When? How Much? If an otherwise well-staged, well-marketed home isn’t selling after a reasonable interval on the market**, a price reduction is invariably indicated. How big? It all depends on how overpriced the home appears to be. Toss Out the CMA Once a home is actually on the market, interest from prospective Buyers ” or...Read More
Calculating Premiums & Discounts in a Comparative Market Analysis (“CMA”) How much value do Realtors and Appraisers assign to an upstairs Laundry when estimating a home’s fair market value? The honest answer is, I’ve never seen it broken out as a specific adjustment, with a corresponding price tag (or even range) assigned to it. My...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
Fishing For Sellers, or, Not Offering Consumers What They Think They’re Being Offered No, the agent trolling for new business isn’t offering to tell homeowners (and presumably, prospective Sellers) what their home is worth. Depending on the property’s features, price point, and location, that can take an experienced agent a couple of hours. No, what...Read More
How to Tell, Early On, if a Home is Likely to Appraise The listing agent (representing the Seller) is meeting the Appraiser — representing the Buyer’s mortgage lender — at the house (note: the listing agent should always meet the Appraiser at the house). What should they have with them, to provide to the Appraiser? A. Hard...Read More
Lots of Extra Tasks — But Also One Less It’s no secret that participating in multiples offers can be challenging: for stressed Buyers, their exhausted agents, and even listing agents (representing the Seller), who may be overwhelmed by the number of offers. Fortunately, there’s at least one standard, time-consuming task that Buyers’ agents in multiple...Read More