Pat Kennedy - Home in the Capital

When you are the only offer on the table for any house, you may have some bargaining power with the sellers. But in today's market with a small inventory, it's more likely than not that the sellers will be in the driver's seat with two or more (often many more) buyers for their homes. So the sell...

OK. I'm ready to completely give up on NAR.When I did my tax return, I choked on the dues they get out of me every year. But that's not what this is about. And perhaps I was a wee bit annoyed by the whole sexual harassment fiasco that recently got us some great publicity.  But it's not about that...

Yesterday it finally arrived - my shiny gold "Gen 3 Heritage Gold" smart ring. It was a birthday present to myself that promised to make it highly likely that there would be many birthdays to celebrate in the future - um, in my case, the Oura ring and my daily consumption of mushroom supplements....

Last week, I found a bunch of interesting posts that cover the range of issues that are important to real estate professionals.  And here are my favorites:Wanda Kubat-Nerdin: Heavens to Betsey This is one of those cautionary tales about taking shortcuts maintaining your home, or any other piece o...

Here is the DC area, many buyers steer away from cooperative buildings. Usually it has something to do with the ground rules for living in the complex. Oh, and there is also a usually pleasant meeting with to members of the coop Board who must approve your purchase. Still, some of the most desira...

We all do little things that probably annoy our neighbors, and where I live it's having a less than manicured front yard. And right now, most of the perennials that are blooming in mine look like the flower in the photo.  Now, the guy next door does not totally appreciate my choice, since in a fe...

Here are 10 posts that taught me something or made me smile - usually both!  How will I pay my buyer agent, I've barely enough for a down payment? - Nick Vandekar  This is a good read during this time when so many of us are putting together new scripts for buyer clients on this very subject!STAY ...

Back in the day, a wise old broker told me, "Pat, if this was easy, they wouldn't pay you so much for doing it!" And through the decades, there have been so many situations were this wisdom snuck back into my brain.Here are a few transaction-destroying examples of unexpected surprises that can de...

These days, it's not unusual to see blog posts, or newspaper articles, about some real estate agent being caught red-handed doing things that are illegal, immoral, or just incredibly dumb while they are on someone else's property listed for sale.  They forgot.Big Brother is very likely to be watc...

One of the first ActiveRain bloggers I met in person was Cindy Jones.  She lives and sells homes in nearby Virginia, and she could be counted on to make any local RainCamp, meetup or just a fun lunch somewhere near the Occaquan River a whole lot of fun. Cindy was at my first ActiveRain meetup (se...