[EconProf]

You seem to have all the ingredients necessary to make a go of it: enough money, right age to launch a second career, willingness to learn the business, and enthusiasm. What you will need, when the real bottom comes, is the internal fortitude to steel yourself against the anti-real estate psychology that will prevail then. If history is any guide, the same mass hysteria causing people to defy all logic and buy wildly overpriced properties at the top will be reversed. You will look around you and see the wreckage of years of price declines, and the ruined personal finances of those who took the plunge and lost, and will have second thoughts. I suggest even some current Piggs who are now confident they will jump in at the bottom will really not do so when the time comes.

[EconProf]

You seem to have all the ingredients necessary to make a go of it: enough money, right age to launch a second career, willingness to learn the business, and enthusiasm. What you will need, when the real bottom comes, is the internal fortitude to steel yourself against the anti-real estate psychology that will prevail then. If history is any guide, the same mass hysteria causing people to defy all logic and buy wildly overpriced properties at the top will be reversed. You will look around you and see the wreckage of years of price declines, and the ruined personal finances of those who took the plunge and lost, and will have second thoughts. I suggest even some current Piggs who are now confident they will jump in at the bottom will really not do so when the time comes.

[EconProf]

You seem to have all the ingredients necessary to make a go of it: enough money, right age to launch a second career, willingness to learn the business, and enthusiasm. What you will need, when the real bottom comes, is the internal fortitude to steel yourself against the anti-real estate psychology that will prevail then. If history is any guide, the same mass hysteria causing people to defy all logic and buy wildly overpriced properties at the top will be reversed. You will look around you and see the wreckage of years of price declines, and the ruined personal finances of those who took the plunge and lost, and will have second thoughts. I suggest even some current Piggs who are now confident they will jump in at the bottom will really not do so when the time comes.

[EconProf]

You seem to have all the ingredients necessary to make a go of it: enough money, right age to launch a second career, willingness to learn the business, and enthusiasm. What you will need, when the real bottom comes, is the internal fortitude to steel yourself against the anti-real estate psychology that will prevail then. If history is any guide, the same mass hysteria causing people to defy all logic and buy wildly overpriced properties at the top will be reversed. You will look around you and see the wreckage of years of price declines, and the ruined personal finances of those who took the plunge and lost, and will have second thoughts. I suggest even some current Piggs who are now confident they will jump in at the bottom will really not do so when the time comes.

[EconProf]

You seem to have all the ingredients necessary to make a go of it: enough money, right age to launch a second career, willingness to learn the business, and enthusiasm. What you will need, when the real bottom comes, is the internal fortitude to steel yourself against the anti-real estate psychology that will prevail then. If history is any guide, the same mass hysteria causing people to defy all logic and buy wildly overpriced properties at the top will be reversed. You will look around you and see the wreckage of years of price declines, and the ruined personal finances of those who took the plunge and lost, and will have second thoughts. I suggest even some current Piggs who are now confident they will jump in at the bottom will really not do so when the time comes.

[EconProf]

DWCAP, your last sentence really said it all. Prices are really just the result of supply and demand. Rich foreigners could scoop up a bundle of CA houses, but then they either have to rent them or sell them, to……Californians! They either supply them to the rental market, thus lowering rents, or supply them to the for sale market, thus not changing supply in the long run.
Neither move looks financially feasible, so the rumor of big foreign money moving in is probably a new urban myth.

[EconProf]

DWCAP, your last sentence really said it all. Prices are really just the result of supply and demand. Rich foreigners could scoop up a bundle of CA houses, but then they either have to rent them or sell them, to……Californians! They either supply them to the rental market, thus lowering rents, or supply them to the for sale market, thus not changing supply in the long run.
Neither move looks financially feasible, so the rumor of big foreign money moving in is probably a new urban myth.

[EconProf]

DWCAP, your last sentence really said it all. Prices are really just the result of supply and demand. Rich foreigners could scoop up a bundle of CA houses, but then they either have to rent them or sell them, to……Californians! They either supply them to the rental market, thus lowering rents, or supply them to the for sale market, thus not changing supply in the long run.
Neither move looks financially feasible, so the rumor of big foreign money moving in is probably a new urban myth.

