Some research by Trulia caught my eye recently. It presented an in-depth analysis of buying/owning a home versus renting. It did this analysis for dozens of markets across the country and concluded that buying beats renting in most cases. Unlike so many of the articles I see on this topic, I thought Trulia did a valid kumquats-to-kumquats comparison (apples-to-apples is …
A previous post explained why buying a home is more financially advantageous than renting in the current Denver market. It was an argument made in a Trulia post I read recently. As good as it was, the article left out one variable that I wanted to explore a bit — namely, appreciation in the value of the home. In the Trulia piece, …
One of my daughters told me about a friend that negotiated a price on a condo she bought in Chicago based on the Zillow Zestimate of the value of property. Ouch! Those zanny Zillow Zestimates (how much alliteration can I squeeze in here) are familiar to many of you. If not, just know that a “Zestimate” is Zillow’s term for their estimate …
We’ve collected a series of posts related to Innovation — we call it “Thinking outside the Trapezoid”. Yes. We know. The typical phrase is “thinking outside the box.” However, that phrase is a traditional metaphor for the idea of thinking in innovative and creative ways. Using it is, in and of itself, not very creative and innovative and therefore not …
Many homes are getting sold prior to officially going on the market these days. It can happen for a variety of reasons. Some are outright sinister and unethical. Even when done innocently and naively, it is a strategy that often causes you to put less money in your pocket than you otherwise would. Here is a scenario that happened recently. …
A lot of real estate agents are just there for you when you buy or sell. That is one of those conventional approaches that we don’t think makes sense. CHR agents want to be there for you not only when you are buying and selling but also while you are owning your property. For example, we can help you …
Many real estate companies try to out bid each other on marketing. They tout their 89-point marketing plan or 117-point marketing plan or 2,533-point marketing plan. It seems to be driven by a “more is better” philosophy. It gets kind of silly. The marketing plan we’ve adopted at CHR is different. Rather than just do a bunch of stuff without …
One of the first things I was told when I started working as a real estate agent is that I had a solemn moral and ethical obligation to scare the #@%*^ (daylights) out of sellers about the dangers of over pricing their homes. Grizzled veterans explained that over pricing a home leads to many bad things: fewer showings, longer time …
Thinking of selling one home and buying another? A “feasibility study is a good place to start. It shows you how much money you’ll put in your pocket if you have a house to sell and outlines the cash and monthly payments required to get that house you’d love to buy. See a sample feasibility study HERE.