Now is a great time to buy a home in the Smyrna Vinings community. And we’ve just made it even better. In conjunction with our Smyrna Vinings business partners, we are offering a buyer bonus in excess of $4,000 on the purchase of your next home.

So if you are thinking about buying a home, townhome or condo in the Smyrna Vinings community, you’ll want to contact us ASAP to make sure you’re registered for the program.

This program applies to not only Smyrna Vinings homes, condos and townhomes for resale but also new construction. Certain restrictions due apply, so click here to learn more about this exciting Smyrna Vinings homebuyer program.

Quantities are limited, so don’t delay. Here are some of our participating Smyrna Vinings businesses.

Don’t miss this opportunity. And even if you’re not in the market for a new home, be sure to let all your friends know about this program.

If you have any questions about this exciting program, be sure to contact us.

Technorati Tags: Smyrna Vinings Homebuyer Program, Smyrna Vinings Ultimate Welcoming Gift, Smyrna Vinings Real Estate, Smyrna Vinings Homebuyer Bonus

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We realize that many of you in the Smyrna Vinings area are in the process of purchasing a new home, thinking about purchasing a new home or just mulling over the idea. We thought it would be helpful to bring in a guest columnist to provide you with weekly mortgage rate updates.

So we’ve asked Bob Bregitzer with Innovative Mortgage Solutions to provide you with a quick weekly update. Bob has been in the mortgage industry for over 10 years and is also a Certified Public Accountant, which means he has a lot of experience and a strong financial background.

So without further adieu, here is the Mortgage Rate Update for the Week of July 21, 2008.

Week in review:

My clients sometimes tell me that watching mortgage rates is like watching an out of control roller coaster. While I feel the same way, this past week felt more like watching a cannonball being shot out of a cannon straight into the air.

It’s been a rough week for home loan rates. The week started out with several economic reports showing inflation is still high and a concern for the Fed. Inflation is the enemy of mortgage rates – high inflation causes higher rates. Overall, rates increased by about .375% from the beginning of the week.

What to expect:

Home loan rates are as high as we have seen in a year, just about matching the high mark from July 2007. Although there are no inflation reports this week, inflation concerns will continue to weigh on the financial markets and mortgage rates. If the stock market continues its rally from last week, expect rates to get worse.

For rates to reverse the trend, there needs to a catalyst. Economic reports this week are expected to show weakness and may offset the effects of inflation on rates. If those reports are much worse than expectations, we could see a reversal.

Breg-ometer:

Next 7 days: Neutral
Next 30 days: Neutral
Next 90 days: Higher

Bob Bregitzer
www.bobbregitzer.com

Technorati Tags: Smyrna Vinings Real Estate, Smyrna Vinings Mortgages, Atlanta Mortgages

For the Bad MLS Photo of the Week, I came across not one, but lots of really bad photos and they’re all for the same home.

Not good when you’re trying to sell your home. The home has been on the market for almost three months in a popular Smyrna Vinings neighborhood. But the big problem is that 92% of homebuyers start their home search on the Internet. Not sure that these pictures are going to get any buyer to walk away from their computer and run out the door to go check this Smyrna home out.

Perhaps the agent was so enamored with their camera phone, they decided that they could take high-quality property photos with their phone. But in the end, I don’t really know what is more amazing, whether it’s the fact that the agent hasn’t noticed how bad the photos are or the fact that the home seller hasn’t noticed.

For an added bonus this week, I hope you noticed that I spiced up the feature with music. I picked “You’re Going to Miss This” by Trace Adkins, which I thought was appropriate. It’s very likely that lots of potential homebuyers have missed this one. (FYI - To hear the song, you’ll have to hover over the slide menu, then click on the speaker icon at the top of the iPhone, otherwise it might scare everyone away from the site that doesn’t like country music)

If you’re thinking about selling your home, make sure you hire a professional, experienced and knowledgeable Realtor that specializes in your area. It can make the difference between your home sitting or selling. And there’s nothing more painful than your home just sitting on the market.

Technorati Tags: Smyrna Real Estate, Vinings Real Estate, Bad MLS Photo of the Week

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Labor Day Weekend Come Sample Hundreds Of Different Beers From Around The World!

Do you know the difference between a lager & stout? Do you enjoy rich amber or pale ale or does your tasting experience consist of “What’s your cheapest beer on tap”? The 5th Annual Smyrna Hops & Barley Beer Tasting event is back to educate your taste buds with one of the largest arrays of beers in Atlanta.

