Putting (Too) Good a Face on Things? It’s a fact of (real estate) life: sales fall through. Buyers change their minds. Inspection issues come up. Buyers can’t get financing* (the honest explanation at least 80% of the time). When any of those (or other) unhappy events occur, listing agents have the demoralizing task of switching...Read More
Question: How Fast (or Slow) is the Housing Market? “Absorption rate”: the rate at which available homes are sold in a specific real estate market during a given time period. It is calculated by dividing the average number of sales per month by the total number of available homes. –Investopedia.com Assuming the standard definition of...Read More
Two Theories As someone who’s worked in several fields, including law and public accounting, before becoming a Realtor, I can honestly say that real estate sales has a relatively small number of professionals with inflated egos. But, that doesn’t mean there are zero. In such a people-centric business, why give prospective clients a reason to...Read More
Hitting Too Close to Home When you discover 1″ of standing water in much of your basement (as I did this morning), your first impulse — after uttering the obligatory “#$!%@!” — is to shut off the water to the house, then look for whatever pipe burst overnight. Nada. I then checked the main sewer...Read More
Long-in-the-Tooth Listings Even in a Seller’s market where listings vanish in the blink of an eye, they’re out there: homes that have been on the market, through rain and shine, winter and summer, seemingly year after year. What gives? Or perhaps more to the point, is there an opportunity to be had? “Days Years on...Read More
[Editor’s Note: The views expressed here are solely those of Ross Kaplan, and do not represent Edina Realty, Berkshire Hathaway, or any other entity referenced. Berkshire Hathaway is the ultimate parent company of Edina Realty.] Aficionados of Warren Buffett’s annual missive to shareholders (I’m one) will recall that last year’s included a doozy: Buffett’s advice...Read More
