Putting (Too) Good a Face on Things? It’s a fact of (real estate) life: sales fall through. Buyers change their minds. Inspection issues come up. Buyers can’t get financing* (the honest explanation at least 80% of the time). When any of those (or other) unhappy events occur, listing agents have the demoralizing task of switching...Read More
Want to Check Out a Community? Go to the Public Library Whenever my parents traveled, to get to a feel for the local community ” cultural, historical, religious (they’re Jewish), architecture, etc. ” they would always visit the local synagogue(s). Me? I go to the local library. I head there not just to check email...Read More
When the Realtor Likes a Home More Than Their Client Does To a non-Realtor, the idiom, “I’m not buying it” roughly translates to, “I don’t believe your [obviously bogus] explanation.” To Realtors, however, the phrase means something much more literal. Namely ” at least when uttered by a Buyer’s agent ” “I’m not buying it” translates...Read More
“Starter home“: a relatively small, economical house or condominium that meets the requirements of young people buying their first home. While there’s no precise definition, I have two associations with “starter home”: One. Price Point. Starter homes are (well) below the average price for homes in the local market — whatever that may be. So,...Read More
The Easy Way . . . and the Hard Way The Buyer’s inspection revealed a material defect in the home that the Seller doesn’t dispute. Both parties want to stay in the deal. What are their options? Option #1: the Seller fixes the problem, prior to closing. Here are the related steps: Buyer and Seller...Read More
Everything You Wanted to Know About Ceiling Finishes As best I can tell, the reason it’s called a “knockdown ceiling” is because calling it a “knock-off ceiling” would have been too confusing. What gets knocked off ” er, knocked down ” is the joint compound that’s first applied to the ceiling, and allowed to partially dry....Read More
