Recently I was speaking with a women who had inherited a Reston condo from her mother. The condo was in a high rise very close to the soon to open Silver Line Metro stop at the Reston Town Center. She was trying to decide whether she should sell the home now or rent it and […]
You finally have the home of your dreams under contract. You and the seller have agreed on home inspection repairs. Even the appraisal is done and acceptable to all parties. The lender says your credit is great and the loan is sailing through processing. You think you are home free. Not so fast…… I’ve seen […]
I was recently reading Michael Lewis’ book, “The Undoing Project” which is about two Israeli psychologists who developed several innovative decision making theories. Some suggested that perhaps we are not as rational as we think we are. In chapter 9 there is a long discussion on the theory of regret. They discovered that people did […]
During the last week of January, I was fortunate enough to be in Florida playing baseball while Northern Virginia shoveled out from under 2+ feet of snow. While on the field one day, I looked up and saw a drone hovering overhead filming our warm ups. It got me thinking about the whole drone phenomenon. […]
There are many decisions you need to make when buying a piece of real estate. Some are obvious – price, settlement date, inspection clauses, loan type etc. How to take title is one decision people often do not think about but should as it can have a huge impact on your future financial well being […]
I have been helping buyers and sellers in Northern Virginia for over 25 years. During that time, I have seen many crazy twists and turns in real estate transactions. Still, I have not seen everything. There is always some new angle that I have not encountered but most “surprises” I see coming and make sure […]
Yes, satisifcer is a word, at least according to Barry Schwartz, a Swarthmore College professor and author of The Paradox of Choice. If you are not a satisficer, you are probably a maximizer. Whichever mindset you employ will dictate how you search for a home. More on that shortly. I was introduced to the satisficer/maximizer […]
We all know that you can buy stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, options and other wall street products within an IRA. Did you know that you can also buy investment real estate within your IRA? Traditional brokerage houses are not set up to do this but by opening a self directed IRA(SDIRA) you are free […]
Yesterday in a report on Bloomberg News and picked up by other services, it was reported that Ben Bernanke, while speaking at an investment conference, stated he recently tried to refinance his mortgage and his application was denied. Huh? The former Fed Chair can’t get a mortgage? Is this a joke? It is not. Upon […]
Some businesses advertise extensively to find new customers or clients. Others depend on referrals and repeat business from past clients. I am certainly in the latter. After 25 years, I have helped hundreds and hundreds of families buy and sell homes. And now over 90% of my business is from past clients and referrals. The […]
