Selling

Weeds, a Clown, and a Seller Walk Into Court… Transparency Series #23 HOA documents aren't exactly exciting reading. Until they are. I represented a buyer purchasing a home in an HOA. My buyer lived out of state, and during the transaction we received information from the HOA indicating that the seller was not in compliance. The problem? Weeds and...

I keep hearing that we're in a "buyer's market." I've even seen buyer's agents use that as a reason to ask a seller for higher compensation. But that raises a bigger question for me: How should a buyer's agent's compensation actually be determined? I frequently hear agents say, "I've been working with these buyers for two years," as part of the explanation for why they need a certain amount of...

Transparency Series #21 Unfinished Repairs at the Final Walkthrough Clients: "Now what?"Me: "I'm not leaving until we have a solution—and money set aside to make sure the promised repairs are completed. So... let's have lunch."Fortunately, I'd packed a little snack. I had a feeling it was going to be a long day for all of us. Why didn't we walk away?" It's a fair...

When housing stopped being local Part 16 of the Real Estate Transparency Series To start at the beginning of my Transparency Series, go here.  Part 1 During the foreclosure crisis, I learned something that changed the way I look at real estate. I learned what happens when the people making decisions about a home have never actually seen it. At first, that...

“If Buying a Home Is So Personal — Why Is the Industry Becoming So Impersonal?” Part 15 of the Transparency Series. If you are new here, you can go back to the first of my Transparency Series.   Originally, this article was going to focus only on inspection referral pipelines. But the more I wrote, the more I realized something important: It’s not...

Part 14 Rust = Dysfunctional? Says Chuck in a Truck And in Colorado, no state license is required to perform a home inspection. The Word Problem A home built in 2000 is younger than me — we both have to maintain what we have. But rust does not define dysfunctional. So when I reviewed a recent inspection report on an older Denver home and saw 76 out of roughly 100 items labeled...