Ryan Ward's Blog: All Categories

An alarming trend is taking shape that threatens to shift the power of real estate marketing away from real estate brokers and place the information directly into the hands of third party vendors that will change the way real estate is advertised forever. For some time there has been a clamoring for an open, national MLS that would display listings from all around the country in one place that is easily accessible for consumers. That place has existed since 1999. It's called Realtor.com. Unfortunately, while the NAR sat back, resting on its laurels and charging the very real estate professionals who they represent for full contact information to be placed on those listings, interloping, third party vendors swooped in to fill the void that the NAR (National…

The city of Alpharetta is conducting an online survey to help improve traffic flow between intersections of North Point Parkway and Tuxford Drive on Kimball Bridge Road. Traffic problems have a direct impact on real estate values and the overall quality of life for residents of Alpharetta. Although Alpharetta real estate continues to be very popular, without proper use of traffic controls, traffic can very easily make it miserable and would definitely make Alpharetta a less desirable location. Please help by doing your part to help city officials keep traffic from becoming a determining factor in whether people will continue to move to Alpharetta. Follow the link below to take the survey. Read Full Post

Spring is a beautiful time in Alpharetta and the city plans to make the most of it again this year with the annual Alpharetta Arts Streetfest. The event will take place in historic downtown Alpharetta on Milton Avenue and admission and parking is free so be there! If you've never taken the time to stroll down the sidewalks of downtown Alpharetta, you are really missing one of the main reasons Alpharetta real estate is so popular. The Alpharetta Art Festival will host artists and their exhibits from around Alpharetta and Atlanta as well as from around the county with all types of art on display and for sale. It's not just art you will miss if you don't make it to the festival there will be food from great local restaurants, and, of course, local fair food…

Buckhead is the most familiar and popular area in Atlanta for fine Atlanta homes and luxury real estate and a popular destination for Atlanta visitors because of  the high end shopping and dining. In the past year, the Buckhead business district has undergone some very important and much needed renovations to the roads and infrastructure. While the construction north of Piedmont road on Peachtree has been a nightmare during the renovations, the eventual sidewalk and beautification project will be well worth the wait. Along with the city of Atlanta's roadwork, many new luxury high rise condominiums have come out of the ground and are nearing completion and what used to be one of Atlanta's hottest bar scenes gone bad is now being redeveloped as a high end…

Here is a quick snapshot of the current Atlanta real estate market conditions. The numbers clearly show that the market is beginning to pick up steam as we head into the busiest part of the year for buying and selling Atlanta homes. The number of homes sold is a lagging indicator as it takes some time for many of the homes to be entered in the Atlanta MLS, the FMLS. Pending sales is a forecasting statistics that helps to show a more current reflection of market activity. Visit my Atlanta Real Estate website to view current homes for sale.

Atlanta Real Estate  Atlanta  March  Active  5,803  Pending  1,215 …

I finally implemented a much needed upgrade to my website by adding a new and improved way to view homes for sale in the Atlanta MLS. You can now save your favorite homes and come back to them later, add to your list of favorites or email your favorite homes to whomever you would like. There is also a just listed feature that allows you to enter your preferences into the system to have all homes that meet your description emailed to you as soon as they become available. This upgrade allows you, the consumer, a better way to search for homes on my website than was previously available. When you search for Atlanta real estate, you expect to be able to find what you are looking for easily and to that end I am trying to facilitate that process. Any comments or…

Here are the current statistics for Alpharetta homes for sale provided by the Alpharetta MLS, the FMLS:

Currently, there are 1888 Alpharetta homes for sale and another 505 pending sale. Interestingly, in the last 30 days only 141 homes sold while there were an additional 636 new homes for sale. Another 231 homes either had their listings expire or were withdrawn. What you can gather from this is that there are currently more active buyers in the market than there were just a month earlier. This is the typical trend as we see more buyers and sellers enter the market in the spring and homes sales begin to ramp up.

You can view all of the Alpharetta homes for sale at your leisure at my website while you get to know more about the city of Alpharetta and what…

Atlanta real estate for sale signs usually begin popping up out of the ground at about this time every year - for good reason. The cold weather is almost behind us and school will be out before we know it.

This gives me a good opportunity to remind you that if you plan to sell your home this year, now is the time to finish up that to do list, clean out the basement and garage, tidy up the flower beds and spruce up that paint before you put your home on the market. Although the Atlanta real estate market weathered the national real estate slowdown better than many other large metropolitan areas, you will still be selling your home in a market that will have more homes for sale than last year. Make sure your home looks great, price it correctly and hire a…