Answer: It Depends on the Buyer ” and the House* It may be a surprise to people who associate Minnesota with year-round Arctic cold, but summers here ” while admittedly not long ” can be hot and VERY sticky. Hence the locals’ preference for central air conditioning. Which raises the question: if a home lacks...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
Rules of Thumb Veteran Realtors know that $1 in deferred maintenance subtracts much more than that from a home’s sales price. The ratio can be 3:1, 4:1 or even higher. While the exact amount is house and buyer-specific, at least anecdotally, there seem to be two factors that widen the discount. One. Price Point. First-time...Read More
Avoiding the “Contingency Premium” “We may be small, but we’re slow.” —Cal Tech football team slogan. If you were a home seller, how much extra would you want in order to assume the risk that your Buyer could successfully sell their current home in a timely fashion ” the standard Contingency is 60-90 days ”...Read More
Did the Appraiser Goof? A client trying to refinance his mortgage recently ran into an infrequent but not unheard of problem: a low appraisal. My client was convinced that the appraiser goofed because ” amongst other things ” the appraiser listed the home as only having one Bathroom, not two. Unfortunately, the second Bathroom is...Read More
