by Parker

BROOKHAVEN GA – Everything you must know!

https://youtu.be/mmVWeMyEwkc

Well if you’ve watched the channel much you know that we talk a lot about where to live near two of Atlanta’s biggest employers: Emory University and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Well today we’re gonna hop north of I-85 to the lovely city of Brookhaven. With a population just under 60,000, Brookhaven is the largest city in Dekalb County Georgia. The city of Brookhaven was incorporated in December 2012, so they are coming up on their 10th anniversary. Brookhaven is a very well-run, very efficient city, with their own police department and their own planning and zoning committees. Planning and zoning have been very important in Brookhaven’s rapid growth and I’ll talk more about that later.

 

Now if you note on the map Brookhaven is entirely inside the perimeter in the north part of Atlanta. Brookhaven is conveniently located near three of Atlanta’s largest healthcare employers. On the south end you have Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory hospital, and on the north end Northside Hospital. Traffic is terrible in Atlanta, so if you’re moving here to work at any of these three healthcare facilities, Brookhaven would be an excellent choice. You’re going to have a very short commute and you’re never going to have to get on the highway.

To keep it simple we’re going to break Brookhaven down into three distinct areas and talk about those. The first part is historic Brookhaven, which is on the west side of Peachtree Road surrounding the Capital City Club and Oglethorpe University. Homes here generally start well above a million dollars. So let’s start in historic Brookhaven near the Capital City Country Club and Oglethorpe University. This part of Brookhaven is filled with homes from the early 1900s – you’ll see the same classical architecture that you find in Buckhead and Druid Hills and that’s because these were all Atlanta’s first suburbs. They were built in the early 1900s. This area around the Capital City Club is on the national register of historic places. In historic Brookhaven you’ll rarely see anything on the market under a million dollars.

Our second part of Brookhaven is located on the east side of Peachtree Road near the Brookhaven village. These neighborhoods are known as Ashford Park and Drew Valley. Ashford Park is north of Dresden and Drew Valley is south, but they are largely homogeneous. Now Ashford Park and Drew Valley were developed primarily in the 1950s and they were formerly filled with hundreds, probably thousands of these very small homes most of them under 1200 square feet and largely obsolete by today’s standards. These homes are being torn down on a daily basis and rebuilt as very livable modern homes, often with four more bedrooms open floor plans, gourmet kitchens and all the details you would expect in a modern home. As I mentioned earlier, planning and zoning has been critical to Brookhaven’s rapid growth over the last 10 years. Brookhaven has streamlined the process so that good homebuilders can do their jobs and build more single-family homes. Literally everywhere you look there are new homes under construction, every street seems to have two or three new houses being built every time you drive through. As you can see, Brookhaven keeps the home styles very classic, very refined you just don’t see the giant bomb shelter mcmansions popping up here like you do elsewhere in Atlanta. Now the good news is that many of these new homes are available starting in the low 700s in fact I just sold one over on Drew Valley road for 715 thousand dollars

Our third part of Brookhaven is north Brookhaven, which extends north of Oglethorpe University all the way up to I-285. The main section of north Brookhaven is the retail and park district at the intersection of Ashford Dunwoody and Johnson Ferry Road. North Brookhaven has a much more suburban feel. Most of the homes there were built in the 1970s up through the 1990s, so these houses are still very functional, with many homes well over 2500 square feet and four bedrooms. There is some infill housing here, but not nearly as much as you’re seeing in south Brookhaven. I mentioned Brookhaven’s terrific park system and north Brookhaven has two of the best and largest parks in the city:  Blackburn Park has a large tennis facility a huge green space and several soccer fields just down Ashford Dunwoody Road towards Perimeter Mall is Murphy Candler Park which at 120 acres is the largest park in Brookhaven. Murphy Candler lake has a two mile trail loop and you’ll often see people fishing there. Plus there are more tennis courts, more baseball fields, more soccer fields, more football fields, a swimming pool, playgrounds and more. Brookhaven in fact has 18 different parks and recreational facilities. So if you love to be outdoors and enjoy the great Atlanta weather Brookhaven is a great place to live.

in Uncategorized
 by Parker

What are Atlanta people like?

