Looking for Signs of a Market Top Once upon a time, a sure-fire yellow (or red!) flag for frothy home prices was Realtors buying homes for themselves, either as investments, or to fix up and flip. See, “Insider Buying & the Housing Market: Why Realtors are a CONTRARIAN Indicator.” The logic: agents were most bullish...Read More
Can Home Sellers Drop Their Price TOO Fast? Admittedly, the vast majority of the time, would-be Sellers of overpriced homes wait too long to reduce their asking price. But, something like 10% of the time when I see price drops, they occur too soon. The usual, three-step scenario: 1) the home was on Broker Tour...Read More
If offering Buyers agents 2.7% — the most common payout in the Twin Cities — will motivate them to show a “For Sale” home, will offering 3% incentivize them even more? Why not offer 4%?!? Unfortunately for would-be home Sellers, goosing the payout to Buyers agents suffers from diminishing returns — and at some point,...Read More
Law of Diminishing Returns Show me a “For Sale” home that’s open Sunday after Sunday, rain or shine, and I’ll show you a house where: a) the home is likely overpriced and going nowhere in the market; b) a frustrated Realtor is trying to placate an impatient owner; or most likely c) both “a.” and “b.”...Read More
A decade ago, housing experts warned — incorrectly, it turns out — of a Tsunami of “shadow” inventory waiting to flood the then-moribund housing market, and drag prices still lower. See, “Barry Ritholtz Issues Mea Culpa on Housing.” The source of all those homes? Banks sitting on millions of foreclosures nationally. Fortunately, it never happened: banks bundled...Read More
“So Done” vs. “Are You Done Yet?” For an unassuming four letter word, “done” sure has a lot of different connotations. I count at least eight (below), including two meanings ” one good, one bad ” popular in residential real estate. One. To perfection. Example: “That house is done. It’s not staged like a spec house.”...Read More
