Technical vs. Functional Definition Test your knowledge of residential real estate by answering this question: Who defines what constitutes a legal bedroom? A. The county where the home is located; B. The city where the home is located; C. The local multiple listing service (MLS); D. The listing agent representing the Seller. Answer:  “A.” or...Read More

Why Most Buyers Skip Seeing Homes Under Contract But Not Past Inspection For the benefit of home buyers, sellers, and at least a few Realtors, herewith is a key explaining when home showings are still allowed under various MLS statuses (abbreviations in parentheses): “Active” (“A”):   showings allowed (the more, the better!). “Active, Subject to Inspection” (“A,i”):  depends...Read More

Balancing Home Search “False Negatives” vs. “False Positives” When setting up searches for prospective Buyers, the goal is to find “the Goldilocks” happy medium:  sufficiently narrow criteria that the resulting list is manageable . . . but not so narrow that the search returns only a handful of listings. Or none. In practice, for most Buyers, the...Read More