Relocating to Metro Atlanta

Yes. Tina Jingru Sui provides virtual tours and coordinates inspections and closing remotely.

Because it is the current owner's bill. Under Georgia's HB 581, effective January 1 2025, a long-time owner's taxable value is capped near an older base year. That cap resets when the property sells, so you start a new base year at current fair market value. Assume your bill will be higher than theirs, sometimes substantially.

There is no single answer, and anyone who gives you one without your address is guessing. Georgia assesses property at 40% of fair market value, then each county, city and school district applies its own millage. Get a written estimate for the specific parcel at your purchase price, with the exemptions you will actually qualify for. On a $700,000 home the difference between jurisdictions is enough to affect which county you should be shopping in.

Not for the school portion. The school systems in Fulton, Gwinnett, Cobb and DeKalb opted out by the March 1, 2025 deadline, and school taxes are typically the largest component of a Georgia bill. Jurisdictions can rescind an opt-out through 2029 under HB 92, so confirm current status for your county before relying on it.

You must own and occupy the home as your legal residence as of January 1, and file by April 1. A late-December closing captures the exemption for that year; an early-January closing does not. If your timing is flexible near year end, that is worth real money.

Georgia closings are conducted by a licensed Georgia attorney, so one is involved either way. That attorney handles the closing itself; they do not represent your interests in the negotiation the way your agent does. If your situation involves a trust, an entity, a divorce, an estate or cross-border money, your own counsel is worth having in addition.

Sometimes, and it depends entirely on your lender and your tolerance for carrying two payments. We will run the actual monthly cost of the overlap against the alternatives — rent-back, temporary housing, contingent offer — and compare them honestly. A contingent offer is weaker in most competitive situations, and you should know by how much before you write one.

Yes. Bring me the package early. Relocation benefits often carry requirements about which agent you use, how the home sale is structured, and what is reimbursable — terms that can be worth a great deal of money if they are followed exactly and worth nothing if they are not.

From offer to closing, a financed purchase commonly runs about 30 to 45 days once under contract, driven by your lender and the appraisal. Finding the right house is the variable part. The paperwork is the fixed part, and we start it in week one so it is never the thing holding you up.

Yes — Mandarin and Cantonese, in full, including contracts and negotiation. Tina Jingru Sui serves on the board of CARE, the Chinese Alliance of Real Estate.