Location, Location, Location (Again) Normally, when a house has a major foundation issue, standard Realtor advice to Buyers is “run, don’t walk” (to something else). What’s the exception to that? If the home in question is on desirable lot in a hot neighborhood for tear-downs — and the foundation issue translates into a sufficiently hefty discount. Exit...Read More
Two Minutes vs. Two Hours to Set Up Showings Here’s how a Buyer’s agent — at least in the Twin Cities — gets their client into an MLS-listed home: step #1: logon to MLS. step #2: enter the home’s address to find listing, then . . . . step #3: use online form to request showing (typically one...Read More
Putting Clients at Ease (Just Not Too Much) My guess is, if you’ve worked with a Realtor (or any salesperson) lately, what you were ultimately asked to sign wasn’t referred to as a “legal contract.” It was called “paperwork” (sample agent-to-client dialogue: “if you’re comfortable with everything we discussed, let’s get the paperwork taken care...Read More
“Highest & Best,” Defined One of the more anguished — and fruitless — laments uttered by Buyers who just heard they lost in multiple offers is: “But, I would’ve gone higher!” Then, they should have. The way “highest & best” works is . . . pretty much how you’d think. One round, highest and best...Read More
Seasoned vs. Green Buyers; The Role of Pre-List Networking It’s accepted wisdom amongst veteran Realtors — which I happen to agree with — that “the first Buyer is (often) the best Buyer.” Why’s that? The explanation has to do with the nature of the pool of home Buyers at any given moment, plus Buyer behavior...Read More
Runner-Up Buyers “Once bitten, twice shy” may be true in romance, but it definitely does not apply in residential real estate. At least, that seems to be the case in housing markets with scarce inventory and rising prices — true in many parts of the country now, including the Twin Cities. More Aggressive On the contrary, would-be...Read More
