Your East Cobb Realtor®

Posts Tagged ‘Marietta Homes for Sale’

Your East Cobb Realtor would like to share this important information with YOU!

Qualifications are important. However, finding a solid, professional agent means getting beyond the resume, and into what makes an agent effective. Use the following questions as your starting point in hiring your licensed, professional real estate agent:

1. Why did you become a real estate agent?
2. Why should I work with you?
3. What do you do better than other real estate agents?
4. What process will you use to help me find the right home for my particular wants and needs?
5. What are the most common things that go wrong in a transaction and how would you handle them?
6. What are some mistakes that you think people make when buying their first home?
7. What other professionals do you suggest we work with and what are their credentials?
8. Can you provide me with references or testimonials from past clients?

Find Homes For Sale in East Cobb. Call Me: 678-763-6025 or Email Me: jodismith@kw.com

Your East Cobb Realtor would like to share this important information with YOU!

People generally have two kinds of needs during a home purchase. First are the transactional needs, such as searching for a home, obtaining financing, negotiating the terms of purchase, completing paperwork and legal documents, and arranging the move. The second are emotional needs, which can be more stressful than the financial ones. The following are some tips to help ease the stress.

Prepare your children

Although you may have lived in your current home for just a few years, four years is half the lifetime of an eight-year-old. Your home may be the only home your children remember. It’s where they feel safe and it’s probably the center of your son or daughter’s world.

Be sure to announce the move in a completely upbeat way. You might talk about how beautiful the new neighborhood is and how good the schools are. Bring your children to the new house, if that’s possible or positively describe it to them. Find out what your children’s favorite things are in your current home, and then try to re-create them in the new house. Keep your children actively involved. For instance, take them shopping for paint, bedspreads, carpets, and other items for their new room.

Your children are bound to have worries during the move. Help lessen these anxieties by finding ways to make parting pleasant. For example, plan a going-away party or create a photo album with pictures of neighbors, their house and the neighborhood.

Gain knowledge

As you begin the process, you may start to feel out of control, as though other parties to the purchase transaction are running the show. Your mortgage company, the appraiser, the inspector, and the seller all have certain powers to approve or disapprove of your overall plan to purchase this home and move successfully. To alleviate your feelings of helplessness, one of the best things you can do is to understand as much of the purchase process as possible. Work with your real estate agent to prepare yourself for the unknown and tie down loose ends.

Trust the process

There can be so much to do that it’s easy to panic. Buying a home may feel risky, but the truth is it’s an opportunity for you and your family. Even though you can’t predict what will happen every step of the way, your real estate agent helps people buy and sell homes as a profession! Your agent has been there before and understands that this is a major upheaval in your life. Trust that your agent is looking out for you on your way to a successful closing and move.

Be flexible

Although your agent will do everything possible to prepare you for your home purchase, there is no such thing as a perfect world. The property inspection may reveal areas of concern, or closing may be delayed for some reason. Try to take a deep breath and be flexible in your thinking.

Call the Movers

Don’t Wait until the last minute to call the movers!  With all of the chaos and excitement, it’s easy to forget to schedule a mover ahead of time.  Waiting until the last minute can cause you to be pressured into booking someone who simply has a slot available for the date/time needed.  Do some research on your own.  Find a mover who has a “Mover’s History Report” available to you.  You can also ask your Realtor for a reference.  They will usually have one in their hip pocket.

Seek Entertainment

Whenever you feel things are spinning out of control, find a diversion! Take a walk around your new neighborhood; go out of town or to a movie with your family. Whatever outlet works best for you, this is a good time to engage in it! Remember to take one “move” at a time.

For Homes for Sale in East Cobb, Call Me: 678-763-6025 or Email Me: jodismith@kw.com

Your East Cobb Realtor would like to share this important information with YOU!

Hightower Trail Middle School is the only middle school in Georgia to be named a 2009 No Child Left Behind-Blue Ribbon School, the U.S. Department of Education announced today.

The program honors public and private schools where students achieve at the highest levels, as well as schools that make notable progress in closing the achievement gap. Hightower Trail was honored for scoring in the top 10 percent on state assessments in reading/language arts and mathematics. Hightower Trail principal Dr. Hilda Wilkins, along with teacher Angela Kardesh, will formally accept the NCLB-Blue Ribbon School award during an official ceremony Nov. 3 in Washington, DC.

The Blue Ribbon Schools program began in 1982 as a means of recognizing many of the nation’s most successful schools. In 2002, the program was updated in accordance with the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Schools that meet award criteria are nominated by state education officials and selected by the U.S. Department of Education. Hightower Trail is the 18th school in the Cobb County School District to be named a Blue Ribbon School since the original program’s inception and the fourth since the program’s renewal in 2002.

Hightower Trail Middle School feeds into Pope High School who had 39 AP Scholars and 4 National Scholars in 2009.

More information about the No Child Left Behind-Blue Ribbon Schools program is available on the U.S. Department of Education Web site at www.ed.gov.

Call or Email me today to see Homes For Sale in East Cobb. Jodi Smith, Realtor with Keller Williams Realty Consultants. Cell:  678-763-6025 or Email: jodismith@kw.com