Selling a Home | Real Estate Articles & Blog – Don Dunning

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Is your “bedroom” safe for sleeping?

By Don Dunning | June 21, 2014

“Safety is something that happens between your ears, not something you hold in your hands.”
– Jeff Cooper

Few buyers think about safety when purchasing a home. Some items, like “trip hazards” outside the house, or hitting one’s head walking down stairs to a lower level, are worth noting. Nothing, however, compares to the danger and possible disaster of you or family and friends being badly burned or dying of carbon monoxide poisoning. This is something that can happen in rooms used as bedrooms that are unsafe for sleeping.

Agency: Biggest consumer problem in real estate

By Don Dunning | January 24, 2014

As a Bay Area and East Bay real estate expert witness, I continually see specifics of how agents fail their clients. I have written many articles about agency because it is the most important function of a real estate licensee. Unfortunately, few buyers and sellers understand what an agent should do for them and too many licensees are not clear about agency.

Clients, usually buyers, generally find this out when it is too late and it has cost them money and heartache. This has not changed in my 34-plus years in the business.

Three zip codes, eight-year price look-back

By Don Dunning | November 25, 2013

If you don’t know history, then you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree.
– Michael Crichton

2013 has been an excellent year for sellers because low interest rates and insufficient inventory have led to high prices. Buyers, conversely, have found this to be a challenging real estate market.

I hear many opinions about local prices. With so much information online, it is easy to draw conclusions, but are they correct? Some say prices have surpassed highs of our previous seller’s market, others think not.

To answer this question, I chose three popular Oakland zip codes, 94602, 94611 and 94618, and charted Multiple Listing Service (MLS) statistics back to 2005, the peak year for closed sales.

Harried buyers may miss opportunities

By Don Dunning | September 28, 2013

“We often miss opportunity because it’s dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
– Thomas A. Edison

Everyone loves a bargain. Sometimes, however, a good deal can be missed because value was not recognized. This is surprising when it occurs in a hot real estate market, but it recently happened with several East Bay properties.

Buyer pre-sale inspections can cause trouble

By Don Dunning | August 18, 2013

“What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.”
– Mark Twain

The current seller’s market has led to numerous properties receiving multiple offers. In an attempt to beat the crowd and gain an accepted bid, there has been a recent epidemic, in some parts of the Bay Area, of buyer pre-sale inspections, often without the seller’s knowledge or permission.

The theory is that the buyer can write a cleaner, more appealing, contract for the seller because of the omission of an inspection contingency. There is much more to the story.

Sellers: Your agent could land you in court

By Don Dunning | May 19, 2013

Earlier this year, I counseled buyers and sellers against contracts without contingencies in an article called “Contingency-free Contracts Can Be Dangerous”. Several weeks later I read an article by a licensee that advocated what I had warned against, but did not mention the substantial risks involved with these practices.

This led me to consider a different approach — to appeal directly to sellers and help them see how their agent can get them into really hot water.

Buyers: Listing Agent is Not Your Agent

By Don Dunning | December 10, 2012

There are ethical restrictions and legal considerations for Realtors in dealing with another agent's client. This is related to making sure the agent acts in the best interests of his/her buyer or seller. These are generally unknown to the public.

Buyers are often not clear about what real estate licensees do and the differences between the role of the buyer’s agent (selling agent) and the seller’s (listing agent). This can lead to misunderstandings and upsets on all sides. Two recent situations illustrate this point.

Seller’s Market for How Long?

By Don Dunning | October 28, 2012

Human beings consistently fail to learn from history. If you are or will be in the market to buy or sell a home, not paying attention to the past could cost you dearly.

Formula for listing – good for sellers?

By Don Dunning | August 10, 2012

Sellers often ask my advice on what work needs to be done to prepare a house for sale. In certain cases, they had spoken with other agents and were uncomfortable with suggestions which seemed to benefit the agent more than the seller.

Some agents fall into a pattern of how they approach sellers and what they recommend to get the home sold. The agent’s advice tends to be similar for all sellers, despite differences in the properties and/or the sellers’ needs. This one-size-fits-all approach is often not best for the seller. Sadly, the average seller rarely takes the time to investigate what a listing agent should be doing for him.

Choosing to sell for a loss

By Don Dunning | March 12, 2012

In the mid-nineties, I had a listing where the seller did not receive any money back. Instead, he had to write a large check at close of escrow. As years passed, especially the rip-roaring seller’s market of 2004 through 2006, it seemed unlikely that could happen again. Times have changed.

Recent reports indicate that at the end of 2011 there were 11.1 million U.S. homeowners with mortgages higher than their homes were worth. That was an almost four percent increase from the previous three months.

Rather than choosing foreclosure, a short sale or deed-in-lieu, there are hordes of potential sellers stressing over whether they should, or even if they can, write a check in order to sell. I have spoken with many of them in the past three years.

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