Pre-Closing Jitters First, a caveat (actually, two): 1) most residential real estate deals close on time with no — or small — last-minute issues; 2) good agents proactively work to anticipate and resolve any such issues. That said, you still worry — albeit Sellers typically more than Buyers, especially in today’s housing market and economy. One potential...Read More
The Economy’s Gordian Knot “For many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.” –The 80-20 Rule, also known as the Pareto Principle My corollary to the 80-20 Rule in today’s housing market: Twenty percent of prospective home Buyers can get financing on a home of their choice, on terrific terms....Read More
“The Seamlessness Test,” or Housing’s Hippocratic Oath The best additions are invisible. That is, they blend in so well with the original home that you can’t tell where one starts and the other begins. At the other extreme, there are homes which look — and feel — like they’re actually two parts, stapled together....Read More
Parsing MLS Lingo One of the more confusing concepts on MLS is “Days on Market” vs. “CDOM” (Cumulative Days on Market) vs. “History.” Initially, it’s pretty straightforward: after 30 days on the market, a given listing’s “Days on Market” is . . . surprise! . . . 30; CDOM is 30; and “History” shows one...Read More
Copying Goldilocks I’ve written previously about the various mistakes that I’ve seen amateurs make. See, “FSBO Mistake #1 (and #2, #3, etc.)”; “FSBO Mistake #4“; “FSBO Mistake #37.” Does that mean the pro’s — professional Realtors — are perfect? Hardly. It’s just that their mistakes tend to be more subtle (and presumably, fewer). See, “Jumping...Read More
Under Off the Radar In theory, to do a market analysis for a given home, you (“you” being a Realtor or Appraiser) log on to MLS, and do a search for similar, nearby homes that have sold within the last six months. Those are called “Comp’s,” and the magic number is three, good ones. Step...Read More
