The Value of Contrary Information About all I remember from my one college statistics course is something called “the coefficient of correlation.” Ranging from “+1” to “-1,” it indicates how predictive/associated one variable is with another. Which leads to some counterintuitive insights. Such as (as the Statistics professor noted), if you’re picking investment advisors, the ideal is someone whose stock picks are always right...Read More
“Seller WILL Receive Feedback Directly” “You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out.” –Warren Buffett The housing market equivalent of Buffett’s observation would be, “you only (especially?) find out who’s overpriced when the market shifts.” As local Realtors will tell you, the Twin Cities housing market experienced just such a shift over the Summer. From scarcity and...Read More
WSJ: ‘As Lockup Expires, Twitter Holders Fly the Coop’ 1twit noun \ˈtwit\ : a stupid or foolish person. In addition to the general definition of “twit” (above), I have a special case: momentum investors who bought Twitter’s stock and have now lost more than half their money this year (see also, “chump”). Yesterday’s not-so-randomly timed, 18% plunge...Read More
“Out With the Old, In With the New” To laymen, December 31 is known as New Year’s Eve. To Realtors, December 31 represents . . . the biggest day of the year for listing contract expirations, by far (you’d guess June 30 is a distant second). What does that mean? Incumbent Realtors who aren’t discussing...Read More
“We Can Always Drop the Price, Right?” Yes, But . . . Don’t leftovers come after Thanksgiving, not before? Not when it comes to the housing market. In my own neighborhood close to Minneapolis’ Cedar Lake, I’m aware of at least half a dozen very nice homes which came on the market as far back as...Read More
Dubious Logic According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, “some high-end sellers are taking a counterintuitive and risky step: raising the price.” Does such a strategy ever make sense? Before answering, let me trace the three-step logic implicit in such a move (at least most of the time): One. “Their home is like mine.”...Read More
