Pluses & Minuses (2 Apiece) At least in my experience, for every long-time homeowner who’s (overly) invested in their home, psychologically-speaking, and can only see it through rose-colored glasses, there are another 3 (or 10!) hoping their home is a teardown, especially if it’s located in a hot area. Ditto for the listing agent waiting in...Read More
He Who Adjusts Least Adjusts Best” When it comes to pricing a home off of Comp’s (“Comparable Sold Properties”), the trick is to minimize both the number and absolute magnitude of the adjustments. The ideal would be a condo identical to its peers in every respect ” floor plan, size, condition, location, market conditions, etc....Read More
Comparing Honey Crisps to Braeburns One of the more quizzical looks Realtors get is when they (try to) explain to a prospective home Seller that their neighbor’s house isn’t a “Comp” (Comparable Sold Property). In plain English: it isn’t relevant ” at least directly ” for pricing their home. For the uninitiated, a Comp is...Read More
All Part of the (Ongoing) Job If you went to your estate attorney for a will in 2016, then needed an update now, you’d expect to be invoiced for the new work, right? Similarly, if your dentist put in a crown four years ago, then you needed a cavity filled today, you’d expect the dentist...Read More
The Art of Comp Selection One of the trickier home features to account for in a Comparative Market Analysis (“CMA”) is a busy street. For a family with little kids, a busy street may very well be a deal breaker ” in which case the discount is theoretically infinite. At the other extreme, an investor looking...Read More
Dream Home? Maybe Not, But Dream Price Everyone in real estate (and many outside of it) knows the phenomenon: homes on busy streets turn over more often. The explanation is self-evident, right? The occupants get tired of the traffic and move on. That may certainly be true, but as a Realtor, I see another, economics-based...Read More
