All posts categorized under ‘Real Estate Perspective’

Make a comment.

Garage Evolution

Posted on March 9th, 2010 by Richard. Categories: Architecture & Design, Real Estate Perspective.

A garage is something that most of us probably take for granted. But if our cars had to stay outside during weather extremes, we’d appreciate them more. A customer of mine has been looking for a home in an area where most of the homes have garages, but maybe a fifth of the homes do not. Of the ones that do, most of them are detached garages that stand alone from

Make a comment.

Market Activity

Posted on March 4th, 2010 by Richard. Categories: Market Conditions, Real Estate Perspective.

Here’s a graphic representation showing the number of homes on the market in the nine county greater Indianapolis metro area vs. the number of sales there over the last 13 months. The numbers add some general perspective. Comparatively, the market now is slow in relation to earlier months or prior years with record number of transactions…and terrific if you compare to certain months or earlier years with low activity. If you are thinking about selling your home or

Make a comment.

Brokers Open

Posted on February 23rd, 2010 by Richard. Categories: Real Estate Perspective.

I hosted a Brokers Open today at a home I have listed. A Brokers Open is an Open House except only agents are invited. The idea is to have other agents see your listing, gather their ideas on marketing, improve their awareness of it and possibly match the home with one of their buyers either now or the near future. The unusual part for me is that I rarely go to them when other agents have

Make a comment.

Driving the Business

Posted on February 6th, 2010 by Richard. Categories: Market Conditions, Real Estate Perspective.

Sometimes you drive the business…and other times it drives you. That’s just the way it seems that the real estate business works, at least for me. Probably much like any business, the object is to get the phone to ring. I can visit, call, write or email people to contact them or stay in touch. I can host Open Houses, advertise in magazines or on websites, send out mass-mailing campaigns or walk around and

Make a comment.

Absorbtion Rate

Posted on January 7th, 2010 by Richard. Categories: Market Conditions, Real Estate Perspective.

Here’s a graphic representation of recent market activity in the central Indiana, nine-county, Indianapolis Metro area as complied by the F. C. Tucker Company using figures from all member companies of our local real estate board MIBOR. It shows the number of homes on the market vs. homes sold over the last thirteen months. An absorption rate is one way to quantify how strong the market is and also tends to

Make a comment.

Off and Running

Posted on January 3rd, 2010 by Richard. Categories: Market Conditions, Real Estate Perspective.

 

Having a new year has some great benefits. The best one might be that you can leave last year’s baggage behind and start off with a clean slate. A lot of people would probably like to do that with last year. It’s going to be interesting to see how 2010 unfolds. Each one seems to have a distinct personality. It feels like there is even more of a change because it’s

Make a comment.

Smart Improvements

Posted on December 17th, 2009 by Richard. Categories: Real Estate Perspective.

I once was provided a report that ranked home improvements comparing the return that one would get back comparing dollar spent to dollar received if someone were to do the improvement and then sell the home afterwards. Different areas of the country and different cities had different results. Some areas had higher returns for certain improvements while other areas had lower numbers than ours. Here’s what it said about the Indianapolis market. If one were to do a bathroom