CHRIS GRIFFITH

There’s a nifty little fail safe when writing an offer on real estate, the as-is with the right to inspect contract or the as-is with the right to inspect addendum. Depending upon what side of the fence you’re on, it’s ...

So I’m up at the dog park trying to burn some energy off of “hell on four legs” and one of the regular dog park attendees strikes up a conversation with me and says, “I’m thinking of getting a real ...

There’s never been a better time to buy a home…unless the buyer is financing the purchase. It’s not because it is difficult to finance real estate or that the banks aren’t lending, it’s because the entry level real estate market ...

Chances are you probably had a CMA, a comparative market analysis, when you listed your real estate for sale. If you didn’t, you should have. What many home sellers do not realize is that there probably should be more than ...

There’s no doubt we have a seasonal resident population in Southwest Florida. The other day, I pulled up to an intersection on a busy street and there were no cars coming, either direction. It had been months of bumper to ...

Did you know that the second Tuesday of every month, all of the real estate agents of Southwest Florida show up at a secret location, one minute before midnight, to formulate a plan to manipulate the entire real estate industry? ...

The last ditch grasp … “as long as they pay closing costs.” It never fails, sooner or later there is a negotiation for real estate volleying back and forth and one party will agree with the condition of “as long ...

What happens to an offer after signing it? It’s a fair question to ask of whomever is helping you write the offer, whether it’s your attorney or your real estate agent. If your attorney is involved they’re generally concerned with ...

Sometimes it’s just the quiet, the way too quiet that is the first sign. Calls aren’t being returned or some type of required, follow up documentation isn’t being produced in a timely fashion.

It doesn’t matter what side of the transaction you’re on, sooner or later the question, “What can we ask for,” is going to come up. It’s the nature of the game, human nature even, to question, to negotiate or renegotiate ...

When buyers of real estate began cautiously moving back into the Southwest Florida real estate market when there was plentiful inventory at rock bottom prices, there were skeptics questioning whether it was the right time to buy.

Most of the time I fire up my email at dark o’clock and get to work over coffee. Besides the usual emails related to ongoing transactions, every few days I get an email from a client, either past or present, ...

My phone rang a few days ago and it was a friend of mine calling to let me know that she had resigned from the homeowner association board. It takes a special kind of person to participate on an association ...

The only thing certain in life is death and taxes … and probably how emotionally taxing death is when liquidating real estate. Selling real estate is stressful enough for some folks without compounding it with the emotional burden of liquidating ...

About a decade ago I faxed (fax machines were once bleeding edge) a contract to a prospective real estate purchaser. She worked in the Pennsylvania school system and gave me a number at work to fax it to. A few ...

A couple of great mortgage questions have come in over the last few weeks…

There isn’t a more magical time of the year than Christmas, uh, “the holidays.” A good portion of the masses deck their halls and don their lights with gay apparel as early as, well, before Thanksgiving now.

Maybe you’re curious about what your home is worth or you’re a serious buyer prowling the web for the latest new listings or price reductions in the area you want to buy a home in, but sooner or later, a ...

It’s a no brainer that pictures sell real estate, especially in the digital age. What is surprising is that there are still so many homes skating by or even floundering in the real estate market without proper or, at the ...

On the west side of tumbleweed peppered, middle-of-nowhere, Texas, I drove past a cyclist pulling a wagon with a sign on it that read in part, cycling for cancer. I wondered who in his life he had lost to the ...

Sometimes buyers back out. There you are, minding your own beeswax. You’ve tended your real estate, preparing it for sale the way a dutiful seller should, shining it sparkling clean, pricing it right, listing it for sale and before you ...

Who doesn’t like a great value on anything that they purchase, whether it’s a car, gym shoes or real estate? Housing and real estate present a special dilemma for consumers in years of late. As a nation and as a ...

For years we had a family inside joke, “Save the cheerleader, save the world.” It’s a line from the cancelled sci-fi TV show “Heroes.” Since we had a diehard cheerleader in the family it was the perfect smart-aleck thing to ...

Never could anyone have imagined just a few short years ago that social media would be such an important way to advertise and sell real estate. With the technological advances that have developed over the last decade, we’re well beyond ...

For as long as I’ve been a real estate agent there’s been a variety of common questions consumers ask which seem to never go away. Besides the common real estate questions regarding purchasing are selling, there are the questions about ...