 

Well, Georgia’s strong economy great weather and low cost of living has gotten a lot of people interested in moving to the state, and if Georgia’s on your mind you’ve come to the right place. I’m a native born Georgian, been here my entire life, and I’m here to tell you the things you need to know before you move to Georgia. Now this video is going to focus on the people and the culture of Georgia. If you’re interested in knowing about the weather, the economy and the geography of Georgia, I’ve posted some links to some of my other videos in the comment section below.

 

Georgia’s history began in 1733 when Savannah was founded by the British. The name Georgia was chosen to honor King George II. If you’ve never been to Savannah Georgia I promise you it is one of the most beautiful cities anywhere in America.

First up people are so friendly in Georgia. Southern hospitality is a real thing. Total strangers will walk by and wave and say hello, and people behind you in the grocery store line will strike up a conversation. Georgia people are genuinely interested in who you are, where you’re from, where you went to school, your life story. People in Georgia love to talk and have long conversations, and they love to laugh, they’re great storytellers.

Let’s talk about manners. If you come to Georgia please bring your best manners!. Part of being super social and friendly is that Georgians are also incredibly polite people. We’re not big on honking horns and road rage incidents. We are big on saying please and thank you. It may seem a bit anachronistic, but people will still call you sir and ma’am, especially when you get outside of the big cities. One thing I can guarantee you is if you’re at the store and your hands are full somebody will hold the door open for you and oftentimes even if your hands aren’t full they’ll still hold the door open for you.

There are almost 11 million people in the state of Georgia and 7 million in Atlanta alone but it never feels cramped or crowded. It’s not grand central station at rush hour. You don’t have to fight for space you get a lot of personal space. Here people are very much live and let live. Nobody’s in your business – being a busybody is very much frowned upon in Georgia.

Now in Atlanta most people don’t actually have a southern accent obviously lots of people move here from other places but even people I’ve known who’ve lived here their entire lives don’t have a southern accent like me for instance. I don’t have an accent do i? Once you get about 45 minutes outside of Atlanta you really start to hear that classic southern drawl.

You also get a lot of handwritten thank you notes. Georgia people are very appreciative of any kindness and will always take the time to sit down and write you a thank you note .

Let’s talk about food. Food is really big here in Georgia. If you get invited to a party do not come empty-handed. If it’s a catered event bring a bottle of wine. Actually if you get invited to a party just always bring a bottle of wine. Barbecue is serious business here. Everybody has their personal favorite barbecue joint and you will hear long discussions about why this place or that has the best barbecue. Another specialty here is boiled peanuts. Now boiled peanuts are a southern delicacy usually served up piping hot from a giant steaming cauldron – they are salty delicious and insanely addictive. Another southern tradition is on new year’s day we eat greens for money and black eyed peas for good luck. One final southern tradition is the meal train. If a neighbor is sick or has a new baby all the other neighbors will pitch in cook a bunch of meals and make sure they don’t have to do any cooking. So as always if you’re thinking about making the move to Georgia my contact information is in the box below feel free to reach out send me a text send me an email love to talk to you help you find your new home in Georgia.

in Uncategorized
 by Parker

WANT TO LIVE IN DECATUR GEORGIA? THE INSIDE SCOOP ON LIVING IN DECATUR GEORGIA

 

 

Hey, this is Parker, your favorite Atlanta Realtor. We’ve done several videos on the City of Decatur, which is just east of downtown Atlanta. The City of Decatur is a very popular spot for people, especially if they’re going to be working at Emory or the CDC. So I wanted to give you 5 interesting facts about the City of Decatur. Let’s get going.

Number one:  there are five different zip codes that give you a Decatur mailing address, but only one of those zip codes is actually the City of Decatur. Do you know which one is actually the City of Decatur? We’ll insert the jeopardy theme music here for you, but it’s actually 300300. This is really useful information to know if you’re searching for a home in the City of Decatur. If you pull up listings on Realtor.com for instance, and you see that the zip code is 30030, you know you’re looking at a house within the city limits of Decatur. Any other zip codes with a Decatur mailing address, and what you’re looking at is a home an unincorporated Dekalb County. If you don’t know what unincorporated means, it means it’s part of a county but not part of a city. This is important information because the City of Decatur has its own police department, fire department, and school system. But also has much higher property values and higher property taxes as well. You know the school system and the police department may be a plus or a minus for you depending on your specific needs, and your budget, so having this information will definitely help you with your home search. So again the City of Decatur is zip code 30030, and every other home with the Decatur mailing address is part of Dekalb County.

