Consumer Psychology and the Too-Precise Price When you see an oddly-priced “For Sale” home, there are two possible explanations (at least in my experience selling residential real estate): One. Drawing Attention. The way to stand out from homes listed at $389,900, $399,900, etc. is to price at $398,731 or some such (I haven’t seen a home...Read More
Proof That High Pressure Sales Tactics Don’t Work At least in my experience, the odds of any one showing leading to a consummated transaction are perhaps 1 in 10. The exception to that? If the Buyer’s agent is headed to the airport, or otherwise under acute time pressure. When that’s the case, I’d estimate that...Read More
Adding Value by (Sub)Dividing Given the combination of an (over)heated Twin Cities housing market; high demand for new construction; and housing stock which can be functionally obsolete if not in disrepair, it should be no surprise that there are plenty of local homes that are worth less than the land underneath them. That’s especially so...Read More
Multiple Offer Aftermath: 21(!) Runner-Up Buyers How crazy is the Spring, 2017 housing market? Consider the activity at 2850 Florida in St. Louis Park, listed by Edina Realty – City Lakes’ Susan Melbye for $250k last Thursday (March 30): Days on market: 4. Showings: 60+ (including one of my Buyers). People thru Sunday open house...Read More
MLS: “Seller Requests Minimum of 24 Hours Notice for All Showings” Aren’t unusual showing instructions a pain? That’s especially the case when a busy prospective Buyer — or two of them, if it’s a couple — and their Realtor are trying to see not just 1 home, but 6-8 in a row, perhaps in different...Read More
“The (Realtor) Parking Lot Indicator” Yeah, yeah, I know all the official statistics that purportedly capture what the housing market’s doing at any given moment. The list includes both year-over-year and month-to-month changes in “New Listings,” “Pending Sales,” and “Closed Sales,” plus the Case-Shiller Home Price Index, NAR’s sales statistics, etc.. Here’s another, albeit less...Read More
