7/27/03 Gainesville Times Interview with Pete Edwards
Lake Lanier Market Heats Up

'With the woes and worries of the 4 year draught now washed away by months of heavy rains, 40 year low interest rates, and the recent Wall Street upswing freeing up discretionary funds for Buyers, the Lake Lanier real estate market temperature is going up!' Two Agents that take the lake market temperature every day are Pete Edwards & John Fischer of RE/MAX of Atlanta.

Located in Gainesville they service the Lakefront Executive property market surrounding Lake Lanier as Sales & Listing Agents. Both Pete & John are licensed Georgia Realtors with over 20 years combined experience in Real Estate & Construction and are Certified Lake Specialists at RE/MAX of Atlanta. John is the President of Lanier Northwest Home Owners Association, and Pete is an HPYC Founder and a member of the Harbour Point Yacht Club Advisory Board. They currently have over $8,000,000 of Lakefront properties listed for sale.

'Before we talk about the market let's talk about your team.' 'There are many Realtors that work the lake market, so what makes the Edwards Fischer team different?' 'It's the combined skills and experience we bring to our clients coupled with a dedication to outstanding client service, and a strict focus on lakefront property.' 'Simply put we are Lake Property Specialists!' 'Both of us have had long & successful careers in corporate sales and marketing so we are very skilled at providing the best in property marketing services.' 'Add to that John's experience in remodeling and re-selling lake properties, and my experience as former President of Van Winkle Builders, designing and building lake homes, and the fact that we are both lake enthusiasts & boaters... you have a team that brings knowledge, experience and enthusiasm to our work.'

'How do you differentiate your services form other Realtors?' 'One of our biggest advantages to our Seller clients is our web site www.LanierLuxuryHomes.com, which gets well over 4000 Buyer visits who look at over 14,000 listings every single month. 'Each of our listings has a slide show and a virtual tour attached so Sellers get maximum exposure in the market the first day, and every day their property is on the market 24 X 7.' 'The site also automatically shows our listings thousands of times each month on Realtor.Com, MSN House & Home, Yahoo Real Estate and many more of the top national sites. We can even show our clients how many times Buyers have taken a tour of their property at our site so they know for sure Buyers are viewing their property.' Coupled with extensive print advertising the web site gives us a nationwide reach to the market and that really serves our Seller's desire to get maximum exposure.'

'For our Buyer clients in the greater metro Atlanta area as well as local and nationwide we provide our exclusive 'one click search engine' so they can see every listed for sale Lake Lanier property sorted by price quickly and easily.' 'And since we focus strictly on lakefront property we have the latest information on market conditions and prices.' 'That's added value for our Buyers when it comes to buying at the best possible price and terms.'

'Now that we're out of the draught what else is happening in the lake market?' 'It's our proposition that the market is in transition and undergoing a switch from a Buyer's market to a Seller's market, that will occur over the next twelve months.' 'Right now Buyers have roughly 270 lakefront homes to select from, but as demand and sales increase to pre 2001 levels and beyond, prices will move higher and favor the Seller more than the Buyer.'

'With approximately 140 lake properties sold year to date, sales have been tracking at roughly the same volume as last year. Noticeably different though, is a steady increase