Tag Archive for: oconee

Top 10 New Years Resolutions for 2018

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Here are this year’s most popular resolutions.

(Information and photo via Keller Williams)

It’s that time of year!

If you’ve resolved to ring out the old and start the New Year with clean slate, you’re in good company.

Here are the this year’s most popular resolutions:

10. Find a new / better job
9. Volunteer / contribute more to charity
8. Learn something new
7. Exercise more
6. Spend more time with family / close friends
5. Do more new / exciting things
4. Quit smoking
3. Make smarter financial decisions
2. Lose weight / eat healthier
1. Buy a home or move

Know someone that may need help with #1? At Jennifer Westmoreland & Associates, we’d be glad to help! Submit a request for contact or give us a call to customize a home sale or purchase plan, just for you!

5 Helpful Hints for First Time Homebuyers

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Shopping for your first home in the greater Athens area

Information via Hannah Harris at Jennifer Westmoreland & Associates

 

 

 

 

Thinking of purchasing your first home, or just looking for some helpful hints in the home purchase process? Here are 5 helpful hints from Hannah at Team JWA!

  1. Get pre-qualified with a LOCAL lender. Your REALTOR may have recommendations.
  2. Ask your REALTOR to send you listings once you get your price range from your lender.
  3. Make a list of potential homes and drive by each one to check out the neighborhood. Do research.
  4. Schedule an appointment with your REALTOR to see AT MOST 5 houses. Try to keep your list as short as possible because you’ll have a hard time keeping up with which houses have which features.
  5. Pick the one that best suits your needs and ask your REALTOR to get an offer in.

Ready to learn more about your neighborhood in the greater Athens area, or what might be available to you? Submit a no obligation request for contact, or give us a call today! We’ll create a customized plan just for you.

Team JWA 2018 Dog Calendars

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2018 Dog Calendars to Benefit the Athens Area Humane Society Now Available!

The Jennifer Westmoreland & Associates 2018 dog calendars to benefit the Athens Area Humane Society are now available! The calendar was created from client and community dog submissions, featuring monthly themes! Calendars are $15 each, with proceeds benefiting the AAHS. These make fantastic gifts this holiday season! Take a look at the monthly calendar below to see if anyone you know (or your dog) is featured on the 2018 calendar!

Calendars can be purchased at our JWA office, plus Pet Supplies Plus, the Athens Area Humane Society or Mutty Paws (thank you Mutty Paws for providing your space for dog photos too!). Special thanks to Banksouth, Oconee Painting, Adams Development and Appraisal and Pet Supplies Plus for helping with this year’s calendar production! As always, if you or someone you know is interested in buying or selling a home in the greater Athens area, we would love to answer any questions you may have! Submit a request for contact today, or simply give us a call.

Jennifer Westmoreland & Associates
1361 Jennings Mill Road B-100
Watkinsville GA 30677

Pet Supplies Plus
191 Alps Road
Athens

Athens Area Humane Society
1781 Mars Hill Road
Watkinsville

Mutty Paws
48 Greensboro Hwy
Watkinsville

 

Best Wishes This Holiday Season

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Best Wishes from the team at Jennifer Westmoreland & Associates

Sleepy Puppy Best wishes for a warm and relaxing holiday season. We are so grateful for each of our clients, and appreciate your support in 2017. We look forward to serving you and your family and friends in 2018 and beyond! Do you have special holiday traditions? We love viewing holiday lights! Here’s a blog post from Explore Georgia with 10 top holiday light displays in Georgia. How many have you seen?

We have some exciting events coming up in 2018, but there is still time in 2017 to help those in need in our community. Team JWA 2018 Dog Calendars are available for only $15 each, with all proceeds benefiting the Athens Area Humane Society! These would make fantastic stocking stuffers.

