This is a warning to Agents and a reminder to the public to be careful who you chose to represent you in a real estate transaction. I have recently heard some stories that have taken place locally and want to send this reminder to everyone. It is a violation of the ethical requirement for licensure in Georgia to represent a buyer or seller in a matter that the Agent is unfamilliar with. 

The REALTOR® Code of Ethics - Article 1 starts: "When representing a buyer, seller, landlord, tenant, or other client as an agent, REALTORS® pledge themselves to protect and promote the interests of their client."

The next years of real estate are not going to be positive for homeowners. In fact, it’s estimated that in 2012 over 60% of all home sales will be foreclosures or short sales. This means that the banks will control the pricing of more than half the real estate market and we can expect continued declining values. This idea may not sit well with many after the mortgage meltdown and moral hazard issues we had over the past five years.

Further, we at Sellect Realty believe that it will be another five to seven years before we see home values near their previous peaks and then we expect a plateau for several years to follow before growth. Currently our market is still declining. Despite month-over-month gains we have had another drastic decline in home values over the past 12 months. According to the recent statistics released by Realtor.com the average listing price decreased by 11.42% from June 2010 to $250,933.