The government’s partial shut down this past month doesn’t seem directly related to the Real Estate market. But like many other areas of finance in the country, the effects of the shut down are trickling through in ways many Realtors expected but hoped to avoid.

The most affected area of Real Estate? Loans. “Most lenders rely on IRS transcripts regularly to qualify buyers for their loans,” Sarah Burbage of Movement Mortgage told us. “If they cannot summon a transcript, loan applications are delayed. That's why you need lenders like Movement who can often find other ways of qualifying buyers. A lot of lenders can't do that and so right now, buyers are stuck." The IRS began releasing transcripts again on January 8, but the transcript requests are

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You don’t often hear about agents from the same brokerage helping each other if they’re not a team. Typically agents like to keep their tools and their clients close to the chest. At Round Table Realty, it’s different.

Kim Harshaw, an incredible RTR agent who joined us at the beginning of 2018, hit the ground running. A Washington D.C. transplant, she had nothing to work with but time and leads, and she quickly proved she was willing to do what it took to build up a solid client base here in Jacksonville and the beaches. 

Leslie Dow is an RTR agent and Broker-Associate here at The Table with a knack for technology and an incredible dedication to helping others. So when Kim took a holiday trip back to D.C., she called Leslie.
“I got a call…

You can spend a weekend on the couch watching HGTV and take notes on home trends. Chip and Joanna or those Property Brothers are a great resource, but unless you are a professional carpet-straightener with an all-in investment of $800,000, there's a good chance you won't ever achieve those levels of trend-greatness. 

 

In better news, having a Realtor on your side will actually give you a tremendous advantage. Realtors are going in and out of houses all day every day. They're watching trends in real time. So while the following trend tips can help, your specific home might call for different trends. First and foremost, find a Realtor who can tell you if this list applies to your home...

Trend #1 -  Backsplash Take a chance on your…

In a case filed this year against one of New York's most prestigious Real Estate companies, Houlihan Lawrence, plaintiffs are arguing that the brokerage duped them into signing dual agency forms. Dual agency is when a Real Estate agent can represent both the buyer and the seller in a single transaction, which means that neither party has the benefit of full-disclosure, loyalty, or confidentiality. The agent is working for the deal, not for the people involved. The law in New York states that both the buyer and seller must be fully informed if a Real Estate agent is acting as a dual agent. While the case is still pending and it's possible the plaintiffs did sign documentation that their agent was acting a dual agent, it doesn't mean they understood the

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It's no secret that the market is beginning to shift. After the 2007 crash and the subsequent slow, painful crawl out of the Real Estate black hole, we're glad to see a much healthier market in the past few years. However, the strength of the sellers' market is weakening ever-so-slightly. While we areno where near where we were before the last nose dive, we're seeing trends that suggest inventory is on the uptick. With more houses available, buyers have more to choose from. Multiple offer situations on a single property are happening less and less because buyers aren't as panicked about getting their hands onproperty - there's more where that came from.

 

That's not to say that property is abundant and we're in a buyers' market - we're not.…

"Just up the street from me there is a beautiful, 5 bedroom/4 bathroom home with lots of space and a beautiful layout. But I was shocked when I actually walked through the home. There were so many thing I would have changed to help the home show better. Sometimes a listing agent doesn't explain the importance of a few basic upgrades and house-cleaning issues to the homeowner prior to listing a home, and sometimes a homeowner just doesn't listen because they believe they know better than the agent. At this point that home has been on the market over 100 days..."
-An RTR Agent

 

We see it happen more than we'd like - beautiful homes sitting on the market because an agent didn't do their job or a homeowner is afraid to take their agent's advice.…

What's the first thing buyers look for when they're searching for a new home?
Home prices.

It's the most obvious answer because most of us have a budget we must keep our monthly expenses under. While buyers are typically accurate with what they can afford, they miss the mark when it comes to understanding how much a home actually costs. They leave out figures like taxes, which are often applied to their monthly payments. They leave out home owners' insurance and home owners' association fees, also billed monthly. And they don't take into consideration the ongoing maintenance costs that come with owning a home (often because they were previously renting and weren't responsible for those fees!).

When you begin your home search, get in touch with a…

You've heard it. "It's a sellers' market." Homeowners everywhere across the country have been taking advantage of home values climbing to almost 9% above asking price in some markets. (And rightly so.) But for months, Round Table Realty broker Howard Flaschen has been saying the market could begin to shift.  Howard doesn't mean that a repeat of 2007/2008 is headed our way, with home values plummeting and millions having to foreclose; not even close. But according to Inman reporter Lew Sichelman, the  number of homes selling above asking price is diminishing with more and more actually selling below asking price. This doesn't mean anything is wrong, necessarily. Market prices have been running way ahead of earnings for several years, and it…

The home buying process starts well before an offer makes it to the table; most people know that. But when a buyer is ready to begin the home search, what do they do first? "Zillow," the agents at Round Table Realty chuckle and say.  Zillow and the other website we digitally peel through looking for houses for sale are great resources for getting started: choosing a neighborhood, a home style, a price range... It's amazing that you and I can see inside of a house the day it goes on the market. It also creates a sense of excitement, and let's face it - urgency. Buyers want to be the first to get into these newly-listed homes because they don't want to lose the chance to put in an offer. Buyers then call their local, friendly Realtor. The…

You've heard it everywhere. (We have, too.)

“It’s a sellers’ market!”

When Real Estate agents shout from the rooftops that we’re in a sellers’ market, we often look at each other and cringe. Here’s why:

Some Real Estate agents believe that a sellers’ market means sellers can jack up the price of their homes and still sell. However, this is the downslide we’ve watched time and time again in brokerages all around town. When the homes don’t sell (because the value of the home doesn’t match up with the selling price), sellers panic and ask their Real Estate agent to lower the price. This is what we call The Slow Death. A little at a time, agents continue to lower the price of the home over weeks and months until, eventually, they hit the range of the

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