You are hearing the stories. I know. “…there were ten offers on every property and everything sells for $50,000 above asking price.” “NO ONE is buying with a home inspection…” “If you don’t have cash, you can’t buy in (name the town here.” The stories are true, but they are not true. Some properties are
Housing is all about the schools. This created the situation that springtime house hunters face in most areas around Boston. A little perspective: In the book The Two Income Trap, one of the ongoing tropes is that the pressure to send one’s children to “good” schools underlies the competition for houses in well-regarded schools systems.
Anyone trying to make a point will try to “sell” you on the idea. Try to make you agree. Try to make you fear the consequences of disagreeing. That’s how sales works. That’s how politics work. Our clients deserve better than that. In 2017, I attended Harness Your Negotiation Power with Buyers through my professional
Danger! Open house It has long been obvious to us that open houses are not safe for the owners of the house. Agents for the seller cannot protect the house, were someone to come in with a notion to steal. Recently, an incident was reported to the police in Weston, where drugs were stolen from
The Massachusetts Association of Realtors® frequently has political initiatives that we are against. As a member, I refrain from assisting them in these actions. I notify my representative that I am a member of the association, but disagree on a particular policy. This summer, my association embarrassed me by fighting tooth and nail against mandatory
How well do exclusive buyer’s agents do, in the face of a tough seller’s market? Here are results for the hardest seller’s market we have faced, ever! Our report card for the first half of 2016: Total amount under original asking negotiated by -$213,500 Total amount negotiated after inspections: -$19,000 Total paid over asking price
Are you looking at buying a condo in a building that’s still being built? Here are the tell-tale signs that you are being given the hard sell: You are brought into a showroom. You are offered a drink, and sometimes food. You are shown the materials that will be used. You are shown a chart
How well do exclusive buyer’s agents do, in the face of a tough seller’s market? Here are results for the hardest seller’s market we have faced, ever! Our report card for the first three quarters of 2015: No clients waived their home inspections in order to buy a house. No clients waived mortgage contingency unless
When is the best time of year to buy a home? RealtyTrac took a big data approach to this question, analyzing 32 million single family home and condo sales over the past 15 years. They compared average sale prices to average estimated market value at the time of sale to determine whether buyers paid a
More data is not better data. I advise my clients to look for indications of negotiation points, like comparable sales, the seller buying another property, and neighborhood issues that are chasing the seller from their property (this is common if a building project is nearby or the taxes just went up… that kind of thing.)