Number two:  the City Schools of Decatur are one of the biggest drivers of demand for housing inside the city limits. City Schools of Decatur are some of the best in the entire state, and many parents are willing to pay that higher premium in the property taxes in order to be in that school system. City Schools of Decatur has five elementary schools, two upper elementary schools, which are fourth and fifth grade only only, one middle school, and one high school, which is conveniently located right next to downtown Decatur square. Almost all of the elementary schools are walk to school with a great community feel. One other unique thing about the City Schools of Decatur is the College Heights early childhood learning center, which goes from six weeks all the way up to pre-k, so it’s sort of like a public preschool. There are several other churches in Decatur which offer preschool programs as well.

Number three:  the City of Decatur has a very young and very highly educated population. There’s about 26,000 people in the City of Decatur, The median age is 37 which means half the people are below 37 and half are older than 37 and 75 percent of those people have a bachelor’s degree or higher. So as you might guess, the City of Decatur has a very high median household income. It’s actually just above $106,000 a year.

If you like this video please like comment and subscribe preferably all three. Let’s get back to it:

Number four:  the City of Decatur has a great public park system. There’s almost 60 acres of public parks in the City of Decatur, which is actually quite a lot considering that the total area of the city is only four and a half square miles. Many of the neighborhoods in nearby North Decatur and Druid Hills have their own swim and tennis clubs, which are very popular and sometimes there’s a long waiting list, so they can be difficult to get into. City of Decatur has their own public pools:  they have three pools. They have three separate tennis complexes and they have three dog parks.

And finally, number five:  if you’re moving to Atlanta and planning on using public transportation, City of Decatur is a great place to be located. There’s the East Lake MARTA station, the Avondale MARTA station, and the downtown Decatur MARTA station, which is conveniently located on Decatur Square. The good news is all of these MARTA stations are surrounded by the neighborhoods – they’re an easy walk. So if you’re planning on using public transportation in Atlanta, Decatur is a fine place to be.

So I hope you found that helpful. Again we have several other videos about Decatur, the most popular and comprehensive of which is our pros and cons of living in Decatur, which I’ll link right there. And if you’re planning a move to Atlanta, please feel free to reach out my information is in the box below:  give me a call, shoot me a text, send me an emai,l I’d love to talk to you thanks!

in Uncategorized
 by Parker

MOVING TO ATLANTA? JOBS HIRING IN ATLANTA GA

https://youtu.be/4kZpRN05ZYc

Hey, it’s Parker your favorite Atlanta REALTOR! If you’ve been thinking about making the move to Atlanta, you may be wondering about job opportunities! So today I wanted to showcase some of the excellent job opportunities we have in Atlanta.

Now I’m going to primarily showcase health care and technology, but I want you to think about all of the other downstream opportunities that are created by these large investments these companies are making. Before we get started, if you want to know anything about the Atlanta business climate, I highly recommend that you subscribe to the Atlanta Business Chronicle. It’s the one newspaper I read every day, and it’s a terrific source for information about all the opportunities available in Atlanta.

All right, let’s get going! Now I’m not going to get too far down in the weeds with each of these, I just wanted to give you a high level overview, give you some ideas about where you might find employment in Atlanta.

Microsoft is continuing to bet big in Atlanta. They are buying up some very significant pieces of land, both inside the perimeter on Atlanta’s west side, and also in some of the outlying suburbs. The plan is for Atlanta to be their east coast headquarters, and according to this article, it is possible they might create as many as 10,000 jobs.

Visa is expanding their midtown Atlanta footprint, and could bring in as many as a thousand new jobs. Innovative Surgical makes robotic tools for minimally invasive surgeries – they’re planning a 1,200 employee expansion with jobs in medical training, manufacturing, engineering, administration. Innovative Surgical is located in Peachtree Corners, which is northeast of Atlanta, outside the perimeter. It’s a very nice community up there.

