tag:searchlightcrusade.net,2024:/mt//feed/value 2024-04-24T04:50:47Z Movable Type 4.21-en 157 1 157 tag:www.searchlightcrusade.net,2011://3.5042 2023-06-19T14:00:00Z 2023-06-19T15:22:00Z Dan Melson http://www.searchlightcrusade.net/ There's an old saying in sales: "The best way to achieve your dreams is to help others achieve theirs". I wasn't able to run it down to the original attribution, but it is as true a saying as can... tag:www.searchlightcrusade.net,2011://3.5041 2023-05-16T14:00:00Z 2023-05-16T14:42:06Z Dan Melson http://www.searchlightcrusade.net/ Hard as it may be to believe, I've never done an article comparing asking price to sales price. It's way past time. Asking price is quite simply, a written representation of an offer the seller would be willing to... tag:www.searchlightcrusade.net,2009://3.4813 2023-04-18T14:00:00Z 2023-04-18T16:34:01Z Dan Melson http://www.searchlightcrusade.net/ I was looking through some real estate listings and saw one property described as: "Contractor's special, first time buyers and investors. House needs TLC." Does contractor's special mean u better be a contractor if you wanna buy this place? It... tag:www.searchlightcrusade.net,2007://3.3675 2023-01-16T15:00:00Z 2023-01-16T16:01:01Z Dan Melson http://www.searchlightcrusade.net/ Whenever I go scouting in public forums, somebody is always asking, "What's the secret? How do you get rich in real estate?" The alternate to this question is "What do you know that I don't?" These people are sure there's... tag:www.searchlightcrusade.net,2011://3.5039 2022-11-21T15:00:00Z 2022-11-21T16:35:52Z Dan Melson http://www.searchlightcrusade.net/ The phrasing in parallel with Animal Farm is intentional. Sellers need to understand this, and so do buyers, especially in a hot real estate market. Some offers are more equal than others, and knowing how to choose between competing... tag:www.searchlightcrusade.net,2010://3.5035 2022-08-29T14:00:00Z 2022-08-29T15:58:49Z Dan Melson http://www.searchlightcrusade.net/ I am seeing a very disturbing trend these past few months. Rather than do the work they should be doing, listing agents are treating the entire short sale process as a kind of "Black Box", delegating the negotiations with the... tag:www.searchlightcrusade.net,2010://3.5032 2022-07-18T14:00:00Z 2022-07-18T16:29:24Z Dan Melson http://www.searchlightcrusade.net/ I just got off the phone with an agent who claims to have three offers on the property, but he doesn't want to counter the offer. He just wants my client to voluntarily throw more money (or more something)... tag:www.searchlightcrusade.net,2010://3.5031 2022-07-12T14:00:00Z 2022-07-12T11:21:30Z Dan Melson http://www.searchlightcrusade.net/ The stock market has a phenomenon where a company's stock is "Priced for perfection." It may sound nice, but "priced for perfection" is emphatically not a good thing. It's where the stock price of a company has been bid... tag:www.searchlightcrusade.net,2009://3.4762 2022-06-13T14:00:00Z 2022-06-13T16:48:24Z Dan Melson http://www.searchlightcrusade.net/ Over the last couple of decades, there's been a rising movement, mostly on the part of those who want a piece of real estate agents business, to sell agents as a toll booth. Tollbooths sit there, guarding the entry to... tag:www.searchlightcrusade.net,2009://3.3837 2022-05-30T14:00:00Z 2022-05-30T15:03:23Z Dan Melson http://www.searchlightcrusade.net/ I recently got an email from a reader that was coming into a property as I left. I dropped my card and we did the lockbox shuffle thing, then there was an email when I got back to the... tag:www.searchlightcrusade.net,2010://3.5028 2022-04-18T14:00:00Z 2022-04-18T14:06:39Z Dan Melson http://www.searchlightcrusade.net/ Some fathers, sad to say, are not involved in their children's life beyond conception. Maybe it was just a one night stand and they have no idea they even have a child, maybe they were involved with the mother on... tag:www.searchlightcrusade.net,2007://3.3570 2022-03-14T14:00:00Z 2022-03-14T12:47:46Z Dan Melson http://www.searchlightcrusade.net/ Legally, immediately. This also applies to refinance loans. With that said, there are economic reasons why it may not be a good idea for you to refinance. If you have a prepayment penalty, you're going to have to save a... tag:www.searchlightcrusade.net,2007://3.3548 2022-02-07T15:00:00Z 2022-02-07T13:43:06Z Dan Melson http://www.searchlightcrusade.net/ A while ago I dealt with a very disturbing phone call from a would be client. He was very happy with the way I found bargain properties, and wanted me to find him such a property. All very well and... tag:www.searchlightcrusade.net,2010://3.5025 2022-01-24T15:00:00Z 2022-01-24T17:07:32Z Dan Melson http://www.searchlightcrusade.net/ The first thing to consider is that maybe you shouldn't. You never want to get involved in a bidding war. There's a classic riddle I ask every single one of my buyer clients at least once. "How often does... tag:www.searchlightcrusade.net,2009://3.4725 2022-01-04T15:00:00Z 2022-01-04T14:43:08Z Dan Melson http://www.searchlightcrusade.net/ A couple years ago, I took a look at a lender owned property a few miles from my office. It was ugly. I mean ugly. The yard was a mess, there was a deck that was rotting. The facade looked... tag:www.searchlightcrusade.net,2010://3.5024 2021-11-23T15:00:00Z 2021-11-23T16:17:28Z Dan Melson http://www.searchlightcrusade.net/ I have been asked by more than one person how to measure desirability of real estate objectively. Fortunately, the Phoenicians did all the hard work for me three thousand years ago when they invented money. Precisely what that measurement unit... tag:www.searchlightcrusade.net,2010://3.5022 2021-10-30T14:00:00Z 2021-10-30T13:32:48Z Dan Melson http://www.searchlightcrusade.net/ And I don't know why people expect it to be. Cancel that. I do know why. Popular media. It's not all that common in popular media, but on those occasions I see someone buying a house in the movies... tag:www.searchlightcrusade.net,2009://3.4703 2021-10-29T14:00:00Z 2021-10-29T10:45:37Z Dan Melson http://www.searchlightcrusade.net/ I have to admit I'm uncomfortable with it and don't like it. As a buyer's agent, here I am getting paid by someone who not only is not my client, but whose interests are aligned, in most issues, opposite to... tag:www.searchlightcrusade.net,2010://3.5021 2021-10-28T14:00:00Z 2021-10-28T12:16:39Z Dan Melson http://www.searchlightcrusade.net/ This is a warning to those who purchase restricted sale property. I've gotten a couple of calls for refinancing these in the past couple months, and I've never covered this subject. A restricted sale property is one where the... tag:www.searchlightcrusade.net,2010://3.5020 2021-10-27T14:00:00Z 2021-10-27T14:34:44Z Dan Melson http://www.searchlightcrusade.net/ A lot of advice gets given to choose a "top producing" agent. These highly corporate offices may have the name of an individual agent attached to them, but they are in fact transaction mills. They have done pretty well for...