It’s well-known that people have better and worse angles, look better in certain lighting, benefit from makeup, etc. So do homes! One of the most dramatic shots in residential real estate is the back-lit shot, typically taken at dusk with all the interior lights on. Which photo do you think is more flattering? The address...Read More
Lies, Damn Lies, & (Real Estate) Statistics — Cont. CoreLogic says its estimate is within 10% of a sales price for between about 55% and 75% of homes, depending on the region. Zillow’s estimate is within 10% of sales price almost half the time. –“Housing Statistics Hit Rough Waters“; The Wall Street Journal (Jan. 8,...Read More
Burst of New Luxury Rentals in Uptown What’s behind the burst of high-end rentals slated for Uptown? If you haven’t been paying attention, a new 55 unit, mixed use project just broke ground at Lake & Knox (see, “Watch This Space“). Last month, Southwest Journal reported that a 216 unit luxury rental project is now going up...Read More
Does Selling Homes “Scale?” One of the interesting byproducts of posting on a hot company — which Groupon and its social media brethren certainly are right now — is the raft of related search engine queries that follow. So it is with “Groupon for Realtors.” Work your way through the Google “hits,” though (besides my posts, “Memo...Read More
No, I don’t have any hard data backing me up. But, try to find an experienced Realtor who disagrees with me. On what? The (negative) relationship between a home’s time on the market — and specifically, its most recent list price — and the ultimate selling price as a percentage of that list price. “Just Tell...Read More
Not Ready For Prime Time I just spent 20 minutes or so checking out foreclosures on Google Maps. My conclusion? It’s hard to escape the feeling you are an unwitting beta tester (guinea pig) — plus, it’s apparent that Google’s real aim is use limited free data to goose subscriptions (translation: Google’s business model is...Read More
