Colorful First Impressions

Put yourself in the shoes of a buyer. You’ve seen a listing on the internet that looks interesting and have contacted your agent to set up a showing. After arriving at the property, you wait in your car for a moment or two before getting out. You then walk up to the front door and meet your agent, who has arrived early to open the home and turn on the lights for the showing. So

Negotiation Personalities in Real Estate

As a real estate agent, one of my responsibilities is to assist both buyers and sellers with negotiations. This is usually one of my favorite parts of the job because it entails doing research, providing advice, and formulating positions and strategies for my clients. Then I have conversations with the other party’s agent to see if we can get the buyer and seller to come together. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Because real estate

My Thoughts on the 2009 Homebuyer Credit

This was quite a busy week with all of the news coming out of Washington. I finally have some time to sit down and write, so here are my thoughts on one of the recent happenings… I work with a lot of first time homebuyers, so the $8,000 credit was of particular interest to me. First time buyers (and those that don’t currently own who haven’t purchased a home in the past 3 years) will

Worky Work, Busy Bee!

In the last week, I’ve shown 28 houses to 7 different buyer clients. A couple of them have found the right home for them and we’re working on offers. One of them is in a multiple offer situation right now. Another agent in my office was involved in a different multiple offer situation yesterday. A couple of my sellers are working on offers too. Negotiations on both sides seem to be taking longer, but deals

"Sellers Are Motivated"

Sometimes I see these words written in the MLS listing for a property. Sometimes agents tell me this when I call to schedule showings or when I’m called to give showing feedback. “Sellers are motivated” gives me pause for a few reasons. First, and most importantly, if you’re the seller in this situation, I really hope you’ve given your agent written permission to say such things. If you have not given your agent written permission