We were also happy to provide gifts to the Santa for a Senior program at the Athens Community Council on Aging, and are currently collecting pet food donations for the Meals on Wheels for Pets “Will’s Pet Pantry”. For each pound of pet food donated in December, Team JWA will match your donation pound for pound! You can drop off donations at our office, or directly at the ACCA. Learn more about how you can help at our JWA blog. Thank you, and we hope you have a wonderful holiday season.

 

Potential Home Improvement Projects for Home Resale

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Which projects might be the best to complete when thinking about home resale?

Information via Brandon McEachern with Jennifer Westmoreland & Associates

As usual, the kitchen is the focal point on interior value.  From there, it’s the bathrooms and wood floors (instead of carpet) which boost your return.  But what folks may be missing is what I call the “big ticket items”.  Buyers are savvy when it comes to research these days.  And when they get the Seller’s Disclosure, they’re looking for these important factors:  The age of the roof, HVAC system and water heater.  So if you have a 30-year roof, and it’s 27 years old, replacing it is a tremendous selling point that may give you the edge over the competition.  The same goes for the other components I mentioned.  The good thing is that you can likely get the value back out of these upgrades.  Let’s face it: buyers will spend their budget on the purchase…and rarely have additional money set aside to replace the roof, HVAC, water heater, etc.  So check up on the ages of these systems.  If they’re near the end of their shelf-life, you may seriously want to consider replacement prior to listing.  If all of them are in great shape, then go ahead and splurge on that big kitchen renovation.

Interested in your specific home or neighborhood? Submit a request for contact today, or simply give us a call! As your local real estate agents, we know the greater Athens area market!

Home Care Tips December 2017

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Home Care Tips in the Greater Athens Area

(information via Keller Williams)

Home Care Tips December
You can keep your home in top shape with simple tasks throughout the year. This month, be sure to:

  1. Check your basement windows for drafts and/or cracked panes.
  2. Check on supplies around the home that could will be helpful if there’s a weather related power outage or other emergency. Batteries, non perishable food items, and blankets should be available.
  3. Replace the filter on your furnace to keep it operating as efficiently as possible.
  4. Clean faucet aerators and shower heads.
  5. Reseal grout on counters, walls, and floors to prevent staining.
  6. Drain approximately 2 gallons from water heater to eliminate sediment.
  7. Make sure any decorative lights you put up for the holidays are working properly before hanging them. Anything with a frayed or damaged cord should be discarded.

As always, we appreciate referrals from friends and past clients. If you know of anyone who is looking to buy or sell real estate, please send them our way! Give us a call or submit a request for contact today!

This Month in Real Estate December 2017

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Current Real Estate Trends in the Greater Athens Area

(Information via Keller Williams)

December 2017 Market Update decorative image Monthly VideoAccording to the National Association of REALTORS®, existing home sales picked up in October, overcoming ongoing inventory shortages. Healthy job growth and wage increases are fueling continued strong demand in much of the country.
Interest Rates decorative image   Monthly VideoAccording to Freddie Mac, 30-year fixed rates rose from 3.88 percent to 3.90 percent. This rate remains well below the historical average of 8.90 percent.
Home Sales decorative image   Home Sales Graph   The National Association of REALTORS® reported home sales at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of approximately 5.5 million homes during the month of October. This was an increase of 2.0 percent from September and a decrease of 0.9 percent from October of last year.
Home Prices decorative image   Home Price Graph   The median home price decreased to $247,000 in October, which was down 0.2 percent from September and up 5.5 percent from October of last year. The median home price has increased by approximately $12,900 in the past year alone.
Inventory decorative image   Inventory Graph   There was a 3.9-month supply of housing inventory in October, which was a 7.1 percent decrease from September. The total number of available homes for sale has decreased by 11.4 percent compared to October of last year.

