Chaos at the Courthouse

Wow! So, on the first Tuesday of July, I went to the Henry County, Georgia, Court House to observe a foreclosure sale. Can you spell chaos?


Don't know how it is in other states, but here in Georgia, there was no organization to the sale. I got there early, not knowing what to expect.

Our court house is on a quaint square with roads leading north, south, east and west out of the square. Traffic is always heavy - really doesn't matter what time of the day you go through. It was probably 95 degrees when it started. I got there at 9:00 when it was only 80 degrees in the shade. But at 10:00, the sun had shifted and the steps were in the full sun. A crowd had started to gather at about 9:40. Soon, some people started to show up with boxes, briefcases, clipboards, etc. Some of them were dressed rather interestingly. The major law firm was represented by a man - I swear he was in a Hawaiian shirt, fishing had and cargo shorts. But I only caught a glimpse of him before he was swallowed by the crowd. Then there was a lady in a nice dress and I swear five inch, pointy-toed heels - (I didn't wear those when I was 20, let alone now - I'd get a nose bleed from the height if I didn't break an ankle first). Then there was a conservatively dressed, young lawyer with dress pants, long sleeved shirt and no tie - spoke in a monotone.

Consumer Centric Contact

Once upon a time, it was easy.  If someone wanted to contact us we would give them our phone number - office or home - and either they or I would initiate the call and if the other answered, guess what, we were communicating!  If they didn't get us or I them, a message would be left, either via a human and later via voice mail.  We even had pagers - not too long ago, and now, they've gone by the wayside.

Now, it's much more complicated.  There's email, twitter accounts, facebook, text messages, email messages, home phone (maybe), cell phones and office phones and efaxes.  So, when someone wants to communicate with you how do you keep in touch without missing some important information?  How do you get information to people in a way that's easiest for them?

 In the past year I worked with five clients who didn't have an email address, didn't have a smart phone, didn't have access to a fax.  Took a lilttle extra time, but I think the relationships were stronger because of more face-to-face time. You know what, we still got to the closing table.

Still Tasty, really?

Completely off topic for real estate, but maybe not. Check out this website:

Still Tasty

Some people, (present company included) keep things forever. We forgot we have them, either in the refrigerator or in the pantry.

So, as you get your house ready for sale, take a look at the pantry. Just like a closet, you don’t want it to look stuffed. So, go through your staples, your cereals, etc. and if you don’t know if it’s still good, check out the link above and, act accordingly.

Do you know how foreclosures affect neighborhoods?

Yes, there's the obvious. The grass gets tall, the home not only is abandoned, but looks abandoned. There's old newspapers in the yard.  And there's always the threat of people breaking in for nefarious activities or vanadalism that could spread to your home.

But monetarily, for every foreclosed home that shows up in your neighborhood, your property value will decline by 1%, initially.  But worst than that, when that foreclosure sells at a drastically reduced price, your values will tumble even further.

We have been faced with homes dropping in value by over 25%.  Example:  appraised for $268K in May only appraised for $210K in October; home appraised for $615K in May, sold for $400K the following year. It's not good and we're not out of the woods yet.