Ethical Homes

The latest news on real estate in the metro DC area. Read the rest of this entry »

It was pointed out to me that I often provide a Fair Trade service to FSBOs that I didn’t have listed on the relevant page of my website—providing CMAs to FSBOs—so I updated that page to include that service as well.

Real estate, sadly, is one of those fields where a consultative model hasn’t yet caught on—most people aren’t willing to pay an expert just to advise them, whereas they do seem willing to do so (albeit begrudgingly) for lawyers, accountants, and other professionals. Realtors thus earn their livings by representing people who are either buying or selling property, and receiving a commission based on the final sales price of that property; given that fact, why would a Realtor be willing to help people who are trying to sell their homes without using a broker to represent them? Read the rest of this entry »

As I mentioned in the “Why Would A Realtor Help A FSBO?” article, I try to provide as much general real estate information as I can to anyone who needs it. There are many other services that I could also provide, of course, but most of those either enter the realm of providing actual brokerage services (which by law I can’t do for anyone with whom I don’t have a contractual relationship to provide those services) or consume a non-trivial amount of resources on my part. There’s no way that I can provide the former services to FSBOs, unfortunately, but I have no problem providing the latter so long as my basic rule of doing business is followed: the transaction must result in a “win-win” situation, of mutual benefit to everyone involved; among Realtors, these exchanges are referred to as “Fair Trades”. Read the rest of this entry »