Lake Oconee real estate pricing in a buyer's market

While the Lake Oconee real estate market is edging back slowly, it is still a buyer's market. In a buyer's market, listing too high can poison the market for that particular property. Subsequent price reductions are often too little, too late. Buyers and their agents may not return to the property until the price hits a point of desperation. The owner may get lucky...it happens...but more likely after the initial rush of interest the property may languish on the market for months. One home, not my listing, sold after two+ years at well under $500K after starting at well over $700K. When initially listed that home should have sold fairly quickly in the low $600's...two years later, the market had changed, offers had been turned down, and the sellers had become open to almost any offer.

George W. Bush visits Lake Oconee

Ex-president George W. Bush was here Monday for the dedication of our new performing arts center. Festival Hall will be a full-tilt facility capable of featuring a full orchestra, a ballet, or play. It is part of our Oconee Performing Arts Society (OPAS) which is partially funded by Reynolds Plantation.
I hosted an open house for area agents at my new listing just steps away. It's a fully renovated historic retail building on main street. I love the building...it is quite unique, having a very nice loft-style residential unit above the retail. It was built in 1900 and was first a drug store...now a frame shop run by the owner. She wants to keep her business here with a 2-year lease.

Lake Oconee lake front home short sale

The short sale closed yesterday. Purchase price of $250K...an extremely good buy for a lakefront home even in this market. Today, tracking down the owner of a specific $1M+ unlisted lake home for a potential buyer.

Lake Oconee short sales of lake property

My first "short sale" is closing on Monday. The buyer is getting a wonderful lakefront retreat for a bargain price (I can reveal it Monday) and the sellers are getting out of a tight market with their credit intact. And the mortgage company is avoiding owning a property in an area with which they are unfamiliar. I'm showing one tomorrow that is a spectacular, large home in one of our top golf communities. Asking price in the mid $600's, but the bank will have to approve the sale. Thankfully, as a primarily second home market, we aren't overcome with distress sales, but there are a few available. More to the point, sellers are either getting realistic about their property's value, or just taking it off market to wait for better times.

Kickoff / Realtor of the Year

Having successfully practiced real estate here for six years, I was chosen this February as Realtor of the Year for 2009 from among over 300 agents from all brokers in the area. It was based on a decent year of sales for 2008 (in very challenging market conditions) as well as a high level of involvement in the community. I would also like to think that it reflected a reputation among the very best agents here for reliability and cooperation.

Last year, in response to a very quiet market, I brought up my website (www.lakeoconeesearch.com) and determined to create a growing web presence...my goal: very simply to offer my thoughts and ideas about area real estate so that potential buyers, and sellers, and perhaps agents who have clients considering this area, can contact me or call. And the only way to do that is to start right here with straightforward comments. For a background on the area, and me, take a look at www.lakeoconeesearch.com. And to whoever is the first person to "stumble" onto this, THANK YOU!