D20 Real Estate

08/12/2024

05/13/2024

May 24 Market Report! No big surprises; but if your friend tells you they're waiting out the crash, maybe... maybe they should stop waiting.

05/09/2024

Hey babe the new piece of really stunning land just dropped

04/30/2024

I've moved the blog over to Medium, b/c I want more robust options for interacting with it.

Will I stay there? I dunno. Let's see how it goes.

Today I talk about those dumb flyers where someone offers to "Buy Your House For Top Dollar!"

You'll be shocked to learn they're not offering a good deal.

04/24/2024

I'm surprised by this. I need to rethink some of my views.

Most investment properties are owned by "Mom and Pop Investors", defined as people with fewer than 10 Single-Family Residences.

I'm not clear on the source of this information (this is a presentation by KW Utah's Regional Director) or its implications on the housing shortage. But here it is, relatively uneditorialized.

04/23/2024

A bit last minute here, but but I'd love it if you came to this workshop! It's free, and it's digital, and comes with refreshements (meaning: whatever is in your fridge)!

Let me know if you'll be there, and I'll send you hilaaarious chat messagess

04/10/2024

April 2024 Market Report! Predictably, things are heating up!

04/10/2024

Once upon a time I ordered food from Taco Bell using their app. I ordered some food (or whatever) and four sauce packets, because I wanted four sauce packets.

When I arrived at the drive-through, the guy gave me a short little speech along the lines of, "Hey, I just wanted to make sure you're having a great day, and give you the best service possible. So I gave you extra sauce packets." He had given me, like, twenty.

I didn't want twenty sauce packets; I wanted four. I couldn't think of a kind way to return the packets, and I'm not someone who keeps that sort of thing in a drawer in home. So I ate my food (adding four sauce packets) and threw away roughly sixteen.

I think about this interaction a lot, because it taught me something about sales. I place huge importance on giving my best to my clients, and on going beyond their expectations to delight them throughout the transaction, which is natively a very stressful transaction.

That said, I wonder if I sometimes do those things to persuade myself of my own worth, rather than out of a desire to improve the client's situation. Like, do they _want_ detailed neighborhood reports to help with offer price? Or do they just want my recommendation? Am I giving sixteen extra packets of hot sauce when I make reports like that?

The answer, of course, will vary from client to client. I'm grateful, though, for that Taco Bell employee, for planting a voice in my brain that occasionally says, "Are you really doing this for them? Or are you stroking your own ego?"

03/27/2024

Now that we’re all industry experts on compensation thanks to the last article, let’s make peace with the fact that the old system is on death row. Agent compensation practices are dead; long live agent compensation practices!

Let’s inspect the changes that will go into effect if this settlement is accepted by the courts. As things currently stand, these changes will take effect in July.

BUYER REPRESENTATION AGREEMENTS ARE REQUIRED FOR SHOWINGS

These are the agreement (referenced in the previous article) that state in writing the relationship between buyer and agent. These are now required before the agent can show any homes. Apparently, the BBA (remember this term?) wasn’t being used at all in some other states. To me, that seems like dating someone forever who refuses to marry you. It just sounds like a really unpleasant situation for both the agent and the client, with just as much (or more!) drama as the couple that badly needs a Define The Relationship (DTR, another very important industry term). Anyway, here in Utah–the marriage capital of the universe, probably–we were already doing this. At least, something close to it. Let me explain:

[continued in linked article]

03/27/2024

I'm beyond delighted to be presenting this gorgeous Payson rambler to you. 5 beds, 3 baths. Link in comments

03/18/2024

It’s been all the buzz this weekend, and has kind of done me a favor, as it’s helped me keep in touch with a lot of friends and past clients, by having them ask me about it. Yes, I’ve heard about it. The real estate community has been, ah, shall we say “buzzing” about it for months now.

Of course, I’m talking about the lawsuit against the National Association of Realtors (NAR), of which I am a member. Or, as CNN put it, “The 6% commission is gone”, a headline that shows a shocking lack of understanding of what happened.

Assuming the settlement gets court approval, I do not... [link to keep reading in comments]