Everything I have written about the apples shown above is true. They really are fat free and gluten free and they have no preservatives . . so buy my apples today!

I often see real estate agents market their services in a similar manner. They may offer a “Free market analysis” or “CMA”, yet that is a service agents rarely charge for.

When houses are selling quickly some agents will use the fact that they sold a house quickly in their marketing.

Advertising that we get more for your home is a no brainer. How much is more? How can it be proven?

Some real estate companies advertise that they will sell your house “as is”. Any real estate company can sell your house “as is”. Fixing up a home before putting it on the market isn’t a requirement.

A do it your self for sale by owner company may advertise that you can use them instead of a Realtor but the companies are owned and operated by Realtors. They operate under a business model where the home owner does most of the work.

Do you need to have open houses to sell your house? No. Many homes are sold without ever being held open. The purpose of an open house is for the real estate agent to prospect.

There is an ancient legend about a “going rate” for commission. That rate is higher than what we typically charge. There is no going rate. Have you ever seen a Realtor price list published on a web site? Of course you haven’t commissions are negotiable.

Buyer’s agents services used to be free until someone figured out that home sellers are paying buyer’s agent commissions and the money is either coming out of their bottom line or out of the price of the house.

Mortgages can’t be used to finance Realtor commissions. However, when Realtors are paid from the proceeds of a home sale and the buyer is financing the purchase, the buyer’s agent commissions are being paid with a mortgage indirectly. It’s kind of like legal money laundering.

. . oh and while I am at it watch out for that huge fee that some real estate companies include in their charges. The fee is supposed to be negotiable but from what I have seen the agent has to pay it if they can’t get the buyer of seller to pay it.

Yes, you can buy apples that do not have any high fructose corn syrup in them. . . but hurry while supplies last!

There are only two things that could happen that will bring housing prices down:

Lower demand

Higher supply

Tax credits or rebates will not bring housing prices down and neither will lower Realtor commissions. Housing prices keep rising because the demand is high and the supply is low.

We are seeing some relief in multifamily housing due to all the recent new construction of apartment buildings. The supply is higher which means rents are not going up as much.

During the great recession and the housing market crash builders stopped building new houses.  The population continued to grow and that drove up demand. There is a lot more new construction now than there was a few years ago. In general there isn’t enough of that middle and lower income housing.

Housing costs contribute to inflation. When inflation rises the federal reserve raises rates which in turn causes mortgage interest rates to rise which makes housing more expensive and that rising cost contributes to inflation. It is a cycle that we don’t seem to be able to get out of.

There is a lot of finger pointing but so far that hasn’t made housing more affordable. The laws of supply and demand can not be ignored.

Housing prices generally do not go down but if they stopped going up that would help the economy and home buyers too.