The Little Realtor

 If you are just starting to think about buying or selling this year, its worth taking a moment to get familiar with the covid-era market. Its a bit crazy out there....  Zillow has recently noted that the greater Philadelphia area is seeing a 10% increase and will continue to do so this Spring and potentially into the next year.  On the Buy-Side  If you are a prospective buyer, be ready for a difficult market. Inventory was short before the pandemic. Often, on desirable properties, we would see 5-15 offers on a home. Multiple offer scenarios were certainly a common scenario. But then came covid, market falls and thus, record-low interest rates. At first, with the real estate market closed for business, we only began to see interest drive up. People were still unsure about going out into the world and sellers were weary of putting their homes on the market. But as time went on, and interest rates remained low, the market heated up.  When 2021 began, things got particularly rough. Janua

Piggy-backing off of yesterday's post, how does one look into a new area and decide where they want to live? Especially post-covid when buyers are looking at all new, more-affordable areas when working completely virtually, it can be difficult to nail down exactly where Home might be.  Here are my tips for doing your research on exploring a new area and picking your new neighborhood.  Matt Donders on Unsplash 1) Even if you don't have kids, mine data on school districts  You might not have kids now, or may never want them, or maybe you are an empty nester who doesn't need to shop school districts - regardless, educate yourself about the school districts for potential resale. If you think an entire school district is the same but you fall within the one poorly-ranked elementary school in the district, then you are buying in a less desirable area and thus should know that before purchase.  Review sites such as GreatSchools.org, Niche.com and Schooldigger.com for basic rankin

One of the hardest parts of my job as a real estate agent is helping people decide for themselves.  While there are some people who ask professionals to spell out everything so they can make their own, informed decisions, most people hire out professionals to make a call for them based on expertise. Your accountant might fill out your tax forms for you, your doctor recommends medicines, your mechanic suggests car maintenance, etc. We don't have to do what they say, but we often do, leaning on their expertise.  A real estate agent is asked to do much the same but ultimately we have a fiduciary duty to our clients to educate our clients and allow them to make their own, informed decisions. Often, this is frustrating to clients who just want us to tell them what to do.  Here are the most common scenarios where a client wants their agent to do something they legally can't, or at least shouldn't, do:  Alec Douglas on Unsplash 1) A client wants to know more about a neighborhood 

 Its been 5 months since my last post. Thats an awful feeling. While I haven't been away from real estate by any means, I've taken the last few months to scale back on non-client-focused matters as I had my daughter, Ellie, in November of 2020.  As of this week, I'm happy to be back full time to my business, both client-focused and working on increasing my outreach to those who may need my services.  Its already a crazy market this Spring. One of the most lop-sided and limiting I've seen (more on that soon!). But its a pleasure to work in this industry, helping people get to their financial and emotional dreams, and I'm happy to be back!  --- Know of someone looking to buy or sell this year?  Email me at meg.augustin@foxroach.com or call/text at 215-350-0464