Joy Andrews

Heery Brothers is delighted to welcome Joy Andrews to our team.  As market activity continues to build, Joy adds a great deal of depth and professionalism.  We are fortunate to find somebody that is such a good fit. Joy Andrews has over 12 years’ experience in real estate sales, sales management, new construction, market analysis and marketing. She has worked in various markets around the Atlanta metro area concentrating on new construction and representing several builders, including John Wieland Homes & Neighborhoods. She has sold over $50 million in real estate and managed a team who sold $200 million. Joy Andrews is a member of the Atlanta Board of Realtors and the 2011 Million Dollar club with $5.1 million in sales.

Joy Andrews made the transition from technical sales & engineering with previous experience at Nortel Networks, Verizon (formerly GTE) and NASA. Joy holds a B.S. degree from Spelman College in Mathematics, and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology. In her personal time, Joy enjoys photography, exercise, scrapbooking and baking.

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When the trend bucks seasonality – that might be a sign of a strong recovery.

Some of the criticism of the recent residential recovery is that it is temporary and artificial because of low money cost and monetary policy. We think if this were completely true, we would not see it in more expensive markets. In our markets, where prices are often $500,000 and above, buyers are cautious about the use of leverage.

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Here are 3 simple recommendations:

1) Shop using relationships. Use at least 2 or 3 mortgage bankers recommended by your Realtor or personal financial planner. Get a good Faith Estimate from each and compare all aspects of their offers.   A good realtor will always recommend a mortgage banker that has shown reliable performance in the past. Heery Brothers works well with several experienced and trustworthy mortgage bankers that have delivered great result for our clients. Please see our financing link above (Under Resources).

2) Only get a mortgage if you can afford to buy the house: Sounds simple enough, but what exactly do we mean? Here is a good rule of thumb – If you cannot afford the house you want with a 75% loan to value 30 year mortgage, then find a less expensive option. Some of the ardent anti-debt people would have more extreme rules of thumb than that, but this is a reasonable one.  After you determine that you can come up with the 25% down payment and afford the mortgage, then explore the most cost effective options (before and after tax).

3) Mortgage bankers have limited (if any) control over the underwriting and appraisal process. The good mortgage bankers that we recommend will advise on the best product and establish realistic expectations.

Purchase money mortgages close much faster than refinancing. In the case of either, be patient.  Debt is a tool – often abused, but used in the right way it is very powerful.   In the current environment where the spread between mortgage rates and returns in investment are so favorable, the right mortgage is an important part of your financial life.

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5 bedroom, 5 and one half bathrooms Earth-Craft home built by LEED-certified builder, Donnelly Residential. Professional-grade kitchen opens to fireside family room. Spacious master suite with garden tub and walk-in closet. Finished basement with guest suite, exercise room, and rec room. 3-bay garage. Many other high-end appointments. Ready now.

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The below photos are of 1001 Dawn View (See www.1001DawnView.com.)  The brick was painted yesterday.

765 East Northway in North Buckhead (close to Windsor Parkway and Highpoint) will be listed next week. That too will have painted brick.  We think this is part of a softened and more discrete aesthetic that market has moved towards – even on very high end housing.  Today customer often wants a combination of a clear architectural genre (such as the American Revivalism shown on Dawn View), modern conveniences, clean lines and discretion.

More information on 1001 Dawn View, 765 East Northway and other homes under construction, please visit www.HeeryNewHomes.com.

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“Housing will come back – you can be sure of that. Over time, the number of housing units necessarily matches the number of households (after allowing for a normal level of vacancies). For a period of years prior to 2008, however, America added more housing units than households. Inevitably, we ended up with far too many units and the bubble popped with a violence that shook the entire economy. That created still another problem for housing: Early in a recession, household formations slow, and in 2009 the decrease was dramatic. That devastating supply/demand equation is now reversed: Every day we are creating more households than housing units. People may postpone hitching up during uncertain times, but eventually hormones take over. And while “doubling-up” may be the initial reaction of some during a recession, living with in-laws can quickly lose its allure.

At our current annual pace of 600,000 housing starts – considerably less than the number of new households being formed – buyers and renters are sopping up what’s left of the old oversupply. (This process will run its course at different rates around the country; the supply-demand situation varies widely by locale.) … Fortunately, demographics and our market system will restore the needed balance – probably before long. When that day comes, we will again build one million or more residential units annually. I believe pundits will be surprised at how far unemployment drops once that happens. They will then reawake to what has been true since 1776: America’s best days lie ahead.”

This is taken from Page 3 of Berkshire Hathaway’s Annual Letter to Shareholders. The above link refers to http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2011ltr.pdf.

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Heery Brothers is pleased to present another quality new home by experienced Earthcraft custom home builder, Crestar Properties. Complete Winter 2013. Brick & cedar, 10ft. ceilings, high end appointments, walk out backyard, plenty of unfinished daylight basement, sidewalk to Morris Brandon. Pool option $75,000. Property is also known as 985 Dawnview Lane. For more information in this listing, please click here.  This is the third house to be built at the corner of West Wesley and Dawnview. The first was 1001 Dawnview Lane. The second is 995 Dawnview Lane.

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Also added to our ranking is the average sold price for closed sales of 3-5 bedroom, 2-4 bath houses in 2011 in that district. If you want a great elementary school and livable inexpensive house, looks like Grant Park’s Benteen Elementary is the best deal going. We did not look to see what sold for $107.  It probably needed a little work.

Typically we track Brandon, Jackson, Smith, Morningside, E. Rivers and Garden Hills. We included the two first place winners because of the noted high scores.  Both E. Rivers and Garden Hills have made tremendous improvement in the past 10 years. Although scores where down a bit this year we suspect there will be continued improvement. Sarah Smith is back  in 6^th place after several years of falling scores which had it below the top ten for a while. Morningside being above Brandon in test scores this this year is not surprising given that school’s improvement over the years. However, Sprindale and Benteen’s stellar performance was surprising.

One last little point, schools such as Sarah Smith and Warren Jackson are winners in the great recession. These are excellent schools that have attracted families that might have otherwise sent kids to private school in more flush times. It is funny how austerity and resourcefulness breads its own competition.

We think it is important to point out that test scores don’t make the school. There are other important considerations such as IB programs, student teacher ratio, etc.  The above table is more of a convenience. Also, we did not consider every elementary school. 

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For more than 15 years, Heery Brothers has ranked in the top 1% to 2% of residential Realtors nationwide. Here is a summary of team performance since George joined in 2004:

 For more information, please visit “About Us”. The “Performance Page” has additional information.

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