Chris Griffith: Create community by paying it forward
On the west side of tumbleweed peppered, middle-of-nowhere, Texas, I drove past a cyclist pulling a wagon with a sign on it that read in part, cycling for cancer. I wondered who in his life he had lost...
View ArticleChris Griffith: Truth in advertising not always so true
It’s a no brainer that pictures sell real estate, especially in the digital age. What is surprising is that there are still so many homes skating by or even floundering in the real estate market...
View ArticleChris Griffith: Selling your soul for real estate data
Maybe you’re curious about what your home is worth or you’re a serious buyer prowling the web for the latest new listings or price reductions in the area you want to buy a home in, but sooner or later,...
View ArticleChris Griffith: Twinkle lights and hurricane tape
There isn’t a more magical time of the year than Christmas, uh, “the holidays.” A good portion of the masses deck their halls and don their lights with gay apparel as early as, well, before...
View ArticleChris Griffith: Quit claim refis and mortgage questions
A couple of great mortgage questions have come in over the last few weeks…
View ArticleChris Griffith: Full disclosure and paper cuts
About a decade ago I faxed (fax machines were once bleeding edge) a contract to a prospective real estate purchaser. She worked in the Pennsylvania school system and gave me a number at work to fax it...
View ArticleChris Griffith: Selling real estate of the dearly departed
The only thing certain in life is death and taxes … and probably how emotionally taxing death is when liquidating real estate. Selling real estate is stressful enough for some folks without compounding...
View ArticleChris Griffith: Elect to be part of the solution, not the problem
My phone rang a few days ago and it was a friend of mine calling to let me know that she had resigned from the homeowner association board. It takes a special kind of person to participate on an...
View ArticleChris Griffith: Homeowners, real estate market hoping for that Kumbaya moment
Most of the time I fire up my email at dark o’clock and get to work over coffee. Besides the usual emails related to ongoing transactions, every few days I get an email from a client, either past or...
View ArticleChris Griffith: Timing the real estate market is almost like winning the...
When buyers of real estate began cautiously moving back into the Southwest Florida real estate market when there was plentiful inventory at rock bottom prices, there were skeptics questioning whether...
View ArticleChris Griffith: You’ll never know unless you ask
It doesn’t matter what side of the transaction you’re on, sooner or later the question, “What can we ask for,” is going to come up. It’s the nature of the game, human nature even, to question, to...
View ArticleChris Griffith: Buyer’s remorse is going to happen, but don’t drag it out...
Sometimes it’s just the quiet, the way too quiet that is the first sign. Calls aren’t being returned or some type of required, follow up documentation isn’t being produced in a timely fashion.
View ArticleChris Griffith: What happens to your offer after you sign it?
What happens to an offer after signing it? It’s a fair question to ask of whomever is helping you write the offer, whether it’s your attorney or your real estate agent. If your attorney is involved...
View ArticleChris Griffith: Negotiating the “X factor” in real estate
The last ditch grasp … “as long as they pay closing costs.” It never fails, sooner or later there is a negotiation for real estate volleying back and forth and one party will agree with the condition...
View ArticleChris Griffith: The truth about the projected 10 percent value increase
Did you know that the second Tuesday of every month, all of the real estate agents of Southwest Florida show up at a secret location, one minute before midnight, to formulate a plan to manipulate the...
View ArticleChris Griffith: Is selling real estate off-season worth the hassle
There’s no doubt we have a seasonal resident population in Southwest Florida. The other day, I pulled up to an intersection on a busy street and there were no cars coming, either direction. It had been...
View ArticleChris Griffith: Get a comparative market analysis before negotiating sale price
Chances are you probably had a CMA, a comparative market analysis, when you listed your real estate for sale. If you didn’t, you should have. What many home sellers do not realize is that there...
View ArticleChris Griffith: Expect to get bucked off the horse at the first time home...
There’s never been a better time to buy a home…unless the buyer is financing the purchase. It’s not because it is difficult to finance real estate or that the banks aren’t lending, it’s because the...
View ArticleChris Griffith: ‘I’m thinking of getting a real estate license so I can sell...
So I’m up at the dog park trying to burn some energy off of “hell on four legs” and one of the regular dog park attendees strikes up a conversation with me and says, “I’m thinking of getting a real...
View ArticleChris Griffith: Don’t fear ‘as-is’ when purchasing distressed real estate
There’s a nifty little fail safe when writing an offer on real estate, the as-is with the right to inspect contract or the as-is with the right to inspect addendum. Depending upon what side of the...
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