When you are submitting an offer in Real Estate, the conventional adage says that you can negotiate for either price or terms, and this largely holds true when you consider what sellers want, which is of course the best combination of the highest price possible at the best possible terms. Taken to an extreme, if you are a seller considering two offers side by side, and one is an all-cash buyer who is willing to close quickly with little to no conditions, chances are you’d be

This week I attended a Small Broker Forum that was put on by our local Association of Realtors, providing an opportunity to share and compare ideas, insights and stories with the other brokers who showed up. In this age where mega agencies like Compass and eXP are continuing to merge and grow, independent brokerages continue to make up the majority of the agent population. According to one of the key brokers who helped organize the event, NAR membership rolls show that about

My investment group recently took back a hotel in Branson Missouri after foreclosing on the note we held against the asset, which we now operate in close collaboration with the onsite team in the wake of years of mismanagement and broken promises by the former operator. There has been widespread positive response to our active efforts to turn things around there, which included rebranding it as The Retro Hotel, leaning into its roots, upgrading and adding amenities to provide

My team and I have been involved in the procurement and sales of an increasing number of rural properties of late, and it bears mentioning that there are some important added variables that need to be factored in when deciding on a home in the country. The obvious ones have to do with the physical aspects of the property’s location, like its views and topography, level of privacy and noise impacts, amount of sunlight and usable land, proximity to commute and desirable locatio

There are many ways of measuring the success of an investment, and the method you choose will largely be influenced by your definition of what success looks like and your tolerance for risk. As we touched upon in our previous discussion, when comparing rates of return of different properties based on their cash flow, we use metrics like Gross Rent Multiplier and Capitalization Rate. That said, to get to the actual bottom line on how the property performs, we need to compare t

The County of Santa Cruz Regional Transportation Commission acquired the 32-mile Santa Cruz Branch Railroad and Right of Way from Union Pacific on October 12, 2012 for $14.2 Million, returning it to local public ownership to preserve it for future transportation uses. Plans for a Light Commuter Rail Line have been proposed alongside bicycle and pedestrian paths, and information for each of these can be viewed on the RTC’s site at sccrtc.org . As part of these plans, the RTC

The main two metrics for analyzing real estate as an investment are its cash flow and its profitability, and for this week I will focus on cash flow. Simply put, cash flow analysis studies the property’s annual income relative to the price it was acquired for. The most basic way to assess a property’s cash flow is to look at the Gross Rent Multiplier, or GRM, which is the total of its annual rents divided by the price paid for the property, including cost of any improvements.

I was recently approached by a couple who have followed my column for years, asking if I felt I might be a good match for a project they were considering. They had recently decided to sell their long-time property to another couple on very favorable terms without putting the property on the market. Their question was whether it would be better to have the transaction handled by an attorney or a real estate broker. My answer was very simple: It depends. In the case of an attor

T he most meaningful part of my work isn’t just helping people buy homes—it’s walking beside them through the highs, heartbreaks, and little miracles that happen along the way. If you’ve ever faced setbacks or needed hope in your own season of change, this story will lift you up. K acie and I first met at an open house, instantly recognizing each other through many mutual friends and she was ready to find a fresh start for herself and her four-year-old daughter. Fi nding the