It’s fairly common, especially for first-time home sellers, to finalize the purchase of their home, receive their money, and then ask, “but where’s the rest of it?” That’s because, if you sell your home for, say, $300,000, you end up receiving significantly less than that in actual cash. Selling a home costs money; there are […]
A home sale is probably the most complicated financial transaction the average American will ever participate in. Hundreds of thousands of dollars change hands, everyone from real estate agents to county officials to bank and mortgage employees are involved. Not to mention local, state, and federal laws have to be satisfied. It’s a lot of […]
When it comes to finding estimated home values online, the two most popular sites are Zillow and Redfin. Zillow’s “Zestimate” and Redfin’s value estimates each offer estimated property values based on proprietary algorithms. These algorithms, as well as much of the data they use to arrive at estimates, are unavailable to the public, so it’s […]
Buying a home or commercial property is one of the biggest financial decisions of your life, and if you’re working with a good local real estate agent, it’s likely they can handle things just fine. An experienced agent is pretty familiar with the local laws and regulations, and can give you a heads up about […]
For years, 3% real estate agents had a virtual monopoly on the real estate market. But traditional agents now face competition from low commission agents who offer 2% or even 1% commission— often for the same services that the full commission agent is offering. What are the drawbacks of these low commission agents, and are […]