Ron Barnes's Blog

After suffering through what was at least arguably the worst real estate correction in history, most of the surrounding county markets seem to be coming back. For some reason, Pickens is trailing behind. Following are three charts to illustrate (residential listings only): This chart represents t...

I just had a birthday. I won’t say how old I am, but while I am not older than dirt, I was there when the shovel was invented. We didn’t have iPhones, and email, and text messages. In fact we didn’t have laptops. Now than I think back, we didn’t even have computers! The first thing I remember bei...

So during the democrat debate, Hillary was asked what would make her different than Obama. Her answer was that she was a woman ... and later he brought it up again.So is Carley Fiorina. Now let's try it again.I don't care if you're a parakeet, what are you going to do to get us out of this mess? ...

“Second verse, same as the first!” ~ Herman’s Hermits Why do all politicians sound the same? I usually don’t watch candidate debates on TV because it is, in my humble opinion, a waste of time. If I read a book I might actually be entertained or learn something. However, while getting in the fridg...

In order to earn a paycheck, a local "journalist" who writes some kind of "economic advice" column or blog or whatever, was featured by one of our local fish wrappers. It was another attempt to convince the public that they really don't need to use a real estate agent, and that agents are overpai...

 In 2011 I looked at seasonal home sales in Pickens County. It covered the previous eight years of sales, and concluded that Spring/Summer and Summer/Fall were the best selling seasons, with Fall being slightly better.  I decided to revisit those numbers and do it a little differently. This time ...

We have Activerain to mostly talk about real estate. We have Facebook to talk about going to the park, washing our car, taking our dog to the vet, post pictures of what we ate for breakfast, and other really worldly matters that affect our professional careers. We also have Instagram to spellbind...

 The second quarter review of real estate in the metro Atlanta area was very interesting. Everyone raves about how hot real estate is in Atlanta, and most people complain that Pickens is much slower in performance.  Looking at the numbers, we find that listings are up slightly in Atlanta while sa...

 Today’s lesson: TAKER ~ someone who always takes from other people and never gives back. (From Urban Dictionary)  What is it that makes people expect their Realtor® friends and neighbors to do the impossible in selling their property, but when it doesn’t sell they turn it over to a total strange...

 I remember when people used to come in the office and ask the question, “Can you help us buy a house”. Wow. That even sounds like a long time ago as I write it! Of course, personal computers had been around for forty years, but the internet was just starting to gain a lot of footing, and real es...