“Expired’s,” “Cancelled’s” Loom Larger Until a few years ago, I never spent much time looking at Expired or Cancelled listings when I was preparing a Comparative Market Analysis (“CMA”). Today? Depending on the part of town and property type, that’s often where I start. If you don’t take unsold listings into account these days —...Read More
The Blindfold Test, or, “Buyer Due Diligence” Want an old-fashioned way to tell if a given “For Sale” home is a value? Skip the complicated CMA (“Comparative Market Analysis”), detailed spreadsheets, etc. Instead, follow this two-step approach: One. Get up to speed in the area you’re interested in, familiarizing yourself with prevailing prices. Two. When you tour a...Read More
Pricing a Home When the Comp’s are Tough “You have to know the rules before you know when you can break them.” Normally, the standard way of doing a CMA (“Comparative Market Analysis”) is to limit your focus to three Comp’s, or “Comparable Sold Properties.” By definition, those are the nearby homes most similar in...Read More
Commission Saved: $8,000 Hit to Sales Price: $20,000 In FSBO Mistake #4, I chronicled the case of the hapless For Sale By Owner (“FSBO”) in Golden Valley who wasted their first — and best — month of market exposure incorrectly classified as a “Foreclosure” on MLS. Hit to their bottom line? I’d estimate 3% to 5%....Read More
How Many Make a “Meteor Shower?” What’s a “housing market meteorite?” Like the celestial kind, they burst onto the scene in a brilliant flash of light; descend (in price) through the night sky (housing market) quickly; then just as quickly disappear (they’re sold). They often have these three additional attributes: One. They’re top-to-bottom (bottom-to-top?) rehab’s;...Read More
Taking $50k, $75k — or More(!) Off the Last Asking Price Overpriced listings have a way of coming down to earth, and Buyers who can afford to be patient can often pick up the property at a (much) better price once the Seller has become more realistic. Of course, Buyers who wait risk that the Seller...Read More
