This seems to be the number-one question. It is a terrible question based on terrible assumptions: How much over asking price should I offer, on average? Don’t assume that asking prices are based on Fair Market Value. In reality, asking prices are a made-up number intended to get the highest number of offers, so that
It happens almost every year. Sometime in winter, buyers come to us thinking they might get a leftover/mismarketed property for a good price. Or they come in, excited, to get a jump on the spring market. Sometimes this leads to great results. There will be some properties that didn’t sell in the fall where the
Real estate sites like Zillow use the data from local Multiple Listing Services (MLS), and then add additional properties for sale by people who are not using the MLS. If you are looking at Zillow, all the properties read, “(type of property) for sale.” That works. However, you then need to click on the property
Anyone following real estate in the past three years or so has run into people who think that home inspection is (or should be) optional. Waiving home inspection has become a negotiation tool. This thinking plays into the interests of professional investors and hurts people who plan to owner-occupy their homes. It particularly harms first-time
I’ve gotten some messages from former clients who follow business news. There are some big-deal lawsuits flying around regarding the Multiple Listing Service and buyer agent compensation. The outcome of recent lawsuits is likely to increase seller awareness of the part of the commission that is paid to the buyer’s agent who brings an informed
According to Andrew Yun, the economic advisor for the National Association of Realtors, there has been a shift in buying patterns in recent years. The largest number of property buyers are Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964). This is not typical. What is more “normal” would be that young adults are the largest group of buyers. This
When should you start to plan buying a house? The answer is that you can plan long ahead, and it can only help you when the right time comes. I coach my clients to buy a home that will serve them — given their best guesses about the future – for the next seven to
The local real estate market looks a different from the national market snapshot, which I summarized two weeks ago. Eastern Massachusetts has an acute housing shortage, and that is allowing a seller’s market to remain despite the high interest rates that are reducing a buyer’s spending power. The bottom line is that prices are still
House hunting idea: two households band together and buy a two-family house together. Massachusetts allows owners of two-family and three-family houses to convert them into two or more condos. This is not typical in other parts of the country. There are lots of advantages to buying a two-family house, especially in our high-price condo market.
We’re in the discouraging time of the real estate year, as buyer’s agents. April and May are the peak months for competition among buyers for properties for sale. In other words, bidding war season. There are bidding wars all year, but more so in the spring. As properties are coming onto the market (which began