A bazillion years ago in the land of make believe real estate, there wasn’t a thing called buyer agency. All real estate agents either represented the seller directly or were a “sub-agent” of the seller. I personally call this submarine agency since these were agents lurking beneath the waters torpedoing buyers with “representation.” What…
The first quarter came to an end a couple of weeks ago which means we have a bit more data to work with regarding home sales. I know some of you are armed with tax return checks and wondering if it might be time to dive into the real estate market. So here’s my opinion……
In 2007, NAR came out with the now infamous “It’s a good time to buy” campaign. As home prices tumbled and the bubble had partially burst, NAR came out with the public confidence building campaign to encourage home ownership. This, of course, backfired with consumers and was distasteful to many agents who were sitting down…
It has been called the “bridge to nowhere” by local Salem residents, but make no mistake that distinction won’t last much longer. Local real estate developer, FantaMagic Properties, has purchased the land on Minto Brown Island and plans were recently approved by the city. “We are really excited to see what happens with the development,”…
Before there were calculators, there were fingers. If you needed more than 10, well you had toes for that. Need more than that? Move onto sticks, marbles, or those highly florescent humongous jaw-breakers, because let’s face it, everyone looks stupid with one of those things in their mouth so you might as well use them…
“Aren’t you looking to increase your internet presence?” questioned the voice on the other end of the line. Ah…the tie-down question. A tie-down question is a pressure technique used to make people answer a question with a yes that would make them sound stupid if they said no. What business would say no to wanting…
All industries have an internal culture and politics that define systems and ways to conduct business. Most of us don’t care about the internal politics unless it affects us directly. When I go to the doctor, I want the doctor paying attention to me and providing service to me. I’m selfish that way if I’m paying…
Useless data. I live for it. What can I say? When running the normal foreclosure numbers for you all, I decided since I have all these numbers just sitting there, I needed to do something with it. So here you go, Melina’s fun facts about foreclosures in Salem Oregon. Okay, I know what you are…
Home prices have continued to decline in Keizer, just like Salem. The question is whether or not I was accurate in my predictions from last year. I have an ego to maintain, you know. Last year I predicted a 5% decline in home prices and a flat line in home sales. So how did I…
Last year my crystal ball was off by 1.6%. You’ll recall, I failed to eat my Wheaties and ended up erring on how much the market was going to correct for 2010. For 2011, I guessed 5-7% with a possible 10% correction at most. Well, Salem Oregon maxed out in 2011. The average home…