Hot Property “Home needs some cleaning, painting and small repairs. Nice neighborhood and backyard.” –Agent Remarks; MLS Does a “For Sale” home’s condition matter? The short answer: yes — but price matters even more. Exhbit A Witness this 3 Bedroom/2 Bath Bloomington rambler, listed last week for $130,000. That compares with a 2011 tax assessed...Read More
Free by Christmas? Back in the beginning of the Summer, I discussed a Highland Park (St. Paul) home with a particularly tortured price history: May 4: listed at $699,900 May 10: reduced to $674,900 May 15: reduced to $649,900 May 18: reduced to $624,900 May 21: reduced to $599,900 May 29: reduced to $574,900 June 1:...Read More
Someone who’s interested in this house ” and isn’t afraid it will sell first ” might plausibly sit tight a few more weeks (days??), and see how much lower the Seller will go. —City Lakes Real Estate Blog (June 9, 2012) In a post last week, I noted the aggressive pattern of price reductions (below) on...Read More
Homes That Can’t Be Bought or Sold “Sunk Cost“: A cost that has already been incurred and thus cannot be recovered. A sunk cost differs from other, future costs that a business may face, such as inventory costs or R&D expenses, because it has already happened. Sunk costs are independent of any event that may...Read More
Potential Short Sale? Not if it Sells for ≥ 10% Over Market If you have been in a cave (or simply aren’t up on the housing market), a “short sale” is when a homeowner owes more on their mortgage than the home is worth (called “being underwater”), and to sell, must get the bank to accept...Read More
Pricing a Home When the Comp’s are Tough “You have to know the rules before you know when you can break them.” Normally, the standard way of doing a CMA (“Comparative Market Analysis”) is to limit your focus to three Comp’s, or “Comparable Sold Properties.” By definition, those are the nearby homes most similar in...Read More
