Is Anyone Home? Anyone?? As I’ve noted from time to time, For Sale By Owners (“FSBO’s”) are prone to multiple mistakes, any one of which can easily negate (or worse) any money such Sellers hope to save on commission. See, “FSBO Mistake #1 (and #2, #3, etc.)”; “FSBO Mistake #4“; “FSBO Mistake #37.” Along with the...Read More
“Covering the [Real Estate] Spread” (i.e., Commission) Call it real estate brokerage’s dirty little secret: a good Realtor can add more value in some deals than others. While a Realtor’s “value-added” should always exceed their commission — if it were otherwise, there wouldn’t (and shouldn’t) be Realtors — some types of transactions simply offer more opportunity to...Read More
Non-Listed Listed Homes One of the side effects of a seller’s market is more homeowners who believe that they can sell their home without a Realtor (called “For Sale by Owner,” or “FSBO”). Here’s another: homes putatively listed by a Realtor, but nowhere to be found on MLS (Multiple Listing Service, the repository for all...Read More
Hurry Up & Wait In a traditional sale, Buyers can usually expect to hear a response to their offer within 24 hours — ideally much faster. So, how long do would-be Buyers of Fannie Mae properties have to wait? As long as 10 days. Stale MLS Status Which is why it’s only fair to such...Read More
Of Apples and Houses One of the trickier concepts in residential real estate — especially for first-time home buyers — is seller-paid points. Think of it like this: if you buy an apple from me, is there a difference between paying me 97¢, or paying $1 and getting back 3¢? Not to me — either way,...Read More
Realtor “Loss Leaders” First of all, how can professionals who are paid via commission have such a thing as “non-billable hours?” Don’t you have to be a lawyer (I was), CPA (ditto, a long time ago), financial advisor, etc. for that to apply? Technically, yes. But what I mean by “non-billable hours” for Realtors is...Read More
