Welcome back!

Happy New Year! As we kick off 2010, you may not have put much thought into jumping into the real estate market and becoming a move-up home buyer. The thought of being a move-up homebuyer may actually make you cringe when you realize that also makes you a home seller first.  After all, the real estate market is terrible, right?

In reality, it’s not terrible, just different. If it was terrible, I wouldn’t have been able to help Smyrna Vinings home buyers and sellers close on 32 transactions in 2010.

So the key to being successful in 2010 is to understand the market and how you can take advantage of it. First of all, you need to realize the impact that the extended $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit and the expanded $6,500 move-up homebuyer tax credit has for you.

So now you may be thinking if I’m already a homeowner, what good will the first-time homebuyer tax credit be for me? In reality it will do a lot. Keep in mind that for a lot of home owners, their home will likely be purchased by a first-time home buyer. With $8,000 dangling in front of them, that ’s a great incentive to purchase a home this Spring. The tax credit is effective for homes “under contract” by April 30th and close by June 30th.

June is typically the highest volume month for closings in our market. In a “normal” year, we typically see the peak listing season start right after the Super Bowl. This date ensures your home gets plenty of exposure to all of the buyers that begin to come out of the woodwork in early Spring in Atlanta (and it doesn’t interfere with their football watching).

However, with the deadline of the tax credit hitting on April 30th, we expect to see the buyers prowling homes a lot earlier this year. As we saw in the month of November, the tax credit deadline can have a huge impact on the market. We saw two things occur in October/November last year – sales spiked and a lot of buyers were left on the sidelines as the remaining homes for sale had been picked over and they weren’t happy with the leftovers.

So, if you are interested in taking advantage of the market, we strongly suggest you consider listing during the month of January. And while you’re at it make sure your home is aggressively marketed (biggest key being to feature your home right here on SmyrnaVinings.com, the #1 local site (shameless self-promotion, egads!)) and competitively priced.

We already know that the homebuyer tax credit will be going away April 30th, we’ve pretty much been assured that lending criteria will become stricter and we’re almost certain to see interest rates increase as we head into Summer 2010. So with all of that, you definitely have a window of opportunity to get your home sold.

Now on to the fun stuff. Buying your new home. Same deadline to receive the $6,500 tax credit – April 30th. Once again, another reason to get your home listed soon so you have a good selection of homes to choose from to purchase. Add in historically low interest rates and more pricing pressure on higher priced homes, all works out to be a win-win for you.

The next four months offer a window of opportunity for buyers and sellers alike and undoubtedly one we may never see again.

If you’re ready to take advantage of the Smyrna Vinings real estate market, contact us today for your complimentary consultation.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, January 2nd, 2010 at 10:00 am and is filed under Smyrna Vinings Real Estate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.