All Forum Posts by: Laura Kastner

How do you know it's not showing all active listings? And if you just put in 2 guests and any dates, that should give you your best chance to see what's out there....

 To use your $500k example, if someone out there is willing and able to pay $500k, that makes it a $500k home. Once one or two of those close, it's a $500k neighborhood, and now the data is there, so appraisals will start hitting $500k.

The very first buyers to come along and "set the comps" to make it a $500k 'hood, often, are folks that have that extra $100k sitting around.

So, basically, if you aren't that person, then you just wait until the comps support it. Then you buy. Or you can look at less desirable homes.

The market is what it is. If there was a quick fix way to "creative" out of that fact, someone else would do it, inclusive of those folks that do have that extra $100k sitting around, and that means they have the "creative" magic AND the $100k, so they still win.

Consumers getting above average deals, in this market, are the ones going seller-direct. Not MLS, that's too late. Not FSBO, that's too late too, and with a penny pincher delusional seller who thinks they know everything because they can google search to boot, that's hurting things for the buyer, not helping (as drama goes up, probability of closing goes down). You are the first person that homeowner talks to, and the last, about selling that home -- that is the winning "creative hack" (or whatever you want to call it). This often means that this buyer has 5+ years of sales or marketing experience, they know how to close someone (people talk smack about "scummy car salespersons," but professions like that are often the very folks that win -- and win big -- in this market).

@Laura Kastner

https://www.airdna.co/blog/bes...

@Brandon Carlson I literally just read that this morning. good call. the thing i really dislike about airdna is you only get one market unless you shell out a bunch more money. due to low supply, im having to look at like 5-6 areas. so…that sucks

@Laura Kastner

Hi. As far as determining which STRs are top performers, you can use tools like Pricelab and AirDNA. My suggestions are to pick markets close to you unless you plan to use a Property Manager that specializes in STRs.

You can speak with your lender to assist you with the appraisal gap as far as winning bids. I recently represented a buyer and the appraisal came in $18k light. The lender adjusted my client's downpayment to make up the difference. By doing this, it didn't affect our escrow and my client didn't have to come up with the difference. Another strategy is your agent can negotiate with the sellers to see if they can make up the difference or meet you in the middle.