One of my favorite expressions in Real Estate is “as-is”. Unfortunately, it means different things to different people. I don’t hear it as often as I used to but it comes up every now and then so I decided to discuss it. I am not an attorney so this is NOT intended as legal advice. Let’s look at the term from the seller’s perspective first. When a seller tells me that they are selling their property “as-is” they typically mean that they will do no repairs. W...

Pricing is more art than science and its importance cannot be overstated. Every house has a price at which it will sell and different buyers will see a different value when they think about your house. The asking price is one of four tools used to market any product including Real Estate and it is the only one that a seller controls. The others are location, the features and condition of the house and how the house is marketed or exposed to the public. Most sellers will not ...

The preamble of the REALTOR Code of Ethics states that REALTORS “are zealous to maintain and improve the standards of their calling and share with their fellow REALTORS a common responsibility for its integrity and honor…. They identify and take steps, through enforcement of this Code of Ethics…, to eliminate practices which may damage the public or which might discredit or bring dishonor to the real estate profession”. Our most basic purpose is to bring sellers and buyers together...

A Real Estate sale is a negotiation between a buyer and a seller. While either may be more knowledgeable or have better representation than the other, it is a “one-to-one” exchange and most are what we call “arm’s length” meaning that neither party is under duress or pressure. A seller puts their property on the market and prices it however they see fit. A buyer can make an offer based on how much they like it and want to own it. If the sale is financed, an appraiser w...

Many buyers express regrets after moving into their next home. Some feel the need to resell it which can cost thousands of dollars in closing costs not to mention the possibility of their selling it for less than they paid. Others will remain in the house and deal with whatever regrets they have. Over the years many sellers have told me that they should not have bought their house.This is worse than “buyer remorse” which may cause a buyer to terminate an agreement before tak...

While there are many different business models as far as how sellers and buyers compensate their Real Estate representatives, the one that seems to remain the most popular is based on closing a sale meaning that the agents work on full commission. Typically the seller pays the listing broker a fee due at settlement and that broker offers a portion of their fee to buyer agents as an incentive for them to show their listings. Anyone working on a full commission-basis has to constantl...

In the NAR Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice, Article 1 requires that REALTORS “protect and promote the interests of their client” and says that this obligation is primary. Further, we have 6 fiduciary duties owed to clients, meaning that we have a formal representation contract with them, which requires giving them our undivided loyalty, our disclosing all information concerning the transaction that might affect their decisions, our not revealing their confidential information a...

When I began my Real Estate career in 1996 the term “seller assist” was relatively new with many sellers viewing it as an option they could accept or reject without affecting the selling process or their proceeds. While it obviously impacts a seller’s proceeds by reducing the selling price, many felt that they should not provide what is really “closing cost assistance” since nobody helped them buy the house they were now trying to sell. My office is located in an area that always s...

Real Estate, like many professions, has its own vocabulary. In addition to using many acronyms, Real Estate uses what appears to be common words that really mean more than they imply. One such word is “cooperation” which generally means “the process of working together to the same end”. While largely true in Real Estate, a profession which is based on bringing sellers and buyers together, there is more to it than that simple statement. Cooperation among competing profes...

Buying and selling Real Estate is like playing poker: you may not know what the other person is thinking and you have to start the process to see how they play their cards. A seller can pick any asking price and respond to an offer however they wish, if at all. They pick their price but the market, meaning buyers, determines the “value” by comparing houses based on a variety of criteria. The most common are the location, the features of a house and its overall conditio...