Man o’ man do I have a pet peeve when I see a contract with “Home Inspection for Informational Purposes Only.” A wolf in sheep’s clothing? What does “Info Only” mean? So if you find information about a $2,000 rotting deck… at least you have the information? Kinda “nice to know?” A wise agent once [...]

Cartus relocation company is a CROC! (that is an opinion, for more opinions Google Cartus sucks). Actually many “relocation” companies that are supposed to help the employee are just fronts for making profit. And they have such a compelling pitch! How could an eligible buyer actually decide to bypass them? EASILY! I’ll explain exactly why [...]

Just some housekeeping. 1) Realtors. Tomorrow (Friday) June 19th 09 at 12-2pm at NVAR Herndon 2) For those of you that read this blog through your email reader, make sure to swing by and check out the new layout http://Blog.FranklyRealty.com We now sell Trust Me I’m A Realtor shirts that you can give your loved [...]

Are you better off buying in Virginia DC and MD AFTER the tax credit expires? Maybe. Everywhere you turn (even CNN.com) you read about the $8,000 1st time homebuyer tax credit and how you need to “Buy Now” (anybody remember that NAR ad from 2006?). Gotta hurry up before the Dec 1st Expiration! (Sidenote: that [...]

Inman News is the #1 organization tracking real estates practices and technologies (outside of the official Realtor association). In San Francisco last month they held their annual five “Innovation Awards” with five finalist in each category. I was shocked to be honored with two finalist positions. One was “Most Innovative Blog,” the other was “Most [...]

(get sneak previews of posts by following my Tweets: @franklyrealty) A Brilliant marketing executive came up with the idea of promoting the “Starter Home” (not to be confused with the “starter wife”). Buy a small home or condo… stay in it for two to four years, use the increase in value, “equity,” and buy a [...]

Too frequently, I get an email from somebody that has been following my blog and tweets for months and is now ready to buy! I get the details of this person’s dream home, including number of bedrooms, lot size and location (don’t get me wrong, most buyers still do their own searching). But then they [...]

How is it that every agent seems to have some “#1″ status or “Top 1%” on their website or business cards (Google #1 Realtor)? Well I’ll explain it for you. Sidenote: I gotta new gig. I’m weekly news correspondent for Inman News. Most of the videos will be agent focused, so I didn’t want to [...]

I’m really excited about this new feature for FranklyMLS.com . Normally I leave all the feature upgrades to franklymls.blogspot.com, but this one graduated to the main blog. I’ve written a lot about Virginia short sales (don’t miss the older “SS 101” post) and a year and a half ago came up with the 1st MLS [...]

I hate the new appraisal system and non-local appraisers. (see video below) Let me explain. The government came up with a brilliant idea to curb another housing meltdown! Assuming (you know what they say: It makes an “Ass out of you and Ming”) most lenders and appraisers were fraudulent, they decided to put a great [...]