $300,000 to $399,999. 639 have sold for $200,000 to $299,999.1166 have sold for $100,000 to $199,999 and 117 have sold for under $100,000.

Note that 77% of the homes sold were sold for between $100,000 and $299,999.

In today’s news, 67 properties were listed for sale and 15 were reported sold. 68 homes saw their list price lowered today. Here are some notables -

2211 Lakeway Drive in Dacula is located in the Lake Park subdivision, features 3bedrroms, 2.5 baths and a full unfinished basement. This 1920 squre foot home on a 929 square foot basement last sold in January 2006 for $185,000. Buy it out of foreclosure today for $124,900 - reduced from $159,900, a 22% reduction. Here is a photo:

27 Bethesda Church Road, Lawrenceville was reduced by 19%, from $1,200,000 to $975,000. This 8 bedroom, 4.5 bath home sits on 3 acres of land and boasts 7742 square feet of above grade space anda 6028 square foot basement. It must be capable of selling itself, as the pictures are pretty lax for such a premium price. Here is a photo.

If you are looking for a bargain, this might be it. 831 Hampton Hill Court in Lawrenceville’s Heritage Place subdivision had the day’s largest percentage PLUNGE, with the list price dropping by nearly 38% from $144900 to $90,100. This is a foreclosure home, featuring 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths and 1488 square feet. This home sold new in 1988 for $82,000 and the owner is offering to pay the closing costs. Investors - this is your opportunity! Here is a photo.

Want to see some of these Gwinnett County Homes? Call Chris Compton at 770-682-7735 or visit www.HomeTeamCoach.com today!