“I’ll List Your House for $700k $750k $800k!!” Anxious Buyers aren’t the only ones bidding up home prices this year. So are some Realtors, including at least a few who should (and do) know better. Housing Market Icaruses One of the things that can happen when prospective home Sellers interview lots of agents in an...Read More
Market Appreciation vs. Home Depreciation In all cases in which work is produced by the agency of heat, a quantity of heat is consumed which is proportional to the work done.” —Rudolf Clausius, first law of thermodynamics. “An overpriced, “For Sale” home depreciates in value faster than an appreciating housing market rises.” —Ross Kaplan, first...Read More
“For Sale” Home Languishing on the Market? It (Usually) Shows Realtors constantly warn their home-selling clients about the risks of overpricing (especially in a soft market). Anyone who doubts that should tour a few homes that have just listed, then view homes that have been languishing on the market, unsold, for months (years?). Study in...Read More
Stealth Price Cut What does it mean when a listing agent puts out the word ” on MLS or just verbally ” that their Seller “will consider all offers?” (sometimes qualified with “all reasonable offers”). Here is a rough translation: 1) the Seller knows that the current asking price is too high; 2) but, for...Read More
MLS: “$10,000 Agent Selling Bonus!” My gut tells me that Realtor sales incentives generally don’t work, based on the following, three-step logic: 1) Anything effective tends to be copied in the marketplace; 2) Empirically, home sellers (and their agents) seldom offer sales incentives to Buyers’ agents (above and beyond the payout commission, that is); 3) Ergo,...Read More
“10 Showings, $10,000″ ” Updated Realtors have a saying: “10 showings, $10,000.” What that means is, if a home has been shown by 10 agents ” each representing a serious, well-qualified Buyer ” and it still hasn’t sold . . . it’s overpriced by at least $10,000. Of course, $10k presumes an average priced home...Read More
