Things Left Behind

Houseplants

When a seller leaves their house for a buyer at closing, they are supposed to leave it empty and in broom clean condition. Fixtures that were agreed upon during the contract signing remain. Items like kitchen appliances, attached lighting, sometimes draperies. The buyer has a chance to do a final walk through before their closing to make sure the house is empty other than what should remain and that no damage has occurred since the

An Offer’s Strength: Financing

Multi-Family

How strong is the bid we just submitted for that property you love? Are you going to get the house? Sellers are receiving multiple offers on a regular occasion this spring. Buyers are lined up, anxious to buy a home, and willing to submit offers on homes as soon as they hit the market. In many cases buyers know they need to write up their best offer immediately – there may not be an opportunity

Radon Mitigation Systems

Radon Mitigation System

We’ve written about radon a couple times in the past. Once as an overview to the issue and once when we tested the radon levels in our home. But I don’t think we’ve ever written about the mitigation system itself. A radon mitigation system is just a white PVC tube starting under the foundation and exhausting outside. There is a fan inside the pipe that blows air from out from under the basement. Radon is

Domino Deals

When I was a kid, stacking dominoes was a favorite pastime for rainy days. Make intricate patterns, twists and turns, jumps. It was entertaining to see just how long you could make the chain and watch one knock down the next. These days I work with a different kind of domino; Domino Deals. That’s when there is one transaction that is dependent on another moving forward in order to happen. For example, a buyer wants

The Evolution of Appraisal Risk

Real estate appraisals have been a hot button issue over the past few years. First, appraisers were implicated as a contributing factor to the real estate bubble in the mid 2000s. The line of thinking was that they were focused less on the accuracy of their results than on their next deal. Next, the government responded by clamping down on the appraisal process to prevent lenders and real estate agents (who were both also implicated