[EconProf]

DWCAP, your last sentence really said it all. Prices are really just the result of supply and demand. Rich foreigners could scoop up a bundle of CA houses, but then they either have to rent them or sell them, to……Californians! They either supply them to the rental market, thus lowering rents, or supply them to the for sale market, thus not changing supply in the long run.
Neither move looks financially feasible, so the rumor of big foreign money moving in is probably a new urban myth.

[EconProf]

DWCAP, your last sentence really said it all. Prices are really just the result of supply and demand. Rich foreigners could scoop up a bundle of CA houses, but then they either have to rent them or sell them, to……Californians! They either supply them to the rental market, thus lowering rents, or supply them to the for sale market, thus not changing supply in the long run.
Neither move looks financially feasible, so the rumor of big foreign money moving in is probably a new urban myth.

[EconProf]

As a free-market economist, I want to believe that people are rational, calculating, and thus staging is a waste of money. Why spend $3000 on outfitting an empty house or condo with phoney furniture, pictures, mirrors, towels and assorted doodads. Buyers are smart enough to see through that act, right?
And yet, it works. I sold 2 new condos 1 year ago in Normal Heights, priced at market. One under contract in 3 weeks; moved the staging next door to the other and it went in 2 weeks.
Frankly, brokers love to bring their clients around to see staged units, and it is often brokers you have to convince to get the sale. A buzz was created, the caravans were heavily attended, and word spread. Worked for me, even though my academic background says it shouldn’t have.

[EconProf]

As a free-market economist, I want to believe that people are rational, calculating, and thus staging is a waste of money. Why spend $3000 on outfitting an empty house or condo with phoney furniture, pictures, mirrors, towels and assorted doodads. Buyers are smart enough to see through that act, right?
And yet, it works. I sold 2 new condos 1 year ago in Normal Heights, priced at market. One under contract in 3 weeks; moved the staging next door to the other and it went in 2 weeks.
Frankly, brokers love to bring their clients around to see staged units, and it is often brokers you have to convince to get the sale. A buzz was created, the caravans were heavily attended, and word spread. Worked for me, even though my academic background says it shouldn’t have.

[EconProf]

As a free-market economist, I want to believe that people are rational, calculating, and thus staging is a waste of money. Why spend $3000 on outfitting an empty house or condo with phoney furniture, pictures, mirrors, towels and assorted doodads. Buyers are smart enough to see through that act, right?
And yet, it works. I sold 2 new condos 1 year ago in Normal Heights, priced at market. One under contract in 3 weeks; moved the staging next door to the other and it went in 2 weeks.
Frankly, brokers love to bring their clients around to see staged units, and it is often brokers you have to convince to get the sale. A buzz was created, the caravans were heavily attended, and word spread. Worked for me, even though my academic background says it shouldn’t have.

[EconProf]

As a free-market economist, I want to believe that people are rational, calculating, and thus staging is a waste of money. Why spend $3000 on outfitting an empty house or condo with phoney furniture, pictures, mirrors, towels and assorted doodads. Buyers are smart enough to see through that act, right?
And yet, it works. I sold 2 new condos 1 year ago in Normal Heights, priced at market. One under contract in 3 weeks; moved the staging next door to the other and it went in 2 weeks.
Frankly, brokers love to bring their clients around to see staged units, and it is often brokers you have to convince to get the sale. A buzz was created, the caravans were heavily attended, and word spread. Worked for me, even though my academic background says it shouldn’t have.

[EconProf]

As a free-market economist, I want to believe that people are rational, calculating, and thus staging is a waste of money. Why spend $3000 on outfitting an empty house or condo with phoney furniture, pictures, mirrors, towels and assorted doodads. Buyers are smart enough to see through that act, right?
And yet, it works. I sold 2 new condos 1 year ago in Normal Heights, priced at market. One under contract in 3 weeks; moved the staging next door to the other and it went in 2 weeks.
Frankly, brokers love to bring their clients around to see staged units, and it is often brokers you have to convince to get the sale. A buzz was created, the caravans were heavily attended, and word spread. Worked for me, even though my academic background says it shouldn’t have.

[Author]

Posts