Swapping Underwater Mortgages on Craig’s List One of the most popular posts ever on this blog, “Groupon for Underwater Homeowners,” made the case that underwater homeowners could exert heretofore missing leverage over their lenders by teaming up and negotiating as a group (“groupon”). Seeing as no one (so far) has bit on that idea, I’m now offering up solution...Read More
Rentals on MLS One of the quirks of following rentals on MLS — available since Sept. 1 — is that there’s no way to track the difference between what landlords are asking, and what they’re actually accepting. Over on the “for sale” side of MLS, Realtors and appraisers alike know to skip homes that are...Read More
“Would You Consider Renting?” Through the years, I have in rare instances sent a blind mailing on behalf of a client who had seemed to exhaust all other possibilities. Typically, they were interested in either a very specific style of home, a very specific neigborhood — or both. And were under a time deadline. Junk...Read More
You Read it Here First In the course of helping clients find a rental property the last 2 weeks, it’s become abundantly clear that the rental market is much more fragmented and chaotic than the For Sale market. And pricing is much sloppier (what you get for, say, $2,500/mth runs the gamut from properties worth...Read More
“Dear New York Times Op-Ed Department . . .” Just in case any readers of this blog know anyone, I just posted the following on Craig’s List: I write a highly-regarded (but relatively lightly read) real estate blog, and am looking for someone who can help get my pieces/posts published on high traffic, national sites...Read More
Note to Readers: in my post Aug. 20, Hijacked Listings, I discussed the practice of scammers using homes listed for sale to snare unsuspecting, would-be renters. The information below is from the home page of the Multiple Listing Service (“MLS”). While it’s addressed to Realtors, the follow-up steps are relevant for anyone who may be...Read More
