Guilt by Association? Not Necessarily As a listing agent trying to make sure their client’s home appraises, I know the concern: if the Comp’s you provide to the Appraiser are all less valuable than your client’s home (known as the “subject property”), they’ll drag its price down, too. Not necessarily. Step #1 is to realize that...Read More
Real Estate Vocabulary #101 At least when it comes to residential real estate, when is a positive a negative, and a negative a positive? Answer: when it comes to doing a Comparative Market Analysis (“CMA”), the tool Realtors — as well as appraisers — use to estimate a property’s fair market value. CMA Math So,...Read More
“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.” –Daniel Patrick Moynihan Substitute “Comp’s” — as in “Comparable Sold Properties” — for “facts,” and you’ve got a pretty good rule of thumb for pricing residential real estate. So, while prospective home sellers can (and do!) compare their home to any properties...Read More
What Is — and Isn’t — Relevant Pricing a Home Wait a second! Why, in early July, am I discussing homes that sold last December? Because they pop up as “Comp’s” (Comparable Sold Properties) for at least 2 relatively unique homes that I’m trying to price for clients now. No doubt (many) other Twin Cities agents are...Read More
CMA (“Comparative Market Analysis”) Math I just showed an Edina home to clients who expressed serious interest, and want to know when they can double back to see it again. Their inevitable next question for me: “what do you think it’s worth?” While every house is by definition unique, the key to estimating a home’s...Read More
Unpaid Property Taxes: When Credits are Bad and Debits are Good Normally, credits (getting money) at closing is good, while paying money (debits) at closing is bad. When is that not the case? When the Buyer is getting a credit at closing from the Seller for the Seller’s pro rata share of the property taxes...Read More