Come sample some of the greatest local, domestic & import beers plus new this year will be limited wine tasting booths along with great food from Smyrna Market Village restaurants. Entertainment includes live music & college football games on the big screens under the tent. Guests will receive an 8 oz commemorative drinking glass for beer tasting, program and a chance to win contests & raffles with great prizes & giveaways with paid admission.

This is the event you just have to be at on Saturday, August 30th, from 1pm - 6pm at Smyrna Market Village. Discounted advance tickets are $25 or $35 day of event at the gate. Proceeds will benefit Mustard Seed Communities. This event is brought to you by your beer drinking buddies at USA Entertainment, Armada Communications, LLC and Atkins Park Tavern. Click here for info & tickets.

Quick Facts

• 5th Annual Smyrna Hops & Barley Beer Tasting

• LABOR DAY WEEKEND

• Smyrna Market Village

• Saturday, August 30 (1pm - 6pm)

• Event will feature over 100 beers from around the world, wine, food & entertainment with live music & college football on the big screen.

• Benefits Mustard Seed Communities.

• Tickets: $25 Advance, $35 Gate

Technorati Tags: Smyrna Market Village, Atkins Park, Smyrna Events

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I recently got to experience the Vinings new Quiet Zone in person as I was first in line when the train came through.

The quiet zone is based on the installation of a four-quadrant gate system (which you can actually see above) at the crossing to fully block traffic from entering the crossing when the gates are lowered. This system includes at least one gate for each direction of traffic on each approach.

A four-quadrant gate system is meant to prevent a motorist from entering the oncoming lane of traffic to avoid a fully lowered gate in the motorist’s lane of traffic. Because an additional gate would also be fully lowered in the other lane of the road, the motorist would be fully blocked from entering the crossing. (That somewhat wordy description is courtesy of The Federal Railroad Administration, but the following diagram probably gives you a better idea.)

So as I continued to sit there, I realized that indeed it is a Quiet Zone. The train didn’t blast its horn, which didn’t mean that much to me at the time since I wasn’t trying to sleep, but obviously a nice plus for those when they are. And if you’re hanging out at NY Pizza, you may still be able to talk on your cell phone.

However, I have been getting inquiries about regarding the Quiet Zone, specifically related to why people are still hearing the train horns. Is it perhaps that they have supersonic hearing and can detect the horn blows from some distant crossing?

As it turns out, they’re just normal everyday humans (no superpowers) and that the train is still blowing its horn. As you may remember from the previous post on the Vinings Quiet Zone, there are two crossings that were planned to have the new quadrant gates installed, Paces Ferry Road and Woodland Brook Drive. Unfortunately, there is a third, little known crossing in Vinings at Paradise Shoals Road.

There will not be a new quadrant gate system installed at Paradise Shoals Road, rather the road is planned to be realigned to eliminate the crossing completely. According to the Cobb Department of Transportation, which is handling the project, there have been some property issues that needed resolved and this has pushed the project back. The realignment project is currently slated to begin in March of 2009.

Expect future access to this land, which will be redeveloped in the coming years, to be provided from Settlement Road off of Woodland Brook Drive.

View Larger Map

So just a few more months and you should all be able to sleep peacefully in the Vinings. In the meantime, if you have any other questions on the Smyrna Vinings area, feel free to contact us.

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Ann’s Weekend - July 18th - 20th

Love Street, and Step It Up Fitness have teamed up to help raise money for The Ann Schmitz Fund. The event will begin on Friday, July 18th at 10:00 am and finish Sunday, July 20th at 5:00pm. The goal of this event is to raise funds for The Ann Schmitz Fund. The Ann Schmitz Fund is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing the Schmitz family with financial, emotional, and educational support during their fight with acute lymphocytic leukemia.

During “Ann’s Weekend”, Love Street’s Heart and Sole will donate 25% of all “Life Is Good” merchandise sales to The Ann Schmitz Fund. In addition, Step It Up Fitness will donate 25% of all sales for the July 21st - Aug 15th Smyrna fitness boot camp session to The Ann Schmitz Fund.

So come out and support the Schmitz family by purchasing your favorite Life Is Good merchandise and/or by making a commitment to a healthier lifestyle.

If you would like more information about The Ann Schmitz Fund or check on Ann’s progress, please visit www.theannschmitzfund.com .

For more information about the products/services and directions please visit the below websites:

Love Street www.lovestreetonline.com
Step It Up Fitness www.stepitupfitness.com
Life Is Good www.lifeisgood.com

Thank you in advance for all your support!

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I keep reading about how the real estate market has tanked, homes don’t sell, buyers aren’t buying, the world is coming to an end, etc. While the real estate market has slowed down, homes do still sell, buyers do still buy and I’m not really qualified to answer the last point.

