Cartersville Georgia Real Estate Blog

Today a home inspector joins me to answer key questions about the process.

Today I’m joined by Scott Irmscher, who’s here to answer a few key questions about home inspections. Scott has been involved with thousands of home inspections over the course of his 20 years in the business, so he’s definitely an expert in this area.

Why do home inspectors sometimes miss certain items?

Home inspections are visual inspections, and inspectors often don’t see everything. There are things hidden behind walls, for example, and doubtless that the sellers wouldn’t appreciate coming home to find that an inspector had torn everything apart just to try to find all the small items. In general, they’re looking...

Here's what today's market is like for move-up buyers.

What’s it like to be a move-up buyer in today’s market? Now, by ‘move-up buyer,’ I don’t necessarily mean that you’re moving up to a bigger house—it could be that you’re moving to a smaller house or what we call ‘right-sizing.’ Essentially, it means that you already own one home and that you’re ready to buy a new one. That can be a challenge in our market. Home prices right now are higher than I’ve ever seen them, and interest rates are low. 

Most of us have to weigh two things in this circumstance:

• How much financial uncertainty are...

Here’s the latest from our February Cartersville real estate market.

I have a new title: grandmother! We are over the moon that our oldest daughter Megan has had her first child, Josephine. With the pandemic still in full swing, it’s been rough on my heart because we haven’t been allowed to touch the baby yet. I’m counting down the minutes until she gets to go home and we can fully interact with her. You can see a photo of Josephine at 0:56 in the video above. 

The main topic today is great real estate news. I’m eager to share our market’s good news because for a while now it’s been mostly stressful news. In February 2020 there were 289 active homes on the market in Bartow, and we...

Here are some simple moving hacks that can make a world of difference.

Anyone who’s in the midst of a move can find themselves asking how it got so darn expensive. From boxes, bubble wrap, paper, and needing at least three guys to carry down the upstairs furniture, moving costs can really add up. I know how frustrating it can get, so I’ve created a PDF moving checklist that runs the whole gamut. From decluttering tips to prudent packing strategies, this resource covers it all. Today, though, I’ll touch on just a few of the finer points of moving. 

Moving is largely a mental game, and you’ve got to have the right mindset if you...

Our market’s in an inventory crunch, but I have a solution for buyers.

I wouldn’t say the latest stats from our Cartersville real estate market should come as a surprise to you since the market has been hot for some time now, but every time they come in, I can't help but be impressed. 

In Bartow County, across all price points (e.g., $75,000 and up), there were 360 homes available for sale during January 2020. This past January, there were just 150 available. We have about half as many homes available, but not half the buyers (thank goodness!). People are ready to buy homes, they just can’t find one. In Gordon County, the story is very much the same. There were 162 homes available for sale during January 2020. This past January, that number dropped all the...

Here’s my advice for home sellers who think they need to upgrade before selling.

People will tell me all the time that the only thing holding them back from selling their home is their perceived need to make renovations. Whenever I hear this, I want to say, “Wait! Wait!” 

The truth is that in this market, you don’t really need to make those expensive renovations. It’s such a competitive market that we’re seeing very few sellers make renovations. They realize that they’ll make more money by not doing so.

Even the home renovations with the highest average returns won’t get you 100% of the money back that you put in. If you're going to live in the house for...

Here are my main predictions for what’s coming for our market in 2021.

Looking back at 2020, who would have thought our houses would become this crucial to us? Last year we worked from home, schooled our kids at home, and our houses became the best restaurants (at least for safety reasons). We even learned to cook better! (At least… I tried). 

2020 has also made it clear just how much technology has made buying and selling real estate easier. Between Zoom conferences, video walk-throughs, 3D Matterport home tours, and more, the amount of tech at our fingertips has never been as plentiful. 

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Embarking on your first Georgia Winter? Let’s be honest, the big question is will they call for snow or not?

Notice I didn’t say “will it snow?” Honestly, if you are new to North Georgia I need to warn you what happens in Georgia in the winter. 

Here are some of our hot tips...