Today's Cartersville Real Estate Market

The economy is on everyone’s mind these days and many look to the Realtors as a measure of the local market’s health. Not a day goes by that someone doesn’t ask “How is your business?”  

Now, I like to think this is out of love and concern for me personally but I know they are as anxious as I am to know when things will get better and I am their local indicator for that. So, let me tell you about my business here in the Cartersville/Bartow County area…

H & H Residential opened just over a month ago and I must admit, my partner Leah Woodall and I, have been working non-stop ever since. We even added a new agent to our company, Ashton Norrod, to help with the load. 

I am finding these days that I am working harder than I have ever worked; showing more houses, negotiating longer, making more phone calls, but these things are slowly paying off.  People eventually find that certain property they are looking for at the price they want. And this seems to be true for the metro Atlanta area, as well. According to First Multiple Listing Service, the closed units are increasing. Prices of those units, however, are remaining at one of the lowest points in the past decade. 

Rentals are in high demand right now. People are choosing to rent for a variety of reasons.  Some are working on their credit in hopes of buying in the future. Many are able to buy, but prefer to wait before purchasing in order to watch the market and house prices to see if they are going to drop further.

Available rental houses are going on the market one day and are being rented the next. I recently had to compete for a high end rental property on behalf of my tenant.  The rent was close to $2,000 a month and two applications came in at the same time for the house.  Investors are having a great time with this market. They are constantly on the lookout for another house to add to their inventory. 

Traditional buyers are beginning to resemble investors. They want to make sure that when they buy they have enough room between what they spend and the current market price to protect them against future declines. Buyers are offering low and negotiating hard. They aren’t afraid to walk away from a house and continue searching for another good deal. 

Sellers are the hardest hit today, often losing money on their sales and many times paying out of their pocket to close the deal. The good news for them is that they are able to make it up on their next purchase when they move into the buyer’s seat and start looking for that great deal where they get a much larger house for a fraction of the price. 

I went to a new member breakfast at the Cartersville-Bartow County Chamber of Commerce yesterday and was amazed at the number of new members. Some were from established businesses just joining the chamber while others were start ups, like H & H Residential, just wading into today’s market waters. The Chamber reported their membership was up with a net of 80 more new members this year than all of last year combined. I guess you could say we are all a little bit crazy for starting something new when the nation is facing a double dip recession. But, I say that maybe, just maybe, things are a little brighter here in our neck of the woods.