by Joan Byrnes for Real Estate
I usually write about the things you should do when you want to sell or buy a home. Sometimes there are suggestions mixed in about what not to do and that’s the foundation of this week’s column. It’s pretty easy to get caught up in looking forward to where you’re going to relocate next when your home sells. However, let’s not put the cart before the horse-Most of the time sellers-need or want to sell their current home in order to make that transition into the new one.
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by Karl Schroeder for Finance
Call us old fashioned, but we think fundamentals still count. Yes, this is like part IV of our rant about stock markets versus a market of stocks. Fundamentals are the revenues, earnings, dividends of companies that allow us to separate the wheat from the chaff in stocks. We recently read an article that quoted a dire prediction that the US stock market will have to go below 1000 (Dow points) before it completes some super-duper cycle target based on what the market did back in 1871 (or was it 1873?).
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by Karl Schroeder for Finance
Back In The Good Old Days
Yes, this is another of those “back in the good old days, when men were men” kind of stories from the old guy in the back. We have to report these to you just because it helps give some perspective on what is going on today and how that differs from how things used to be.
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by Joan Byrnes for Real Estate
Market value is the main concept you must understand when determining the value of your home. But what is it and how can it help you price your home?
What is market value?
Market value is the amount prospective buyers are willing to pay at the time homeowners are ready to sell. The best way to find out the market value of your home is to ask me for help. You will be able to decide what the best price for your home is by allowing me to provide and discuss with you a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA).
What is a CMA?
The CMA will include homes in your area that are currently on the market, expired from the market, pending a sale and already sold within the last three to six months. Of course, the best indicator of your home’s value is the price for similar homes in your area that have already been sold. The comparison is based on the proximity to your home and the similarity of characteristics such as lot size, square footage, number of bedrooms and baths, etc.
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by Karl Schroeder for Finance
John Maynard Keynes lived from the later 19th century until the 1940s. He saw a world that developed right before his eyes. He was a major economic voice during the period immediately after World War I and developed his General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money as he watched the economies of Europe fall into depression in the 1920s. Keynes’ theory was all about demand management (our economist friends will get us for that one). As Keynes saw the world, you could pretty much count on producers producing stuff in the hopes of getting rich. The issues surrounding the post-World War I world were all about demand rather than production. Simplistically, Keynes theorized that when private demand for stuff failed, public demand for stuff should step up and fill that gap. If we were producing too much steel, the government should buy steel so the steel mills will keep operating. If we were producing too much food, the government should buy the excess food to maintain prices. You probably see where this is going. Keynes described the world where we all now live with the government as a major economic actor.
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