That's way up there on the list of complaints buyer's agents get. Probably number one, definitely no lower than number three, and it's only going to get worse when the markets recover. There's really only one honest response: "Well,...
(This is a companion article to What Sellers Need: What Buyers Should Want to Supply) Quite often, I hear people talking about the real estate market as if it's all some amorphous blob, and buyers and sellers are no more...
(This is a companion article to What Buyers Need: What Sellers Should Want to Supply) Quite often, I hear people talking about the real estate market as if it's all some amorphous blob, and buyers and sellers are no more...
One of my favorite blogs ran a picture of a listing sign that included the caption "REDUCED But Not Stupid or Desperate." I beg to differ on the former. On the latter, time will tell. Most successful real estate investors...
One of the things I see all the time is notations made on the listing that demotivate buyers agents, or give them a reason not to show the property. This practice has had a drastic fall off for a while,...
I got this question in an email, and almost blew it off, but then I realized for every person who actually asks, there are probably at least a dozen who are unclear but don't ask, and I apologize that...
A while ago, another agent in my office got an offer and brought it to me for feedback. The listing was range priced over a $30k range, and priced correctly, so there was a lot of activity on it. The...
What's negotiable on a purchase? The short answer is everything. There may be standards and traditions in your area, whether they're the same in your area as there are in mine or quite different. That doesn't mean they are...
There are two main sources of bargain properties. The obvious one that everyone knows about is properties fresh on the market where the owner doesn't realize what they've got. This is the largest single reason why potential buyers obsess over...
Over five hundred years ago in Europe, there was a con game that was more practiced than any other con game in the history of the world. It was simply the thing to try on the new rube in...
The buyer's deposit is always at risk. This is just a fact of real estate transactions. I could pretend it's not so, but that wouldn't keep the deposit from being at risk - it would just make me a...
Many agents seem to answer this question differently depending upon whether their client is the prospective buyer or seller, according to what they think will make the client most comfortable. When their client is making an offer, "No, your...
The general public may not understand this, but the most critical parts of a listing agent's job all take place before the property hits the market. The most difficult task of an agent who wants to successfully list property is...
There's an old literary tradition that cautions the reader to "Be careful what you ask for. You may get it." Many real estate purchase offers are good illustrations of that principle. The rule followed by good agents is, "Never...
Every once in a while, the subject of assumable loans comes up. An assumable loan is one where the owner of a property has the ability to pass the loan along with the property in a sale. In other...
This article is for sellers who want to put their property on the market priced too high "just to see if we can get it." I know where sellers get this notion. A lot of people are out there...
This article was inspired by closing one of many transactions where my clients did not make the high bid (or even close), but did get the fully negotiated purchase contract and the property. By building an airtight case that...
I don't know how many people have told me the story of the Purchase Offer That Was Accepted But Couldn't Be Done. They come to me because they lost their deposit or are about to and they want some way...
Here was an idea I had: Pack a list of the most important things consumers need to know about buying real estate, as packed into the words I can say in sixty seconds without sounding like an over-clocked squirrel. Here...
I've been saying this for a long time: Short sales are poison for buyers. I don't know why people encourage buyers to look at short sales, because there is no advantage for buyers that I am aware of. In...
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