Our last tech insight is that of our own homegrown email marketing company:  Mailchimp just sold to Intuit for a cool 12 billion dollars!Mailchimp is moving their offices to a new location while they merge with Intuit, and they’re hiring a bunch of new people to help merge the two products, so that should be really an exciting development!

Let’s look at our hospital systems, and see what they’re up to. There are major employment opportunities in Atlanta’s healthcare systems: Emory Hospital is currently building a one billion dollar medical complex at North Druid Hills Road and I-85 right. Across the street, Children’s Healthcare is investing one and a half billion dollars into what I’ve heard will be the fourth or fifth largest hospital complex in the United States. Northside Hospital Gwinnett is building a 400 million dollar patient tower in Lawrenceville. Lawrenceville is in Gwinnett county, and the growth up there has been absolutely explosive. It is on track, I think in the next five years to be the largest county by population in the Atlanta metro area. Wellstar Health System is spending 263 million on a new tower in Marietta. All told this is over three billion dollars in new health care investments by hospitals that are already some of Atlanta’s largest employers.

Emory is Atlanta’s number one employer. Northside Hospital is number three on the list. Wellstar Healthcare and Piedmont Hospital come in at number six and seven, and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta is Atlanta’s 12th largest employer. So when these multi-billion dollar projects are happening in health care and technology, it’s not just good news if you happen to be in it or a doctor or a nurse – it’s good news if you have any skill set. Whether you work in transportation, whether you are an electrician, plumber, if you’re in logistics supply chain management, administration. It creates so many opportunities – it’s like ripples in a pond.

So keep your eyes out – pay attention, you know get that subscription to the Atlanta Business Chronicle. Read it every week, because there are always great ideas about where you can find employment in Atlanta. So if you’re thinking of making the move to Atlanta, as always my number’s in the box down below. Feel free to give me a call – I talk to people every week – a lot of people lately from California, New York. I talk to people every week that are planning on making their moves to Atlanta. Some are coming next month, some are coming three months, six months, but it’s never too early to start having that conversation:  learning about the great neighborhoods around Atlanta, figuring out where you want to live. Make your plans – make your move!

in News / Uncategorized
 by Parker

ATLANTA GEORGIA REAL ESTATE – SEPTEMBER 2021 ATLANTA REAL ESTATE NEWS

https://youtu.be/s2aI5YeFqS8

 

Hey, this is Parker, your favorite Atlanta REALTOR. It has been a very busy few weeks for me in Atlanta, and we are definitely overdue for a new video! So, I wanted to share some quick on the ground updates about what’s going on in the Atlanta market right now. Let’s get going!

The last few weeks, I’ve had a bunch of buyers in town, and I have been all over Atlanta looking at houses. Everywhere from Midtown all the way up to Milton, Roswell, Sandy Springs, Alpharetta, and Lawrenceville. I’ve been everywhere – I can tell you right now, there are so many houses on the market in Atlanta, that have been waiting for a buyer. These are houses that have been on the market three, four, five weeks, and they’re just waiting for a good buyer. These are houses that last spring would have sold in one weekend with multiple offers. Now they’re on the market for a month, generating one offer!

So things have softened up considerably here. I’m definitely not going to say that it’s a buyer’s market by any stretch of the imagination, but it feels very balanced right now, and things are operating at a much more normal pace. So, for example, I was out with clients last week –  we were looking in town, looking at city of Decatur, and we looked at five houses, and actually came away with three really good choices that were priced very reasonably – three excellent options out of five houses that we looked at. It’s very surprising, I mean it’s probably been 17 or 18 months since I’ve seen that kind of availability, and I’m seeing this trend everywhere. It’s not just in town, like I said, Sandy Springs, Roswell, Alpharetta, Lawrenceville – it’s everywhere!

So, if you got totally spooked by all the panic buying last spring, I can assure you that is over. It’s a much more normal market now. It’s brisk, it’s very busy, but it’s not out of control – like roller coaster careening down the tracks wheels about to fall off kind of insanity, which is what it was like in the spring.

So if you’re thinking of making the move to Atlanta, now is an excellent time to be looking. I always encourage people to look in the fall – it’s an excellent time to go out and pick up some bargains. If you’re in the market, as always my phone number is down below. Feel free to give me a call, and we’ll have some more video content out later this week – thanks!

in News / Uncategorized