It’s mail day! There have been a variety of question regarding home inspections from both buyers and sellers. Here’s the latest and greatest from the mail bag that I’m able to squeeze into 600-ish words or less.

Most people, regardless of what they do for a living, now have an email brimming with speed of light requests to get things done. Email and the Internet have revolutionized the way the world does business and has become one ...

There’s no crying in real estate. At least there really shouldn’t be. Typically, all parties involved in the transaction have a common goal for real estate to change hands so what is it that makes it all go haywire?

The snowbirds are on their way. This year, like many of the other years, the first signs of their return are the transport trucks delivering their automobiles. To that end, let it be known that a winner of the Facebook ...

This is going to be exciting! There is nothing more exciting than talking about numbers, budgets and statistics to get everyone hanging on the edge of their seats … or the abyss to boredom. End sarcasm here.

So there you are, minding your business and your agent calls with the great news that you’ve received an offer for your real estate. Hopefully, the offer price isn’t going to sting and leave a mark. If it’s a “low ...

If Charlie Rich was a real estate agent he would have totally written something different about what goes on behind closed doors. Most homeowners run a decent household with some form of predictable lifestyle behind the closed doors but every ...

When I was growing up in northern Ohio I recall finding Indian artifacts in the fields. I grew up on a farm near the river and not far from Lake Erie so it would appear that it was a primo ...

More often than not there is a buyer at the other end of the phone or an email requesting help in purchasing a foreclosure. Today, I actually received an email asking what’s the best value is, foreclosure or short sale?

A bona fide plumber was needed for a listing that was threatening to (hell nearly froze over) finally close. It was one of those 11th hour emergency calls and I started working my way down a list of saved numbers ...

Q: Do I have to use a real estate agent in the state of Florida? Well, probably not. Gawd bless ya if you’re a seller and you found a buyer on your own. It happens more often in the tight ...

For the first time in my career I looked at the massive pile of paper at the business end of my printer and said, “It’s official, I’m a one-man ozone layer wrecking crew.” I may as well be fracking or ...

Prior to ushering buyers around in my car I’ve occasionally recommended buyers drive around a little to familiarize themselves with the area. If, for example, there is a cute little cottage that buyers think they just have to see but ...

There are plenty of folks reading this in black and white news print who don’t use or enjoy computers. I’ve had a few phone calls (and letters) from folks who remind me that not everybody has access to the Internet. ...

How do you really know if now is a great time to buy? That’s a question I was asked a few days ago by someone who is looking at the real estate market in our area. They’ve been following the ...

So a while back, I’m at this party … when the room thinned out and got a little quieter, “Rick” mentioned that he was on his way across town to sign some papers. As a matter of fact, it had ...

So there I was, minding my own beeswax on the long holiday weekend, when the ruckus started. Our quiet little street of less than 25 homes has had an on again, off again battle with a little home wrecker who ...

It’s only the last week of May and the first verbal offer from an absentee buyer has been phoned in. The calls generally go like this, "I’m so-and-so with Super Happy Fun Slide Brokerage, Inc. and I have a buyer ...

If you had to speculate what a first time home buyer looked like, how would you describe one? I asked a few contemporaries and got answers like: In my area, under the age of 30, newly weds, recent college graduates, ...

For some folks, buying something as simple as clothing online is intimidating. It’s just too much of a commitment without touching and feeling the fabric. They couldn’t possibly imagine a big ticket item like a car or jewelry and living ...

Just exactly how much “tender loving care” does a property that needs TLC really require? Well, isn’t that a question just chock-full of possibilities? The definition of fixer-upper and “needs TLC” really is in the eye of the beholder. Any ...

It only takes running an ad or two on Craigslist to open the flood gates of scammerific emails engineered specifically to pry a person away from their money. There’s always someone with an angle out there but there are ways ...

Brace yourselves, Florida consumers, I just read that real estate licensee enrollments are on the rise. Apparently, the current one-quarter of a million licensees simply isn’t enough to properly service the Sunshine State.

How do I find out, in advance, all of the closing costs and fees related to buying real estate here? Whether you’re buying or selling real estate you should be able to calculate the majority of closing costs prior to ...

The World Wide Web has opened the doors of information for real estate consumers. The possibilities are almost limitless. Online home searches are a breeze, public and tax information is a click away and even community information, walk-ability statistics and ...