Woodstock Property Tax: Going Up
Posted: June 24th, 2008
Category: real estate news
Woodstock voted to approve next year’s budget with an increase in the millage rate. Which means your property tax bill is going up. Congratulations!
According to data compiled by city officials, a one-mill rate increase for a homeowner with a $200,000 home is an added $49 in taxes, bringing the total tax bill up to $490. A homeowner with a $100,000 home would pay $23 more in taxes, bringing the tax bill up to $229, documents show.
The current millage rate is 5.880 mills, and the 2008-2009 budget is based on a millage rate of 6.53 mills, which is an increase of .65 of a mill. The total budget is about $30.2 million, which is a decrease from nearly $33 million last year. The general fund is about $14.7 million, which is an increase from about $14.5 million last year.
After the city’s general fund budget was short about $2 million and the water and sewer fund was short $2 million earlier this year, city officials made cuts and found ways to balance the budget. One casualty of the cuts was the budget for concerts; there was $100,000 budgeted, and the council cut that amount in half. The reductions included cutting $103,909 from $189,289 for pension catch-up; $1,276 from $4,276 for a Woodstock Community Center renovation and gazebo; and $65,000 from $373,000 for property & liability insurance savings. Administrative software for $5,000, alarm police software in police record management financing for $19,800 and three servers in police record management for $12,459 were completely cut from the budget.
source: cherokee ledger news
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Cherokee County Politics
Posted: June 21st, 2008
Category: Woodstock Real Estate
Local campaigns are in full swing around Cherokee County as several key seats are available. I have always believed that if you are in real estate, then you are also in politics. Politicians have so much power to affect the value and property rights to your home and land. I have written many times why many current Cherokee commissioners goals of ’slow growth’ are a poor way to plan for the future.
I hope the citizens of Cherokee County will elect some forward thinking commissioners who will plan for smart growth and not try to manage growth or slow it down. It has been proven that land-use regulations can adversely affect the cost of living and can severely stifle growth. If you are not growing, then you are dying.
I also find it funny to watch local politicians double their pay with one vote. Too bad every Cherokee resident can’t double their pay to cover increased taxes with a single vote.
Here’s the official list of Cherokee political races:
Post 2 County Commission
Jim Hubbard, incumbent
Quentin Thomas
William Grizzle
Post 3 County Commission
Karen Mahurin, incumbent
Joel Calhoun
Board of Education Post 2
Mike Chapman, incumbent
Danny Dukes
Board of Education Post 4
David Farrow
Janet Read, incumbent
Robert H. Strozier
Board of Education Post 7
Wes Frye
Kim Cochran
Clerk of Superior Court
Patty Baker, incumbent
County Sheriff
Roger Garrison, incumbent
Nicole Ebbeskotte
Chief Magistrate
Ben Abney, incumbent
Charles Robertson
James Drane
Surveyor
Michael Martin
Ron Wikle
Probate Court judge
Keith Wood
County Coroner
Earl Darby, incumbent
Tax Commisioner
David Fields, incumbent
District Attorney, Bell Forsyth Circuit
Penny A. Penn, incumbent
Discussion: Comments
Dealing with Deliquent Customers
Posted: June 20th, 2008
Category: commercial news
Another Guest Post by local Commercial Attorney, Justin Daniels:
I have received several phone calls from upset clients lately who want to sue a delinquent customer back to the stone age over a $5,0000 or $10,000 account. The problem is that after you have hired an attorney and set aside time and effort on this matter, most people walk away feeling very unhappy with the result as most times they will not recover the full amount plus their attorney’s fees.
A practical approach to this problem is the following:
1) Spend additional time doing due diligence (run a credit check) with new accounts to avoid companies with bad payment histories. You may also consider requiring a full or partial retainer upfront for your products or services.
2) Track your A/R more closely and discuss potential issues with companies that are behind in their payments immediately to possibly structure a payment plan as some payment is better than no payment.
This is also a good time to review your contracts/engagement letters to make sure you have the following:
A) a clause that specifically says that if there is a dispute the winner collects its attorney fees. Please understand this is not a panacea as its in the court’s discretion to award what it thinks are reasonable attorney fees and their view can differ from your view. Also, don’t ever sue someone based solely on your conviction the other side’s behavior demands that attorney fees be awarded. After its over, many times you will find yourself disappointed.
B) When you contract with companies from other states include a provision that says that the parties consent to Georgia courts for jurisdiction for any dispute. This helps you overcome the other party’s objection that you should have filed the suit in their state and not Georgia. If this happens to you, after you untangle this legal mess, your attorney’s fees may exceed the amount of the claim and you have no assurance you will collect those fees in total.
As always your trusted resource for practical legal advice. Have a great weekend.
Discussion: Comments
Maxsell hires Service Oriented Agents
Posted: June 20th, 2008
Category: Atlanta Real Estate
Maxsell Real Estate has never advertised to recruit agents. We built our model to succeed with a small number of Realtors. We are not a multi-level marketing gimmick, we don’t hire for numbers, we never go for quantity over quality and quite frankly…we are snobbish about who we hire. We only want individuals with the utmost integrity. We care less about production level and more about service level to each and every client.
It is with these thoughts and goals in mind that Maxsell has accepted the license of 4 new agents to join our company in the past month. Maxsell is proud to announce the hiring of Leah Smith, Lisa Murad, Sydney Ray and Kevin Warmath. No, we didn’t have a job fair or start a hiring ad campaign. These agents came to Maxsell because of our professional relationships and our combination of quality service and trusted value.
Maxsell is proud to have professionals from other brokerage firms choose us as the best place to deliver quality service to their clients. Our recent hires were non-discriminatory to other brokers, they came from many different firms. Leah Smith joined us from Exit Realty, Lisa Murad came over from Prudential Georgia Realty, Sydney Ray and Kevin Warmath left Keller Williams to grow their team at Maxsell Real Estate.
I consider it a compliment for them to choose Maxsell as their brokerage and I hope they view our acceptance of their license as a compliment in return. We don’t hire everyone and we don’t hire just anyone.
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The Bluffs Technology Park missed a Good One
Posted: June 13th, 2008
Category: real estate news
I really wish I were writing this article announcing a great start to The Bluffs Technology Park in Canton. Instead, a solar cell manufacturing plant will be opening in Norcross, GA and not Cherokee County.
Governor Sonny Perdue announced today that Suniva, Inc., will locate its first solar cell facility, and Georgia’s first solar manufacturing plant, in Norcross. Working with technological advances developed at the Georgia Institute of Technology, the Atlanta-based company will manufacture high-efficiency solar cells. Suniva anticipates the new operation will create around 100 jobs within the first year. If only these jobs were in Canton. Wasn’t this the whole point of paving the road beside the new lake to create a Tech Park?
“Suniva is home-grown technology coming right out of our own Georgia Institute of Technology,” said Hans Gant, senior vice president of economic development for the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. “Our world-class universities and highly-skilled talent continue to solidify metro Atlanta’s reputation as a hotbed for high-tech companies.”
The Technology Association of Georgia recently recognized Suniva as one of the state’s Top 10 Innovative Technology Companies, based on the company’s technical innovation, likelihood of success and financial impact. The Georgia Department of Economic Development partnered in Suniva’s location with the Gwinnett County Chamber of Commerce and the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. Costas Simoglou was the project manager for GDEcD.
Anyways, it sure would have been nice to announce this news for The Bluff’s Technology Park in Cherokee County. Kudos to Norcross and Gwinnett for landing a nice company for the community.
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