If you are selling a home in Atlanta - you have a problem… don’t kid yourself otherwise. I don’t care how nice your home is… I don’t care how much you paid for it… I don’t care how well you’ve taken care of it… you are in competition with the real estate market Godzilla - the bank-owned property.

Last week I was on the phone with real estate investment broker Jeff Brown of Brown and Brown Investment Properties. Among the broad and diverse subjects we spoke about, I told Jeff about a local listing agent who is literally tearing up the market. His numbers were simply stunning.

He specializes in bank-owned properties.

We figured that his success was a result of not only obtaining the listing - but more importantly - convincing the bank to drop the price until the property sells. And sell, they are. To the bank, it’s simply a numbers game. Nothing emotional.

One of the properties he has currently listed is a home in a nice neighborhood that sold - new - in the summer of 2005 for $1.25 million. It is a four-sided brick home roughly 6000 square feet in size on a two acre lot in a gated subdivision. It has all the bells and whistles of a million dollar home - including the finished terrace level with home theatre. By all measures - it’s an extremely nice home that is still in very good condition.

This home went back to the bank nearly a year ago, and it went on the market at an aggressive price - with no takers. The price has continued to drop… and is now at $699K. Do you think any of the neighbors has a chance of selling their similar home for a decent price while this Godzilla is wrecking the neighborhood?

There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell.

This week, a nice couple was referred to me to help them find and negotiate the purchase of a new home. Their intention was to find a distressed builder - but I quickly convinced them that we could find a better value in a bank-owned property that is only a few years old. I assured them that long before a builder will lose money on a property… the builder will go bankrupt and give it back to the bank.

Their thoughts of foreclosures might have been a little more like Greg Swann’s experience last week, but after viewing some of my recommendations online - they agreed to take a look.

So we looked at four foreclosures today, and for the most part - they were pretty decent. No serious damage. One of them was pretty much in perfect condition, actually… new paint and carpet - just like new.

Take a look at this slideshow of one of them. It’s a four-sided brick, 3400 square foot home on a full basement. It has hardwood floors throughout the main level; has a two-story foyer and two-story fireside great room; and five bedrooms with four full baths. It is a nice private gated community in a good school district.

For $375K - how are you going to compete with this?

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.