Interested in more information on what’s happening in your neighborhood in the greater Athens area? Give us a call, or submit a request for contact today!
decorative image   Brought to you by KW Research. For additional graphs and details, please see the This Month in Real Estate PowerPoint Report.The opinions expressed in This Month in Real Estate are intended to supplement opinions on real estate expressed by local and national media, local real estate agents and other expert sources. You should not treat any opinion expressed on This Month in Real Estate as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of opinion. Keller Williams Realty, Inc., does not guarantee and is not responsible for the accuracy or completeness of information, and provides said information without warranties of any kind. All information presented herein is intended and should be used for educational purposes only. Nothing herein should be construed as investment advice. You should always conduct your own research and due diligence and obtain professional advice before making any investment decision. All investments involve some degree of risk. Keller Williams Realty, Inc., will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information contained in This Month in Real Estate.

Buyers in Athens and Oconee Looking For Homes

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Buyers in Athens and Oconee Looking For Homes

Do you have anything these buyers are seeking?

The current market certainly seems to be a sellers market, especially in certain price points and neighborhoods here in the Athens area. Have you been thinking about listing your house due to a growing family, downsizing or for other reasons? Now may be a fantastic time! Take a look below. Here are some of our current clients that haven’t been able to find just the right home for them and are interested in purchasing a home here in the Athens and Oconee markets!

  • 3-5 acres of land in Oconee county, not in a subdivision, under 125k
  • under 300k on 2+ acres, private setting, no subdivision, Oconee/Clarke or surrounding counties
  • under 200k in Oconee, 3 bed/2 bath single family home
  • Beechwood Hills, 3 bed/2 bath with basement
  • Clarke county, 3 bed/2 bath single family home under 130k

These are only a few examples of our current buyers. Ready to discuss listing your home with the JWA? Give us a call 706-389-9953, e-mail us or submit a request at our website today! We’d be happy to answer any questions you may have and fully explain the process.

Team JWA Pet Food Donation Drive for the Athens Community Council on Aging

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Jennifer Westmoreland & Associates “Pound for Pound” December Pet Food Drive

At Jennifer Westmoreland & Associates, one of our passions is in assisting pets in need in the greater Athens area. The Athens Community Council on Aging has begun a Meals on Wheels for pets donation program, and we are happy to help support this effort! As part of the plan, we need your help!

The ACCA Meal on Wheels programs assists with food to over 100 seniors in our community, and many of their clients have pets. Will’s Pet Pantry was created to help support this need, and we’re kicking off an annual “Pound for Pound” pet food donation campaign! Simply drop off pet food to donate to the ACCA at their office (135 Hoyt St in Athens) or at our office (1361 Jennings Mill Road B-100 in Watkinsville/Bogart) during the month of December, and we’ll match your pet food donation pound for pound!

Small bags of pet food are most needed to help with distribution, and our friends at Pet Supplies Plus have generously helped in the initial pet food donation. When you purchase pet food at Pet Supplies Plus, please let them know it’s for the Team JWA/ACCA pet food donation program!

We’re happy to support our community, and appreciate your support as well.

Thank you Buddy for your support of the ACCA!

8 Home Care Tips for November

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Help Maintain Your Home in the Greater Athens Area

(Information via Keller Williams)

 

You can keep your home in top shape with simple tasks throughout the year. This month, be sure to:

  1. Service your kitchen disposal by grinding several cups of ice cubes.
  2. Make sure any outdoor furniture is put away or properly covered, including your grill.
  3. Pour 1 gallon of water down unused drains.
  4. Clean debris from gutters and ensure down spouts are free of obstruction.
  5. Check for leaks under sinks and toilets.
  6. Check for cracks in your foundation, brick or stucco.
  7. Review emergency procedures and ensure all the members of your family know what to do in the event of a home fire.
  8. Examine your chimney. Clean flue; repair any cracks in flue or any loose or crumbling mortar.

Thinking about selling your home, or looking to buy a first home, downsize or make room for a growing family? Submit a request for contact, or simply give us a call! We’d be happy to provide you with a custom home sale or purchase plan.