At SmyrnaVinings.com, we’ve seen explosive growth on the real estate front. While being your Smyrna Vinings information resource on everything from parks, schools, restaurants and local events, we do sell real estate along the way.

In fact, SmyrnaVinings.com is now the #1 local site according to Google and not only is our traffic continuing to increase every month, but so are the number of people who are searching for their next Smyrna Vinings home.

The graph above shows the number of Smyrna Vinings home searches being run on our site each month, from launch in January 2007 through June 2008. For three months running, we’ve had over 5,000 home searches performed each month at SmyrnaVinings.com.

You may ask why this is significant.

Well, first of all this should let you know that there are home buyers out there in the Smyrna Vinings real estate market and there are a lot of them. Home buyers are coming to our site due to the quality of the content we provide on the Smyrna Vinings community, the ease to search for every Smyrna Vinings home, condo and townhome for sale and the ability to get answers to all of their real estate questions.

According to the National Association of Realtors, the majority of buyers actually purchase their next home within 5-7 miles of where they currently live. This statistic is extremely relevant in conjunction with the graph above as you realize people aren’t going to the national sites to search for their next home. They’re going to the local resource, where we provide an added level of experience, awareness and knowledge of the local market.

So if you’re thinking about selling your Smyrna Vinings home, there is no where else that you can get better and more relevant exposure to get your home sold. To learn more about getting your home featured on SmyrnaVinings.com, feel free to contact us. We’ll be glad to meet with you and show you how our marketing plan, community knowledge and real estate expertise will get your home sold. Your home is your most significant asset and you owe it to yourself and your family to make the right decision.

Technorati Tags: Smyrna Real Estate, Vinings Real Estate, National Association of Realtors

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We try to offer you the best and most efficient tools to make sure your Smyrna Vinings home search is successful. For years, agents have been using flyers outside of homes to provide buyers with information on the home.

We’ve come up with a better solution for you, the home buyer. Rather than looking for flyers in the flyer box and finding it empty, the flyers soggy or flyers with bad pictures, outdated information, etc., wouldn’t it be better if you could search for all the information from your cell phone.

SmyrnaVinings.com is excited to announce the ability for you to search for all the homes currently listed on the Multiple Listing Service via your cell phone. You will be able to get instant, updated access pulled directly from the Multiple Listing Service via your cell phone. No more having to search for flyers.

And unlike the wireless web or text messaging, HomeSearchbyPhone works on every phone.

With SmyrnaVinings.com’s HomeSearchbyPhone, you’ll get one phone number and you can use that to get information on every home on the market. It can’t get any easier or more convenient than that. How the program works:

1. Send us an email with your Name, Cellphone # and Email address.

2. We’ll register you in the program and send you your exclusive phone number to use for searching for any home on the market. (Tip: Save the number to your speed dial for easy access.)

3. When you’re driving around and curious about a home, simply call your exclusive phone number, enter the street number and street name and you will immediately receive an automated recording of all the details of the home, including any recent price reductions. No more hassle.

4. In addition, you will also receive an email with a summary of any properties that you have called about that day.

This is just another way that the real estate team here at SmyrnaVinings.com is trying to use the latest technological advances to make your Smryna Vinings real estate purchase is a success!

If you have any questions on HomeSearchbyPhone, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Technorati Tags: Smyrna Homes for Sale, Vinings Homes for Sale, Home Search by Phone, Atlanta Real Estate

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Now that the first half of the year is behind us, time to kick off the second half of the year with a fan favorite. I just ran across this picture when searching for a client.

Now, while the picture itself isn’t that great as it doesn’t really show much of the room, it does beg the question. And that question is…

how many people actually turn their heads sideways to even look at the picture?

If you’re thinking about selling your Smyrna Vinings home, is this how you want it marketed???

Technorati Tags: Smyrna Real Estate,   Vinings Real Estate,   Bad MLS Photo of the Week

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We have a lot of fun writing about the Smyrna Vinings community and it’s great to know that so many people actually find the information we provide useful and helpful. SmyrnaVinings.com has become so popular, we have been ranked a Top 100 real estate blog.

We’re thrilled to be ranked in the Top 100 real estate blogs in the country. Obviously, this list includes lots of national sites and also large metro sites. SmyrnaVinings.com is a little different as we focus on a very tight niche of just the Smyrna Vinings community, which has a population of 121,737.

Most amazing of all is that we actually rank higher than any other Georgia or Atlanta real estate blog. This is nice recognition, but it also shows you the significant exposure that SmyrnaVinings.com can provide.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Technorati Tags: Smyrna Vinings real estate, SmyrnaVinings.com, Top 100 Real Estate Blogs

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